Motorsport News Issue 358 - April 4-17, 2007

THE NEWS BEHIND THE NEWS

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No.358 4 April -17 April 2007 Australia $6.50 NZ $8.00 inc GST

BRIGHT TO RACE BORROWED FALCON -

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Issue 358 4-17 April 2007

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5 BrightJones Diary

BJR saves Britek’s Bacon

9 Sitting Pretty atHRT

Red October for Nafey

10 Cleaning up the floor

Ferrariforced to change

13 Driving with a GGOOALLLI Soccer meets FI-Lite 16 Forbes back-in a Porsche Rodneyin Carrera Cup

OPINION Cover: James Smith, Dirk

26 Motor Mouth

Glendenning on the March

Kiynsmith Contents;Dirk Kiynsmith,

28 Box Seat

French Cricket. Yep, really

Britek Motorsport, Ryan Briscoe

30 Opinions

Dyky's third, with a sore foot

(yes, really), Porsche Media, Neil Blackbourn

82 Talk Converter Some happy faces,some not

32 Five Minutes with Ryan Briscoe 34 Five Minutes With Steve Johnson 36 A Tiger in his Tank Greg Murphy on life in his new team. NZis looming and we know what usually happens there...

40 Rock around the Clock:Bathurst 12 Hour History 42 Alexander the Great: The amazingly normal Mr Wu'rz 46 The New Senna:Bruno Senna talks about GP2

48 Just call him Mister The West After all these years. Garth conquers Barbagallo.

Atlast. PhewlAII the V8 action from Perth 56 Hoiden wins a Fujitsu Round Must be a mistake. No,it did. Really. We checked 60 Citroen wins. Ford has trouble with Windows No, not the Bill Gates-kind. Real Windows 62 In the Family Way Simon and Sue win everything, Eli chases

20 Bikes 22 US ofA 66 Speedway 68 Drag Racing 70 NationalScene

76 Race Shop/Industry News 79 Classifieds

A

Questions remain- but HRT is NZ-bound THE Holden Racing Team heads to New Zealand next week determined to end its longrunning control issues with a win for team boss Mark Skaife.

While Skaife could not be contacted on Monday,sources close to the Clayton team have told MNews that the squad has redoubled its efforts to repeat its 2006 round win at Pukekotie, Skaife's most recent victory. A round win would be of great significance to Skaife, as it would not only make him the most successful driver in the history of V8 Supercars/ATCC(he and Peter Brock have both scored 37 round wins) but it would be a great birthday present (Skaife turned 40 yesterday).

"We have always been sharp in New Zealand," said one HRT team member."Mark won there last year.

THE forthcoming quantum change here at MNews(see p6/7) and the departure of Deputy Editor Mark Glendenning for internationai pastures, aiso prompts changes at MNews Centrai.

Current Editor Phil Branagan now takes on the Executive Editor's role on both Motorsport News and Motorsport eNews.

News Editor Grant Rowley assumes editorial responsibility for our exciting new'virtual' weekly Motorsport eNews, while Aaron Noonan - originally back temporarily to help out while Growley had his arm fixed - will complement his TV commentary duties by editing Motorsport News in Its monthly form.

As we said. Interesting and exciting times at MNews...

4

we were fast at both Adelaide and Barbagallo and this would get things on the right track."

While MNews believes that the question of the team's ownership and compliance issue's have been dealt with by TEGA,subject to some clarifications the owners' group has requested,there does appear to be some question over its ongoing relationship with technical supplier Walkinshaw Performance.

As reported in the last issue of MNews,TEGA has approved of WP as a 50 percent owner of Skaife Sports - which holds the licences under which HRT competes -TEGA clearly pointed out to its other teams that it has not approved Tom Walkinshaw as a "person suitable to hold a controlling interest in a licence nor to hold a licence in his own right."

However,there appears to be some resistance to the deal from Walkinshaw Performance itself. While the terms of the deed to which Skaife Sports and Walkinshaw Performance must commit remain confidential, such are its conditions that as of Monday,there was no agreement in place to allow the two parties to proceed. Indeed,there were suggestions that WP may not supply HRT with cars and technical support to enable the team to race inNZ. MNews's HRT sources dismissed those suggestions as 'unfounded rumour"so we turned to Walkinshaw Performance Managing Director Craig Wilson to clarify whether the red team would race in Auckland.

"As far as I am aware,there is nothing I am aware of(to stop HRT

competing),"he said.

And, asked whether there was an ongoing technical relationship between Walkinshaw Performance and HRT, he offered only lukewarm - and highly conditional - support.

"As we are sitting here today (ie, Monday), yes,there is," he said.

Other team principals continue to privately express dissatisfaction about what they perceive as the amount of leeway Skaife and HRT is receiving in this matter but while they are less than happy, everyone to whom MNews has spoken simply want the whole matter to be over.

Clearly, there is much to be clarified prior to NZ and, while the Clayton team is pressing ahead with plans to set a new mark in round wins,the saga may well continue for some time yet.

V8 brake changes cause concern PROBLEMS with the new-for-2007 Alcon braking package struck a number of teams at Barbagallo last weekend,and hardest-hit were the Ford teams.

The new standardised package has seen a number of teams experience alarmingly high brake temperatures and sudden and unexpected fade problems. Such a drama is thought to have contributed to the Friday practice accident that claimed the Jeld-Wen car of James Courtney,the driver snagging the car's accelerator when the brake pedal suddenly went'long'on him.

One Ford team manager, who asked not to be named,said that his cars showed brake temperatures of almost 1000 degrees celcius in Perth, an increase of 200 degrees over the figure the same cars had in 2006.

"It is a matter of making sure that the package we have works," he said."I am not saying that it is not going to work, it is early days. But there are some things we need to work on."

Another team manager suggested that a contributing factor to the high temperatures may be

the Ford's revised bodywork. In the change from the BA model to the BF in the off season,the cooling ducts for the front brakes have been redesigned.

"If you look at the VE Commodore,its brake ducts are about twice the size of ours,"he said."! have not seen a single VE have anything other than some newcar [brake] issues, and I have not had any problems with the rear brakes on our cars.

So maybe it is the ducting that needs to be looked at."

One suggestion is that a back-to-back test between two Fords with identical brake packages, but one car with a BF bodykit and one with a BA, be conducted to clarify any differences that might be occurring.

Such a test would need to be conducted outside the normal TEGA test days and therefore, would require approval by TEGA. Ford Racing Manager Ray Price was on vacation this week and unable to be contacted for comment.

-PHILBRANAGAN motorspori news

NEWS

Brightto borrow Brad's

Britek working overtime to turn a BJR bodyshell Into a Fujitsu Falcon

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JASON Bright will change'horses'to compete in the third round of the V8 Supercar Championship Series at Pukekohe next week.

The Britek Motorsport team is hard at work in Melbourne,turning a Brad Jones Racing bodyshell into a Fujitsu Falcon BF by fitting new components to the car in time to leave for Auckland on Tuesday. In the meantime,the car that was practically destroyed in a practice crash with Jason Richards at Barbagallo Raceway last week has been stripped and is being repaired at Peter Beehag's factory in Queensland.

'The boys reckon that the car can be fixed," said Britek General Manager Chris Jewell.

I am not so sure, but we have to fly back to Australia through Brisbane anyway,so we will pick it up on the way through.'

Team members described the damage to the car as the most severe to any V8 Supercar since the Mark Larkham/Paul Morris impact at Oran Parkin 2000.The rear of the Bright car was completely destroyed and the differential

housing ended up where a normal car's back seat would be.

Team BOC team manager Kim Jones said if was not a difficult decision to loan the bodyshell, which was last raced by John Bowe i n 2005,to Britek.

"They needed a shell and we had one," he said.

It is never a good feeling when you see something like this happen. It's no big deal, really. We would like to think that if something like that happened to us and we needed someone to help,that is what would happen.'

It has been a particularly fraught time for the Britek team, which made its first appearance in the NEC Australian Rally Championship at the season-opening Queensland Rally last weekend. Both of its Super 2000-spec Ford Fiestas showed glimpses of speed in the event, but both suffered reliability problems after a frantic 18week build program.

- PHIL BRANAGAN

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Biggest thing since thefax!

Motorsport News to launch digital edition - Motorsport eNews- weekly-and FREE! MOTORSPORT News this week announces the biggest step forward in Australian motorsport media since the launch of MNews, back in 1993!

On Tuesday April 24, the first weekly issue of'virtual' magazine Motorsport eNews will be published, delivered via the web to thousands of motorsport fans across Australia and overseas.

Motorsport eNews answers the call among the X and Y-Generations(and up-together Baby-boomers!)for quality motorsport news information, delivered digitally, but retaining the look and appeal of a quality print magazine.

"All motorsport fans have to do is supply us their email address, and they will receive an eprompt every Tuesday morning enabling access to Motorsport eNews absolutely free," says Motorsport News publisher Chris Lambden.

"It will contain all the news, behind-thescenes info, in-depth opinion, now on a weekly basis, that Motorsport NewsJs famous for. And what's more, readers will get it a day earlier that's the big upside of the digital world.

"Our experienced writers will be working

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harder than ever to continue breaking the big motorsport stories, providing the follow-up insight and analysis of what's really going on out there.

"There will be a couple of very interesting new writers contributing as well ..."

At the same time, Motorsport News - the print magazine - will switch from its current fortnightly publishing cycle, to monthly, concentrating on in-depth features: "With Motorsport eNews set to cement our position as the breaker of the big news, Motorsport News itself will expand its in-depth feature, interview, and coverage content. It will still be the magazine you reach for when you want to settle down and have a good read about all sorts of motorsport. Motorsport News is respected as a provider of strong, meaty features and coverage from across the whole

range of motorsport -V8s to FI, Speedway to Drags, Rallying to Karts - and that won't change.

"Between Motorsport News,in its monthly format, and Motorsport eNews, we're now able to offer the best of both worlds - an up-tothe minute news-based weekly digital 'virtual' magazine, 24 hours earlier than before, and a feature-packed print magazine,that will also deal with the issues in detail.

"We've got an incredibly good team at MNews and they've been looking forward to this for some time - it opens up so much more in terms of delivery of not just information, but the quality journalism/analysis/opinion that follows race weekends, on which Motorsport News'reputation is based. And all to a new, wider audience."

The last fortnightly issue of Motorsport News will be published on April 18; the first monthly issue will hit the stands on May 23.

In between,stand by for the launch of Motorsport eNews.Tuesday April 24 is the date - and every Tuesday after that. Make sure you register now.

Evolution ofa motorsport magazine What's in itfor the iotorsport industry? Plenty! ^ 000]

I COLUCTOrS FIRST 'HEW LOOK' ISSUE

NEWS

Ford furore^ Foclory man rejects radical proposal

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April 2007Issue #358,right.

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MOTORSPORT eNEWS expands upon the advertising reach of Motorsport News the magazine, offering website'click-through' technology for companies marketing in motorsport.

If you use the web to market/sell your product, you need to talk to us about the options available in Motorsport eNews.

If you need to get to your market in a hurry, you need to find out about Motorsport eNews.

Contact National Sales Manager Calvin Wood on 039596 5555 or via cwood@mnews.com.au

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The ultimate motorsport fan's package

Stand still and someone will drive past you!

MOTORSPORT News has, since its launch in 1993, been the innovator in Australian motorsport media.

When the news came via newsprint, MNews was the first with a glossy tabloid; MNews was the first to switch to a news-magazine format, in 2000. And now MNews is the first to fully adopt the digital motorsport news world, with a full-on digital 'virtual' magazine.

"It shouldn't be hard for motorsport people to understand that you can't stand still," says MNews

publisher Chris Lambden.

"Just like in racing, if you do that,someone overtakes you.

We've always been prepared to take it to the next step and we're doing it again.

"But the thing that hasn't changed - and has been the key throughout - is quality of journalism. We've got a very stable, and well-respected team at MNews and retaining that credibility in the industry is what has, and will continue to, serve us well.

"The wrapping may change, but the meat inside is still AGrade ..."

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give us your name and email address, and that's it!

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LP and the Doctor AS we exclusively told you last issue, there have been changes on the Touring Car Entrants Group (TEGA) board.

At a special Extra-ordinary general meeting of TEGA, conducted by phone link-up on Monday morning, Kelvin O'Reilly stepped down as Chairman and was replaced by Dr John Hewson, the former politician having been a board member for some months.

O'Reilly had never sought the highpressure chairmanship role, having been initially employed as General Manager of the V8 teams group and, we hear, will more than happily concentrate on that administrative role again. At the same time, again as we told you two weeks back, Larry Perkins has been elected to replace Mark Skaife on the TEGA (and thus V8 Supercar) Board. LP is overseas tFiis week and couldn't be contacted for comment - but is known to openly champion a more'transparent' style of management of the teams' association. Could be interesting ...

■ Supercheap Auto Racing was due to have its first test of the year on Tuesday (yesterday) as we went to press. Paul Oumbrell and Cameron McConville were to steer, with the former having the first chance to test the team's new VE Commodore that debuted at Adelaide in March. Paul Weel wasn't testing, however will return to the team for Sandown and Bathurst in the second car.

■ Speaking of Dumbrelf'PO'was off to England again straight after the Winton test wrapped up to spend some time with driving coach Rob Wilson.

■ As previously reported in MNews, Toll HSV Dealer Team has confirmed that Craig Baird and David Reynolds will race for the team in the enduros.

■ Two young drivers made their V8 Supercar debut at last weekend's second round of the Fujitsu Series at Wakefield Park.

Both Taz Douglas and Tom Drewer were on the grid for the first time, Douglas in Sydney Star Racing's ageing VY Commodore and Drewer in Prodigy Molorsporl's ex Denyer BA falcon.

Douglas finished the weekend with a best result of 23rd in Race 2 before failing to finish the final with a radio problem. Drevrer's best was 17th in Race 2, and he too failed to finish the final, crashing out.

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Young gun for fourth FPR seat?

YOUTH is the policy of 2007 at Ford Performance Racing, with the factory team 'testing'three endurance race candidates last week.

Owen Kelly, Michael Caruso and Grant Denyer all drove the team's works Falcons in a corporate ride day in Perth last Tuesday and the word is that the team was happy with the job done by all three.

While there is yet to be a decision made by team management, it seems that the vastly experienced Kelly looks to be the man wellplaced to join team regulars Steven Richards and Mark Winterbottom for Sandown and Bathurst.

As previously reported, fast Kiwi Matt Halliday will rejoin the team for both enduros, while regular co-driver David Brabham will be absent due to clashing ALMS commitments.

Townsville raring to go

A TOWNSVILLE V8 Supercar race is only one step away from fruition - provided $10 million of taxpayers'funds are spent by the Federal Government.

V8 Supercar Chairman Tony Cochrane said this week that the injection of the money from the government or another source, together with a Queensland Government pledge to fund the larger percentage of the city's sporting precinct, would green-light the proposed race for farnorth Queensland.

"Premier Peter Beattie and Sports Minister Andrew Fraser invested a lot of time looking into the feasibility of the event and listening to the people of the region to see what they wanted," Cochrane said. ' "I congratulate Premier Beattie and Minister Fraser who are totally committed to the people of North Queensland.

"There are significant economic benefits to the region and the provision of a world class events precinct that can be used by the people of North Queensland throughout the entire year from a range of activities."

The $10m figure is similar to that sought and sourced from the Federal Government to partially fund the pit upgrades made to the Mount Panorama track three years ago. A formal submission will be made to the Federal Government in the coming weeks.

Tasman gets fire power GREG Murphy and Jason Richards will be well-equipped when they get to the fast and flowing Pukekohe circuit in a couple of weeks.

Tasman Motorsport are currently bolting a couple of new Holden Motorsport engines into its VE Commodores, the first generation powerplants since ex-HRT engine guru Royce McCort joined the team.

"It's always nice to have new equipment and the new

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engines will be ready just in time for Pukekohe, which is an important race for our team," said Team Manager Graham Jenkins.

"While you can never expect

Stop, now go! If Peter Beattie likes motor racing as much as this photo suggests, Townsviiie wiil be a goer in no time.

huge power gains any more, the new units should be better.

They will be more user friendly in the way in which they deliver torque - that's vital in getting the cars up to speed quickly and it's what counts at Pukekohe," The first engine will be installed in time for the team's planned test day at Winton next week with the second likely to be fitted before the cars leave for New Zealand. motorspor! news

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p'fritilffitifdrivefqirjl^ EXPEfiT Nathan Pretty to be announced as the Rbldeii Racing Team's tburth and final endurance driver for this season's long distance V8 Supercar races.

The experienced Holden driver looks set to suit up with the factory team after spending two'endurance seasons'with Supercheap Auto Racing.

The Melbourne-based racer had a twoyear contract with the Kees Weel-owned team for the 2005 and 2006 endurance races and drove for the Smiths Trucks Commodore team in the Fujitsu Series last year as well.

However, with his endurance contract finished and a mooted Fujitsu V8 program housed at PWR not eventuating, Pretty is the logical person to slot into the factory team, especially given his history with the organisation.

Pretty was slated to test with the team yesterday at Winton Motor Raceway.

Pretty debuted at Bathurst in 1998 with Grant Johnson in a self-run DeWalt Commodore, and has never contested a V8 Supercar race in anything other than a

Holden.

He got his big break with the Holden Racing Team at the Queensland 500 in 2000 with Todd Kelly and since then has been one of The General's favourite 'once-a-year' drivers in addition to helping spearhead its Monaro Nations Cup program and victory in the inaugurai Bathurst 24 Hour in 2002.

His best result at Bathurst in the 1000kilometre event is two fourth places with Todd (2000) and Rick Kelly (2002), both in Holden Young Lion Commodores.

Pretty has also driven for the likes of Kmart Racing (2001), Garry Rogers Motorsport (2003-2004) and most recently Supercheap Auto Racing.

-GRANT ROWLEY

JDR look to Fujitsu and FFord front-runners

JACK Daniei's Racing wiii pair youngsters Shane Price and Jack Perkins together in its lead VE Commodore for the Sandown and Bathurst endurance events but don't intend on continuing their youth policy for the second car.

Larry Perkins'team was due to test a handful of drivers at Winton on Tuesday (yesterday) with Wakefield Park Fujitsu V8 round winnerTony D'Alberto and Kiwi Kayne Scott to turn laps in one of the team's cars.

"Ideally, we want guys who are doing the Fujitsu Series so they will already have laps under their belt," said Chief Engineer Barry Ryan on Monday. www.mnews.com.au

'Driving their own cars at Bathurst as well would be a bonus

as well, so we have a few guys on our radar."

If either D'Alberto or Scott would prove to be unavailable or unable to strike a deal, the team could have the back-up of youth in the form of Formula Ford title leader James Moffat and secondplaced Tim Blanchard, who tested for the team late last year.

"Both of them did a good job at the test last year but neither have been to Bathurst (in a V8 Supercar) and it's such a hard ask that it is almost unfair on both of them."

Meanwhile, the team's second VE Commodore remains not too

far away, however when it debuts depends on the team's level of spare parts.

"We want to make sure when we debut it that we have enough spares," said Ryan.

"We don't want to put two on the track and not have enough

and we don't want the drivers not driving at 100 percent because they don't want to risk crashing."

The team will continue to aim for its debut at Winton, leaving Perkins Jr to again steer the team's VZ Commodore in New Zealand.

-AARON NOONAN 9

The MS Esses MICHAEL Schumacher is to have a section of the Nurburgring named after him.The track has had sponsored corners for many years with some,such as the Dunlop Kurve, becoming wellknown but others being referred to more often by number.

The section to be called Schumacher was formerly known as the Audi S and is the fast kink to the left on the way back up the hill from the Dunlop Kurve, which is taken at about 240kmh by the modern FI cars. Schumacher will be present at the German Grand Prix to inaugurate the Schumacher S on July 22. n Mecachrome has won the right to supply engines for the Grand Prix Masters racing series. Mecachrome will supply modified versions of its GP2 engines to the series, which runs with chassis designed and built by Delta Motorsport, a company created several years ago by former Reynard men Nick Carpenter and Simon Dowson.The Mecachrome units replace the 3.5-litre V8 engines which had been supplied to the series by Nicholson-McLaren Engines. n More details have emerged in recent days about David Richards's purchase of Aston Martin. The car firm was acquired from Ford for US$570m ($700m), plus the payment of $390m of debt. The $960m purchase was largely funded by Kuwait's Investment Dar which now owns 50 percent of the business. Ford retains 15 percent, while David Richards and Texan banker John Sinders control 9 percent between them.

The remaining 26 percent of the company is split between a number of undisclosed US, British and Kuwaiti investors.The company says that it is going to increase production from the current 7000 cars a year by expanding internationally. n Prodrive is diversifying its operations into new industries and its specialist manufacturing division is looking at business beyond the automotive and motorsport sectors.

This includes aero-space and Prodrive has Just announced that it was a supplier for the Los Alamos National Laboratory's Cibola flight Experiment satellite that went into space three weeks ago, as one of six satellites deployed by a United Launch Alliance Allas V rocket.

JOESAWARD W

FLOORED ovItAWED? FIA Tech change may force Ferrari and BMW to change carsfor Malaysia

FERRARI may have to change its F2007 cars to comply with a clarification to Formula 1's aerodynamic regulations.

At the request of McLaren, FIA Technical Delegate Charlie Whiting has clarified the rule that allows some deflection in bodywork regulations, subject to aero forces. As has been written to this point, a deflection of up to 5mm has been permitted within the regulation.

However, Ferrari - and, it appears, BMW.Sauber has included a sprung device within their chassis to allow the floors of the cars to deflect at high speed, allowing for a reduction in drag. Whiting's clarification clearly points to the device as a

moveable aerodynamic device, which is against the regulation.

While Ferrari won in Melbourne with Kimi Raikkonen,there was no notable advantage in top speed with the red cars, however it is possible that the reduction in high-speed drag allowed wing settings to be made to provide great aero grip.

Ferrari may also have to change the engine in Raikkonen's car prior to qualifying in Malaysia.

Team engineers monitored some high temperature readings in Melbourne and will examine the motor's internals prior to the Sepang race. Should a change be required the Finn would be subject to a 10-spot grid penalty post-qualifying.

France bids Formula 1 Adieu FRANCE is on the brink of losing its Formula 1 round for 2008.

The Federation Francaise du Sport Automobile (FFSA) has warned that, unless the French public support the 2007 race in huge numbers,there will not be a race in 2008.

French organisers have struggled to meet the financial demands of the Formula One group, which increase by 10 percent each year. FFSA President Jacques Regis began complaining in 2004 when he had to pay

US$11.9m in fees to FOM in addition to around $8m in costs.

With the event generating around $12m from ticket sales this meant that each year the FFSA has been faced with the problem of bridging a gap that gets bigger each year.

Regis now says it has reached a point at which the race has become unsustainable.

Since moving to regional Magny-Cours, it has never drawn a huge crowd and the FFSA has made an official comment about its future plans, saying that it is

studying a number of options in the Paris area: one at Disneyland Paris and the other at the Parc des Expositions in Villepinte, an area which is located close to the Charles de Gaulle Airport at Roissy, Just to the north of Paris.

One way or the other, it is likely that any new facility in the Paris area would need to involve an investor such as Union Properties in Dubai, which has the right to create FI-branded theme parks around the world.

JOE SAWARD

motorsport news

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NEWS.

Gentlemen:

Smoke Your Bags!

Joe|saward

FORMULA 1's ban on traction control will be in place for the 2008 season, despite a backdown on a number of other proposed technical changes.

The FIA World Council has approved new rules but some of the changes - which were mooted when there was a political fight between the federation and the teams last season - have been discarded. As a result, cars will not

be increased in width to 2m and will remain at the current 1.8m limit. The minimum weight will remain 60Skg (not the proposed 550kg) while grooved tyres will remain.

The freeze on engine specifications has also been relaxed with teams now being allowed to make modifications to many of the auxiliary parts of the engine, including pumps,injection systems, exhausts, and ignition systems.The basic architecture of the engines

will have to remain the same but much will now be modifiable.

To ensure that the traction control ban proceeds,the FIA will supply'spec'electronic control units this will now be possible to police.The FIA was obviously not keen for all this to receive much publicity as it announced only"a number of amendments"and gave no details, working on the principle that very few members of the FI press corps would look to see what had been changed.

The Full Brazilian A CHAMP Car demonstration is a last-minute addition to this year's Bathurst International Motor Festival.

WPS Racing star Max Wilson will drive an 1998 Reynard fitted with a Cosworth XD motor in what has been described as a "controlled environment", which probablymeans that he will circulate behind a Safety Car. Wilson, 30, is no stranger to Champ Cars. He raced in the US-based category in 2001 for the Arciero-Blair Racing Team before he moved to Australia to join Briggs Motorsport.

The Reynard, below, was driven by David Besnard to seventh in the 2004 Lexmark Indy 300,the event that marked the start of Craig Gore and Derrick Walker's relationship in Champ Car.The car was brought to Australia last year for the Gold Coast Indy launch, and Neil Crompton also gave the car a run at Indy. £

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LOCATION, LOCATION

THE battle to keep Silverstone as a working racetrack - and the home of Britain's Formula 1 Grand Prix - has taken a new turn

with the news that a property developer has offered to buy the circuit.

British developer Oliver Speight has offered the track's owner, the British Racing Drivers Club, US$110m ($135m) to buy the venue. The funding, which is believed to come from the Middle East, Is already in place.

The BRDC has reacted to the unsolicited

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bid by reaffirming its own plans to upgrade the facility in order to keep its race. BRDC Chairman Stuart Rolt says that the club intends to see through the planning process but did not rule outworking with Speight. The Club's intention appears to be to go it alone

and selling off bits of land and establishing a technology park may allow it to survive.

Even if the BRDC plans proceed it is possible that Silverstone will lose its race because it has failed to meet commitments made when

the last contract was signed with Formula One Management. FOM is unlikely to be impressed by arguments from the same people but might be more favourable to a new owner if there seemed to be a serious chance that the track would be properly developed.

Should FOM react in the negative, and Speight's plans come to fruition, the BRDC's full and life members would share a US$20m payout, which would benefit them to the tune of US$40,000 each.

- JOE SAWARD

n

bro Rossols new man Green machine on its way Down Under?

LOOK for an Aston Martin to hit the race tracks in Australia soon. MNews sources suggest that an FIA GT3specification is on its way to the country to join the championship later in the year.

A former Carrera Cup competitor is being linked with the British car's arrival, which apparently is still a few weeks away.

The GT3-spec car is the younger brother of the full-blown GT1 car that races in the American Le Mans Series, FIA GT Championship and Le Mans 24 Hour. n The first race meeting for the Australian Performance Car Championship on the weekend at Wakefield Park was not held as(he opening round of the series.

The removal of key clauses in the category's Sporting Regulations during the approval process with CAMS was cited as the reason and the internal process needed to approve any amendments meant nothing would change before the weekend's racing.

The main issue reportedly relates to the allocation of championship points and race formats. n Jamey Blaikie has a new role, and he is still a Porsche man.The former CEO of Cup Car Australia will now take the job of directing all of Porsche's motorsport activities in Australia. His Motorsport Development role will have a direct link to the company's motorsport HQ in Weissach, Germany. n You gotta love Robby Gordon.

The American Nextel Cup star took the April Fools'honours last Sunday when he announced a new concept for NASCAR fans - the Car of Yesterday.

"This is exactly what everyone from race teams to race fans wanted all along—a real American racecar," said Gordon, standing in front of the Jim Beam'77 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme he will drive for the rest of the season, "To hell with things like spoilers, adjustable suspensions, disc brakes, shoulder belts, all that junk.

"People want to see us racing the car.', they drive every day, and anyone who's seen the parking lot at a NASCAR race will tell you that's what the Car of Yesterday gives them."

Pure gold...

12

‘ SCUDERlA Toro Rosso has'a new technical director.

Tearaco-owner Gerhard Berger has signed Italian Giorgio Ascanelll for the role.

Ascanelli has been the technical director of Maserati Corse Competizione in recent years but prior to that worked closely with Berger at both Ferrari and McLaren in the early.1990s.

in

Lapping Sepang

-JOE SAWARD

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FI teams hit Malaysia for pre-GP test

YOU cannot tell what the heck is going to happen.

That is the conclusion from the four test days held last week at Sepang in preparation for the Malaysian Grand Prix. Four different drivers in four different chassis topped the sessions and there was a lot of tomfoolery going on.

Robert Kubica set the tone by topping the opening day from Kiwi Raikkonen;the Finn led Alex Wurz's Williams on Day 2; on Day 3, Uber Rookie Lewis Hamilton pipped Mark Webber's Red Bull, above right, for best time; and on the final day, Heikki Kovalainen put his World Rally Championship-like Melbourne debut out of his mind by edging out Felipe Massa for best time.The Finn, in fact, set best time of the week in the previously-slow Renault.

There were some eye-opening performances, like Ant Davidson, right, setting the third-best time of the last day in the Super Aguri Honda,and much watching, like those wanting to see whether Ferrari and/or Sauber.BMW did anything to their cars, in light of the recent FIA clarification regarding the underside of their cars'floors.

But the upshot of all this is; Ferrari is facts, McLaren is close, BMW is no flash in the pan and Kovalainen is not the baboon he appeared to be at Albert Park. Choose your bets carefully ... inotorsnoriBiews

L

NEWS.

Kicking goals on track

International football and motorsport come together for 2008 open-wheeler series kick-off lendenning in [ondon THERE will be a new category that links international football (soccer) with open-wheeler motor racing next season.

Superleague Formula will attempt to combine the passion of football fans with 320km/h open-wheelers and has already attracted the support of some major European teams, including Italian giant AC Milan, Dutch powerhouse PSV Eindhoven, Portugal's UEFA Cup contender FC Porto and Greece's Olympiacos.

Other clubs, including FC Barcelona, Real Madrid and Inter Milan, are in discussions to join the series, which is due to kickoff in August, 2008.

The series will use identical Panoz-built open-wheelers not based on the Panoz Champ Car chassis - while power will

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come from a 4.2-litre VI2 engine producing 750 horsepower developed by Menard

Competition Technologies in the UK. All cars will be liveried in the colours of their respective partner clubs and may carry sponsorship from the ciub's existing sponsors.

Organisation for the series is spearheaded by Spaniard Alex Andreu, a sports marketing specialist who has experience in such events at the Olympic Games and international football, and Englishman Robin Webb,a former financial executive and an experienced motorsports

administrator.

"In the first year, we will run six races, all at high-profile tracks, all within Europe,"said Webb."We want to expand gradually to a maximum of 17 races in future years,some outside Europe."

The aim of the series is to provide a family atmosphere, with as much to do and see off-track as on. Each round will feature two races, one of which will feature a full reverse grid, and prizemoney at each round will be set at 1 m Euro (A$1.64m).

The Turks get off TURKISH motorsport authority TOSFED has escaped from paying US$2.5m of its fine imposed after a podium drama in last year's Grand Prix.

The FIA World Council has forgiven the fine imposed after the organisers put Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet All Talat on the podium in Istanbul, right, and billed him as"the President of theTurkish Republic of Northern Cyprus", an entity which the United Nations says is"iegally invalid".

At the time there were suggestions thatTurkey should be thrown out of the World Championship because the political neutrality of the FIA had www.mnews.Goin.au

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been compromised.

Since the controversy, promotion of the race has been handed over to Formula One Management and some say that it was FOM that paid the fine in order to get control of the event.

-JOESAWARD 13

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SEBASTIEN Bourdais, at the wheel of a diesel VI2 Peugeot 908 HDi on its first public appearance, set the pace last week when 34 cars took part in a twoday Le Mans Series test at Paul Ricard.

Joao Barbosa was smartly on the pace with Rollcentre Racing's newly acquired Pescarolo-Judd, and so was 19-year-old Jan Charouz with the new, Czech-entered Lola-Judd of his father's Charouz Racing System team.

Christian Bouillion was next in Pescarolo Sport's updated Judd V10 car, ahead of Bob Berridge in the Chamberlain-Synergy team's older Lola-AER,Jonathan Cochet in a works Courage-AER and Jan Lammers in the Racing for Holland Dome-Judd.

The fastest LMP2 car was Team Bruichladdich's Radical-AER, ahead of RML's Lola-AER and the Barazi Epsilon team's new Zytek.

The ORECA Saleens went 1-2 in the

AFTER finishing on the podium in a one-off Fujitsu V8 Supercar start at Wakefield Park on the weekend,Carrera Cup racer Marcus Marshall thinks he's done enough to earn a V8 endurance ride.

Without a drive as of yet, Marshall did a one-off deal to steer Matthew White's Falcon BA and may step back behind the wheel for the Fujitsu V8 round at Queensland Raceway as there is no clash with his Porsche program with Peter Fitzgerald's team.

"I'm looking for the right opportunity to get a top result at Sandown and Bathurst regardless of what team or type of car,"said Marshall.

Forbes Jnrjoins CCup FORMER V8 Supercar driver Rodney Forbes is coming back to racing - in the Carrera Cup. The Sydneysider, who last appeared in V8 Supercars for his father's 00 Motorsport in 2003, has been out of racing since and will return at the all-Porsche category's second round at Winton in mid-May. Forbes tested his new mount - one of the 25 new 997 models flown in from Porsche at the start of last year that had yet to be sold at Eastern Creek last week and was amazed by the 400-horsepower machine.

"It was really a familiarisation session to have a bit of a poke

6T1 category, ahead of the Larbre team's Aston Martin. The IMSA Matmut Porsche was on top in GT2,ahead of Virgo Motorsport's Ferrari.

While its rival, Audi, is contesting the ALMS, Peugeot will do a full season in the Le Mans Series, which will begin with a 1000km race at Monza on April 15. A total of 51 cars have been entered for the championship. n Jon Hilton and Doug Cross, two engineers from Renault FI, have started a new business called Flybrid Systems, which will de sign and develop regenerative braking energy systems for use in the new formula 1.

-QUENTIN SPURRING

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around, but what a great machine.

The 993 model I raced back in 1998 was a great car, but this was something really good.

"I'm really, really looking forward to racing again. I've got to be realistic, it's not going to be easy.

The level of competition in the class has gone through the roof and there's five of six main guys with four snapping at their heels.

"To get in the top 10 to begin with will be a big ask, but that's the aim."

Forbes will have Andy Hall running his car at race meetings, the same crew chief who helped Craig Baird to his Carrera Cup title last year for the VIP Petfoods team.

He drove as a privateer in 1999 in V8 Supercars and then spent the rest of his career from 2000 to 2003 driving Holdens and then Fords for the Gibson/00 team.

-AARON NOONAN

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"The weekend was all about staying in people's minds.There are a lot of people trying to get the endurance gigs but I wanted to show I'm not here to make up the numbers and I want to get some good results.

"Queensland is a possibility for later in the year but it's a wait and see proposition at the moment."

Marshall drove full-time last year for the Glenfords/PCR team and has experience in the enduros with Team Brock/PWR and WPS Racing/ Team Australia. He finished 11th at Sandown with White in a PWR Commodore in 2004.

-AARON NOONAN

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motorsport news

NEWS,.—

lt"s too good to part with!

Sydney Star lines up for Holdsworth GRM Commodore LOOK at the results of Lee Holdsworth's older-model Holden Commodore VZ in the V8 Supercar Championship Series so far this year and you can see why he doesn't want to give it up.

The young Valvoline driver has qualified inside the top 10 in both rounds so far, but by August his trusty VZ will be passed onto its new owners; Fujitsu V8 Supercar Series team Sydney Star Racing, and Holdsworth will have a brandnew VE to figure out.

The arrival of the Holdsworth VZ to the Sydney Star stable means that GRM should be looking to debut its second VE around Oran Park time.

I

NEXT ISSUE lll IN the next issue of Motorsport News comes Kart Formula - a special supplement which is the definitive record of the Yamaha Dunlop Australian Sprint Kart Championships.

Totalling 17 pages, you can get it within our next issue 359,on sale April 18.

All this means that Sydney Star will soon have one incredibly quick machine.The Robert Tebb-owned outfit is a haven for old GRM Commodores,as the Holdsworth VZ will be the team's fourth Rogers car.Tebb is looking forward to getting his hands on the car.

"It's going quite good at the moment,"Tebb said.

"We don't really plan to have it before Bathurst, it Just depends on how Garry's development work goes through the year.

"Lee was the third-fastest car in Race 2 Adelaide,so the car is just incredibly quick."

- GRANT ROWLEY

Flaming hell, it's a good mobile:Sydney Star Racing are lining up for Lee Holdsworth's current #33 GRM VZ.

FBMW test upfor grabs

AUSTRALIAN sprint karters will be offered a chance to test a Formula BMW race car at Sepang International Circuit iater this year.

The test program is an initiative of Meritus Racing,the team Michael Patrizi drove for in 2005 in the Asian Series.

Eligibility will be open for any karter in Australia with four years racing experience.To be involved in the test, drivers will self-nominate, and have to be between 1418 years-old. Five drivers will be invited to test, and two of the five will be offered a discount on furthering their Formula BMW careers.

One of the test judges will be former Australian karting champion Jason Pringle, who tested one of the Meritus Formula BMWs recently.

Pringle conducted a three-day test at Bahrain recently, and told MNews that the FBMW cars are the perfect stepping-stone after karters.

"The cars are quite nimble, very similar to karts," he said.

"They steer quite well at slow speed. In braking^ you

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left foot brake like a go-kart,flat change up shift, which is also similar to a go-kart. Compared to a Formula Ford, it's an easier transition for a karter to adopt to a Formula BMW car:' Drivers will be encouraged to submit applications at the Australian Sprint Kart Championships this weekend at Eastern Creekinternational Karting Raceway.

GRANT ROWLEY

SpsEdwaiy = May CharlattE, IMarth Catalina A VIP look at NASCAR with Team Australia's Marcos Ambrose himself!

Tour Imidudes: ° Busch Race « Nextel Cup Race THE INAUGURAL ° of Outlaws Sprintcar Race ■JUST $A7950 ihc GST; MARCOS AMBROSE ° 3-days in Corporate Box,Lowe's Motor Speedway NASCAR TQUR ° Private Ambrose tour of Wood Brothers-JTG Workshop J ' Twin Share “TourRoush Racing Museum ^ PRESENTED BY '> 3 Laps in a Richard Petty Experience Car at 260kph Ring - Jodie Martin - Hughes Travel ° Return economy airfares to Charlotte and five-star accommodation on (07)55 911166 Visit www.marcosambrose.com ° Exclusive Merchandise pack « Transfers and most meals for full schedule and order form Steel Tube Pipe o private lunch and dinner with Marcos Ambrose

J

[^Orrcon] wiww.mnews.Goin.au

77

NEWS

Bring back the BIMF!

The Bathurst International Motor Festival is back for instalment two,but this year's event promises more racing and more action. GRANT ROWLEY looks at the BIMF and 12 Hourform-guide 2007 WPS 12 Hour Showroom Enduro #

ji

V /THE return of the Bathurst 12 Hour at Mount Panorama will be the highlight of the second edition of the Bathurst International Motor Festival this weekend.

The 12 Hour is set to be as interesting as it will be unpredictable, with a number of well-credentialed factory entries set to take on some hot privateers around Australia's most famous race track.

Eleven manufactures make up the 35 car grid. Leading the factory charge will be the Subaru WRX Spec Cs, prepared

by Protecnica Racing. World rally star Chris Atkinson and local rally front-runners Dean Herridge and Cody Crocker are joined by tarmac specialists Neil Crompton, Grant Denyer and Chris Alajajian in the blue and yellow cars.These two cars will be tough to beat in the all wheel drive Class 2, and could also threaten the outright stakes.

Holden also has a factory entry, but outright car speed won't be on their side. However, the driving squad certainly has the talent to do the job. V8 Supercar drivers Jason Richards, Jack Perkins, Shane Price and Nathan Pretty could spring a surprise in their Astra VXR

Coupe,above, if the faster cars falter.

Also keep an eye on the 'sister'Astra in the ECO Diesel class, piloted by the all-girl crew of LeanneTander,Sam Reid, Christina Orr and Lauren Gray.

And the favourites? MNews predicts that the Garry Holt, Paul Morris and Craig Baird BMW 335i will be fast, yet without any testing, a question remains over the car's reliability.

Still, MNews considers them the favourites. But don't discount the grunt of the Ford TE 50, or the Class 2 Subarus or the Mitsubishi Lancers.The 12 Hour promises to be an interesting affair...

While not competing for outright honours, Sherrin Motorsport is certainly taking the event seriously. It has entered four cars in total, plus a spare BMW 120i.

The 12 Hour starts at 5.45am, Easter Sunday.

If the 12 Hour isn't your cup of tea, then there is plenty to see and do on the mountain.

Historic Touring Cars, Aussie Racing Cars, Australian GT and Commodore Cup will race on Friday and Saturday. Also keep an eye out for lots of sideshows, including a really fast green and yellow car...

2 20 5 17 12

CLASS 1 REAR WHEEL Ford TE 50 BMW335i Holden VYHSV BMW 3351 Ford FPVF6 Typhoon

DRIVERS Dean Neville/Brad Lowe/Terry Wyhoon/Darrell Dixon Garry Holt/Paul Morris/Craig Baird Paul Freestone/Tony Alford/Peter Leemhuis Barry Morcom/Beric Lynton/Chris Pither tba/tba/tba/tba

98 7 33 38 15 25 91

CLASS 2 ALL WHEEL Subaru WRXSti Spec C Subaru WRXSti Spec C Mitsubishi Lancer RS EVO Vill Mitsubishi Lancer RS EVO VIII Mitsubishi Lancer RS EVO Vili Subaru WRX Sti Subaru WRX Sti

Chris Atkinson/Dean Herridge/Cody Crocker Grant Denyer/Neil Crompton/Chris Alajajian Bob Pearson/Anton Mechtler/Bruce Stewart Mark King/Mark Brame/Jason Walsh Bob Hughes/Rick Bates/Peter Gazzard Tim Sipp/Christian D'Agostin/Scott Nichoias Gary Deane/Rob Rubis/Rod Dawson

27 9 10 3 4

CLASS 3 APCCHOT Mazda3MPS BMW 1301 BMW130i BMW130i Holden Astra VXR Coupe

Allan Shephard/Steve Briffa/Martin Bailey Andrew Moffat/David Russell/Shaun Juniper Dean Grant/Mark Cini/Mark Eddy Luke Searle/Peter Kelly Nathan Pretty/Jason Richards/Shane Price/Jatk Perkins

24 66 99 1 21 94 75

CLASS 4 APCCPROD Holden Commodore VYSS Ford BF Falcon XR6 Turbo Ford BF Falcon XR6 Turbo Ford BF Falcon XR6 Turbo Ford BF Falcon XR8 Ford BF Falcon XR6 Turbo Ford AU Falcon XR8

Brian Walden/Garth Walden/Michael Auld Denis Cribbin/Roland Hill/Paul Jenkins Alan Letcher/David Turner/Nathan Callaghan David Ryan/Michaei Craig Chris Delfsma/John Bowe/Jack Elsegood Richard Howe/Paul Faulkner/Don Tryhorn/Denis O'Keefe tba/tba/tba/tba

SO 72 14 13 31 40 77

CLASS 5 ACCPPROD Mini Coopers Toyota Celica SX Honda Integra Type S Toyota Celica SX Toyota Celica SX BMW323i Honda integraTypeR

Trevor Keene/Andrew Bretherton Helen Stig/Amber Anderson/Danielle Argiro/Tegan Butchers Peter Conroy/Terry Conroy/Bob Hadley Colin Osborne/Neal Bates/John Roecken Carl Schembri/Leigh Mertens/David Mertens Shane Smdilen/Phil Alexander/Paul Stubber/Garry Mennell Richard Mork/Richard Prince/Peter Vicary/Martin Rambow

11 5

CLASS6 APCCPROD BMW120i Proton Satria GTi Subaru RS Impreza

lain Sherrin/Grant Sherrin/Stuart Jones/Jim Wallace tba/tba/tba Jim Hunter/Warren Bossie/Jayson Williamson/Mathew Windsor

76

CLASS 7 ECO DIESEL Alfa Romeo T592.4JTD

Kean Booker/Rocco Rinaldo/David Stone

6

CLASS 8 ECO DIESEL Holden Astra Diesel CDfI Turbo Samantha Reid/Christina Orr/Leanne Tander/Lauren Gray

8

CLASS 9 LOTUS TROPHY Lotus Exige

Mark O'Connor/Tim Pulton/Richard Buttrose

The contenders: 1; The Subarus from Atko and Co. 2;David Russell and his BMW 1301.3; Holt, Baird and Morris's BMW 335i. 4; The aITgirl Holden team.

18

motorsport news

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Haga keeps'em on theirlose IT was a mixed podium at the Donington Park World Superbike round, with James Toseland leading Troy Corser and Max Biaggi home in the opening race and Noriyuki Haga passing Biaggi on the last lap to win Race 2from Biaggi and Corser. With Troy Bayliss failing to score after his fall, Toseland leads the series on 115 points from Biaggi on 100, Haga on 88, Corser 81, Lanzi (66) and Bayliss on 64. n The World Supersport ranks were decimated in a crash-fest at Donington Park at the weekend. Aussies Broc Parkes and Kevin Curtain both suffered broken collarbones in separate falls and will be out of action for some time. n Alstare is not the onlySBK team peering over the fence at MotoGP. Roland Ten Kate, who runs the Honda'works'team in the Superbike Championship, was seen recently at Jerez watching the 800s go around.

The Dutchman explained he was there to talk traction control with Honda engineers but it is known that he is no fan of Ducati's 1098 lobbying... n It was a case of old faces and new at Donington, with a number of former SBK stars flying in to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the World Superbike Championship,The 1988 champion Fred Merkel was there, as was Aussie veteran Robbie Phillis. The riders lapped the track and waved to the huge audience,though Aaron Slight did fall off while riding with one hand...

MAX Biaggi may return to the MotoGP Championship.

The four-time World champion, who moved to the World Superbike Championship this season, could switch back to the premier series if threats by his team manager come to fruition.

Francis Batta, who heads the Alstare Suzuki factory SBKteam, is unhappy that the proposed 2008 rules will allow Ducati to race its new 1098ccV-twin.

"The problem is political: in Superbikes they are thinking of changing the regulations for 2008," Batta told Gazzetta dello Sport.

"In practice, Ducati would race with the twin-cylinder 1200cc, while we'd stay with our fourcylinder lOOOcc bike.

"Well, count me out with those conditions. I won't race in Superbike anymore and I'm not the only one thinking this way."

Batta says that there is no deal in place for Biaggi to retire at the end of the season.

"The contracts I have with the

sponsor and with Suzuki expire in 2008. 1 could move to MotoGP, obviously with Biaggi.To me he seems a lot stronger than (current MotoGP Suzuki riders) John Hopkins and Chris Vermeulen."

Suzuki is believed to favour having a second team in MotoGP,

provided that funding can be sourced to allow it to compete with the other factory teams.

The lure of Biaggi and long time Alstare sponsor, Mexican beer giant Corona, would be a tempting one,even though the volatile Roman ...

s.

Bayliss losesfinger and points lead TROY Bayliss is fighting to be fit for the next round of the World Superbike Championship in Spain next week.

The World Champion was leading Race 1 at Donington Park in England last weekend when he highsided off his Ducati 999 at Coppice Corner.The Taree rider trapped his right hand under the bike and injured his little finger.

He was immediately taken to a nearby hospital.

Bayliss was operated on and has lost the top two bones on his right little finger.The Ducati team expects him to be fit to ride at Valencia, where Bayliss won the final round of the 2006 MotoGP championship.

& Iy

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NEWS, m

Briscoe's class win

Tyres

And now he wants an outright victory...

RYAN Briscoe has predicted that his factory Porsche will be in contention for outright victories this year after securing his first class win in the American Le Mans Series at St. Petersburg last weekend.

Briscoe qualified second at the Florida street circuit behind his Porsche team-mates Romain Dumas and Timo Bernhard. After a race of mixed fortunes, Briscoe and German team-mate Sascha Maassen finished third outright and first in the LMP2 class.

The exceptional result on the tight street track has given the Australian confidence that the all-conquering LMPl Audis can be toppled, even in his LMP2 Porsche RS Spyder "I'm sure, hopefully later this year, we'll be

on the open road - In wet and dry conditions

able to get some outright wins," Briscoe said.

"It's so tough. I think my quickest lap was faster than the Audis(LMP1) here, but they have so much more horsepower than us.

That plays into their hands at the starts, restarts and in traffic. They can really get through traffic a lot better."

Rinaldo Capello and Allan McNish took the outright victory, ahead of Audi RIO team mates Emanuele Pirro and Marco Werner.

Australian David Brabham finished fifth with Stefan Johansson in their Acura (Honda) LMP2.

-GRANT ROWLEY For more with Ryan Briscoe, see page 32.

Brabs back with Aston Martin AUSSIE David Brabham will re-join Aston Martin's Sportscar program for an attack on the Le Mans 24 Hour in June.

Brabham, who drives for the Highcroft Acura team in the American Le Mans Series, is available given that the prototype team isn't venturing to the French classic.

He will be paired with Rickard Rydell and Darren Turner in one car, while Johnny Herbert and Peter Kox will drive the other works DBR9.

Tomas Enge was signed to drive the second car but his accident on the weekend at St Petersburg may throw open the door for Allan Simonsen, who took part in a test with the team in February but missed out on a drive.

Brabham drove an Aston forTeam Modena last year at Le Mans and for the works team in 2005.

"It's great to be back in the works car and to be back with the guys from Aston Martin www.mnews.com.au

Racing," said Brabham.

"I would like to thank Highcroft Racing for allowing me to compete with Aston Martin at Le Mans.This year promises to be an even tougher battle for the GT1 title with closer competition than ever before but I'm ready for the challenge."

The 41-year-old is making his 14th start at Le Mans, with a best result of second outright in the works Bentley in 2003.

The two works cars will be joined by one car from BMS,two from Labre Competition and a Team Modena entry as Aston Martin tries to finally win the GTl class at Le Mans, a feat that has escaped them so far thanks to rivals Chevrolet and their Corvette.

The green machines will carry backing from InterContinental Hotels and Resorts for the race, which starts at 3pm French time - one hour earlier than usual due to the French elections - on Saturday June 16.

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21

Enge recovering in ^ hospital FORMER FI and IndyCar pilot Tomas Enge is recovering in hospital after a nasty accident in the American Le Mans Series race at St. Petersburg on the weekend.

The Czech driver was leading the GT2 class in a Ferrari 430GT when he slammed into the wall on the driver's side.

After overnight observation, Enge has sustained a broken elbow, cracked ribs on his left side, a partially collapsed lung and possibly a broken ankle. n Greg Riffle will not be penalised by NASCAR when his Roush Fenway Racing Ford was discovered to be too low during po?t-race inspection at Bristol, the first race for the new design car.

NASCAR's John Darby said that currently the ruling body don't have minimum rear height requirement for tracks other than the restrictor plate venues of Daytona and Talladega, but he said that will change in the future once they gather more data on the newer cars. n Not surprisingly, Newman/ Haas/Lanigan Racing has confirmed that Graham Rahal will drive for the team this season alongside Sebastien Bourdais. n Paul Stoddart's two-seater Minardi cars will appear at selected Champ Car events this year. Built upon the basis of old FI machines, the two-seaters held the world's first-ever two-seater race at Donington in 2001, where Nigel Mansell and Fernando Alonso clashed at the last corner while fighting for the lead.

The cars will live at the Minardi Team USA base in Indianapolis alongside the Champ Car operation and will be seen at up to 10 rounds of the Champ Car series. n Ganassi Racing Indy Pro Series driver Pablo Perez is recovering in hospital after a massive accident In the opening race of the IndyCar support scries at Homestead Miami Speedway. Perez underwent reconstructive surgery on his lower legs after the crash badly injured the youngster's lower limbs.

■PHII MORRIS

SPONSOR issues continue to plague NASCAR after months of talks with the governing body sees no sign of a resoiution between it and Richard Childress Racing sponsor AT&T. The latter has has filed a law suit in an Atlanta district court as they attempt to change the logos on Jeff Burton's Chevrolet from angular to the new company name of AT&T. NASCAR is denying the change under the 10-year contract they have with series sponsor Nextel, who were recently taken over by

Sprint in the ever-changing US telecommunication market.

Cingular and Alltel were 'grand fathered'into the contract agreement with NASCAR and Nextel, while AT&T claims their contract with RCR mentions nothing about changing names, just that those sponsors can't transfer to other cars or teams.

Robby Gordon also felt NASCAR's wrath when he showed up in Atlanta with Motorola sponsorship in a scheme that had not gained prior approval.

Although the electronics

manufacturer is a partner with Sprint Nextel, his deal was struck with rival phone company Verizon so Gordon was told by NASCAR to remove the decals.

He did so prior to qualifying and,although the company will n remain an associate on the car until it's approved. Motorola can't take on a primary role as had been planned for Atlanta and one additional race.

Gordon will continue to have Jim Beam on his Ford in 11 more events this year.

- MARTIN D CLARK

Girlpower lines upfor Indy ATHIRD female driver will join the IRL IndyCar Series this year alongside Danica Patrick and Sarah Fisher.

Grand-Am Sportscar driver Milka Duno,34, will make her IndyCar debut on April 29 at Kansas Speedway and compete in nine other events during 2007 - including the Indy 500 in May. Duno will drive for her Sportscar team,SAMAX Motorsport, with backing on the Dallara/Honda from CITGO petroleum.

"It's going to be very tough because it's a very competitive championship and I'll be racing ovals and everything will be new for me,"she said.

"A long time ago,even when people didn't know it was my dream to drive in this series, I was asking many things of the drivers. I was asking Darren (Manning), Patrick (Carpentier), Dario Franchitti and Dan Wheldon about the racing and how they do things because I need to learn so much," The Venezuelan finished second in this year's Rolex 24 at Daytona, however co-drivers Manning and Carpentier did the lion's share of the driving.

-PHIL MORRIS

They could fill a whole row at Indy! The question remains whether Duno can match Patrick and Fisher. motorsport news

STATESIDE ,

Ru and Rocket merge

CHAMP Car rivals RuSPORT and Rocketsports Racing will merge their efforts for 2007, meaning that Justin Wilson and Alex Tagliani will become virtual team-mates.

Initial talks centred around sharing hospitality units at circuits and this eventually morphed into a technical alliance at the Laguna Seca pre-season test.

Tagliani will drive the #8 LXN2backed car, with Brit Wilson in the #9 CDW liveried machine.

"We can not rely on the information that we had from the past and we had limited time testing these new cars, so it is key to have a two-car effort in 2007," said Tagliani.

"But part of being able to do that is having the opportunity to compare driving style, strategy, and data with another driver.

Justin (Wilson) is a world-class driver and it will be great to work with him as a team-mate."

Rocketsports boss Paul GentllozzI said:"the key ingredient is that both controlling partners are on the same page, it is clear

that Dan Pettit and I are on that page.

While the teams will now run under the RSPORTS banner. both will remain in their current locations;the Rocketsports side in Michigan and the RuSPORT side in Colorado.

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DUMPED by Forsythe Racing early last year, Mexican Mario Dominguez will return to the team for the Champ Car season, which begins at Las Vegas this weekend.

Dominguez,a two-time race winner, parted ways with the team after taking out Paul Tracy at Milwaukee and will again team with the Canadian.

The team initially only had plans to run one car, however Dominguez brings considerable funding from his homeland and will line up for his sixth season.

FABq^CATIONS MINARDI Team USA has finally confirmed Robert Doornbos and Brit Dan Clarke for the Champ Car World Series.

Doornbos, who remains part of the Red Bull driver program and will combine his Champ Car racing program with a Formula 1 testing role in Europe, is new to the category but has tested in the pre-season.

He is re-united with Paul Stoddart,for whom he drove in FI briefly in 2005.

"You get very spoiled in FI," he said.

"There's so many gadgets on the car and here it's a bit more back-to-basics. It's good to have the traction control on your right www.mnews.cotn.au

feet again and to feel the car, work the car.

"It's brand new for everybody, and so It's not so easy to find the sweet spot straightaway but I think we are definitely going into the right direction."

Clarke drove for the team last year when it was known as CTE Racing-HVM and finished runnerup to Will Power in the Rookie of the Year standings.

"I've been waiting and hoping for this news for a few weeks now, and I'm relieved it has finally been confirmed,"said Clarke.

Another former Stoddart driver, Hungarian Zsolt Baumgartner, is the team's test driver.

-PHIL MORRIS

POSITION VACANT TRADE ASSISTANT Fabraications has a position available for a Trade Assistant to join our motorsport fabrication team in Braeside.

Suitable applicants would have some welding and fabrication skills as well as an enthusiasm for all things motorsport.The right person would be fully trained in motorsport fabrication. Excellent wages and conditions.

Applications should be by resume sent to fabraications@bigpond.com or to: Fabraications 19 Citrus Street Braeside VIC 3195 23

Crocker/Waikden:PWRC Crash, Bang,Ouch.

A GROUP of Portuguese spectators were injured during shakedown for last weekend's round of the World Rally Championship.

The spectators, who were standing in a restricted area, bore the brunt of Armindo Araujo's Mitsubishi when it left the road. A local photographer suffered a broken leg with those involved being transferred to faro Hospital for precautionary checks. n One Ford team that escaped penalty in Portugal was the Munchi's squad,and that's only because they weren't there.

The third Ford team became a non starter when it's lead driver Luis Perez Companc's brother was involved in an accident. Pablo Perez Companc was seriously injured during the indy Pro Series race at Homestead a fortnight ago,forcing Munchi's to pull out of the Portugal round to allow Luis to be by his brother's bedside.

TASMANIAN trucking magnate LesWaIkden revealed in Queensland that he will commit to a Production World Rally Championship program in 2008 with Cody Crocker.

Waikden ran Crocker in the Asia-Pacific Rally Championship last year, and until last week looked likely to do the same again this season.

T looked very seriously at running Cody in the APRC and ARC this year, but it wasn't the right move for either of us,"said Waikden.

Instead we'll spend this year regrouping and planning because come November we'll be sending cars to Europe for

the PWRC." Hinting at the potential of running a two-car team, Waikden confirmed that he's visiting Europe this week to meet with former World Rally champion Tommi Makinen and veteran test driver Lasse Lampi. want to talk to them about who the next big, young driver is coming out of Finland. I'd love to run a talented young guy alongside Cody.'

Crocker won't spend the year biting his finger nails on the sideline however,the Victorian putting a deal together to defend his APRC title with Subaru Singapore.

- RYAN LAHIFF

n The Pirtek Rally Team will undergo a thorough technical debrief this week following its turbulent debut in Queensland.

Representatives from both the team's engine partner Mountune and gearbox supplier Sadav will be present while the team attempt to dissect the transmission and engine problems they suffered in Queensland.

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SIMON Evans emphatically announced at the end of Rally Queensland that he wants a challenge this season.

Evans was untouchable throughout the 17 stages of the event, claiming victory on each and every stage over the weekend. At no time was the reigning ARC Champion placed under any pressure from his fellow competitors, prompting Evans to admit he wants to be pushed.

"I'd love nothing more than to be pushed hard all the way, that's when victories mean something to you as a driver, when you've had to work hard for them," said Evans.

And the Victorian believes that there are currently only two drivers that can bring the challenge up to his all-conquering Toyota Corolla - the absent Cody Crocker and Scott Redder.

"I know Cody would have been sitting at home this weekend watching the results wishing he

was competing, and Scott is here this weekend playing spectator and I know that it's killing him too not being able to drive," he added.

"I would love to have both of them here competing, and who knows, later in the season we might see a surprise from either of them. The win here this weekend is important to me, especially for our title defence, but it'd mean that much more if Cody and Scott were here racing us."

West Aussie rally star Dean Herridge agrees that there is a lack of talent in the ARC at the moment.

"Even two years ago we would always say that a tiny problem was the difference between a podium finish and say seventh or eighth," he said.

"Scott Redder was saying yesterday that he was 29 seconds off Chris Atkinson (who won the event) here a few years ago, and he was in seventh."

-RYAN LAHIFF

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Window worries for Ford vaulting Retter Solberg and Dani Sordo onto the podium.

M-Sport, which builds Ford's WRC cars at its Cumbria, UK base, will now investigate what has caused the error.

"We were disappointed to learn from the scrutineers that the team made an error," said a disappointed Ford team director Malcolm Wilson.

"We will launch a detailed investigation into how this could have happened."

The BR-backed works cars

AN enquiry will be held into why Ford has been competing in the World Rally Championship with cars that were technically illegal.

The blue oval teams suffered an embarrassment after last weekend's Rally Portugal when all the Focuses that finished the event were found to have illegal side rear windows fitted.

Scrutineers discovered that the glass in the cars was about 0.5mm thinner than the glass homologated for use in the cars.

Rather than disqualify the cars, the FIA issued five-minute time penalties to the cars and the teams concerned where reprimanded. As a result, Marcus Gronholm and team mate Mikko Hirvonen, who were on-course to finish second and third in the event, were dropped two positions each.

were not the only cars affected.

The semi-works entries of JariMatta Latvala, Henning Solberg, Matthew Wilson and Gareth MacHale, all of which were also built by M-Sport, were also penalised and their teams reprimanded. None of the teams involved in the matter will appeal the FIA decision.

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Wanneroo After six years as an MNews to chase the Euro dream l ll

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ATCHING the majority of Formula One races live during the afternoon and then checking up on the V8 Supercars in the middle of the night is going to take some getting used to.

By the time you read this I'll be setting up a new home in Europe, bringing to an end a six-year stint as a member of the MNews editorial staff. The short term future is a bit of a mish mash at the moment - I have

arrangements in place that will see me at six or seven Grands Prix over the remainder of the season, starting'with Monaco, as well as the Le Mans 24 Hour. Beyond that, it's an open book.

Being on the brink of doing something you've chased for a very long time is tremendously exciting, but I am by nature quite sentimental and there is a lot 2d

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My time at MNews hasfrequently put me in situations that I've walked away thinking,'did that really just happen?'

- GLENDENNING,PERHAPS TALKING ABOUTTHETIMESTHATTHE BOSS PAYS FOR LUNCH!

that I am going to be sad to leave behind - not least MNews itself My byline will still pop up in the magazine in the future, but it is going to feel a bit odd not being at the coalface any more.

Any organisation is only as good as its people, and it's more or less universally accepted in the Australian motorsport industry that the MNews crew {or'The A-Team', as they have been rebranded by a high-profile Australian international driver) are beyond compare.

Any job that you can do for

this long and still honestly say that you never woke up in the morning resenting the fact that you had to go to work has to be something pretty special, and a lot of that is about the people.

So to Chris, Phil, Grant, Andrew, Aaron and Jayne, cheers. And remember: what happens on deadline, stays on deadline.

Like all jobs that seem glamorous to outsiders, motorsport journalism brings some fairly harsh realities. But the bonuses, when they come, are incredible, and my time at

MNews has frequently put me in situations that I've walked away from thinking,'did that really just happen?'

Things like relaxing over a beer with Bobby Rahal, or spending a weekend in Bahrain driving a Formula BMW around the GP track, or talking to Petter Solberg about teaching Tommi Makinen to dance, or picking over gear cogs at the Jaguar FI factory with Mark Webber.

It's true that overtime you do become somewhat conditioned to things like that. motorsport news

OPINION

Staffer, MG has cleaned his desk

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but somewhere deep inside you there is still a tiny element of pure racing fan who's punching the air.

You never fail to recognise that you are doing something that thousands would trade vital body parts for. Or I don't, anyway. And I still do a mini air punch at the end of every interview.

Watching the Australian motorsport industry develop over the time that I have been involved has also been fascinating. The V8 Supercar championship was a fairly impressive domestic series when I came onto the scene; now, it is genuinely world-class (not that this justifies racing in Bahrain).The Fujitsu Series and Carrera Cup have emerged as the new breeding grounds for the future, and Formula Ford has single-handedly weathered an otherwise miserable spell for www.mnews.Gom.au

open-wheelers.

But the best thing about the Job has been the people I've met.

Motorsport by nature attracts the most incredibly diverse range of characters, and this extends far beyond the drivers. I've been fortunate to make a lot of good friends in the paddock, and I'm already looking forward to catching up with them whenever I find myself back in Australia.

Unless of course they get to Europe first - come on people, Mulsanne beckons.

Until then though, I have a whole new load of experiences, people, highs and lows awaiting me. I'll still be watching V8s though, albeit from a distance of 17,000km.

And if anyone could keep me posted on how the Bombers are going in the AFL, I'd greatly appreciate it.

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OW, I know your average Australian doesn't give two hoots about the French and their arrogant ways although they have to accept from time to time that the French are quite chic.

This is why the top end of Collins Street in Melbourne is known as'The Paris End'and, if we are being totally honest, that swimmer Laure Manaudou looks like a bit of a cutie - if you can get over the fact that she has shoulders like an American football uniform.

The French have their faults but when you think about Formula 1, it is hard to imagine that there might not be a French Grand Prix in 2008.

Grand Prix raring vyithout a French Grand Prix is like 'jydney williout the Opera House, Bathurst wiihont Holrlons, Starskywithoi.it ITutch. rraiK.e was the oadle of this great sport and whidievei vyay you look at it, the French led the way: they helrl the first motor lace in 189d and llm fii :,t fiMiirl I'l ix in 1906.

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For 28 years, French machinery dominated the sport despite occasions incursions by Italian and German cars. And after World War II had torn Europe into little bits, the French were there to nurture the sport back to good health again in the late 1940s.

0

K, OK, I know it is a long time ago but then again: who taught us about manufacturer teams and driver development schemes?

Whisper it: "The French".

And, let's face it, who put on a great show last year, taking Pink Floyd to Magny-Cours in an effort to keep their race alive? Les Froggies.

And so when we hear that the Federation Francaise du Sport Automobile (FFSA) has decided to take a year out of the FiA Formula 1 World Championship in 2008, one has to worry for the sport. It is true that the French race is protected by the contract between the FIA and the Formula One group but things have gone

seriously askew when the FIA is letting the Turks off a huge fine for bringing into question the neutrality of the federation while nothing is being done to make sure that there is a French Grand Prix in 2008.

France is talking about returning in 2009 with a race at Disneyland Paris. At least one person will be happy. Track designer Hermann Tilke is often accused of building Mickey Mouse race tracks. This time he really will be.

The bottom line in all of this is that it is clear as long it has been - that getting a Grand Prix is not about passion and history but rather about cash. The more horse-choking the wedge of cash, the more enthusiastic Formula 1 appears to be to get there. If the French cannot pay, then it is off to anywhere where there is a government that has figured out that a Grand Prix might bring a crowd of tourists to what was once a desert/dictatorship/dump and is willing to pay out heaps for the privilege.

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I am one of those old-fashioned people who think that the sport should be watched by people who are interested and excited by what they are seeing. And that grandstands should not be filled with school children or soldiers to make it look as though the locals are interested.

You may have a lot of whingers in Melbourne but there is no escaping the fact that the stands were full. People like motor racing. OK, they want to see V8s driven by Skaifey and Lowndes and all that lot, but they would also like to see Mark Webber do well.

I have been going to all these new FI races around the globe in recent years and I do not see much local interest. The Press Room is not thronged with Chinese, Malaysians, Arabs and Turks. No, it is the same old faces we have seen for years and years from Britain, France, Brazil, Germany and Italy with a rush of Spaniards in the last three years. There are a few odd Poles, www.mnews.com.au

Russians, Americans and so on, but almost no interest from the new countries on the FI block.

Heading placestolike and Malaysiatoseems meBahrain,China as mad as trying to convince the French that they need to get excited about cricket.

You might be able to convince the Mayor of Paris to pay millions for the city to host the Cricket World Cup in 2015 and it might attract large numbers of cricket fans from across the globe - but will it create a cricketing infrastructure in France? Eh bah? Non! According to my good friend The Internet, cricket is not new in France. I am told that Florace Walpole, the son of British Prime Minister Robert Walpole, mentioned seeing a cricket match in Paris back in 1766 and that the Marylebone Cricket Club planned its first ever international tour to Paris in 1789 but,

alas, the revolting masses ended the dream, the cricket players were guillotined and there IS no mention on cricket in France again until^ 1864 when a cricket match took place in Paris's Bois de Boulogne between the Paris Cricket Club and the Warwickshire Knickerbockers (Yes, really).

Rather than embracing the sport, the French continued to embrace one another, and growth has been slow. So slow in fact that France has only been a member of the International Cricket Council for a few years and the team hasn't set the world alight.

Indeed things are so bad that the French national team will be absent from the 2009 ICC Trophy, having lost out to Guernsey.

And when you have finished laughing, you can tell me what difference there is between that and having a Grand Prix in Abu Dhabi.

Perhaps it is just that we haven't had the revolution yet...

29

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A'LOT of things happened in Mexico, including a third place and an ankle injury!

I had a brilliant first race, the adrenaline was pumping when I Jumped out of the car and i was being ushered over to the weighscales. I had to step over a little retaining wall - it was about 60cm high - and I managed to crash while trying to walk in a straight line. I rolled my ankle quite badly and tore some

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Motorsport News is about to change the local racing media scene. Are you prepared?

The 'A' Team: I to r, Jayne, Aaron, Mark, Keith Sutton, Chris, Phil, Andrew and Grant - Aaron rejoins MNews as we lose MG.

Change is better than a holiday w c

HANGE or die. According to modern business folklore, that is one of the mantras by which Bill Gates conducts his life and, you would have to say, to this point, it has worked out pretty well for him.

While we at MNews have few ambitions to be the world's richest men (though all donations are welcome) we do realize that Bill is no dill. Change is a constant; it is sometimes hard, it is difficult to embrace - but it is also all we humans have. Unless we change, we will stagnate, wither and die.

So, in three weeks, we are changing MNews, comprehensively and forever (see pages 6/7).

In two weeks' time, the 359th and'final fortnightly MNews hits the stands. A week later, we will publish the first edition of our spectacular new digital mag, 'Motorsport eNews' and, after that, Motorsport News will be back on the news stands, as a monthly feature-based magazine. .10

with phll branagan

motorsport news editor

For some odd reason, it seems we have the seven-year itch.

From July 1993, MNews was a broadsheet that mixed mono and colour pages. In July 2000, we took a deep breath and changed to an A4-sized, full colour news magazine. Now, seven years later, we are jumping into the future.

As publisher Lambden points out elsewhere in this issue, one thing that will not change is our commitment to getting it right, getting it first and setting the pace for the motorsport media in this country.That remains our mantra; digital or print, MNews will continue to push the boundaries.

The precis is; all the usual news and views, every Tuesday morning.

Look for us in your newstands in two weeks time.

After that, we are changing the world

- PHIL BRANAGAN NOTCHES UP EIGHT YEARS AT THE HELM OF MNEWS ON THE EVE OF MeNEWS to your computer, for free.There is a big 'Wow factor' here. So [deep breath], look for us in your newsagent in two weeks'time. After that, we are changing the world! f change is hard, one that is very difficult for us at MNews is the idea that Mark Glendenning will not be with us on this journey.

For some time, MG has, on occasion, stepped into the international arena of motorsport but, to this point, he has always come home. Now, he is taking the leap, with a new challenge that requires his presence in London as a stepping-off point. But he will not be lost to MNews; he will

now be a valued contributor, and we would not want that any other way.

Since I rudely interrupted his Job interview with the news that Dale Earnhardt had been killed 15 minutes earlier, Mark has been a key member of our team. As editor for all of that time, I can only say that it has been a pleasure and an honour to have him in the squad.

With his departure, and all the other changes around here, a new structure will soon be in place. But for now, all we can say is, godspeed Glendenning, thanks for everything and enjoy the French wines.

And watch out, world ... motorsport news

OPINION %

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isihuigeandi il have tohn ligaments, ll; need to have it strapped and havea iGt of restand physio before Shanghai, it is hard to left-foot brake in a Lola chassis and li have big feet (which means that I wear driving boots two sizes too small) so it was hard. But the tub !|s reasonably big; it is actually harder to left-foot brake in a Formula 3 car. 1 prefer right foot braking but With a dodgy ankle, it

1 a fi n l I I Ii was hard work, it was a 70-minute race, unlike most of the racing I have done here in Australia, which are sprint races. The A1 cars are pretty physical and the track was pretty bumpy. I was pretty fit but there was a lot to do through the race, and I will be stronger for the next races.

Third exceeded my own expectations. On paper, I have not had that much experience in the

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open-wheel cars, despite doing a couple of seasons in FS.The other drivers mainly come from other open-wheel categories to A1 and generally, they have done a lot of test miles. But I was confident and this is a huge opportunity.To qualify in the top 10 was a huge achievement made me pretty confident.

The A1 cars are a challenge to drive. Heaps of power and the car is pretty large, with 16-inch

1 ●1 ri r«i wide tyres on the back. The aero package is not the equivalent of an F3 car, it is the opposite; the power outguns the aero grip. So chassis dynamics are important, and the leading entries from Germany and New Zealand are obviously well-sorted.

Shanghai is a world-class circuit, and the nerves will not be up there next time out. I will be focused on getting the best result possible.

W' IT'S hard to find too many people who either aren't fans of the newVB Supercar Series qualifying format or haven't been converted into fans.

The unpredictability of the system and the potential for some big guns to perhaps miss out on a shot at banging their respective Holden or Ford on the front row of the grid has made for some real interest in the opening two rounds of the series at Adelaide and Barbagallo.

There are already patterns forming too.Teams either have speed from practice and are confident of their pace, therefore leaving a set of tyres reckoning that they can make it through to segment three of qualifying without needing to use them.

With that fresh rubber their sleeve, they can have a serious crack at pole position.

Then there are the others who use all three sets of tyres just to make it through segment two and get a guernsey and have no rubber left to mount a serious challenge in the final 10.

Top 10 Shootout specialists Mark Skaife, Garth Tander and Jason Bright (and no doubt Marcos Ambrose if he was still here in V8 world), have somewhat had one of their trump cards - dealing with the pressure of a single chance shootout lap - taken away.

Drivers now get more than one shot to nail down a good lap, whereby if the old system had been around, they would have not had the second opportunity.

But it's the same for everyone and the upside is that qualifying www.mnews.com.au

opinion

rith aaron noonan

lotorsport news editor

has become just as interesting, (if not moreso at some tracks), than the actual racing itself.

But given how teams use their tyre allocation, it would seem that the final 15-minute segment of qualifying drags on too long.

Anyone with good tyres left will bang in theirtime when they are at their best on lap two or maybe three of a run, while those without a saved set are droning around on used rubber and need divine intervention-to top the times.

The result is a seven or eight minute second half of the last segment where nothing much changes on the timesheets and the status quo remains.

Given that other tracks will have longer lengths and increased lap times later in the series, this won't be a problem if the current 15minute running time remains.

But for the shorter circuit laps, as is the case with the next round at Pukekohe, perhaps a cut to 10 minutes might help keep the excitement level up before the grid is essentially locked in.

But the format is a winner in so many ways. It is a combination of luck, tyre management and speed all wrapped up into one.

It's definitely a winner and the return of the Shootout for Sandown and Bathurst is fine.

Tweaking mixed with tradition is a good blend.

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FOR S/^LE PRECISION CAM DRIVES P/L ROUMASTOR Complete Ongoing Manufacturing Business inciudes Machinery, Jigging and Fixtures intellectual Property Internationally Recognized Registered Trade Marks International Customer Base POA Send Writteni Enquiries to: Robert Bradkam Precision Cam Drives P/L PO Box 39 Sumner Park, Brisbane, Qld, Aust 4074 Email: bob@romac.com.au Web: www.romac.com.au

31

Five minutes with

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RYAN BRISCOE

Just two races into his American Le Mans Series career, Ryan Briscoe has picked up a class win in LMP2.And GRANT ROWLEY now the Australian thinks that an outright victory isn't totally unrealistic l ll MOTORSPORT NEWS: Not an easy Class win from all reports. People crashed into you, you crashed into others, you copped a penalty, you went down a lap. And you still finished third outright. We can only presume it was an exciting race!

RYAN BRISCOE: We had a bunch of issues throughout the first part of the race. We got barrelled into at the first corner by the Andretti car but we came through that unscathed. I think I only dropped to fourth position.

And then we got a piece of debris caught under th^ car. It was a rear wing from another competitor. Our engine temperatures, oil temperatures and brake temperatures were all going through the roof. We had to pit under green conditions,so that put us a lap down early on.

After that, we went out with new tyres and I had a small incident with the #26 car (Marino Franchitti).The ALMS is very strict on cars touching and I got a drive-through penalty. So we had a bunch of things going on nothing was going our way. But in the end, we had some luck on our side. We got our lap back, my team-mate Sascha Maassen did a great job. It seems as though others had some bad luck as well, so we came out on top.

After some reliability dramas in the first round at Sebring, and even half-way through this race, surely you wouldn't have expected to win?

Yeah, well we needed this win.The points in the championship are so close. From Sebring, Porsche did a great job accessing what the issues were and changes were made from Sebring to here.

Hofaefully the alternator problems we had at Sebring won't haunt us any longer.

When I got out ofthe car here, I was a lap down and in seventh, I was so angry. I thought I'd been doing a good job. I'd been passing cars on track and got 32

—TO !’m sure, hopefully later this year, we’ll be able to get some outright wins - RYAN BRISCOE

the quickest lap but we had a bit of bad luck. But in the end, it all worked in our favour so we are rapt.

You drive an LMP2 Class car, which aren't as potent as the LMP1 s. In some ways, you are at a disadvantage. Does this result mean the LMP2s can win outright?

It's so tough. I think my quickest lap was faster than the Audis (LMPl) here, but they have so much more horsepower than us.

That plays into their hands at the starts, restarts and in traffic.They can really get through traffic a lot better.

I'm sure, hopefully later this year, we'll be able to get some outright wins. But first things first - we have to deal with the Acuras, which are putting a lot of pressure on us (in the LMP2 class).

What is the level of competition like in the ALMS?

It's very strong. In the LMP2 class, you've got a lot of big teams running the Acuras; Fernandez, Andretti Green Racing. Its very tight. Honda is very keen on winning.They are keeping us on our toes.

We can expect some very close racing, and its certainly been hard-fought today. I'm sure it's going to be like that for the rest of the year.

LMP2 cars seemed to have an advantage at St Petersburg. Was that a track layout thing you could exploit?

I think the tracks where the straights aren't as long is where we are going to have an advantage.

I think our Porsches are quicker in the turns that the Audis. If there are more turns than straights, then we are going to be in good shape.

I'm looking forward to the shorter circuits!

How are you finding life at Penske?

It's fantastic. For a race car driver it's a dream come true to be part of this organisation. It's Just amazing. Roger (Penske) is an amazing person,Tim Cindric and the whole team are great. I'm so happy to have got a win for them so far and hopefully we can get many more.

Has there been any chat about you getting some seat time in any of Penske or Porsches's other racing programs?

Well, there's nothing spoken about yet, but when you are with big manufacturers like Porsche and big organisations like Penske ...

Hopefully, I can do a really good job this year, hopefully impress and continue a long relationship. I think it will depend how we go for the rest ofthe year and if they like me enough to keep me. Winning races like this always helps! motorsDOM news

Five minutes with

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STEVEN JOHNSON

Leaner, meaner and faster. No,we aren't talking about Steven Johnson.We are talking about his Jim Beam GRANT ROWLEY Falcon BF.The rejuvenated DJR is on the way up in every way possible MOTORSPORT NEWS:You are one of only five drivers to have scored championship points in every race so far. Pretty good start, I think you'd agree?

STEVEN JOHNSON:Yeah, it's good. I've al\ways seemed to be consistent. I guess that's the key this year. If we can stay in the top 15 and keep getting those points, that's going to hold us in a good position for the end of the year.

Obviously it will come down to car speed and whether you can stay out of trouble. If we can keep qualifying well and the boys can keep up their awesome pitstops, then there's no reason why we shouldn't be up the front.

SirkKIynsmith

Your cars were given a major overhaul byTriple 8 Engineering before the start of the year and its obviously made a difference. Can you explain some of the changes?

We are using the same chassis that we've run in the past, so there's no change there. My chassis is the oldest In the DJR fleet at the moment,except for an old AU, I think my chassis is in its fourth season, so its been around a while.

At the end of last year, our cars had a full freshen-up, totally stripped. Basically, we just bought new-spec gear from Triple 8 In a customer arrangement. Some pick up points and bits and pieces have been moved and adjusted. We bought their suspension package, front and rear, plus uprights and arms,front cross members and bits in the rear end as well. We've done the same as what Paul Cruickshank Racing has done with its car.

We've made some little changes here and there to try and understand the car properly.The car is awesome. It's lost a lot of weight over Christmas. I think it was quite a few kilos underweight at the start of the year so its good to be able to have ballast in the car.

Credit has to be paid to your team.

Mot only have they essentially been given a brarui-new toy to S'!

really believe this is where we deserve to be after all those years in no-man’s land - STEVEN JOHNSON IS IN THE FORM OF HIS LIFE

figure out, you've gone out there and beaten the team that built the car!

Yeah, that's pretty surprising. We always knew that we had a good bunch of guys and they knew their stuff, but we were limited to what we had to work with and what we had to spend.That's what it came down to. We are by no means out of the wood work with spending, we still have to be careful. We don't have the biggest budget in the world, and hopefully that will grow over the next few years.

Jim Beam is stoked with the whole thing now,and to go out there and to fight with Triple 8, and beating them at Perth, is great.

Financially, it's been lean times in the past for DJR. Is it touch-and-go for this season?

No, its not touch-and-go. Last year hurt us quite badly and I think it's going to take time to get back to a position where we have no bills, we

aren't owing any money anywhere.

There's a lot more opportunity now for sponsors to come on board. We are getting a lot of good feedback from a lot of companies.

There are still a number of advertising spaces on the car that can be sold.There's no doubt we will have more names around the car by the end of the year. But we are not on the brink.

This is Jim Beam's first year and they didn't know what to expect.

They didn't want to spend big, big dollars on something they weren't sure about.

Now,they are totally stoked with the whole V8 scene and they'll want to up their investment and extend the contract to five years, which is on the cards.

Stability is what we need now.

We just need to keep pushing forward and not drop the ball.

I really believe this is where we deserve to be after all those years in no-man's land.

I'd ask If wins and podiums are possible from here but those four Walkinshaw Performancebuilt Commodores look near unbeatable ...

I don't think they are unbeatable. I thinkthey have an advantage, and that was magnified by the lowgrip surface over in Perth. I think you are going to see it a bit closer, hopefully starting in Pukekohe.

It's not often you see those cars running one-two-three-four.

Generally, there are problems, or spins, or one muffs a start. It's not regular to see four HRT, or HSV, or whoever owns the whole lot, leading the pack.

They had a really good run In Perth, and that was unfortunate because It kept us off the podium.

I genuinely think that wins and podiums are a possibility this year, especially in the endurance races.

Will (Davison) and I are both at the peak, the team's at the peak and we are going to be strong. motorsport news

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OTORSPORTNEWS: The last couple of years didn't really follow the script as far as you are concerned. When you get to the end of a season like the one you had last year, do you switch off completely, or do you start thinking about 2007 straight away?

GREG MURPHY: I definitely switched off. I think everyone at Supercheap Auto last year probably needed to switch off, because it was a tough year for all concerned. It's hard for the guys who are pounding away in the workshop 24/7 and getting nothing in return. It's hard for them.

36

And for me, it was definitely a switch-off. I didn't want to start thinking about 2007 too early. But it comes around very fast, and then you have to start thinking about it!

We went away for four weeks and went back to New Zealand, and it was good. It was good to be able to spend time with friends and family and not have to think about it, not have to worry about it.

MN:You'd have thought New Zealand would be the last place you could go to escape motor racing ...

GM:(laughs) Yes! But it was pretty quiet...

MN:You know places?

GM: I know places, yeah. I know places.

MN:When you left Kmart for Supercheap, you told us you were doing it to win a championship ...

GM: Did I say that?

MN:You did. At what point did you start thinking,'urn ...'

GM:The thing is, I have never been anywhere not to win the championship. Every time you get in the car, you are focussed on one thing.This is not something you do as a hobby, or do for fun so much any more.This is a job.

There's one reason you do it. And that's all I have ever done since

I have been professionally car racing, is wanting to win. So no matter where I've been, it has been for the same reasons.

I think that when I went so Supercheap at the beginning of 2005, everyone there was there for the same reasons.

It's funny, because you get asked questions about the time at Supercheap Auto, but all anybody remembers is the last 12 months, in 2005 we were pretty fast, especially in the beginning of the year. We had a pretty good car. We had some pretty good speed a the first round at Adelaide that year, and that was with new guys, you know, a new engineer - I hadn't worked with Steve Henderson

motorsport news

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before, and he hadn't worked with me,and we were new, and we had all this information to get through to try to work out how it all worked. Fortunately, I suppose, the car felt very familiar to me because it was pretty similar to a Kmart car.

But then we went to New Zealand and annihilated the rest of the field - we won all three races.

That was a pretty good result. And then we came back from there and we were let down. We came back to Perth, that was the race after New Zealand, and I was leading the second race, with about 14 laps to go, when we broke an axle.

Then we started from the back in the last race, and had an engine

www.mnews.com.au

problem. So we should have been on the podium that year on Perth.

We went to Eastern Creek, and I hadn't been on the podium there in ages. We struggled there with Kmart; it was our hoodoo track. I lost the championship there twice.

But at Eastern Creek, we were on the podium - I finished a car length behind Marcos[Ambrose] in the last race, Oran Park was another hoodoo track, and I finished on the podium there. I was on pole at Indy by over half a second and won the first race.

So we actually had some speed in '05.There were some other things that obviously went wrong; we had some reliability issues, and we went through the process of

changing engine suppliers from HMS to Perkins, which slowed down our run quite a bit.

So you forget'05 pretty easily, but we were pretty quick that year.

Unfortunately we had some back luck go our way with reliability and stuff that year, and that knocked us around. But'06 is a whole different ballgame.

MN; But even in '06, the cars didn't look too bad when they first rolled out in Adelaide.The problem was that the team spent the first two months of the year rebuilding crashed cars.

GM:That's right. Adelaide was a disaster in that respect. We finished fifth, I think, in the first

race on the Saturday. Something like that. We were running around in the top 10 on the Sunday,and ... we were struggling a little bit, but Cam [McConville] had led the beginning of that race, and then he had his shunt, in which he was an innocent bystander.

I wasn't so innocent in my one.

And also, we had two wrecked cars, one was irreparable for the Grand Prix, and Cam was in the spare one because his car was totally irreparable. Or at least, it was going to take a lot longer to fix.

And then to go to New Zealand and get caught up in the first lap, first corner incident and destroy continued page 38 37

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the thing again ... we were on the back foot. It was really hard.

That point was the time where we really needed to roll out two new cars, but that just wasn't in the schedule of things to do.

MN: I guess with the VE coming, the team figured there was not much point?

GM:See, that's where it's difficult, because what are you actually there to do? What are you there to achieve? You are there to race, and be fast, and be competitive and win races.

Yes, it becomes an expensive process. But then you go through the next eight months of pain that we went through, doing the same amount of work - or more - and getting nothing in return. So it's a Catch-22.

But the other thing is, we never had plans to build any more cars. If they'd been planned then we would have been saved, but there were no plans and no infrastructure to supply or get two rpore cars. So we were screwed.

MN:So even if the budget was there, it would have been impossible to replace the cars?

GM: I don't know. I can't answer that one. If tliere had been a budget or not, I'm not sure. I don't know what that situation was.

3H

You'd have to ask Kees [Weel], But it was just circumstance.

There were no plans,there wasn't a car sitting there ready to buy, no-one had one that we were going to be able to buy. Our HMS [Holden Motor Sport] association was pretty much gone by that stage, so 1 don't think there was any chance of getting one from them. Maybe, I don't know. n Certainly, as far as I know,that was never considered, anyway.

MN: At the same time all of that was going in, your old team was turning into Toll, which has been very successful. Was that a bit of a slap in the face?

GM:That was really hard. It was very disappointing from my end. I mean,2005, we were often faster than what HSV were in '05 - they weren't Toll then, were they?

We were often faster than them, which was good because that was why i left. I left to improve and move on.

And then to see Tom [Walkinshaw] turn up again and start to have influence on the running of the operation, and then start to see the plans they had in place to turn things around and change it, and obviously the injection of funds from wherever, and the teams being grouped and the four of them working together - whicli people thought we used to have at Kmart Racing, which was a load of rubbish...

MN: None of that was on the horizon at the end of 2004?

GM: No. When I decided to leave Kmart,John Kelly and Rob Crawford said,'there's nothing we can tell you'. John couldn't tell me what direction the team was going in and what was going to happen in '05. He had no idea. I believe him when he says that; it's just the way it was. And Rob Crawford was leaving, he was going to work for TEGA. So he'd handed in his resignation, and he changed his mind early in '05, when they started to make their plans for the future and knew that Tom was going to be involved again. He decided to stay because of that.

I had already made my mind up, deals were done, and I was already on my way by that stage, and hoping for things to change. And as I say,'05 wasn't too bad, and '06 didn't work out to well, and Toll/ HSV, ex-Kmart, went on a blinder.

MN:When you are in the situation that you were in last year, where you can see that the season is going to be a write off, is there anything you can do about it as a driver?

GM: It's really hard, because ... I'm not that hard to work out. Most people up and down pitlane, a lot of them think they know me,a lot of them do know me, and I am not the kind of person to smile about crap like others do when things aren't good.

I'm not here to fiddle around and bloody do it as a part-time deal. It's full-time, and it's all I do.

It's just the way it is. I don't like being uncompetitive, and when things are bad, it doesn't make me happy.

There is no reason when you are in a professional sport like this and you're doing it for one reason ... why put on a bullshit fake face? So it was hard, it was really hard. We just battled along and did what we could. But we were limited by what we had. I mean,there was a lot of work last year to try and do things, but effectively, I believe that the core of the equipment that we were using, which was the chassis, was limiting everything else that we were trying to do to it.

So we just battled away and went to the races, and hoped that we'd turn up and something would be different; that it work for whatever reason. Unfortunately, it didn't work out that way.

MN;You did theTasman deal fairly early last year, didn't you?

GM: No, no.There was no'deal' done at all for a very long time.

Kees and I had a discussion around about mid-year about'07, and that was the start of the process after that. But that was, like, July.

MN: OK, but by mid-season, you had a pretty good idea that your future lay elsewhere.

GM:Yeah. Well, the reason for motorsportnews

V8SUPERCARS. >xy: L'*

Brand exercise: Between Murphy and Tasman Motorsport, they have enough sponsor's stickers to sink a battleship! that conversation was basically that, VE was coming along and obviously things had been tough at PWR,and I just decided I was better off going to Tasman, which I was eventually going to end up at anyway,and work with the new car, than stay at PWR and do the same thing. And I probably thought that I was going to be in a better environment; one that I knew a lot about. I was better off being there and working with the new car and growing,than spending one more year at PWR going through a process and then leaving anyway.

MN:The reason I asked was that from the outside at least, you seemed happier and more relaxed over the second half of the season, and I was wondering whether having your future sorted out took a weight off your shoulders.

GM: I don't know about that. I think that maybe ... I don't know if it's right or wrong, it's a psychological thing, but I knew by that stage that we had what we had, and every time I went out there I gave it 110 percent, and that was it. We knew, all the guys at work knew,that we were doing everything we possibly could. It wasn't like everybody suddenly lost their ability to do their jobs properly, it was just, that's what we had. So I suppose I had just resigned myself to the fact that www.miiews.com.au

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This year, 1 am expecting wins for either Jason or I - GREG MURPHY SETS THE BAR HIGH

that was the situation we were in.

MN: Unusually for a race team, a couple of years ago Tasman MN:So are you here at Tasman for gave MNews its targets in the long haul? Is this home now? terms of results for the coming seasons. So far, the team hasn't GM:Yeah. Hey,this whoie operation was put together a few managed to hit them. Has it underperformed,or was years ago now,or at least, the plans it aiming too high for a new were put together a few years ago. organisation?

The structure was designed early on, before Tasman had even GM: I think you have got to set the come along, before the franchise bar high, regardless of whether was bought and the team was you get there or not. You've still bought.The structure and the got to set it high. And when you idea of running a V8 Supercar don't achieve,then you have got team had already been designed to look at why.You just have to between myself and Tim Miles look up and down pitlane too see and my Dad [Kevin] on an idea why sometimes the goals you set of what we'd liked to do in the ... lam sure that there were a few teams last year that didn't achieve future. And when the opportunity for the franchises turned up, that the goals that they set, and there plan was put into implementation. were some that did. It's the lay of the land.

I was obviously with another race team,so there was always a When you look up and down plan that I was going to end up pitlane, you just cannot believe involved somewhere down the how competitive it is now. Go and track. Whether that was this year analyse a few years ago,and you or next year, that was the question could break it into parts - there'd be those three teams,and then that we needed answering, and those four teams, and those four it turned out to be this year. So it might be a year earlier than I had teams... now, it's those six teams, and then another six, and then expected, but I think the timing is pretty good. you're pretty much done.There

are only a couple of parts to it. And it's moving the whole time,the shuffling of where the teams lie, because everyone is working so hard.

ForTasman, you've got your goals set, and sometimes you're not going to achieve them. But you still have to set those goals, and you still have to set the bar high. At the end of the day, it has got to be successful.

MN:Is the team good enough to win races yet?

GM:This year, I think so.This year, I am expecting wins for either Jason [Richards] or I. i'm not reaily worried who it is, but for the team that needs to happen, and for me, i need to be up at the front too.

MN:Do you still set personal goals, or have you been around too long for that?

GM; It's pretty easy. I don't see the point in delving too deeply into the whole make-up of it. It's a simple game at the end of the day.

The goal is to win.'Oh, I want to finish in the top 10'... f**k. I've been around too long to be doing that.

I mean that's a goal for a guy who comes into this championship after winning the Fujitsu Series and says, 'OK, it's my first year and I hope to get a top 10'. I have been doing this since 1995,1 don't need to be setting a top 10 goal.There's one goal. Ifyou're not going to try to achieve that, well ... I should retire.

39

No Bathurst Bunnies The Easter Bunny won't have a chance come Easter Sunday at Mount Panorama this year as the Bathurst 12 Hour returns to the calendar. AARON NOONAN takes a look atthe history ofthe event, which ran from 1991 to 1994 before disappearing- until this weekend THE concept of racing at Bathurst anytime other than in October may come as a surprise to the casual motor racing fan, but the fact is that racing on the Mountain in Easter is older than the 1000-kilometre enduro classic that the track is famous for.

After many years(and plenty of hijinks at the top ofthe Mountain),the traditional Easter motorcycle meetings ended and were replaced with a 12 Hour production car race that began in 1991.

The brainchild of Vincent Tesoriero,the concept of the event was along exactly the same lines as its re-birth some 16 years later.

It gave production car racing a marquee event at a place which is the spiritual home of production car racing in Australia, at the same time helping to galvanise proddie racing.

Hark back to the first 1991 event and you had a small field of 24 starters with minimal manufacturer support as the car makers sat back to set what would happen with the race, especially given that it had only been a matter of months from when it was announced to when the lights went green.

Fast forward to now and the same is true, but a solid 41 -car field - much bigger than the grid for the inaugural event - has been assembled.

The rulebook has been slanted in such a way to stop the event

becoming a quasi sportscar race, which became the case in the early 1990s when Mazda's RX7 and Porsche's 968CS came on the scene.

Not to mention exotica like the Honda NSX, Maserati Ghibli, Nissan Skyline GTR and BMW M5 that all took part in previous 12 Hours!

Now the focus is on a field more in alignment with road cars that the general buying public can relate and identify with - and in the current financial and economic climate,the introduction of diesel categories adds to that.

'When we first came up with the idea of reviving the 12-Hour race at Mount Panorama we set the goal of 35 entries for the first year, which we have been able to achieve,"says Event Director James O'Brien.

It is very pleasing to see the support of several leading

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manufacturers in the WPS 12-Hour Showroom Enduro along with the great support of privateers from across the country.

The wide variety of cars will certainly provide some interest with outright speed, race tactics. fuel strategy and team work all coming into play throughout the race.

The event, a joint venture between O'Brien and partner James Henderson's(Tasman Motorsport Commercial Director) GET organisation and the Bathurst Regional Council, has helped to reenergise production car racing.

The duo have entrusted the administration of the race to SPHERiX,the Bill West and Craig Denyer-run company that manages and tuns the V8 Ute series.

I Added to thfe mi)«Qrthe re-birth of the 12 Houi ieiprmae rally cars,

four wheel drive machines that have proven themselves in Targa Tasmania and the like.

A price ceiling of approximately $125,000 and the class structure means that the 12 Hour won't morph into a homologation race as it possibly may have done in previous years, while slick racing tyres are also banned to keep things as'production'as can be.

Bathurst has been crying out for a second race meeting per year since the demise of the 24 Hour race after its second running in 2003.

Now the 12 Hour,as part of the WPS Bathurst International Motor Festival, means that we have another excuse to head to the Mountain.

And lookfor the manufacturers to come along for the ride next year once the event is back up and running ...

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THE event kicked off at 5.1Sam iaced with big names but a smali field.

While Toyota Supra was no longer entered in the Australian Production Car Championship, the former Group E racer was eligible for the 12 Hour and Allan Grice paired with Peter Fitzgerald and Kiwi Nigel Arkell to win the first race.

The Fitzgerald car, which had been Fitzy's race car, was converted back to road car use but quickly found itself back on the track when the concept of the event was announced!

Their only real opposition was the similar Supra of John Bourke and Bryan Thomson,though when that was in drama with excessive brake wear,the other

Supra was able to clock out 242 laps without too many problems.

Backed by James Hardie.the race was plagued by heavy fog that blanketed the Mountain, but there were plenty of big names among the field.

Peter Brock shared a V6 Commodore with Neil Crompton and Peter McKay to fourth outright and a class win, while the giant-killing LaserTXB (with assistance from Ford's marketing department)of Kent and Brett Youlden and Ken Douglas took second outright.

Colin Bond's MR2(his wife's actually!) won the Sportscar class while the Bates brothers and Geoff Morgan won Class B in a Celica to round out a great weekend for Toyota.

THE exotic arrived in 1993,as manufacturers who had seen Mazda come in with a sportscar and win all decided to join in.

Wayne Gardner led a Honda NSX squad (and it was amazingly fixed after the bike ace crashed at McPhillamy earlier in the weekend), Larry Perkins put a Lotus Esprit on pole position, Nissan's GTR returned to the Mountain after effectiveiy being shut out of Group A and Porsche arrived with a 968 Ciubsport and Peter Fitzgeraid to tackie Mazda.

The Hansford/O'Brien RX7 wouidn't recover from a blown turbo hose to be a factor,the Lotus would be out with engine problems and later the Safety Car would be called - for a horse on the trackof all things!

It dealt the 1-2 running Porsches a blow,allowing the Alan Jones/ Garry Waldon RX7 to pit for pads and then iap faster to the end, ieading home the Fitzgeraid/ Nicoias Leutwiler/Brett Peters 968 and the John Smith/Kevin Waidock car.

Both Porsches would be thrown out post-race for a minor wheel size infraction, lifting the other Mazda to second and the Honda to third.

Peter Brock stepped into a V8 Commodore to win Ciass D with Tony Scott while much was made of the appearance by Juan Manuel Fangio ii in one of the robust Toyota MR2s.

And he backed it up, winning the Sportscar class with Peter McKay and Rick Bates.

AT the forefront of the queue to Join the 12 Hour in its second year was Mazda.

Having just released the latest turbo rotary RX7, Bathurst was the perfect proving ground.

Organisers opened up the vehicle eligibility list, asking manufacturers what they would like to include and the results ranged from BMWMSsto Saab 900s and even a Holden Commodore V8 Lite!

Given that the Mazda was released right at the same time as the race had some hopping mad, but the Allan Horsley-run cars would never be caught.

John Bowe and Gregg Hansford grabbed pole but a brake calliper problem while leading dropped them back.

The sister car of Charlie O'Brien, Mark Gibbs and Garry Waldon had

already been pushed back by s stop for new brake discs.

But the latter charged back through the field to win, a three second a lap advantage enough to lead home the Tony Longhurst/ Alan Jones MS and the Saab of Glenn Seton and Colin Bond, which had surprised all and sundry with its performance.

Peter Brock added one more manufacturer to his list by running a team of three Peugeot 405s but they couldn't stop rival Citroen and Peter McLeod's team from taking class honours.

Suzuki continued its mortgage of the small car class, but only after a long-time fight with a Corolla.

It ended as the Toyota ran out of fuel on the very last lap and could only splutter to the line as the Suzuki stormed past - a crushing way to lose a 12 Hour race.

AN all-Mazda front row looked ominous and it certainly proved the case.

The Garry Waldon/Mark Skaife car took pole but blew a turbo, leaving the late Gregg Hansford and Neil Crompton to be the dominant RX7 to take the win.

Despite grabbing Jim Richards to improve his Porsche line-up, Peter Fitzgerald was forced to play bridesmaid clear of the sister car headed by Brad Jones.

The giant-killer was the Toyota MR2 of the Bates brothers and Juan Manuel Fangio II that ended up a brilliant fourth outright, while Steven Johnson made his Bathurst debut in a class-winning XR6 with his father Dick and Danny Osborne.

Peter Brock started his

relationship with Volvo in an 850 T5 but couldn't stop Subaru's new Impreza WRX winning the turbo class, while Alan Jones and Neville Crichton ran strong for a time in an all but new BMW M3.

The exotica count continued with a Maserati Shamal appearing but struggling with its weight to finish eighth and a new face at Bathurst finished 14th outright in a Pulsar SSS - Craig Lowndes.

From there the 12 Hour would head to Eastern Creek for one more year before disappearing from the Aussie motorsport scene.

Dick Johnson and John Bowe would win it in a Mazda RX7 SP, but it has been over a decade since the dawn to afternoon race was last held.

Welcome back...

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OOD things happen to those who wait, or so the cliche goes.

But reality usually has other ideas, especially in Formula 1.

Opportunities are rare; second chances almost non-existent.

So to see Alex Wurz's name on the entry list for the 2007 FI World Championship is a minor miracle.

The Austrian made his debut in Canada in 1997 with Benetton when compatriot Gerhard Berger was recovering from surgery, and made an early impact by finishing on the podium in his third race at Silverstone.

The result helped him into a race seat for 1998, but over the next three years the results slowly dwindled and he was left without a drive a the end of 2000, prompting him to find a new home at McLaren as a test driver.

And so began six years spent pounding around deserted

racetnacks in the middle of the week, a trip into anonymity brokeni only by a one-off drive at imola in 2005, where he stood in for the injured Juan Pablo Montoya. Assisted by the disqualification of the fARHondas, he finished* third'.

All the same, a six-year stint as a test driver tends to become a one-way road, so both history and conventional wisdom were against Wurz ever returning to the grid on a full-time basis. Yet Wurz maintained the faith.

"If I thought a race seat would have never come. I'd have given up," he said.

"I never gave up. But I also knew that it would not be that easy to come back, because it is very hard work - only 22 drivers get a spot every year. I never had any motivation problems. I just kept pushing in the hope that I could come back.

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"I had my moments of doubts, of course, because it was a long time, so you have moments where you think, 'oh my God, it's going to be hard, the market is closing ...'

"In all of those years I had offers from other teams, but some didn't work out because of contractual problems. And then you think, 'I missed the opportunity and it may be the last one'.

"But that's normal, and it never made me give up. Your doubts actually make you stronger, because you just say, OK, whatever comes. I'll just stick my head in and keep pushing, keep working. And it worked out brilliantly when I joined Williams, because only Haifa year after I signed my test driver contract they told me they wanted me to race."

You would think that spending six years relentlessly knocking on the door would have equipped

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Wurzto write a dozen self-help books teaching patience and tenacity, but Alex, as is his way, is rather more pragmatic.

"Test driving is not a bad, secondlevel job, you know?" he said.

"It's a fantastic opportunity, to be a test driver. Since my last full racing season I have done something like 75,000 kilometres of testing, which is pretty much what the top guys in Formula 1 do in terms of race mileage over the same period of time.

"I have worked with world championship-winning teams, against world champions, against race winners, with engineers of really great experience, and of course that increases your own game; your own level is pushed higher.

"But it was also character building, because you are working for someone else, and you are coming home on the Saturdays,

INSIGHT

Seeing someone regain a FI race seat after spending six years testing is not something that happens every day.Then again,Alex Wurz is not your typical race driver. In between his duties with Williams, painting helmets and preparing to speak to the UN,hefound time to talk to MARK GLENDENNING or driving in front of empty grandstands for hundreds of laps, and you're always on the absolute limit, because if you don't test on the limit then it's all for nothing.

And if you are not capable of testing constantly on the limit, you just wouldn't be there as a test driver in a top team.

"I admit, getting back into racing took a bit longer than I wanted it to, but sometimes in life you have to wait a little bit for things to come by.You can't always force It. "And I am well settled enough In my life that if it hadn't come back, I would still be a happy guy. I don't need Formula 1 to survive - but

aii the same it is damn cooi that it worked out, because I put a lot of effort into it!"

Like many Europeans, Wurz is multi-lingual, capable of conversing comfortably In English and French as well as his native German. But he has another language in his arsenal that sets him apart from other drivers. For Wurz is apparently unique in being entirely fluent In engineer-speak.

"I went to a technical school to do engineering, but what I learned there, I cannot use here," he explained.

Yes, I understand the kinematics and aii that sort of thing, but at the end of the day, it's not reaiiy the understanding of the technoiogy. i think it's the communication. Engineers'brains work in graphs and data and figures, and if an engineer gets something thrown in his face.iike feeiing,they just can't vaiue that.

"So you need to be abie to translate it into their language and say,'look, that's what's going on here'. And that's not that easy to do.The driver thinks quite differently - as a driver, you work with feelings. Drivers don't work with numbers. It is difficult to

transiate that into the other's language.

"Engineers just believe what they see.The last thing they want is to develop a car based on just driver feelings, because ... what is a feeling? They can't measure it. So my challenge was always to build up a level of communication with them so that they understood where I was coming from.

"First of all it was important that they trust me,so that when I am pushing for a direction in development,that it works. You have to prove that over and continued on page 44

continued from page 43

The DIY Approach THERE is a very old school of thought suggesting that if you want something done properly, you need to do jt yourself. For Alex Wurz,this extends to the point of painting his own helmets.

"This is true!" he said."I only started doing it in 2001. My design is very difficult to paint, and no other painter wanted to do it. it really takes a lot of work, and everyone who painted it once would say,'OK, here it is.

Please never come to me again!'.

And they never did it the way I wanted to have it."

What started as a means to an end has inadvertently turned into a part-time job - and one that Wurz takes seriously.

"I have painted helmets for other drivers, like former MotoGP rider Jurgen van den Goorbergh, and it is quite difficult, I have to say, because I always think I have to paint something that suits someone's

personality," he explained.

"I had some interesting but also frustrating moments.You work for two weeks on a helmet, give to them, and you see their face ...'well, it's nice, thank you, but it's not what I wanted!"' (laughs).

Taking such a personal interest in his own helmet design means that Wurz can't help but study the schemes that other drivers have come up with.

"There are a few interesting designs out there," he remarked.

"I usually like the ones where the driver has thought about it, because that reflects his thoughts. And then if it is a complete, classic design, or if it's getting crazy and wild, it doesn't matter.

"Now,some guys have designs from designers. But I personally like the idea that you do your own helmet, because it is the last bit of personal identification left."

again, because when you are wrong with your assumptions and development,they waste millions and are not moving forwards.

"That was the motivation; that you push a team. And they are incredible people - there are 500 or more employees, all very highly skilled, and in the design office and race engineering you have the most clever brains in the automotive industry. You have super-fast development, high budgets, all used just to make the car go quicker.

"And here comes one guy who, based on his feeling, tells them,'I think we need to develop in this direction'. And they do it, and at the next test you have your new parts, your new suspension geometries, and that's the moment of truth, because it needs to be quicker.That is very interesting. I still love that now. It is a real challenge in itself."

Once Wurz realised that he had a knack for relating to engineers, he quickly saw the chance to build it into an asset.

"I realised that this was something that I could develop into a strength," he said.

"Lots of drivers can drive quick; not that many can actually talk about what's going on. Not that I am saying that I am the

best, because I haven't won a race and other guys have won championships.

"But I know that this is a strength of mine, and it is why I am employed by Frank Williams,

The Report Card HAVING worked with the Austrian for a little over a year now,Williams technical director Sam Michael, left, is effusive in his praise of Wurz's technical abilities.

"Alex has been really good at helping us to turn the car around," Michael said.

"We had a lot of problems with the car last year,from every point of view, and he has really helped to sort of drive the whole understanding of the suspension,the aero and the electronics forward. He has been really fundamental to that.

"I have to say, I have worked with some good drivers in the past, but I have never worked with anyone who really had such a big impact. I have worked with guys who understand cars; who can set the car up and get the right springs and bars on them,and get the right ride heights and set the cars up for a race weekend.

"But someone who can actually stand back and look at the development process and see what direction it's going in like an engineer - and

I don't mean that in an elitist way, but engineers always look at things differently to drivers -1 have never met a driver who can actually stand back and do that. And Alex can,and actually produces results.

"There are pieces of design on the car - whether it is a piece of suspension geometry or a piece of code inside the electronics - that Alex actually came up with.Then the engineers obviously develop it and make it work, and it makes the car go two-tenths quicker, or a tenth quicker, or whatever it is.

"There are two or three things on the car that would not have been there if it wasn't for him.

"But he's got such a great attitude as well. He is just so keen, and he's always happy.

"He never drops his head. I've never, ever heard him say a negative word about anyone. Not even in private. He has been around, he's 33 years old, and his must have run into some people that he doesn't get on with. But he just keeps it to himself."

motorspoM news

because it is important for him to develop the team forward, and build a very stable technical base, Wurz's work ethic may have been hewn from years spend standing awkwardly in the background at team launches while the race drivers soaked up the spotlight, but it his acute awareness of how cut-throat the business is that keeps him going.

Goodwill in the paddock, he recognises, oniy extends so far.

"It's just a cruel industry, isn't it? he reflects.

'It's not real life, i am not here to make friends. If you make friends in this industry then that's a bonus. But you can't come here and expect everyone to always be nice to you, because it is just a tough competition. Everywhere.

Outside the car, inside the car and sometimes the race outside the car, in the paddock, is the harder one."

Then again, some threats of one-upmanship come from somewhere a lot closer to home.

"My oldest son is four-and-a-half,' he said.

He speaks German, English, French, and he is starting to speak Italian now because half of his class is Italian. When his friends are in the house, my son says, 'now we have to talk in a language my father understands!'

"But within half a year or a year, he will figure out that when I can't understand him, it's more fun ..."

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Securing the Retd THE second phase of Wurz's career as a Formula 1 driver Is only just beginning, but he already has his life mapped out for when the time comes to call it quits. And it doesn't involve motorsport.

Twenty years ago, my father developed road safety training and i measurements that are now very successful in Austria and Europe,' he said."The systems which my father's company developed,are actually the law now in Austria. So every novice driver who goes for their license has to come to special road safety training at my father's place, and the statistics are very good.You can't speak from success because people are still dying, but we have reduced the accident risk for the 18-24 age group by 30 percent In the last two years, which is a bigger reduction than any other country.

'But it was kind of a hidden in Austria with the Austrian Automobile Club,and I realised that we need it everywhere.So I bought the know-how two years ago,and now we are expanding * the business everywhere."

Yet road safety is more than Just a business to Wurz, it a is a cause -to the point where he is becoming something of a global ambassador on the subject.

"I work a lot with the FIA on the road safety campaigns,"he said.

"In one month I will speak in front ofthe United Nations in ?

Geneva,just to convey the message. I don't know the figures for Australia, but in Europe,every year we have 40,000 people dying on the streets, it's a bit shocking when you say that. ; "When we talk about figures, one person dead in Europe costs the system about 1,000,000 euros.So you can talk about it also as a real problem in terms offinances. It's just ridiculous, how many people die.

"And when you see... not that it's a good comparison, but when you see an aeroplane crash into a building - and Tm not sure how many people died there - but you saw how industry responded to that. But there is still not enough done for road safety."

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RETTY much any way you look at it, the jump from Formula 3 to GP2 is a big one.

Almost three times as much horsepower,full blown aero and one of the most fickle tyre compounds known to motorsport, GP2 is a genuine challenge.

And that goes even for your average race driver, by which I mean the kid that first drove a kart before he could walk and has since spent every year of his life racing and learning.

Bruno Senna is not your average race driver, because he hasn't grown up with a steering wheel in his hand.The death of his rather famous uncle Ayrton sidelined Bruno as a youngster and it was only a couple of years ago that he took up the habit again. So that makes the fact that he will suit up for Arden International in this year's GP2 Series somewhat remarkable.

"I guess my plan in GP2 is two years," he says in a very down-to-earth manner.

"I have a lot to learn.This year will be a big learning curve; there'll be a lot of development to do and I'll learn a lot about the car and the team."

"If I could fast-track my career a little bit it wouldn't be a bad thing, but at the same time I'm not exactly in a hurry. This'll be my third championship in my life and I'm competing against drivers who have done three or four times more races than me.

"So it's not an ideal situation. I will have the odd mistake, and sometimes I will be uncompetitive because we just lack something from experience, but these are things I learn with every race."

Not that you would expect this guy to be totally off the pace. He is a Senna, after all, and despite his relative lack of experience he was a pace-setter in the notoriously competitive British Formula 3 Championship last year. But as he explains, there's more than just a new technical package to get your head around.

It s quite hard to take the step because n<2 only are the cars different, but it's a very different championship.

GP2 is something that prepares you very well for Formula 1 with the long races and the pit stops. Everything counts. Every experience you have before getting to Formula 1 counts and something as close to Fl as GP2 is helpful for anyone."

Just ask Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton.

Both have gone straight from winning the GP2 Championship to a Formula 1 drive, in the case

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of Hamilton a very competitive one.

"And not only the champions are getting into Formula 1, but even some drivers like Scott Speed,"adds Bruno.

"Right now the championship is the main feeder to Formula 1, and that's because of the exposure you get. Usually you only get the opportunity to go to Formula 1,from other categories when you get the best results. As we are together with Formula 1 they see not only results, but also the circumstances.They know if someone was winning the race and the car breaks.They see that the guy was really good even though he didn't get the result.

"So being with Formula 1 is good for drivers who have the potential to be there, not just the results."

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f Bruno Senna does hit the big time, and there's every chance he will, it'll cause a worldwide media frenzy.

Sure we've seen names like Rosberg and Piquet pop up in Formula 1 recently, and it's exciting to see the names of past legends return for another crack at the World Championship. But having a Senna back in Formula 1 would be a totally different story.

When Ayrton Senna was tragically killed at Imola in 1994, it seemingly ended any chance of Bruno taking up motor racing

as a profession. But as any sportsman will understand,the burning desire to compete doesn't just disappear.

"I didn't mention anything for so long, my family didn't realise that I wanted to go back to racing," he says.

"They thought I didn't like it any more because I didn't talk about it, but the reason I didn't talk about it was because I didn't want to upset them.

"When I was about 18 my mother came to me because she wanted to know what 1 was thinking, what I wanted to do with my life. And I quickly took the opportunity to say that I wanted to go back to racing because by then I was working with the family business, one of our car dealers, and I realised that everything I did was aiming towards motorsport.

"So when I told my mother she was very surprised, because she didn't know I wanted to do it. She said'go buy a go kart,'and I was breaking ribs all the time trying so hard. So she realised that I was very serious about it and she said'OK Bruno, let's try to go race cars.'"

That's not to say that the Senna family don't still have their reservations about motor racing, a fact highlighted when Bruno shunted heavily at Snetterton during last year's British F3 season.

"Well my mother was there on that weekend, so she wasn't exactly happy with the crash," he says with a chuckle.

"But she realises that things are very different now. Remember, it took the death of a three times World Champion to make motor racing a lot safer. And my family realises that accidents are part of the job, but now it's so much safer.

"For me it was never a concern. When I crashed I quickly came out of the car and didn't have much to think about. But we had to hide a bit from my grandmother to start with, but she ended up finding out and she wasn't very happyl We said'Oh it was only a small crash, don't worry.'But she found out the truth (laughs)."

According to Folklore, as Ayrton Senna departed McLaren at the end of 1993 he told the crew'If you think I'm good, wait until you see my nephew Bruno.'

"He did say that, he told the guys from McLaren,"says Bruno.

"It was because he saw me driving on our farm in Brazil, and I was pretty good at it, but I still had a lot to learn.

"Even now I don't know how much potential I've got, but I've got a lot to do."

47

V8 SyPERCAR CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES round 2- barbagallo ,-iV

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ASTEST in practice, fastest in qualifying, and three wins from three races. At your home trade. And all of this the week before your 30th birthday. Garth Tander is going to have to try pretty hard to top his weekend in Perth two weeks ago.

"This is right up there with Bathurst," said an elated Tander.

"I have been trying so hard for so many years [to win here], in Formula Fords and then in V8s, and to finally crack it they way we did is Just awesome. It's a bit surreal, really.

"Everything just went to plan, and I couldn't have asked for a better weekend. If you were

48

going to write a script, that's probably how it would go."

Tender's Toll/FISV team-mate Rick Kelly also had to send his racesuit to the drycleaners to remove the smell of champagne after finishing the weekend second outright, courtesy of two second places and a third.

"I think we learned a lot this weekend," said Rick. "Obviously it's just the second race meeting with the new car, and to learn so much out of Clipsal and here whilst still getting good results is just fantastic."

Completing a dominant weekend for Clayton, HRT's Mark Skaife was third Outright after having chased Rick home in the opening

two races and then jumpjngifast him to take second i^;the^final one. "i had a little'bit of adive oh tick at Kolb, and he had to pull in tight and didn't really . get a good tun out of the bottom of the basin f Skaife said. "l syas just in the space at the right time. Rick was clever about it too; there was no burnping or barging or any of that stuff - it was too late in the race for that."

Such was the dominance of Toll and HRT, the weekend could easily have ended with a Walkinshaw 1 -2-3-4, but ah early brakeline failure on Todd Kelly's car in Race 1 put him onto the back foot andi opened the way for. everyone else to fight over the scraps,

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^4) > The racing was not the stuff of highlight reels, but the was still room for intrigue. One ofthe stories of the weekend was the outstanding performance by Jim Beam Racing,iWhieh was pretty much the most consistent of the non-Toms.

TeamVodafone had a few problems.Stones had a few catastrophies,and Jason Bright might be looking for a new car to use in New Zealand after his Britek Falcon was reduced to all but scrap on Friday.

Some teams left the west with a spring in their step,some were dragging their heels. But after the walloping that the lead Holdens dished out, most crew members flew home simply scratching their heads.

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Home court advantage Topping the timesheets in practice is one thing, but doing it when it counts is another.

Not that local lad Garth Tander had any problems when it came to quali^ing A Qualifying even with a reduced field of 30,the tight Barbagallo layout always meant that traffic was going to be an issue during qualifying.

So it was no surprise to see a few cars somewhat out of order during qualifying's opening phase, although when the clocked ticked down to eliminate those outside the top 20, there were no real surprises down among the outcasts.

Dean Canto would have been hoping for more than 23rd from GRM's VE, but an array of problems meant that he was always on the back foot - as was SuperCheap, which watched proceedings through clenched jaws as both Paul Dumbrell (suffering with a misfire) and Cameron McConville (chasing set up)failed to make the cut.

50

The second phase was a little more interesting, partly because in performance terms, there is so little to separate the cars between about fifth and 25th, and also in terms of tyre management.

Was it better to use a good set now and secure a spot in the last 10, or stay out on older Dunlops and hope that you had enough in hand to get you through,saving a set of greens for the last run?

For FPR the matter was academic, as both Steve Richards and Mark Winterbottom were suffering mechanical problems that left them sitting in an uncharacteristic 13th and 15th respectively when time ran out.

Both Tasman cars were also squeezed out of the 10, with Greg Murphy and Jason Richards finishing 11th and 12th respectively, although given the shape that Jason's car had been in 24 hours earlier, see breakout, this was a pretty good result.

The picture was a little bleaker for Russell Ingall, the former champion facing an uphill battle in the opening race after qualifying way back in 17th.

So who did make the cut? The fact that all four'Tom'cars were there was no surprise; nor was the inclusion of both Vodafones - despite the fact that Jamie Whincup had endured a couple of spins along the way.

Lee Floldsworth made it into the 10 for the second time in as many races, again underlining the good job he and engineer James Small are doing with what looks like the fastest VZ in the field.

A Flerculean effort from Courtney got his rebuilt SBR Falcon up to sixth, despite the fact that it was clearly less than 100 percent after the smash - which makes you wonder how quick it would have been had it made it through Friday in one piece.

And DJR? Both cars in the

10, on merit, and looking like they had plenty more to come.

Indeed, Will Davison had enjoyed a few minutes at the top of the timesheet early in the final part of qualifying before being forced to bow to the general superiority of HRT andToll.

As far as the fight for pole was concerned,the question was not whether it would be a Tom car, but which one. And even that was answered early when Garth Tander went fastest mid-way through the session, and backed it up with a quicker lap next time around.

With five minutes to go he had more than 0.2s over anyone else in the field and drove back to his pit bay to watch the rest of the session from under the shadecloth.

The session ended without anyone looking remotely like beating his time, and GT was free to start thinking of ways to spend the $5000 pole award. motorsDori news

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V8SUPERCARS

The crash that ended Bright's weekend Friday carnage sidelines Jason Bright and makesfor some very weary eyes in SBR/Tasman garages t-*

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suffered massive damage on the opening day's running.

The longest faces could be found right down the end of pitlane, where Britek spent Friday afternoon stripping Jason Bright's Falcon down to its bare bones and putting it on a truck bound for Melbourne following a gigantic accident involving Jason Richards.

Bright had suffered an engine problem half an hour into the opening session and was attempting to make his way back to the pits when he steered across the track to take a short-cut down a service road.

Unfortunately, he was on a part of the circuit that is has a blind approach due to a crest, which meant that when Richards arrived on the scene at full noise, he suddenly found his windscreen full of a crawling Ford. He hit Bright's rear wheel at something in the order of 130 kmh,ripping holes in both cars.

The front-right damage to Richards'car was bad enough that it seemed that even an all-nighter from the Tasman crew would fall short of having the car ready to go on

Saturday,so it came as a big surprise when the next day dawned to find the crew with little left to do other than finish replacing the stickers. It was a huge effort.

But having taken a hit in the wheel, Bright's entire chassis had been warped into new and exciting shapes and returning to the track was never going to be an option.

The car was sent home,and Bright, having learned something of the harsh realities of team ownership,spent the remainder of the weekend watching from pitlane.

A little later, SBR was forced to start finding the phone numbers of a pizza place that would deliver to the race circuit after James Courtney suffered a brake failure and hit the Turn 7 wall at pretty much unabated speed.

"We're not actually sure what happened,"a slightly tender Courtney said later.

"We're not allowed to put enough sensors onto the brakes to find out..."

Like Richards'car, the extent of the damage made it hard to believe that the Jeld-Wen car-would be seen again during the weekend, but the Stones crew spent the night performing some minor miracles to get their man back out for Saturday.

POS 1 2

Kd privIrT'^',.'a 16 GarthTander

HSV Dealer Team HSV Dealer Team

3 4 5

888 Craig Lowndes iMarkSkiife jV

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TEAM

22 Todd Kelly

Holden Rating Team Holden RadngTeam

SPONSOR CAR QUAL3 Toll VE 56.5113 Toll VE '56.6295 Vodafone BE 56.9424 Holden VE"l6.3936 Holden VE 56.5869

JamesCoutiM^fl-t 18 Vtfili Davison

Stone Brotlie5 Rating DickJohnson Racing

Jeld-Wen Jim Beam

BE 56.8555 56.5563 BE 56.6224 56.5918

Jim Beam Vodafone

BE 56.8253 56.6411 BE 56.9090 56.5469

Valvoline GMCTools GMCTools

1617 ci

DickJohnson Rating Triples Garry Rogers Motorsport TasmanMotorsport Tasman Motorsport ford Performance Racing WPS Rating Ford Performance Rating Rod Nash Rating Stone Brothers Racing

VZ VE VE BE BE BE W BE

19

Perkins Motorsport Paul Morris Motorsport

7

8 ^SteveiiJohn^^I'* 9 88 Jamie Whincup 10 nr LeeHoidswA 11

51 Greg Murphy

13

6 Steven Richards

12 □] Jason Rithart|2 14 Ei Max Wilson 15

*■ 5 MarkWinterbottom Steve Oweii ' 'J A* '9 Russell Ingall ShanePHce''"' 67 Paul Morris

18 rr 20 D

21 021 Paul Radisich

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22 H PauliDumW ^ ;--PWR Rating

56.9936 56.9800 56.9326 57.0532 56.9820 56.8682 56.8959 57.0724

56.6427 56.7067 56.7488 56.7630 56.8494 56.8741 56.8907 56.8962

Jack Daniel's VE 57.0688 Sirromet VE 56.9912 wf BE 56.9943 FordNZ BE 57.1294

56.9461 57.0128 57.2065

Castrol Wow Orrcon Airtobam Caltex

Supercheap VE 34 Dean Canto Garry Rogers Motorsport Valvoline VE 24CF1 Fabian Coultharli ● Paul Morris Motorsport Sirromet VZ 25 11 jack Perkins Jack Daniel’s VE Perkins Motorsport 26 Cameron MtiConvilirI PWR Racing Supercheap VZ 27 111 JohnBowe Paul Cruidrshank Rating Glenfords BE BOCGases BE 28EDjj-" Andrew Jon es ^\ Brad Jones Rating 29 26 AlanGurr Irwin Tools BE Britek Motorsport BOCGases ” BE 30 IJij|i.' BradJones : ■ BradJones Racing 23

0O6OW

Holding out: Lee Hoidsworth proved his Adelaide form was no fluke with another Top 10 showing, top.

Lowndes was on top of things

lyodofone www.mnews.com.au

during Quali, left, as was Courtney and his rebuilt Falcon, above.

DNS 25 Jason Bright”

Britek Motorsport

QUAL2 56.1407 56.5623 56.5003 56.4290 56.4445

Fujitsu

BE

QUAL1 56.0511 56.2729 56.3653 56.3879 56.3927 56.4623 56.4645 56.5458 56.6975 56.8341

57.1867 57.1965 57.3064 57.3077 57.3728 57.4124 57.4610 57.4985 57.7970 No time

5r

Triple Treat on the Western Front Race 1 50laps the one good thing about dull races is that they make you appreciate the thrilling ones.

So next time the V8s produce an absolute cracker, thinking back to Saturday's opening race will remind you not to take excitement for granted.

Creating a spectacle was the furthest thing from Tander's mind, though. Having already set the fastest laps in both practice and qualifying. Garth's sole mission was to do something about the fact that he had never won a race on his home turf.

One perfect start, one perfect pitstop and 50 near-enough-toperfect laps later, he'd done it. "it was one of those races where nothing happened [to the car]," he said."One of those nice, boring racesjthat you love to have."

Rick had an equally serene drive to second, giving HSV its first 1-2 since late 2005. Having already

had its first qualifying 1-2 ever even dating back to the Kmart.

Racing days - the result was as good for statisticians as it was for Rick and Toll/HSV. "I had big plans of getting Garth off the line, leading into turn one and winning the race," Rick remarked."That went pearshaped about one second in."

Capping off a good afternoon for clients of Walksinshaw Performance, Skaife crossed the line in third place. At least he'd had to work for it; the result came after a spirited battled with Lowndes in the early part of the race where the pair passed and repassed each other before Skaife was able to make a move down the inside at turn 6 stick.

"We definitely need to make the car better,"Skaife said."it's not a dog, but it's two-tenths from where we need it to be."

That may have been the case, but on the other side of the garage,Todd Kelly's car was 12 laps from where it needed to be.

tomorrow. It has to be - it's going Kelly had been hovering just outside the podium when his car to be a busy day!"

The final margin between suddenly locked its rear wheels Tander and the first non-Tom car at the first corner on lap 38, - that of Lowndes in fourth - was swapped ends, and spat itself into 7.0s, but this had been artificially the gravei and out of the race.

Several drivers had reported closed up when Todd's dramas brake difficulties throughout the prompted a late-race Safety Car. weekend as some teams battied Up to that point, the gap had been more than double that. to adapt to the new Alcon anchors, Whoever it was that said it might but Todd said that his probiems take some time for Holden to were down to simpie bad luck.

"It was a brake line failure," he get on top of the VE had clearly underestimated the work that has said."I had no warning at all - the been done in Ciayton. pedal went straight to the floor, and then there was fluid all over Most of the significant changes in position happened not on the the console. It wasn't an assembly track, but in the stewards'rooms issue or anything - it has never after the race.Three drivers were happened to us before, and the dealt time penaities in lieu of brake guys have never seen it either." drive-throughs, which had major ramifications in terms of final Even without the problem.Todd said that he'd not been optimistic points.

Steve Richards initiaily finished about his chances of a strong the race in ninth but was forced finish. to bow to the judiciary after being "The car was being really hard deemed to have made ah unsafe on its rears,"he admitted. re-entry into pitlane, sending him "We'll make a damper change, back to 22nd. He would start one and it will definitely be a better car

motorsportnews

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Cheers to this; The Jim Beam iads had a grand oid time in Perth, far left. Skaife put his legal worries behind him for three podium finishes, left. while Bowe had an up-and-down recordbreaking 213th weekend, above. spot ahead of Max Wilson, who was seething at being found guilty of punting John Bowe into the scenery late in the race.

He probably had a point - yes, he hit Bowe in the rear, but JB was a lap down (partially due to earlier contact with Cameron McConville) and not hurrying to let anyone past.

"It cost him almost nothing,"said Max. "But I lost 13 spots and six points. It's ridiculous."

And Russell Ingall also faced a long day on Sunday after being sent back to 24th for passing Jason Richards under yellows.

It capped what had already been a bad race for the former champion, whose strategy of delaying his pitstop looked like it was going to help him make up some ground, only to lose most of it again by stalling exiting pitlane.

That Richards was out there at all was a minor miracle considering how badly the car had been damaged on Friday, and the flurry of penalties elevated him high enough to give Tasman a few points for their troubles.

SBR had also worked miracles to get Courtney back out after his Friday accident. Both car and driver were still feeling the effects of the crash, but things weren't looking too bad until the pitstop, where a lot of time was lost to a cross-threaded nut on the left-rear

wheel.

&

Race 2 50 laps

from Toll's point of view, the second race on Sunday morning went exactly to plan. It was pretty much a carbon copy of Saturday - Garth won off the line, Rick stalked him, the gap was closed down by a late Safety Car, and the pair finished a comfortable 1-2 regardless.

www.ninewsxom.au

Rick seemed to be a slightly better match forTander in terms of outright speed than he had been a day earlier, which may have been a result of changes that the team made to the #1 car overnight - but which also could have been linked to Tender opting to race on older tyres, saving an almost-new batch for the final race later in the day.

Things behind them had been a little more eventful. Lowndes had made a good start and beaten Skaife into the first corner to take third, but frowns started to appear in the vicinity of TeamVodafone shortly afterwards when the #888 Falcon began to squirrel through corners. Skaife reclaimed his position on lap 9, but the fight had taken a lot out of his tyres, meaning that he would pose no threat to Rick in second.

Meanwhile, Lowndes was left to drive with an eye on his mirrors as the Falcon's handling became progressively worse.

A change of tyres failed to fix the problem, and the team was forced to watch helplessly as Lowndes slowly sank through the field, dropping back to ninth by the end of the race. Later inspection of the car revealed a broken front anti-roll blade. In retrospect, it was a decent effort to salvage any points at all.

Actually, the weekend was not being especially kind to the Eights atall. Jamie Whincup had spent the first race quietly ticking around collecting points, but hopes for a similar haul on Sunday went down the sink when an intermittent electrical problem caused his pitlane speed limiter to fail, earning the #88 car a drivethrough penalty. Rubbing salt into wound, the limiter later randomly engaged itself while he was out on the track, "We had the limiter problem, no drink bottle, no cooling, there

All Terrain Vehicle: Steve Owen and the Autobarn crew once again slogged above their weight, despite incidents like this one... were no shift lights for a while ...'

Whincup listed. "It wasn't a great race."

Behind the revitalised Jim Beam duo of Johnson and Davison [see breakout], Mark Winterbottom looked frustrated behind the wheel of a fast FPR BF Falcon that was paying the price for electrical and brake problems earlier in the weekend.

Elsewhere, Greg Murphy was the fastest of the non-Tom VEs back in seventh, five spots ahead of the other Tasman Commodore of Jason Richards in 12th - a frankly amazing effort considering how badly shredded the car had been a day-and-a-half earlier. Both drivers felt that they could have done better though, with Richards in particular suffering from slowish stops and a nudge off the track.

Just one Safety Car interrupted the race, when Steve Owen plunged the Autobarn Commodore into the tyres on lap 44. Owen had been side-byside with Steve Richards when he strayed onto the marbles, dropped a wheel onto the gravel and was sent bouncing full-tilt through the infield. During his trip through the grass his car broke a brake line, leaving him with no way of stopping when he re-

emerged on the other side of the track and found himself heading for the barriers. It was a sad end for a team that continues to punch well above its weight, and had been showing reasonable pace early in the weekend.

Races ^50 laps for the third time in the weekend Tander never looked under serious threat of losing, so the main interest in the race lay in the fight for second.

Rick had slotted in behind his team-mate off the start and looked comfortable, but behind him Skaife had a little bit more work to do after wandering onto the dirt at the first corner and losing a spot to Johnson.

A good exit from turn 6 a couple of laps later allowed Skaife to take his position back but it also compromised his run down the front straight. Johnson got past again, and Skaife was lucky not to have two DJR Falcons to worry about when Davison came very close to following his team mate through.

Skaife repeated his move on continued on page S4 53

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Barbagallo Notepad JAMIE Whincup used twQ Get Out Of Jail Free cards on Saturday night.

TeamVodafone's #88 car was initially found to be the culprit in a pitlane incident on Saturday where he was released early, causing contact with Will Davison. However a conversation between Roland Dane and the stewards resulted in the team's young charger being let go without penalty.

The team also took the opportunity to make a free engine change after worrying that the engine that was in Whincup's car at the start of the weekend was a little down on horses. n FPR had a scare just prior to the first race when crew chief and car controller Chris O'Toole was injured in pitlane. Mark Winterbottom came into his pitbay a fraction hot, hitting O'Toole and throwing the metal pitboard up into his jaw, momentarily knocking him unconscious.

O'Toole was taken to hospital but returned to the track on Sunday to watch proceedings from the comfort of a corporate facility, while team manager Tim Edwards stepped in to fill the breach - pitlane car control being a job that he last did 10 years ago while working for Jordan in FI.

Johnson on the next lap, but this time he carried a tighter line through the final corner and the move stuck.

The FIRT vs DJR battle had allowed Rick to open a gap of a couple of seconds over Skaife, but that ceased to be a problem for the #2 car when a Safety Car was called out following another crash for the seemingly cursed Courtney.

When the race was restarted, the tables had turned a little after a few slow laps had cooled the tyres Rick found himself struggling to regain grip, while taking a breather behind the Chrysler seemed to have Injected a little extra life into Skaife's car. Visibly faster, the HRT car

applied immediate pressure to the Champion,and skipped past to secure second at the end of lap 35.

With Rick out of the way,Skaife set about reeling in the leader.

Over the final laps the gap closed appreciably, but Tander had just enough in reserve to prevent the HRT car from ever mounting a serious challenge.

"The way it worked out was.

Garth's car was a bit better than mine at the top of the hill, and that meant that 1 really couldn't have a good dive down at Kolb," Skaife said.

"I probably had better speed at a couple of other spots, but I was never quite close enough to have a lunge."

FPR finally had a race that was representative of its speed when

Winterbottom managed to finish between the DJR cars in fifth; a result that was helped along by a good pitstop that allowed him to leapfrog Davo, while Steve Richards, who had spent most of the weekend in traffic after qualifying poorly, saved the best for last with a strong run to ninth.

From the sandbowl of Barbagallo,the championship now prepares for a trip across the Tasman and its last visit to Pukekohe. Several teams have tests planned prior to their trip to New Zealand, and if the cars in their workshop are not Walkinshaw VEs, then chances are they have a lot of work to do.

It may be still be early days yet, but the season already seems to be taking on a distinct shade of red ...

On-track and lucky to be there FOR HRT, Barbagallo was the race that might not have been.

The team ownership mess that threatened to have the team's licenses pulled dominated the lead-up to the event, and while it didn't seem to have an adverse affect on Mark Skaife, he was quick to admit that he was glad to have the controversy behind him.

"I certainly didn't talk to anybody about it, but there definitely times where I didn't know whether we were going to be here," he said.

"That's a bitter pill to swallow when you think about the history of the Holden Racing Team, and the guys that are in it, and their families, and their mortgages,and the supporter base. It has been a pretty stressful period.

"It has been quite a tumultuous couple of months,and it's good to have everything settled down.It's good to be thinking about shocks and springs and stuff on race cars, which is what we enjoy,and as a team,it's what we need to knuckle down and get on with for the rest ofthe year."

n Fines for speeding in pitlane are commonplace;fines for speeding in the paddock rather less so. The rare distinction went to Paul Dumbrell, who was forced out of thethird race with engine problems and was trying to drive back to the garage - a task that requires a trip away from pitlane and through the paddock. We're not sure where the paddock speed guns are, but nevertheless they clocked PD going above the limit and he was slapped with a $3000 fine as a result. n And you thought the age of innovation in V8 Supercars was dead.

Tasman Motorsport created a small footnote in the V8 history books in Perth when they wheeled out two cars fitted with ... horns. The honk buttons were fitted to ease the frustrating job of getting the cars through the ocean of punters between the garages and pitlane, although we presume it could also have come in handy if Murph or Jason had been trapped behind lapped cars.

M If Paul Radisich was feeling any serious ill-effects from his Bathurst accident last year, it didn't appear to have a huge impact on his speed. The Rat managed to |)ick up a fev; points in his comeback race, with his best result for the weekend being a solid Hth in Race 2.

54

Ti’

Stone cold out ofluck PERTH could not have been less kind to SBR this year.

By far the worst luck was reserved for James Courtney, who managed to finish just two sessions - qualifying and the opening race during the entire weekend.

Hopes of a good result In Race 1 were gone thanks to a long pitstop after a problem with the left-rear.

Fate was not done with Courtney yet - engine problems forced him out of the second race, and his

misery was completed with another heavy crash in the final outing.

Courtney's sorry weekend left the team's hopes with Russell Ingall, who had pretty good car speed, but did not have the track position to use it after a disastrous qualifying was followed by a post-race penalty in the opening race for passing Jason Richards under yellows.

He managed to pick up some points by battling through to 10th in the last race. motorsport news

V8SUPERCARS m

So long and thanksfor all the parts ONE of the main talking points at the Australian Grand Prix was the habit of customer teams buying bits from a manufacturer and then beating them around the head with it.

Like Super Aguri did to Honda,for example. Or Toyota selling engines to Williams, and then watching Frank's cars drive off into the distance.

The situation in Perth was not quite the same, but it was hard not to draw parallels. Last year, DJR looked much as it had for the previous five - sort of there, sort of not, and with no real signs that anything was moving forward.

Then they struck up a technical alliance with Triple Eight over the off-season, gave the cars a serious birthday - and rocked up in Perth as the strongest Ford team by a mile. You could just about hear Roland Dane's teeth grinding from the other side of the paddock.

True, DJR had a weekend relatively free of the mechanical glitches that blighted some of its Ford counterparts, but it also had two drivers who performed near-flawlessly right through the three days.There's still work to do yet, but spirits around the Jim Beam-filled water cooler were still high.

"We've made a fair gain,"said Steve Johnson."We knew we could do it; now it's just a matter of keeping going. We know where we are now, and what we have to do to get further up the field. We're not on terms with the red cars yet - but this weekend, we were not too far off."

"It's really encouraging for the team that both cars had three strong races," agreed Will Davison.

"It's confirmation of the potential that we showed in Adelaide.

"The cars are quick, and if we keep working hard, they are only going to get stronger."

WINNERS A WALKINSHAW PERFORMANCE: Top three on the weekend,top four in the Championship and a break in the ownership issue.

Things are coming up Tom! DJR: Jim Beam Racing is winning the bourbon war, and may well win races before the year's out too.

SBR/TASMAN CREWS: All Night Long was more than a song title for these guys. But no sleep equals fixed cars. Nice work lads.

LEE HOLDSWORTH: GRM youngster sticks it in the Top 10 again in quali, and then runs around with the big guns never looking uncomfortable.

And all of that in a VZ Commodore.Well played, Lee.

>

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VAM

RESUlil5V8S RACE 1 (50 LAPS) POS DRIVER

TIME

1

niAP

51:31.2237 *57.4237 46 51:31.5223 57.5390 6 2 R. Kelly 3 SkaifCJ 51:34.9894 57;4308 5 4 Lowndes 51:38.2507 57.9364 27 5 Jbhnsdhl I 51:38.8770 58.0473 46 6 Davison 51:39.3563 57.8754 50 7 !

51:41.4421 58.0768 7 8 Murphy 51:43.0532 58.0593 7 9 HoiMffl[ijl 51:4S.1363~58.1222 33 10 Winterbottom 51:48.0137 58.2212 29 11 CourW^ 51:48.4216 57.9065 2 51:49.0689 58.3025 7 12 Owen 51:49.5575 583353 21 13 14 J. Richards 51:50.4398 58.2964 29 51:50.7826 58.5539 29 15 Morm.j 16 Radisich 51:51.3843 58.1815 7 17 CoulMa _ 51:52.8639 ‘583676 6 18 Dumbrell " 51:55.0536 58.1944 3 19 McCoiP iS 51:55.3243 5^3405 3 51:56.7288 58.6155 10 20 B. Jones 52:00.1861 58.7216 5 21 fejiifeJ 22 5. Richards 52:07.4281 58.0881 30 23 wiisoa ^ 52:10.7585 58.2076 6 ' 52:13.7838 58.3110 6 24 Ingall 25 Barqwai1® 49 laps 58.5705 9 26 A.Jones 49 laps 58.3458 5 27 iCaplaJp 49 laps'” 58.7081 5 28 Gurr 45 laps 58.8424 4 DNF Bbwg.

45 laps 58.0913 5 DNF T. Kelly 37 laps 57.6501 2

Mm

ChaiiEliorrshjT Points:

RESUL1jgVSS RACE 3 (50 LAPS)

RESUIHiiWSRACE2(50LAPS) ON

POS DRIVER

TIME

F/LAP

ON

1 irnCTf 52:22.0384 *577996 6 52:23.1044 57.8737 8 2 R. Kelly 52:23.4678 57.9008 5 3 Skaife:,W 52:26.5073 57.8262 6 4 Johnson 52:27.2583 57.9169 22 5 DaviWijl 6 Winterbottom 52:28.1307 57.9815 5 52:28.3393 58.0903 5 7 Murjffif 52:29.2160 57.8798 2 8 Lowndes 9 Hoidijvv^(to 52:29.4284 583305 7 52:29.6015 58.2315 29 10 T. Kelly 52:30.4181 58.2751 28 11 RadM 12 J. Richards 52:30.8446 58.3387 20 13 Sjiiaiii|_ 52:31.1274 58.0823 32 52:31.5856 58.3883 29 14 Ingall

15 rannuhTi

52:32.2777 58.4420 24

52:32.8915 58.5922 6 16 Price 17 DumBjglL 52:33.2077 584703 25 ‘ 52:33.4656 58.5246 26 18 Wilson 52:33.8093 58.4044 22 19 Mornsj '' 52:33.9409 58.4685 37 20 Bowe f 52:34.5849 58.6892 5 21 22 Bargwanna 52:34.7000 58.8995 29 52:35.0500 58.2983 26 23 Whihji 24 McConville 52:35.3063 58.6595 6 25 Canto, Jf 49 laps' 58.7247 29 26 Perkins 49 laps 58.8730 31 27 jyaniia 49 laps 58.’6491 26 28 A.Jones 49 laps 59.0369 12 DNF Owen

42 laps 58.3341 25 42 laps 58.5113 6

POS DRIVER

TIME

F/LAP

OH

52:25.6340 57.6063 42 iTanrilE Skaife 52:26.2528 *57.3010 39 52:35.9644 5^0234 8 Johnson 52:36.1482 58.1902 27 vwote®jaui 52:39.0992 58.2379 22 52:39.3833 58.1550 40 6 Davison 7 52:39.5552 ^0913 9 8 Lowndes 52:39.7683 58.0442 42 9 s.:Rjalj2^.,,52:^.0982 57.*8911 27 52:42.3041 58.0623 47 10 Ingall 11 HBSSfll 52:46.3963 18.5613 45 52:47.0856 58.4684 10 12 Murphy 13 Wllsgfii 52:48.9019 583731 22 14 Bowe 52:49.2294 58.4607 27 15 MoitfeJI*' 52:50.0667 58.5230 25 16 McConville 52:51.1122 58.7518 27 17 52:51.7419 58.6712 41 18 Whincui 52:52.0962 58.4262 20 19 52:52.7636 58.6156 28 20 Price 52:53.1474 58.6043 20 21 liiffife.. 52:54.1605' 5^5942 25 22 Radisich 52:55.9224 58.7119 43 23 lifflMiTi 52:56.3503 58.4653 38 52:57.0542 58.5105 28 24 Owen 25 Ignaiy' 52:57.5632 58.8160 28 26 B. Jones 52:58.2641 58.7150 42 27 LGurn..

53:07.1590 '59.1213 10 28 Canto 49 laps 58.2976 37 DNF Epflfait 28 laps ^8.5488 26 DNF Dumbrell 7 laps 59.0461 7 1 2 3 4 5

Points: R Kelly 115, Tander 102, T Kelly 85, Skaife 75, Johnson 74, Courtney 61, Whincup 56, Winterbottom 53, Davison/Lowndes 50, Ingall 48, Murphy 42, S Richards 37, Holdsworth 32, Bright 17, J Richards 14, Canto 8, Radisich 6, Owen 5, Wilson/Morris/Price 4, McConville/Bargwanna/Bowe 3, Coulthard 2. ______

wimnf.mnews.com.au

SHANE PRICE: After a crunching start to his main game career on the streets of Adelaide,Shane responded with his first points in Perth.

LOSERS SCAR: These g uys j ust aren't quite there with car speed.

Dumbrell's VE had engine trouble all weekend, and McConville's ancient VZ has well and truly lost its edge.

TRACK SURFACE: That crazy West Australian bitumen and it's one-track mind played havoc once again.

Can we have another re surface, please?

VE COMMODORE: Unless your new toy came from Clayton, it doesn't seem to have all that much speed. Not that Mr Holdsworth is complaining.

TEAMVODAFONE: Things looked OK after CL was third fastest in quali, but it all went downhill from there.

Staring at the back of Jim Beam cars must have been tough for the lads in red and chrome.

55

FUJITSU V8 SUPERCAR SERIES round 2- wakefield park

Marshall Cass

Weekend offirsts

In two days,Tony D'Alberto did what he's been trying to do for four years- he grabbed pole, won a ANDREW VAN LEEUWEN race,took a round victory and snatched the championship lead

I

F doing something special for the first time is an unforgettable experience, then three people will always remember Wakefield Park 2007.

Chris Alajajian and Jonathon Webb are on the list, both drivers defying the pre-event form guide to take their maiden V8 Supercar race wins.

And then there's Tony D'Alberto, who not only took his first Fujitsu Series pole position, but backed it up with his first victory in Race 3 and his first round win.

Combine that with the fact that it was Holden's first Fujitsu Series round win since the same meeting in 2004 and you have a weekend of firsts.

D'Alberto's maiden round win is timely, to say the least. For starters, the Victorian has been on 56

the fringe of winning for a long time, and with enduro seats up for grabs, this was a good time to do it. Fie was also coming off the back of a solid second place at the Clipsal 500, which means he now leads the series.

"It's been a long time coming, and its really great to finally put one under my belt,"said a clearly relieved D'Alberto.

"To be honest, after the second race I wasn't happy with the car and I didn't think we were going to be able to challenge for the win today. I thought we were going to have to go into damage control and just get some points, but it turned out good."

Marcus Marshall used consistency rather than raw pace to make his way to second for the round. Driving Matthew White's

BA Falcon, Marshall finished fourth in Race 1, third in Race 2 and second in Race 3,finding himself on the podium for the first time since his stint as A1 Team Australia's lead driver.

Another main-gamer stepping back was Jose Fernandez, and he was well and truly on the pace. Fie started the weekend strongly with the fastest time in PI, then cruised inside the top five all weekend to finish third for the round.

Race 1 L17laps

w

ITH qualifying the tight and frantic affair that it was, there was a genuine feeling that the first race was going to be close.

Really close.

But by the fourth lap, with Alajajian already a second down the road from D'Alberto, it became pretty obvious who was going to win.

As it turned out, there was no runaway winner. Alajajian,famous for his 10-tenths style, drove a perfectly controlled race to take his maiden V8 Supercar race win.

"I'm not getting too excited yet," he said."There's plenty more to accomplish this weekend.

"But it is a relief,just to prove to myself I can do it."

D'Alberto was second, and never gave any indication of troubling Alajajian. Not that he had to, with his closest championship rival Michael Caruso starting from 20th after a pit lane infringement in qualifying and lacking car speed on his way

moiorsport news

Tony's D-Day HE may have taken 10 years off his life doing so, but at Wakefield Park last weekend Tony D'Alberto broke through to record his first V8 Supercar pole position.

And there wasn't just one reason why D'Alberto's road to the front row was so stressful.

For starters, he went into the qualifying session with only half as much track time, with an engine problem restricting his Commodore to the pit garage during the second practice session.

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Wakefield's first-ups: D'Alberto, main left, won the round. Top, White gotloose at turn one. Above, Marshall

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impressed in Matthew White's Ford. Left, Hobson was quick.

Beiow, McGiil ran wide.

But despite having only completed a handful of practice laps, the car had plenty of speed,a point illustrated when D'Alberto logged a lap within the 61 s bracket on his first flyer. He jumped to provisional pole, albeit briefly, before a 1 m00.4470s lap with three minutes of the session remaining rocketed him to the top.

With less than a minute to go D'Alberto rolled into pit lane to watch the dying seconds on a timing screen. His only genuine threat, or so he thought, was Andrew Thompson, who was 0.1s wide of the markon his last attempt. Phew.

One driver who did beat the chequered flag to have one last crack at D'Alberto's time was Chris Alajajian. And what a crack he had,falling just 0.04s short of the bench-mark time - and giving Tony a good scare.

"It wasn't too stressful," admitted D'Alberto afterwards.

"We were under no real pressure to be on pole, but it does give me a little more confidence heading into tomorrow. Hopefully it will unlock a few things for us."

Jose Fernandez and Brett Hobson raising a few eyebrows by rounding out the top five.

-ANDREWVAN LEEUWEN

Fujitsu V8 Supercars Wakefield Park l , ye m

to 15th. For D'Alberto,the race became a game of collecting points with minimal risk.

Also easing the pressure on D'Alberto was the misfortune of Andrew Thompson, who had dived under the GMAC Racing driver at the start, but soon found himself on the sidelines with an oil leak.

Fernandez continued his strong return to the Fujitsu Series with third, ahead of a close battle between Marcus Marshall, Kayne Scott, Brett Hobson and Jay Verdnik.

Sam Walter was another impressive performer,finishing ninth ahead of Mark McNally.

17laps

crack at leading the race, making the most of the reverse Top 10 grid positions to jump past McNally at the start. He lasted barely a lap before he ran wide and handed the lead to Hobson.

Hobson looked as if he would control the race, slowly building on his lead over Webb. But it was

thinking nobody actually wanted to win Race 2 at Wakefield Park, but in the end Webb stood up to taste success for Stone Brothers Racing.

Walter was the first to have a iAnAnw.mnews.com.au

1:00.4470

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retrieve the stranded car of Barry Tanton.

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"I saw Brett go in deep and I followed him,"said Webb afterwards.

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found himself in second by the finish, with Marcus Marshall third.

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continued page 58 57

FUJITSU V8s

continued from page 57

of Jose Fernandez and the Greg Murphy Racing duo of Walter and Dale Wood.

Michael Caruso seemed to be getting a bit more speed out of his Ford Rising Stars entry, moving up to eighth. Damien White and Kayne Scott rounded out theTop 10.

As for Race 1 winner Chris Alajajian, any chance of him making it two from two went out the window on just the third lap when he and McNally tangled.

Race3 ^30 laps

IT may have long timecan coming, butbeen TonyaDAIberto finally claim to have won a V8 Supercar race.

The only downside for D'Alberto was that his maiden race win was completed under the Safety Car, although given that the result also guaranteecfhim the round win (not to mention the championship lead), he'd be forgiven for not really caring.

And anyway. Safety Car or no Safety Car, D'Alberto was going to win that final race. Having jumped Webb at the start, D'Alberto was on the charge. He wasted no time building a gap, and by mid-way through the 30-lap feature had a healthy buffer over Marshall.

Had it not been for Luke Youlden and Wood having a crunching crash at Wakefield Park's final corner, D'Alberto would have won at a canter.

Instead, he won under yellow flags.

Marshall cruised to second place ahead of Fernandez, with Verdnik holding out a recovering Thompson.

Caruso was too, and recovered in style to finish sixth.

Impressive new-comer Walter was seventh, with Damien White, Webb and McNally rounding out theTop 10,

Wahen Surprise packet NO offence to Sam Walter, but heading into this year's Fujitsu Series,few regarded him an actual threat to the front of the field.

Sure the ex-Tasman Commodores are good cars, and the Greg Murphy Racing squad is rather adept at using spanners, but Walter was coming straight in from the now-defunct Lotus Trophy, hardly a proven development category.

Well cop this. At Just his second V8 Supercar meeting Walter finished inside theTop 10 in all three races,even led the second race, and finished the weekend fifth for the round. And the whole time he looked totally comfortable doing it.

Si.

"I do know this track well, so we need to take that into account," he said.

"But I'm starting to feel more at one with the car now. I can really muscle it, whereas I was a little timid before.

"I'm getting there, but still, I

don't expect to be where I am all the time. I've had a good round but I'm not going to get a big head for any future rounds."

Despite what he says, watch for this rookie to be up the front again before the season's out.

- ANDREW VAN LEEUWEN

RESULTS FV8S RACE!(17 LAPS)

RESUL-^S5 FV8S RACE 2(17 LAPS)

RESULig FVSS RACE 3(30 LAPS)

P05 DRIVER

POS DRIVER

POS DRIVER

TIME

1 2 3 4 5 6

F/LAP 'I

ON

AlajajiiiS 17:40.5786 1:01.7033 5 D'Alberto ’l7:41.1760 1:01.6724 12 Fernandez' 17:45.9666 1:01.7485 11 Marshall 17:46.5442 1:01.9425 9 Scott 3 17:49.7831 1:01.8340 9 Hobson 17:50.1997 1:01.8363 9 7 Verdnj! ^ 17:50.5655 1:01.9666 15 8 Webb 17:50.8213 1:01.7151 7 9 Walter.^!^'J7;51.4160 1:01.8910 7 10 McNally 17:53.8098 1:02.1648 9 11 Zukanovic .17:55.4492 1:01.8202 6 12 Slade 17:56.0723 1:02.0311 7 13 Sharp,^ 17:57.0634 1:02.0271 14 14 Wood 18:01.2143 1:02.2409 17 15 Caruso J 18:01.6592 1:02.1852 6 16 Sieders 18:03.3618 1:02.3325 16 17 Denyej.^r 18:03.9792 1:02.5056 17 18 White 18:10.6063 1:01.5399 6* 19 Loadsmanj 18:12.8608 1:02(9450 10 20 Youlden 18:13.2674 1:02.7839 6 21 Wyhooj^ 18:13.4377 1:02.6485 10 22 Howard”" 18:14.3515 1:02.7978 10 23 Sieders^18:14.9567 1:02.3284 11 24 Drewer 18:15.8217 1:02.7015 7 25 Russell Jrf 18:20.8659 1:02.8283 10 26 O'Brien 18:20.9836 1:01.8493 10 27 Beikoff ,18:26.4786 1:03.1918 10 28 Assaillit 18:28.6071 1:02.8332 16 29 Douglas ;18:29.8939 1:03.0760 4 30 Tanton 18:38.7394 1:03.9931 5 31 Deane 18:39.1936 1:03.6500 8 32 Neville 15 laps 1:02.7358 10 DN McGill im 'Slaps 1:03.7574 2 ONf Thompson 7 laps 1:01.7733 5 McFadyen' >P:2 laps 1:03,7957 2

TIME

1 2 3 4 5 6

IE

F/LAP

Webb^ 20:47.4087 1:02.1224 7 D'Alberto 20:48.5600 1:02.4122 10 Marshall^ 20:48.9664 1:02.3121 10 Zukanovic 20:49.2198 1:02.4393 8 indez 20:50.0335 T02.3212 17 Walter 20:51.7767 1:02.4024 8 7 Wood ^_20:52.1148 1:02(3455 8 8 Caruso 20:53.1981 1:02.7503 9 9 White 20:53.4175 1:02.5284 16 10 Scott 20:54.5763 1:02.8425 8 11 iHo'gon 20:55.8983 1:02.1297 10 12 Wyhoon 20:56.5216 1:02.3066 5 13 Thonfpj^1 20:56.5932 1:02.2453 7 14 Slade 20:57.0955 1:02.4233 8 15 McNalli 20:58.0420 1:02('5734 9 16 O'Brien 20:58.0751 1:02.6137 8 17 McFad!if 20:58.6206 1:02.6364 9 18 Sieders 20:58.9874 1:02.9879 17 19 SiedefitC-. 20:59 4746 ”1:02.2956 9 20 Drewer 21:00.5110 1:03.3774 17 21 Loadsmimi 21:01.4366 1:03.1512 10 22 Youlden 2T02.8964 1:03.7865 16 23 McGill .:j 21;03.4184 1:03.4115 16 24 Assaillit 21:04.1697 1:03.6082 9 25 Denyer.]4 21:04.4501 1:02.6251 9 26 Douglas 21:05.0713 1:03.3732 9 27 Sharpe 21:35.3697 1:02.4547 17 28 Deane 16 laps 1:04.8571 3 29 Tanton l(J(l4laps 1:04.6214 13 DNF Beikoff 7 laps 1:05.0084 6 DNI Verdniir^i" 5 laps 1:02.6595 5 DNF Howard _ 4 laps 1:05.0855 4 DN Neville (C:»i __4laps 1:04.3537 4 DNF Alajajian 3 laps 1:04.1234 2 RuMI ( 0 laps

r

1 2 3 4 5 6

TIME

F/LAP

ON

7

D'Albelta .37:12.4254 1:01.3094 8 Marshall 37:13,9579 1:01.5704 6 Fernanda]37:17.6604 1:01.8874 5 Verdnik 37:17.8776 1:01.4636 7 ThoibpISj 37l18.9893 1:01.7352 5 Caruso 37:19.9791 1:01.4440 5 Walter j.-, 37:20.5768 1:01.6619 12

8 9

Webb (]u 37:21.6900 1:01.7788 5

White

37:21.2037 1:01.5741

10 McNally 37:21.7925 11 Siedef^ 37:23.4981 12 Scott 37:23.7104 ITWitRfTiTflTl 37:24.5634

7

1:02.1119 4 1:01.7778 5 1:02.1042 8 1:02.4453 5

14 O'Brien 37:24.7243 1:02.3391 5 15 Sharpii 37:28.3774 1:02.2608 6 16 Denyer 37:29.2633 1:02.1854 9 17 Wyhooi^' 37:32.1071 ~l(02.7793 7 18 Russell 37:38.6879 1:02.4607 11 19 ZukaM k 37:39.0779 1:01.9376 6 20 Howard

37:40.5839 1:02.9469 11

21 Siede:^ 22 Tanton 23 McGill jL

29laps 1:02.6653 10 29 laps 1:04.5796 9 28 laps 1:02.7039 7 24 Hobson 27 laps 1:01.7605 13 25 26 laps 1:04.0449 10 DNF Douglas 28 laps 1:03.2424 12 DN AlajaripiCLJ3laps 1:01.7021 4 DNF Youlden 23 laps 1:02.2095 9 DN| Wood > 22 laps 1:02.0396 10 DNF Drewer 21 laps 1:02.8106 17 DNI Slade 'r;17 laps 1:01.7301 8 DNF Beikoff 17 laps 1:03.3077 12 DN LoadsmiPrj3laps 1:03.3131 7 DNF Assaillit 13 laps 1:04.9736 5

Champion^'ft- Points: D'Alberto 124, Caruso 97, Webb 88,Fernandez 70,White 65, Marshall 52,Scott 45, Verdnik 41,Thompson 40, Walter 38,Wood 37, Slade 37, Flobson 33, McNally 28, Alajajian 24,Zukanovic 21,Sharpe 19,Wallis 18, Loadman 16, McFadyen 13, Pyne9, Howard 8, D Sieders6, Wyhoon 6, O'Brien 5, Elliot 5, Assaillit 5, C Sieders 3.

niotorsportnews

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When the heat is on, Fujitsu air conditioners have the power to perform.

That’s why they’re...A U S T R A L I A’S FAVOURITE AIR

FUJITSU C/R SI. T'JTRtUAR.-fl

R

ALLY Portugal seemed to be going so well.

Six years after the event was last a round of the World Championship,the 2007 edition was a classic match between World Champion Sebastien Loeb and points leader Marcus GfonhoIm.The Ford man held the edge until the final stage, when the Frenchman howled past to take a narrow 3.1s margin.

What a rally, right?

Urn, nope, not quite.That was just Friday. Yes, Gronholm had been fast to a point but Loeb was, well, Loeb.

On Saturday, there were six stages run through changeable conditions after overnight rain.

Loeb picked a soft Goodrich tyre; Gronholm selected a harder, medium compound,worried about the effects that 70km of stages would have on his grip.

In the afternoon, it all turned around. Gronholm had slipped around in the opening three stages and went soft on tyre choice; Loeb pumped for the soft option. Once again, it was the Citroen driver who got it right.

By the time the noise stopped on Saturday, Loeb has scorched the earth, won all six stages, was 40 seconds clear of the chasing Focus and had solved the Middle East political crisis. Okay, we are lying about the last part - but it was Game Over.

"My car was working perfectly," Loeb affirmed at the day's end."We were successful in our tyre choices today, and had no

r

problems at all."

Gronholm was stoic after the event but there was bad news looming. All the Fords were handed a five-minute time penalty post-event after scrutineers discovered that the cars had been fitted with nonhomologated side rear windows.

As a result, Gronholm and

3

60

Total Control: After a spirited opening day battle Sebastien Loeb put things away on Saturday when he won all six stages on Day 2. Then, he got an April Fools'gift in scrutineering...

molorsportnews

J

WORLD RALLY %

French,Windows Sebastien Loeb won in Portugal after an early threatfrom Marcus Gronholm and a most unusual technical SNAFU by Ford l ll team-mate Mikko Hirvonen, and the semi-works entries of JariMatta Latvala, Henning Solberg, Matthew Wilson and Gareth MacHale were penalised and their teams reprimanded.

If the Loeb v Gronholm battle is getting, at the least, a little predictable (ie, Gronholm wins in the snow, Loeb wins every other event) so too was what followed.

Hirvonen looked to be adding another podium to his growing resume before the penalty while Fetter Solberg played chasey and continued the development of the 2007-spec Subaru.

In the end, Solberg took a fortuitous second place ahead of Dani Sordo and the pinged Fords of Gronholm and Hirvonen.

For Chris Atkinson, it was another case of what may have been.The Aussie was running in the top eight until SSI 0 on Saturday. He was only 700 metres into the stage when he missed a pacenote call from Glenn Macneall and speared off the road in sixth gear.

"We started the stage pretty well,"said the Queenslander,"but in hindsight I was thinking too much about the feeling, and not concentrating on the road. I missed a corner note, got on the wrong line and just went straight off: The final points for the event went to the consistent Daniel Carlsson and Gigi Galli in the two ex-Kronos Citroen Xsaras, while Latvala's eighth place made it five Citroens and four Fords in the top 10 places.

There is now a month until the next round of the championship in Argentina, plenty of time for Ford to install some double glazing in its cars. But, perhaps, not enough to make the Focus a match for that French fella in the flying C4. www.mnews.com.au

RE$Uj|!©RALLY PORTUGAL 1

SebaftlS!1_F

Citroen C4 Daniel Elena Mon 3:53:33.1 2 PetterSolJ Nor Subaru Impreza GB Phil Mills 3:56:47.0 3 Danjeli^ Citroen C4 E Marc Marti 3:58:38.4 4 MarcusSm Ford Focus RS Mon Daniel Elena 3:59:10.2 5 MlkkuHllaimt Fin Ford Focus RS Jarmo Lehtinen Fin 4:00:41.2 6 Daniel'Caifem S Citroen X^ra WRC S Denis Giraudet 4:01:46.3 7 JariMaMMl _Fin Ford Focus MiikkaAnttila Fin 4:04:18.0 W Ita Citroen Xsara WRC Giovanni Bernacchini Ita 4:03:12.7

ilZJ

Drivers'Points: Loeb 38,Gronholm 37,Hirvonen 30, SonlolO,PSolberg 16,H Solberg 11,Atkinson 10, Carlsson 9,latvala 7,Gardemeister,Galli and Stohl 5, 7,Wilson 1.

Manufacturers'Points: BP-Ford 67,Citroen 59,Subara 27,Stobart-Ford 21,OMV Citroen 20.

I m dirty, butsecond: Fetter Solberg, above. inherited second place.

DaniSordojumped into third, right, while Mikko Hirvonen enjoyed the view in the Stadium until there was a problem with all the Fords'windows ...

AUSTRALIAN RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP round 7 - rally Queensland

Defending with style

If Simon Evans wasfeeling any pressure about being the reigning Champion at the Australian Rally RYAN LAHiFF Championship's opener in Queensland last weekend, he didn't let it show

H

E proved to be the form driver throughout the 2006 Championship season,and at last weekend's Coates Rally Queensland Toyota's Simon Evans highlighted his dominance the only way he knows how - by winning each and every stage.

The 2007 NEC Australian Rally Championship opened its account on the Sunshine Coast, the first time the Queensland based event has hosted the curtain-raiser, and in gloriously warm autumn weather the leading contenders all set about proving their credentials for the season ahead.

Evans was always expected to be the form driver after dominating the title last year. For 2007 Evans is once again running his tried and trusted Group N 62

(P)-specToyota Corolla, unlike his team-mate Neal Bates, who debuted the all-new Super 2000 machine.

With hot form and a proven piece of machinery on his side, Evans was on it from the very first stage. He immediately leapt to a 10.5s lead over his nearest rival, in this case his younger brother Eli Evans in a privately-run Subaru Impreza WRX. It was to prove that way for the entire first morning, with Evans edging further and further ahead while little brother held station in second, proving that a year spent competing alongside Cody Crocker in the Asia-Pacific Rally Championship had taught him speed and consistency.

The first stage spelt disaster for the Pirtek Ford team, who debuted a pair of Super 2000

Fiestas in the hands of Michael Guest and Darren Windus. With Guest setting a fair pace (fifth after the third stage), Windus was instantly sidelined when the transmission in his Fiesta blew on the start line to stage one.

"The transfer case to the fourwheel drive has actually snapped the case off where it meets the gearbox,''Windus explained over the team radio.

On closer inspection the team found that a huge piece of the gearbox casing had broken clean off exposing the inner workings.

Luckily for the team the French manufacturer of the transmission, Sadev, had representatives on sight to assist any questions; however the debate quickly turned hostile with each side blaming the other.

"I've just had the Sadev guys try

to tell me that it must have been my fault it broke,that I had the handbrake on when I launched off the line,"said a clearly disgusted Windus.

Onboard telemetry collected by the Ford team quickly cleared Windus of any wrongdoing, but for the remainder of the rally both Fiesta drivers had to tread cautiously.

By the midday service halt Evans had opened a lead of 50.3s over his younger brother, with Dean Herridge setting into a strong third place after the demise of Bates'Corolla to a problem with the fuel injector rail.

Despite the rough, dry conditions on the stages it was nothing but smooth sailing for Evans, who powered ahead to claim the day.

"It's been a perfect day, I couldn't

motorsport news

J

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f,

S2K: Neal Bates proved the potential of the Super 2000 cars with second in Heat2, below left, while Windus never really got a chance to go quick in the Fiesta, above left.

Young gun Reeves certainly did, above, while the Evans brothers celebrated with some Champagne, below.

RESUL1J§ RALLY QUEEN^AND IMTURDAYHEATI

1

Simon Evans Toyota Corolla 2 OeanHei Subaru Impreza 3 Eli Evans^ Subaru Impreza 4 Brendan Reeves] Subaru Impreza 5 Steven Shi Mitsubishi Lancer 6 IGlen BrinkffiiS Mitsubishi Lancer

~w~.

Sue Evans 1:03:56.8s Bill Hayes 1:05:31.8s Chris Murphy 1:05:57.7s Rhianon Smyth 1^08:31.1s Tom Smith 1:08.56.1s Steven Richardson T^9:38.2s

A. SUNDAY HEAT 2 1 Evans 2 Bates 1 3 Evans 4 Reeves.

5 Windus 6 Goasdow

Evans 1:04.09.9s Taylor 1:05.21.4s Murphy 1:0fiifi.5s Smyth 1:07.51.9s Mortimer 1:07.';9.7s Crevola 1:09.i3.0s Drivers'Points:S.Evans 81, E.Evans 60, Reeves 52, Bates 44,Brenton Kaitler 38, Herridge 34.

a

have asked for better!"exclaimed Evans at the final service.

"We drove to a plan today and it all fell into place exactly as I imagined, I'm really happy with how things have gone."

What looked to be a certain onetwo for the Evans brothers hit a late snag when Eli spun on the final stage of the day.

The error allowed Herridge to sneak past into second, a welcome result for the West Australian who struggled throughout the day with an ECU problem dropping his Subaru's engine power to 90 percent of capacity.

"We stuck at it all day because we knew that if anyone ahead had problems we'd be there to pounce. In the end both Eli and we Neal (Bates) hit problems and managed to sneak ahead to get what is a really good result," said Herridge.

Eli held on for third ahead of 18year-old Victorian Brendan Reeves, www.mnews.com.au

an amazing performance from a driver who had Just stepped into a brand new Les Waikden-prepared Subaru days before the event.

A

sprint around the Nambour Showgrounds on Saturday night marked the start of Heat 2, with Simon Evans again the quickest by 0.9s as crews readied for Sunday's action in the Imbil forests.

Predictably it was Evans from the word go, cruising almost effortlessly to stage wins as he opened a half-minute gap over Bates.

The potential of the S2000 cars had been evident from the outset, but Bates stepped up a gear on Sunday, setting stage times within a couple of seconds of the hardcharging Evans.

"Very happy with the times this morning, we're showing the potential of the car,"commented Bates.

Full of confidence from hisFleat One result, Eli Evans pounced early on Sunday. But he only managed to dent his confidence when he leapt through a culvert, launching his car off the road and brushing it through a stand of trees.

"It's pretty hard to turn when all four wheels are off the ground," he admitted.

Guest was in trouble too after the power steering on his Fiesta drained its fluid, seizing a pulley and snapping an engine belt.

Despite the best efforts of co driver Mark Stacey to jerry-rig a new pulley from his shoelaces, the car was going no further.

Fiappy to control the pace from the front Simon Evans set off into the final stages aiming to clean sweep the weekend. He got a scare on SSI 5 when he took one step too far, overshooting a braking point and veering off into the trees.

"I got airborne over a crest and totally overshot the braking zone, by the time the car landed I'd run out of road, and ran on into a couple of trees,"explained Evans.

The resulting time loss didn't tarnish his record though, as he managed to still claim the stage victory.

There were concerns of a different nature for Herridge, the Subaru privateer noticing a menacing rattle from his engine when he pulled into service.

Despite the best efforts of the team to rectify the issue, the car last only 1.5km before the engine expired.

Without a distinct challenge all weekend Evans easily cruised to victory, while Bates took second in the Heat to prove the worth of the Super 2000 formula.

And as if there wasn't enough Evans on the podium with Simon and Sue on the top step, Eli chimed in with third place.

63

Just whatthe Doctor ordered Team GiR takesfirst A1GP win in Mexico TEAM Great Britian is finally on the A1GP winner's list after Oliver Jarvis took the feature race victory at Mexico City a fortnight ago.

But it wasn't all smooth sailing for Team GBR. Having lead away from second on the grid, Jarvis immediately pulled a gap over the secondplaced American entry. He was first to pit, the team servicing the car without problems and maintaining the lead.

With just a handful of laps to go,Jarvis reported his car to have a weird vibration, possibly a puncture.The distraction allowed Team USA's Jonathon Summerton to eat into Jarvis'4s advantage,cutting it down to less than a second.

But Jarvis held on to take the win from USA, with South Africa's Adrian Zaugg claiming the final podium spot.

"I want to say a big thank you to the team they worked so hard and I am delighted to be up here,"said Jarvis.

"In the race itself I got a cracking start and managed to control the pace early on. We scheduled an early pit stop to get the benefit of the new tyres and then I pushed to create a gap. At the end of the race Jonathan was pushing hard, but I just maintained a comfortable gap and brought the car home."

Not so lucky in the Feature Race was Alex Yoong, who won the Sprint Race for A1 Team Malaysia.That meant Yoong started the feature from pole, but made a poor start and immediately dropped to seventh. He recovered to finish fifth.

Also having a poor weekend was series leaders Germany, who had rookie Christian

BHHii

Vietoris behind the wheel.

Veitoris had a tough weekend, but did take two points away from the feature for ninth, keeping the squad at the top of the points table.

Australia had a vastly improved weekend, with race debutant Ian Dyk taking third place in the Sprint Race.

However his joy didn't last long, with Dyk spraining his ankle as he climbed over the pit wall straight after the race.

That complicated issues for Dyk in the Feature Race, however he battled on to finish a credible eighth.

Points: Germany 101, New Zealand 74, Great Britain 61,France 57, Malaysia 50, Switzerland 45,Netherlands 43,Italy 36,(Australia 25).

IT took just five races for Valentino Rossi to get sick of not winning,a problem he rectified with an outstanding victory at the Spanish Grand Prix a fortnight ago. , The Doctor was simply unstoppable at Jerez,jumping past polesitter and hometown hero Dani Pedrosa at the start and riding into the distance.

Pedrosa did his bit to get past Rossi, but the leader was well in control, managing the gap to take his fifth win at Jerez and his 85th career victory.

"Our first priority today was to get points and I knew that to win I would have to ride at the maximum/'said Rossi.

"But today my Yamaha really flew and I was able to do a great race.

"It feels like a long time since I last won and this is a great emotion and a very special victory for me."

Third was Rossi's team-mate Colin Edwards,theTexan's podium finish marking a return to form.

Qatar winner Casey Stoner finished a credible fifth after a slow start. Having dropped to ninth in the opening laps, Stoner put on a mature show to claw his way back into the top five.

Chris Vermuelen had a solid weekend too,finishing ninth for Suzuki.

Points: Rossi 45,Stoner 36, Pedrosa 36, Edwards 26, Marco Meiandri 19, Nicky Hayden 17,Vermeuien 16.

SPANISH bike fans may have to start taking their passports to Jerez after Jorge Lorenzo claimed part of the circuit as his own after a dominant victory in the 250cc race.

Having led home Alvaro Bautista and Andrea Dovizioso with ease, Lorenzo celebrated post-race by planting a flag in one of the Spanish circuit's gravel traps, marking his territory.

Aussie Ant West finished ninth.

Points: Lorenzo 50, Alex De Angelis 33, Dovizioso 27, Bautista 20,Takahashi 17, (West 10).

GABOR Talmacsi took a dramatic 125cc victory at Jerez a fortnight ago after a photo-finish with Lukas Pesek.

Pesek led the race in the closing corners, but lost out on the run to the finish line.

Spaniard Hector Faubel upheld local honour to take third.

Points:Talmacsi 45, Faubel 41, Pesek 36, Pol Espargaro 22, Pablo Nieto 17.

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Arriba Arriba;Ian Dyk had plenty to celebrate in Mexico, but he had to do it all with a busted ankle. motorspori news

J

INTERNATIONAL

,:y

Him home at Homestead New season, but still all of the same faces: Dan Wheldon, right, got to taste the champers in round one at Homestead-Miami, whiie Helio Castroneves, above, bounced back on the streets in St Petersburg, Florida.

●/-

SCOTT Dixon holds the IRL IndyCar Series points lead after the opening two rounds of the 2007 title on consecutive weekends - but he is yet to visit Victory Lane.

His Ganassi team-mate Dan Wheldon took the victory under lights at Homestead-Miami in front of him, but Penske's Helio Castroneves bounced back on the weekend on the street of St Petersburg to win.

The Brazilian started from pole, ran the fastest lap and led 95 of the 100 laps to only just out-run Dixon by 0.6s.

Andretti Green Racing pilots Tony Kanaan, Marco Andretti and Dario Franchitti all followed, however the former and latter made contact on lap one.

Kanaan dropped to 16th but drove right back through the field to salvage a podium result.

"I'm not sure what happened," offered Franchitti.

"Tony was going around the outside. I was trying to stay out of trouble and had a bit of understeer and we got together."

Wheldon had a reversal of fortune with a race strategy that didn't work and he finished ninth, but is equal is points with Castroneves.

The series now moves to Motegi in Japan before the biggest race of them all - the Indy 500.

Points: Dixon 80, Castroneves/Wheldon 75, Kanaan 65, Hornish Jr 61, Franchitti 56.

Johnson holds out the boss ’dark JIMMIE Johnson, right, held off Hendrick team-mate and team co-owner Jeff Gordon for a hard fought win at Martinsville on Sunday that came down to a noatter of centimetres.

"Jeff was faster through the centre of the turns,"said Johnson of his third win of the year.

"I just had to defend the bottom, he did a great job of giving me some shots up the butt and trying to get me up off the bottom. I grew up admiring Jeff before I started driving for him and to win a race beating him door to door means the world to me."

On April Fools Day there was no fooling Hendrick Motorsports, who scored their fourth straight win and Chevrolet as they took the top seven spots.

Scott Riggs was the top-finishing Evernham Dodge in eighth www.mnews.com.au

followed by the Roush Fords of Jamie McMurray and Matt Kenseth.

The new cable-driven fuel pumps again proved a problem, this time for Kevin Harvick, who was running in the top 10 when the cable splines broke.

Then, to add insult to injury, the energy-absorbing foam between the right side door and roll cage caught fire from heat from the new right side exhausts.

Aside from Harvick's fire, the only other issues with the new Car of Tomorrow appeared to be brake fade with NASCAR not allowing as much ducting versus the traditional model.

A week earlier, Hendrick's Kurt Busch picked up the first win in the new'CoT'era, skating his way to victory at Bristol in a car he never even felt comfortable in.

Points; J Gordon 966, J Burton 938, Johnson 906, Kenseth 836, Kyle Busch 804, Hamlin 776.

65

hree timesa winner John Vogels may be quietly spoken, but he hasjust won his third SRA championship. He reflected on his season and what lies ahead with GEOFF ROUNDS

Thorleygoes backto-back in Brizzy

PETER Thorley picked up a second consecutive win at Brisbane International Speedway to win round eight of the Comp Cams Sprintcar Series on March 24 in Queensland.

Thorley pipped his team-mate,Todd Wanless,to the line after a terrific duel to take the win.

"This is a fantastic win,"Thorley said."We^stuck there in third, and got

by Darren (Jensen) early, and I set my sights on Todd; I didn't think we would get him, but lapped traffic was good to us,that's for sure."

Wanless set the quickest lap in time trials and won the Dash, with Jensen starting second and Thorley third.

The Feature began with Wanless running away, and Thorley did not match him until traffic came into play.

The pair diced until Thorley got by and a caution came out.

Once racing resumed Thorley was in a class of his own, with Wanless happy to keep second, and Jenson hung in for third, saying he felt like a sitting duck.

Richard Morgan took fourth, and Andrew Scheuerle finished in fifth further extending his Comp Cams lead after a lacklustre 12th place finish by main rival Ben Wright.

MOTORSPORT NEWS: Congratulations on winning the SRA championship for a third time. Are you happy with your season so far and what you've achieved?

JOHN VOGELS:Yeah thanks. We started well, and then the later part of the season in the SRA in particular, we didn't get any wins but we were consistent. It was a good season in the SRA for us but 1 think 2006 was better, because we had more wins.

What's the secret to winning the SRA championship?

Being consistent I guess. It's a good series with good numbers racing at nearly all the venues. We like running the series and seem to do pretty well for the last few years in it.

I would have liked more wins in the last few rounds but we got enough points to again win it, so that was good.

Why were you getting wins early in SRA and then didn't get any?

We lost two workers at my work (auto workshop) around Christmastime.

That was a really hard time for me and my family and my team.

We battled through and the racing still seemed to get done.

From that point of view, this season off-track has been harder and, while we got wins early in the season, we did it harder working with - at times -just two of us working on the car.

n Victorian Sprintcar fans, don't forget the annual Easter Trail across the countryside. If you're planning your Easter around VB-winged beasts instead of chocolate eggs, head to Avalon Raceway on Friday April 6, Borderline at Mount Gambier on April 7 and Premier Speedway in Wartnambool on April 8. The fields are big and the racing generally great for the long vreekend.

Would you like to race more World Series Sprintcars events?

For sure, but it's not really possible when you run your own business.

It's about the best racing there is here in Australia and I really enjoy knowing where I am at when the big names'come down this way to race.

n Missing from the final two Parramatta Sprititcar rounds has been the impressive Sam Walsh, who will race in the Faster Trail with a 372 motor supplied by Todd Wanless Walsh plans to travel across to the US and is looking to join a team crewing for one of the top American drivers.

DARIUS KOHFIS/GREG BOSCATO

Do you still enjoy your racing?

Yeah most of the time. It's a bit hard at times when you go to the track and you know that there's things at work that are on your mind.

There's always something I'm thinking about and with a young family and a business and my racing I'm always thinking about something.

06

Is there anything that annoys you about Sprintcar racing?

Only the fact that blokes continue to just criticise how a surface is on a speedway. Most wouldn't have a clue about preparing a track or what goes into looking after it.

I do some of the track preparation at Simpson Speedway so I'm aware of what has to happen to try and get a good racing surface. If some didn't

whinge so much and just race on what's there,then that would make things a bit happier all round on race-night.

What does the future hold for you on the track?

Well, I'm in my seventh year of Sprintcars and we'll just keep racing as much as we can. We'll run the SRA championship again next season.

Reidy's round,Vogels'title DARWIN star Danny Reidy and Simpson's John Vogels were both smiling with delight, with both grabbing victories after the final round of the SRA Series at Premier Speedway on March 24.

Reidy, right, held off Victorian champion Matthew Reed and up-and-coming South Australian star Steven Lines to win the round while Vogels won his third straight SRA championship.

Reed elected to start the 25-lap final from position two, alongside Lines, and after a restart he took charge, but the current Victorian No.1 and four time SRA series champion was racing with no brakes.

Reidy quickly got by into the lead, while with 18 laps to go, Mike Van Bremen and Vogels came together on turn two while fighting for sixth position.

Vogels finished with severe front-end damage, which was not the way he wanted to end

a night where he celebrated his title.

Third-placed David Murcott touched the turn three wall with 11 laps to run and gave up his position to Lines, though still finished fourth ahead of Warrnambool trio Troy Shielis, Jamie Veal and Darren Mollenoyux, who made the feature via the B-Main.

-GEOFF ROUNDS Final points; Vogels 4341,Van Bremen 3745, Reed 3678, Milburn 3383, Veal 3306.

motorsport news

SPEEDWAY

Max on top at Parramatta

VALVOLINE star Max Dumesny was back to his home Sydney track to take out victory on Saturday night at Parramatta, defeating series points leader Trevor Green with WA hardcharger Ryan Farrell picking up third.

Farrell, racing the local John and Rod Maxwellowned Bestway Industries Maxim,set quick time at the previous week's rained out PCR meeting, and after third best time in qualifying, a third in Heat 3 and a victory in the opening dash race, he quickly jumped into the 30-lap A-Main after starting from pole position.

Farrell simply drove away from Trevor Green with Mark Richards holding Dumesny out for a few laps. When Dumesny got going and stormed

by Richards, Farrell had opened up a big gap on the field with Green still second.

Dumesny took charge and powered away from Green after working his way forward - despite a couple of restarts - with Adrian Maher storming up into fourth while Blyton and Marty Perovich SIX. completed the top n l, * i i j "We were a little tight early, but once I settled down and got past Richo and got up onto the highline we got some speed into our car. I just had to let,the car settle down,it was too tight early," said Dumesny. l f i* With just this Easter Saturday night s final to run, it looks like Trevor Green just has to make it into the A-Main to secure back-to-back track crowns.

- GREG BOSCATO

JiL

Farr's high fiver

ROBBIE Farr dominated the $5000-To-Win MSAQ Club Show at Charlton Raceway in Toowoomba last weekend.

Farr blitzed the field to lead the entire 25-lap race from pole.

"Perfect night, perfect scorecard," Farr said, having captured the quickest lap in time trials, and then won both of his heat races after starting in fifth.

"Any time you have a night like ours you've got to be happy with it, and it's good to get back with the boys at the ABC Auto Gear team; it's the last time I'll drive that car, so it's good to go out with a win."

In fact, it was another stellar night on the whole for the ABC boys, with Peter Thoriey finishing in second and making it successive meetings that team held the top two positions on the rostrum, and their third win from tFie last four events.

The Toowoomba locals had something to cheer for with Andrew Scheuerle finishing in third, Darren Jensen fourth, and another local, Peter Lack, took fifth.

- DARIUS KOREiS

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1504 1458 1447 1436 1425 1396 1395 1377

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14 Jason Meyers 1346 15 Jason Solwold 1332.

16 Jason Sides 1324 17 Justin Henderson 1282 18 Randy Hannagan 1250 19. Chad Keroenah ,1151 20 Sam HafertepeJr. 1122

67

ERIC Medlen, one of the most popular young drivers in the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series, died due to injuries suffered when he crashed into a guardwall during a Monday test session foliowing the ACDelco Gatornationais at Gainesville Raceway.

Medlen,33, was laid to rest last Wednesday at West Ridge Park Cemetery in Clermont, Indiana, within the shadows of O'Reilly Raceway Park at Indianapolis - drag racing's most hallowed ground, Medlen never regained consciousness following the accident.

After being treated at the track, he was transported by ShandsCair helicopter to Shands at the University of Florida medical centre where medical staff treated him for four days for a severe closed head injury.

"Eric Medlen was the son I never had,"said team owner John Force.

"He was the leader of my next generation of drivers. Robert Hight, my daughter Ashley, and I were with the family throughout this very difficult time. This loss 15 a huge blow not only to the Medlen family, but to drag racing and to John Force Racing."

Medlen took over driving responsibilities in the Funny Car in which Tony Pedregon won the 2003 championship. He had distinguished himself as one of the brightest young stars on the circuit, winning six times in his first three seasons and never finishing outside the top five in driver points.

His father John called in 1996 to offer him a mechanic's job at John Force Racing, and after spending one season on the team on which his father was crew chief, he moved over one pit stall in 1997 to v/ork on the car driven by 14-time NHRA champion Force.

Serving first as the supercharger technician and later as a clutch specialist, he was a member of a team that crewed Force to 50 tour victories and six championships in seven seasons.

DAVID OSTASZEWSKI 68

FORMER Aussie Pro Stock Champion Tony Wedlock is set to go Sport Compact racing, having recently purchased a Toyota Solara from the United States.

Wedlock picked up the car from the Scranton Brothers team,after Matt Scranton made his NHRA Pro Stock debut in an ex-Greg Anderson Pontiac GTO. The Toowoomba-based driver completed a twoday, weather interupted test at Bradenton, Florida, before putting the Toyota on a ship, bound for Australia.

The Toyota, based on a two-door Camry, has run a 6.46s/220mph in teh past, and Wedlock is keen to improve on that mark.

"It's a very impressive piece of gear," he said.

"The thing that makes us excited about it is that it's one of the fastest Toyota bodied,Toyota-

engined cars in the world. We are looking forward to improving on its current benchmark."

An interesting side note is that the car could also be used in Australian Pro Stock competition.

The Solara's body is Pro Stock legal,so if the right engine was fitted. Wedlock could make a return to the local Pro Stock Series.

"We haven't ruled out doing double duties," he said.

"Coming from a Pro Stock background, we don't want to turn our backs on that."

The car should hit Australian shores in May, before an extensive test program will be undertaken.Wedlock plans to unveil the car to the drag racing fraternity at the Winternationals, with its maiden race slated for the Jamboree at Willowbank Raceway in September.

- GRANT ROWLEY

JFR pulls out in respectfor Medlen OUT of respect for the family of Eric Medlen and to allow the John Force Racing family the opportunity to grieve its loss, team owner John Force confirmed last week that the team will not compete in this week's 20th annual O'Reilly NHRA Spring Nationals in Houston.

The team is still evaluating what occurred in the accident that caused the severe closed head injury that resulted in Medlen's death.

JFR crew chiefs, headed by Medlen's father, John, will be working closely with NHRA,the Professional Racers Owners Organisation, and the team's vendors to evaluate the series of events that caused a tyre blowout and an extreme vibration beyond anything previously recorded in the sport.

According to Force, the team felt the need to address changes in the driver cockpit area but hopes to return to competition April 12-15 for the SummitRacing.com NHRA Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

- DAVID OSTASZEWSKI

g^ld Qstaszovvski |

niotorsport mews

DRAG RACING .

Three is a crowd Only three Fuellers arrived, making the Kwinana Top Fuel round a non-event AUSTRALIA'S quickest Top Fuel dragsters didn't disappoint in setting the Perth Motorplex track alight with a series of runs underneath the track record during two days of match racing last week.

A weak turnout ofjust three Top Fuellers meant the event turned into a match race between three cars, as a minimum of four cars is needed for a championship round.

New South Wales driver Phil Read set the standard early with a 4.61 s pass made in the first round of Friday night, breaking the track time record of 4.68s and also setting a new speed mark ofS22.86kmh.

Victorian Phil Lamattina came back in the second round with a 4.66s run at 520.99kmh, both new personal bests, but Read again had the measure of the Motorplex with the best time of the weekend, a 4.58s pass which reset the track record and put him in sight of the national record.

Saturday night conditions saw the nitro-fuelled engines making more power than the teams could handle and it became survival of the fittest.

An electrical problem beset Read's car in the first race against West Australian Allan Dobson, who was able to struggle to a win after overpowering the track.

Lamattina had a bye run but damaged an engine badly.The team recovered in the next round for a 4.70s time, the best of the night, while Read was struck down by tyre shake.

Dobson's 'Crank-n-Stein'dragster, tuned www.mnews.com.au

LUKE NIEUWHOF

by Allan Greene, had found some serious horsepower which turned the car into an animal on the track. At one stage Dobson had to back off at three-quarter track when the front of the lifted into the air, threatening to cause some serious damage.

Read was satisfied by his Friday night, if a little frustrated by Saturday.

"The 4.61 s was just testing the waters," he said.

"Then the 4.58s was a really good drive for me.

I felt myself physically lean away from the wall because the front wheels were in the air and there was no steering."

Dobson felt encouraged with the Greene dragster now getting into the ball park with just a fraction of the runs the other teams have made,all that while also keeping a Nitro Funny Car on track.

"We gave it a real good go," he said.

"I've never seen so much traction there in my life and I was really proud of our track.

"Al Greene has done well this year, changing between the Dragster and Funny Car is a hell of a job."

Lamattina, who also made some test runs last week,saw the potential of his Fuchs dragster.

"We made a significant change to the race car (tune up)," he said.

"The car ran its best time and best speed since it has been in Australia, we were happy with that."

Read and Lamattina now move back to Sydney for a return to championship racing while the Greene and Dobson pairing will be toasting a season well done.

Kwinana call: Only three Top Fuellers raced in M/A, top. But a reasonable crowd were entertained by the two Fuchs girls.

69

NATIONAL SCENE Edited by Andrew van Leeuwen

Mazda mania in Tas MAZDA Australia will enter a two-car team in next month's Targa Tasmania with-2007 marking the worid endurance rally debut of the country's quickest hot-hatch, the Mazda3 MPS. The Mazda team will be spearheaded by acclaimed rally driver Rick Bates in the front-wheel-drive MazdaS MPS while rising female rally star Melinda Both will pilot the fourwheel-drive, high-performance luxury Mazdab MPS that took home a class win last year.

Both cars are powered by the same 2.3-litre, direct injected,turbo engine. Rally preparations for Targa Tasmania will be overseen by Mazda's motorsport manager Allan Horsley.

Both cars will compete in the production category of the event's Modern Competition.

Targa Tasmania will be held from April 17-22.The 2007 event comprises 445 competitive kilometres over 42 challenging closed-road competition stages, plus a prologue. n Television personality and motorsport identity Grant Oenyer is the latest celebrity to join this year's Targa Tasmania, presented by Pure Tasmania, driving for Team MINI. Denyer will join Australian film star Eric Bana and ironman legend, Guy Andrews, when the event gets underway on April 17,ensuring the 2007 tarmac rally a star-studded field.

The 2007 event has attracted 320 applications, which aside from the bonus seven-day millennium event, is the second highest number ever received for the six-day version of Targa,just four below the record of 324 in 2003. n The second Lamborghini Gallardo will be on-track for the third round of Australian GT Championship at Bathurst next week.

Ian Palmer's new toy arrived in Australia last week and will be ready for the easter meet.

Bryce Washington made the Gallardo's Aussie debut at the Clipsal 500.

In other GT news, Allan Simonsen is likely to contest the entire Australian GT Championship this year in the hope of seriiring Itis first Australian championship.

The popukar Dane is known as a jack of all trades, including a husy overseas '.cheduh' and an eiuhiro seat vnth TeainVodafnne.

70

Splitpin returnsto the Mountain PHIL Brock will make his return to the driver’s seat in the non-championship Commodore Cup races at the Bathurst International Motor Festival this weekend.

Brock the younger brother of the late Peter Brock, will drive a VH Commodore,carrying signage from the Peter Brock Foundation.The #27 VH is the ex-Darrell Weaver car that has been on the sidelines for the past few years.

Brock tested the car at Calder last week in preparation for his return to competition at the mountain. Ironically, Phil is best known for driving (or as it turned out, not driving) a

VH in the 1983 James Hardie 1000 at Bathurst, after Peter's 05 Commodore broke down early in the race. Peter and Larry

Perkins kept Phil out of the driver's seat while they raced on for victory with John Harvey.

In other pre-season Commodore Cup news,30 cars are expected to fill the Bathurst field in a bumper start to the year. Geoff Emery will return to the series after a stint in the Fujitsu V8 league. Last year's runner-up Christian D'Agostin has left the Axent Racing team and will drive the ex-David Gittus VS. Daniel Richert has filled D'Agostin's role at Axent, while series regulars Michael Graham, Geoff Fontaine, Ashley Cooper and Denis Pana all return for the full season.

- GRANT ROWLEY

The Lowe Down BRAD Lowe is the new driver of the Valvoline Cummins-sponsored Aussie Racing Car. The Formula Ford racer will replace Nick Simmons for the remainder of the season, and will make his debut in the car this weekend in the third round of the Aussie

)\

Racing Car Series at Mount Panorama during the Bathurst International Motor Festival.

"I did the race there last year, I did pretty well, so I'm fairly confident," he said.

"I'm also doing the 12 Hour race as well so I'll would have got plenty of laps around there by the end of the weekend."

Around 40 Aussie Racers will take to the famous mountain circuit, with cars entered for Paul Morris, Neil Crompton and Coiin Sieders among the regular drivers.

-GRANT ROWLEY

motorsport news

NATIONAL SCENE

Patience is a virtue-justask Moff!

Good timing,solid pace,a little bit ofluck and James Moffat wins Formula Ford at Barbagallo

JAMES Moffat scored his debut win in Round 2 of the Australian Formula Ford Championship at Barbagallo Raceway a fortnight ago.

The Formula Ford rookie started the weekend relatively slowly with a 59.8736s lap in qualifying,the sixth fastest time behind polesitter Ashley Walsh's 59.1351 s in the CAMS Rising Star Spectrum.

Not that it worried Moffat, who timed his moves to perfection to eventually move from third to first on the last lap of Race 1 when Tim Blanchard and Walsh came together at Kolb corner.The former recovered to finish fourth, while the latter was 14th. Moffat won from Kristian Lindbom and Joshua Scott.

Moffat briefly lost the lead to Scott for two laps in Race 2, but was able to recover to take a second race win over Walsh, who managed to come right from the back of the field, and Scott.

Race 3 would decide the round win between Moffat and Scott.

Fortunately for Moffat,third place behind Walsh and Blanchard securing him the round win.

It's a milestone in my career. said Moffat, pictured below.

"The team did a great job, giving us great cars. We were able to capitalise on a couple of racers misfortune in the first race and able to consolidate in the second.

"I was mindful of what I needed to do and where I needed to finish in the third race for the round victory and that was the main priority.

"The game plan all year is to stay out of trouble. History has

proven that consistency wins this championship and I am in a situation with my budget that I can't afford to be crashing,so I have taken the approach ofjust keep gathering top five results."

Walsh was left to rue what could have been,the 19-year-old Queenslander observing that tactics more similar to Moffat's may have been the better option.

"I'm making a bad habit of needing to come from the back of the grid," he said.

"I need to start consolidating championship points when I am in good race positions, and be a bit smarter about things."

"I was very happy to recover and get a race win to keep me in the championship hunt,the car has great speed so I am confident of bridging the gap to the leader in the coming round."

The Australian Formula Ford Championship now moves on to Winton on May 19 and 20.

-LUKENIEUWHOF Points: Moffat 100, Blanchard 95, Lindbom 72,Walsh 67,Scott 52, Glen Wood 46, Jonathon Grant 21, Grant Douirnan 20, Luke Wood 19,Percat 18.

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D'oh:Ash Walsh had round-winning speed in Perth, but a run-in with Tim Blanchard at the end ofthe first race killed his chances.

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EDDIE Abelnica set about burying his demons in spectacular fashion at Round 2 of the Biante Touring Gar Masters Series at Barbagalio Raceway a fortnight agOi Abelnica was the winner of all three races, demolishing a strong field of 17 cars to take home maximum points.

He came in with a score to settle at the Wanneroo circuit.

Last year he and Pauilftubber were involved in a fast turn, incident that saw both cars In the sand, but this time there was to be no such shenanigans.

Qualifying saw New South Welshman Steve Mason and' his Camaro in top place with a 1 m05.4207s lap. But Abeinicafs Mustang was threateningi with a l!!m©|.4886s.

With A'belnica hawingi missed the first round of the championship. Mason was in the box seat points wise, but the Mustang driver set about elawingi back the diference.

He took the win'i in'Race iil with Masoni having a,few troubles on4ap 9,/diopping from the lead of the race back to eighth,spot. Alastair Maclean's

Trent too good

ROUND 1 of the 2007 South Australian Formula Ford Championship has seen Trent Ulmer take round honours in an impressive effort at Mallala Motorsport Park.

The South Australian drove his'National Class' Com Corp Global Spectrum with great pace and consistency throughout all three races to build a three-point series lead, Having to start 30 seconds behind the 'Kent'class competitors, but with a 25bhp advantage, Ulmer, along the rest of the'National Class'drivers, had their work cut out with the challenge of catching the competition. A credible seventh and two second positions was enough to earn him the round win.

Mark Foster finished the round in second in his Kent-powered car.The Van Diemen driver was able to execute three great races to tally three top five finishes and second in the championship standings.

-DANIEL JORDAN

.

I 72

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'GamarO and Gavin iBullas in.a; Mustang were able to capitalise in Mdson's misfortune to take podium positions.

Race 2 was processiOnai up front,,with the top five cars nOt -changing positions during,the entire race, with Abelnica able to take victory ahead ofTrevor Talbot, who struck the first iblow for the six cylinders with,a second place in theTorana, while Maclean settled for fhirdi Mason was still' luckless, coming in,fifth.

Talbot got off to a great start in,the final ,race, taking the lead into the first corner. But

A'belnica was able to fight'baek and^egain his place, froiifi there Talbot ha#t@ concentrate on fending off an attack from,Mason,the V8 power of the Camaro coming back in the straights as Talbot took bigi lunges in the earners.

It was a contest that carne down to the fi nai corner where Talbot wasjust able to win out, Olliming another second place as'Mason came in third.

siygjfglNlgUWiF Pgints:,Mason J!83j Maetean t69(farry traldar WalfnlJay ii32, Oavin iBullas ii2S.

South Oz under lights THE first round of the 2007 South

Australian Motor Racing Championship was recently held at Mallala Motorsport Park.

Brad Fox drove superbly in a clean sweep of the Saloon Car category. Fox impressed with his efforts to keep Wayne King at bay.

The reigning series Champion finished second in ail three races for the event and also second for the round.

Dean Nicolo was able to claim victory in the HQ Holden class with three solid race results. Nicolo drove well in the first two races and when most of his direct competition fell victim to carnage atTurn 1 in the third race, he was able to drive to a race and round win.

A Ford Escort Mk 1 driven by Scott Clements was triumphant in Improved Production.The local lad secured two race wins to hold off Shaun Duns in his Mazda RX7 for the round win.

Graham Stewart in his Holden Torana XU1 GT was victorious in the Historic Touring and Sports Car class. Stewart's Torana was

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i! fast and reliable throughout all three races.

Mark Forgie in his Porsche 911 was also quick in all three races but just missed out on the round win to take a close second.

The second round of the 2007 South Australian Motor Racing Championships will be held at Mallala Motorsport Park on the 19-20 May. -DANIELJORDAN

motorsporliiiews

NATIONAL SCENE

Denim delivers at Wakefield Park WITH what is his best result in the Yokohama V8 Ute Series, Yanis Derums clinched the overall victory in Round 2 at Wakefield Park last weekend.

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Derums showed his pace from the outset by topping the time sheets in qualifying ahead of Kim Jane, Gary Baxter, Darren Palmer and Grant Johnson.

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Drivers qualifying further,down the order then they would have liked included front runners Layton Crambrook and Jack Elsegood in 13th and 14th respectively.

After starting from pole position, Derums fended off an early challenge from Jane to lead the entire 11 -lap distance in the opening race to comfortably defeat Jane and Baxter, followed by Johnson and Ryal Harris.

Elsegood moved forward in Race 1 to finish in 10th spot, while Crambrook was struck down by the electrical dramas.

Race 2 started with the top 16 finishers from the opening race inverted, putting Ben Dunn and rookie Justin Van Twest on the front row.

But it was Dunn that showed everyone a clean pair of heels by winning the event, defeating

ju-

Steve Robinson and Van Twest. Without a doubt this was the best drive of Dunn's career, and this gave him pole position for the third and final race.

It looked as though Dunn was on track to cause a major upset and take the round victory, but the pressure from Derums was too great, and after leading 11 of the 13 laps Dunn outbraked himself in the closing stages, running wide and handing the lead over to Derums.

He went on to take his second race win of the weekend,and his maiden round victory defeating Harris and Baxter.

Robinson's fourth place in Race 3 gave him second overall for the round behind Derums, while Baxter finished in third place for the round.

- DANIEL POWELL Points: Elsegood 177,Palmer 170,Johnson 161,Jane 152, Robinson 149.

Winton Wonderland ROUND 2 of the Victorian Motor Racing Championships was held at Winton Motor Raceway last weekend.

Phillip Aitken dominated the HQs by winning all four races, Garrie Long bagging second.

Robert Lange won all point scoring races in the Porsche 944s in front of John Morriss and Richard Howe in the 28 strong grid. Race 4 was won by Rod Smith.

Ryan Simpson,pictured above, scored victory in four FVee races, while George Panagiotidis finished second on each occasion.

IT may have been a new era for Performance Car racing starting at Wakefield Park last weekend, but it was two old hands who showed the field how to do it in the first round of 2007.

Gary Young returned to the Performance Car scene at KaneTrease picked up Saloon Car round spoils with one win and three second placings. Ryan Miller and Ken Wright were the other race winners across the weekend.

Ian Wilson lead every lap of the combined Sports Cars and

DRIVING the renowned camouflage XD Ford Falcon, Frank Binding took out the overail win in the Group A/C events at Wakefield Park last weekend by winning Race

2 and finishing second in both Races T and 3.

The stand-out driver of the weekend was Craig j Markland (Nissan Skyline ‘ GT-R) who captured wins in Races 1 and 3,and had it not been for an error in the second race, would have claimed the overall win.

I -DANIEL POWELL

n i':-

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- iMiMi

3

i www.mnews.com.au

Young Gun

Super TT races. Phillip Webster managed to close the gap late in the races, but never found a way past.

Formula Ford round victory went to Martin Swindells who made the weekend his own after winning all four races.

Under 2 Litre-runner Barry Megaw clinched the round after dominated all four races.

John Camm led early on, but the horsepower of Megaw proved too much as he stormed past.

Craig Munro held off Sheldon Florence to take BMW E30 round spoils in a hotly contested field. Geoff Bowles finished third overali after a consistent weekend.

Improved Production round victory went to Tony Skinner after scoring two race wins and two top five. Rohan Ambrose won the remaining two races but finished third overall behind KaneVereker.

AARON SHAW

Wakefield after a year out of the hot seat but it was almost as if he had never gone. He took a front row position in qualifying and two commanding race wins.

Young and former champion and Mark King diced for the lead in Race 1, holding close quarters for a number of laps before Young extended the margin at the end of the race.

Race 2 featured a reverse grid/ compulsory pit-stop format,and it proved to be another Mitsubishi walkover, with Young leading King to the line after 40 minutes of racing.

Barrie Nesbitt posted a

promising performance from his HSV GTS to finish third after taking poie for Race 1.

-RICHARD CRAILL

ADVERTISEMENT

●The West Australian Saloons Cars put on a great show at the Bigpond 400 - the Clint and Kerry Show CLINT Harvey proved to be a near unstoppable force in the Saloon Car support races at the Bigpond 400 at Barbagallo Raceway.

Driving the Strategic Transport Racing AU Falcon, Harvey provided the beacon for blue oval fans during a day where the V8 Supercars were ali about the red iion.

The whole Strategic Transport Racing team was right on its game, with none of its three cars falling below seventh (excepting the reverse grid race) in a field with 37 entries, the most of any category on the day.

WA reigning state champion Grant Johnson's Ocean Beach Hotel VT Commodore took the pole with a 1 m07.0734s lap, just edging out a 1m07.0791s iap from Kerry Wade's LF Performance Products Commodore in a super-close qualifying session.

Following were the three Strategic Transport Falcons.

Like most other categories on the weekend racing was close but clean, with fans appreciating the tense competition on the tight Wanneroo circuit.

Johnson had a first race shocker with a DNF to his name, pulling out on the fourth lap after recording the fastest lap for the race. This left Harvey to take the advantage and emerge with his first win of the weekend, defeating Wade and team mate Malcolm Niall.

Race 2 replicated the results of the first as Harvey stretched his lead

74

over his rivals, the rest of the field wondering what they had to do to get back at the well-travelled driver who finished fourth last year in the national series.

Current WA Street Car Series Champion Wade struck back in Race 3, taking a win following an early pass against the pesky Harvey, while Johnson was able to redeem himself a little with a third placing.

But then it was back to the Harvey/ Wade/Niall combination on the podium in Race 4, setting up a climactic reverse-grid Race 5.

Harvey managed seventh, including a big move on Lap 8 where he made five positions. Wade was the star, however, getting to third after ascending seven positions on Lap 2.

Harvey was more than satisfied to come away with three race wins in what would be regarded by most as a very successful weekend of racing.

"We didn't qualify that well but we came back in the first race and got the second race as weil," he said.

"We dropped back in the third race by a couple of positions. Then we started 25th in the final race and managed to move right up.

"We were a bit wary coming in because there is some good drivers here and their cars are going well, guys like Kerry Wade and Grant Johnson.

"The first round of the championship is coming up in April, the car is going good and hopefuliy we'li do well."

-LUKENIEUWHOF

Fast and Furious: Harvey and Wade wowed the crowd at Barbagallo Raceway, above. The heat was on mid-pack too, below.

motorsDort news

NATIONAL SCENE. 9

Super Sera's got his Mojo DAVID Sera clawed his way back into contention to finish 10th at the opening round of the Euro Mojo MAX Challenge in France last month.

Sera started the final from grid 25 after problems in the pre-final.

"I had a bit of a crash which pushed my nosecone underneath my kart," he explained.

A lightening start in the final saw the Victorian quickly move forward,getting as high as seventh before being shuffled back to 10th.

"No matter where you are in the pack, they fight as hard for 19th and 20th as they do for the lead," he said of the European competition.

Sera had earlier qualified his Arrow 25th in the 65-kart field.

Just as impressive was the effort from current Australian champion Hayden McBride.

Driving for the Gillard team, McBride qualified 18th and ran in the Top 10 in the heats. Further progress in the pre-final saw him line up 12th for the final and confident of a Top 10 finish.

"I got hit from behind and speared off the circuit at turn one of the final," McBride said.

"I dropped over 50 metres behind the entire field which made it tough."

Regardless, he drove hard to take 25th.

Tasmanian Matthew Holmes(Tibikart) qualified an encouraging 12th in the DD2 class but was unable to replicate that pace in racing. He eventually finished 19th after a DNF in the heats.

Two Aussies competed in the Junior Rotax class. With a season of experience under his belt. Steel Guiliana was expected to do well and he did. Having qualified eighth, Guiliana

was fifth after the heats but a problem for the pre-final saw him not turn a lap. Starting off the back,the Intrepid driver managed 17th.

On his international debut, Melbourne's Luigi Cantanese put in a solid performance.

The PCR driver qualified 21st(of63)and kept his nose clean in the heats. He finished the final 13th.

-MARK WICKS

Hays in the red

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1

CHRIS Hays to replace Lewis Hamilton at McLaren in 20171 Who knows, but the talented Queenslander might just have a foot in the door thanks to McLaren's current sponsor Vodafone.

Hays was selected by the telco to be its guest over the four days of the Australian Grand Prix. Vodafone announced it is giving Hays the opportunity to receive support and inspiration from Hamilton as a mentor for coaching and advice throughout the season.The youngster will also enjoy a series of one-to-one practical training sessions during the year from Craig Lowndes and Jamie Whincup.

Hays'next event is this weekend's AKA Nationals at Eastern Creek where he will compete in the Junior National Light class aboard Tony Kart.

-MARK WICKS

The right Formula 100 SIMON Salvatico won the opening round of the Titan Formula 100 Series at Oakleigh a fortnight ago.

Salvatico (Tony Kart) split the heat wins'with Trent James (Arrow) before taking out the pre final. In the final, Salvatico again won the start, leading all the way to edge out James by 0.25s.

While Salvatico got on with the job of winning, James was wfww.ttinews.coiti.au

setting the track ablaze, qualifying fastest then twice lowering the track record - once in the prefinal, fighting back after a bad start, then again in the final as he pegged back Salvatico's lead.

Dominic Albanese grabbed third, getting past Peter Klein mid race.

First in the Heavy division was Andrew Quinn in seventh.

-MARK WICKS 75

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TALK CONVERTER 1.

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n Editorial Executive Editor: Phil Branagan editor@mnews.com.au News Editor: Grant Rowley grant@mnews.com.au 'He's Back Again'Editor: Aaron Noonan noonz@mnews.com.au National Editor: Andrew van Leeuwen andrew@mnews.com.au n Production Graphic Design & Web:Jayne Uthmeyer design@mnews.com.au n Advertising P 03 9596 5555 F 03 9596 5030

Then the highlights of the weekend,such as enjoying the experiences of being a marshall at different points around the track, plus some quick laps in the course car and a tour of race

Jason Bright-Jason Richards practice crash, did Richards get a drive-through penalty?

Andrew Tran Email address withheld

Send

y^r^ughtst

. PO Box 7072, Brighton,Vl£> 3f8@ mnews@mnews.coririiau

n Administration 357 Nepean Highway, Brighton East, VIC, 3187 (PO Box 7072, Brighton, VIC, 3186) P 03 9596 5555 F 03 9596 5030 admin@mnews.com.au Managing Director/Publisher: Chris Lambden publisher@mnews.com.au n Contributors Fl:Joe Saward, Adam Cooper, Paolo Filisetti, MarkGlendenning Europe;Quentin Spurring, David Addison US: Martin 0. 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, Daniel Jordan, Aaron Shaw, Daniel Powell.

Photographers:Sutton Motorsport Images, Dirk Klynsmith, Marshall Cass, John Morris/ Mpix, AF1 Images,James Smith, Peter Bury, Neil Blackbourn, Chris Carter, Coopers Photography, C8R Photographies, Paris Charles, Bob Potts, Neil Hammond,Joel Strickland, Mike Patrick (UK) Motorsport News is published by Australasian Motorsport News ABN 55 125 120 702 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 Hews does not accept responsibility for damage or loss of material submitted.

"Opinions expressed in Motorsport Nevrs ate not necessarily those of Australasian Motorsport Hews or its staff,

be completely mind-blowing.

Of course, the day in the corporate box on Saturday was also brilliant and we could very easily become accustomed to that lifestylel A shame Mark Webber had such a dismal race. Fie looked pretty handy for the first few laps maybe by mid-year they will have a better package. At least I hope so.

Go Grant Go I agree with Grant Rowley,the Grand Prix should be run at night.

Brilliant! The sights and sounds of FI and the returned V8s at night would be wonderful. And while he's at it, Bernie should get the promoters of the northern hemisphere FI races to change their race timesas well so we don't have to watch them at

All the marshalls and officials

ridiculous hours. It's only fair.

Chris Gardiner

couldn't have looked after me any

Chris.blackcrowfilms@gmail.com

better on the Friday. They made me feel extremely special for the day. Vicki, my wife, attended the Melbourne shops for the day with good results.

The Australian Grand Prix Corporation did a great job organising and meeting us at various stages during the weekend and we would like to thank them as well.

So again, many, many thanks for a once in a lifetime FI experience.

John Collett jjetwahs@ozemaii.com.au

Push in the back? Play on ...

Watching the most recent V8 round from Wanneroo took me back to some recent incidents, like the Jack Perkins/Paul Dumbrell clash at Adelaide and the Greg Murphy/Craig Lowndes thing at Winton a few years back.

On both of those occasions,the driver behind was penalised for hitting the bloke in front, even though their were mitigating circumstances(Lowndes losing the rear end, Perkins having a misfire).

So,just to be sure, about the

TEGA's requirements regarding team ownership or control.

Despite being the most successful team in V8 Supercar history, FIRT obviously must 100 percent comply with the rules just the same as any other team.

But let's get serious here, what they have done is a breach a technical corporate rule regarding team ownership and control.They have not been found guilty of using unauthorised performance enhancing parts, breaching the expenditure cap or even of having suspicious SBR-style extra wiring looms.

Even a VB swilling, tank top wearing Ford fan should be able to understand that whether Mark Skaife,Tom Walkinshaw or even Bart Simpson controls the team is irrelevant as it doesn't make the cars go any faster!

I see your columnist Chris Lambden suggests it is FIRT"who stretch the regulatory barriers to the limit."

I hope so, and I would be very disappointed if this were not the case! If any team is not

Walkinshaw"rising from the ashes"

clever enough to ensure he had a small base from which to start over again (If you can call owning FiSV a small base!). Fie is a very competent and successful businessman who has contributed

Includes access to MNews Platinum!

much to motorsport both in Australia and internationally and I for one wish him every success in re-building his empire.

POST clieque/nmiiey order to the address above FAX credit card details(VISA or Mastercard) to 03 0596 5030(ini I 1 013 95% 5030) LMAllto sultsfir imiews.com.au or PAYONI.INrat:

82

poppy syndrome, let's first reflect on what we are actually talking about here.

of his TWR Group going broke.

I'm sureTWR's collapse was no picnic for Tom but he was

A$210 A$270

www.mnews.com.au

start FIRT bashing in the time honoured Aussie tradition of tall

trying to eek out every ounce of performance while pushing to the limit of the rules then they should get out the business now and make way for a professional outfit.

For some reason Lambden also seems to have an issue with Tom

1 year 2 years (12iss) (24iss) $79.50 $148.50 A$110 A$140

Leave Tom alone Before all the Ford fans and some fans of rival Flolden teams

It appears as though FIRT have been found to be In breach of

control including and meeting Peter Nelsen and Tim Schenken.

The organisation involved must

National Sales Manager: Calvin Wood M 0439 566 265 cwood@mnews.com.au

Australia One GST) Overseas (airmail): New Zealand & Asia Rest of the World

Another happy reader Thank you very much for the FI Marshall for the day experience I won through your Australian Grand Prix promotion.

It was truly fantastic, right from the practice on Thursday which I viewed from the Brabham Stand.

Time of his life: Competition winner John Collett had a blast at the GP.

Tony Lenan Gold Coast, QLD

iiiolorsporl news

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CAM McCONYILLE V8 Superedr Legend