Motorsport News Issue 359 - April 18-May 22, 2007

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Your New Zealand Idol

Denyer'sTKR drive

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7 SequentiallySpeaking

The End ofthe H-pattern?

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Youngsters Line Up

Endurovescence

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11 NotSuper,justslow

Honda to park its 2007car

12 Televised Debate

No CCWS on TV,anywhere

24 Motor Mouth 26 BoxSeat

An Era ends and a new one begins

28 Opinions

Cromley goes around the clock

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Photos Cover: Dirk Klynsmith suttonimages.com Contents:Peter Bury, suttonimages.com.

Champ Car Media

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Why Lewis is something special

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30 Five Minutes with Will Power 32 Five Minutes with Chris Atkinson 34 Return of The Rodent Paul Radisich speaks about the last.

Pukeji^he and returning from injury dVqble Fl3t>r fuss, explained 42 Best of Enemies: Craig^aiMvfh^Qgwi^e 44 Holden it Together: Talking with Tony D'Alber

46 Desert Storm Massa bounces back. Win, pole, fastest lap. But we are still in love with Hamilton 50 Malaysian Takeaway Fernando breaks through for his first McLaren

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win, Lewis declares war on Massa 54 Rock Around the Clock

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BMW wins the 12-Hour and lots ofguys win other races I

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77 Classifieds

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V8Super Doctor on duty...soon LAST year's Supercheap Auto 1000 has prompted a change in the way V8 Supercars Australia is represented medically at race tracks.

V8SA is laying the foundations for a medical representative to work on a full-time basis at all V8 Supercar events, similar to the consultancy role that Dr Sid Watkins plays at Formula 1 Grand Prix.

"We are at stage one of a multi phase plan of having a medical representative working on a

full-time basis at our events, specifically to treat those within

the V8 Supercar fraternity -from drivers through to any team or staff members,"V8SA CEO Wayne Cattach said.

"At present CAMS provides the local medical officer who along with the on-track specialist rescue teams are more than capable of handling at-track medical emergencies.

"We have two doctors specifically engaged and on stand-by to care for those in the fraternity once they leave the hands of those experts at the track.

"And Chaplain Garry Coleman is also a fully qualified trauma counsellor who helps not only the

injured party but also their families where there is a need."

At present,V8 Supercars only specifically take its own doctor to fly away races. In Bahrain,that was Dr Bill Anseline, who managed 42 cases,from lancing a boil to "I've talked to Wayne Cattach attending to a team member in after Bathurst and he has put a lot hospital after they had suffered a more things in place now,'"The Rat'said. suspected heart attack.

"There's more of a formal format The addition of a full-time'V8 Super Doctor'has come after and protocol when there is a serious accident. the tragic events at Bathurst in October last year. Fujitsu V8 Series "From my situation, it was like, driver Mark Porter lost his life due 'quick, let's get him off the track to injuries sustained in an accident, and get him out of here'. And while Team Kiwi racer Paul basically, you are on your own.

IT'S war in Champ Car land, and it's Will Power and Team Australia versus Sebastien Bourdaisand Newman/Haas/Lanigan.

Power and Team Oz will head into next week's Flouston round of the Champ Car World Series in white-hot form, having won the opening round at Las Vegas a fortnight ago before backing up the performance with a podium finish at the prestigious Toyota Grand Prix at Long Beach last weekend.

And that result could have easily been a second career victory. Having qualified on the front row of the grid alongside Bourdais, Power made a poor restart after an early caution period. That left him behind RSPORT's Alex Tagliani, a position he didn't reclaim until the final lap of the race, by which time Bourdais and Oriol Servia were too far gone.

"I'm pretty confident i would have run with [Sebastien], there's no doubt about that," Power told MNews after the Long Beach race.

"We were really quick all weekend and we were running with him no problems, so I'm confident we would have been there.

"Sebastien's really good at saving fuel, and we're virtually on top of that as well, so it would have been interesting to see if we could 4

Radisich was lucky to walk away from his heavy shunt in the classic Mountain race.

Radisich told MNews that there limited communication during his ordeal.

have gone to the same lap as him.

"I knew that if I didn't get him into Turn 1, then it was going to be tough to beat the guy."

A fortnight ago there was jubilation in the Team Australia camp when Power broke through for his first victory in Vegas.

"I got out after Vegas and I was in such a zone, I thought'that's done, what's next?"'he said.

"We've got such a good team and I'm in my second year so I understand the car a lot better and the racing is coming really easy to me now.

Talking to Wayne, I'd like to think we're over things like that and we're going to get support for the drivers who do get injured.'

"We have to look after our own people and,from my experience, it was pretty scary.

"It's an area we kind of got blase about. It's something that doesn't happen regularly, which is great, but when they do the sport needs to be ready to act on it."

- grant ROWLEY

I think we are going to be consistently quick at each track."

Power will head to Houston with a 15 point lead in the championship and the knowledge that he and Team Australia have got the goods to run with Bourdais.

Watch this space ... because it won't be on television...

- ANDREW VAN LEEUWEN For more with Will Power, turn to page 30.

motorsportnews

NEWS

Mad Dog and The Rat? Seven's smiling man is the favourite to score Team Kiwi Falcon ride alongside Radisich

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EAM Kiwi Racing has a recovered driver, a fast Falcon and ... an enduraiice driver who's got talent!

Grant Denyer has emerged as the favourite to secure the V8 Supercar endurance seat alongside Paul Radisich at TKR this year.

The Seven Network personality tested a Ford Performance Racing Falcon recently at Barbagallo Raceway during a ride day alongside Owen Kelly and Michael Caruso. With Kelly securing the fourth FPR seat (see separate story) and Caruso shopping elsewhere, Denyer has emerged as the most likely man to join Radisich.

Since the inception of TKR's V8 Supercar outfit in 2000,the team has maintained a preference toward New Zealand drivers, but with a lack of experienced talent about- be it Aussie, Kiwi or other internationals -TKR is expected to enter the Trans-Tasman line up of Radisich and Denyer.

To date,the only non-NZ driver to race forTKR is Adam Macrow, who subbed for Radisich at this year's Clipsal 500.

Denyer has contested the 2005 and 2006 Fujitsu V8 Series with Dick Johnson Racing, and made his main series debut with the Queensland team last year in the endurance races with Alex Davison,finishing ninth at Bathurst.

This year, Denyer has juggled his new role on the Seven Network as the host of Australia's Got Talent with driving the second Ford Rising Star Ford Falcon BA in the Fujitsu Series.

Denyer's stable role in a Fujitsu V8 team, plus his level-headed approach is what has made him the most likely man for the highly sought after Kiwi drive.

Denyer's role at Ford Rising Stars Racing, plus his personal deal with Ford also makes him the ideal candidate.

And his television attraction

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opportunities out there. We always said we weren't going to make a decision until after Pukekohe. We want to see how Paul goes there.

"We are looking at every single Kiwi drivers that we can.That's our first priority. We've always put the best Kiwi driver in our car. We want to see Kiwi drivers in there, but the commercial reality is we've got to get results.'

- GRANT ROWLEY

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is also an obvious carrot for the fledging TKR outfit. After a fund raising drive to secure the FPR Falcon for this season,TKR would love the extra television coverage come Bathurst time, although team owner David John insisted to MNews that driving talent is the key to securing the Kiwi ride at Sandown and Bathurst.

"We haven't made a decision yet," John said.

"But there are limited

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Tasman am MTA TASMAN Motorsport will carry backing from New Zealand's leading motor industry body,the Motor Trade Association (MTA),at this weekend's PlacemakersVS international at Pukekohe. Greg Murphy and Jason Richards both tested the team's pair of VE Commodores at Winton, with endurance signing Mark Noske also completing laps. Murphy's car was fitted with the team's newest development engine, and Richards also gets one in time for the weekend. n Peter Brock's untimely death in September prompted tributes were paid from all parts of the globe, most notably at Brock Skyline at Bathurst, where mourners were encouraged to sign their names on the wall at the top of the mountain. Unfortunately, those touching tributes no longer exist.

Despite suggestions that the tributes would be lacquered over, the Bathurst City Council has painted over them, just seven months after his death.

The world of motorsport every week - directly to your desktop

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IT'S ALL CHANGE! Motorsport eNews revolution Is coming

THERE will be 32 cars on the grid in the 2008 V8 Supercar Championship Series.

TEGA will soon advertise for Sale by Tender its currently unused #24 Level 2 licence, which is owned

by Romano Racing and which has most recently been used under a lease arrangement by Jack Daniel's Racing.The successful bidder for the licence will be invited to compete in the V8SCS,starting next season.

"It is not a small thing to commit to the series,"said

Just 6 sleeps to go Motorsport eNews to launch nextTuesday morning THE VERY first issue of Motorsport eNews will publish next Tuesday morning (April 24)and MN fans will for the first time be able to

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access their news weekly,via the desktopand FREE.

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TEGA General Manager Kelvin O'Reilly this week.

"We would not expect someone to start mid-season.'

A number of team currently competing in the Fujitsu V8 Supercar Series have already expressed a desire to step up into the Main Game,including Howard Racing, Decina Racing and current series leader,Tony D'Alberto Racing. However, it is also possible that a team currently competing in the V8SCS may want to expand ...

Response to the announcement in the last issue of MNews has been tremendous,with thousands of readers registering their email address for the weekly auto e-prompt.

"As we've discussed, it is a big change in the evolution of Motorsport News,"publisher Chris Lambden said on Monday.

"The world is a very different place than it was when we first launched Motorsport News 14 years ago.We believe that Motorpsort eNews represents the future in terms ofthe way people access their immediate news,and post event expert opinion etc.

"there's some terrific technology involved, which makes the whole thing very simie to access-we're sure readers will love it.

"While that will be our news vehicle, Motorsport News the printed magazine will continue to feature the in-depth, behind-thescenes features,interviews and so on that it ahs become famous for.

'We reckon it's an ideal combination."

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moiorsporiiiews

NEWS

Gear Shift A SUBSTANTIAL shift is coming in the way V8 Supercar drivers change gear.

There will be a change to the regulations regarding gearboxes in the categories and it looks likely that sequential shifts will be allowed in 2008 and beyond.

TEGA is in the process of arranging for a tender to update the class's Hollinger H6S transmission, which has been in use for more than 15 years.

And while there is no specific information about whether the

Also in contention is the unit made by Melbourne company Modena Engineering. Its own sequential box is already known to some V8 Supercar teams,as it has supplied Kelly Brothers with a unit for its K2 ride car, and one box was used in the ride car of SBR last season before being transferred to Paul Morris Motorsport's ride car.

With such a large number of units to be updated, it is also possible that international suppliers such as Xtrac and Hewland could tender for the

H-pattern will be a thing of the past, it seems unlikely that a modern design would incorporate anything but a sequential shift.

Hollinger already has a straightline unit designed to handle the needs of a 650hp V8 Supercar engine,the RD6, which was in use in limited quantities four years ago. However,concerns about the need to update as many as 100'boxes across the category at the time had the unit sidelined.

supply. One certainty is that TEGA will shift to a control unit, as opposed to the current system where the Hollinger H6S casing is mandatory and ratios are set but the make and specification of internals are not.

Under the current rules,tea ms can pick and choose suppliers, either Hollinger or Modena or. ^ in the case ofextremelywellheeled teams, make their own components.

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iiilW inijNMi mM WllllMliiD'WI: guess what you've won'erhail after the final closing date* I i k

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7

Lost in translation

999

WHO the hell is Loic Duval? Don't ask WPS Racing,they have no idea, despite a claim on the French A1 driver's wikipedia.com web page that states that Duval will drive for WPS Racing in this year's endurance races.

'There's no truth in all,"team manager Keith Evers said.

'It's strange. I have no idea where he got that from. I've never heard of him. We are a little amused.'

The WPS legal team are looking into the matter. n Speaking ofWPS Racing, its appeal over a Stewards'finding from Round 2 of the 2007 V8 Supercar Championship Series at Barbagallo Raceway has been dismissed. Max Wilson had been found guilty of careless driving gver an incident with John Bowe and had 23s added to his Race 1 time. The V8 Supercar Court of Appeal reviewed evidence on three grounds of appeal and confirmed that the appropriate penalty was applied. n TeamVodafone tested one of engine supplier's SBR Engines latest D3-headed motors at Queensland Raceway last week.The team was happy with the performance of the new unit but will revert to the older, C3-headed donk in NZ this week.They will race the older units until a suitable number of spares can be produced to allow the change to be permanent. n Cameron McConville will rack up his 100th V8 Supercar championship start at Pukekohe this weekend and will run with the #100 on his Supercheap Auto Racing Commodore - the number loaned for the weekend to the team by Kiwi Fujitsu Series racer Kayne Scott.

"It took me a long time to break into this category so I never dreamt of getting 100 rounds under my belt." said McConville.

McConville made his V8 series debut at Sandown in 1999 in a John Faulkner Racing-run VS Commodore. He will step into a different chassis to what he has driven at Adelaide and Barbagallo for this weekends'round.

In a hid to try and find some adjustability, something sorely lacking in flu* far tie has been racing thus far (the same chassis crashed at Adelaide ami Bathurst last year). Cam Mac v/lll dive into the i.ir he raced for the iiiajoiilyot 2000 after the Adelaide crash.

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SBR's Fujitsu Series kid odds-on to be'loaned'back to PCR for V8 enduros STONE Brothers Racing's Fujitsu V8 Supercar Series driver Jonathon Webb has firmed as the

Given his recent V8 Supercar experience and familiarity with PCR,Webb would have to start as

favourite to line up alongside John Bowe in the Glenfords/Paul Cruickshank Racing Falcon for Sandown and Bathurst.

It would be something of a return for the 23-year-old, right, who made his V8 debut for the team alongside Marcus Marshall in the enduros last year and also raced in the Carrera Cup for the Gold Coast-based squad.

Webb sits third in the Fujitsu Series after his first race win in the category at the recent Wakefield Park round.

He would have the added benefit at Bathurst of racing in his regular #94 SBR Falcon in the Fujitsu Series championship round

the favourite to pair up with Bowe, who will be making his last start in the two endurance classics.

Bowe is a three-time Sandown 500 winner and a two-time Bathurst 1000 winner.

PCR has three Carrera Cup drivers in Bryce Washington, Aaron Caratti and Michael Trimble in addition to David Wall, who runs his car out of the team's workshops.

All have never raced a V8 Supercar and, with other experienced endurance drivers being snapped up quickly in the last few weeks, MNews expects Webb to line-up alongside Bowe come September and October.

-AARON NOONAN

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in addition to the main race with Bowe.

MNews understands that Webb will test with PCR at its next test day at Queensland Raceway and would be at the forefront of a bunch of hopefuls who will test in the team's #111 Falcon.

Murcho to slot into a V8?

ONE driver who may be a surprise addition to the V8 Supercar grid come enduro time is Christian Murchison.

The A1 Team Singapore driver has been in talks with several V8 teams regarding the Sandown and Bathurst rounds, but it yet to come up with a deal.

The most likely option is Brad Jones Racing, with Murchison holding a solid link with Jones, thanks to Ids involvement in the Audi drive days.

"I've hit thccm U[3 for an enduro gig, let's put it that way," said Murchison.

"But with this game there's no promises. It's nothing like a done deal and I think it depends on some other people's plans. But I'd love to be on the grid come the enduros with someone."

One grid that Murcho is likely to be on is the A1GP grid at Brands Hatch.The Singapore squad missed last weekend's round at Shanghai because of budget constraints. However they are planning to be ready for the final round in England at the end of this month.

-ANDREW VAN LEEUWEN

moiorsport news

NEWS,, —

D'Albeitojoins Autobam Fujitsu Series leader to pair up with Steve Owen for enduros; renews link with Independent Race Cars gra^i,! rowley TONY D'Alberto will suit up alongside Steve Owen at Autobarn Racing in the Sandown and Bathurst V8 Supercar endurance races this year.

D'Alberto, the Fujitsu V8 Supercar Series leader, will drive the #55 Autobarn-sponsored entry, prepared by Marty Brant's Independent Race Car team, running for Rod Nash Racing.

The team will make an announcement confirming its endurance choice in D'Alberto, below right, in the coming weeks.

D'Alberto's drive in the Autobarn entry is a return of sorts for the Victorian.

The 21-year-oid completed his first full Development Series with Brant's iRC outfit back in 2004, before moving into his own car the following season.

D'Alberto has scored six overall podium finishes in his four year Development Series career, with his first victory coming at Wakefield Park three weeks ago.

He currently leads the series over Michael Caruso with a heaithy 27 point buffer.

He and Owen will drive the exMorris VZ Commodore used by the team since the start of last season rather than update to a VE for the enduro events.

Owen was strong at the enduros in the same car last year, qualifying in theTop 10 Shootout at Sandown before he and Tony Longhurst finished a very handy seventh at Bathurst, running on the lead lap at race's end.

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Owen Kfor FPR And look for him in the Castro! car with Richo.

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OWEN Kelly has won the final seat in Ford Performance Racing's endurance squad for the Sandown and Bathurst events.

While the team has stated that the actual driver combinations will be announced at a later date, MNews believes Kelly will team with Steven Richards in the Castrol EDGE Falcon, while Kiwi Champ Car driver Matt Halliday will join MarkWinterbottom in

the Orrcon machine.

It's a return to the team for Kelly, who drove alongside David Besnard in the 2003 enduros in the first year of operation for FPR. The 30-year-old recently took part in a corporate ride day with the team at Barbagallo alongside Michael Caruso and Grant Denyer, with Caruso expected now to drive for Team BOC and Denyer to line up with Team Kiwi alongside Paul Radisich.

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Spanish Holiday MCLAREN will be running aerodynamic tests on the island of Menorca, off the coast of Spain, on April 25-26.

The Sant Luis aerodrome has one of the longest runways in Europe and it has recently been resurfaced in the hope of attracting new business.

As Britain's Elvington airfield is now highly restricted, Sant Luis may soon be attracting a lot of FI work. n Now you can buy Formula 1 sponsorships on eBay. The Spyker team has linked up with a Dutch media agency. Media Republic,to offer four exposures on its racecars to the highest bidder. Space on the engine cover was priced at about US$4,000,000, on the side of the nose at US$1,328,000, on the rear wing endplates at US$1,000,000, and on the top of the noseconeatUS$66S,000.

The auction [http://members.ebay. nl/ws/eBaylSAPI.dll\?ViewUserPage &userid=spykerf1] was scheduled to run from 6-16 April but, at the time of writing, no bids had been made.

ferrari flavour country THE Ferrari FI cars appeared in Bahrain with branding from Marlboro, despite the fact that tobacco advertising was supposed to have finished in FI at the end of 2006.

The deal to stop promoting cigarettes in FI was agreed back in 2001 when Philip Morris (Marlboro's parent), British American Tobacco and Japan Tobacco signed an agreement known as the "International Tobacco Products Marketing Standards"in which the companies involved declared the intention to end sports sponsorships on December 1 2006,"on the understanding that . the sports involved required above-average physical fitness for someone of the age group of those taking part."

Formula 1 certainly met that criteria.

The three companies pledged to comply with the standards"as

n Adrian Newey,the technical director of the Red Bull Racing Formula 1 team,will miss the 2007 US Grand Prix - because he will be racing in the Le Mans 24 Hours. The former Williams and McLaren design engineer will team up with two friends, FIA GT competitors Ben Aucott and Joe Macari, who have arranged to race a GT2 Ferrari 430 run by Antonio Ferrari's AF Corse team. Newey raced last year on the full Circuit de la Sarthe in the Le Mans Classic race, but crashed his own FordGT40. n Nigel Mansell will race a Scuderia Ecosse Ferrari 430 6T car in the FIA GT Championship race at Silverstone on May 6. It is 15 years since Mansell won the Formula 1 World Championship and 12 since he departed FI after an embarrassing interlude with McLaren.

He returned to racing three years later taking part in three British Touring Car races in a Ford Mondeo. In 2004 he popped up again driving a Jordan in the London FI demonstration in Regent Street and has since become a shareholder and driver in the Grand Prix Masters series.

H WilliatnsF l has announced a new partnership agreement with AirAsia, one of tlie region's fastest growrng flisrountanliiies.

SAWAHD/SPIIfIRING/STAFF \0

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quickly as possible, and in any event no later than 12 months from the date that it subscribes to the standards or, where existing contractual provisions prevent earlier compliance, in any event

by December 31,2002."

In February 2006 Japan Tobacco announced its intention to withdraw from Formula 1, citing its commitment to the agreement and in October British American Tobacco followed suit saying that it was"honouring a commitment to leave FI by the end of this year-a move consistent with the International Marketing Standards which it voluntarily subscribed to in 2001 along with its two major international tobacco company competitors."

Marlboro, however,seems to have a different interpretation of events with Maurizio Arrivebene, the Vice-President of Marlboro

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Motorsport Marketing, arguing that the International Marketing Standards were"not successful" because"the self-imposed restrictions envisioned by these voluntary marketing standards were not broadly adopted, provided no gain to society and put us at a competitive disadvantage."

This rather odd move is sure to stir up trouble even if the other signatories to the agreement have left the sport. Anti-smoking campaigners are unlikely not to notice the cars and there is a danger that the move will annoy the World Health Organisation sufficiently to create even stronger interantional legislation ot stop cross-border activity.

- JOE SAWARD

Eastern HoN-Dave

Bernie wants GP2 Asia

PRODRIVE is expected to unveil the details of its 2008 Formula 1 program at the British Grand Prix in July.

Principal David Richards appeared in Bahrain explaining that he was"on holiday" with his family in nearby Kuwait.

He is expected to announce sponsorship details of a two-car team that will use the current model McLaren-Mercedes MP4/22S and one of the drivers likely to be involved will come from current McLaren's current test squad.

Depending on the branding of sponsorship,that means that Pedro de la Rosa and Gary Paffett are in line for a seat, though with four British drivers already on the grid, the Spaniard may have a slight edge over the Englishman.

Richards says his plan is to have cars testing in December.

-JOE SAWARD

A GP2 series may be established in Asia.

The high-cost series, which replaced Formula 3000 in 2005, may embark on a second series to allow its teams to defray some of the costs associated with running a competitive team in the Formula 1 feeder series.

While there is no publicly-confirmed information on the series'ownership, it is widely accepted that Bernie Ecclestone and Flavio Briatore are involved in some way and that they are seeking a new opportunity to involve its owners during the summer off-season.

Coincidentally, this would also discourage the teams that are already involved with the struggling A1 Grand Prix Series.

Last weekend saw a clash between GP2 in Bahrain and A1 Grand Prix in Shanghai and the quality of the field in China was very poor in comparison to the usual entry when the GP2 drivers are available.

Ecclestone also sees a GP2 series in Asia as being a good way to expand FI interest in the emerging markets as local fans will eventually have drivers to cheer for in FI. This has always been the key to success in FI's markets, although experience shows that really big booms in national interest in FI depend on the drivers involved winning races. Just being there is not enough.

In other GP2 news, Bahrain Crown Prince Shaikh Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa says that he hopes to see an Arab FI driver within the next five years and is putting his money where his mouth is with the purchase of 30 percent of the ART Grand Prix GP2 team and its sister operation ASM in Formula 3.

- JOE SAWARD

motorsporl news

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NEWS %

The Honda dream is over Honda techs decide to pull the pin on RA107 development HONDA Racing will abandon its troubled RA107.

races of the season. Indeed, Ant Davidson commented on the weekend that he was

The English-based team, which has struggled in all three Grands Prix so far this season, has embarked on a fundamental rethink of its

disappointed not to have made the final top10 session in qualifying at Bahrain, proving that there are no fundamental problems with the V8 engines shared by both teams.

The new version of the car will feature completely revised aerodynamics, while the new-from-the-ground up car is not expected to be track tested until the FI circus returns

aerodynamic concept. A substantially revised car will be ready for the Spanish Grand Prix and a full RAl 07B solution will follow as soon as possible.

Team principal Nick Fry is thought to be under great pressure to turn around the fortunes of the team.There were high hopes that there would be victories this season, after Jenson Button's win at the Hungaroring in 2006, and the performance of the team has been underlined by the fact that the current car is more than a second off the front-running pace.

To worsen matters,the rushed-to-finish cars from Super Aguri have substantially out performed the works team in the first three

from its North American swing in mid-June.

Meanwhile, Fry has clarified that his team has not made an offer to former Ferrari Technical Director Ross Brawn, who is taking a one-year sabbatical. Fry declined to deny the offer in Malaysia but last weekend,did so; "No,it's not true," he said."I made one comment in Malaysia that I'm sure there are a number of people who might be interested in Ross.

"In my view he's an incredibly talented person

and he would be an asset to most of the Formula 1 teams.

"I also added at the time that I thought Ferrari would have some kind of arrangement with Ross.

"You don't let a person of that talent go without having something, whether it be written or verbal, and I was told that Jean (Todt) or Ferrari had confirmed that was the case.

"I'm sure there are a number of people interested in him but we will see what happens later in the year and maybe he Vv'ill go back to Ferrari and maybe he won't and will go fly fishing, I don't know.

"The team principals talk to a lot of people all the time and we are no exception, but obviously in our situation we have spoken to a number of technically adept people."

- QUENTIN SPURRING/STAFF

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The customer is maybe right THERE is still no solution to the customer car issue.

Meetings and discussions over the course of the last two weeks have failed to provide a solution to the problem.

Following a protest in Melbourne against Super Aguri by the Spyker Formula 1 team,the Dutch-owned team filed a similar protest in Malaysia against Scuderia Toro Rosso.The stewards in Melbourne had ruled that the matter could not be judged on the basis of the regulations, because it was covered only in the Concorde Agreement,a commercial contract. It is understood Spyker wants a similar ruling in respect of STR before it goes into arbitration.

The matters will now be heard when the teams return to Europe.

There are lot of rumours suggesting that Dietrich Mateschitz of Red Bull has told the FIA and FOM that if it cannot run two teams with the same cars it will pull out of FI.This probably explains the many stories suggesting that shares in Scuderia Toro Rosso are available.They are probably not available but it makes sense to say they are to worry those who do not want customer teams.

One possible solution would be for manufacturers to agree to sub-contract their racing requirements to the private teams, as now happens with McLaren and Mercedes-Benz, rather than being directly involved as has been the trend of late.

- JOE SAWARD/QUENTIN SPURRING

www.mnews.com.au

11

Hold your Foxes ...er horses V8 Supercar fans-may have got a little excited last week when they saw V8 Supercars on Fox Sports. We can tell our readers who have enquired that no,there is no deal struck between V8SA and Fox and what you saw were highlights of the Clipsal 500 as part of the Motorsport Mundial program that is produced overseas with a range of other categories also shown. n Will Power's Las Vegas Champ Car win wasn't only the first win by an Australian in the category. It was Walker Racing's first victory since 1999, when Gil de Ferran drove the team's Valvoline Reynard/Honda. n Formula 3 racer Leanne Tander will have to become her own truck driver for this weekend's round of the Australian F3 Series at Oran Park! With regular'truckle'husband Garth busy going round and round at Pukekohe, Leanne has gone and got her truck licence and will do the job herself.

Tander sat out the Queensland Raceway F3 round last year when it clashed with the Sandown 500 but will compete this weekend as she looks to improve on her fourth place in the championship. n The 2008 Australian Sprintcar Title will be held at Parramatta City Raceway over three nights of racing on January 31 and February 1 and 2. The championships will be the first to be held under the new 410-engine rule that is scheduled to be introduced into Australian Sprintcar racing by the SCCA in July this year. n Watch the NASCAR Nextel Cup race over the weekend from Texas? Recognise the guy who was the Grand Marshall for the race? Yep,the Texas Rattlesnake, Stone Cold Steve Austin himself was the man giving the command to start engines. While retired from WWE wrestling, we just couldn't help but see if he delivered a'Stone Cold Stunner'to uiiy of the NASCAR drivers who gave him anybackchat... n German sports car manufacturer KUF Automobile celebrated the opening of its new factory at the Kahrain Intetnational Circuit by lanmliing the new RDF(1113 .siipercar in front of the 11 world, lire factory will operate alongside RIIFs traditional home of f'faffenhausen in (icrmany.

12

AUSTRALIAN Champ Car fans were left puzzled last week when they went to tune in to watch Will Power's breakthrough race victory in Las Vegas and the follow-up round in Long Beach.

And it seems that there's an interesting game of competitive 'notour problem'going on in the background between former broadcaster Channel Ten and Gold Coast race-only broadcaster Network Seven.

While Seven will show the Aussie Gold Coast round including the V8 Supercars, it hasn't committed to showing any further CCWS races on the 2007 calendar as the rights for the series remain up for grabs.

Flowever, without the lure of the local race, other networks have shied away from the rest of the Champ Car schedule and look like remaining that way.

After spending the last 10 years on Network Ten, it's the first time that the Champ Car World Series hasn't been covered on Australian television since 1992, prethe arrival in the category of Nigel Mansell.

Previously Nine had shown

only the Indianapolis 500, before expanding to showing the full series in the wake of the arrival of the series to the Gold Coast and Mansell's addition in 1993.

"We really can't show them,"Ten's Sport Marketing and Publicity Manager Gus Seebeck told MNews on Monday.

"Our original contract with Champ Car was effectively linked to the V8 rights. If we lost the V8 rights, then our contract

with Champ Car is effectively terminated."

Flying in the face of what seems to be claimed by Seven, he said that the races come as a package.

"The Australian round is linked to all other rounds. You can't pick and choose. It's a year-long contract encompassing all rounds.

VVe would be more than happy to cover it, but it s no longer available for us to telecast."

Our sources suggest that no free to air network has shown any interest in the rights at the current asking price, leaving the only option for coverage as Fox Sports.

Flowever,the pay TV sport channel already has its hands full with NASCAR, A1 Grand Prix, Moto GP and World Superbikes ’ and seems unlikely to come to the party.

MNews believes that Seven is under the impression that Ten still holds the rights to all races bar the Gold Coast and management was mystified when enquiries were referred to Seven by Ten's switchboard operators...

For more,see opinion on page 28.

motorsport mews

NEWS

THE inaugural WPS 12 Hour has passed the test and will return to the Mountain in 2008, according to race organisers.

A meeting next week between the Bathurst International Motor Festival's James O'Brien, CAMS members and other key officials will sort through the positives and negatives, with all signs pointing towards a bigger and better 12 Hour race next year.

All things considered, we are very happy with the first event,"Craig Denyertold MNews.

'We were a bit disappointed by the numbers, but the depth offield was good.When you look at the field, there were a lot of good cars out there. It should be noted that only 24 cars started the 1991 race. We had 32,and the depth was good.

'The race itself was quite outstanding and all the leading manufacturers were pretty equally paced.

'We've had plenty of positive feedback from the

WPS youth push

competitors,and we even had one manufacturer approach us straight after the race.

"A lot of people sat back and watched how the first event unfolded.There seems to be a positive ground swell of sentiment towards the race, so I'd say the future looks bright.'

A survey will be sent out to all competing teams and key competitors soon to further gauge feedback on the event.

The 12 Hour was held over the Easter long weekend as part of the Bathurst International Motor Festival. Official attendance figures released totalled 27,348 attendees over the weekend.

-GRANT ROWLEY For more on the BIMF,see Opinion (page 28), 12 Hour report(page 54),and National Scene (page 68).

●■H i,*

'

Ceppy's working on bits for Gorey's mob as well...

WPS RACING has adopted a youth policy by hiring four young engineers in its quest for its first podium finish in V8 Supercars.

The Queensland-based team has taken on two new design engineers and two new data engineers to bolster its engineering department.

While the team attempted to hire more experienced staff, team manager Keith Evers told MNews that he is delighted with his youthful crew.

"This is the strongest engineering team we've had since the team has been together," he said.

"A couple of the new guys have some V8 Supercar experience, and some of them haven't had any at all. It's so difficult thesedays to get guys with loads of experience, so we have picked some young, smart people with a lot of potential." www.mnews.com.ad

With no new car on the horizon (the team stiil use the old 00 Motorsport Falcons!), they have scored a minor coup from Pace Innovations.

Paul Ceprnich's project-based design, development and construction business will supply new front end components, along with other new projects that are being worked on.

There has also been changes to the make-up of the WPS team's regular engineers, after Max Wilson's engineer Ian Brown was injured in a non-racing related incident before Perth.

Brown suffered significant head injuries and will be away from the racing scene for some time.

Mark Penning took over Brown's duties on the #8 car in Perth and will continue on Wilson's car for the forseeable future.

-GRANT ROWLEY

A wait in Adelaide town A DECISION won’t be made until mid-year on whether the Victoria Park racecourse - around which the Adelaide V8 Supercar street circuit is laid out - will be heritage listed.

Opposition to redevelopment of the area has helped slow things with a determination from the Australian Heritage Council next on the agenda.

The South Australian State Government decision has offered a scaled down version of the development to meet Adelaide City Council guidelines, however it seems that the bid to have the park heritage listed is a strategy to delay the building to be used by the SA Jockey Club and the Clipsal 500.

13

APRIL 200

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More remarkably, our photographers were awake to capture it . . .

How else would you celebrate 15 years of '° Porsche Supercup but to line up this year's fleet in Bahiain?

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Audi get ready for a third RIO at Le Mans FOUR of Audi's DIM race drivers, Mattias Ekstrom, Lucas Luhr, Aiexandre Premat and Mike Rockenfeiier, took part in an extended,30-hour test of an R10TDI Le Mans Prototype on the Paul Ricard test facility in France.

They are in line to drive the Audi Sport Team Joest entry in the Le Mans 24 Hours in June, although it has not yet been confirmed that the third RIO will be raced alongside the two regular Audi Sport North America racecars.

Audi Motorsport director Wolfgang Ullrich commented:"All four approached the task in the professional manner I expected.

They all immediately reached an exceptionally good level and more than fulfilled my expectations." n Opel,6M's German-based automotive brand which withdrew from the DTM two years ago, is evaluating a new track racing programme in the World Touring Car Championship. Its base model is expected to be the Astra.

Opel could compete against Chevrolet, which is currently participating along with factory teams from BMW and SEAT and a works-supported Alfa Romeo operation. n Brit Adam Carroll has signed to drive in the DTM.The open-wheeler star, who won three GP2 races last year, will move into a 2005-model Audi A4 for Team Futurecom alongside Vanina Ickx.

He had been looking for opportunities to join the Champ Car World Series and tested for Forsythe Racing late last year, but will now make his touring car debut in the opening round at Hockenheim this weekend. n The World Touring Car Championship is set to run on bio fuel from 2009 onwards. Bio-ethanol fuel will be introduced to the FIA WTCC alongside unleaded petrol and diesel in 2008, before a switch to an exclusive bio fuel powered championship in 2009, n Mikhail Aleshin, a 19-yearold Russian v/on the first major international race victory for a Russian when he look a win in the Renault World Series event at Monza on the vzeekend. The Carlin Motorsport driver beat a number ol rising stars, including BMW's Sebastian Vetiel and Dutchman Giedo Van tier Garde.

QUENTIN SPURRING 10

Dyk stays in nd fbrAIGPfinal^ I

IAN Dyk will finish the A1GP season as the lead driver for A1 Team Australia despite a disappointing weekend in Shanghai.

Having finished on the podium on debut in Mexico City three weeks ago, Dyk endured a tough time on the smoother and wider Chinese circuit, running outside the Top 10 before retiring from the Feature Race.

But he has confirmed that he will be in the driver's seat come the final round at Brand Hatch later this month.

"Team Australia still have plenty of confidence in me, and I'm really looking forward to Brands Hatch because it's very similar to Mexico,"

I

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Dyk told MNews. ^ "I'm confident we can find the^gA. pace. Running in the mid-to-low^^ teens like we did last weekend isn't where I want to be, so if we can finish the season strongly at Brands it will be ideal."

While Dyk is yet to cement any plans for the remainder of the season, he is already looking at a full assault on next year's A1GP Series.

"If I can keep my backside in' an open-wheeler then I'm sure 1 will be with the team again next season," he said.

"The feedback from the team has been fantastic so we'll be looking to keep that link going."

-ANDREW VAN LEEUWENr; J

HRT and Wodonga TAPE boot a red goal Student ofthe Year lands spot on the Toddler's VE MOTORSPORTSTraining Australia (MTA), a business division of Wodonga TAPE, has kicked a goal, with its 2006 Student of the Year gaining employment at the Holden Racing Team.

Simon Ellison, right, was awarded Student of the year after completing Certificate III In Motorsports.

When HRT approached MTA about employing a number three mechanic forTodd Kelly's #22 Commodore, Ellison got the chance of his lifetime.

"This is the first time we have sourced a trainee from MTA," HRT team manager Rob Starr said.

"Simon comes to us with the sort of practical industry

experience you don't usually find in trainees, which is a testament to the excellent training and knowledgeable staff at MTA. He has settled straight into the team and already has a great working knowledge of the industry."

Ellison is ecstatic will his new position.

"I am now living the dream of many young, up-and-coming motor sport students - working with a high profile V8 Supercar team and some of the best people in the game," he said.

MTA is the only Motorsports Specialist Centre in Victoria and one of only two centres to offer training up to Diploma level in Australia.

motorsport news

NEWS m

J ouuu JOHN Martin endured a tough debut in the British Formula 3 Championship at Oulton Park a fortnight ago.

Martin and Alan Docking Racing struggled for'pace at the notoriously fast circuit, with the reigning Australian Formula Ford Champion finishing the two races 14th and 12th respectively.

"It was a pretty tough way to kick things off," said Martin.

"Oulton Park is a pretty difficult place.There are lots of blind apexes and corner exits, plus we had some engine trouble in qualifying

which really put us on the back foot."

The series continues this weekend at Donnington, with Martin expecting to be closer to the pace.

"I'm sure this weekend will be better," he said.

"We tested there before and we didn't go too bad in the wet, so I'm sure we'li be closer to where we need to be."

Marko Asmer leads the series after taking a first and a second away from the opening round, with Maro Engel also taking a win.

Since the opening British F3 round, Martin almost found himself back in the Spectrum

011 b Formula Ford that he took to victory at Brands Hatch last year.

He was on standby at Silverstone last weekend as part of a test for young Finn Jesse Krohn, whp will pilot the car for the rest of the UK Formula Ford Championship starting at Donington this weekend.

In the end, Krohn equipped himself well enough not to require Martin to drive the car.

It will be the first time an international driver has raced a Aussie-built Spectrum chassis overseas.

- ANDREW VAN LEEUWEN

Sladefor NZ TRS FUJITSU V8 Supercar racer Tim Slade will return to his open wheeler roots this weekend, becoming the latest Australian to race in the New Zealand Toyota Racing Series.

Slade, who finished runnerup in last year's Australian Formula Ford Championship and drives the Dexion Falcon in the Fujitsu Series, will drive the European Techniques car of Trevor Sheumack at Pukekohe this weekend.

Being a TRS rookie, Slade will have his first taste of the winged machine today(Wednesday) at a test atTaupo before the race this weekend.

Slade will be accompanied to New Zealand by Sonic team boss Michael Ritter.

"The opportunity came up with Trevor and I spoke to Michael after the Albert Park Grand Prix about helping out,"said Slade. www.mnews.com.au

"It's a one-off thing at the moment, but if anything came up in the future 1 would look at doing some more. It's worked out well because we can tie it in with Dexion's launch into New Zealand, so they've come on board to join the team's existing sponsors.

"The two Giltrap team cars are pretty quick,so realistically if we could run in the top five I'd be pretty happy."

AARON NOONAN 17

Former World Champ ready to help at Ducati TROY Bayliss was fit to race in last weekend's round of the World Superbike Championship but Ducati Corse had a pretty good backup rider on standby - Neil Hodgson.

The former world champion was signed by the team to replace for injured Bridgestone test rider Shinichi Itoh and, by default, became a backup for the Aussie, who lost a finger in a major crash at Donington Park three weeks ago.

Bayliss was cleared to rider after 15 stitches were removed from his hand and motored to third and sixth in the two races at Valencia the venue of his MotoGP win last November.

"My injuries are not that big,"said Bayliss after the race, "they haven't hurt me all weekend and they haven't been a factor in me not doing so well.

"The first race was okay, but the second was a bit disappointing.

We really struggled with the settings an’Slf workedthetyres-- ^

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Varying the View AS if being the most popular rider in the MotoGP paddock is not enough, Valentino Rossi will soon be seen in varying paint jobs.

The seven-time World Champion and team-mate Colin Edwards will revisit the 2006 season, when their Yamahas carried different liveries from race to race. Reports indicate that the different (and, no doubt, highly collectable) liveries will start at Jerez this weekend.

Great news, and we want to see the Yamaha USA hues arjain, please

Vale...

18

"I lost 10 points on James (Toseland) but the whole plan | was to make up points on him not to lose them.That's the way it is sometimes. Now I'm looking forward to going to Assen (on April 29), it's a great track and it should be fun."

Hodgson remains on standby for both SBK and MotoGP duties, should the need arise. A number of riders are contracted to the end of this season and Hodgson, who lost his AMA Superbike ride when Ducati pulled out of the US series, is determined to race something, somewhere, next year.

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ROBERTO Locatelli is aiming to return to racing in six weeks'time at Mugello.

Locatelli, 32, suffered a broken leg and major facial injuries at Jerez three weeks ago and was in a coma for days following his horrific fall at Jerez. The 250cc GP ace will require further surgery on his face and collarbone but is hopeful of racing at his home event.

The 32-year old is unable to walk on the leg that he broke in his crash at Jerez, and he could still require further surgery on his face.

"I'm making progress every day," he told Italy's Motosprint magazine.

"Maybe I could be back in time for Mugello. It would be nice."

His Gilera team still have no cause of the accident.

"We need to understand if something happened to the bike,"

he said. "I've learned that it's either the rider or the bike

not working properly, and I don't think I made a riding mistake.

"I can't remember the accident, probably because of the blow. The bike destroyed itself, so now it's hard to understand whether some part broke before the impact.

"I think I can make it in one month, which means I could really be able to race at Mugello. After all I'm making progress every day. I've already tried to get up, but I can't put weight on the foot, the leg hurts too much. At the moment the right leg won't be operated on: the fracture is more like a crack.

We'll see what [Mobile Clinica's] Dr [Claudio] Costa says."

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altrip scores a pole But not the one on the track that the Toyota owner/driver desperately needs Supercross Star to ^ drive for Little E JEREMY McGrath has become the latest Supercross motorcycle star set to join the NASCAR ranks following on the heels of Ricky Carmichael, who signed recently with Ginn Racing.

McGrath, a seven-time champion, will enter 10 races for Dale Earnhardt Jr's JR Motorsports and,just like Carmichael, will be driving in the Late Model Stock Series with backing from Monster Energy Drink. n Thirty five drivers have been named to the 38 cars entered for this year's Indy 500, with four previous winners and only one rookie (Milka Duno)on the entry list. In addition to Ryan Briscoe's one-off IndyCar start for the year,there's a host ofother once-ayear Indy drivers on the list.

Frenchman Stephan Gregoire will drive for Chastain Motorsports, PJ Jones for Team Leader Racing and other entries have been filed

by Hemelgarn Racing and Cabbie Motorsports, who are yet to announce drivers. For the latter we'd suggest any cabbie in either Sydney or Melbourne it's sure to be an entertaining ride! n Speaking of Indy 500 entries, 1996 race winner Buddy Lazier is returning to the Brickyard in partnership with Sam Schmidt Motorsports.

Schmidt, who was paralysed in an IndyCar testing accident in 2000, has since turned his hand to team ownership with success, winning last year's Indy Pro Series with Brit Alex Lloyd and running sixth with Richie Hearn at Indy in 2002.

B The first hearing in the continuing AT&T versus NASCAR law suit to allow the phone company to replace Cingular - which it recently purchased - as sponsor on the Jeff Burton Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet is set for April 26 in the Atlanta District court.

B Joe Gibbs Radng had all three of its Nextel Cup teams using the new Chevrolet R07 engine at Texas Motor Speedway last week, while Hendrirk Motorsports had the Casey Meats and Kyle Busch cars running the newly-designed motor along with a lone Ricliard (hildress entry lor Scott Wiminer.

MARTIN OCLARK/STAFF 20

MICHAEL Waltrip's year continues to take a slide after the Toyota NASCAR team owner/driver was involved in a road accident that he failed to report.

On April 1, Waltrip crashed his personal vehicle at around 130am around a mile from his house in the North Carolina countryside.

Apparently, he went off the road at a speed exceeding 112 kmh in a 88 kmh zone and rolled his 2006 Toyota SUV into a telegraph pole, which struck the vehicle in the windscreen area making the car a total loss.

State law requires the person involved to report an accident to the police if damage exceeds US$1000. However, Waltrip failed to do so and walked home after the incident.

A law enforcement officer went to his home around 2.30am and Waltrip was not to be found and the State Trooper did not interview him until 8pm the night after the crash, where he was cited

for failing to notify authorities in a timely manner and reckless driving.

He will appear in court in midMay this year.

Waltrip claims he fell asleep at the wheel, had no idea he had to report the accident, did not go home to avoid the police and that alcohol was not a factor.

"I am really embarrassed about the accident, but I feel fortunate that I wasn't hurt,"said Waltrip in a prepared statement.

"For 25 years I have had a great driving record. I consider myself to be a courteous and safe driver on public roads. I never expected to fall asleep behind the wheel of a car."

Much like his fuel crisis in Daytona,the truth will probably never come out as to what actually happened.

With his three Nextel Cup Toyota Camrys continuing to miss races' and perform poorly, the pressure on one of only two owner/drivers in NASCAR's Nextel Cup has to be unimaginable.

- MARTIN D ,CLARK

Tracy injured Back injury benches Canadian;Servia in FORSYTHE Racing's Paul Tracy will be forced to sit on the sidelines of the Champ Car World Series for an as yet undetermined timeframe.

Spaniard Oriol Servia replaced the Canadian on the weekend at Long Beach,after Tracy suffered a / compression fracture to his first lumbar vertebrae during a practice accident on Saturday.

Servia qualified the #3 Panoz/Cosworth 14th and looks likely to again fill the seat this weekend for the third-consecutive round in three weekends at Houston.

"This is obviously a very unfortunate situation; it's really a shame because it pretty much ruins the championship for us this year,"said Tracy.

"I was coming offTurn 1 and got back on the throttle pretty hard and the car just snapped around, I went head on into the wall and then the car jumped up in the air and then slammed back on the ground.

"I could tell something was wrong right away. Now I'm just going to go home and rest for a couple of days and then early this week we'll start figuring out the best recovery options so I can get back in the car as soon as possible.

"I feel OK right now after all the medication that the doctors gave me, but I'm just sore and stiff and I just need some rest."

- PHIL MORRIS

motorsDort news

NEWS m

Briscoe back to the Brickyard

Penske satellite squad to run Aussie Ryan in one-off IndyCar race among Porsche commitments Rbil]morris AUSSIE Ryan Briscoe will add an attack on the Indianapolis 500 to his 2007 Penske racing program.

The Porsche-Penske American Le Mans Series racer will drive *

a Dallara/Honda in the IndyCar classic on May 27 for LuczoDragon Racing, which will lease a car and equipment from the Penske squad.

It will be Briscoe's second start at the Brickyard. He raced forTarget Chip Ganassi Racing in 2005 and finished 10th after starting 24th on the grid.

He arrived after a late call-up by AJ Foyt's team last year but didn't make a qualifying attempt as time ran out.

"My experience at the Speedway provides me with a lot of confidence as I head into my second month of May at Indianapolis,"said Briscoe.

"I am looking forward to the chance to build on what I experienced as a rookie."

"It's great to have the support of Porsche and Penske. It means I can attack each and every single race knowing two of the biggest forces in motorsport are 100 percent behind me.

"The opportunity of an Indianapolis 500 programme with

Luczo-Dragon Racing is a bonus and I am confident we will have the car, the crew and the right people behind us to make a real go of it."

Backing for the venture comes from data management company Symantec.The team is jointly owned by Roger Penske's son Jay and Los Angeles-based entrepreneur Steve Luczo.

Long-time International Race of Champions (IROC) head Jay Signore is the team manager.

POSITION VACANT PWR Racing require a machinist to head up its newly formed machine shop operation.

Must have current CNC experience, knowledge of Unigraphic CAD system preferable. Able to work in a team enviroment If you feel you have the experience and motivation to work in the V8 Supercar industry contact Jeff Grech at PWR Racing.

Wk: 03 9793 6907 Email: jeff.grech@pwrracir

This all feels a little familiar: Briscoe's last start at Indy came in 2005 driving for Chip Ganassi. The rookie finished 10th.

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TECHNICAL DIRECTOR - V8 SUPERCARS Based EitherSouth East Queensland or Melbourne TouringCar Entrants Group Australia wishes to appoint a suitably qualified Technical Director to manage the technical responsibilities oftheVS Supercar Championship Series.

Reporting to the General Manager you will be required to manage the technical aspects and regulations ofthe Championship so as to ensure its stability,long term growth,success and sustainability. You will be required to work in conjunction with TEGA's permanent and casual technical staff to ensure compliance with our technical rules and safety standards and will be required to have: Degree level qualifications in Mechanical Engineering or similar; Ability to create engineering drawings using a current CAD technology; Thorough knowledge of metallurgy; Practical knowledge of aerodynamics would be an advantage; Experience of motorsport or high performance engines will be highly regarded; Good,current IT experience;

Minimum often years practical experience in automotive or aerospace industries or similar; Good people skills and the ability to manageTEGA's technical staff and chair Technical Advisory Panel meetings; Ability to establish and adhere to operational budgets; Ability to interact with race team members in an intensely competitive environment.

The successful applicant will be required to travel to V8 Supercar events on a regular basis. Expected salary package $120,000 neg.

Applications in writing providing full details of qualifications and experience should be submitted to; The General Manager, TEGA Pty Ltd, PO Box 5446, Q Supereentre Mermaid Waters, Old 421© by no later than 30 April, 20017.

wwuu.mnews.com.au

21

ally Ozstill homeless

Junior Upgrade .

LOOK out Markko Martin, there's a new Estonian on the World Rally Championship cards.

Urmo Aava will run a Mitsubishi Lancer WRC car in the Acropolis, Finnish, New Zealand and Welsh rounds of the World Championship, those being the events that won't clash with his Junior WRC program.

Aava is currently second in the Junior standings.

■ M-Sport has blamed a material defect for the technical irregularity that saw the Focus WRC cars receive a time penalty at last months' Portuguese Rally.

The Fords were deemed to have rear side windows that contained material 0.4mm thinner than the regulations allow.

"The error was traced to a batch of base raw material which had a defect that wasn't identified at production stage by the long-term supplier, or when it was delivered to M-Sport as the finished article," read a statement from M-Sport.

"The supplier has rectified the problem and all rear side windows we have in stock are being replaced. MSport has also accepted that its quality control procedure at Dovenby Hall did not pick up this defect, and changes have now been implemented to ensure that a problem of this nature cannot happen again."

A DETAILED report in last week's Courier Mai\ in Brisbane has finally confirmed the proposed home base for Rally Australia, however despite the announcement of a planned motorsport park in South-East Queensland, details remain particularly light.

The report confirmed that Ron Brown,the financial backer of Rally Australia's new home in Queensland, was establishing a centre for motorsport between Brisbane and the Gold Coast. But with less than 18 months before the event is due to be staged, a host of questions remain.

Speculation was rife at the recent Coates Rally Queensland, the opening -round of the NEC Australian Rally Championship, that due a lack of noticeable progress the event may not be ready to run in the second week of September 2008.

Sporting Director Garry Connelly quickly put these suggestions to bed.

"There is a lot of work going on behind the scenes, I think everyone will be quite surprised

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when the full extent of the plans are revealed in the coming weeks," said Connelly.

"There is no doubt whatsoever that the event will run in September next year."

The 400-hectare site will receive significant development, with a proposed hotel and Formula 1level racing circuit part of the plans.

Yet It's the rally plans for the site that has people talking.

with Brown suggesting late last year that purpose-built rally stages would be included in the complex.

"Bringing the rally cars right to the people is very important to the event," Brown stated last year.

"All too often the very best things about rallying are hidden away in the forests where people can't see them, that is something we want to change."

RYANLAHIFF

Guest: Things are looking good FORD'S Michael Guest has expressed renewed optimism about the team's chances of taking on the Toyotas.

Guest, who drove a Group N (P) Focus last season, upgraded to a Super 2000-spec Fiesta at the first round of the ARC last month.

"I can't even compare last year's car to this year's, even after only one event," beamed Guest.

The Ford team struggled

■ A French court has dismissed Michelin's request to annul the FIA's decison to make Pirelli the WRCs sole tyre supplier next year.

Michelin plans to appeal the court's decision.

through 2006 after its rear-wheel drive assault on the ARC backfired.

"The old car was so missengineered for rallying it wasn't funny,"said one team technician.

"In theory Ford thought a rearwheel drive car would be exciting to watch and would draw fans back to rallying but the car was so bad to drive I'm amazed Michael (Guest) put up with it for an entire year."

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motorsport news

RALLYING

andiiei® van leeuwen START padding out your Curriculum Vitae because the Subaru World Rally Team is on the hunt for a new co-driver for Chris Atkinson.

Glenn MacNeal, who has been Atkinson's co-driver since he started in the World Rally Championship in 2005, has decided to call it quits following last month's Portuguese rally.The pair failed to finish that event, crashing out on the second day.

Speaking at the Bathurst 12Hour event, Atkinson said the split was amicable.

"It just happens sometimes," he said.

"We've been together for two and a bit years and it doesn't always work out. He's got his own life he's got to live, and it's not as easy as you think coming from

this part of the world and doing theWorid Championship.

"It's stressful on your life and a full commitment, and if you can't give 100 percent then it's better not to do it.

"There weren't any bad words said as far as I know."

MacNeal is now planning to compete in local events in New Zealand, leaving Atkinson and the SWRT searching for a suitable replacement before the Argentinean round of the World Championship next month.

Experienced co-driver Stephane Prevot is currently on top of the list, and has been testing with Atkinson in Sardinia since the start of the week.

But there is a chance that the all-Aussie tradition could continue.

MNews believes that New South Welshman Dale Moscatt, pictured right, is very much in the frame.

and may even be flown to Europe to test with the team.

"I would love to confirm that, but the truth is that I have spoken to Chris about it and my name is on the list,"said Moscatt on Monday.

"But I'm not going overseas at this point, although it is an option.

"For now I'm waiting with bated breath."

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For more with Chris Atkinson,see page 32

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Fernando,Jason...and MNews In motorsport-and media-change can be inspirational

F

ERNANDO Alonso,Jason Bright and Motorsport News may not have, at fifst glance, a lot in common but right now I'm having the odd Alonso'moment'.

Fernando won two world championships at Renault, in 2005 and 2006, and, even before his final season with them was very old, had committed to a switch to McLaren.

The experts were stunned and concluded that it was simply Alonso'cashing-in'. Surely ... walking away from a team with two championships was professional suicide?

As it transpires, no. In fact, Alonso's move is starting to look like one of the smartest of all time.

McLaren's stocks have soared, Renault has dropped out of the top three. It makes Fernando look like a genius. His only problem in life right now appears to come from across the garage where a young fella, all-but bred for the role by McLaren's Ron Dennis, is pushing him hard.

Jason Bright was part of the rise and rise of Ford Performance Racing last year, to the point where Ford's factory team was a real race contender. Poles, race wins flowed. And all the time, everyone knew Bright was off in 24

motorsport

(^ews

now it's here.There are, similarly, some who wonder what we

I 3, with Chris lambden

are doing and why - but when you check out the first issue on Tuesday, you'll see exactly why.

mnews publisher

'07 to commit to the team which bears his name. Bright has taken on a huge challenge but I think that, sooner rather than later, Britek will grow into a contender team. Bright has taken a sensible approach to his task and has a number of strong commercial backers.

Perth was one of those tough and unpredictable disasters which can hammer a small team forcing them to borrow a chassis from BJR for NZ. Britek will'get through'NZ, but I predict strong things later in the season.

The link?

As we announced last issue, Motorsport News is about to take a huge step into the future with the launch next Tuesday of Motorsport eNews.

Like Alonso's move, it's been a long time in the pianning, but

lot has changed in motorsport and the world of motorsport media since we nervously launched Motorsport News nearly 14 years ago. At the time, we were taking on the only news publication on the grid.

Thanks to a degree of innovation along the way - and a quality of motorsport journalism which I'm thrilled to have on tap - Motorsport News has, in racing parlance, clocked up a few wins along the way!

Media, in all forms, is these days about diversity, offering alternates to audiences, and Motorsport eNews is our step up in the digital era.

It's not a website - there are already enough of those around the globe,some good,some not so good. Motorsport eNews is a full-on 'virtual' news magazine.

The technology behind it means

it's simple to access and read. 1 don't want to give away all the surprises - we have some good people contributing ... but we think you'll like it.

It'll publish early every Tuesday morning.Yup, all the news breaking stuff you're used to from MNews, but now every Tuesday.

Oh,and did I forget to mention ... it'sfree.That's the way it is in the digital age. We love it and hope you do too.

At the same time, we are in the fortunate position of not having to compromise the level of in-depth features, interviews, imagery and coverage that have always been part of Motorsport News. Australia's favourite motorsport print magazine will still be available, at newsagents as always, once a month, with the sort of stuff you like to sit and read at your leisure,from the sport's leading writers.(And of course, there's our daily'newsgrab'source, MNews Platinum...)

This is our move to McLaren, or Britek. If you haven't already, don't forget to register for an auto weekly e-prompt for Motorsport eNews(you might win a telly!) via www.mnews.com.au and it's on.

Go Fernando ... go Brighty ... go us!

motorsport news

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Natural Born Thriller

I

WAS having lunch with Sonya Irvine the other day in Bahrain and she was asking how it was that I could go to every single Formula 1 race for almost 20 years without getting bored.

Eddie's sister has found a niche organising something called'The Amber Lounge,'which are parties for FI's rich and famous at various Grands Prix around the world.

She goes to six races a year and is happy with that.

"The thing I love about FI,"I said,"is that every day is different.

Things are always changing. It is never dull."

That was not strictly true because there have been one or two days in 20 years that were not as thrilling as others. I seem to remember a quiz in the Media Centre during the Hungarian Grand Prix of 2002 when Ferrari was so dominant that even drying paint seemed enthralling.

Ah, but that is a bygone era now.

'Michael who?"we say as we rush off to watch the latest exploits of this Lewis Hamilton fellow.

Five weeks ago the FIthat circus left Melbourne worried it was about to embark on another year of Ferrari domination. Yes,there was an impressive performance from Hamilton but the McLarens were not fast enough. And then we moved on to Malaysia and the whole picture was turned on its head.

Fernando Alonso won but Lewis Hamilton was second and, if the truth be told, had created Alonso's victory by battling hard to hold back the Ferrari charge.

"I didn't think I would be on the podium twice in the first two races,"Hamilton admitted."! am sitting next to the two best drivers in the world and to go into my second race and have a second place is fantastic.

"I have to take it step by step.

This is another stepping stone for me.The next one has to be a win."

Journalists are a cynical lot but on Sunday night in Kuala Lumpur, we found ourselves trying to think of anyone who has made such an impact on this sport in such a short space of time. And we failed.

Lewis Hamilton has astonished us all, even those of us who

boxseat

,iih Joe saward suspected before he arrived that here was a great talent.

And it is not about the car.

Jacques Villeneuve did a decent Job when became into FI in 1996 but he was in a Williams-Renault, the best car of the era by a margin, and he arrived with serious experience in Indycars.

But, before that,one has to go back into the FI Dark Ages to find anyone who had such an instant impact- the achievements of Giancarlo Baghetti, Mike Parkes and Peter Arundell in the 1960s come from an era where such achievements were so much easier.

What is truly astonishing about Hamilton is that in Just three races he has been as close to Alonso as he has been. Alonso is a major talent, a man who has won two World Championships at an age when most racing drivers have not even got into FI. It is incredible that Lewis has been able to deal with the top drivers of the day with the assurance that

he has had.

He himself says that he didn't know how things would go this year. He was not sure. He knows that he is very good but what he wanted to know was exactly how good he is when measured against the best of the best.There were questions that had to be answered but with each race Hamilton is answering those questions for us and - more importantly -for himself.

When asked after qualifying on Saturday what it felt like to be on the front row of his third Grand Prix, he answered: "Feels good;feels ... natural.

I've been working for 13 years towards this."

Natural.Tremendous choice of words.

"You know,"said his father Anthony the other day,"I am not surprised at all about what he is doing, but I am surprised by how quickly he is doing it. In a lot of ways I wish that Lewis had not done as well as he has. I would have been happier if he had been fifth or sixth.That would have made it easier for him."

And in those words was a message. His father - the man who has done so much to form

Lewis and keep his feet on the ground - is already looking at the dangers ahead. More than ever Lewis must keep his head. But my feeling is he will.

At this stage of his career, Jenson Button was out buying a yellow Ferrari. And where is he now?

Perhaps in a Williams Jenson might be in a position to make ah impact this year.The car is obviously very good but the two drivers are still struggling to cement their positions as top FI drivers.

I believe that Jenson is a winner. Part of the skill is to know where and when to be and,in that respect, Hamilton has done well (perhaps more by luck than judgement). McLaren is a team that is on the move. Ferrari seems somehow less solid than once it was. Renault is the same. Red Bull seems to be getting things together and Mark Webber is enjoying being there.Toyota and Honda seem to be at sea.

But it does not really matter because FI is holding an ace in its hand in the form of Lewis Hamilton.The skillful thing now will be to use a great talent for the good of the sport.

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A new era,a new race

T

HE Easter long weekend was the last'non-deadline' weekend I'm ever going to have here at Motorsport News.

For the past four years, I've been fortunate to have an'on'week and an'off'week with our fortnightly print schedule.The'on'weeks were hectic, the'off'weeks weren't so.

Those days have now passed.

RIP non-deadline weekends.You were good to me.

From this point forward, I'm 'on' all the time.

Every week,the team here at MNews will produce an emagazine that can be viewed everyTuesday,from the comfort of your home or work computer And best of all, it's free, so I encourage you to sign up now.

But it shouldn't be forgotten that you'll still be able to hold MNews in your hands. Our rnew monthly print cycle will bring to you the veryjaest features

opinions and race reports from home and abroad.

It's a brave new world here at MNews,and one which I'm very excited to be involved in.

M

y final non-deadline weekend was spent at Bathurst, covering the reborn 12 Hour.

The positives? It's great to see another event at Mount Panorama.

The facilities are too good to use just once-a-year, which gives the Bathurst community some value for its heavy investment.

Also, having another endurance race on the calendar is good news.

The low-pressure style of the race

is different to the stressful V8 Supercar world.The only stressed person I saw at Bathurst was Garry Holt. But by the end of the 12 Hours, his blood and sweat turned to tears ofjoy. “* And the negatives? Damn,the race was boring.There just weren't enough cars - both quality or quantity - and there weren't enough stars.

Having said that, though, you only need to look at the first 12 Hour in 1991 and you'll find that it also only had a srhall field ...

For the 12 Hour to be a success, it will rely on more factory support in the future. And it's notjust outright victories that car makers should aim for. As Crompton says, opposite page, manufacturers must treat a class win like an outright win.

I hope the 12 Hour becomes a permanent fixture on the calendar The Mountain, Production Car racing and our sport deserves it.

Where there's a Will

F

INALLY an Australian is up the front and punching hard in the Champ Car World Series - and we haven't been able to see it.

Like the many MNews readers who have called and emailed over the last week or so, I went flicking through the television guide to find what time the Las Vegas series opener was going to be aired.

Sure,I expected a late night, 'set the DVD recorder'time slot, but it was nowhere to be found.

As it turns out, no network holds the rights to the series, save for the Gold Coast round which will air on Seven - only because the V8 Supercars are there.

Ten have no real interest given they don't have the Aussie'jewel in the crown'race and that is 28

th aaron noonan editor, motorsport news

understandable.

I remember how excited the MNews office was back in 2000 when Jason Bright sorted a deal to drive in the Gold Coast race after a season in Indy Lights.

It looked like we finally had someone who was going to break through, at a time when interest in the series was at its peak.

As it turned out, Brighty ended up back here a year later to drive for HRT and we had to wait until late-2004 for Team Australia to arrive on the scene and 2005 until it became a full-time effort.

The signing of Will Power gave the team a genuine Aussie threat to the podium and watching the lad from Toowoomba belting Bourdais,Tracy, Rahal et al would be something that would make me want to sit up rather than set the recorder.

Surely, with a race on the Gold Coast and an Aussie at the front, someone has to pick up the rights. It seems that no free to air networks are keen,so maybe this is a chance for SBS to again be the saving knight,just as they were with the Ashes and Olympics in the past.

Otherwise, Fox Sports would seem to be the only other player possible for us to get our fix.

But finally we have some green and gold to cheer for and we can't see it to cheer for it.

rm sure the race telecasts aren't ratings-winners, but surely the fee for the rights would be small enough to a big network that it would be a good PR hiove to snap them up? For the glory of Aussie sport!

I can't say i watch swimming or rugby much. But if I know that an Aussie is winning or a major chance, I tune in for sure.This could be along the same lines.

In the meantime,those with internet savvy can sign up on the Champ Ca r website for'Race Director', which gives you live race coverage,the choice of eight channels of live audio, live telemetry and live timing. It costs $33 for the full season,so may prove a worthy investment. I've signed up,even if a network hasn't so far... motorsport news

OPINION

Cromley on the 12 Hour: Positive Mountain vibes

I

F you take the broad overview,the 12 Hour at Bathurst was a positive thing.

For me,the Bathurst community has such a massive investment in that facility, it's a shame that they only get a return once a year.

Obviously the October race is a fabulous world-class event, but I think there is room for another major event. But the flavour of it needs to be substantially different to the Bathurst 1000.You don't want to try and emulate it. You can't and you won't. Any other motor race you have at Bathurst needs to be something different - both in duration and technically.

Typically, everything that has been done at Bathurst, other than the 1000, has been a struggle.Twelve Hour races, 24 Hour races, Easter races etc, so I think it's Just a matter of cracking the right code.

If the 12 Hour promoters are able to make it appealing enough for all the manufacturers who aren't involved in V8 Supercar, then they may well be onto something.

I've had a lot of people say to me that it would be great to see different manufacturers represented - In a bit of throw back to the old days where we can see the performance of different molibr ears.

I'm 50/50 as to vyhether or not what people wi|h,|pr lis what they \«anit, th:ot!|hi the reason we've errclii igwlth iparity i rracinfIs to give people eOuali ; opportunity. Sometimes when I you eaht have parity then you

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YOUR FRIENDLY MOTORSPORT EQUIPMENT SPECIAUST! RACE, RALLY,

SPEEDWAY, OFFROAD, KARTING,

opinion

ith neil Crompton \

entator/drivel

don't get any manufacturer interest because they don't have a product to compete. But if you do it on class structure, like Holden did with its turbo Astra, and Subaru did in the all-wheel drive class,then I think there is grounds for their involvement.

It would be a great forum for Mazda,Toyota,Subaru, Hyundai and BMW and all those manufacturers that are not involved in V8 Supercar to do something that doesn't tread on the toes of the V8 October event.

Allan Horsley (Mazda's Motorsport Manager)and I spoke after the event and I think there's a bit of cautious interest out there,from what I can gauge.

Generally speaking,the people in the motor racing industry are very passionate people, and I think the very exsistence of the event is enough to trigger interest.

It remains to be seen whether manufacturers will engage, but It was great to see a manufacturer like Subaru spend real hard cash.

They had a group of good drivers, good cars and a bunch of dealers with corporate hospitality.

And that's what the 12 Hour needs.It needs to have the 1 motoriracing showbiz about'it. , You don't want to be a club ! event, you want a hardcore motor race. Having said that,the 12 Hour is a different to what we're accustomed to here in Australia.

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29

Five minutes with

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WILL POWER

Two podiums from two races, his first-ever Champ Car win at the season opener in Las Vegas and a handy ANDREW VAN LEEUWEN little championship lead.Yep,Will Power is in the zone drive, really hooked up on the fast corners.

What a start to the year! You must be a pretty happy boy at the moment...

Around Laguna Seca we were so fast, like seven seconds faster than the old car, or something ridiculous like that.

It's been a really good start, but we sort of expected it because we we've been very strong since the last four races of last year.

We had pole at Surfers, podium at Mexico City, quickest at Houston test, second quickest at Laguna test. We won in Vegas and then were are back on the podium here at Long Beach. And we were good enough for poie this week, we just had a bit of an issue in pre-qualifying. But we got good points and we're on track for what we're after this year and that's the championship.

Given that we here in Australia can't actually watch the race, talk us through the Long Beach race.

Well, basically, the start was eventfree, we've been a bit worried about starts, but we started off and it was going to plan. But then there was a yellow and out of the hairpin I couldn't get down to third gear,so i screwed the restart and lost a place to [Alex]Tagliani.

That was it, we were stuck behind him for the whole race because it's so difficult to pass around here.That finished our race because Tag was struggling, and all I could do was sit behind him and save heaps of fuel, Even though I saved a lot of fuel, there was another yellow and we all pitted, so it wasn't worth anything.

So I ended up back in fifth, then I got Justin Wilson in the pits, then I passed Tag on the last lap into Turn 1 so it was a really good weekend.

So if you hadn't been held up you're confident you have had the speed to run with Sebastien (Bourdais)?

Yeah, i'm pretty confident I would have run with him, there's no doubt about that.

We were really quick all weekend and we were running with him no problems, so I'm 30

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The first race that wasn’t televised in 15 years was won by an Aussie!

- POWER IS FEELING LEFT OUT BY OZ TV

confident we would have been there.

Sebastien's really good at saving fuel, and we're virtually on top of that as well, so It would have been interesting to see if we could have gone to the same lap as him.

I Icnew that if I didn't get him intoTurn 1,then it was going to be tough to beat the guy. He's a mistake-free driver, very good in the race, so basically it was just a points thing for us.

Going back to last week, winning your first Champ Car race must have been cool ...

It was good. We had some issues with the car on the Friday and we were only seventh fastest, but that wasn't representative of the car.

We just had some gearshift and braking issues.

But we were basically quickest in every session and then we got pole by a long shot, we were really quick, and then it was the same deai in the race. I just passed [Paui] Tracy and then cruised it home.

The brake pedal was getting long.

So it was a good first win, but Long Beach has been a more exciting race for me because i had to try a few times to get past Tag. To actually finish the race with a pass on the iast lap to get on the podium made it a really fun race.

So you actually enjoyed coming third in Long Beach more than winning in Vegas?

Yeahl I got out after Vegas and I was in such a zone, I thought 'that's done, what's next?'

We've got such a good team and I'm in my second year so I understand the car a lot better and the racing Is coming really easy to me now. I think we are going to be consistently quick at each track.

What are your thoughts on the new car?

It's going well. The thing is just so bloody quick. On the road circuits, it's just really fast. It's got a lot of downforce so they're really fun to

But on a street circuit they're not really that much quicker because they don't ride the bumps as well because of the spec shock absorber.

Does the Panoz suit you better?

I think we were on the pace last year, but I've come on a lot as a driver. I'm giving good feedback and I've got a very good engineer, and the team's got a good budget.

It's that whole combination.

We have been growing and getting stronger and stronger, and now we're a top team.

It's really good to come in as a driver, start with a team,and be a part of the evolution of becoming a top team.

It would be one thing to go straight to Newman/Haas and start winning races, but to actually be part of creating a top team is much more rewarding.

Have you heard that no one IS broadcasting Champ Car in

Australia at the moment?

I heard that, and I also heard that there are a lot of people complaining.

That must be frustrating now you're a winner...

It amazes me that the first race that isn't televised in 15 years was won by an Aussiel It's just incredible, isn't it? It's a real pity, but it's just happened at the wrong time with the V8s swapping networks and all that. I think there's been a bit of conflict.

It would be really good If they could work it out,though.

It'll give you a bit more incentive to win on the Gold Coast...

I'm always pumped for that race!

This year, I'd say we'll be putting everything into that race.

motorspoitnews

Five minutes with

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CHRIS ATKINSON

It's a time of change for Atko. He's got a new World Rally Car to sort out,a new co-driver to pickfand a new found talent on the tarmac ANDREW VAN LEEUWEN MOTORSPORT NEWS; Almost a familiar car, but very unfamiliar surroundingsat Bathurst Chris.

How have you found it?

CHRIS ATKINSON; It's pretty cool, but it took a bit to learn the track because I haven't done much circuit racing. But it's a good experience and to learn off guys like Neil Crompton is a bonus,so I've made the most of that.

How much of a correlation is there between what you do normally and what you've been doing at Bathurst?

A little bit, but not really.

It's so different here because

I

you're refining your line every time, whereas we usually have one go at it and it's just commitment.

You just go around the corner rather than driving a perfect line.

Also, there's a big wide track and you've got to use all the road, where I'm used to a single lane track.

Are you gearing yourself up for more of this type of thing? Are we going to see you in a V8 Supercar here?

I don't know. If the opportunity comes at the right time then yeah, but the WRC's a pretty hectic schedule, as you can imagine.

Speaking of the WRC,you and Glenn (MacNeal) have gone your separate ways. What's the story there?

Oh it just happens sometimes.

We've been together for two and a bit years and it doesn't always work out. He's got his own life he's got to live, and it's not as easy as you think coming from this part of the world and doing the World Championship.

It's stressful on your life and a full commitment, and if you can't give 100 percent then it's better not to do it.

Was it an amicable split?

I think so. it was when we left the last rally, so no there weren't any 32

You can’t just turn up at a rally with a couple of days testing and expect to be there - ATKO RECKONS TESTING WILL PUT SUBARU ON THE PACE bad words said, as far as I know.

So what's the plan now in terms of a replacement?

We've got a few options but we're waiting until after this race (the 12-hour) to make a decision.

Can you give me a hint?

Nope (laughs).

You're a tough man. Will it be a hindrance having someone new come on board mid-season?

That's the thing; if it works, it works.

The first rally Glenn and I did, we won Group N at a World Championship round, and had really good speed.

That worked straight away, and if you pick the right person, that's how it works.That's why it's so important to pick the right person.

How are things with the new car?

It's coming along. We haven't had a lot of testing up until the last two rallies we did with the new car, but we've got a three day test this week and I think that's where we'll get it sorted, i think when we get the set-up sorted, the outright speed will be there.

Fetter [Solberg] was quick in Portugal. Are the Fords and Citroens going to be a realistic target this year?

They're a target, but they're still just out of reach at the moment.

We've got a little bit more work to do on set-up. We're nowhere near it on set-up. You can't just turn up at a World Championship rally with only a couple of days testing when Ford and Citroen have done so much, and expect to be there. We always said it would

take four or five rallies to get on top of it, and we're two raliies in and winning stages,so now we'll try and improve on that.

How about yourseif, are you getting on top of it?

Yeah for sure. Give me a balanced car, then I think I can do the times.

It will be interesting with the tarmac rallies later in the year as well.

Well, you were quick in Monte Carlo. Are the tarmac rallies becoming a bit of a favourite now you're into circuit racing?

Yeah, maybe. Although I think a rally like Ireland, where there'll be mud and ice on the road will, be a little different to Bathurst when the sun's shining and it's 20 degrees.

There's a little bit of dirt on Skyline and that's about it... niotorsportnews

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T'S Easter Monday and V8 Supercar racing seems worlds away as the Motorsport News tape recorder clicks on to chat with Paul Radisich.

The sun is sijining and the views from The Rat's' holiday escape on the outskirts of Melbourne are nothing short of brilliant.

It also feels a whole world away from October 2006, where the nasty Bathurst crash that was beamed around the world smashed his ankle, broke his sternum and sent Team Kiwi Racing on a summer fundraising venture to secure the capital to move into a Ford Performance Racing Falcon for 2007.

The softly spoken Kiwi has come back from a lucky escape to get his body ready to return to the rigours of racing. He has undergone pain and frustration out of the spotlight, away from the prying cameras and media focus.

Some said that it was time for the two-time World Touring Car Cup winner to hang up the helmet.

But within.Team Kiwi's steerer never once thought of giving it away.

"No. No is the short answer, i'm a pretty stubborn sort of character and I would hate to think that something got the better of me," he says.

"It's probably a good thing that it's installed in everyone that wants to get on and do something.

I think,for me,that was the underlining factor. I didn't want the sport that I enjoy so much ,., I wanted to leave it on my terms, rather than it dictate to me.

"You don't always get that opportunity but in this case I felt i could rebuild myself and get all .36

I'm a pretty stubborn sort of character and I would hate to think that something got the better of me - RADISICH ON WHY HE CAME BACK TO V8 SUPERCAR RACING

the bits and pieces to come back.

"It's taken longer than what I anticipated but that was the nature of what I did to myself.

"I never really thought'that's it'.

I wanted to come back and I'm really pleased that I did.The first race in Perth,the enjoyment I got out of it was like the first time I had ever driven a car. I felt like I could have driven forever.

"The enjoyment,the sheer enjoyment, of getting that aggression out and driving the car has all come rushing back."

Radisich's 2007 mount is good, it's Jason Bright's CAT car from last year, still prepared from the FPR workshops in Melbourne and it allows TKR to tap into the massive resources of the Prodrive-run team.

There's no doubt having such a competitive car to come back to was added motivation to return.

But how hard would it otherwise be to motivate oneself to come back and drive what they know will be a tail-end-running car?

"That's always the tough one. It's harder when you've experienced great cars and gone backwards to something worse. You have to train yourself to say'I'm going to drive what I've got to the best

I can and perhaps I'm not going to win but I'm going to come somewhere'and that's how you console yourself.

"The opportunity to join FPR on the technical front and the deal TKR put together with them was one that spurred me on to come back."

From a hospital bed in October last year, the'Rat fightback'has been a long road., He hobbles a little on the left ankle that was smashed in the accident. Sitting around doesn't help things but it gets better after being mobile for a little while.

There's another operation to come later on this year at some stage, more than likely at the end of the season given the short windows of time in between V8 Supercar rounds.

No matter what, doctors have told Radisich the best he can expect the ankle to return to is 80 percent mobility.

But it was his lungs that caused the early concern post-accident, "i spent a couple of weeks in hospital just from the lung point of view.They were concerned about shallow breathing, which is where you may have some problems.

There were a few little issues we had to go through there, but on the rehab side, it was when I got home that it really hit.

"I was in a wheelchair because I couldn't walk and I couldn't get up to get anything because the crutches were hurting the sternum.

It definitely opens your mind to life in general and not everywhere has a wheelchair access or ramp too I found!

"When I was able to get up and move around a bit with the crutches, it was a case of trying to get into the swimming pool.

Luckily where we live we have an Olympic sized pool and every morning and night I'd get in there and walk up and down, as long as I could stand it.

"Then as I could put some load on my left foot I could start swimming,from half a lap to a full lap and now I can keep going and going as normal.

"It's been a very interesting time.

In motocross when I was young I had a few injuries, but you're a young teenager and things bounce back pretty quick.Then I had physio two or three times a week, which is exciting in itself.

Those guys,they work you hard! It was the only time in my life I have broken into a cold sweat before I had even got to the front door!"

But that cold sweat was nothing compared to the aftermath of the accident. Radisich wasn't happy with how things were treated post-crash and has already spoken with V8 Supercars Australia CEO Wayne Cattach about a structured protocol in the case of a serious accident.

"It's been tough for the family, the shock of what(wife) Patricia

motorsport news

V8SUPERCARS,

s9

went though.That's one thing that needs to be sorted out. I've talked to Wayne Cattach and after Bathurst he has put a lot more things in place now.

'There's more of a formal format and protocol when there is a serious accident in terms of phoning people's wives and next of kin, so people are more in the picture.

From my situation, it was like. 'quick, let's get him off the track and get him out of here'. And basically, you are on your own.

There was no follow up or follow through, and I thinkthat was pretty poor.

Talking to Wayne, I'd like to think we're over things like that and we're going to get support for the drivers who do get injured.

Not only do you get them to the hospital, but you haven't been in a car accident that has just happened on the road.

"We have to look after our own people and,from my experience, it was pretty scary. Not only were you helicoptered out and just got rid of, but then it was a case of, what hospital, etc. That's what I put forward to V8 Supercars Australia.

"He is going to appoint a doctor for every round that is going to be overseen by a top practitioner and he will appoint him to be with the Supercars for that weekend. If something does happen,there's someone on the ground that can say'OK, I can assess him'but at least you get sent to the right hospital, they know where you from and what's happened, right through the families being notified.

AS much as we hate to dwell on something like the Bathurst accident, Radisich dug into his memory bank to talk MNews through the incidentfrom start to finish.

'I touched wheels with the Supercheap car of Nathan Pretty.

The two cars ahead of me had come together and I went to the outside. I wasn't trying to pass them,I was actually trying to line them up for the last corner onto the straight.

'As I went around, hejumped to the left and hit my wheel, broke the steering arm and the car shot off the track and through the grass heading for the gravel trap.

I remember looking down. pumping the brake with my left foot and I thought it was actually pumping the clutch. I looked at my feet and I was on the brake pedal but there was no one home and I knew straight away the steering had broken.

I looked up and I thought was going to be caught in the gravel trap running along the tyre barrier and all of a sudden the barrier came around and was vertical right in front of me.

"I wasn't slowing down and I could see as I went in that there were no tyres there,it was earth bank-filled tyres. I pulled everything back (within the car) and it just stopped. It was massively sudden. It was like being hit in the head with a baseball bat.

"At that point when it flicked onto its side, my feet got caught up in the pedals and I think that's where the ankle Injury came from. As It went In, the inertia just cracked it into the pedals and broke It. "The sternum breaking I think had more to do with the HANS

k.

Device and the sudden stop, where the bottom of the shoulder sections dug in.

"The steering wheel, I thank Paul Ceprnich for putting a collapsible steering column in there because that definitely helped me for sure.

How much they had to do with breaking anything. I'm not sure.

"As it flicked over on its side, I was conscious throughout the whole thing, but I couldn't breathe.

It was very uncomfortable. My windpipe had got smacked and I had a lot of pain in the chest and I was too frightened.

"The first thing that ran through my thought pattern was that if I unclicked my seatbelts, had I broken my neck?

"I was wondering what to do and

feeling around, plus struggling to breathe,there was plenty going on and just too much.

"It seemed like an age before the marshals came over.The main reason they chopped the car up was that I couldn't communicate with them to tell them where I was hurting and they asked if I was sore in the neck -1 was sore everywhere!

"So they had to take the precaution, and I thank for them doing that because they could have rushed in and let the belt go and who knows what could have happened.

"They did the right thing for me, braced the neck and chopped the car up into little pieces and into a mini coffee table.

Continued on page 38 www.mnews.com.au

37

Continued from page 37 "Once again, it's an area we kind of got blase about. It's something that doesn't happen regularly, which is great, but when they do the sport needs to be ready to act on it."

But before he could return to the cockpit, Radisich had set himself a goal if he was to race in the Clipsal 500. He needed a full day of running if he was to be able to make a decision about whether his body would be able to stand up to the single driver enduro.

In the end, it was a brave call but he would not drive.Too many times sportsroen and women push through pain in brave - albeit stupid - circumstances and put their recovery back behind where it was to start with.

"It was my decision. Firstly, I hadn't driven a car and my training was to the point where I was pretty good. We had just done a week's camp and 1 couldn't run but I could swim and ride.

"I knew my fitness was pretty good but I needed a full day's running behind the wheel before I went anywhere. And we couldn't get that full day of running in, but the point was I couldn't assess how

I would go to do 250 kilometres.

"I didn't want to get to Adelaide and practice would have been OK, but then if I had to step out of the car halfway ... they are the issues with a broken sternum.You get out of breath and your whole breathing structure suffers.

"I figured, ultimately, we are not a championship contender, and I figured with the way the points are, you can score a good haul at some point and it will jump you hack up the order somewhere. It's just consoling yourself though, isn't it!"

Winding the clock back to the last two years, where Team Kiwi were Commodore-mounted out of the Sirromet/Morris workshop.

Things started brilliantly in Radisich's first season in a Holden.

Fie was top five at Pukekohe and took TKR to its first podium at Shanghai in China. But from there, there weren't any real results.

The simple question: what went wrong?

"There were two things. When we first came out, a lot of the other teams were struggling. By mid season they picked there act up - so we went from running in the top six to 10 and that pushed us down to 16th to the lower end

The Rat reckons BEYOND 2007 "I have a two year contract with TKR and there's an option either way at the end of the year. So we'll just see how it pans out.The cars have had a lot of success and things haven't started off the way they would like at FPR, but they've got a very fast car there."

V8s IN NEW ZEALAND "This is the last year for Pukekohe and it’s really sad for someone like me. 1 remember going tliere, sneaking away from school in mum's Mazda 323 and going and doing laps.

You’d drop into the little corner store off the motorway and see Eric and ask for the key to the track and you'd go and drive around!

"I've seen tlie new Hamilton layout and it's got sr)mr> long straights and tight corners.

It will he your typical street course, not as .38

towards to the 20s.

"It just really didn't go forward on the development side. And it was not from a lack of effort on the Morris side of it. They spent a lot of money on their new engine place and equipment, but it just didn't happen quick enough.The others caught up and passed us basically.

"Paul was just as frustrated as anyone.The plans they had in place, particularly with the engine program and Paul Ceprnich on the car side of it, it had all the right ingredients but it just didn't gel."

Having a small team means that TKR have struggled in some areas, pit stops being one of them of particular note. But it's something that has been addressed, according to Radisich.

"At the moment we share a boom with the Autobarn team.

Their (wheelnut) thread goes one way and ours goes the other, so it caught a few of the guys out.

Because we only have small teams, we help with their stops and they help with ours. It's going to have to be an issue, which has been sorted out now for Pukekohe."

We venture to his bar upstairs where there's some motor racing memorabilia.

Some model cars of his Ford

Mondeo days in the British Touring Car Championship are around and plenty of pictures on the wall, one a Nigel Mansell signed artwork from Nige's IndyCar winning 1993 year - the same year he was team-mate with Radisich in the TOCA Shootout,:Mansell promptly binned a Mondeo into the base of the bridge at Donington ...

There are two blue boxes that Radisich clicks open to reveal the trophies from the FIA for hisTouring Car World Cup wins in 1993 at Monza and 1994 at Donington, above.

"As time goes on, your successes in the past, particularly winning the two World Cups, stand out the most.They always will, because it took a long time to work into that series and I put a huge amount of years and effort into getting there.

"It's about the right timing and for me,it worked out really well.

But getting into the championship was more work and getting recognised to get a chance, was harder than the things after that.

"The World Cups were always ones I look back and think'gee, I really did achieve something there.'"

And it's not just over yet...

KI

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From the files: Radisich won the Nissan-Mobil Group A series in NZin '92 in Dick Johnson's Shell Sierra. tight as Indy but not far off it. From memory it's about 3.5-kilometres with a little bit of everything.They've tried to incorporate some good passing places at the end of long straights."

RIGHT FOOT BRAKING 'It's like jumping from left hand drive to right hand drive. In these cars(V8 Supercars) I've driven them both ways, but left foot in the last 18 months or so. In Europe I always left foot braked because it was a sequential gearbox

(in Super Tourers) and it seemed a more natural thing to do.

"On some fast corners you can trim, or even, the car out because on some corners it's quicker.There's no real technical advantage, it just cuts the amount of(foot and leg) work down.You need a few laps to train your mind back and you come to the corner ... when you right foot brake, I heel and toe a bit so it's a lot more work but that's how I've always right foot braked and you go back into that comfort zone."

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MOVABLE The

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technical controversy an inevitably-i Ferrari is centre stage in the debate- It was important and the loophole that created it has now been closed - we think - l l

By PAOLO FILISETTI

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HE Movable Floor debate that has emerged in Grand Prix racing is not the first such technical grey area to suddenly emerge, blinking, into the limelight - and it will certainly not be the last.

But it is fascinating and provides an insight into how Formula 1 engineers think and how, no matter how many loopholes are tightened or closed, agile minds will always find an open door where there is supposed to be only locked ones.

The background of the latest drama goes back to 2000. Before that, cars'front wings were allowed to be lower and so,teams ran their wings as close to the ground as possible.This made the wing work more efficiently and gave rise to some of the'droop'nose looks of around that era.

The ultimate factor limiting how low a wing could run was the ground itself- but engineers even found a way'around'that.

Teams introduced floors that flexed upwards, allowing the cars to run even lower. As a result, in stepped the FIA with a deflection test involving a hydraulic ram that measured how much the floor deflected under a given load.

The parameters were that under 500 Newtons of load,the floor was permitted to deflect up to 5mm.

Splitting Hairs: Filisetti's X-ray vision reveals the springmounted floor on the Ferrari F2007,left. BMW's version was similar, below, though is seems certain that both systems have been consigned to the ranks of historical FI artifacts.

m All seemed fine. In 2001, a regulation change required front wings to be mounted higher, and there have been incremental increases since then. Ride heights rose as a result and for a time,flexible floors seemed less important.

The role of the floor itself was evolving, as it became an important point on which to mount ballast (ie, as low as possible).

The FIA has since allowed the teams a degree of freedom in mounting the exposed floor, so that it won't be damaged over kerbs. Despite this degree of flexibility allowed,floors are still subject to the deflection test.

Which brings us to Melbourne,2007.The allegations were that the Ferrari F2007s were fitted with a spring-activated device that could be configured to control the flexibility of the bib (the section of the floor under the splitter) and the rest ofthe floor to meet the requirements ofthe test specified in Article 3.17.4, but to otherwise allow greater flexibility at higher loads.

In most aero trims, at speeds greater than around 220kmh,an FI car produces significantly more downforce than it needs for any given corner, so'bleeding'off downforce is not an issue. By raising its floor even slightly at very high speed,an FI car effectively stalls its front diffuser, significantly reducing downforce - and drag.

Ferrari has declined to comment on how long its.device has been in use. But it is known that the unit has passed scrutineering at every race it has contested so far - as has other teams cars, some of which use a thin metal strip (or even a wire)to mount their floors, sturdily enough to pass the FIA test but in a way that allows deflection under much higher forces at

high speed.

Following the Australian race, McLaren requested that FIA technical delegate clarify Article 3.17.4 of Formula 1 's technical regulations. While the test itself remains unchanged,the clarification says that: "The test described in Article 3.17.4 is intended to test the flexibility of bodywork in that area, not the resistance of a device fitted for the purpose of allowing the bodywork to move further once the maximum test load is exceeded. Any such device would be designed to permit flexibility and is therefore strictly prohibited by Article 3.15 of theTechnical Regulations, "[the] FIA have no objection to a device in this area which is fitted to prevent the bodywork from moving downwards, provided it is clear that it is not designed to circumvent the test described in Article 3.17.4.Therefore, with immediate effect, FIA will be testing bodywork in the relevant area with any such devices removed."

For the record, in my opinion,the competitiveness of the F2007 is not related to just such a device, so the FIA action must be welcomed. As a result, race fans will not have to again face an ongoing soap opera, as they did with flexing wings and mass dampers.

One thing that remains unconfirmed is whether Ferrari (and, it is reported, BMW) removed or modified its systems from their cars following the Albert Park race. But the FIA's actions does clear some of the questions over technical interpretations that can cast shadows over the sport, as happened last with the mass damper affair. In doing that, the FIA has acted in the sport's best interests in this matter.

The question that remains is, what is coming next?

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fierce rivals. But Baird and David Reynolds are In Carrera Cup land, Craig 'll be Toll HSVDT team-mates know each other come

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L Craig Baird on David Reynolds CRAIG Baird has every reason to be excited about the endurance rounds of the V8 Supercar Championship Series this year.

For starters, he'll be saddling up with the Toll HSVDT squad, and if the last round in Perth is any indication, they've got the cars to beat for season 2007. And he's also likely to be paired off with the team's other endurance signing, Baird's close Carrera Cup rival

David Reynolds, which in itself is a promising notion.

"I was pretty happy about it, because David has come on strong the last couple of years,"says Baird.

“Last year was the first year that I raced against him,and I was really impressed not only with his speed, but how he handles himself off the track.

"When you're racing wheel to wheel with him he's on of the few

young guys who knows when to give you a bit of room and when not to. A lot of guys just close the door and cause there own accidents, whereas he's got good judgement.That'll transfer over to being a good co-driver.

"And he knows that people know he's a good young talent, so he doesn't want to go and jam in the fence, because that'll be his last chance!"

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David Reynolds on Craig Bairc JAMMING it in the fence,as Baird says, is definitely not something David Reynolds can afford to do when he gets to Sandown and Bathurst this year.

The 21-year-old has been given a golden opportunity to prove his ability in the Toll HSVDT Commodore in the enduros, but realises that despite his very limited V8 Supercar experience, he can't afford to get it wrong.

"The first thing that went through my mind was stress!" he says.

"I want to do a good job. I don't want to crash the car, I don't want to look like an idiot. I just want to do the best-job I can, really capitalise on this opportunity."

The big advantage he's got is an experienced and fast team-mate in Baird. And Reynolds is keen to learn, just like he's been doing as Baird's rival in the Porsche field.

Head to Head MOTORSPORT NEWS:What year did your team-mate debut in Carrera Cup? DAVID REYNOLDS: 2002? Or was it 2004? Is

I

"I'm the baby of the team and he's more experienced so hopefully he will teach me a few things.

"I have sat behind him a lot of I" times,so I know he's a hard-ass to pass. He knows all the tricks in the book,and you can't out craft a craftsman. . '' ™ "His strengths are defending and qualifying, he's quite good at that.

Weaknesses? Don't think he's got any..."

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Reynolds vs Bairdo Where did David score his first Carrera Cup pole position?

DR:Sandown 2005 ... no wait, 2006!

Who drove the second Toll HSVDT car in the enduros last year?

DR:Tony D'Alberto and Anthony Tratt.

CB: Phillip Island? I forget about Sandown, I just think ofVBs.That was 2006.

CB: AnthonyTratt, and, umm,someone else.

Young bloke. No idea.

this a serious question? Ok, I'll say 2002 or 2003. It doesn't even say on the website . l l

CRAIG BAIRD: 2004. I'm not sure about that.

2005?

0

How old is your team-mate?

DR: I think he's 36. 1 always thought he was 33 but I saw a press release that said he was 36 the other day.

0

CB:21.

thinking Winton! Honestly ...

IS

www.mnems.com.au

Where is your team-mate's hometown?

DR: Ummm Auckland? Pukekohe?Taupo?

Hamilton? Hamilton.

You are both Formula Ford champions.

Where and when did you and your team mate win the title?

DR: I won 2004 in Australia, he won in either 1989 or 1987 in New Zealand. Hey I'm smart!

CB: Albury.

What is your team-mate's Carrera Cup car number?

DR: 1.

Where did Craig score his first and only V8 Supercar pole position?

DR: 2002? 1998? I don't know. Calder? I was

CB: Winton, 2004.

|2^

CB: No idea. I was going to say number 3 but I thought it was too obvious.

CB: 1986/1987 in New Zealand for me, because it starts in the summer. David won it here in 2004.

0

THE VERDICT: After eight questions the scores were tied with 5.5 a piece, however Reynolds loses a point for almost forgetting which year he scored his first pole position.

His decision-making on the hometown question was dubious too. Well done Bairdo!

43

The TDR way

They have the cars,the team and the factory -all they need is a couple oflicenses...

TONY D'Alberto Racing don't do things by haives.

And even if the team neverwinsanotherVS Supercar race, they sure have a historical collection of race cars.

When the team went into the business of entering V8 Supercars themselves in 2005,they purchased the 2004 Bathurst-winning Commodore. For the 2006 season,they upgraded to an ex-HSV Commodore,but more importantly, it was the car that Peter Brock raced at Bathurst in 2004 with Jason Plato. According to the team,that one's going straight to the pool room...

While it was all well and good to have a cool collection of cars, TDR needed wins. For this season,they grabbed two new cars - Rick Kelly's Championship-winner,and Mark Skaife's 2006 car, which Tony and Mark McNally race respectively.

So far, at least for Tony,the new toys are on the money. But the Fujitsu V8 Series is just a stepping-stone for greater heights.

Both Tony and his team want to race in the main V8 Supercar Series. Whether they do that together or separately remains to be seen, but the important thing to consider is that the desire to do it is strong.

"I think any race team wants to be at the pinnacle of their sport, and the main V8 series is where everyone wants to be," D'Alberto said.

"We are gearing ourselves up to be in the main series. If we could get a couple of licences, we'd love to do it!(laughs). It's not that easy,though."

If TDR were racing in the main series right now,they wouldn't look out of place. Its Kilsyth, Victoria,factory is certainly no backyard racing team,pictured below, and with its first-class race equipment,they'd instantly be pushing on the door of a top 20 result in the main series.

But until a licence becomes available, they are confined to the Fujitsu Series, which according to Tony, is just fine for the time being.

"If we can't run in the main series, we want to run a professional Fujitsu Series squad," he said.

"There aren't many teams out there with the equipment we've got and the personnel.

"I'm hoping one of our cars can be moved into the main series next year, but if not next year, in the future.

"There's always opportunities around the corner."

-grant ROWLEY

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OTORSPORT NEWS:This is your fourth full year in the Fujitsu V8 Supercar Series and until Wakefield Park, you were winless. Did you ever think that a win was never going to come?

TONY D'ALBERTO: As a driver, you are always trying to push and get a win and last year we had a number of close calls. Ifthings had gone our way, we could have got a couple of wins. Oran Park was one, and Bathurst was the other. We had a few close calls but just didn't quite do it.

I always thought we could do it.

We didn't do anything different at Wakefield Park. Everything just fell into place, so we are really happy to get the first one and hopefully we can get a few more.

Confidence is a powerful thing.

Now that you've got the first, will

the rest come easier?

I hope so! We didn't do anything different. We went about our business and came away with the win.

I hope it's easier because it's been a tough slog to get the first one. We've got a good car this year and a really good group of guys that are working hard.

We are pretty focused on the championship.

You started racing V8s after just one year of state Formula Ford.

In hindsight, would you have spent an extra time in the junior categories? And did your early graduation into V8s set you back?

Yeah, it wasn't an ideal start, but things have worked out now.

I did a year in state Formula Ford where we went pretty well.

We were going to run the national motorsporl news

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Toughing it to the top It's taken Tony D'Alberto four years to getto the top ofthe Fujitsu V8 Supercar Series. After his first pole position,race win and round win at Wakefield Park,GRANT ROWLEY spoke to the series leader

Formula Ford Championship in 2003, but we got an opportunity with the Holden Young Lions, which is every kid's dream to run with the factory-backed Holden team.

The team was run by John Faulkner Racing, and things didn't work out the way we would have really wanted.That year set me back a long way. It really knocked my confidence around.

Going into 2004, we thought about dropping back to Formula Ford. In hindsight, I really should have stayed there longer to mature as a driver, and as a person. But we got a chance with Marty Brant and his Independent Race Cars team.

That was my first full V8 season and I used that to do all of my learning.

In 2005, we decided to do our own thing which brought immediate results. What that made me realise was that it comes www.mneiflis.com.au

down to the environment you're in and the confidence level you're at.

Glenn Seton has been helping your team out as a technical advisor this year. In what areas have you noticed the fruits of his assistance?

Glenn's been really good, not only on the driving side but also on the technical front.

He has run his own team in the past and engineered his ovvn car.

He knows a lot about whatViakes the cars tick. When i describe what the car is doing, Glenn understands and has the ability to make changes accordingly.

In the second race at Wakefield, I had a certain problem with the car, I explained it to him, we made a change and it was fine.The gain that you can get with someone who has experience is just huge.

He's been really good from that

aspect, but he's also great with the team. We've got a few young blokes in ourteam and having someone like Glenn guiding the team is a massive benefit.

Everyone's learnt something off him. He's also been keeping me calm during race weekends, keeping me focused and getting us at the front.

Two rounds down and you have the championship lead. Do you attack the rest of the season any different?

No way. It's way too early in the season to back off and cruise.

The next round is at Winton and we are testing there next month.

And we want to find more speed.

The car doesn't lack in any area, but we want to concentrate on the small bits, especially at Winton where the little things make a big difference.

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FOR|V[ULA 1 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP

round 3- bahrain

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Felipe Massa was under pressure in Bahrain but his response wasflawless: Pole,Win,Fastest lap. But once again,Lewis Hamilton was the star

F

ORMULA 1 racing is unfair.

And it was never as unfair as it was last weekend in Bahrain.

Felipe Massa arrived in the Middle East with the weight of the world on his shoulders. He was disappointing in Malaysia, reduced to also-ran status while McLaren (and particularly Lewis Hamilton) came away looking like everyone's favourites.The Team to Beat.

Massa drove badly at Sepang and the pressure was on.

His resppnse was from the

very top shelf. His practice form was nothing to rave about (in fact, he was a little sloppy, which is not dissimilar to how Michael Schumacher used to approach Fridays) but in qualifying, he cam e alive. He sealed pole position in emphatic style and then carried the form into the race.

Massa was untouchable. He led from the opening corner, swapped fastest laps with Hamilton until the Ferrari upped the ante just before the second pitstop and charged home to the chequers.

fci^onjirna^.c^iL

JOESAWARD

Pole, win,fastest lap. Perfect.

After the race, everyone was talking about Massa being back in the game, right?

No. For the third time of his career, Hamilton was the story of the race.The 22-year-old was second all the way, pretty well, but he earned second, leaving Fernando Alonso well behind.

When Kimi Raikkonen charged into Hamilton's mirrors in the final stint, the rookie responded by tucking his head down and driving away from the Finn, in doing so closing

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FORMULA 1

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Massa's gap from more than 7s to 2.3s.

At each race Lewis has shown us a new side to his character this time out. In Melbourne he was a sensational bright-eyed debutant; in Malaysia he showed huge maturity as he fought a wonderful defensive battle with the two Ferraris. And in Bahrain we saw Hamilton move on to the attack.

To be fair, it did appear that the McLaren was slightly better than the Ferrari when both got onto the harder Bridgestone tyre ' at the end of the race,though post-race Massa reported some oversteer and the fact that he was not pushing in the final stint - a comment inconsistent with a Vj^MARK Webb4f's^ahraiti'Grand i.T' lockup that put dirt on his front Wfix)which foi- mdst df thie way tyres.

P^krd like a'likely llvehth jiAlonso struggled.Third became l^la'ce^and first’RSa'Biill f^dints;-![,' fourth when Raikkonen jumped Ifell victirri toSffSiber'fuel ..1; him in the first pit cycle, though all fTalfundiori arid theft ,^iap ma Kimi was aided by a shorter fill that n tV| i safh?^a'rb®c failure which . had him make his second stop I ^dJSk out team-fnale'David ' before Hamilton, which settled the ^ Cotilfharci a few laps earlier - ,1 *● podium.

Actual racing: Raikkonen used pit strategy to move past Alonso, who had "when he wasflying.**^ ' ' ' But Alonso fell further. Nick an offrace in the McLaren, top.

But on sheer speed. Red Bull Heidfeld drove a superb race Formula Toyota: Trulli had a battle with the Williams pair on his way to a appears to have made progress for BMW.Sauber to keep Alonso points finish in seventh, above. Here he passes Wurz. and was clearly'best of the rest' in his mirrors after passing him World War:Button did notlooked unhappy to be out on lap i, below. behind the dominant Ferrari/ round the outside in a dramatic McLaren/BMW sextet on this move on lap 32,the German the day. subject of rumours that he was "That was a bit of a surprise," ■ ■ confessed Webber after the less than wanted at BMW.Sauber. race, "because nothing has In three starts, Nick has banked really changed since last week three fourths and a podium looks (Malaysia). possible.

"The fuel flap thing is crazy "It was not a great race for me," said Alonso afterwards,"but these thd'ugh - it's not the first time things happen. I was struggling for I it's happehed, is it? There's ' , pace and overall grip which means something weird with the ■ that you can't drive the car as well ele’etfbnk sykem which ● as you would like. I couldn't keep ciOhtrdls it - it seems to have a up with the Ferraris and Lewis and P mind of its own. in the end had to settle for fifth." il' ''It's what stuffed DC up in The Spaniard has shown a great : Qualifying too - apart from his .sutton-images.com_ -'i i- . deal of resilience and consistency ' geafbdx drama. We've worked ii'''oUt it’s like adding four and a in the past and, with three different The World Championship is just winners in three races, and three team well clear of Renault in the ; half turn’s of wing 6n the front, where we want it to be: Hamilton, Constructors'Championship. such is the reduction at the rear. drivers sharing the championship Alonso and Raikkonen are equal lead, he will need both traits. And Jarno Trulli put Toyota in the "David was flying, and Shdrton 22 points. Massa is next with 17 stinted that second stint, so I let points again with seventh place timing is everything; in three and Heidfeld is in the hunt with 15. weeks, hostilities will resume in after a fabulous mid-race scrap him by, but was able to hang in There is now a break for a month with the similarly-powered there, and follow him past Fisi, Fernando's backyard, at Barcelona. during which the teams will work Williamses of Nico Rosberg and The stands will be packed, Alonso so all things considered, there Alex Wurz. The latter both fell like Trojans to try to change the will be under siege from the public are some positives - and there's a four-week break now to sort pecking order we have seen thus all weekend and nothing less than back, however, allowing Giancarlo far. The pause in the season will pole, 10 points and fastest lap will Fisichella to take the final point the gearbox situation." be a letdown. also, more than likely, result in the Red Bull still don't have a full for the once mighty Renault team ahead of Heikki Kovalainen. first bust-ups of the year as teams 'seamless'gearbox, but is using n this occasion the battle at The FW29 pilots were 10th and apportion blame for shortcomings an interim, improved, model and build new structures for 2008. the sharp end of the grid was 11th, helped on their way by the which, unfortunately, has some retirements of the two Red Bulls.

Expect to hear of some firings not the only story. The Bahrain reliability issues.

- or more likely, 'promotions' David Coulthard drove a stormer, track allows overtaking and the Webber's Bahrain pace into new roles that stop people but neither he nor Mark Webber FI drivers went to town, dicing contrasted with Malaysia where made it home. Nor did the Toro screwing up what they have so far. and weaving as they tried to sort his team simply got the tyre out who should be the fourth best That is the way it is in FI. If you Rossos, Scott Speed being a first choice wrong, running hard want to be a hero, you have to team, behind Ferrari, McLaren and lap victim together with Jenson tyres for most of the race, when BMW. keep on doing the job. One lapse Button, andTonio Liuzzi being the guns had figured that softs Heidfeld's fourth and Robert and the piranhas come after you. delayed by the same incident and were better and would last.

Just ask Felipe Massa.

Kubica's sixth added up to pull the eventually retiring. www.mnews.com.au

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QUiOJ-lFYING

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ELIPE ivlassa might have thought himself the big story after qualifying in Bahrain on Saturday. He had taken a second consecutive pole position and bounced back from a bruising thumping in the Italian press after his mistake in Malaysia. He must have felt pretty good about

mem 7?*s:

himself.

But the sad fact was that the FI spotlight (one might say searchlight, given the heights he has already reached) remains locked on Lewis Hamilton, who put his McLaren on the front row of the grid for the first time. Perhaps, more importantly, Lewis had shown double World Champion Fernando Alonso the way around in Bahrain.

The Spaniards would tell you that Fernando probably had more fuel onboard but when all was said and done.

Lewis toasted Alonso in all the sessions up to that and in the lightweight Q2, Fernando was behind even Nick Heidfeld's BMW, an indication that all was not really well.

"Second row was the best we could do today," said Alonso. "But we should be in a good position to fight for a podium finish. We are fighting with the Ferraris and that's more or less what we expected. They are both on the clean side of the track which might give them a slight advantage at the start. Our aim is to go for it. We have been strong in our long runs so I'm optimistic for a competitive race tomorrow."

Massa did make the point that one could never underestimate Alonso but really his attention was more focused on Hamilton. And on his own career.

"I will do the best tomorrow," he said. "Because I really need a good result. Today we showed a very quick car, even in the Q1 and Q2 qualifying when we know everybody is on the same fuel. Yesterday we showed a very strong pace on the long runs."

If that is the case, then one must also keep a careful eye on Kimi Raikkonen. He was third on the grid and ready to pounce if Massa makes a mistake and Hamilton finds that the McLaren cannot keep pace with the Ferrari.

One way or the other, the fight on Sunday was going to be about Ferrari and McLaren. And, one way or the other, the story was going to be about Lewis Hamilton, So great has been his impact on FI that everyone was hoping that he would finish the sequence: third in his first race, second in his second and first in his third.

Inevitably, there were comparisons being made between Hamilton and the golferTiger Woods.

"I'm Lewis Hamilton,"the McLaren driver responded gracefully. "I think Tiger Woods is a sensational athlete and it is an honour to be compared to him. I am here to do a job and I hope I can have a similar impact on FI as he's had on golf."

Woods won his fifth Pro tournament and was world number one 42 weeks after he made his professional debut.

For anyone who has been on Mars in recent weeks, this is not just hype. Hamilton has delivered the goods on each occasion in his three -race FI career and with McLaren apparently closing on Ferrari, a win must be round the comer.

48

,<:●

"The lap was not that great," he said, with ail the assurance of a veter^f^ 'Earlier in the session I had better Iaf5s.

Qualifying is tough, really intense, and you need to pull out absolutely everything in that final flying lap. The wind is always changing, some times there is a tailwind, sometirhes a crosswind. I feel pretty relaxed about what has happened so far. It feels natural. I am happy to be where I am. But the race is going to be tough.

The first corner here is always tricky. It is such a tight corner.

"But I have been here before and feel a bit more comfortable with the circuit. I am sure we'll have a strong race tomorrow."

For the rapidly growing army of Hamilton fans, the record in Bahrain was one to ponder on Saturday evening.

In 2004 he took the opposition apart in the Bahrain F3 Superprix. Starting 11th on the grid he ended the opening lap fourth and then drove on to win the most impressive race of his career to that point.

There were lots of variables, of course: the start, track position, fuel loads and, of course, tyre degradation but the signs were that come what may, Sunday would produce a gripper.

While the lights and cameras were on McLaren and Ferrari, the rest of the grid was thrust firmly into the shadows but behind the top four there was plenty of activity.

BMW confirmed its position as the best of the rest and qualified Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica fifth and sixth. Behind them the fight was very tight indeed with Williams, Red Bull, Renault and Toyota all battling over the honour of being the fourth best team. On this occasion that dubious honour went to Renault's Giancarlo Fisichella, hotly pursued by Mark Webber, the fastest Red Bull driver again, and Jarno Trulli (Toyota).

Nico Rosberg and Alex Wurz were 10th and 11th but the chances are that they would have bigger fuel loads than those around them and that they would come through the field as other faded.

Further back were Heikki Kovalainen in the Renault, an impressively quick Anthony Davidson, the fastest of the Honda-engined runners, ahead of an uninspired Ralf Schumacher and the oh-so-unhappy Honda duo of Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button.

Behind them were the usual suspects, with Takuma Sato ahead of the Toro Rossos ofTonio Liuzzi and Scott Speed, Adrian Suttil's well- driven Spyker, David Coulthard (who had a good excuse) and Christijan Albers.

- JOE SAWARD

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Ferrari F2007 1:32.443 1:31.359 1:32.652 McLaren-MercedesMP4/22 1:32.580 1:31.732 1:32.935 1:33.161 1:31.812 1:33.131 M KitriiMikkonljj Fiti^ Ferrari F2007 1 "Temando Alonso ~E ~~ Mdaren-MercedesMP4/22 1:33.049 1:32.214 1:33.192 D BMW FI.07 1:33.164 1:32.154 1:33.404 NiiHej^ 10 Robert Kubica Pol ' BMW FI.07 J33.348 1:32.292 1:33.710 1:33.556 1:32.889 1:34.056 Renault R27 GiancaripiFiaOgte Ita 1:33.496 1:32.808 1:34.106 15 Mark Webber Aus Red Bull-Renault RB3 ly JamoiTrtilli[> i':33!218 1:32.429 1:34.154 Ita ToyotaTF107 16 NIcoRosberg D Williams-Toyota FW29 J^.349 1:32.815 1:34.399 1:33.759 1:32.915 liJM AiexaiidefWy!B Aut Williams-Toyota FW29 4 Heikki Kovalainen Fin Renault R27 1:33;467 1:32.935 S! ^ _luperAguri-HondaSA03 1:33'.299 1:33.082 1:33.923 1:33.294 11 RalfSchumacher D ToyotaTF107 1:33.776 1:33.624 aiRubengBaBigigllol^ Honda RA107 1:33.967 1:33.731 7 Jenson Button GB Honda RA107 _ Tdlaitiia^^ Super Aguri-HondaSA)3 1:33.984 18 Vitantonio LIuzzi Ita STR-Ferrari SRT2 1:34.022 1:34.333 USA STR-Ferrari STR2 1^' kotirSpe^ 20 Adrian Sutil D ' Spyker-FerrariF8-VII 1:35.280 Red Bull-Renault RB3 1:35.341 Davidtdylij 21 Christijan Albers N Spyker-Ferrari F8-VII 1:35.533 2

Lewis Hamilton

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Tweaks in the Desert PAOLO FILISETTI looks at the latest developments

RESULlD BAHRAIN GRAND PRIX POS DRIVER

TIME

F/LAP

ON

1 MassOic 1:33:27.515 1:34.067 42 2 Hamilton 1:33:29.875 1:34.270 18 3 iRiikkSiiiL_1:33:38.354 1:34357 39 4 Heidfeld 1:33:41.346 1:34.470 38 1:33:41.941 1:34"420 46 5 lAIgnsgJ 6 Kubica '1:34:13.044 1:34.819 46 7 It'Wlllilt' 1:34:48.886 1:35.153 40 1:34:49.216 1:35.200 51 8 Fisichella 9 13456.926 1:35475 27 57 laps 1:35.556 51 10 Rosberg 11 56lapT1735.992 27 12 Schumacher ^ 56 laps 1:35.845 37 13 iBarriclielllD 56 laps 1:35.842 50 14 Albers 55 laps 1:37.184 40 15 53 laps 1:36.772 45 16 Davidson 51 laps 1:36.111 27 DNF Webber DNF Goultlia

41 laps 1:35.705 37 36 laps 1.35.384 34 DNF Sato 34 laps 1:36.359 23 DNF yuai;.

26 laps 1:35.723 23 DNF Button Olaps DNF IpM Olaps Fastest lap: Massa on lap 42,1:34.067

It looks more like a Champ Car: There are some interesting sights in the desert and there is a lot of sand to be moulded into racing car shapes, above...

Boom Boom: Long-time Formula 1 fan Boris Becker, below, made an appearance at the race.

THREE flyaway races to start the season makes Formula 1 technical development a challenge but there was still much on show at Sakir.

Ferrari's F2007 has grown an inclined and partially curved fin on the inner shield of the front wheels.These help to improve the airflow passing through the suspension elements to the bargeboards by reducing the vortices generated by the suspension pushrod link and upper wishbone close to the

front wheels, above.

Red Bull showed new sidepods in Malaysia and ran them also in Bahrain. Winglets at the front of the pods, below, are very close to the air intakes and these resemble those seen in Melbourne on the Ferraris.

Spyker may not have a huge budget, especially with Mike Gascoyne developing an all-new car, but there was an aero update on its F8 VII, with a Renault-style winglet package on the front of the chassis.

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OfllVERS POft/TS; Alonsot RaUdoHicn and Hamilton 22, Atesa 17, mm 1S,FisidKlIa8,Tnii4,Kubka 3,Rosbeg 2,Sdiumadier/ KwaWnonl.

CONSmUCTDRS'POINTS;Mdartn-McraKfos44,fenari 39,BMW. Saubcf18,Renault9,Toyota 5,Wiliams-Toyota 2.

www.mnews.com.au

49

+ NY other day - any other year, perhaps - the story of the Malaysian Grand Prix would have been all bout Fernando Alonso.

When a two-time World Champion moves from the team with which he won successive world titles, and which he led to two Constructors'crowns in the process, and wins his second race with his new team, it's news. When that new team, McLaren, ends a losing 4 [j streak of more than a season in the process, and his former team, Renault, scrapes into the points,the story just gets ^better.

Sorry, Fernando. You drove brilliantly, overcame bothers with a dodgy radio and drinks bottle, and led the whole way to win by 17-plus seconds. Well done, even If It is exactly what we expect from the world's number one racing driver.

"I was lucky today," Fernando said,"and we should not confuse ourselves. We still have ground to make up. But everything went perfectly here. We have opened the gap and now we need to defend the position."

That's done, because the story of the race was - and this is not Just the English daily media babbling here - Lewis Hamilton. His debut appearance in Melbourne was really something but his Sepang drive was utterly stunning. Short of actually winning the race, he could hardly have done any better.

Once again, Hamilton finished on the podium, but this time, he was second, not third. For the second time in three weeks, his speed through the opening series of corners showed hallmarks of greatness as his McLaren knifed past two skittering Ferraris, both of which made better starts than his car and both of which were carrying less fuel.

But the best was yet to come. Felipe Massa wasted his pole position and was determined to get on terms with the fleeing Alonso, After 10 laps bottled up behind Hamilton, that was a pipedream as Alonso was almost 10s clear. But there was another moiorsportnews

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Fernando Alonso won his first race in a McLaren but once again, Lewis Hamilton JOESAWARD was the talk ofthe paddock after a brilliant second place

McLaren to attack.

And Kimi Raikkonen was right behind.

"To see two Ferraris behind you,two red blobs in the mirror, knowing that they had started lighter than you and were quicker than you was really hard," Hamilton said after the race.

In any other fable, the kid in his second race would have dropped it, skated off the road and, if lucky, toured back onto the road to salvage a few points. But Hamilton is made of highgrade British steel; twice Massa fumbled down .Hamilton's inside; twice he lost the position on the corner's exit, the second time the Ferrari scrambling back onto the road to find not only Raikkonen but Nick Heidfeld's BMW in his way.

What should have been second became fifth.

At the post-race media conference, Hamilton was the model of politeness: "Fortunately I was able to trick him into outbraking himself and get my car stopped, and it was very fortunate that I was able to cut across and get back in front of him,to the point where he eventually went off. So I apologise for that.

But at the end of the day, we got the points, so it doesn't really matter."

Despite the humble tone,that is not an apology; it is psychological warfare. In his 71 St GP start, in a faster car with a lighter fuel load, Massa looked like a title pretender, not a contender.To rub salt into the words, Hamilton confessed to setting a trap for him. If the Brazilian possesses a gram of competitive fire, he would have flown to Bahrain absolutely seething, aikkonen attacked Hamilton but was way _ .too cool to throw it off the road,so he finished third and kept Alonso's championship lead to two points.

"We had to compromise on too many things and we lost too much speed,"admitted the Finn.

'It was one of those weekends to get as many points as we could. In the end I did not have enough speed on the straight to challenge. I could get close to him I did not have enough to challenge him like Felipe did. We did the best we could."

Heidfeld was fourth after surviving a scare on the opening lap after a brush from team mate Robert Kubica.The Pole struggled on before stopping for tyres and a new nose, while he also experienced dramas with his traction control. www.mnews.com.au

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Lesson #1;Hamilton wasted no time fixing up the Ferraris,scooting around the outside of Massa in the second corner, above.

Once were Warriors: Giancarlo Fisichella got Renault back into the points with sixth place, right.

The two Renaults were both in the points.

Giancarlo Fisichella and Heikki Kovalainen split byJarnoTrulli, who claimed that his Toyota was faster than the Renaults.

Following the race, Hamilton underplayed his performance and directed the credit to his team.

I didn't think I would be on the podium twice in the first two races," he admitted."The team has done a fantastic job to prepare me and the car so that we could win. I am sitting next to the two best drivers in the world and to go into my second race and have a second place is fantastic. I have to take it step by step.This is another stepping stone for me.The next one has to be a win.'

He is as flawless in the car and out, and there appears to be no aspect of Grand Prix racing that he finds a struggle.

McLaren may have changed its culture to fit Hamilton into its team. On the evidence so far. the change has been worth it.

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HE talk as the FI troops gathered in Malaysia after the odd three-week break was that Kimi Raikkonen might have to change his Ferrari's engine.

There had been a small water leak at the end of the race in Melbourne and the team had to

Team Leader

'Mrari rolled the dice on Kimi Raikkonen's motor and needed Felipe Massa to step it up.On Saturday, he delivered with pole position

"We have to be realistic," Alonso said."On the long runs our pace is not as good as the Ferraris. They are very constant but I think that we will be closer than we were in Melbourne."

Raikkonen still had enough in hand to take third place and Lewis Hamilton was fourth, having backed off on his last flying lap to avoid going off. It was not exactly a mistake but rather a wise precaution. McLaren and Ferrari are still far enough of the rest that they can do such things.

BMW is third and Williams

decide on the best strategy - play safe, swap engines and take the 10-grid spot penalty or risk it and seems to be fourth, although do the best at Sepang (and have a there are some in the paddock who think that the Williams would new unit for Bahrain).

It was a tough call but Ferrari be quicker if there was a better decided that it was so far ahead driver in the car. of the opposition that it could Behind these four teams things probably win the race with a became a bit of a jumble with dodgy engine.The team would Toyotas, Renault and Red Bulls all over the place, while Alex Wurz pay dearly for that arrogance. was not where he should have Therefore, the job of being been (see breakout).

Ferrari's point man went to Felipe Massa and given what looked like The biggest disaster, however, new maturity, it seemed that this ' was Renault with neither car was a sensible choice. It was his getting through to Q3. Heikki job to win in KL and he did well Kovalainen outpaced Giancarlo in qualifying with pole position. It Fisichella for 11th place and the was, he said, a perfect lap and he French radio reporters were all in a finished tlte session three-tenths squawk about it. ahead of Fernando Alonso.

TheToyotas were both in the Outright qualifying pace and top 10 once again, showing that race pace are too different things they have plenty of pace over and it is often very hard to figure one lap but they never seen to out whether the work done on do much in the races.The Red Bull-Renaults seemed to be a Saturday has any relevance to wliat happens on Sunday. little better with Webber weaving 52

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Young Guns:Massa,top, and Rosberg starred on Saturday.

his qualifying magic to become the fastest of the four Renaultengined drivers, to get into the top 10 run-off.

The less said about the Hondas the better.They were hopeless.The team statements over the course of the first two days contained words like "disappointment","bad"and "struggle"and clearly, the team is working on its next step to move on from what is a terrible car.

Given the fact that the team won a race last year, improvement is not beyond the team but this is a low point for the famed marque.

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Malaysian Grand Prixg(^]Mg(pS? 1:35.340 1:34.454 1:35.043 1 UZFelipe Mass!jjf. BRA Ferrari F2007 1 Fernando Alonso 2 ' E McLaren Mercedes MP4/22 1:^.942 1:34.057 1:35.310 i:35.l38' 1:34.687 1:35.479 3 m KiitiiiRaikkoneii" fin Ferrari F2007

4 5 6

2 Lewis Hamilton

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16 Nico Rosberg

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E Nid(Heldfeld,_j D 8MWSauberF1.07

Williams Toyota FW28 BMW5auberF1.07 12 JarnoTrulli Ita Toyota TF107 9 H RalfSchuinajll _ Toyota TF107 Aus Red Bull Renault RB3 10 15 Mark Webber 11 E Heikki Kovalaineri J Fin Renault R27 12 3 Giancarlo Fisichella Ita Renault R27 13 E DavidCoultharj zi M Red Bull Rena ult RB3 14 22 TakumaSato J Super Aguri Honda SA03 15 E Jenson Button IeGB Honda RA107 16 18 Vitantonio Liuzzi Ita Toro Rosso STR2 LU5A Toro Rosso STR2 Scott Speed 18 23 Anthony D^idson GB Super Aguri Honda SA03 19 t' Rubens Barrichello" Bra Honda RA107 20 17 Alex Wurz Aut Williams Toyota FW28 21 BJ Christijan Albers 1 Spyker Ferrari F8MT' 22 20 Adrian Sutil D Spyker Ferrari F8-VII 1 Robert Kubica "/ Pol 7 H

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1:35.028 1:35.617 35.755 35.294 35.666 35.736 35.727 36.092 35.879 35.730 1:36.430 1:35.913 1:36.140 1:36.578 1:36.816 1:36.827 1:37.326 1:38.279 1:38.415

1:34.650 1:35.203 1:35.380 1:34.739 1:35.255 1:35.595 1:35.579 1:35.630 1:35.706 1:35.766 1:35.945 1:36.088 1:36.145

1:36.045 1:36.543 1:36.829 1:36.896 1:36.902 1:37.078 1:37.345

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FORMULA 7,

Not Easy being Orange

ONE of the more remarkable aspects of the Malaysian GP was the performance of the Williams-Toyotas.

Pre-season,the Grove team showed a welcome return to form after two tough seasons, though any display of winter pace is always to be treated warily. In Melbourne,the cars showed good speed and at Sepang, it was even better, even if the noted bugbear of gearbox woes struck during qualifying to send Alex Wurz back to 19th on the grid.

NicoRosbergwasan impressive sixth on the grid but on Sunday, it was his turn to suffer mechanical woes. But Wurz made up for that; after a somewhat cautious start, the Austrian capitalised op his softer tyres to gain ground and was soon knocking on the door of the top 10. By flagfall, he was just outside the points in ninth place.

More impressive was who was around Wurz.Seventh and eighth were the two Renaults, the Williams clearly less happy on the harder tyres at the end of the race than the ING-backed machines. But a year ago,the thought of a Williams chasing down two Renaults was the stuff offiction.

Almost 4s behind Wurz came his mate Mark Webber.Ofthose four cars, Wurz's was clearly the fastest for outright pace and it surely has occurred to Webber that he could have been aboard the car, had he notjumped out of his Williams deal a year early.

For that matter,Jenson Button could have been his team-mate, had he not convinced Honda to pay millions to get him out of his contract. If the Red Bull is battling, the Honda is a nightmare. With due respect to Wurz and Rosberg, with two top notch drivers, Williams could well be back in the game.

THE best thing to say about Spyker's Malaysian Grand Prix is, at least it was over quickly.

Adrian Sutil found himself in front of theTakuma Sato/Scott Speed bang-up on the opening lap but there was still no joy for the lads in orange.

"Under braking for the fourth corner something snapped at the back and I lost control," said the German,above.

"It's really sad; you look forward to a race and then you only get half a lap."

When he really meant to say was,"I need race miles, so I need to learn to drive the first lap with my elbows tucked in."

Christijan Albers made it all the way to lap 6 when his car got stuck in first gear. Rather than motor responsibly to the pits, the Dutchman revved his Ferrari engine so hard that it overheated and caught fire on the pitlane entry.

Good news: Mike Gascoyne, who is working on a new car, has no hair to pull out. Bad news: Even if Gazza produces a real weapon, look who will be driving it.

RESUL1^MALAYSIAN GRAND PRIX POS DRIVER

TIME

F/LAP

ON

1 Alonso L 1:32:14.930 1:36.861 42 2 Hamilton 1:32:32.487 1:36.701 22 3 Raikkone^ 1:32:33.269 1:37.228 40 4 Heidfeld 1:32:48.707 1:37.417 55 5 Massa 7 1:32:51.635 1:37.199 42 6 Fisichella 1:33:20.568 1:37.879 44 7 Trulli " 1:33:25.062 1:38.016 40 8 Kovalainen 1:33:26.945 1:37.810 41 9 Wurz tf 1:33:44.854 1:37.864 19 10 Webber 1:33:48.486 1:38.540 55 11 Barridiefli» 55 laps 1:38;566 32 12 Button 55 laps 1:38.658 54 13 Sato W.V. 55 laps 1:38.496 37 14 Speed 55 laps 1:39.098 54 15 Schumacher 55 laps 1:39.243 52 16 Davidson "55 laps 1:39.566 32 17 Liuzzi ll_..55laps 1:38.447 21 18 Kubica 55 laps 1:38.874 53 DNF Rosberg 42 laps 1:37.704 18 DNFl Coulthardi _ 36 laps 1:38.098 28 DNF Albers 7 laps 1:41.495 5 DNF Sutil : Olaps Fastest lap: Hamilton on lap 22, 1:36.701.

OnvtFS'FWrrS:Woreo is,RaSdconen 16,Hamitai14, HeWWd 10,fiskhella/^teu 7,ftosberg/TruHi2,Sdwmadier/ Kcwlainem.

CONSraUCTORS'POIMTS:MdaravMen:edes32,Fetrari 23,BMW. Sauber 10,Renault8,Toyoft 3,Wiiliams-ToyotaI

●iniiiiiimi'timk.

The Debate continues: Poleman Massa ran off the track while challenging Hamilton, above, and found himself trapped behind Heidfeld, right. www.mtiews.com.au

53

BATHURST INTERNATIONAL MOTOR FESTIVAL WPS 12-Hour Showroom Showdown

Rocking Around the Last time Craig Baird and Paul Morris raced a BMW at Bathurst,it ended in controversy.A decade on,and with Garry Holt on board,it ended in victory

By GRANT ROWLEY and ANDREW VAN LEEUWEN f-.

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HE return of production car endurance racing to Mount Panorama - the WPS Bathurst 12 Hour Showroom Showdown two weeks ago - was historical in many cases, and the victors made the new event even more momentous.

Ten years after being denied the AMP Bathurst 1000 victory by the stewards for exceeding the driver time limit, Craig Baird and Paul Morris, along with car-owner Garry Holt, secured a significant win in the reborn event.

But the win didn't come easy for the pole-sitting BMW pilots, despite the fact that their 335i was between two and three seconds quicker per lap than its nearest rival.

A major fuel leak before the start of the race forced the Paul Morris Motorsport-prepared BMW to start from pitlane. It only took Morris a handful of laps to reach the top 10, and was in the lead by lap 35. An early turbo sensor problem in the third hour with Baird in the car gave the team a minor scare, which contributed to them dropping a lap.

It wasn't until lap 149 that Baird retook the lead, and from there on, the lead of the race was theirs to be lost. Only Holt's one and only stint and a precautionary stop for a fuel leak saw them drop out of the number one position. Baird completed the last stint to secure the win.

In the 335i's world racing debut, the Eastern Creek international Karting Raceway team ensured the win by keeping the brake pad wear down to a minimum.They completed 11 pit stops,three tyre changes and didn't make a brake pad change.

The car that offered the greatest resistance to the Baird/Morris/ Holt victory was the #98 Subaru STi Spec C of Chris Atkinson, Dean Herridge and Cody Crocker. While brake problems hampered both of the factory-spec Subarus,the rally trio adapted to the tarmac racing style with little hassle, finishing just over a minute behind the BMW. And as far as the results go,the rally trio's most impressive statistic is that they beat their'racing' team-mates Neil Crompton, Grant Denyer and Chris Alajajian.

The #7 Subaru suffered the most from excessive brake wear, with Denyer hitting the Griffins Bend wall in his first stint after major brake fade.The car's outright hopes were dashed by a rear wheel bearing failure in the ninth hour. Considering their

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dramas,fifth place outright and nine laps down on the winners was a good result.

In third was the first of the Mitsubishi Evo Vllis. Rick Bates, Bob Hughes and Peter Gazzard took the podium honour, despite a couple of fuel spillage issues in pitlane.They secured the top three result when the other BMW 335i of Chris Pither, Barry Morcom and Beric Lynton ran low on fuel in the dying stages.

Pither/Morcom/Lynton settled for fourth, having led the opening laps until being forced to replace the front brake assembly.They also had the inconvenience of sitting in the pits for a fiveminute penalty after Morcom had exceeded the maximum time allowed in the car per driver stint.

Sixth place went to the giant killing BMW 130i of Andrew Moffat, David Russell and Shaun Juniper.

The Sherrin Motorsport entry assumed the Class C lead and victory when the class pace-setter Luke Searle and Peter Kelly had brake troubles. Searle and Kelly finished eighth outright, behind the second Sherrin entry of Dean Grant, Marc Cini and Mark Eddy, Ninth outright and first in Class D was the John Bowe/ Chris Deisfma/Jack Elsegood Falcon XR8, ahead of another Falcon of reigning Production Car Champion David Ryan, Michael www.mnews.coni.au

Scooby Doos: The rally Subaru entry ofAtkinson/ Herridge/Crocker was In the game all day, above, while the racing version ofCrompton/Denyer/ Alajajian was plagued by brake problems,left. Mount Panorama is a picturesque place at the worst of times,so when there's cars racing in the twilight, it's a photographers delight, below.

Trimble and Andrew Fawcett.

One of the entries that impressed the most was the Class B Subaru of Christian D'Agostin, Tim Sipp and Scott Nicholas.The trio ran inside the top five for the majority of the race until a turbo problem forced them out.

The race featured six Safety Car periods for a total of 10 laps.Two of the Safety Cars were the work of the all-girl Bendon Holden Astra entry of Leanne Ferrier, Lauren Gray, Christina Orr and Sam Reid.The car shut down at the end of Conrod and bunkered itself in The Chase's sandtrap. After a number of pitstops, the turbo let go in a spectacular way up Mountain Straight.

There were 23 cars classified as finishing from the 32 starters.

The WPS 12 Hour also doubled as the opening round to the Shannons Australian Production Car Championship.

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Mitsi: Mitsubishijumped on the poidum thanks to Hughes/ Bates/Gizzard, above, while the Brad Lowe Falcon won the colour scheme award, below.

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Wide Angle Lens: Thirty-two entires equais plenty of drivers for the pre-race group photo, top.

The Bob Pearson Lancer may not have finished the race, but whiie it was running it put on a cracking light show,above. Luke Searle and Peter Kelly's BMW had a surprising amount ofoutright speed,left. while the little Beemer's bigger brother led the race in the hands of Chris Pither, below.

Class of2007 PRODUCTION Car racing is all about the classes, and Class C was the one to watch during the 12-Hour.

With outright honours being contested between a Ciass A and a Class B car, the best of the intra-class battles fell on the third-tier entries.

Early on in the weekend it seemed that the Luke Searle/ Peter Kelly BMW 130i would be the car to beat, qualifying ninth fastest outright and over a second faster than the sister Beemer of AndrewMoffat/David Russell/Sean Juniper and the factory Holden Astra of Jason Richards/Nathan Pretty/Jack Perkins/Shane Price.

But when the race pace heated up, so did the leading BMW's brakes, and eventually the problems were sufficient

enough to aiiow the Moffat/ Russell/Juniperthrough forthe class win.

The end resuit was three Class C cars, ali BMW 130is, finishing sixth, seventh and eighth outright.

Another closely contested class was E, with the two Celicas of Coiin Osborne/Neal Bates/ John Roecken, above, and Carl Schembri/Leigh Mertens/David Mertens being spiit by the Mini ofTrevor Keene/Andrew Bretherton/Tim Slade.The trio finished 11th, 12th and 13th, and within two laps of one another.

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Whatthe winners had to say PAUL MORRIS: This was a different type of race to what I'm used to, but it was a lot offun and very satisfying to win.

"Bathurst always throws up various challenges, regardless of what type of car you are driving, and today was no exception.

We had some dramas with fuel, but the thing that won it for us was getting through without a brake-pad change.The Subaru had to change (brake) pads and that saved us crucial time."

CRAIG BAIRD: 'It's always nice to bring the car home to the finish line and this one was even more special reliving that feeling from 1997.

"It felt like we were chasing early on but then got into a rhythm and everything just fell into place.

"It's not just about us, all the guys have been really digging in and I am just over the moon and ready to celebrate the win."

GARRY HOLT: 'It's very emotional. We have just put so much work into putting this all together. We have only had the car for a few weeks and it's all been a huge effort to get it together.

"It means so much to me to be able to do it with these amazing drivers in Paul and Craig.

They both did an astonishing job, as did the team.

"We'll be back next year to do it again."

WPS 12-Hour Showroom howdown 7

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Product placement: The all-girl Astra looked pretty in pink, above, but slightly less glamorous several laps later when the turbo expired.

If there's anything more pretty than a gaggle ofcars on The Mountain, we don't want to know about it, left.

POS NaBRIVifeJ I FASTEST CAR CLASS LAPS TIME A 257 12:00:10.4880 2:32.5945* BMW335i 1 20 G.Holt/P.Morris/C.Baird 2 98 Uddn»ri/P!Hi B 257 12:01:18.8374 2:35.3390 WRXStiSpecC Mitsubishi Lancer RSEVOVB 253 12:00:16.1353 2:34.5963 3 15 B.Hughes/R.Bates/PGazzard 4 17 BJMbrcd'm/Bi !®nSt=v BMW335i a'253 12:02:21.9379 2:33.5632 B 248 12:00:15.1783 2:33.5907 5 7 G.Denyer/N.Crompton/C.Alajajian Subaru WRXSti Spec 6 9 AJVId^VPii^ BMW130I C 247 12:00:37.2539 2:40.9723 BMW130i 7 10 D.Grant/M.Cini/M.Eddy C_ 246 12:01:41.8153 2:42.5341 C' 244 12:00:34.2436 2:38.0703 BMW130i 3 LSearie/RKgl: Ford BF Falcon XR8 D 244 12:02:26.3500 2:40.6039 9 21 C.Delfsma/J.Bovve/J.EIsegood 10 12 M.ttiiiiBl6/B^i FordFPVF6Typhoon A 240 12:00:52.2332 2:39.8862 11 13 C.Osbome/N.Bates/J.Roecken Toyota CelicaSX E 240 12:01:46.5330 2:46.1261 12 Iso t.Keene/A,.Rrdther "E 239 12:02:25.9435 2:47.2484 igiip Mini Coopers E 238 12:00:14.3498 2:48.7012 13 31 C.Schembri/L.Mertens/D.Mertens Toyota CelicaSX 14 99 A.Letcher/D.tumer7N;^1 BFFalconXR6T D 232 12:02:24.2512 2:46.5485 15 4 N.Pretty/J.Richards/5.Price/JTerkins~ AstraVXRCoupe C 230 12:01:18.2526 2:42.6293 16 11 I.Sherrin/G.Shetrin/Sjon^ BMW120I F 226 12:00:12.9588 2:58.4058 E 223 12:00:17.5000 2:44.4561 1714 PConroy/T.Conroy/B.Hadley Honda Integra Types 18 94 R.Howe/P.Faulkner/D.tr^i BF Falcon XR6T D '223 12:00:50.1856 2:48.9212 19 40 s:Smollen/RAIexander7PStul)ber/G.Mennell BMW323I E 221 12:02:25.4108 2:55.1901 20 76 K.Booker/R;Rinaldq/Di^ AlfRomeo1592.4JT G 218 12:01:11.5129 2:54.1753 Toyota CelicaSX E 211 12:02:50.4443 2:47.1983 21 72 H.Stig/A.Anderson/DJ\rgiro Mazda3MPS 22 27 A.Shephard/S;BrM.tej C 206 12:02:50.4331 2:44.2205 Mitsubishi Lancer RSEVOVB 200 12:00:11.9515 2:33.9382 23 38 M.King/M.Brame/J.Walsb 24 24 B.Walden/G.Walden/M^( Commodore VYSS D 188 12:00:10.9787 2:41.6495 25 77 R.Mork/R.Prince/P.Vitary/M.Rambow — ' Honda Integra Type R E 109 12:05:06.1122 2:48.1179 DNF 33 B.Pearson/A.Mechtier/B4t Mitsubishi Lancer RSEVOVB 200 09:33:41.7477 2:34.9443 onf88 J.Hunter/W.Bossie/J.Williamson/M.Windsor Subaru RSImpreza F 198 10:37:14.7689 a-smaon DNF|25 lapp/CPIAgg SubaruWRXSti 8 194 09:16:36.2416 2:36.6328 Astra Diesel COTITu H 136 07:37:21.8836 2:52.9922 DNF 6 $.Reid/C.0rr/l.Tander/l.Gray ONF 2 D.Neville«.Lowe/B.Nells^T A 76 06:17:01.3927 2:40.6764 V Ford TE50 ' " BF Falcon XR6T dnf66 D.Cribbin/R.Hill/PJenkins D 79 04:05:56.3253 2:46.1896 u n ONF|91 Gary Deane/R.Rubis/R,Dawson SubaruWRXSti B 53 02:49:02.2126 2:38.6518

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McDonald's

International Notepad LUCA Filipp! and Nicolas Lapierre have taken the two races that made up the opening races of the GP2 Series in Bahrain on the weekend.

Filippi blew the field into the weeds in the first race to lead from start to finish and he finished clear ofteam mates Timo Clock and Andi Zuber.

Bruno Senna took fourth, which was better news than what was served up for Giorgio Pantano and Mike Conway, who both didn't start with gearbox gremlins forcing them to be pushed into the pitlane.

Lapierre finished seventh in the opening race and started at the front for race two. He slotted into the lead at turn one and ran home to win.

There was mayhem behind on the opening lap with Zuber and Lucas di Grass! colliding and Senna ieft with nowhere to go.

Clock ran home to second,clear of Filippi and Borja Garcia.

Filippi leads the title, two points dear of Clock. n Peugeot's new prototype has scored a first-up victory in the opening round of the Le Mans Series at the Monza 1000km on the weekend. Nicolas Minassian and Marc Gene finished a lap clear of the Pescarolo Sport entry of Emmanuel Collard and Jean-Christophe Bouillon.

The second works Peugeot 908, driven by Stephane Sarrazin and Pedro Lamy,was third, two laps down.The car's door design caused problems for the former, who had to make two unscheduled pit stops when the door came open at speed on-track! n Brazilian Raphael Matos took his second straight win in the Champ Car Atlantic Series at Long Beach on the weekend. He ran flag-to-flag to win his third career victory and push himself to a healthy 6S-point lead in the championship.

"Like In Vegas the race came to us,the win came to us and we were able to score the first win of the season,"said Matos.

"I knew since the first session here that we had a strong car. We kept improving the car through the weekend.

The race was the same, I was just trying to pace myself, not make any mistakes and finish the race."

Actor Frankie Muniz finished 19th in the healthy 30-car field.

-PHIL MORRIS

But Power wins in Las Vegas to lead the Champ Car title chase after two rounds WHILE Sebastien Bourdais fought back to win his first race of the year at Long Beach on the weekend.Team Australia's Will Power still leads the championship thanks to his Las Vegas victory and a third-place last Sunday.

Bourdais's McDonalds machine was in impressive form on the bumpy street circuit, carting the three-time Champ Car series winner to pole position and then his third win on the famed course.

He crossed the line 2.6s clear of last minute call-up Oriol Servia, who started 14th after taking over the #3 Forsythe car from an injured Paul Tracy.

"I really, really couldn't feel any worse than what I was feeling after Vegas, making all these mistakes," said Bourdais.

Power ran home third to score another podium finish clear of the RSPORTS duo of Justin Wilson and AlexTagliani.

Bourdais's horror weekend in Las Vegas, coupled with Power's impressive turn of speed at the start of the year, leaves the Aussie 15 points clear of former team mate Tagliani, with Bourdais another four behind.

"I had'push to pass'left," said Power of his Long Beach race.

"I must say, it felt like a more satisfying day than last week because it's such a hectic race for me. I made the mistake early in the race on the restart. I couldn't get first gear. I spent a lot of time, almost lost two spots.

"From then on, I was just fighting, sitting behind Tag,then Justin Wilson. I had the car to do it. We had a really quick car. It's so hard to pass around here. I sat behind and saved fuel, It didn't matter in the end because we had a yellow

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Taking it to the streets: Wiii Power heads Graham Rahaiin Long Beach, above, before taking to the podium, beiow, aiongside Sebastien Bourdais and Orioi Servia.

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/ stop anyway. So for me it was a busy day sitting behind cars. It was a good result in the end, good points, another podium. We can look forward to the next race."

The consistent Bruno Junqueira finished sixth at Long Beach in the Dale Coyne Racing Panoz, while Graham Rahai finished eighth, an improvement over his Champ Car debut at Las Vegas, where he crashed out on the first lap.

A week earlier at Las Vegas, Paul Stoddart's Minardi Team USA made a cracking debut, the Red

Bull backed Robert Doornbos finishing second on his Champ Car debut.

But the form didn't continue into Long Beach,the Dutchman 13th after a stall in the pits cost him eight spots and his gearbox became stuck in gear later in the race.

The series moves to its third consecutive race in as many weeks on the street circuit in Houston, Texas.

Points: Power 59,Tagliani 44, Bourdais 40, Junqueira 36, Doornbos 35, Gommendy 31.

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INTERNATIONAL

The last lap is the only lap dark JEFF Burton led just one lap at Texas Motor Speedway on Sunday but it was the one that counted as he dove under Matt Kenseth on the final lap after a near 20-lap battle around the mile and a half oval.

The win makes Burton the first two-time winner in Nextei Cup races at Texas.

"Matt is one hell of a race car driver,"said Burton, who moves into second in the standings.

"We were quite a bit faster than he was and he stayed up there on the outside and made it really tough.That was a lot of fun I have so much respect for him and his team. I got it far enough ahead of him on the last lap where we some clean air on the nose and got it pinned down. Another foot and he'd have won the race."

Jeff Gordon dominated the first halfofthe 334 laps from pole before Dale Earnhardt Jr took over

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up front and between the two Chevrolets they looked to be the force to beat.

However when the race closed to 100 laps to run that's when the complexion changed. Front runner Jimmie Johnson developed a misfire then Tony Stewart was sideswiped into a spin by a loose Juan Pablo Montoya, only for Stewart to beT-boned by Johnson.

"I think those guys had an issue

they were trying to sort out," commented Johnson, who retired his Hendrick Chevrolet.

Stewart rejoined the race only to spin between leader Kurt Busch and second placed Earnhardt Jr, but third-place Kyle Busch slammed Earnhardt's rear through Stewart's smoke, putting Kyle in the garage and Earnhardt on track less the rear panel.

But then the engine expired after the car traveled rearwards and what could have been a stellar day for'Little E'came up short. However, when the Hendrick team couldn't find Busch to rejoin the race, Earnhardt Jr jumped in and drove the Hendrick car to the finish!

Montoya finished a deserving eighth with his Ganassi team-mate David Stremme recording his first career top 10 in 10th while Gordon - who has yet to win at Texas slapped the wall late and dropped to fourth.

"I gave one away when it took off pushing on me,"said point leader Gordon.

"It pushed the right front fender in and we done from there."

Mark Martin, who has sat out the last two races due to his partial schedule,came home third after passing Gordon late.

Point standings;J Gordon 1136,J Burton 1128, Kenseth 1011,Johnson 955, Hamiin 914, Bowyer 866.

Kenseth's Busch win;Marcos aashes MATT Kenseth overcame a flat tyre and spin without contact quarter way through the 200-lap Busch race at Texas on the weekend to hold off Denny Hamlin for the win by just 0.128s.

Kyle Busch dominated the event, but a pit stop and then untimely caution had him back in the pack on a restart with 35 laps left to run.

Kenseth restarted 10th and passed Hamlin for the lead with eight laps remaining.

Marcos Ambrose started 29th and finished 31 St. He battled handling issues early and then a wreck involving Juan Pablo Montoya took the pair out when Ambrose got loose

with a broken front shock absorber in turn two with 21 laps to run.

"With about 70 laps to go we broke a front shock and we were struggling a little bit,"said Ambrose.

"From there we were just running around trying to get to the finish. I went and said sorry to Juan Pablo. He was good about it.

Unfortunately for him he was having a good race but had problems of his own that set him back before we got caught up.

"We were both running to get to the finish and unfortunately my car wasn't handling very well and I got up a bit high, we touehedi

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and that was it. It wasn't intentional, but that sort of thing happens sometimes."

The previous week at Nashville Speedway, point leader Carl Edwards dominated the race with Ambrose starting on the outside pole alongside David Stremme.

But handling and front valance issues when he hit the apron at speed avoiding a wreck put him back to a 17th place result.

Ambrose holds eighth in series points exiting the weekend's Texas race.

- MARTIN D CLARK

J

Reid's China But Germany clinches the A1 Grand Prix crown WHILE Jonny Reid was out in front winning the A1 Grand Prix event in Shanghai on the weekend for A1 Team New Zealand, it was Germany who were busy collecting the big trophies as their clinched the championship with Nico Hulkenberg.

Third place was enough for the German team - run by Supernova alongside the Kiwi outfit - to clinch the crown with one round to go at Brands Hatch later in the month.

"I'm relieved that we have won the title," said the young German whizkid.

"We arrived in China with a 27 point lead, but it wasn't as easy as it looked. In the meantime, I have both the Formula's and AIGP programmes swirling around in head, which doesn't make things

easier.

"I was able to out-brake (Team

USA's) Jonathan Summerton in the sprint, even though he was running less wing and was quicker on the straight as a result. We did make some aero or mechanical changes to the car before the feature race, but the balance was not perfect.

"I lost a little momentum afterwards, so it was only good enough for third."

While the German didn't have the speed, Reid certainiy did. He ran second in the feature behind Great Britain's Robbie Kerr until not long after the compulsory tyre stop when he charged past on the run through the tight turns one 4 .-y ■'

and two and ran to the flag.

"Basically Robbie and Nico pitted earlier, so we knew the tyre degradation was quite high,so we knew we had to manage the tyres a little bit longer and make sure I had strong pace,"said Reid.

"I managed to nail some good laps while Robbie was in the pits and when I came out I caught them quite quickly and then there was the Safety Car period and i managed to get a good exit out of the final turn and get the car up the inside. Robbie gave me just enough racing room, it was getting tight there but it's great to work with such classy drivers."

Team Australia's ian Dyk couldn't repeat his podium run from Mexico,finishing 16th in the sprint race.Things were better in the feature, with the Sydneysider up to 11th by the end of lap one. He was ninth by lap five but a first lap collision with Mexico helped lead to an eventual retirement. Gear selection problems forced a pit stop for a steering wheel change and he retired with vibrations in the rear from the earlier contact.

"This weekend has been a huge struggle," said Dyk. "There has been a massive amount of learning done with how we go about things as far as eliminating set up changes. Me personally, I've learnt a lot. It's been a struggle at times, a very tough weekend.These ones are always a really big learning curve."

Black beauty, not black betty:Jonny Reid was the man doing the winning in Shanghai,above, but Team Germany and Nico Hulkenberg, below,led Willi Weber's mob to the series crown.

Points: Germany 113, New Zealand 90, Great Britain 76, France 60, Malaysia 51, Netherlands 50. n "a

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Hang on a second, this ain't Motegi... Brazilian IndyCar steerer Vitor Meira made his A i debut for Team Brazil, above left, but struggled, while Australian Ian Dyk, above right, was also in the struggling category.

62

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INTERNATIONAL.

Bayliss Battles in SBK Xaus and Toseland share spoils; Aussie Brookes impresses

TROY Bayliss made it to Valencia in time to nurse his injured hand but the World Superbike Champion had a tough weekend in Spain.

Bayliss qualified on Superpole but only made it to the podium once,taking third in Race 1 behind a surprising Ruben Xaus and Noriyuki Haga.

In Race 2,James Toseland edged out Max Biaggi's Suzuki and

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Haga for the win, left, while Bayliss finished sixth behind fellow Ducati riders Xaus and Lorenzo Lanzi.

Xaus was fearless in the damps patches of the opening race, clearing out as the track dried, while Toseland was hamstrung after his rear tyre spun on the rim.

The Briton has an epic battle and only sealed Race 2 when he passed Biaggi on the final lap.

Troy Corser took fourth and ninth after mechanical woes slowed his Suzuki.

Karl Muggeridge suffered falls in both races while Steve Martin was halted by a loose footpeg, but the breakout performance came from Josh Brookes. His Alto Evolution Honda topped the wet qualifier and he rode to ninth and seventh in the two races.

Kenan Sofuoglu (Ten Kate Honda)scored his third Supersport win of the year after a crash-littered contest,taking a confident win from his own temporary team-mate, Andrew Pitt. For the second race in succession, Kevin Curtain crashed.

' V

Points:Toseland 151, Biaggi 138, Haga 124, Corser 101, Bayliss 90, Lanzi 87,Xaus 83.

Puncture robs Briscoe in ALMS RYAN Briscoe's strong form in the American Le Mans Series continued on the weekend at Long Beach.

The Aussie, paired with regular Penske Porsche team mate Sascha Maassen,finished second overall behind team mates Romain Dumas and Timo Bernhard, despite an early race puncture.

Briscoe, right with Mika Salo, had qualified the RS Spyder on the front row of the grid, but was forced to pit on lap three with a rear tyre deflated.

"The crew radioed me to come into the pits when the telemetry revealed I had a slow puncture in my right rear tyre," said Briscoe.

"The pit stop put us towards the back of the field and from then it was a matter of carving through the traffic and hoping for a good result, which we were fortunate www.mnews.com.au

\ of Andy Wallace and Butch / Leitzinger third as the German W marque broke a nine-race

Moblia

BOSS

enough to achieve.

"We out-paced the LMP1 Audis, which was great.

"But I also think our tactics were better as well.

"Our team made the right calls on when to pit both cars for the driver change and that obviously

^ winning streak held by Audi's Y diesel RIO. 1^ TheCapello/McNish car was n seventh and the Pirro/Werner machine ninth as the Ingolstadt n mob struggled.

3 Aussie David Brabham finished H fourth in the AcuraARX he shared with Stefan Johansoon and ( Duncan Dayton, while the pole jS&r sitting Acura of Dario Franchitti and Bryan Herta could only manage sixth. i The Chevrolet Corvette of Olivier Beretta and Oliver Gavin contributed towards the 1 -2 took the GT1 class, while Jaime result.

Melo and Mika Salo remain "To win the LMP2 class is always special, but to do that and have our cars finish 1 -2 outright is exceptionally special."

It was an all-Porsche podium, with the Dyson Racing RS Spyder

undefeated in GT2 with victory in their Risi Ferrari.

The ALMS will follow the Champ Car World Series to Houston this weekend.

63

TatnellputsupWoO winning gear for cancer auction AUSSIE World of Outlaws star Brooke Tatnell is putting up for auction a piece of speedway history as part of raising funds for cancer research.

Of course, Tatnell's father George is suffering from pancreatic cancer and the family will enter a'GT All Stars' team In the Sutherland Shire's'Relay for Life'on Saturday April 28 - which, ironically is Gorgeous George's 68th birthday.

It's a 24 hour walkathon involving teams of relay walkers who will pay tribute to cancer patients and raise important funds.

"I want to put up the race suit I wore when I had my first World of Outlaws A-Main feature win at Jetmore (in 2003)as an auction piece," said Brooke.

"And I'll also throw in the trophy that they presented me with for doing so.

"I think it represents a significant piece of Australian Sprintcar history and I hope people bid with passion for the prize because it ail goes to a great cause."

Depending on his condition at the time,Tatnell Snr himself hopes to participate in The Relay for Life.

MNews readers can support the 'GT All Stars' or make a bid on Brooke's WoO main event-winning race suit and helmet by emailing kylie@ brooketatnell.com. n Max Dumesny will make a brief return to his motorsport roots.

The Sydney-based driver revealed he would step into a Formula 500 car for the first time in "20-something years" next month at the New South Wales titles. Dumesny, who campaigned Formula 500s from his parents' Victorian dairy farm as a youngster, said he had accepted an offer to drive a US-designed car for Steve Caunt of Wollongong.The NSW Formula 500 title is run at Parramatta on May 5. n South-west Victorian drivers filled three of the first four placings at the Australian formula 500 Championship in Maryborough,Queensland during Caster. Ben McLeod of Terang defeated 1 im Rankin of Simpson and Steve Caunt of Wollongong.Terang merhanic Chad Sullivan finished fourth at the two day titles.

-6F0FF ROIINOS/STAFF 64

New World Series deal Track consortium given three-year WSS contract; promoter Aunger dumped WORLD Series Sprintcar racing has been taken over by a consortium of six racetracks.

The six venues(Kwinana, Speedway City, Premier Speedway, Latrobe Speedway, Parramatta City Raceway and Brisbane International Speedway)form SPA,Speedway Promotions Australia, and have signed a three-year contract with NASR - the owners of the series.

The new deal begins from July 1,2007.

In a statement issued last Thursday, NASR said that"NASR, as the legal owners of the series, are moving to ensure that WSS not only remains the most prestigious and significant series in Australian Speedway, but that it develops in a positive way, offering a better deal for competitors, promoters, media,fans, sponsors and suppliers as the sport faces increasing competition in the years ahead."

NASR General Manager Tim McAvaney didn't return a call placed by MNews prior to publication to elaborate further on the topic.

Former promoter Wade Aunger, above right, received the news last Thursday and was disappointed, likening the move

to a group of circuits taking over the running ofV8 Supercar racing.

"It's like Bin Laden being handed the keys to the White House," Aunger told MNews.

"I find it really hard to see how all of these tracks can co-exist and run World Series without

understand what goes into it had a say on the review board."

After a lengthy Involvement in speedway racing dating back to his formative years in Western Australia, Aunger is likely to walk away from the sport.

"I can't see myself involved in the sport on any level after this. After all of the hard work and dealing with the politics for the love of the four hours when we go green, what does that amount to now for me?"

A Review Panel for the move,comprising NASR Board members Garry Winter (Solicitor), Rod Slater(Chairman of the Western Australian Speedway Commission) and Tony Parkinson (Consultant to NASR), was established to review the submissions of three applicants.

MNews believes that in addition to the SPA and Aunger bids, that one from left field from Performance Car series administrator Craig Nayda - also made it to the final three.

any bias or conflicts of interest.

"For the last five years I've put my heart and soul in for the love of the sport. We pushed it onto commercial television and made it more marketable than ever before.

"None of the World Series teams that raced with us - and

"I am absolutely confident that the process surrounding this decision is totally transparent and has been conducted in such a manner to ensure there has been absolutely no conflict of interest whatsoever," said Slater.

-AARON NOONAN

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motorsDortnews

SPEEDWAY, m

Reidy's Trail

QLD-based speedster holds off Dumesny and Farr

Too fast and too consistent: Danny Reidy, above and left, picked up the Easter Trail with a win at Borderline the highlight. Robbie Farr, below,finished third behind Reidy and Max Dumesny.

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record was also reduced twice in the heats.

Dumesny said the surface was much smoother than the Grand Annual Sprintcar Classic with good speed around the bottom.

"It felt awesome," he said."It was pretty quick."

Farr said his car was a bit loose in the A-Main.

"We just missed the set-up a bit."

At Mount Gambler's Borderline Speedway,37 cars lined up for qualifying, with Dave Murcott setting the fastest lap of 10.807s from Reidy, Grant Anderson and Dumesny.

It was Reidy though who continued his hot form to start the final on pole with Anderson.

Reidy sped to the win from Veal with Darren Jensen third and Farr and Dumesny close behind in fourth and fifth.

Murcott commenced his weekend in winning form leading start to finish in the 30-lap A-Main at Avalon Raceway, beating home Dumesny with Reidy finishing strongly in third.

Dumesny set quick time with a 12.42s and joined Murcott on the front row for the feature.

That was as good as it got for Dumesny. Murcott got the jump, took off and was never headed.

"You don't get too many chances to beat him (Dumesny)so you have to make every post a winner," Murcott said.

Reidy made a bold charge towards the leaders and was keen to win and mark the occasion for one of his crew members.

"Out of eight we were able to pickthem off one by one and came through with the goods to finish on the podium. I wanted to finish on the podium for my crew member Chris, as it's his birthday today," Reidy said.

"The EasterTrail has always been good to me. A couple of years ago we finished second overall but it's the last few rounds of the year and everyone is going hammer and tongs so you had better make the most of it."

Points as ofApril 13

Eldora Speedway - April 13

For more info on Hoosier Drag&Speedway Tyres call:

www.mnews.com.au

BEING ultra-consistent was the key to Danny Reidy securing victory in this year's Easter SprintcarTrail, narrowly holding out veteran Max Dumesny.

Despite Dumesny winning the final round at Warrnambool, it wasn't enough to clinch another Trail win, with the honour going to Queensland-based Reidy over the three rounds.

Reidy grabbed a third at Avalon Raceway on Good Friday night with a win at Borderline Speedway and third at Premier Speedway.

He amassed 754 points to edge Dumesny(738)and another former series winner Robbie Farr (718).

Warrnambool teenager Jamie Veal, who finished second at Mount Gambler,earned his best result in Sprintcar racing,finishing fourth place in the series with 661 points.

Dumesny was second at Avalon but qualified poorly at Mount Gambler on Saturday and was forced to start from position 18.

He finished fifth.

At Warrnambool Dumesny clocked the fastest time trial with a 10.726s then won his first heat.

He qualified third, starting the 30-lap final on the inside of the second row behind South Australian Dylan Jenkins and Farr.

It took two attempts to get the A-Main underway after a four-car crash entering turn one at the first green flag. Farr finally got the jump at the restart, with Dumesny relegating Jenkins to third on the opening lap.

Dumesny closed on the leader by lap seven and was baulked attempting an inside pass through turn three on lap nine.

The pole line was still good for his successful pass in the back straight on lap 17 and he quickly opened a commanding lead.

Reidy, who started out of five, moved to third and despite pressuring Farr in the second half of the race was unable to find a way around.

Dumesny's winning time of 5m59.82s demolished the old record of 6m23.47s.The 10-lap

WORLD OF OUTLAWS 2007

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65

Force misses the cut THE 395-event qualifying streak of John Force came to an end at Las Vegas Motor Speedway after failing to make the16-carfield.

The last time Force failed to make a field for which he attempted to qualify was 31 October 1987 when he was shut out of the 16-car lineup for the season-ending Worid Finais at Pomona, dropping him from second to fourth in the final standings. His daughter Ashiey, who now drives for his team, was just four years old at the time.

Force bumped into the field on his final attempt Saturday, but couldn't stay there. He wound up 17th with a time of 4.852s,just shy of the 4.837s of number 16 qualifier Jack Beckman, who to bumped Force in the final session.

Force had flirted with a DNQ ail year long, making the starting field on the last of his four qualifying attempts in two of the three races in which he previously had participated.

The second longest streak in history was 303 straight starts by Pro Stock veteran Warren Johnson. Ironically, the second longest active streak,the one that Top Fuel dragster driver Doug Kalitta had run to 164,also came to an end in Las Vegas.That makes Angelle Sampey's 152 straight starts in the Pro Stock Motorcycle class currently the longest-active streak. n Kalitta Motorsports has signed worldwide shipping giant DHL as new primary sponsor of the Scott Kalittadriven Nitro Funny Car currently competing in the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series.

The yellow and red decorated 8000horsepower OHLToyota Solara Funny Car made its debut in Las Vegas with a Round 2 finish. n Josh Hernandez made it two-ina-row for 2007 and scored a three-peat at Houston Raceway Park as he won the AMS Pro Mod event, defeating Scott Cannon Jr. in a pedal fest final round under the lights, 6.20s/225mph to6.22s/233mph.

Cannon became the final member of the AMS five Second Club when he ran a 5.998s in the first-round defeat of Tony Pontieri, Ironically, Cannon's father, former Pro Mod, Funny tar and nuvzTop Fuel rai er Scotty Cannon was the last driver to join the Six Second Club, DAVID OSTASZEWSKI 66

A little lady luck

BRANDON Bernstein enjoyed lady luck last weekend at The Strip in Las Vegas Motor Speedway with victory in NHRA Top Fuel.

Bernstein, aboard the Budweiser dragster, advanced to the money round by taking early round wins over Clay Millican, Cory McClenathan, and Morgan Lucas, before holding off Bob Vandergriff in the final round,4.52s/330mph to a tyre-hazing 4.82s/298mph to take his 13th career victory.

Vandergriff drove to his eighth final round showing, piloting his UPS dragster past surprise number two qualifier Brady Kalivoda in the opening frame,then defeated Joe Hartley and Rod Fuller to reach the final.

After missing the last event following the untimely death of team-mate Eric Medlen,John Force Racing returned to racing and Robert Might collected his first victory of the 2007 POWERade season. Might defeated point leader Ron Capps in the Funny Car final round, 5.12s/282mph to a 5.59s/178mph.

Might, pictured above, and the AAA of Southern California Ford Mustang had the strongest car in eliminations,taking 4.77s/320mph,4.72s/326mph, and 4.76s/324mph wins over Tommy Johnson Jr., Del Worsham and Jim FJead on the way to the final round.

Capps entered his third straight final round by driving the Ed McCulloch-tuned Brut Dodge around Jeff Arend, Kenny Bernstein, and team-mate Jack Beckman.

Greg Anderson continued his domination of the Pro Stock class, racking up his third victory of the season, overcoming a holeshot and stopping two-time champion,Jeg Coughlin in the final round. Anderson clocked a 6.72s/205mph in the final to drive around the 6.75s/204mph of Coughlin.

Anderson's Summit Pontiac rolled through eliminations past Kenny Koretsky, Richie Stevens and Dave Connolly.

Top Qualifier Coughlin and the Jegs/Slammers Cobalt had advanced in early eliminations past Max Naylor, Jim Yates, and Allen Johnson.

The next stop on the NHRA POWERade tour will be the Summit Racing Equipment NEIRA Southern Nationals at Atlanta Dragway, April 26-29.

- DAVID OSTASZEWSKI Points:Top Fuel: Fuller 307,Todd 291,Schumacher 266, Bazemore 260, Dixon 239.

Funny Car: Capps 363,Pedregon 280, Flight 253.

Pro Stock: Anderson 368, Line 323,Connoily 252.

Houston Rockets TOP Fuel winner J.R.Todd and veteran Funny Car racer Ron Capps dedicated their victories at the 20th annual O'Reilly NHRA Spring Nationals to Eric Medlen, who lost his life on March 23 after a testing accident.

The pair joined Pro Stock winner Jason Line and Pro Stock Motorcycle's Angelle Sampey in an emotional Winner's Circle at Houston Raceway Park two weeks ago.

After taking early round wins over Clay Millican, MelanieTroxel, and Larry Dixon,Todd held off first time finalist Joe Hartley in the final 4.60/313 to 4.64/307, to take his fifth career victory. It was Todd's second win of the season and first since crew-chief Jimmy Walsh left the team after Phoenix.

Capps scored his second-

straight event win while defeating former world champion Cruz Pedregon with a 4.86s/307mph against Pedregon's laboring 5.02s/270mph. Earlier in the day Capps Brut Dodge had defeated teammates Jack Beckman and Gary Sceizi, then disposed of Del Worsham to reach the final.

After stopping Kurt Johnson, Warren Johnson and Jeg Coughlin early. Line overcame a 0.045s reaction time advantage

by Allen Johnson to win the closest Professional final of the day,6.66s/207mph to 6.71s/206mph.

Sampey rode away from good friend Craig Treble, who broke at halftrack, after taking a huge starting line advantage, winning with a 7,04s/188mph.

-DAVID OSTASZEWSKI

IHRA Opener THE opening round of the new IHRA season was held at San Antonio Raceway recently.

Bruce Litton kicked off his season in fine style by taking victory over Clay Milliacan in Top Fuel.

Funny Car went to Dale Creasy Jr., who was Joined in the Winner's Circle by Pro Mod winner Ed Hoover, Pro Stock's Robert Patrick and Alcohol Funny Car driver Terry Monroe.

The racing was held on an eighth mile racing surface after the track broke up early in the weekend.

The next round is at Rockingham Dragway on April 20-22.

- DAVID OSTASZEWSKI

motorspori nows

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DRAG RACING

Ridgeway back to Pro Stock

FORMER Australian Pro Stock champion Peter Ridgeway will return to ANDRA Championship Drag Racing competition later this year.

Ridgeway has partnered with former on-track rival John O'Kearney for his comeback, with the pair expecting delivery of a state-of-the-art 2006 Holden Monaro, built by legendary US chassis builder Don Ness next month.

Powering the car will be a Ridgeway Motorsportsdesigned and deveioped 400 cubic inch (6.5 litre) smail block Chevrolet, which produces in¬

excess oflOOObhp (750kW) and can rev to over 10,000rpm.

Standing quarter-mile performances will be in the 7.1 second range with speeds topping 190mph (305kmh).

"When you retire, you're gone a long time and I've decided that I'm not ready to hang up the boots just yet," Ridgeway

said.

"While I was enjoying my roles outside the car as a crew chief for Dave Rogan and as an advisor to a number of other teams in various classes, I never lost the passion to drive.

I suppose it's my competitive

nature more than anything."

There is no doubting the chassis that Ridgeway wili have at his disposal.The Nessbuilt Oldsmobile Cutlass took Ridgeway to three of his four titles, while Rogan won both his Pro Stock titles in the same car.

"With five Australian

championships to its credit, the Olds probably has the best winning record of any Pro Stock car in Australian history - so how could I buy a new one from.anyone else but Ness?"

Ridgeway asked.

"Ness did ail of the development work for GM to

adapt the US version of the Monaro,the Pontiac GTO,to Pro Stock, so he knows everything there needs to know about the car.

A winner of four ANDRA Pro Stock titles, Ridgeway recorded the first official seven second elapsed time for the'factory hot rod'class in 1994 before

becoming the first to break the 300kmh barrier nine years later.

A rigorous testing program is planned prior to the team's official debut at the 2007 East Coast Nationals at Western Sydney International Dragway in late August.

Force tests new safety equipment

JFR reconfigures chassis to combat safety issues THE cockpits of the three John Force Racing Funny Cars and both of the team's Super Comp dragsters were reconfigured to address safety issues which were raised by the accident and death of Eric Medlen last month.

The cockpits of all JFR racecars were widened four inches at the top of the roll cages,and increased padding was installed to decrease head movement within the cage.

A seven-point lap belt has replaced the previous five-point harness and a complete shield surrounds the cage from the front loop back. Force also tested a new R3 hybrid restraint system which is designed to keep the head from moving side-to-side as well as front-to-back.

It apparently was side-to-side oscillation that caused Medlen's fatal head injuries.

- DAVID OSTASZEWSKI www.mnews.com.au

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Edited by Andrew van Leeuwen

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Lotus to flower

.

AFTER the problems associated with previous category management, a reborn Lotus-based series, the XChallenge, is set to kick off this year.

Under new management,the series has naming-rights sponsorship from Federal Tyres, along with support from Lotus Cars Australia and will run classes for Lotus Exige (X-1)and Elise (X-2). Apart from its stand-alone series(run as part of the AMRS series), the cars are eligible to run in the Performance Car Championship (which has races at Indy and Bathurst).

X Challenge will run as two day meetings under the umbrella of the AMRS with the traditional Friday practice day has replaced by a practice session and 'regularity trial'for Lotus owners who are not competing in the X Challenge series, but would like to experience'track'activity before, perhaps, taking on the race series.

A'preview'opening race day is part of the April 28/29 meeting at Winton, while the championships themselves are expected to kick off at Queensland Raceway on June 16/17.

Drivers can compete on a'bring your helmet'basis or self-prepare cars - drives and cars are still available in the X-2 class- contact Azim SahuKhan (0420 305 911)or xchallenge@ equitable.com.au n The Aussie Racing Cars has a comprehensive 2006 season highlights DVD review available for purchase over its website(www.aussieracingcars. com.au).

The two-disk, five hour compilation comprises action of all championship rounds from the 2006 season, plus coverage from the Bathurst international Motor festival, technical insights and plenty of extras. From the Clipsal 500 to the category's stand alone round at Baskerville in Tasmania, all the Aussies action is documented.

But if five hours is too much Aussie Racing Car action for you, pick up your copy of The Annual Australian Motorsport 2006, v/hich has a free Aussie Hacmg Cat DVD attached to the cover. Ihe 49 minute OVD is a pint sized version of its five hour big brotlier!

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Rob Storey makes Formula Ford history at Wakefield Park A WORLD first was achieved at Wakefield Park last weekend, with Rob Storey notching up the first ever race win for a Spirit Formula Ford chassis.

Storey, pictured right, took out the opening race of the New South Wales Formula Ford Championship when pole-sitter and early leader Ben Morley made a mistake late in the race. And according to the Australian Spirit importer and Anglo Australian Motorsport boss Tim Beale, it was the first proper race win for a Spirit chassis.

"It's really good to be a part of," said Beale.

"First we had Grant Doulman get the first pole position in the National Championship last year, and now we've had the first win.

"So I'm absolutely rapt with that.

And the good part is we've got plenty to come from the car."

Storey was unable to back up the Race 1 result, with reigning Champion Morley recovering to grab the other two victories.

"It's a shame Rob couldn't backto-back it, but I've got to say It's good to have Ben in the class.

"And we've only done three days in the new car, it's not like we've had 20 days worth of track time."

The meeting marked the Australian debut of the all-new Spirit WL07 chassis, with the car set to make its National Championship debut in the hands of Brad Lowe at Winton next month.

- ANDREW VAN LEEUWEN

Targa Tas ready to rock

A co-driver, a Dane and a five-time Champ set for tarmac spectacular

AMID rumours that he is about to skip the country to co-drive for Chris Atkinson, Dale Moscatt has revealed that he will have a pedal in this year's Targa Tasmania.

While originally scheduled to co-drive for Grant Denyer in a Mini Cooper S, Denyer's hectic television schedule will call for Moscatt to take the wheel for the Thursday of the event.

"It should be fun,"said Moscatt.

"I'll be upholding the honour of all the co-drivers out there!"

Another interesting inclusion in the field for Targa, which kicks off on the Apple Isle this week, is Allan Simonsen. The Danish jack-of-all-trades will attempt to keep his 100 percent winning record in tarmac rallies alive when he and co-driver Ben Searcy pilot their Mitsubishi Evo. Speaking of Mitsubishis, also on the entry list is Ross Dunkerton. FJe will take part in the all-new Rookie Rallye class, despite being a five-time Australian Rally Champion and two-time winner of the Targa West rally in Perth.

motorsport news

NATIONAL SCENE.

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Morris: Mountain Man PROVING his versatility, Paul Morris was the man to beat in the third round of the 2007 Aussie Racing Car championship, taking a commanding round victory at Mount Panorama a fortnight ago.

Two race wins and a pole position were enough to give Morris his first win since joining the category last season, his performance coming after yet another stunning weekend of racing that included all the usual three or four-abreast dicing and plenty of slingshot passes.

Morris took pole by over a half a second in qualifying and went on to win the first race - but not before withstanding concerted challenges from Paul Kemal and the Ward brothers. Brad and James.

Morris only wrestled the lead from Kemal in the closing stages of the race to claim his maiden category win.

Unfortunately things went bad for Morris in Race 2 as he spun in The Chase after attempting a passing move on fellow ring-in driver Neil Crompton.

Crompton, who had finished sixth in Race 1, was also delayed due to the contact and was forced to work his way back into contention in typically aggressive, slipstreaming fashion.

He had even drafted his way into the race lead by the final lap until Brad Ward was able to slipstream his way past with just a few corners remaining, leaving Crompton to fend of James Ward in a race to the line for second.

A six-car freight train featured as the leading dice throughout the third and final race as Morris rebounded from his Race 2 difficulties.

On the last lap he drafted past race

leader Kemal and was again able to hold on and take a victory to complete a fairytale weekend for the V8 Supercar regular.

"It's been the race meeting of my life," Morris said, "it's true racing with real racing cars, some great drivers and I've really enjoyed it. It's nice to actually be able to race people and pass them for a change."

Morris won the round by a solitary point over James Ward and Brad Ward, with Kemal and Crompton completing the top five.

However it was Kemal who consolidated his position back on top of the leaderboard for the championship proper, his strong weekend giving him a three-point series lead over James Ward, and six over Brad.

-RICHARD CRAILL Points: Kemal 149,James Ward 146, Brad Ward 143, James Manderson 135, Ben McCashney 131.

WOW! SOME people have all the luck.

\

Like Max Wilson, who had the honour of pedalling a Team Australia Champ Car around Mount Panorama during the Bathurst International Motor

4'

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Festival a fortnight ago.

Sure it may have been an ageing Reynard, and sure it may have been behind the Pace Car, but it's still a cool way to spend a Saturday.

69

The Galloping Gallardo WHEN Bryce Washington described racing through Bathurst's famous Chase at 280kmh as"one of the most

amazing things I have ever experienced in a race car," people knew that his Lamborghini Gallardo was the car to have in the third round of the Australian GT Championship.

And after 24 laps around Mount Panorama over Easter that was very much the case - the Gallardo sweeping to its first-ever race wins on Australian soil and substantially closing the margin to championship leader Allan Simonsen in the process.

Washington was completely and utterly dominant at Bathurst, taking pole position,two wins and smashing the lap record by over 2s. In the process he also closed the margin to the championship leader dramatically, "it's been a great weekend,"the South Australian said.

"We knew that once we had some miles on the car it would be a very competitive package. We've proved that this weekend - our championship campaign really starts here."

Second was David Wall, who posted a consistent performance in his Porsche but lacked the last few tenths he needed to challenge Washington, Wall qualified second and looked capable of challenging the Lambo in the first race on Saturday.

The Porsche was at its best on

the run down through Forrest's elbow and down Conrod,as well as into Murray's corner which is where he had a look at Washington on the final lap of the race.

And whilst the Lamborghini was probably never really threatened.

Wall's performance once again indicated that he will be a continual force this year.

In the second race he fell to a 2s deficit to the leader in what was a quiet performance. However he was well clear of third-placed

Simonsen who was looking down the barrel of a massively reduced championship advantage.

The point's leader was a troubled man at Bathurst, his heavily-restricted Ferrari F360GT never in the hunt throughout the weekend.

In qualifying he was restricted to third place thanks to a mechanical failure, and the races were just a case of circulating and hoping that the leaders crashed into each other. Clearly, that didn't happen.

"I'd rather be racing (British GTs at Oulton Park," he quipped afterwards.

Ian Palmer made a successful debut in the second Gallardo, finishing fourth for the weekend and essentially running in a class of his own throughout the two races, while Sven Burchartz's Porsche was consistently strong and scored a top five finish in Race 2.

- RICHARD CRAILL Points; Simonsen 309,Washington 273, Wall 265, Qamien Flack 162.

Old School Commodore Cup TWO series champions - one the defending winner and one a four-time legend of the category - were the men to beat in the non-championship Commodore Cup races at Mount Panorama over the Easter long weekend.

Marcus Zukanovic,the man who so convincingly won the championship last season, and four-time champion Geoff Emery were the standout performers in the first Commodore Cup races at Bathurst since the early stages of the decade.

Qualifying was an incident packed affair with Emery (distributor dramas)and Paul Morris both ousted from the session before completing a lap. For Emery the problem would be rectified, for Morris the damage was significant enough to leave

him on the sidelines.

After taking pole, Christian D'Agostin lead the first race from pole position and looked strong before being overhauled by Zukanovic,the eventual race winner.

Emery charged from 25th on the grid to seventh in just one lap and would demolish the lap record en route to fourth place.

D'Agostin again dominated the early stages of Race 2 only to again be overhauled by Zukanovic and Emery.

In Race 3 Emery came the full circle to beat Zukanovic to the first corner, and was never headed on his way to a return win.

Second gave Zukanovic round honours while third to D'Agostin was enough to give him third overall.

-RICHARD CRAILL

motorsportnews

NATIONAL SCENE

■m

BMW won the Bathurst 12 hour, Holden dominated Commodore Cup (naturally) and also the Aussie Racing Cars and Lamborghini conquered the GT Racing, but if you wanted to win in the Historic Touring Car event at Mount Panorama over Easter, you just had to have a Ford.

Ford's Mustang dominated proceedings in the Group N HistoricTouring car races, winning pole position and each of the three races. In fact, Mustangs and their local Falcon counterparts were so crushingly dominant that they filled the first six positions in the third and final race on Saturday.

The man everyone tried to stop was Tasmania's Darren Pearce his 4.8 litre Mustang seeming to have the right combination of balance and power compared to the larger-capacity Falcons that chased him for a good portion of the weekend.

Pearce won each of the three races, two of them by over 10s, and was nigh on unstoppable.

In fact, the only person that came close was historic racing stalwart Des Wall.

Once again behind the wheel of his ex-Geoghegan Mustang, Wall scored pole position by just over

REIGNING NSW State Formula Ford Champion Ben Morley only found out that he was driving on the Friday of the race meeting, but that didn't stop the Icon Motorsport driver from claiming a dominant victory in the opening round of the 2007 NSW State Formula Ford Championship at Wakefield Park Raceway last weekend.

Despite having not driven since November last year, Morley showed few signs of being rusty, going out in qualifying and posting the fastest lap on Saturday morning, and later that afternoon held down a comfortable lead In Race 1, only to make a mistake.

www.mnews.com.au

That allowed Rob Storey take the win ahead of CAMS Rising Star drivers Scott Pye and Daniel Erickson, while Morley was able to rejoin the field and finished well down the order in 16th.

Pye took out the victory in Race 2 ahead of a hard-charging Morley (who had worked his way up from the rear of the field), while Queensland State Champion Martin Swindells placed third. The third and final race (trophy event) saw Morley lead from start to finish and take a comfortable win with Glenn Welch and Storey filling the minor places.

- DANIEL POWELL

one second and looked to be the man to beat.

Unfortunately, mechanical dramas struck Wall in both of the first two races.

In Race 1 an engine seal let go, whilst a broken clutch fork in the second meant by the third race Saturday evening Wall hadn't completed one racing lap.

He was able to start the final race, and it was like waving a red flag at a bull.

The experienced driver charged from 39th to 18th on the first lap. He was ninth by Lap 3 and completed the seven-lap affair in third position after another one of Bathurst's great comebacks.

Grant Wilson was the leading light from the Red side of the fence, his Chevy Camaro third in qualifying and second in the opening two races before mechanical dramas got the better of Queenslander, relegating him to the sidelines in the third race.

David Stone (Ford Falcon), Cameron Worner (Falcon) and Jervis Ward (Mustang) were all present on the podium throughout the weekend showing the depth of the 49-car field that had entered.

- RICHARD CRAILL

Action Jackson CHRIS Jackson and Adam Proctor showed their might in their respective Sports Sedan and Formula Vee categories by opening their NSW State Championship accounts with wins.

In the Sports Sedans, Jackson scored a clean sweep ● of all three races, whilst Proctor found the going a little tougher by claiming the narrowest of victories in the trophy race ahead of Ryan Simpson and Jason Cutts.

Races 1 and 2 were taken out by Cutts.

Other winners over the weekend included Gavyn Croft (Combined Touring), Bob Jowett (Under 2 Litre Improved Production), Greg Hunter (AF2 / Supersports / Clubman Challenge), Daniel D'Aquino (HQ Holdens), Dave Loftus (Over 2 Litre Improved Production), and David Raddatz (Production Sports Cars).

- DANIEL POWELL 71

>

If» 4. "'

Intrepid to the Max ROTAX has announced the chassis to be used for the 2007 World Final in Dubai.

Intrepid will supply the field in both Senior and Junior 12Scc MAX while CRG have the gig for the DD2 class. n Geelong Extreme Karts has been appointed the Victorian distributor for the BRM range of chassis.

Owner Dominic Albanese, who runs theTitan Formula 100 series, said he always wanted to add an Italian product to the range he sells. Albanese will also field newcomer Christopher Trotter at the next round of the Titan series. n The Mount Gambler kart track will be the venue for a combined Leopard/Rotax 250km endurance event in May. Local racers Ian Thornley and Edward Hodges got behind the idea after competing in a similar event in NSW last year.

"After experiencing the fun and excitement, we thought there was no reason why we couldn't hold our own," Hodges said.

Up to 30 two-or-three driver teams in two weight divisions will compete for $2400 of cash in the 330-lapper. n While the V8s and IRL embrace ethanol fuels of some description to power their cars, AKA karting specifically bans the use of the alcohol in any percentage at events held under its jurisdiction.

It would appear this might have to change at some stage. NSW politicians, for example, have promised by September this year that a minimum of two percent ethanol be blended into the total volume of petrol sold in that state, increasing to lOpercent by 2011, n Pedro De la Rosa has been quoted on the homeofsport.com as saying he was at a disadvantage to other Grand Prix drivers because he started racing so late while they started earlier in karts."For Formula One you really have to start in go-karts when you are really young" he said."If I had done things differently I would probably be where I am today at the age of 25, not 35." n In the wake of recent road tragedies, Remo l.ociani has launched a f ommiinily campaign for a imiitipiirpose driver training facility and racing vernie in Horsham, Victoria.

72

Williamson canesthe Kiwis New South Welshman wins New Zealand title TOM Williamson won the New Zealand Karting Championships in Rotax Heavy over the Easter weekend.

But it wasn't without controversy.

A last lap move on Kosmic driver Hamish Cross saw the local driver take to the dirt as Williamson went on to score the victory.

"I threw it down the inside at the hairpin and pulled the kart up in the middle of the corner," Williamson told MNews.

"But he then ran over my rear wheel and went off the track. Half an hour later, I heard he had decided to protest me."

The protest was subsequently dismissed and Williamson awarded the win, however, latest news

Is that Cross will appeal the steward's decision.

Racing an Arrow for the local Right Karts team, Williamson was fast from the outset. Qualifying second,the NSW driver finished second to Cross in the opening heat before winning heat two and the pre-final.

Williamson led at the start of the final, but Cross got by before the opening lap was completed.

"Hamish was smart, and very fast. At the start of the final I thought'I'm in a bit of trouble here'. But my kart came on late in the race."

Cross held on for second ahead of Nikki Mills. Mitch Cunningham returned home to win Formula 100.

-MARK WICKS

The deal with dates m

THE dates for the 2007 Kartprix National Series are still to be ratified.

Series organiser Ian Salvestrin was hoping to have them rubber stamped at a recent meeting with the AKA. However,the AKA want a guarantee that the series' premier category will switch from Clubman to a CIK class in the future.

As such, it is likely that the 2007 Kartprix series will take place in the second half of the year, prior to the 2008 Kartprix series for Clubman, before moving to CIKKFl orKF2in2009.

"Everyone, including the AKA, agrees that Australia needs a professionally run national series. It's Just a matter of sorting out the bugs now so we don't have to do so five years down the track" Salvestrin said.

-MARK WICKS

motorsportnews

J

NATIONAL SCENE ,

The Ups:James Sera THERE was a collective sigh of relieffrom the karting fraternity when James Sera crossed the finish line at Eastern Creek a

fortnight ago to finally win an Australian Karting Championship.

The Melbourne driver had come cruelly close so many times in the past. Fastest qualifier in Clubman Light for three years in a row,Sera has started pole for the final at three of the last four Nationals and finished runner-up at the past two.The guy always ran at the front, but never got the job finished; 2004- leading into the last corner he gets punted out of the way;'05 - a loose axle bearing drops him out of contention;

'06 - overshoots a corner defending the lead on the last lap.

What was to be the story for'07?

"I was waiting for something stupid to happen!"the 27-year-old admits.

And it almost did. Having been the man to beat all weekend. Sera held a comfortable lead in the final - until he noticed the air-box turning.

"I was worried it was going to suck something in. I probably slowed too much concentrating on it."

The win was popular, but also allowed him to dispel some cruel rumours regarding special tyres.

"We've had tyres taken from us in the past, but(with tyre pooling) it's as clear as day we use the same as everyone else. It was important to win and clear that up."

He also found the race format a little strange(where the field is split into two groups).

"It was good that everyone got to have a go, but I think the top drivers from each group need to come together before the pre-final so we can sort ourselves out a bit.

I came up against people in the final that I hadn't raced with all meeting so I didn't know what to expect."

-MARK WICKS

'o 4 O,

i

The Downs:Chris Wootton IF James Sera's was the definition of an 'up'weekend,then Chris Wootton's would have to be the downer...

Competing in Leopard Light, the Queenslander struck trouble in just the second practice session, a collision with another driver writing off his chassis.

"It tore the whole C-section off the frame" Wootton's dad Ken told MNews.

Another kart was built up around a new frame for the following day. However, a damaged radiator (the result of getting run over in yet another incident)followed by a fuel line issue meant he went into qualifying with virtually no miles under his belt.Things didn't get better. A loose wheel and broken chain meant no times registered and back ofthe grid for the heats. iAriAiw.mnews.com.au

Using the heats to work on the handling, by finals time Wootton was getting back on the pace. He had moved up the field when late in the race contact saw him run wide offthe circuit. The nose cone dug in to gravel catapulting Wootton out ofthe kart and back onto the race track.

Laying unconscious on the circuit, the 18year-old had a partially collapsed lung plus a dislocated and broken shoulder.

After three days in hospital, Wootton is looking to short cut his recovery. A personal trainer by profession, he's eager to get into physio, cut an expected six week recovery back to four and return to the race track.

-MARK WICKS 73

NATIONAL SCENE

Thanks,Jamo JARNOTrulli presented last year's Leopard Heavy Final winner Kel Treseder with the keys to a new Toyota Yaris last month.

Treseder won the car after winning the 2006 Leopard final at Puckapunyal last December.The formal handover was part of a Toyota promotion at Melbourne's VACC Park prior to the AGP.Trulli also gave tuition to AFL stars Brendan Fevola, Mark Murphy, Patrick Bowden and Chris Newman.

Barossa Beauty the south Australian Closed Titles were held at Ihe tHcky little Barossa trackearlier this month.

D^ny Errigo, pictured above, was the stand out, taking two wins; Leopard Heavy. Despite a crash m the heats, Leigh Harrison recovered for the Senior National Light win. Clubman Light belonged to Matthew Titles also went the way of Jake Cole (Midgets), George Gutierrez(Rookies), Rhys Newman (Jnr National Light), Cody Price (Jnr National Heavy), Simon Layne (Over 40s), Aaron Wilamowski (Sportsman SA)and Nicholas Pavan (Leopard Light).

-MARK WICKS

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You're the man:Matthew Smallwood was on top of the game in Clubman Light.

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TALK CONVERTER

MeNews and Will Power

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 National Sales Manager: Calvin Wood M 0439 566 265 cwood@mnews.com.au 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 f/.-Joe Saward, Adam Cooper, Paolo Filisetti, MarkGlendenning Europe:Quentin Spurring, David Addison US: Martin D. Clark, Phil Morris Speedway:Greg Boscato, Geoff Rounds, Darren Sutton, Tony Millard (UK) Rally: Ryan Lahiff Drag Racing: Dave Ostaszewski(USA), Ken Ferguson,John Bosher National: Mark Wicks, Mark Jones, 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, CBR Photographies, Paris Charles, Bob Potts, Neil Hammond,Joel Strickland, Mike Patrick (UK) Motorsport News is published by Australasian Motorsport News ABN 55125120 702 Publisher: C Lambden Printed by:lAfebstar Printing Distributed by:NDDLtd Material published by MOTORSPORT HEWS is copyright and may not be reproduced in full or in part without the written permission of tire publisher, freelance contributions are welcome, and while all care will be taken, Australasian Motorsport News does not accept responsibility for damage or loss of material submitted.

'Opinions expressed in Motorsport flews are not necessarily those of Australasian Motorsport News or Its staff.

Hi gang.Thank you for a great magazine. I have from Issue #1 onwards and enjoy it very much.

I subscribed some time ago but today I also registered for Motorsport eNews.

I am in my 70s and, unfortunately, I am handicapped and vision impaired. My Dad first took me to Bathurst in 1934 and from that time I was hooked on motorsport. I was very mechanically minded, even in my school days, and after I left school at the age of 16 I became an apprentice mechanical engineer the good old days of five nights a week for five years at Tech.(The first year was in a railway carriage that used to come to a siding in Cootamundra until the technical

put it, and how can anyone have 'tall poppy syndrome'when HRT haven't been the form team since 2002?

Ease up champ! And how can you callTom Walkinshaw'a very competent and successful businessman'when he let hisTWR

Send us y^rtfioughts: PO Box 7072, Brighton,Vie,3186 mnews@mnews.cdrn.au

Will Power #2 What ever happened to common sense in this country?

All of a sudden we have an Aussie winning Champ Car races, in an Aussie-backed team, but are

College was officially built).

Sorry, I don't want to bore you too much but I thought I'd give you a bit of my background and interest in motorsport.

we seeing this on our television sets? No way!

What clown decided that?

I have mixed feelings about Network Seven taking over

talk to him.There are probably thousands of Power fans out there

the Supercars. I learnt this

who might like to join me.

Greg Feltham Hobart, Tas

morning after ringing the sports department at Seven that there will be no broadcast of Champ Cars - the only event they are going to broadcast is the Indy 300 on the Gold Coast.

Can somebody tell me his email address, I think I need to

Will Power #3

only to me, but a lot of Australians because we have a major player for the first time after his rookie

With Will Power doing so well, and always having an interest in the Champ Car World Series, I was wondering if you could inform me if, where and when it can be watched on television.

year - Will Power and Team Aussie.

Will beat the Yanks at their own

Mark Pym pymmy@im.net.au

What a big disappointment, not

game, led from the first day the wheels hit the ground, until he crossed the line for the chequered flag.

What a great result.

Can any of you inform me if any of the free-to-air stations are going to broadcast the Champ Cars?

Once again great mag - looking forward to the new digital Motorsport eNews.

AifJordan jordan70r@tadaust.org.au

$79.50

$148.50

A$110 A$140

A$210 A$270

www.mnews.com.au 80

can just come along and buy into a team withoutthe approval of TEGA, especially Tom Walkinshaw.

Chris Lambden's apparent'issue' with Walkinshaw is well founded as Holden Motorsport Manager Simon McNamara has gone on the record saying that he's not happy that HRT's name has been tarnished. No one wants to see HRT ejected from the sport but rules are rules and Tom has left HRT in dire straits before.

Mau Bailey Email address withheld Leave Tom Alone? #2 Tony Lenan, MNews #358, is naive to suggest that the ownership and control of HRT by Tom Walkinshaw does not make the cars faster.

It is no coincidence that the four cars of HRT and HSV are 1,2,3,4 in the championship.They have the benefit and advantage of testing results from four cars, not just two or one, as is the case with all other teams. How can the brand new model (VE) perform so well, straight out of the box, and much

Champ Car this year -just when we've got a winner on our hands.

They bent the rules last year when they shared drivers in the

Maybe that fact might prompt a change of heart!

endurance races, which probably cost Tander the championship, and they spoiled the championship finale by utilising team tactics and taking out the only other contender. Now they have cheated the system again, and TEGA do not have the intestinal fortitude to

Leave Tom Alone?

In response to Tony Lenan's letter 'Leave Tom Alone'(MNews #358).

First of all, no one in the media has been'HRT bashing'as you

quicker than all other VE's.

exclude HRT, at least until the team has a new owner.

I dontcare ifthey arethe

fPOROCK

Includes access to MNews Platinum!

POST chtM|ui?/money order to tire address above FAX credit t,itd tit iails(VISA nr Mastercard) to 0195% 5010(im'l 1-613 9596 5030) FMAII to siibs'ri inncws.f.oiti.au or PAY Ollliurat:

and now he's back and seemingly dictating conditions to Skaife.

The fact remains that no one

ED: Sadly, it doesn't look like anybody - not free-to-air of even Foxtel, is going to broadcast

1 year 2 years (12iss) (24iss) Australia (incGST) Overseas (airmail); Nevd Zealand 8r Asia Rest of the World

group go belly up! Remember Mark Skaife had to dig deep into his own pockets to rescue HRT after Tom left them in the s**t

M

1

iC... —

Will Power is flying but is anyone watching? Sadly, no...

flagship team, either red or blue.

They cheated and should be ineligible to compete. Or at the very least, the two teams should have to live within theTREC salary cap specified for a four car team.

This would go some way towards negating the advantage they have gained.

Lloyd Abbot Brisbane, QLD

motorsDOfiiiBews

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KART RORMULA NEWS

fonmm Editor GRANT ROWLEY grant@mnews.com.au Photography COOPERS PHOTOGRAPHY coopersphotography@bigpond.com ASH BUDD http://www.snapshotsa.com/

Contents Troy Hunt Kart Formula Awards Clubman Light Clubman Heavy Junior Clubman Junior National Light Junior National Heavy Leopard Light Leopard Heavy Clubman Super Heavy Senior National Light Senior National Heavy

Chris

kartformula is a special event supplement produced by Australasian Motorsport News,in conjunction with BAM Media.

Material published by KART formula is copyright and may not be reproduced in full or in part without the written permission of the publisher.

Opinions expressed in Kart Formula are not necessarily those of Australasian Motorsport News or its staff.

kartlng-net.ais

AKA in control THE Australian Karting Association is set to take more significant control of its marquee event, the Australian Sprint Kart Championships held every Easter.

By enlarge the National body has allowed the State Associations and the host club to conduct the majority of operations at the Easter Nationals, but this is set to change to ensure the quality of operations and presentation of Australia's most significant karting event.

The move will not spell the end of club involvement, with the AKA keen to continue to work with each host club and state, but from this point on the co-ordination between all parties will be much more closely aligned, with the AKA working across all aspects of the event.

"It is about the National body having control over the Nationals and ensuring that there is continuity between each year,"said AKA President

formula

exclusive

Richard Erdmann.

"When people go to race at the Nationals they go there to race at the highest level and should expect the same from the organisation running the event.The only way the National body can ensure this occurs is if it has more control over the meeting."

"One thing I'd like to stress though, is that this is not about us taking over the entire running of the event, it is about the National body setting out some distinct guidelines about who has what responsibilities for the event and working together with the local club and state association.

"The host club and state association are as much a part of the Nationals as the AKA and we value their effort and support for the Nationals."

Next year's Australian Sprint Kart Championships will be held at the Launceston Circuit in Tasmania from March 21 - 23.

Sera's Light

JAMES Sera finally shook the tag of'best driver without an Australian title'when he took a dominating win in Clubman Light at Eastern Creek at the 45th Yamaha Dunlop Australian Sprint Kart Championships.

Clubman Light is the most hotly contested class in Australian karting, so it is rare that the term 'dominate'or'favourite'is attached to anyone in the class.

But Sera certainly carried that tag entering Eastern Creek, by virtue of dominating the NSW and SA state titles and showing scintillating pace at the Victorian Open - the traditional form guide to the Nationals, only to be pushed from pole deep into the midfield in the early stages of the final.

So for Eastern Creek, where Sera started the final from pole, it was a fine feeling when he got a break on his cousin David in the early laps and drove to 'a race winning lead.

"I concentrate on Clubman Light,"Sera told Kart Formula.

.]

ir

mm,

If JamesSera(Budd)

four, but haven't won any.

"This one was ours - we finally secured it."

Such is Sera's speed in Clubman that it's worth reminding him of MarkWinterbottom's record of three-straight Clubman Light national titles.

"I used to race Mark a lot and he is one of the toughest guys I've raced against,"said Sera.

"He won three in a row and I've poled three in a row. I see no

"It means I neglect the Leopard a little bit but this is the one I've

reason why we couldn't do it but gee,that's a long way off. I won't worry about that for the moment.

I'll just look to defend my state championships in NSW and SA for the rest of the year.

been chasing and we put a lot of effort into our Clubman program.

"We've had pole for Clubman Light at the last three nationals and led laps in the final at the last

"I've got my wedding and honeymoon coming up this year as well, so I've got a lot on my plate but I'm looking forward to everything, it's going to be a

great year for me and it's a good feeling to know I have all these great things coming up and I have the Australian title.

"I've been racing for Roger (Polak) and his MKC team for five years now and we've had the MKC Engines program going for two years. We work very hard at the Clubman so it's good to get this win."

As the MKC team packed up for the evening. Sera stood, smiling, unscrewing his blue plate.

"I'm not taking it off to put the green one onl" he exclaimed.

"No, I'm not like that. We store the karts in the van with the rear crash bar resting on the floor, so we always take the back number plate off.

"But this time,the blue one isn't going back on.That's a good feelingl Sounds good to me.

I

I

Hunt's emotional victory

WHEN Troy Hunt won his seventh National Title at the 45th Yamaha Dunlop Australian Sprint Kart Championship it was a lot more than just another race win.

Since Hunt started his career at Lithgow in 1988 he has developed into one of Australia's most successful karters of all time. He is one of the most recognisable names in the sport from youngsters through to the older generation.

Throughout his time in the sport Hunt has fostered numerous young drivers and assisted them into a career in motorsport through his Top Gun Racing Academy. He has also made many life long friends, none more so than with Troy Farley and Peter Hill. The pair, along with Clinton Dive and long-time engine guru Colin Hurst and Kart One Racing's Tim Craig who, when combined together, were the driving force behind Hunt's seventh crown.

"To win such a fantastic race, well what I can remember of it anyway, against some of the best, and fairest, drivers I've ever raced against was something \^ery special,"said Hunt.

"Making it even more special was the fact that I did it on my home track, in front of everyone who has made my career such a success. Troy, Peter and

I have been best mates for almost 20 years and this championship was more than just a victory for me, it was for all of us.

"After Troy lost his father last year it has been a tough time for everyone around the sport and when he recently started work with Colin Hurst building engines our focus was making sure we won the championships as a reward for everyone's hard work, in the weeks leading up to the Nationals I don't think there was a day when Troy didn't work 16 hours a day getting not only mine, but all of the customer engines ready.

"I've been racing a Top Kart for Tim Craig with Colin Hurst engines for over 12 years. With Colin not traveling to that many tracks anymore it was pretty emotional to win in front of him on Tim's home track.To win for them is one thing, but to know how much they appreciate it on a personal level really makes it something special."

Hunt's emotion was visible when he accepted the green and gold plate on the infield following the Final. During his acceptance speech Hunt began to choke up, his eyes watering over as he thanked the people who worked so hard behind the scenes to give him the opportunity to be standing on top of the podium.

Troy Hunt(Budd}

‘At the 2007 National Sprint Kart Championships GRG driuers stnnned the opposition wNh several heal wins,fastest laps, podlums and a win In Junior pmiffliaiiJCongralulailons to all CRG drivers on a lob well done.’

Congratulations tO: Chaz Mostert 1st Junior Clulinian - CRG Black Diamond David Whitmore 3rd Junior Clubman - CRG Black Diamond Jack Howard 2nd JNL - CRG Junior Rebel Chaz Mostert Fastest Qualifier - CRG Junior Rebel Jason Hryniuk 2nd Clubman Heavy - CRG Black Diamond Jason Hryniuk 3rd Leopard Light- CRG Black Star Doan Oven 3rd Leopard Heavy - CRG Road Rebel

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KARTtsORMULM AWAROS

The good,the bad and the ugly to start with,things looked bad as Wootten lay on the track.Thankfully the Leopard Light driver only has some fractures in his ||jik shoulder and he'll be back to race A another day soon. Kart Formula wishes him a speedy recovery.

Most Emotional Winner: Troy Hunt

Biggest Win:Scott Simpson The Queenslander,pictured above, has lost none of his speed since switching from CRG to Redspeed, winning the Clubman Super Heavy final by over 12 seconds!

Best Presented Team:Kel's Karts & Parts 'Kel'and 'Fuich'looked the part in their custommade KKP Sparco suits. Nice work from the future Mayor and Deputy Mayor of Bundaberg.

Nice Guy Award:Rick Pringle After doing an impression of a spinning top in front of the crowd on the opening lap, Rick still took the time to unscrew his green plate and hand It over to new #1 Matt Greenbury.

What a guy.

Dizzy from Passing Award: Jason Burns Coming from the rear to finish seventh in the Clubman Light final was a damn fine drive by 'Gonny'. If only he started alongside James Sera in the final and we could have had a race for the lead...

Rotten Luck Award: Corey Lean Pole for the Senior National Heavy final and the kart wouldn't start. That's gotta hurt.

Troy has been around for a long, long time and as a result the sport means a lot to him and he has a lot of respect for it and the people that have got him to the top of it. It was the most popular win of the day and the most sincere and emotional victory speech since Kevin Millard at last year's SA Open.

Happiest Team Boss: Tim Craig Craig's home-track Nationals were always going to be a busy one and he came away with two green plates. He was especially pleased with his mate Troy Hunt's win.

Best Attitude: Coiin Fink/Matthew Hayes Matthew Hayes was second in the toughest field of the day in Clubman Light aboard his Phoenix, runner-up to James Sera, a man in white-hot form for over 12 months now.

But still, he and team boss Colin Fink were dirty after the final. They want Phoenix Kart's first green plate and they want it bad.

Kart Formula likes that. That, and original karting journalism.

Worst Title Defence:

Best Coup:Ian Black Blackie had one of the best drivers in Australia in Barclay Holden in his Sparco/Intrepid team.

00 get. We hear this isn't his last big recruit either...

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Clubman Light roll-up(Budd)

for Kart Prix*^^ ●Weekend; Who Goes Where snIv seat'^

off Australian karting's

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of the proposed driver ents and line-ups wiil shock your socks

'Reif Corbett Award'Kel Treseder In 1993 Reif Corbett came within a whisker of winning a national title with a plaster cast covering his broken arm, so

Adam Klunyk The factory Arrow driver had off-track duties at the Nationals, so enjoyed his last moments as Senior

we've named it after the Adelaide man himself.

While no broken arm, Treseder

National Light national champion with a coffee and kebab from the grandstand.

your very own 'Jordie Kart'. It was actually the fastest Tony Kart in Leopard Light, so the stickers must be worth a tenth or two ...

Adam Klunyk (Budd)

Nicholas Foster (Budd)

Quote of the Weekend: Nicholas Foster 'Here comes another broken collar bone ..."

began the weekend running three classes with a badly broken finger, crushed in a game of'knee rugby'(no, we don't really understand It either).

Kel Treseder (Budd) Despite doctors wanting to operate, Kel shrugged them off to race, was fifth in Clubman Heavy and should have won Leopard Heavy.

Foster when asked what was going through his mind when he virtually cartwheeled over a mound and out of the Junior Clubman final.

Foster broke his collarbone at last year's SA State Championships, but on this occasion, was A-OK.

Best Use of Stickers: Jordie Lindstrom

Biggest Wreck: Chris Wootten Eastern Creek is a fast, unforgiving place and

Why go to the trouble of engineering your own chassis when you can just buy a new Racer EVS from Tony Kart and pass it off as

Jordie Kart (Budd)

SEEN AT THE NATIONALS: John Pizarro, Jim Morton, Greg Siddle, Mark Winterbottom, Neil McFadyen, Clinton Dive, Ben Small, Tim Blanchard, Robert Munneiiy, Paul Laskazeski, Ian Salvestrin, Phillip Scifleet, Kristian Lindbom, Will Hagon, Reif Corbett.

CLUBMJiM LIGHT

Finally,James does it Sera broke his National's duck in Clubman Light at Eastern Creek

Scott AuldBudd) I

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AMES Sera finally broke his Nationals duck at Eastern

Creek, getting in front of the pack in the early laps and pulling a race-winning lead to finally secure a green plate for his massive trophy collection.

Sera has been the dominant

Clubman Light Final -18 laps 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

I

driver in arguabiy Australia's most competitive class of karting for some time now, with dominant state championship wins in South Australia and New South Wales last year and a Nationals defeat on the final lap in Adelaide.

But that was all forgotten in Sydney as the Monaco pilot drove away from the pack in the early laps and was the fastest kart in the middle stages of the race.

Some drivers, such as Matthew Hayes and Jason Burns, were arguably as fast, if not faster, over the final stages of the race, but by that time Sera was gone and on his way to Australian Title #1.

Sera, who has cjualified on pole for the past three Australian Clubman Light titles and led laps in the final of the last four, was on something of a mission in Clubman I Jght, but he wasn't the only one.

His cousin David Sera was

T ..^1 JamesSera&Fiancee(Coopers) looking to take a clear win after the controversy of his victory in Leopard Light a few races earlier, while Matthew Wall, who has won Australian titles in just about every conceivable class, is still to win one in Clubman. Add to that Hayes pushing for Phoenix's first Australian title and you have a recipe for a remarkable race.

But James Sera had other ideas, smashing the competition by grabbing the lead from cousin David in the early laps and streaking away for a clear win.

Cian Fothergill was off from position six on the grid in the skirmish at the opening corner, while several other fancied drivers, including recently crowned

...

Matthew Hayes(Coopers)

Victorian Champ Bart Price, also crashed out of contention.

In the battle for second Cameron Thorpe was making his recent move to Tony Kart look a smart one as he led the battle for 'best of the rest' with Wall, Hayes and David Sera right behind.

Hayes slowly moved forward as his kart came on and after a battle with David Sera he claimed second ahead of the younger Sera.

Queenslander Scott Auld was quiet in the early laps but charged his way into trophy contention over the second half of the race, passing Thorpe and Wall to take fourth, with Burns flying towards the end of the race to come from the rear to finish a fine seventh.

94 52 98 99 79 15 31 71 96 9 10 73 11 34 12 24 13 92 14 51 15 7 16 16 17 33 18 65 19 23 20 29 21 6 22 74 23 22 DNF 18 DNF 14 DNF 5

DNF 81 DNF 4 DNF DNF 9 DNF 20 DNF 59 DNF 91 DNF 38 DNF 75 DNF 89 DNF 56 DNF 13 : DNF 44

13m01.557s 0.980 1.097 1.956 2.077 2.175 4.349 5.851 Jack Rahaley 6.942 Lyndon Dodge 7.036 Deepal Kandola 8.190 Steven Scoble 12.750 Justin Garioch 12.948 Thomas Phillips 13.058 Chris Fathers 13.205 Brett Robinson 14.383 Lewis Shugar 14.536 Marc Pracy 14.686 Gian Rossi 16.580 Russell Moore 18.290 Matthew Pontello Nathan Garioch 18.368 Chris Peterson 23.376 24.217 Stelley Noda-Barnes Will Russell 12 laps Bart Price 11 laps Dominic Marciano maps Fergus Symes 7 laps Geoffery Uhrhane 7 laps Bret Muilavey 7laps 6 laps Ryan Reynolds Cian Fothergill 6 laps 2 laps Jessica Golding Nicholas Holmes-Karavas laps Ryan Skennar Olaps BD Soutar-Dawson Olaps Justin Carter Olaps Dean Foster Olaps Matthew Waters Olaps Ryan Gallagher Olaps

James Sera Matthew Hayes David Sera Scott Auld Cameron Thorpe Matt Wall Jason Burns

CALTEX FASTEST QUALIFIER:J.Sera 42.530s

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Hunfs Homecoming

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YDNEY driver Troy Hunt secured an emotional and

popular victory in the race of the Nationals when he crossed the line first in Clubman Heavy to secure his seventh Australian Championship.

Sik-FX Arrow pilot Jason Varley started the final from pole position but it was the fastest qualifier Lee Mitchener who led the way through the opening turn. By the end of the opening lap Varley found his way to the front and led the opening seven laps.

As if having the top four drivers within five kart lengths of each other for the first halfofthe race wasn't exciting enough when a shower of rain passed over the circuit on lap eight it further intensified the atmosphere.

Mitchener found his way into the

lead as he pushed hard to gain a slight advantage over Varley and Peter Lawlor.

When the rain began to get heavier with a handful of laps remaining it made life tricky for all competitors, and even more so for the leading six-kart freight train ofVarley, Mitchener, defending champion Jason Hryniuk, Lawlor, Hunt and Kel Treseder.

At the time Hunt was in

on the same lap.

Despite running wide entering turn one in the slippery conditions on the penultimate lap. Hunt never relinquished the lead and crossed the line first to take the

victory by six kart lengths ahead of Hryniuk and Mitchener.

"I had a coming together with Lee Mitchener on the second lap which dropped me back a bit, after that I knew I had to be

fifth place but he began to meticulously work his way towards the front using his vast experience in the trying conditions.

patient and take advantage of every opportunity that came my way,"said Hunt.

"I misjudged the grip level as I turned into the first corner with

Hryniuk was leading the way but when Mitchener made his

two laps to go, luckily though I didn't run too wide and I had a

way to the front entering turn four on lap 15, Hunt followed him through into second place before taking over the front running for the first time in his Top Kart later

bit of advantage over Hyrniuk in second place. From there It was a case of Just making sure I didn't make a mistake to hold on for the win."

CH Final roll up (Budd)

karting.net.au

Hryniuk & Hunt (Coopers)

Clubman Heavy Final -18 laps 1 2 3

20 1 90

Troy Hunt Jason Hryniuk Lee Mitchener

4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

n 75 35 12 6 27 33 73

Jason Varley Kel Treseder

9 24 98 74

14 17 43 18 10 19 53 20 48 21 8 22 96 23 17 24 89 25 67 26 32 DNF 15 DNF 26 DNF 66 DNF 31 DNF 76

Jason Pringle Peter Lawler Jace Linstrom Joshua Pontello Brad Fitch Franky Costanzo TroyWoolston Kevin Millard Brett Hobson Micholas McBride Jeremy Anderson Oeni Razmovski Paul Rodgers Simon Meyer Jared Bishop Pavan Kandola Jeremy Wilkins Keke Falland Matthew Soima n Matthew Bailey Bevan Garioch Ben Walter

13m21.513s , 0.173 0.537 0.737 0.993 1.376 1.574 1.660 2.293 4.429 4.611 4.731 4.788 5.161 8.113 9.683 9.793 9.813 10.793 12.982 13.227 13.869 16.229 16.352 24.876 25.391 :

18 laps 18 laps 18 laps Serge Sola 17 laps Greg Turner 17 laps DNF 22 Bradley Belcher 16 laps DNF 78 Shayne Piper 15 laps DNF 79 Simon Roberts 15 laps DNF 21 Remo Luciani 14 laps DNF 19 Thomas Janusz 12 laps DNF 36 Nicholas Johnstone 12 laps DNF 77 Daniel Baker 11 laps DNF 18 Nathan Mills 10 laps DNF 97 Michael Cross 10 laps CALTEX FASTEST QUALIFIER: LMItchener 43.528s Benjamin Piper Aaron Rintoul

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JUNIOR CLUBMJIN

Chaz on top KART FORMULA:You've now won three National Titles ina-row, how does it feel?

CHAZ MOSTERT; It feels awesome. The two

Oavid Whitmore(Coopers)

Junior National Light Championships were good but Junior Clubman is like the Formula One ofjunior karting in Australia at the moment so to win that title at 14 years old feels great.

Do you think racing Junior National for so long helped you in Junior Clubman?

Junior National taught me how to brake later, keep the kart straight and try harder.

In Junior Clubman you have more horsepower and more grip so you can get yourself out of trouble easier. Junior National certainly helped me make sure I was very smooth.

Will we see you in a Junior Clubman kart more than a Junior National Light kart this year?

I think you can guarantee that, while not giving up Junior National I will certainly be concentrating more on Junior Clubman because I hold the number one.You can also race against the best 14 and 15 year old drivers in Australia every time, it is the top level ofJuniors and where I want to be.

ChazMostert(Budd)

Change equals wins F

OR the past few years Chaz Mostert has been the king of Junior National Light, winning the past two national championships, however this year the young Queenslander stepped up to the elite Junior Clubman category with the same result-victory.

Entering the weekend West Australian Amrit Kandola was one of the hot favourites to take the prestigious title. The likeable sandgroper, who is the current West Australian and Victorian Champion,started the weekend in

scintillating fashion by posting the fastest time during qualifying.

During the heat races it was Monaco pilot James Kovacic who was the stand out performer taking the victory in all of his three heat races to earn the right to start the 18-lap final from pole position. Mostert started on his outside with Redspeed's Ryan Deckert and Phoenix pilot Brendan Nelson on the second row.

After starting from pole position Kovacic leaped to the front as the field raced

through the opening turn only to have Kandola take over the lead on lap three aboard his Arrow.Toowoomba pilot Tyler Greenbury, who won his opening two heats before succumbing to the wet conditions in heat three, showed his hand on lap five by moving to the front aboard his Intrepid kart.

By this time Mostert, who had dropped to as low as seventh on the second lap, was clinically working his way towards the front of the pack. With a seven-kart freight train at the front of the

5am Qrack {Qoopers)

Junior Clubman Final -18 laps 1 2 3

field positions were rarely held onto for more than half a lap as the best young drivers continued to dice it out for the national championship.

Behind the leading bunch, Nicholas Foster was starting to make his move towards the front.

After starting from position 14 due to not finishing his final heat race the Queenslander was inside the top 10 within a handful of laps and moving forward at a rapid pace. Unfortunately his luck ran out shortly after when he came together with Ben Jurczak.

The contact sent Foster spearing off the circuit in spectacular fashion as he flew into the air backwards. Both drivers escaped the high-speed incident without injury.

When Kandola took over the

front running from Greenbury on lap 12 Mostert followed him through into second place.

Mostert hit the front for the first time with five laps remaining by making a pass on the inside of Kandola entering turn five.The West Australian fought back to regain the lead shortly after but it wasn't long before the CRG of Mostert was back at the front.

With one and a haif laps remaining Kovacic and Greenbury came together at the top end of the circuit eliminating them from the race, which ailowed Mostert and Kandola a slender gap over third-placed Whitmore.

Kandola, who earlier in the day had led into the final turn of the Junior National Fleavy race only to lose out following contact with the eventual winner, made an

S Chaz Mostert 11 Amritkandola *57 'David Whitmore

4 5

14 70

RyanDeckert Brendan Nelson

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45"' Dion Rs^per ^ 20 Jordan Foi^ W 'Elliot Andrew"

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Chaz Mostert(Budd)

10 11 12

33_ BCTkilsby ” 71 Nathan Morcom 96 Ben Lincoln

attempted move on the inside of Mostert through the final turn.

The leading duo gave each other racing room as they negotiated the final turn and accelerated towards the finish line. Courtesy

13 14 15 16 17 18

21 Zeke Edwards J 63^ Aaron Johnstone 35 n Scott DiliSIfi 17 Reece Kawitzki 43 Scott McLaughlin 99 Daniel Oosthuizen

of being on the racing line on the outside of the exit to the right hander Mostert's momentum carried him to the finish line first to claim the narrowest of victories over Kandola.

Making Mostert's victory even more impressive was the fact that he had only competed in a handfui of race meetings in the Junior Clubman category prior to the National Championships.

Whitmore crossed the line third ahead if the air-cooled Yamaha powered Redspeed of Deckert who was followed across the line

by Nelson.

Grant Dyga

19 _ JO ~ Mitch L'Estrange 20 95_ Justin Tate 21 41 lainMcDougall 22 97 Sam Crack 23 4 Nicholas Tanti 24

94

Waylon5ims

25 26 27 28

12__ Ch^SM Holman 32 Brent Aprile 86 James Horne 88 Alexander Engel own James Kovacic DNF 6 Tyler Greenbury DNF 48 Ben Stewart DNF 36 Daniel Roc'hfo'rd DNF 89 Nick Fein DNF 9' Damian Radosevic DNF 76 Ben Jurczak DNF 13 Nicholas Foster DNF 98 Joel Smith DNF 51 Jesse Batson DNF 30 Brock Ten Bensel DNF 79 Kaleb Sager

13;03^28s 0.060s “0375s 0.453^ _ j.107s‘ '2.168s 3.065s 3.189s '4.478^j “ 4741s 5339s 'e.lMs 6.168s 6.660s 6762s 9.452s 10.638s' 12.665s 15.459s 16'.353s 18.728s 19.005s 19.438s 21.214s

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23.689s 25.810s 26.153s 16 laps 16 laps 13 laps 13 laps 7 laps 7laps 3 laps Slaps Olaps Olaps 0laps Olaps

CALTEX FASTEST QUALIFIER: A.Kandola 42.684s

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Karters- don'tforget to register for Motorsport eNews Congratulations on another successful Nationals MNews has always meoghised the part that karting plays in developing young stars, and that will GOntiinue when Motorsport eNews hits the airways on April 24.

Well have the very liteft news frpni the world of Australian and iinternational karting,along with all the motorsport news,oipinlon and analysis - every week!

Don't miss out ^ register now on www.mnews.com.au katting.net.au Jl

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Nick Foster (Budd)

Jack Howard (Coopers)

ChazMostert(Budd)

The 'bh-so-close' class J

UNIOR National Light produced a host of'almost, so close' stories at this year's Nationals, but in the end it was Redspeed racer Ben Jurczak who left Eastern Creek with the green plate, albeit some hours after the race actually ended.

With such an array of fast young drivers the form guide was always going to be useless heading into the final, where slipstreaming and racecraft would prove vital.

Chaz Mostert was going for a rare three Junior National Light titles in succession and when he

led the opening stages of the final it looked as if he could repeat the performance that saw him pull away to win at last year's Nationals by a good margin.

Not so, however, as Mostert ran a little wide on the first lap through the final corner to allow Chris Hays into the lead.

It has been a big start to the year for Hays, who only came up from Rookies into the Junior ranks at the start of the season. Since then Hays has become an official Tony Kart factory driver as well as being selected to receive Vodafone backing, linking him with both

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Triple 8 and McLaren Mercedes.

Despite his relative youth compared to the rest of the field, Hays worked hard to stretch a small gap over the chasing pack, a tough task at the fast Eastern Creek circuit.

The pack in pursuit looked to be making an impression on Hays, but once drivers started to pass and bump their progress was halted, however David Whitmore was able to get a clean break and the New South Welshman was on Hays'tail with six laps remaining.

Mind games began to come into play as the pair swapped positions and eventually Whitmore took the lead as the pair set out to tackle the final lap.

Hays was all over the rear bar of Whitmore's CRG heading into the Carousel for the final time and as he drew alongside the pair touched and spun out of the race.

Another incident between fierce rivals Mostert and James Kovacic's Monaco had meant that Nicholas Foster and Jurczak were now fighting for the lead with literally five corners remaining.

Foster cleverly defended his line entering the final corner and took

the win from Jurczak, in what appeared to be justice served after retched luck at the Victorian

Championships one month earlier for Arrow pilot Foster.

It wasn't to be for Foster when his engine failed post-race scrutineering, giving Jurczak the green plate in what is always one of the most competitive classes.

Jack Howard showed massive improvement over the course of the championships and continually worked his way forward with every race. After all the controversy washed away it was a popular second place for Howard, whose mechanic Adam Macrow was a pleased man after seeing his efforts for the week come to fruition with his student racing and beating some of the best young drivers in the country.

Fresh from his debut in European Rotax competition, Victorian Luigi Cantanese took the final step on the podium after Foster's demise.. His MBA chassis added to the mix of manufacturers at the front of the field that was arguably the most diverse of any class at the Australian Nationals.

Junior National Light Final -18 laps exc 1 2

13 76 39

Nicholas Foster Ben Jurczak Jack Howard

j3 4 5 6 7

38 91 12 62 15

Luigi Cantanese James Paterson Matthew Lopino Jarrod Egan LukeRochford

8

22 51 96 30

Jordan Sanderson Warren White Damian Ward

14 15 16

9 16 58 4 65

Lee Chapman JarrydEbzery Hayden Docking ShaePluis Jarrod Farrawell

17 89 18 55 19 32 20 21 21 88 22 80 23 14 DNF 97 DNF 57 DNF 1 DNF 2 DNF 69 DNF 94 DNF 86 DNF 19 DNF 24 DNF 7 DNF 78 DNF 98 DNF 33 DNF 31 DNF 17 DNF 49

Mitchell Fry JackWynack Brent Aprile Andrew Roffey Joshua Demaio

9 10 11 12 13

Zeke Hoards

Mitch L'Estrange Jackson Delamont Christopher Hays David Whitmore Chaz Mostert James Kovacic Blake Sciberris Brayden Pritchard ChrisFarkas Beck Connell Max Johnston Mitchell Parkinson Grant Dyga Date Corbett Bronson Butcher Sean Butcher Liam Ferry Bremen Mountjoy

14m09.493s +0.241 s +2,155s +2.351S +2.432S +4.872S +4.960S +6.979S +7.148S +13.071s +13.212S +13.336S +13.915S +14.312S +15.403s +15.494S +15.647s +15.948s +16.038S +17.5805 +18.271S +18.293S +18.712S +27.7275 17 laps 17 laps 17 laps 17 laps 16 laps 16 laps 14 laps 14 laps 7 taps 7 laps 6 laps 6 laps 6laps 3 laps 2 laps 2 laps

CALTEX FASTEST QUALIFIER; G.Mostert 46.248s

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a defensive line leaving Sciberris nowhere to make a passing attempt. Given the nature of the fast,flowing Eastern Creek circuit it appeared as though it was going to be hard for Kandola to drive

ONTROVERSY reigned following the final of

Junior National Heavy when Blake Sciberris made an

aggressive passing move during the last corner on Amrit Kandola for the victory.

Starting from pole position in his Arrow kart, Kandola led the way from the start ahead of Sciberris. During the opening laps the pair opened a gap over the third placed runner, Darsey Kondopirakis, closely followed by Joshua Tanti.

The leading duo appeared to be working together to distance themselves from the chasing pack.

With six laps remaining in the 18lap final Sciberris began to mount an assault by hounding the rear bumper of Kandola's kart.

As the leaders ran nose-to-tail, the battle began to intensify for the final spot on the podium with Kondopirakis and Tanti being joined by Damien Ward and fastest qualifier Nicholas Tanti.The latter was forced to carve his way

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defensively for the entire lap.

Just when Kandola was imagining what life would be like with the green and gold plate aboard his Arrow, Sciberris made a lunge down the inside entering the last corner.There was contact

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Blake Sciberris(Budd)

through the field in the final after failing to finish the second heat and Pre-Final.

When Kandola led across the start-finish line to begin his final lap he appeared to have the measure of Scibberris, as the West Australian had led every lap, but his toughest one was still to come.

As the leading duo entered turn one and two, Kandoia drove

between the pair,forcing Kandola wide and allowing Sciberris to cross the line first.

Although a popular win with the local crowd Sciberris'win is still provisional pending the outcome of a stewards inquiry and subsequent appeal.

While all of the action was going on in the battle for the lead the four-way challenge for the final podium position continued.

In the end it was Joshua Tanti who snuck ahead of the ensuing trio to claim the final podium position.

Junior National Heavy Final -18 laps ,1 2 3

68 11 33

4 5

5 99

6 7 8 9 10 11

55 70 4 7 71 20

12 13 ,14

78 9 30

15 97 ,16 22 .17 77 18 37 19 35 20 69 21 62 22 24 23 23 24 19 25 49 26 63 27 28 48 29 98 30 53 31 12 32 87 33 34 DNS 13

14m19.796s 0.143s 1.050s 1.451s Darsey Kondopirakis Daniel Oosthuizen 1.699s 1.784s Garry Jacobson Brendan Nelson 1.847s Nicholas Tanti 1.862s Mitchell Parkinson 1.998s Nathan Morcom 4.689s Brock Ten Bensel 5.035s 5.111s Kaleb Sager Lee Chapman 7.620s Damian Ward 7.838s WaylonSims 13.528s Byron Bateson 13.580s Matthew Distill 16.238s Dylan Collett 16.558s Scott Dillon 17.803s 18.353s Alan Craig 18.981s Jarrod Egan Max Johnston 21.613s Tim Dennis 21.741s Alex Howe 12laps

Biake Sciberris Amrit Kandola Joshua Tanti

Brenton Mountjoy Aaron Johnstone Nathan Waters Ben Stewart Date Corbett Travis Kodric

5 laps ; 5 laps ' 1 laps j 1 laps 1 laps I Olaps ;

Chelsea Holman Dallas Ashton

Olaps ' I 0 laps 0laps

Kayne Hughes Nicholas Foster

I, CALTEX FASTEST QUALIFIER: N.TantI 47.034s

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David Sera(Coopers)

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Hayden McBride(Coopers)

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Chris Wootton(Budd)

Sera and Wall went for broke in a bruising Leopard Light affair

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HE Leopard Light category was billed as a battle between David Sera and Matthew Wall.

Between the pair they've won every significant meeting across the country they've contested over the past 12 months in the class.

The 2007 Australian Sprint Kart Championship, was no different, well at the moment anyway.

As expected. Sera and Wall set the pace during qualifying with Sera stopping the clocks at 40.524s around the 1024m circuit aboard his DP Karts Arrow to secure pole position for the two heat races. Wall, the defending Australian Champion, was a mere 0.034s adrift of Sera to line up alongside Sera on the front row in the heat races.

Sera, fresh from a campaign in the Euro Rotax Series two weeks prior, won the opening heat before striking trouble in the second 10-lap encounter. When Wall moved on the inside of Ryan Sanderson to take over the lead mid race Sera tried to follow him through, however the gap closed leaving Sera with damage to the front of his kart. With the nosecone wrapped under the front of his kart Sera was given a mechanical defect flag and was later excluded from the results. y

Wall lined up on pole position for the Pre-Final with Ryan Sanderson on his outside and Sera just outside the top 10. While Sera carved his way through the field in the 14-lap race Wall began to show his cards by cruising to an easy victory. Sera made his way to second place to secure an outside front row for the sudden death final.

Wall got the jump at the start of the 18-lap final ahead of Sera and his cousin, James. However it wasn't long before the dominance of David Sera began to shine through when he took over the front running during the final corner of lap five.

On the next lap Wall made an attempted pass entering the carousel section of the circuit but was unable to make it stick and Sera started to sail off into the distance.

As Sera appeared to be on his way to victory Jason Hryniuk and Hayden McBride joined Wall and James Sera in a four way battle for the runner-up spots.

With three laps remaining David Sera's engine appeared to have a noise problem with his exhaust adrift and he was shown the mechanical defect flag for the remaining two laps. Then the controversy began, as Sera was

shown the black flag as he crossed the line ahead of McBride, who passed Wall on the penultimate lap for second place.

"I'm not sure what was happening over the final few laps, I couldn't hear anything unusual.

I had my ear plugs in and helmet on which always muffles your hearing," said Sera on the podium.

Almost simultaneously as the leaders were crossing the line, Chris Wootton endured a spectacular rollover at the top end ofthe circuit forcing officials to immediately display the red flag to bring the race to an end.

Wootton was flung around six feet into air and 20 feet across the track, landing on his helmet and right shoulder. He escaped with only minor injuries - a dislocated and fractured shoulder and a few issues with his chest - testimony to his safety equipment.

Without all karts crossing the finish line before the red flag was displayed officials were forced to take the results back one lap allowing Sera to secure his fifth National crown. However,the issue ofthe mechanical defect flag, and subsequent black flag, continued to hang over Sera's head and the results remain provisional pending an appeal hearing.

Chris Wootton(Budd)

Chris Wootton (Budd)

Leopard Light Final -18 laps 1

96

David Sera

2 3

13 15

Hayden McBride Matt Wall

4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19

45 94 82

Jason Hryniuk James Sera

9 32 35 33 14 12 62 24 4 77 90 18 43

20 34 21 19 22 27 23 99 DNF 48 25 51 26 5 DNF 91 DNF 81 DNF 10 DNF 26 DNF 49

Ryan Sanderson TroyWoolston Jono Taylor Barclay Holden Brad Fitch Grant Smith Thomas MacDonald John Grother Lincoln Benns GeofferyUhrhane KANE ROSWELL LeeMitchener RyanRannard Chris Wootton Andrew Johnstone Scott Hill Brett Fortanier Jack Lindgren Peter Orr BrinteyGread Dominic Marciano Erlan Sami Fergus Symes Ben Edwards Andrew Mercuri Jorden Lindstrom

llm44.044s 0.697s 0.926s 1.164s 1.793s 4.309s 4.457s 6.300s 6.705s 9.244s 9.406s 9.785s 11.911s 12.916s 14.845s 15.194s 15.287s 17.231s 17.623s 18.441s 20.419s 22.180s 22.360s 16 laps 15 laps 15 taps 9laps 8laps 8laps 3 laps 1 laps

CALTEX FASTEST QUALIFIER: D.Sera 40.524s

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Matt Greenbury (Coopers)

1

Greenbury and Intrepid:

sen Walter (Coopers)

First National title Fulcher, who was working hard to make up for a painful loss in Clubman Super Heavy, raced around with Greenbury as both waited for the final stages to make their move. In doing so Ben Walter, who was the fastest kart on the

OU will struggle to see a more tumultuous motor race than the final of Leopard Heavy. You had everything in 18 laps and at the end of it all, Toowoomba's Matthew Greenbury took out his and Intrepid's first-ever Australian title.

The start of the final had outand-out favourite Kel Treseder on pole with defending champion Rick Pringle looking to continue to bridge the gap to the Bundaberg bullet as he had slowly done over the course of the weekend.

By the end of lap one, Treseder, Pringle and third placed starter AndrewTorville were all out, leaving Ryan Fulcher and Greenbury at the front of the pack.

Treseder had changed a header pipe on his kart's exhaust as a precaution when he noticed slight cracking after the Pre-Final - to his dismay it was left lose and he was out by the time the field came onto the back straight for the first time.

"I had it shot to bits," said Treseder. "I'm gonna have

karting-metals

Nathan Mills (Budd)

nightmares about header pipes for a while I think."

As Treseder pulled off, Pringle and Torville got together entering the fast final corner, both karts skidding off in spectacular fashion and Pringle lucky not to roll as his championship defence evaporated.

Ryan Fulcher (Coopers)

circuit after coming through the pack, worked his way up to the lead pair to make it a leading trio.

With four laps to go, Greenbury made his move heading into the final corner. On the run down to turn two, Walter looked down the inside of Fulcher just as theTop Kart driver was looking to regain the lead from Greenbury.The touch was only minor but it was enough to give Greenbury a race winning lead and he made no mistake on his way to victory.

Fulcher was second and Tasmanian Walter, complete with Tasman Motorsport-spec Alpinestars racesuit (his brother Sam races for GMR in the Fujitsu Series), had half a spin when clipping Fulcher and was forced to settle for fifth behind CRG's Dean Oven and the Phoenix of Jason Stania.

f Kel Treseder (Budd)

Leopard Heavy Final -18 laps Matt Greenbury Ryan Fulcher Dean Oven Jason Stania Ben Walter Glenn Saunders Leigh Boujos lanAllen Keke Falland Adam Burkett Craig Stauner Bruce Otter Colin Suttie Andrew Heathcote DNF DNF DNF DNF DNF DNF

21 75 1 19 18 88

Jake Meyer Grant Donley Kel Treseder

12m49.099s 1.007s 1.162s 1.658s 5.195s 5.585s 7.481s 7.825s 9.220s 10.966s i 11.119s 11.245s 15.686s 18.414s 25.681s llap Olaps Olaps 0 laps Olaps Olaps

Rick Pringle Andrew Torville NathanMills Daniel Stein

CALtEX FASTEST QUALIFIER: B.Walter 41.391 s

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Simpson & Fulcher(Budd)

Heavyweight title bout s Simpson lands knockout punch in Clubman Super Heavy class

COTT Simpson was the only driver to win back-to-back Australian titles in the same class at Eastern Creek, but even then he won in a different kart, the Queenslander making his major event debut for Redspeed at this year's Nationals.

Simpson was the man to beat entering 2007, having dominated most of the major events of 2006 aboard his CRG chassis. At the Victorian Open in Eebruary Simpson made his last major start for CRG before switching to Jason Burns'Redspeed operation. But it wasn't the swansong Simpson would have hoped for, as Ryan Fulcher grabbed the win.

Again it was the two

Queenslanders who were set to do battle for the win, but as it turned out, their battle lasted only one lap in the final.

From second on the grid Fulcher lead the field away until Simpson made a move down the inside at the end of the final lap.The end result was Simpson dropping to fourth and Fulcher losing any chance of a win, recovering to rejoin well behind the pack.

Jason Stania inherited the lead but Simpson had a clear speed advantage,slicing through the field and driving away into the sunset.

Behind, an enthralling (and rough) battle ensued between

a seven-kart bunch,including Fulcher, who caught up to the pack.

Fulcher and CRG's Paul Rietdyk

only six karts finished from the original 22 starters, but out in front Simpson was all alone and massive 12 seconds ahead of

made their way to the head of the pack only to crash out at the Carousel, and soon after an unlucky Marius Bailey spun on the back straight while trying to avoid Stania and Steven Engel, who touched and slowed, leaving Anthony Fliggs to jump into second. Engel pushed for third at the final corner of the race but went in too hot and ended up ploughing through the fence on the exit of the fast corner, lucky to emerge uninjured.

Ben McKinlay claimed third after the hectic race, in which

Fliggs.

"This was one of the toughest races of my life," said Simpson*!

"Everyone out there was racing hard in those early laps.

"I have to thank Jason Burns for this - if it wasn't for him and his

formula exclusive i SEVERAL top-flight kart teams have approached I Jason Stania to join them as a factory driver in the i Clubman Super Heavy class.

Kart Formula has learned that the multiple Australian champion has fielded approaches j from both Australian and European chassis ! manufacturers about switching teams.

I While Stania preferred not to comment,Kart : Formula believes that one option for the Victorian is the seat recently vacated by Scott Simpson at CRG, if that is, Stania leaves Phoenix Karts to take up one L

of the offers.

Stania, one of the most successful and respected karters in Australia, has been an integral part of Phoenix's rise over the past 18 months, but'Stan' has been unable to match the likes of Simpson and Ryan Fulcher in recent times.

A move to a rival chassis would be a tough one for Stania, who has developed close ties with Phoenix, but is not out of the question given the pace the CRG showed in the hands of Simpson before his move to Redspeed.

family I wouldn't be in a Redspeed and I wouldn't be where I am today."

Clubman Super Heavy Final -18 laps 1 1 2 6 3 74 4 32 5 40 6 12 DNF 5 DNF 88 DNF 7 10 4 DNF 23 DNF 39 DNF 55 14 68 DNF 76 DNF 9 DNF 84 DNF 24 DNF 90 DNF 56 DNF 37 DNF 63

Scott Simpson Anthony Higgs Ben McKinlay Phillip Middleton Mick McAuliffe Scott Burton Jason Stania Steven Engel Marius Bailey Simon Furzer Paul Rietdyk Ryan Fulcher Dean Oven Matthew Laughton Jason Connelly Todd Maloney Andrew Heathcote David Knight Nigel Stones Bradley Moody Adam Burkett Peter Galvin

13m42.665s +12.493s +13.561S +14.038S +16.480s +16.707s 17 laps 17 laps 16 laps 16 laps 14 laps 14 laps 14 laps 11 laps Slaps 7 laps 6 laps 4 laps 4 laps 3 laps 3 laps 3 laps

CALTEX FASTEST QUALIFIER:S.Simpson 44.633s

Bosch would like to say thank^u to everyone involved in Motorsport.

Bosch is proud to be a partner in Australian motorsport on a whole range of levels,from grassroots to Va Supercars.

We acknowledge the time, passion and commitment required by so many family members, volunteers, marshals and competitors to make motorsport the fantastic activity that it is and the career it can be.

@ Invented BOSCH for life

Bosch prides itself on its components that provide the performance and reliability to deliver champion ships all over the world annually.

We wish all young competitors aspiring to the heights of our own Bosch-backed drivers the likes of V8 Supercar stars Russell Ingall and James Courtney and Formula Ford CAMS Rising Star talents Ashley Walsh, Joshua Scott and Kristian Lindbom every success.

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Celebrating in style h

Petrilli leads home Mational Light home state clean sweep

Anthony Petrilli(Budd)

S

ENIOR National Light was the biggest class in terms of entries at this year's Nationals,so it was fitting that the biggest celebration of the meeting went to it's winner, Anthony Petrilli.

Petrilli made it two green plates for Tim Craig's Top Kart team with his down-to-the-wire win, proceeding to do all number of dances and Borat impressions on the podium in celebration.

But in the beginning of the final it was a battling trio - that did not include Petrilli - that was locking horns in the battle for

Senior National Light Final -18 laps

i w

Anthony Petrilli(Coopers)

the lead. Clan Fothergill,Thomas Phillips and Cameron Waters were

opportunity to lead the way to the line. The New South Welshman

heading the field with a small gap on fourth, but as the three battled

made no mistake, leading home Phillips and Waters to make it a home state clean sweep on the podium.

Petrilli earned the admiration of the assembled crowd on the

for position Petrilli and Daniel Baker made their way forward to join the party in the battle for the lead.

It was Phillips and Waters that spent most of the time occupying PI as Phoenix pilot Fothergill bided his time. When the Queenslander finally made his run for the lead he looked strong, but on the final lap when he tried to regain tire lead at the second corner he spun, giving Petrilli the A

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podium, excitedly dancing his way to his winner's trophy and shiny new green and gold plate.

"Very nice,"quipped Petrilli, before giving a high five. The Top Kart driver actually retired several years ago before making a comeback this season with the Nationals in mind. Comeback

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victories are becoming something of a trend in Senior National Light, with last year's champion Adam Klunyk also returning from several years out of the driver's seat to take the title.

1 2 3 4 5 6

9 92 13 54 44 77

7 8 9 10 11 12 13

46 45 63 43 47 10 61

14 15

4 99

16 17

Anthony Petrilli Thomas Phillips Manhew Waters BillyWhitaker Paul Hamilton Daniel Baker Daniel Foot Logan Green Mitchell Nicholls Marc Pracy Nathan Rath Leith Nicholls Nicholas Canclan Aaron Borg Adrian Richardson

71 89 42 19 17 20 48 21 38 22 74 23 49 24 23 25 15 26 98 27 28 28 18 29 64 30 26 DNF 20 DNF 84 DNF 90

Craig Thornton NathanTaylor Luke Oxford Mathew Harris Jack Cox

Clan Fothergill Jo Mackay Matthew Harrison

DNF 66 DNF 37 DNF 40 DNF 2 DNF 30 DNF 16 DNF 24

PhilUp Betteridge Shaun Cleary Cheyne Anderson Mitchell Culjpers JeddStoJakovic Lewis Shugar Lincoln Benns

Ryan Skennar Ben Hancock Kyle Ensbey Justin Garloch Matthew Hobbs Emma Brown Nathan Bond Brian Devlin Mark Nicholls Mitchell Scullion

14:19.443 0.092s 0.187s 4.361s 4.747s 4.833s 4.973s 5.697s 5.781s 5.884s 11.364s 11.461s 11.551s 11.656s 11.733s 12.156s 12.499s 16.028s 16.111s 16.221s 18.259s 18.310s 18.460s 20.350s 20.523s 20.944s 25.413s 29.114s 31.795s 31.924s 17 laps 8laps 8laps Slaps Slaps Slaps Slaps 4 laps 2laps 1 laps

CALTEX FAStESt QUALIFIER:T.PhlllljJS 47.188s

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Stein fights back

W

HEN Daniel Stein got speared off the circuit as he raced into the

opening turn for the first time in Heat 1, he could have easily thought his dreams of becoming National Champion were dashed.

After demonstrating his disappointment to his feilow competitor on the next circulation the New South Weishman fired

back in the best possibie way during heat two by taking the victory.

Courtesy of his comeback in heat two Stein started from mid pack in the 40-kart fieid for the Pre-Final. Given the fact that the top 33 drivers were separated by less than a second in qualifying climbing back up the order was going to be tough for the current New South Wales State Champion, however, he was ready to take on the challenge.

By mid race Stein had made his way into the top ten and continued to meticulously work his way to the front of the pack li

the final turn later that lap.

Behind Stein was a freight train of 10 karts all dicing it out for the minor positions and with the nature of the Eastern Creek circuit allowing a lot of slip streaming effect it was hard to make a break Matty Dorado(Coopers)

before eventually crossing the line fifth to earn a third row start in the 18-lap Final.

Corey Lean appeared to be comfortable during the heat races before asserting his dominance on the Pre-Final to secure pole position for the Final. However, his luck would soon run out when the engine on his Arrow kart failed to fire prior to the start.

The demise of Lean allowed Stein, and the remainder of the inside row, to move up two spots prior to the green light, Matty Dorado took advantage of the Lean's disappointment to lead the field through the opening turn but his joy was short lived when Stein moved into the lead during

from the pack.

Matthew Waters and Stein began to work together with the aim of pulling away from the pack, which they did successfully by mid race. The duo drove a smart race without taking any risks to enable them both a shot at the title.

Despite throwing everything he had at Stein over the final lap Waters was unable to find a way into the lead and was forced to settle for second behind the emotional Stein.

"I know how you felt now, it is just great,"said Stein, who was overcome by emotion when greeted by outgoing champion Lloyd Bilick after the race.

Dorado held on for third spot ahead of Nicholas McBride and

Bilick.

Matthew Waters(Coopers)

Senior National Heavy Finai -18 laps 1

88

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

13 62 25

16 17 18

Daniel Stein Matthew Waters Matty Dorado Mitchell Cuijpers Lloyd Bilick Micholas McBride Brett Arnett Nathan Sinclair

1 74 11 76 26 94 16

Benjamin Piper Seb Geritz Nicholas Fabrio

9 42 96 8

Anthony Petrilli TonySpirovski Tom Evans Pavan Kandola

30 61 22

Jedd Stojakovic Shay Mayes LeonMramor

19 37 20 17 21 52 22 49 23 32 24 19 25 82 26 31 27 40 28 14 29 81 DNF 5 DNF 95 DNF IS DNF 89

Shaun Cleary Ben Ashcroft Paul Thatcher Chris Kapp Aaron Middleton Mitchell Brain

DNF 10 DNF 24

Richard McAuliffe Aaron Salter Peter O'Neil!

Andrew Starkey Anthony Crowe Brian Tabbernal James May James Prytz Kieren Engel Troy Boldy Stephen Zerafa

14m32.182s 0.071s 3.343s 3.969s 4.042s 4.327s 7.122s 7.268s 7.321s 7.726s 8.150s 12.089s 12.766s 13.366s 13.540s 13.666s 14.936s 15.326s 17.636s 18.101s 20.486s 21.166s 21.343s 21.465s 22.537s 23.872s 29.966s 30.476s 14 laps 10 laps 8 laps 6 laps 4 laps 1 laps Olaps

CALTEX FASTEST QUALIFIER: M.Dorado 47.888s

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