Motorsport News Issue 405 - March 2011

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' New Year, New Challenge

Bathurst 12 Hour Behind Audi's Winning Raid

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1000 WORDS It's difficult to take a bad photograph at Yas Marina - and Dirk Klynsmith has failed miserably to take one with this attempt. The architecture and the lighting give the place a unique effect.

Ifyou look carefully, you will notice that Shane van Gisbergen is not paying any attention to the architecture or the lighting at all...

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THIS MONTH’S FEATURES Unusual Suspects

The Grid

Some people have no luck...

When the20UV8Supercar season kicked offin Abu Dhabi, MNews Assistant Editor Andrew van Leeuwen was there. On Page 62, he diarises his time at the stunning Yas Marina Circuit.

THE HEAT IS ON After a notoriously short offseason, V8 Supercars are back on track. MNews casts an expert eye over the 2011 field and rates the contenders.

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The son ofa racer, RalfJuttner studied space and aeronautics before entering motorsport.

These days, he's the Managing Director ofthe all-conquering Joest Racing and oversaw Audi's assault on last month's Armor All Bathurst 12 Hour.

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i When Luca di Montezemolo talks, people listen, and that includes the increasingly-funky Fernando Alonso. The Ferrari chiefis clear about what he wants from his team in 2011... n \

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I Dear V8 Supercar team owners.

Are you looking for a gun in ternational for Surfers Paradise? We suggest you have a chat with this guy,Joey Hand.

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Australian

NATIONAL FEATURES Ij

NEWS

Editorial Executive Editor Phil Branagan editor@mnews.com.au Assistant Editor Andrew van Leeuwen andrew@mnews.com.au Special Projects Editor Steve Normoyle snormoyle@chevron.com.au National Editor Mitchell Adam mitchell@mnews.com.au Victorian Publisher Chris Lambden publisher@mnews.com.au

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Contributing Writers

The Grid

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AU’D THEY DO IT? Audi Race Experience Team Joest didn'tJust conquer the Bathurst 12 Hour, they dominated it. MNews went behind the scenes.

Mark Glendenning, Bruce Moxon, Geoff Rounds, LukeNieuwhof

Photography

Sutton Motorsport images, Dirk Kiynsmith, John Morris, Andrew Hall, James Smith, Peter Bury, Phil M/illiams, Rob Lang, Geoff Grade

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A Handy performer Never heard ofJoey Hand before? That's OK, Chip Ganassi and Bobby Rahal have...

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The Z-Man Marcus Zukanovic is back in action and on the up in the Fujitsu Series

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When the Sainty comes marching in Racing in the NHRA is every drag racer's dream. No wonder Terry Sainty is excited

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Four to the floor Brooke Tatnell talks to MNews about winning a fourth Australian Sprintcar Championship

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There is a'me'in Meyers After winning the 2010WoO title, Jason Meyers headed down under to race some more

Cover Design: Chris Currie

Advertising National Sales Manager Oriana Ruffini oriana@mnews.com.au P 03 9596 5555 F 03 9596 5030 Advertising Sales(Sydney) Luke Finn lfinn@chevron.com.au Director, Advertising Sales Jon Van Daal jvandaal@chevron.com.au P 02 9901 6100 Chairman, Chevron: Ray Berghouse Circulation Director: Carole Jones

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Motor Mouth, with Phil Branagan

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On The Limiter, with Chris Lambden

Chief Executive Officer, David Gardiner Commercial Director, Bruce Duncan

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News and Views

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Bits & Pieces

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Winding Back

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Box Seat

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Model Behaviour

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Trade

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Classifieds

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The Final Word with Paul Cruickshank

Motorsport News is published by nextmedia Pty Ltd ACN:128 805 970, Level 6,207 Pacific Highway, St Leonards NSW 2065 ® 2011. All rights reserved. Motorsport News is primted by Webstar, distributed by Network Services Company. No part of this magazine may be reproduced, in whole or in part, without the prior permission of the publisher. The publisher will not accept responsibility or any liability for the correctness of information or opinions expressed in the publication. Ail material submitted is at the owner's risk and, while every care will be taken nextmedia does not accept liability for loss or damage.

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THE FRONT ROW since we last met

V8 SUPERCARS Holden took out the first two races in the V8 Supercar Championship in Abu Dhabi, but the signs are that the teams and makes'battle this season is going to be unrelenting.

Jamie Whincup extended his amazing run of off-shore race wins by dominating the opening race atYas Marina. HisTeamVodafone Commodore had an advantage of about 0.3s over the rest of the field, as JDub cruised to his third straight win in the Gulf. But in the second race, Whincup found himself well down the order because of pit strategy, and only a late-race charge got the multiple champion up to third at the flag.

That race was won by James Courtney.The 2010 Champion celebrated his first weekend with the Holden Racing Team with an emphatic win, stretching the fuel range of his Commodore to the very limit to hold off Jason Bright, indeed, it looked like the BOC Commodore would take the win when Brighty took the lead with three laps to go, but Courtney fought back and got past, as his team held their breath to see if the VEll had enough fuel to complete the 43rd and final lap. It did,just...

MarkWinterbottom and Alex Davison fought out the Race 1 podium,the Stone Brothers Racing driver getting the place when Ford Performance Racing lost a second in the pitlane. Frosty had his hopes of another podium dashed in Race 2 when he crossed the pitlane entry blend line, earning a penalty and dropping him back to an eventual 14th place.

Shane van Gisbergen andTim Slade gave SBR three cars in the top five in the Friday race, while on Saturday David Reynolds scored a fine fourth on what was otherwise a tough weekend for Kelly Racing, ahead of Michael Caruso, Jono Webb and Alex Davison.

With Craig Lowndes seventh and 21 St and Garth Tander sixth and not getting past a lap one Saturday pileup, and with Courtney and Bright finishing at the back of the Race 1 field, the consistent Whincup leads Davison in the points. There will be drivers looking to salvage as many points as possible on the streets on Adelaide.

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WORLD RALLY Ford has swept the podium in the opening round of the World Rally Championship in Sweden.

It took Mikko Hirvonen until the final morning of the event to run down Mads Ostberg, and then hold off the Stobart driver over the final stages. Hirvonen's team-mate Jari-Matti Latvala was third.

Citroens filled the next three placings, with Sebastien Ogier leading home Better Solberg and Sebastien Loeb.The World Champion lost time on the first day with tyre problems, while Solberg's problems took 48 hours to evolve. He was stopped by local authorities for speeding on Friday and under local laws, was forced to hand his licence over before the final stage of the event. Co-driver Chris Patterson swapped seats with the Norwegian, and brought the car safely home - if a little slowly.

P-G Andersson was seventh after an appeal among his local fans raised enough funds for him to compete in a Ford Fiesta RS.

motorsport news

eNews of the Month STYRING THE POT

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Ford has thrown out the welcome mat for any new makes to enter V8 Supercars.

At the opening round oftheVS Supercars at Abu Dhabi, Ford's group manager for motorsports, sponsorship and events Chris Styring revealed exclusively to eNews that it's the Blue Oval's desire to see more manufacturers join the V8 fray when the Car of the Future regulations kick off in 2013.

"When the Car of the Future comes on board in 2013,come and take us on in V8 Supercars,"said Styring.

Styring added that the addition of new brands would help fund teams seeking factory funds,and make the V8 Supercars more commercially viable for local, and international fans alike.

LOWNDES LOOKS TO LE MANS

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FORMULA 1 Formula 1 's winter testing season has revealed a number of impressive one-off performances - but Red Bull Racing still has the car to beat.

Sebastian Vettel, Robert Kubica, his replacement Nick Heidfeld, below, Rubens Barrichello and Michael Schumacher all topped test days but the consistency of speed of Red Bull's Renault-powered RB7 has impressed everyone. Vettel and Mark Webber, above, have focused their programs almost exclusively on long runs on harder tyres, and debugging the car's new KERS and movable wings features. But those watching on the corners of the Spanish tracks have commented on the car's stability under braking and speed on corner entry, showing that in spite of a raft of rule changes, the car has plenty of downforce.

Ferrari has also played the 'long' hand with its now renamed FI 50th Italia, while Mercedes GP looks to be struggling, the team already pointing to a major update due just priorto the season-opening Bahrain GP.

Craig Lowndes may yet realise his dream of racing at the famous Le Mans 24 Flour.

After finishing second at the Armor All Bathurst 12 Hour enduro with Audi's Team Joest, Audi has offered the TeamVodafone pilot an opportunity to test with a European team in the near future.

Lowndes'manager David Segal told eNews that Audi would like Lowndes to do the 24 Hour races at Spa and the Nurbugring, before ultimately evaluating him for the 2012 Le Mans endurance race. Lowndes and Segal were expected to open discussions Audi following the Abu Dhabi V8 Supercar round.

As this edition of MNews closed for press, we were also awaiting confirmation or otherwise of plans for Lowndes and Jenson Button to drive a McLaren FI car at Bathurst...

KUBICA PLANS 2010 RETURN Robert Kubica has revealed that he plans to return to racing during the course of this season.

The Pole is amazing his doctors in Italy with the speed of his recovery from a rally crash, which almost severed his right hand. Following delicate surgery, feeling is returning to his hand, and although he will undergo further surgery in the coming weeks, Kubica says he has no plans to stop rallying any time in the future.

Interim Lotus Renault test driver Nick Heidfeld is expected to be named as the team's replacement driver soon.

RED RENAULTVATION - AND NO BULL

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What do David Coulthard, Rick Kelly, Dan Ricciardo and Robbie Maddison have in common?

Nothing, unless you let them loose around Albert Park in four Renault Meganes.That is the plan for the Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix this month, with the four competitors taking part in the Red Bull Race Off. The quartet will race it out over five laps on Saturday March 26.

Renault Australia has prepared four Megane Renault Sport 250s, which boast 184kW and 340Nm of torque. The six-speed coupes from 0-1 OOkmh in 6.1 s - slightly slower than the lads may be used to but fast enough, surely, for a cracking race. ?

Motorsport eNews available 8pm Mondays.

www.mnews.com.au

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BRANAGAN ■MOTOR MOUTH t ■ ,..

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BUNCH of really interesting things happened in February but two in particular caught my eye.

The more visible of the pair was the Bathurst 12 Hour.

Audi won.That is a shorthand explanation of what really happened. The back story is that Mark Eddy's local team liased with Audi in both Australian and Germany and Team Joest was deputised to take action. Dozens of people and millions of dollars worth of hardware jetted down under, and Craig Lowndes and Warren Luff were drafted in - not for free, you can be certain - to steer one of Joest's R8 LMSs in the event.

With no disrespect intended to the teams Joest beat at the Mountain, it was like bringing a sledgehammer to bust a walnut.

Joest is, like Team Ganassi or Hendrick Motorsport, one of the world's best racing teams, and looked like it at Bathurst.

During the week prior to that race the other thing happened -

but it only came to my attention after the 12 Hour. At the launch of a new model Forester, Subaru Australia managing director Nick Senior lamented the current state of the sport and what he saw as a lack of opportunity for his company to go either racing or rallying in any championship that might provide value for his company's buck.

That's not good.

I acknowledge that Senior's job is to provide a platform for his company to compete in the sport with a view only on winning, rather than to concern himself with the state of the sport itself Given Subaru's domination of Australian rallying over such a long period, you could understand if people took opposing views over whether running a WRC-spec car against a field of lesser beasts was actually a good thing for rallying or not.

But, here is my point. Subaru and Audi have a number of things in common, and the one of those that concerns this magazine the most is that both

brands have transformed their images, largely, on the back of motorsport successes. Prior to both brands going into the WRC to advertise their AWD rockets, you could have looked at Audi and Subaru as niche manufacturers with unusual cars that attracted a dedicated but small following - a 1970s version of Saab, if you will.

Not any more. Both have become aspirational brands; Audi is now seen as a genuine rival for the attention of the same customers as Mercedes Benz and BMW, and Subaru now markets its cars based, to some extent, on its engineering credentials. Thirty years ago, both notions would have been hilarious.

Meanwhile back in 2011, both brands have demonstrated that they have ambitions to do what they were doing in Australia during the 1990s - go motor racing. Between Audi's Super Touring program and Subaru's assault on various ARCs, they spent millions of dollars and employed plenty of people in their efforts, to the benefit of the sport.

Of course, manufacturers come and go from motorsport according to their goals, sale charts or even whims. One of the building blocks on which V8 Supercars is built is that the teams, not the auto makers, will determine what is a priority and what is not. It was recognised years ago that having makes come into the sport and spend money like there is no tomorrow is good while it lasts, but it never lasts.

But now, two makes have indicated that they are either in the motor racing business, or would be if they saw an opportunity. In the somewhat limited chats I have with folks from other brands, I believe that they are not alone.

The people who run the sport in this country can either lament the fact that there are not enough manufacturers in the sport, or recognise this as an opportunity to sit down with the car companies with a clean sheet of paper and discuss what they are interested in.

Where will it lead? I don't know. But, surely, that is the point. Let's find out.

You could have looked at Audi and Subaru as niche manufacturers with unusual cars, a 1970s version of Saab, if you will. Not any more

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LAMBDEN : ON THE LIMITER

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VENTS over the past few weeks have served to illustrate, graphically, the difference in approach to'issues' by two utterly contrasting major motorsports, in two utterly contrasting major markets.

One involves throwing money - millions of dollars - at the problem,the latter a little ingenuity.

The first, you won't be shocked to discover, is Formula 1.

Yet again, while the Global Financial Crisis rolls on so much longer than people thought.

Formula 1 is forcing its teams to roll out all-new cars,to make the best of a revised set of 2011 rules(and of course the next biggie is already locked in, with the controversial switch to fourcylinder turbo engines in 2013).

Back in the 70s, Colin Chapman got four, or was it five, years out of the basic design of the successful Lotus 72 including three Constructors' championships along with Driver's crowns for Jochen Rindt and Emerson Fittipaldi.

Formula 1 was immensely

the car's brakes is stored and available, again,for a brief burst of additional power.

In the end. It looks like we're headed for some kind of high popular and drew huge crowds. speed chess game, with drivers The fans didn't abandon FI frantically countering low because there wasn't a fleet wing with a burst of KERS, or vice versa ... while others are of new cars every January. But those pragmatic days, it seems, suggesting the array of buttons are long gone. Stability of and knobs drivers are expected regulation, the key to that era to deal with is becoming farcical. and the key to cost control, has Again,teams have faced been mostly overlooked by redesigns and development the FIA as FI bumbled its way running onto millions and millions of dollars. Quite how through the Mosley era.

The brief as FI headed into some of them continue to 2011 was (again)to encourage fund it is amazing. But they do more overtaking.The obvious - and FI will forge on through target area would be'aero'which, 2011 with the same teams at these days is so dominantly the sharp end,the occasional crucial that cars can't effectively good race In the dry, and some follow each other closer than 20crackers in the wet.

Contrast that with this month's 30 metres apart.

The 2011 solution? Movable rear NASCAR issue at the high-speed wings and the reintroduction of Daytona track. Straining for Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems, every part of a mile an hour KERS.The first allows drivers to at the'restrictor plate'track, temporarily reduce the angle, teams had been taking bump and thus drag, of their rear wing, drafting (slipstreaming) to a new presumably allowing them to plane, possible because of the circuit's billiard-table-smooth sweep past the car in front.The FIA Is, apparently, in the process resurfacing. Anyone who saw of identifying specific'overtaking' the lead-up'Bud Shootout'race areas on tracks where this will be would have seen team-mates permitted. Really. literally locked together, nose-toAt the same time, KERS is tail, working as a united pair to make ultimate use of the draft. back. Energy generated by

The only downside appeared to be marginal engine cooling for the second car in the tandem.

It has the potential for disaster. Sure, NASCAR has its share of'biggies' at the 500 (well, anywhere for that matter), but the NASCAR heavies were seriously worried about this latest development.

So what did they do? They reduced the efficiency of the cars' cooling systems, by reducing the size of the grille of the cars and specifying a lower pressure radiator cap.That is, forcing drivers to look for more clean air to avoid their engines overheating and blowing up.

Brilliant! Simple! Why doesn't FI think like that?Total cost: one front grille insert - and a new radiator cap - per car.

I know FI tech-heads would shudder at the thought of such'base'thinking ever being applied to the world's leadingedge form of motorsport, but at a time when,globally, a buck is a buck, it does start you thinking.

And, in a throw-back to last month's column on the apparently escalating cost of our own V8 Supercar of the Future, such logical pragmatism of thought is something to consider.

NASCAR reduced the efficiency ofthe cars'cooiing systems by reducing the size of the griile opening and specifying a lower pressure radiator cap. Brilliant...

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BITS & PIECES

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Coming Attraction Who’s the next big thing?

Johnny Cecotto Jr - GP2 & GP2 ASIA

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What is he currently You would have understood if Johnny Cecotto Jr had become a motorcycle racer.

The son of Johnny Sr - who was World champ in the 350cc category in 1978 at 19 - has instead chosen a career on four wheels, and this season will race in GP2.

Johnny Jr (his middle name is Amadeus) started racing in karts in Italy at 12, and was racing in Formula BMW in Germany before his 16th birthday. From there he raced in German Formula 3 (in which he finished third in the 2008 championship with two wins), Formula Master and into the F3 Euroseries in 2009.

For the 2009-10 season, he moved into GP2 Asia, and he has completed some interrupted seasons in both the European and Asian Series since then.

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Mo issue vwith VSSG going to AbuiDhdiii.

I ilf it's a good'iidea to race there-fine. > : But don't start the championship there.

I It wouldbe so bloody';amazing.t0lhav.§, n a track like Abu.’PtSabisin,Australia;);

sobzeharris I rate the new Bottle-O livery. 100% jmprovement«oni>20(l>O«i^,... . ,.

wm I can't work out if PP looks like a giant pea or a snot in his raeesuit.

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V.i: a V8 Supercars heeds the same formula as the [Italian] Superstars Series. -

Where does he want to This season, Cecotto is driving with Super Nova, finishing ninth and 15th in the opening races of '-rs the season at Yas Marina. He has the seat for the Asian Series alongside Eairuz Eauzy but it is by no means certain that he will stay with the team when the European Series starts in May. The fascinating part is that he holds dual citizenship; while Johnny Sr was a proud Venezeulen,Johnny Jr's mother is German,and he was raised in that country. He raced under a German licence early in his career but is now racing under one from Venezuela.You can bet that, if he makes it onto the doorstep of GP racing, it will be the colours of the oil-rich South American country that are on the side of his car...

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in motoi^lpM Let;

QUICK QUIZ 1

Team Joest is a one-time winner of the Bathurst 12 Hour race. How many times has the team taken victory at Le Mans?

2

Robert Kubica has won one Grand Prix in his career. Where and when was it- and who came second in that race?

3 Steve Owen is with Paul Morris Motorsport this season. For how many teams has he raced - in any role - in the Main Game prior to this season?

4

John Force has three daughters who race. What are their names?

5

Vettel, Buemi Loeb, Ogier and Bourdais all have the same first names. Or do they? Which is the spelling of the first name of each of the Sebs.

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motorsport news

MY FAVOURITE RACE

Himsmisciuwigi /

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TIM SLADE, FUJITSU SERIES, WAKEFIELD PARK 2008

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TOURS

Mar 3-6

World Rally Rd 2 Rally Mexico Leon, Mexico

Mar 5&8

ANDRA Westernationals Perth Motorplex, Kwinana, WA

Mar 6

Sprint Cup Rd 3 Kobalt Tools 400 Las Vegas, NV

Mar 12-13 Pro Stock Shootout Calder Park Calder, Vic Mar 13

uupjuuiuaKi

Formula 1 Rd 1 Bahrain GP Sakhir, Bahrain

Mar 17-20 V8 Supercars Rd 1 Clipsal 500 Adelaide, SA Mar19&20 ANDRA Pro Series Sydney Dragway Sydney, NSW

BACK in 2008,James Rosenberg bought a car from Larry Perkins, chassis 42, which was Anthony Tratt's old car,so that 1 could set up my own team in the Fujitsu Series -Sladespeed.

We started off running it from Marty Brant's workshop, but I got some damage after Winton,so I took it back to LP's factory.

Larry helped me out a lot that year; it would have been a lot harder without his help. From then on, my car stayed in his workshop. Larry would help me out with engine and gearbox rebuilds, and I'd work it off by sweeping floors and doing things like that for him.

So it was a tough year, because of the workload. It was just myself during the week,and then I'd employ two or three guys to come away racing. On most occasions the guys were different from race weekend to race weekend,so it was hard. I'd get to a race weekend, and I wouldn't want to let go of the stuff outside the car, and to get the most out of yourself as a driver you have to

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do that. It wasn't just the preparation of the car, it was organising gas bottles, booking flights and accommodation for me and the staff, so I was relieved to get the car into the back of the truck, not looking forward to actually racing, like I should have been.

With all that in mind, it was great to win at Wakefield Park. I had a good result at Clipsal, a third in the first race, but I didn't finish the second.So to get to Wakefield, and have everything fall into place, was nice. It was the best moment of my racing career, and it still is.That whole weekend was special.

I felt a lot of pride. It was a big step to do what I did, because I didn't have the money to go and run with a big team. 1 just had to believe in myself, that I could do it. I always believed that if we had the right equipment, and spent money in the right areas, and someone steering that had half an idea, it could all pay off. And on that weekend, it

did.

Tim Slade spoke to Andrew van Leeuwen

k

Twenty races is enough.

If we have some new races, some others will fall out we don’t need Australia, for instance Bernie Ecclestone discusses the future of the Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix ...

www.mnews.com.au

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Sponsor Great Vacation Packages Available The American dollar hasn’t been better so give us a call if you want to get away during the coming winter to see the best of motor racing in the USA V8 Supercars v April 15-17 Hamilton 400, Hamilton, NZ v Apr 29 May 1 Perth Challenge Wanaroo, WA v May 20-22 Winton Motor Raceway, Winton, Vic v June 17-19 Skycity Triple Crown, Darwin, NT AUSTRALIA

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WINDING BACK the year that was

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SHOULDERS ABOVE THEREST Once upon a time,Citroen made weird cars. Now,they can lay claim to having made one ofthe best rally cars ofalltime,the Citroen C4 WRC,By ANDREW VAN LEEUWEN

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ALLYING has a habit of taking obscure cars, and making them competition superstars.

Back in 1980, when Audi released a four-wheel-drive coupe called the Ur-Quattro, people weren't so sure the configuration would work. When the fourwheel-drive system propelled the ungainly looking German car to the 1983 and 1984 World Rally Championships,the car became a cult hero - and the word 'quattro'is still used to sell Audis to this day.

The same theory can be applied to the Opel Ascona,the Lancia Delta, and even the first version of the Subaru Impreza; I mean, would anyone have bought a car that looked like it was styled by a whitegoods company if its performance abilities hadn't been so aptly proven in the World Rally Championship?

The latest car company to have its image transformed by motorsport,and rallying in particular, is Citroen. Just a decade ago, if it were suggested that the French car maker that shares its name with a yellow fruit would build and develop one of the most successful racing machines of all time, you would have struggled to find believers. But,thanks mostly to the Citroen C4 WRC,that's exactly what happened. And in 10 short years, Citroen has gone from being synonymous with quirkiness (think the 2CV),to being synonymous with rallying domination.

It all started in 2003. After messing around with two-litre kit cars and Junior World Rally Cars, all while developing the talents of a young Sebastien Loeb,the Citroen World Rally Team contested its full WRC season in '03. At this stage, it was the Xsara WRC,a capable car, if not quite as statistically dominant as its successor.

Loeb finished second in the title that year, after the team stunned the rally world with a 1-2-3 in Monte Carlo, the opening round of the season. It was Loeb ahead of Colin McRae and Carlos Sainz, and it was a sign that Citroen had arrived.

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In 2004, Loeb went one better, winning the title in the Xsara. He then racked up another two World Championships in a row in the older car - albeit the'06 title coming as a privateer entrant, after CWRT took a year-long sabbatical to develop the C4, leaving Loeb to take the crown under the Kronos banner.

That year off was controversial at the time, but it paid off. While its chief rival Ford was sticking with updates to the tried-and-tested Focus, Citroen aimed to introduce a new model and hit the floor running.Therefore, a first draft of the C4 WRC was driven by Loeb way back in 2005, before being continually developed in 2006, and then debuted at Monte Carlo in 2007.

Taking some time to develop the car was a lesson Citroen had learnt with the Xsara, which flirted with one-off WRC outings for two years before that first full campaign in 2003. With this'Be Prepared' motto, the C4 WRC immediately smacked the opposition around the ears, with Loeb and Dani Sordo taking a 1 -2 on the Monte, and the C4 winning every stage for the first two days of its first rally.

"This 1 -2 is the fruit of all the hard work put in by everyone at Citroen Sport," beamed Guy Frequelin, Citroen's then-motorsport boss, at the time.

"For the car to be in a position to win its maiden event needed everyone to focus on a single objective. For me, it's also the reward for having insisted on wanting to return to the World Rally Championship.

"Rarely has a car produced such a performance first time out.The C4WRC posted nine consecutive fastest times,from SSI to SS9,including eight 1-2s, and few cars have ever finished their first event in first and second places. It's a resounding start to the Citroen C4 WRC's career in the international arena."

The Monte Carlo result set the tone for the Citroen C4. Following the 2007 debut, Loeb went on to win the '07,'08,'09 and '10 titles.

There were three manufacturer titles in there as well, and out of 55 WRC starts, there were 35 wins. Out of those 35 wins, 14 were from start to finish, which equates to 25 percent of its starts.The C4 set the fastest stage time on 593 of the 1068 stages it contested, at a rate of 56 percent, and on four events it set the fastest time on every single stage.

There were 12 1 -2s,five 1 -2-3s, and even a 1-2-3-4, at Bulgaria in 2010, which Citroen's latest motorsport boss Olivier Quesnel called "the best proof of the qualities of our C4 WRCs, whether they're works cars or entrusted to privateers."

But the most resounding stat of them all is that across four years of competition,the car was never beaten on tarmac.

"It gives the heartstrings a little tug as this car has given us a lot of happy moments on all kinds of surfaces,"said Loeb as the C4 era came to a close in Great Britain at the end of last year.

"Counting Monte Carlo, we've won the 15 asphalt rallies run over the last four years.

"A racing car that evolves is a bit like a kid you don't see growing up!The C4 WRC's evolution was done in small steps, on an on-going basis. Nothing's fundamentally changed - except for the decoration. But if you were to put me into the 2007 car today.

I'd begin to ask myself if there wasn't a problem.

"If something sticks in my mind, it's the change to Pirelli [tyres] in 2008.Their structure was very different to what we'd known before, and we were forced to make in-depth modifications to the suspension on gravel."

As history shows,the C4 never missed a beat, on any surface, and on any tyre. It should be remembered as not only one of the best rally cars of all time, but one of the best competition cars of all time.The one problem with that legacy is that it stacks the pressure on this year's successor - the Citroen DS3 WRC.

Last Sweden-the month,the DS3 next WRC. chapter of the Citroen WRC dynasty debuted in Unlike the C4WRC,there will be little common ground between the DS3 and its predecessor.The WRC technical regs have taken a left turn for this year, and the familiar two-litre turbo engines are now a thing of the past, replaced by 1.61, direct injection engines with a turbo kit.The result is still expected to be around 300 horspower,although Citroen has admitted that they expects small drop in power.

The transmission is also radically different, with the six-speed gearbox now operated through a fully-manual gearshift, with steering wheelmounted shifters banned. Central differentials are also now banned, however Citroen has designed a device to'disconnect'the rear wheels when the hydraulic handbrake is activated.

While Citroen has publicly admitted it is worried about the lack of development for the DS3 WRC,compared to the Xsara and the C4, it has been on-track, as a development mule,since late 2009. Back in July 2010, it ran in full DS3 WRC spec for the first time.

17

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K, check this out for a line-up: Ricardo Zonta. Alexander Wurz.

Marc Gene. Johnny Herbert.

Pedro de la Rosa.Tomas Scheckter.

Going into the 2001 season,these six were the only drivers to have a permanent gig with a Formula 1 team as a test and reserve driver. Zonta was picked up by Jordan after losing his race seat with BAR, and would go on to start seven Grands Prix with Jordan and Toyota in the years that followed (it could have been eight as he stood in for the injured Ralf Schumacher at the 2005 USGP, but withdrew along with the other Michelin runners). He has since finished on the podium at Le Mans with Peugeot.

Wurz went on to make a further 17 race starts with McLaren and Williams,finished on the podium twice, and then won Le Mans in 2009. Gene later made three FI starts with Williams, and won Le Mans alongside Wurz. Herbert, who scrambled a test role with Arrows after quitting Jaguar to race in the US only to have his deal fall

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motorsport news

ViiMARK

IDLENDENNING!^^ 1

BOX SEAT & over, never started another Grand Prix, but in fairness he already had 12 seasons and three wins under his belt.

Meanwhile, Pedro de la Rosa (Prost) still had another 51 FI starts and a podium at Hungary in 2006 ahead of him. Scheckter (Jaguar) lets down our little group slightly by never having started a Grand Prix, but he has been a fixture of varying regularity in IndyCar since 2002, with wins at Michigan and Texas. He barely counts on our list anyway, as he was sacked early in the season following a bust for kerb-crawling.

It's also worth keeping in mind that all of these guys aside from Scheckter, who had been on Jaguar's junior programme, already had substantial FI experience going into the season.The least-seasoned were Gene and Zonta, and both were two-year veterans with Minardi and BAR respectively. And Wurz, Gene,and de la Rosa in particular had - indeed,still have reputations as development aces.

In short, virtually all six were entirely capable of stepping into a Formula 1 car at short notice and doing a solid Job if their team's regular driver was in some way incapacitated. History shows us that most on that list were at some point called upon to do exactly that.

Fast-forward 10 years to Lotus Renault's season launch at the end of January. As well as showing off Robert Kubica and Vitaly Petrov's new uniforms and the R31 race car, it announced that,from LtoR above, Jan Charouz, Bruno Senna, Romain Grosjean, Ho-Pin Tung, and Fairuz Fauzy would be the team's reserve drivers. So that's one team with almost as many drivers sitting on its virtual subs bench as the entire 2001 grid had between them.On paper this should have meant that it was spoiled for choice if the unthinkable happened and it ever needed to plug an understudy in for a race Then Robert Kubica went rallying, his Skoda Fabia S2000 got itself impaled on a crash barrier, and suddenly, Lotus Renault needed to find a new lead driver to take it into the season. When it had presented its reserve line-up to the world, it had never expected to actually need to use them!

Pay drivers in race seats have been easy targets for years, yet for some reason

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they're often criticised as if they're a new phenomenon.They're not.The more fundamentalist members of the rose-tinted brigade might argue otherwise, but drivers have been paying their way onto the grid for six decades,and it's not Just in the literal sense that the sport would have been poorer without them. Pay drivers have won world championships - three, in the case of Niki Lauda, who took out a bank loan to get himself in with the March team.

On other occasions, drivers with substantial backing have created opportunities for quicker drivers with less money. Mark Webber's opportunity with Minardi in 2002 might have been a lot less viable had there not been someone wellsupported like Alex Yoong on the other side of the garage.

Having a reserve/test driver who brings money is not necessarily new either, but the extent to which we've seen it in the last few years is. At least pay drivers get to actually race. Getting someone to hand over what are, if paddock chatter is to be believed, sometimes very substantial amounts of money for the privilege of standing around wearing a cap must be the deal of the year as far as the teams are concerned.

Nick Heidfeld was the only realistic option Renault had when it became clear that Kubica would be out of commission for some time. For all of the drivers it had

on its books, only Senna and Grosjean had any FI experience, and there were compelling arguments against both.

Hulkenberg? Under contract to Force India, inexperienced, and insufficient technical knowledge. LIuzzi? Renault needs a driver capable of extracting the maximum out of its car this year, and for all the Italian's qualities, he's not the safe pair of hands that the team needs.

Having someone with the skill to drive quickly and consistently is not enough; particularly when you're Just starting pre season testing and you have a sophomore like Petrov in the other car. With the greatest will In the world,the Russian is not the sort of driver that Renault would want to have dictating its development programme over the coming months.

The post-Kubica crash scramble by the team hasn't been a total waste of time for Renault's reserves. Grosjean is racing in GP2 again, so he's got something to keep himself occupied, and Senna has already been granted one day of testing that he wouldn't have had otherwise. Remarkably, his outing at Jerez was Just his second day of FI testing ever; the first having come with Honda in 2008. Amazing, given that he's now raced an entire FI season.

All the same, it does make you wonder.

What would Renault have done if Heidfeld had gone off and signed a sportscar deal a week before Kubica's crash?

It does make you wonder. What would Renault have done if Heidfeld had gone offand signed a sportscar deal a week before Kubica's crash? www.mnews.com.au

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SUPEKCAU RACIJ IJXDKRWAY. MOTOllSPOllT NEWS TAKES AN INOE LOOK AT WHAT EACH TEAM i HAT MIG HAS G r FOR n\ AN r-KT r LET IT 20

motorsport news

TOLL HOLDEN RACING TEAM

#2 - Garth Tander Engineer - Alistair McVean

#1 - James Courntey Engineer - Scott Sinclair

HOT

The driver line-up; Nothing wrong with the team's personnel and resources The glory days are gone;No longer Holden's leading team;Got lost in car development in 2010; No Tom to turn the ship back in the right direction

The addition of reigning champion James Courtney gives HRT one of the strongest, some would say the strongest driver line up in the V8 paddock. Admittedly,they haven't been down on talent in recent years with Will Davison alongside Garth Tander, but a debate on the merits of Courtney vs. Davison will have to wait for another day...

Courtney and Tander have both won a title and plenty of races, have the maturity and know-how to get the job done. Whatever can be got out of the cars, they'll get out of the cars, asTander demonstrated last year,finishing fifth in the points despite plenty of bad days.

HRT had lots of those'bad days'last year; the drivers were the least of the problems.The team went down a very specific development path, resulting in an inconsistent car that worked well very on point-and-squirt street circuits like Adelaide, but was incredibly hard work through longer, constant radius corners.

Case in point? Phillip Island's first sprint race, where Tander was a sitting duck against Jason Bargwanna in the third Kelly Racing entry - particularly through the long Turn 2-3 run.

The cars didn't have as many strengths as a T8 Commodore or an FPR Falcon but had far more weaknesses. Admittedly

after dropping lots of points with late season carnage,they finished seventh in the team's championship as the fourthbest Holden squad, behind TeamVodafone, Garry Rogers Motorsport and Jack Daniel's Racing.

There is much work to be done to get things back on track and, in short, this isn't the same HRT that dominated the sport in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Between 1996 and 2002, it won six of the seven titles and had the lion's share, pardon the pun,ofV8 Supercar fans behind it. Much like Michael Schumacher in the same era, it was more noteworthy when they didn't win than when they did.

But the men at the helm during that golden era - John Crennan,Jeff Grech, Mark Skaife and Craig Lowndes - are long gone and the team hasn't won a title since 2002.They're no longer the team with unrivalled funding and resources and the biggest hordes offans behind the garage.

Even with drivers the calibre ofTander and Courtney, it's hard to see that title drought ending this year. Admittedly, Courtney did nab a win in Abu Dhabi, but it wasn't an old-school'HRT win'; taking pole and romping away to victory. You know, what Jamie Whincup did in the first race. Courtney kept it on the island, had

reasonable pace and picked up the pieces when those ahead of him struck trouble.

A day earlier, he qualified 20th, donged Bargwanna and copped a 50-point penalty, while Tander qualified 14th for both races.

They may have left with a trophy but it's not all happy days.

The arrival of Courtney and his engineer Scott Sinclair should aid the engineering side of things, even if the pair have walked into what has been seen as 'Tander'steam'in recent years.Two new minds and sets of eyes,fresh from taking the biggest prize of 2010 with a working package, enter the team with their own philosophies and processes, which will give the existing engineering group a fresh perspective and opportunity to find and resolve their weaknesses.

As a team with such a proud history of success, 2010 must have hurt HRT.They don't lack resources or manpower and they certainly won't lack motivation to get back to where they feel they belong in 2011.To do that,though,there are some major problems to rectify.

Even with ailing health and the tyranny of distance,Tom Walkinshaw remained an influential part of the empire he built until his passing in December.Someone needs to stand up and turn the ship around in his absence.

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ANDREW VAN LEEUWEN EDITOR MOTORSPORT ENEWS

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MITCHELL ADAM

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PHIL BRANAGAN EXECUTIVE EDITOR MOTORSPORT NEWS 21

FORD FERFORIVIANCE RACING

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#5 - flVlark Wirsterbottonn EDigisieer- Campbell Little

HOT F|1

Drivers; hardware; sponsors; desire to win

We're drawing a blank, here

There will be those who will call this the year that FPR has to win something.

Anything. Bathurst, championship, whatever.

Here at MNews, we're not so sure about that. For the most part of2010, the team limited the silly mistakes that had stopped it from being taken seriously in the past. If it can't over-run the might of TeamVodafone at the endurance races this year, or propel one of the two lead FPR drivers to the title, it won't mean the team doesn't deserve to be on the grid.

Yes it has the resources, but FPR, during last season, looked like the real deal, even though the major victory didn't come.

This season, expect both Mark Winterbottom and Will Davison to win races, probably quite regularly. Either of the Winterbottom/Youlden or Davison/ Richards combinations could win Bathurst, and there's every chance that one of the 22

#6 - Will Davison ●Engineer - Grant BVlcFherson

boys could win the title as well.

Winterbottom and Davison both have individual challenges to deal with this season. For Davison, it's about burying the demons from 2010 and trying to recapture the form he showed in '09. It shouldn't be too hard, because we know how good Davison is and we have all heard the rumours about his indifferent treatment at HRT last season. With the full weight of a team behind him, expect Davo to flourish once more.

As for'Frosty', his challenge will come from the other side of the garage. With Steve Richards having a pretty lean couple of seasons in '09 and '10, Winterbottom has been pretty well clear to play team leader. And there are those suggesting that, as a result, Just how good he is, is yet to be measured. We don't whole heartedly agree - after all, Richo was driving well in '08, and Frosty could run with him - but

it will be something that people will be watching for.

As for the rest, well, the cars are good, the backing is good, and the engineering line-up (with Matt'Techo'Nilsson Joining, from Clayton) is excellent. If the signs of 2010 are true and the mistakes are gone, then FPR are looking really... goodi Mistakes, of course, might still be the downfall. In Abu Dhabi, a pit mistake cost Frosty second place in Race 1 ... but then in Race 2, the FPR boys got Frosty out of the pits ahead of Whincup - twice!

In our opinion, it's the boys in blue that are most likely to tackle the 'Fones this season. It won't be easy-TeamVis pretty much the motorsport equivalent of Roger Federer and Rafa Nadal starting their own country called Tennistopia and entering the Davis Cup - but FPR finally looks like a team that may well be up to the challenge. motorsport news

TEAMVODAFONE

#88 - Jamie Whincup Engineer - Mark Dutton

HOT N rii

#888 - Craig Lowndes Engineer - Jeromy Moore

Everything. Well, almost.

Urn

The team is, by any practical measure, the best in pitlane; it has the bestresourced sponsor group,the bestpresented cars and team,race-winning drivers, experience, cool heads, stability in its engineering group and a huge trophy cabinet.

It has strengthened its management with the addition of Adrian Burgess as Team Principal, allowing owner Roland Dane to take a back seat - if such a thing is possible. He has been a hands-on leader to this point but, at the same time, allowed his troops to do their jobs without anyone looking over their shoulder.

This is Year 2 with Holden,so it has been to all the tracks in the series with a VE

before.There are fewer unknowns than there were 12 months ago but if they appear, John Russell is there, ex-Williams, to help identify them.

Look, if we are splitting hairs, the Nots would be, crew chief Steve Robertson has moved to Paul Morris Motorsport, and so has Steve Owen, who performed brilliantly as a TeamV endurance driver last year. Their replacements,Tony Monks and Andrew Thompson; have a lotto live up to, while new lads Chris Goos and Nick Petrons Join as #1 mechanics (both ex-JBR).

At the start of each season there are a bunch of teams and drivers who invariably say the same thing; anything less than a

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title this year is a failure. But the reality is, that line only rings true, reo//y true, with TeamVodafone.

The optimistic pre-season chat has placed a herd of drivers in the top five at the end of the year, but it is almost assured that Jamie Whincup and Craig Lowndes will take two of those chairs when the music stops.That leaves three positions available for everyone else to squabble over.

Here is what defines this game,this season. Last year, James Courtney and Jim Beam Racing beat TeamVodafone and won the series.This year, barring catastrophe, that once again appears to be the name of the game.

.,;s dvodafoneOr,;

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ROD NASH RACING

mcastroll

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#55 - Payl Dumbrell Engirseer = Dave Paterson

HOT NOT

Great hardware; backup from FPR; Paul Dumbrell; Rod Nash

Sprint tyre speed; inconsistency; Paul Dumbrell

Paul Dumbrell was the revelation of 2010.

Against a background of his father's battle with cancer, his own new and demanding CEO role and uncertainty over his driving future, he had to come to terms with minor matters - like settling into a new team and learning to drive a Falcon after a history of driving Commodores. And he did it brilliantly.

The second half of the season showed the gains he had made, with a podium, a win and a pole, but the die was cast

early on. Dumbrell was fast in pre-season testing, when everyone was scrambling around on stuffed tyres.

Perhaps the down point of his season was that PD needs to pick up his game on Sprint tyres. His points return was not what it might have been, and there are more of those races to deal with this season.

In Nash, Dumbrell has a stable influence who has the mix of being a team principal and racing enthusiast well-balanced.

But here is why PD might also be a 'Not'. He has committed to staying with

the team, rather than being a full-time CEO, but he is going to be racing against drivers who do not have such major business commitments to distract. He has done a great job of dividing his time to this point (not to mention a gruelling triathlon training regime) but sooner or later, something has to give.

He also had the problem of, having moved the bar so high last year, matching that level, consistently, in 2011. He has shown what he can do; now, he needs to repeat it, regularly.

BUNDY RACING

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#61 - Fabian Coulthard Engineer - Rob Starr

HOT N F|1

Fabian Coulthard; stable sponsorship

Car livery; everything else

In an underfunded Paul Cruickshank Racing squad, Fabian Coulthard looked like a star. He moved to Walkinshaw Racing to win races, and he's never looked further from doing so.

The big plus for Bundy Racing is that things can't get much worse. In what was a horror year for Walkinshaw cars all round, the Bundy duo were the bottom of the pile.

24

This year, the two-into-one consolidation might help focus the efforts a little, and an eighth and a 15th from Abu Dhabi show that progress might be on the cards. With a lot of face to save, the effort from WR to put together three very fast racecars should, should, be massive. If they do it, Fabe is capable of results.

But that's an almighty if... motorsport news

LUCAS DUMBRELL MOTORSPORT #30 - Warren Luff Engineer - Rob Palermo

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WILLANS LEADERS IN DRIVER SAFETY SINCE 1967

\Narren Luff;good hardware;sponsorship

One-car team;team owner still learning

The good news is very good; Lucas Dumbrell starts his second season with one driver who looks likely to last the season. For the team that had six drivers last year - Daniel Gaunt, Cameron McConville, Nathan Pretty, Mark Noske,Scott Pruett and Warren Luff- that has to be a bonus.

And,the last man in last year stays for 2011. Luff did an excellent job at Jim Beam Racing last year and while he did not set the world on fire in the LDM car, he showed that he belongs at the top level.

Team manager Dean'Curl'

Orr has been in the sport for ages and has seen it all, having worked for Larry Perkins and Dick Johnson, among others.

He may lack a hairdo, but he is level-headed enough to guide Dumbrell through the tough early days of running a V8 Supercar team.

The team is strengthening its core by taking its engineering in-house (rather than have 'exteral'guidance from Walkinshaw Racing). It will take time for Luff and Rob Palermo to fit in, as it must, but a teen something result in the series will be a good (and realistic) result for Year 2.

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KELLY RACING

'r

#11 - Greg Murphy Engineer - Stuart McDonald

HOT IVOT

i

#16 - David Reynolds Engineer - Janies Small

Reynolds back in the game;the Pepsi Max livery;should get more love and attention than the third and fourth Kelly cars have previously received Their surnames aren't'Kelly';can the Braeside boys really challenge the big guns?

Since Kelly Racing was formed in 2009, the four-car outfit has resembled two quite different teams. Even the team brands it that way, with Todd and Rick running as'Jack Daniel's Racing'and the other two cars as'Kelly Racing'.

But there has been a vast gulf between the two'teams'. The'Kelly Racing'cars have been viewed in the paddock as unloved revenue-raisers, older cars not getting the same level of TLC and focus as the JD Commodores. In its two-year history, the #16 has qualified on the back row of the grid more often than not, with Tony Ricciardello only announced as its 2010 driver in Abu Dhabi on the eve of the season opener.

This year, it looks like that has changed.

Greg Murphy will drive the #11 with new backing from Pepsi Max, while David Reynolds has been signed to pilot #16.They'll both drive 2009-built Commodores,the first the team built 26

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with Todd in his 2010 chassis and Rick getting a new VE - but presumably with more energy devoted to them than previous incarnations of #11 and #16.

The Pepsi dollars have given Murphy a lifeline. Leaving PMM, Murphy was resigned to becoming an endurance driver, before the opportunity with the Kellys - with whom he's always been close - arose to give him at least another year as a full-timer.

While he's not exactly young and hip, Murphy is a good fit for the new sponsor.

People know who he is and he's polished with corporates and fans; he'll represent Pepsi well off-track. On the track, he could be in for another long year. Glimpses of form still emerge, but Murphy's best days are behind him, especially in qualifying, although that did pick up in the latter stages of a frustrating 2010.

For Reynolds, it's a return to being a fulltime driver. He was stiff to spend last

year on the sidelines after a good rookie campaign in 2009, but with the way Bundy Red Racing went, it was probably for the best...

He's a quality peddler and being able to learn from his three experienced team mates will help. With Rick's 2010 car and race engineer, James Small, it's by far the strongest #16 the Kellys have fielded.

Question marks still remain over the team's legitimate speed - three of the four cars from Braeside qualified down in the 20s for each race in Abu Dhabi and whether Kelly Racing as a whole has the engineering nous, capacity and capabilities to challenge the big guns.

Ultimately, it's Todd and Rick's team, so they'll be the main focus. But with increased corporate backing for an improved driver line-up, it seems like the third and fourth cars are being taken much more seriously in 2011. Will it translate into results? motorsport news

WILSON SECURITY RACING #3 - Tony D’Aiberto Engineer - Adam DeBorre

HOT NOT

New hardware;new sponsorship

Small team;coming offan ordinary season

It's becoming a bit of a theme; drivers jump out of Walkinshaw Racing-built cars, and flourish in a Ford Performance Racingbuilt car.

Last season, it was Paul Dumbrell.This season,the early signs are that Will Davison is' following the same path. When Tony D'Alberto jumps in an FPR car at the Clipsal 500, he'll be hoping for a similar transformation.

It's high time that D'Alberto got his hands on a new car.The Commodore he's been campaigning since 2008 was the very first VE Supercar that Holden ever built, and was used by the Holden Racing Team as the model's homologation. Sure,the car has been continually updated, but over time, chassis become weaker and sloppy, and ol'WROOl must be feeling the effects offour long years in service.

Anyway,it will all be a non-issue now Abu Dhabi is out of the way, because a shiny new FPR Falcon will be D'Alberto's steed from here on in.Traditionally, drivers who come out of the slow-turn-in, good-power-out Commodores love the fast-turn-in of the Falcons, but there might still be a transition period. After all, D'Alberto has been driving

WR cars since he was in diapers.

Still, FPR equipment is good,and this could be D'Alberto's chance to step up to the plate and hit that Top 10 a little more regularly. Of course, it also takes away an excuse if that doesn't happen...

As you've probably already read, we put 'coming off an ordinary season'in the Not column forTDR. For the small, one-car team, 2010 was exactly that - ordinary. It wasn't bad, but it also wasn't good. Apart from that one great weekend in Adelaide for the Clipsal 500(D'Alberto was regularly in the Top 10), it was pretty much a plateau. Hopefully, the new car is the kickTDR and D'Alberto himself needs to start moving forwards again.

Of course, it's not just a new car.TDR has a new sponsor this season,and is the third team in three years to be known as'Wilson Security Racing'. Like the new car, the new sponsor might be the catalyst for a move up the grid, especially given that this is a proper, outside of the family sponsor. But again,that will also bring a little pressure to the table.

All things considered, this is an important yearforTony D'Alberto. It's time to prove he can mix it with the big boys.

TRIPLE F RACING #12 - Dean Fiore Engineer - Darren Fapworth

HOT NOT

Increased Triple Eight links; more time on Sprint tyres

Single car;learning time running out

There isn't a great deal to say about Triple F Racing.The Fiore family have put together a neat little team and that's kind of where they are in the grand scheme of things.

As a single car outfit, there's only so much you can achieve, even if you do increase your technical links with Triple Eight, as Dean Fiore has done in 2011 to accompany hisT8-built Falcon. Forming a technical relationship with T8, rather than purely purchasing spares, is a boost and should help, especially as Fiore and his new race engineer Darren Papworth go through the www.mnews.com.au

'getting to know you'phase of their partnership.

Dean's now had two years driving V8 Supercars, and has looked solid if not spectacular. It's time to see what he's got.The first step will be qualifying inside the teens on a more regular basis than he's done so far.

The increased use of the Sprint Tyre in 2011 should work in his favour. Dean is one of the young drivers who spent time on a softer tyre in Carrera Cup before moving into V8s, and cracked a shootout start at Queensland Raceway last year on the friendlier rubber.

27

JACK DANIEL’S RACING I

#7 - Todd Kelly Engineer - Brendan Hogan

HOT ]V

rai

#15- Rick Kelly Engineer - Dave Swenson

Top line drivers;greatsponsor;resources aplenty

Lack ofengineering firepower;need to win soon

If you look at the list of ingredients that make up Jack Daniel's Racing, it's all there. Todd and Rick both have proven track records(pun intended),the team has big, shiny digs, great commercial backing, and moolah to burn.

What it doesn't have, yet, is a steady stream of results. Jack Daniel's Racing is a big team, and sooner or later, they'll need the results to back that up. We're not necessarily talking about winning the title, because that is not a particularly realistic ambition for 2011, but regular top five qualifying and race finishes - and the odd win - are realistic, and need to be

the focus for the team this season.

Of course, a Phillip Island 500 or Bathurst 1000 would alleviate a lot of that pressure, and that could be a realistic ambition for this season. Both of the Kelly boys are former Bathurst winners, and both are capable of doing it again.

The problem is, they can't drive together these days, and last year, Jack Daniel's Racing did a truly terrible job of recruiting co-drivers. If the team gets organised, and sign some half capable guys to partnerTodd and Rick, a Bathurst win could well be on the cards. And as we all know, you can finish last in every other

race of the year, win Bathurst, and call it alia huge success.The race carries that much weight.

Cars could be an issue. At least the black-and-white cars are no longer hangovers from the old Perkins Engineering days, but the team is still yet to show it has the engineering strength to build chassis that can beat those built

by Triple Eight or Ford Performance Racing.

Sure, there are some good engineers in the JDR/KR sheds, but there's no X Factor, like what a Campbell Little or Adrian Burgess brings to the table.

TEKNO AUTOSPORT #19 - Jonathon Webb Engineer - Geoff Slater

HOT N r|i

Confidence after a standout rookie season;great gear and Triple Eight links

Moving outfrom the comfort and benefits ofDJR;raised expectations for Year 2

A surprise wet win in Sydney was a nice bit of icing on the cake for Jonathon Webb's rookie V8 Supercar season.

He exceeded expectations and made the step up from the Fujitsu Series look easy. From the outset, Webb looked at home; he was quick, composed and raced well to finish 13th in the championship, ahead of many more experienced campaigners.

All of that, though, was done as a third of Dick Johnson Racing. Whenever Webb came in from a 28

session, he had the brains of James Courtney and Steven Johnson to pick.

In 2011,Webby flies the coop to run as a single carteam. He'll have the same Triple Eight-built FG, with technical support from T8, his 2010 engineer, Geoff Slater, and the same corporate backing, all overseen by the experienced Andy McElrea.

There's nothing wrong with those ingredients, but it remains to be seen how tough Webb finds life as a single-car outfit, after a year within a big and ultimately title-winning - operation. motorsport news

GARRY ROGERS MOTORSPORT

HOT

Continuity;fast cars and fast drivers

A little bit ofinconsistency;do they have the resources to challenge the big teams?

#33 - Lee Holdsworth Engineer - Richard Hollway

#34 - Michael Caruso Engineer - Steven Todkill

Garry Rogers Motorsport remain the'little team that can'in V8 Supercars.They don't have the resources, dollars or sheer manpower of TeamVodafone, FPR or HRT, but they keep on getting results.

Last year,they were third in the team's championship, and their drivers finished seventh and 11th in the points, with Lee Holdsworth ending 2010 with a win at Homebush. Holdsworth and team mate Michael Caruso made semi regular visits to the podium and were regularly inside the Top 10.

There's no reason to suggest there won't be more of the same in 2011 from the boys in the Fujitsu Commodores.The team has stability in spades; in the only major change since the start of last

season, Chris Harris stepped into theTeam Manager role vacated by Kevin Shawyer midway through 2010 seamlessly. Other than that, it's full steam ahead.

But that's the next challenge for the team. Can they step up to challenge for wins on a regular basis and mount a title bid? It's almost as though they've hit a level with their current lot.

The first part of making that step up has to be to find more consistency over the course of a season. On their best days,the cars are up and about, but GRM still have a couple of bogey circuits, to which their cars aren't as well suited.

Beyond that, whether or not they can win regularly and challenge for titles will come down to resources.

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29

DICK JOHNSON RACING

HOT N #17 - Steven Johnson Engineer - Nicholas Duval

#18 - James Moffat Engineer - Perry Kapper

Reigning champions;cars still fresh and fast

Loss ofpersonnel

Fact: Jim Beam Racing won't be the same team it was in 2010.

A lot can change in an off-season, and for JBR, this wasn't even a normal off-season. Since the middle of last year,The Team has lost a co owner (Charlie Schwerkolt), its Team Principal (Adrian Burgess), its lead driver(James Courtney) and its best race engineer (Scott Sinclair).That has to hurt, and it has to show up on the results board in 2011.

The harsh reality is that the driver that will lead the team this season is the only driver who didn't win a race for JBR/Dick Johnson Racing in 2010. Both Courtney and Jono Webb managed to snare wins, but Steve Johnson didn't. Is he likely to break the drought in 2011 ? Probably not.

Once again,this is harsh, but it rings true. Stevie J is a solid driver, and

will always been a great Number 2 (particularly at Bathurst), but he isn't a team leader.

In saying that, his move on Jamie Whincup in Abu Dhabi's second race was impressive.The other option is that Johnson will flourish in his new role as team leader. Before Abu Dhabi we would have said it was unlikely, now we'll just say the jury is out.

As for James Moffat, well, he's a main series newbie, with only two starts under his belt - Phillip Island and Bathurst last year - neither of which were outrageously successful.

Still, he's a good young peddler who deserves his shot. It would just be nice if the team had someone to give it direction, someone under which Moffat could learn. We're genuinely not sure that's the case anymore.

PAUL MORRIS MOTORSPORT & n \ 9![!

#39 - Russell Ingall Engineer - Mark Penning

#49 - Steve Owen Engineer - Blake Smith 30

HOT N

Increased Triple Eight links;good hardware;Steve Owen

Russell Ingall in qualifying; no culture ofsuccess

When Paul Morris Motorsport made the switch to use Triple Eightbuilt hardware last year, much was expected. Little, however,eventuated.

Much of this was due to the somewhat limited nature of the partnership. PMM received the cars and while there was a level of a technical assistance, they persevered with their own shock and damper program.

In 2011,that will change. PMM has gone all-in with the alliance and will run to the same spec at the TeamVodafone rockets.

Which means it all comes down to the team, which is still the subject of question marks.There have been times where they've looked good;the last of the Commodores they built in-house had their moments and Morris himself has been behind some particularly savvy pit strategies. But were they ever going to out-brainpower

TeamVodafone and beat them with their own gear last year? No. The personnel side of the equation looks better in 2011, with former T8 crew chief Steve Robertson among the behind-the-scenes recruits. It's a good addition. Robertson knows what it takes to run a successful squad, will manage the relationship with his former employer and work to put the required structures and processes into place.

On the driving front, Russell Ingall remains with the team and will have a challenge on his hands to, first, beat Steve Owen and,secondly, rack up some meaningful results.

Owen knows what a good Triple Eight Commodore feels like and how to drive it, his input will help the team and, if the environment's right, he should enjoy a breakout year akin to Fabian Coulthard's 2009. motorsport news

I

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BRAD JONES RACING

#8 - Jason Bright #14 - Jason Bargwanna #21 - Karl Reindler Engineer - Phil Keed Engineer - Chris Stuckey Engineer - Andrew Edwards

HOT

Jason Bright;experienced team;solid hardware

Lack ofconsistency;sponsorship position unclear on third entry;Jason Richards In its various guises. Brad Jones Racing has tasted success in all kinds of championships but it is yet to become convincing as a V8 Supercar team.

It always seems to be one step short of what is required. It can have pole positions and podium finishes, and even lead the second race of the season in Abu Dhabi in the closing laps. But, and tell the truth, when was the last time you watched a race and expected a BJR car to win it?

Yet,there are some good ingredients at the team. Brad and Kim Jones and Wally Storey have vast experience at running the team, and doing more with fewer assets

than others might have had.The racecars are now on the pace, and Jason Bright is a race-winning and previously titlechallenging driver. Engineer Phil Keed has been with Bright through three teams now, but they are yet to consistently gel with BJR. Brighty often starts seasons inconsistently and comes on stronger as the year unwinds. If he is to deliver, that can't happen again. He has had a year to learn The Albury Way,and he is a better driver than his disastrous Britek years or his 2010 results show.

The team does not have Jason Richards in its car, at least for now,and that is a

huge setback.The Kiwi's results do not accurately reflect his positive influence in the team and there were times last year like at Townsville - when JR threatened to street the field. Jason Bargwanna steps into the team in difficult circumstances, and the former Bathurst winner is still a solid driver, but has to grasp the opportunity to move forward from that.

Karl Reindler had a modest maiden V8 Supercar season in terms of results, but there were signs that he will develop into a handy driver. Certainly, the Waussie appears focused enough on the big picture.

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#4 - Alex Oavisoo ErBgmeer - Pars SCroeho

HOT NOT

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#14 - Shane van Gssbergen

Engineer - Payl Forgie

#21 - Tim Slade Engorseer - Wes McPoygail

Shane van Gisbergen; reliable and competitive cars; vastly experienced management and engineering; sound, if not iavish, sponsorship; Tim Slade Inconsistency; Aiex Davison; it's 2011, not 2004

No matter what happens in V8 Supercar racing, you cannot ignore Stone Brothers Racing.

SBR has a lot of assets. The team builds good, fast cars, and does not make many mistakes at races. It has experience and does not panic. It has sound, if not lavish, backing.

The challenge the team faces this season is to realise its own potential. Shane van www.mnews.com.au

0 It

Gisbergen is, surely, the most likely driver to break through to register his first win and then, in the opinion of many, a second and a third.

Tim Slade made a lot of progress in 2010.This year, continuing that line would see him qualifying in theTop 10 and challenging, and on occasion beating, some of the fast guys in the races.

The enigma of SBR remains Alex

Davison. He has clear, recognisable talent, but that talent needs to be on show, more often, for it not to appear misplaced in a V8 Supercar. In the last two events, in Sydney and Abu Dhabi, he has shown speed; now, he needs to build on that. In this company, occasional speed is not enough. If he qualifies 22nd at Adelaide, leading at Abu Dhabi is going to become a fading memory, quickly.

31

AFTER A HORROR ZOIO. HU DAVISON HAS SWAPPED HRT RED FOR FPR UDE.HESPOKE TO MITCHEU ADAH ABOUT THE MOVE AND NEW CHAPTER IN HIS LIFE.

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HEY'RE a busy bunch,V8 Supercar drivers, especially when they're not racing.

When Motorsport News gets new Ford Performance Racing recruit Will Davison on the phone, he's tantalisingly close to getting back into'racecar driver'mode.Two days before his flight to Abu Dhabi, he's spent the day at FPR and is about to head to a personal sponsor function. All at the end of a week where he's spent two days in Perth and one in Sydney in corporate mode.

Since being announced as an FPR driver in Tamworth in mid-January, Davison has been flat-out- he's already done 4,000km in his new company car(an FPV GT-P), primarily with trips to and from the Airport and FPR's workshop.

"It's been pretty crazy,and even while I've been at home it's been extremely full-on," he says.

"At the start of the year,there are so many little things,especially when you're changing teams.We've done days in the city with Trading Post,even before the test we were in Sydney for two days, with all of the sponsors in the lead-up to the test day.

"It's been really busy, but it's good. It gets you on your toes and gets you mentally in gear.

Ironically, driver diaries tend to become a little less congested once the season properly commences.They continue to ebb and flow during the year, but the pre-season always brings an added workload, with It/'

launches, photoshoots, media and sponsor commitments.

"It just goes up and down,"Davison says of commitments during the year.

"You go through periods all of the time where you've got steam coming out of your ears; you're at the airport every single day, for what seems like months, you're training, you're in at the factory talking with your engineers, driving to and fro, and you burn a hole in your ear from the telephone. It's full-on.

"But then all of a sudden you have a few weeks where it's a bit quieter and that's Just the nature of the business of what we do.

You have some quiet patches and some busy times. It's just about making sure your diary is well-organised."

To say a well-organised diary is crucial is something of an understatement. Formula 1 drivers generally do about half a dozen sponsor appearances a year, outside of race meetings.Topline Supercar drivers,though, rack up in excess of 50 to earn their cha-ching.

"Being able to manage yourself is important because you can burn yourself out really quickly," Davison says.

"You've got to make sure you've got time to do what you want to do, making sure you're doing your own training, eating the right foods,getting lots of rest, because you can burn yourself out really quickly if you're not careful.

"I find that the busier I get,the more I have to plan even downtime now, because I'm

not getting any of it. You've got to plan in advance when you go out to dinner or a movie,an afternoon to do some work at home,a training sessiofi. I've got to be much more organised now with that sort of stuff d((^' otherwise, it just won't happen.

"You're doing a lot of things for other people most of the time,so you've got to make sure you're on it with your preparation and the things you do that benefit you and your own performances."

For Davison, life has changed in recent years. His switch from Dick Johnson Racing to HRT in 2009 saw him move from the Gold Coast back to Melbourne with partner Riana, renting a property in the bayside. He's now purchased a property in Melbourne's bayside, while the 27-year-old's idea of downtime has changed.

"I want to settle down,"he said.

"I just rented a house for two years while I was at HRT. I wanted to buy somewhere last year, but now that I've got some stability going on,it's enabled me to know where my future is. I'm happy with all of that.

"It's really important to have a nice home and somewhere you love coming home to.

When you're traveling a lot, you really want to cherish your downtime.

"It's little things like having a morning off and taking the dogs for a walk or going to the dog beach, or going out to the golf course; they're the little things that bring me a lot of joy now,that I would've laughed at a few years ago.'

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N a year as tough as Davison's 2010,time away from racing to recharge would've been crucial.

When he joined HRT for 2009, replacing the retiring Mark Skaife, a long and fruitful relationship was touted. In the first season, he won both enduros with Garth Tander, and finished second in championship, but 2010 was a disaster. Through a train wreck of unreliiability, accidents and a general lack of car speed, Davison finished 22nd in the points.

"It was a very beneficial experience for me.

I look at it as two years of my life that've gone like a blur. I've achieved the greatest things of my career and then probably the lowest point of my career, all in a very short time," he says.

"It's something I'm very proud of, to have joined HRT and gone in and enjoyed so much in my first year was above and beyond what I dreamed and expected.

"Then to come into a year with very high expectations, and a lot of people's expectations of me,and to have had such a lowpoint of my career in that environment was obviously very frustrating, embarrassing, every word you can think of. It just didn't work out, it's a ruthless industry we're in, it's a very performancedriven industry and for whatever reason things turned sour last year and we weren't able to get the results.

"Obviously I have quite mixed emotions about my time there but at the end of the

day I learnt a lot of great things from great people in a fantastic brand, and then I learnt a lot of things about the bad side of certain things in motorsport and hopefully that's only going to make me stronger."

Clearly, 2010 hurt.Throughout the year, there were signs that fortunes were about to turn around. In the end, not even a new car midway through the season could stop the rot, and positive days and weekends were almost never followed by another. Adding insult to injury, late-season podiums on offer went begging, with a late crash at Bathurst, and mechanical failures at Symmons Plains and Homebush.

"Obviously, quite early on in the year I was quite frustrated about some events I had confidence going into, like Clipsal, and I was just mystified as to why I didn't feel at one with the car," he said.

"But I kept dusting myself off and going back to what I knew from 2009 and kept doing that.Then I thought we kind of saw some glimpses of progression in New Zealand,finishing fifth.

"We worked extremely hard all year. I got a new lease of life come the enduros with Dave Reynolds, who is a friend of mine, and a great driver. I was always setting myself new goals and I fought hard until the end. I went into the enduros and felt a bit better once I got into my new car. There were times that the car was actually quite good, so it wasn't all doom and gloom.

"There were lots of little things I was still

looking forward to and you always feel proud to represent that team; it was just getting to the point wfiere you start losing confidence in yourself and the car when j;^,, goes so bad.

"You keep trying to dust that off and tell yourself that'I can do it', but when it happens so repetitively, it can be hard.

At the end of the day I felt like I was still driving well, I qualified fourth at Sandown, had a big accident obviously but qualified well. In Tassie we were running third in a race, Homebush I reckon was the best I'd driven all year, pretty much from Lap 1 of practice I was up there in the top few; I qualified fourth or something on Sunday and was running second in that last race when we stopped again.

"I fought massively to the end, personally challenging myself, mentally challenging myself to make sure I was driving to the best of my abilities."

N

OW,Davison opens a new chapter in his career. He swaps HRT red for FPR blue,and hopefully greener pastures.

While he was only announced as the Trading Post driver in mid-January, he clocked on much earlier, getting to know the team,their gear and how they go about racing.

"After the year I had, I want to be back up the front and I feel I can be," he says.

"The team have got high nil expectations. I've got high iMijixy'tsiyy'u litiVi't

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- IT DIDN'T TAKE LONG FOR THE FPR FALCON TO FEEL HOMELY

expectations and I really feel like I can consistently challenge at the front this year.

"So far, it's been great, I couldn't be happier. I'm completely settled now, I know everyone's name at the team, I know all of my sponsors and we've got a great relationship building there.

"We're sharing a lot of laughs together and we all get along really well. I feel like I can be myself down there. I feel really focused and really mentally fresh. At the end of the day, it's all of the important stuff now,which is getting race results and having a good year, but i feel really good and happy in my environment." it's hard to see a better time to be joining FPR. For the last four or five years, really, the cars have been quick, but seasons haven't quite been put together. Last year,though, offered plenty of positive signs that it was all clicking.They started well and turned around a mid-season slump to finish the year with, arguably,the fastest cars. While a title and Bathurst win remain elusive, Davison feels all of the ingredients are in place to change that.

"I think they're ready as a team,to take the next step," Davison says.

"Certainly they were knocking on the door of great things last year, and they're putting some things in place which will help hopefully take them another step forward.

"They're well aware that they've got to keep moving forward. From what I can see.

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it's a very well-oiled ship at the moment.

They're putting some new things in place this year to hopefully tidy up a couple of their weaknesses and until we go racing, we won't really know.

"But,to me, it looks like a lot of the key things are in place there, with the engineering staff, the engineering package, the management,engine guys, mechanics, commercially; it's all working in harmony."

Davison got his first taste of his new hardware at Eastern Creek's pre-season test in late January. He topped the morning session, the more meaningful of the two, and left feeling positive about the year ahead.

"I won't lie, I did have a smile on my face when I felt the car," he said.

"I felt at one with it halfway around my outlap.That's quite unusual fora new car, even if it's a great car you're jumping into, you jump in a car and everything's so different.The ergonomics are different,the way you sit, the gearshift's different,the throttle, the brakes,the clutch, steering ratio, the sound,sitting in a Ford compared to a Holden,the pillars are in different positions...

"Everything just feels, often, a bit strange when you jump into the car. But, literally, halfway around my outlap, I felt really confident in the car and comfortable, like I knew what it was going to do straight away, so I was able to get on it quite quickly and push the car with ease quite quickly.

"The car felt really good, how you had to

attack the car was extremely different, but it was sort of what I expected. I had an idea in my head where thSse cars are quick, but having experienced it for the first time! 1'*"“* was very impressed and did it very easily."

All up, it gave Davison plenty of confidence about the year ahead. Abu Dhabi contained some more positive signs, even though he Jumped on the plane back to Melbourne without much to show for it.

"You learn never to get ahead of yourself in this game because it's so competitive, but my initial impressions were'I think I can be quick in this car'," he said of the #6 Falcon.

"There's still going to be a learning process for me, when the car feels a certain way,to pinpoint what I need for it to be different. I think when the car's in the window, I can drive it pretty fast, and they've got a pretty good base set-up.

"I'm pretty confident they can get it into that window pretty easily so,for me,the most-important thing is making sure that when we're not there. I'm in tune with the engineer to get it there, making sure my feedback is very good.That's where your experience in a certain car helps you; hopefully I can learn all of that pretty quickly.

"Overall, I feel it's a good move for me.

I feel really good about it and now I'm looking forward to putting last year behind me and starting a new chapter. It's going to feel better than ever when I'm winning races again."

3

WESTRAC PROUDLY SUPPORTING FORD PERFORMANCE RACING.

WesTrac welcomes Will Davidson to the FPR team for 2011.

Building on an already strong partnership, WesTrac are proud to be gold partners once again to help FPR in their quest to become V8 Supercar Champions. We lookforward to another successful year.

westrec.com.au ©2011 Caleipillaf All rights rosofvod. CAT. CATERPILLAR,thoif rospeciivo logos aneTCaiorpillar Yellow', and the POWER EDGE trade dress, as vroM os corporate andproduciideniity uscdhetcin. arciradcmarLsot Caierpillar and may not bo used willioul permission.

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www.mnews.com.au

ROM the moment it became clear that Pepsi was coming into V8 Supercar racing, it was obvious the approach would not be traditional.

For starters, there was an unusual level of transparency right from the start. Back in November 2010, well before the names Kelly Racing and Greg Murphy were on the scene, M&C Saatchi issued a statement to the media announcing that PepsiCo had charged them with the responsibility offinding a V8 Supercar team to spend money with.

By that stage, the sports sponsorship specialists had already developed the'street art'concept(a more politically correct term for graffiti, in case you were wondering), which had been green-lit by Pepsi. Nothing unusual aboutany of that, except for the fact that they were already engaging the press. Instead of taking the conservative, back room,'let's wait and see how this plays out before we spill the beans'approach, M&C Saatchi were on the front foot,telling the press what was going on. It was novel, and it started the news cycle far earlier than it otherwise would have.

Fast forward to late January 2011. Kelly Racing was unveiled as the successful bidder for the Pepsi money (having already been outed by Motorsport eNews in December), and the'Pepsi Max Crew'was officially launched at Sydney's Eveleigh Markets, in a haze of tyre smoke, DJ beats and spray paint fumes. It was, without a doubt, different to any other V8 Supercar launch, and exactly what PepsiCo Australia's national promotions manager Danielle Westerbrink had in mind when she dreamt up the V8 Supercar concept some three years ago.

"We didn't have a local platform, we didn't have a sponsorship that was ours,"she says.

"Globally, we have soccer for Pepsi regular, and we have music - something to hang the product from. But for Pepsi Max, because it was launched in Australia, there was no global platform. We identified that, and everyone agreed,so then we looked for something that had broad appeal,to our customers - the guys who sell the product and the people who buy the product, and that doesn't always marry up.

"We did some work with Top Gear in the last two years,just to get into cars, and 41

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1811 that was very successful for us. When we measured the engagement, it worked,so we wanted to go bigger.Then we looked at other sports. All of the imagery with V8s,the excitement,for us was a big part of it.

"The guys from M&C went through a pitch process. We told them we wanted to do motoring,and asked them to tell us how to do it.They said we had to do V8 Supercars, but we had to do it in a Pepsi Max way, and they presented the graffiti. Everyone fell in love with it, and we started working on finding a team.We identified V8s,then we identified graffiti, and then we pitched it out to the teams."

That's all well and good, but with so many sports screaming out for sponsorship in this ball-game crazy nation, why V8 Supercars?

"It's a great fit with our brand,"says Westerbrink.

"The heritage of Pepsi Max is to live life to the limit, push boundaries, and be a bit disruptive, and that fits with V8s. We did look at other sports, and we did the boring marketing analysis on which sports had the engagement levels and the viewers, but the one common denominator for our consumers, which is men 16 to 24, is loving cars-and fast cars."

"It's largely underestimated as a sport," adds Andrew Condon, M&C Saatchi's managing director.

"If you look at attendances, viewership, and general engagement - which is important it's up there with brands franchises from the big sports. I don't think enough marketers

www.mnews.com.au

take off their stereotypical sunglasses, and scratch the surface of this sport.

"Okay, we're not trying to talk to absolutely every V8 Supercar fan - we're targeting a specific audience. But we know we'll get some run-off to the other fans because we're doing things differently.There is a lack of understanding in the changing audience in V8 Supercars, and it's obviously a conscious plan from V8 Supercars Australia to continue to nurture that." ^n motorsport, as with any other sport, ●■sponsors come and go. Usually, for those on the outside, it's as simple as that.

Of course, in reality, these are complicated processes. With the Pepsi deal, we can give you a good look inside exactly how it went from idea to racing car. "[M&C] led the charge; they're sporting specialists, and I'm not, so it would have been stupid for me to go out there," says Westerbrink.

"Andrew tendered the process, and we had a very positive response from several teams.

We met with some teams and we liked them all; if we had billions of dollars, we'd probably sponsor all of them.

But we had to find the right fit - and you can't Just go 'I want to work with that guy, and put this all over the car', because teams have other sponsors, and their own brand and heritage. Kelly Racing just embraced it."

It was, in theory, the easiest job in the world - a sporting sponsorship company is given hundreds of thousands of dollars

(a conservative estimate) and told to find someone to spend it with.

"We issued an RFP, a Request For Proposal, which is effectively a tender document,"says Condon.

"We asked for teams to respond to our very specific requirements, which included a whole car, a team with proven credentials, and a driver with proven performance. And we wanted the understanding that the team was in this with us, and that they were prepared the push boundaries and try new things. We did due diligence with seven or eight teams,and the guys at Kelly Racing came out as the best placed to tick all of those boxes."

Through this process, Pepsi and M&C Saatchi might have felt that their earlier transparency with the media had become a double-edged sword. A flurry of media interest might have kicked the bidding teams into action, but it also gave the specialist scribes a whiff of what was going on. From that point onwards,there was a journalistic nose being stuck into every deal, and when a Pepsi program with Charlie Schwerkolt, James Courtney and Ford Performance Racing was done with handshakes,and then taken away at the 11 th hour,the media was watching,and writing, and breaking news that might have otherwise never seen the light of day.

"We never formally talk about negotiations, but we did talk to lots of teams,"says Westerbrink.

It's common knowledge that we were talking to Charlie and James at

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n the end of last year, but like I said before, we needed a fuH car and a team that was ready to go on the track."

And despite rumours that Pepsi had ●'a warehouse full of cans with James , V Courtney's face all over them, which then had to be crushed at great expense.

Westerbrink is keen reiterate that there was never any danger that the deal-gone-sour would scare Pepsi away from the sport.

"Nq way. We met with lots of teams, and for us, it's business. We do deals all the time, and ,, sometimes you agree to things verbally, and they don't come to fruition.That happens, so ■‘.for gs^we had serious talks, but we never did a deal.That ended very amicably. It was like any deal that doesn't happen; you just keep going.

■

eep going they did, and despite the setback, the Pepsi Max^Crew is now alive and kicking. Now, the focus is off the goings on of late November 2010, and well and truly trained on the stunning graffiti-inspired

livery that Greg Murphy's Commodore will wear this season.The next question is, why street art?

'We took a step back and looked at the number of entry points to motorsport in Australia,"says Condon.

'We had to consider which one had the strongest consumer activation, which one was the biggest platform. Then we took a step forward and looked at the landscape of V8s. We needed to look at the how people were doing it, because the brief from Pepsi was to be different, and disruptive.

We found that everyone was taking a very formulaic approach to it; logo goes here. sticker here, sticker here, here's our livery, set and forget. We knew that Pepsi wanted to be different, and we knew that it needed to be different if we wanted to engage the male audience. We needed to build a race team that was relevant to them.

'We found that a lot of V8 teams are great teams, and are great brands, but they are doing it in a traditional way, a way that a

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motorsport news

younger, more marketing savvy consumer is making a compromise in terms of support.

So we set out to buiid a race team that is geared to that 20s age group. We went with the idea that street art is the piace to anchor it, and everything we do wiii be based on that concept. Uitimateiy, it's about taking a iook at what everyone eise is doing, and turning it on its head." "[Having the whoie car] was paramount," adds Westerbrink.

"We couidn't go with a team that wouidn't let us do this. We would have just waited until next year if we couldn't get the right team. We needed someone who understood our vision, and the fact that the Kellys are a young team was important, because they're all for it. We were prepared to wait for all of this to come together."

V8 Supercars is a competitive sport, and the chances of Murphy going out and blowing the likes ofTeamVodafone and FPR away on a regular basis this season are slim.

That's not a slight on Murph,just a realistic

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view of the current V8 Supercar landscape.

So how does Pepsi, a company taking a . huge investment in the sport, measure whether its venture will be successful?

"That's all new to us, we don't know how that will go,"sayd Westerbrink. n "What we'll do is we'll measure that. We'll run a tracker, so at the moment the tracker is looking for what brands are associated with motorsport, and what sports Pepsi Max are associated with. At the moment, it's zero. As we go along, we'll be able to see what the up take is, and hopefully the tracker will say, in a year's time, V8 Supercars.

"Overall awareness is pretty important.

And being unique,and different, and daring.

We need to push the boundaries, and at the same time be appealing. We will be disruptive where we can. Sales and volumes are [also] part of it. They go hand-in-hand

with being engaging. It's very subconscious."

Another attraction for Pepsi is that, at the moment at least, there is no full-blown Coca-Cola car. In this, Pepsi has a chance to win the hearts of the motorsport-following public, and hope that they will support a company that supports their sport.

"We're hoping that happens,"Westerbink adds.

"In America, Pepsi and Coke are a lot closer in market share, where here. Coke is much more dominant. In America,the margin changes by the day, but that's not the case here. So any improvement with people up taking Pepsi will be great." ow,the roles of both Pepsi and M&C V4Saatchi change. A home for the sponsorship has been found, and it's time for Pepsi's relationship with both Kelly Racing,

Contain The Excitement:Part ofthe unique launch wasa sea container,decorated by street artist Cameron 'Scale'Smith,and captured in a time-lapse video.

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Ill and V8 Supercars as a whole,to grow something both Pepsi and M&C Saatchi are very aware of.

Our role, as a specialist sponsorship company, is only at the tip of the iceberg,"says Condon.

'We have a cracking core idea, our role now is to explode and amplify that idea across every element of our program, whether it be corporate hospitality, at-track activation. ongoing PR plans, recruitment of new artists. building websites, and everything like that. Our role now is about managing the relationship between Pepsi and Kelly Racing, and making sure they get the return that their significant investment justifies."

For Pepsi, it's about making sure its stay in the sport is a long one.

"We're here for a long time,"says Westerbrink.

"It's not logical to spend this much money to enter a sport if you're not going to stay in it. This would have to be one of the most expensive'sports.you can be involved in, so,to sponsor a whole car and then have a marketing budget to activate that, and then have consumer promotions, you have to do it properly. Apd to get the return on the investment, it will take a few years." motorsport news

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H01»C POWER AFTER A 2010 CAMPAIGN THAT SAW THE DRIVERS' TITLE SNATCHED AWAY AT THE LAST RACE OF THE YEAR, FERRARI RETURNS WITH A NEW CAR, FOCUSED ON A SEASON IN WHICH CLOSE ENOUGH WILL NOT BE GOOD ENOUGH. BY MARK GLENDENNING

48

motorsport news

VERY year,just before Christmas, Ferrari invites a handful ofjournalists to Maranello for lunch with company president Luca di Montezemolo.

It's a low-key affair, far removed from the structure and formalities that are a routine part of accessing senior team figures during a race weekend.The day of the 2010 lunch was a cold one in northern Italy, and when di Montezerholo ardved;slightly‘late,'he was swaddled in scarves and full of apologies. A fever had kept him up all night, he explained, and he still felt somewhere well south of 100 percent. Of course, he'd managed to retain that effortlessly dapper look that is apparently achievable only by aristocratic Italians.

But it takes more than a virus to stop di Montezemolo,especially when he has a room full ofjournalists and some points that he wants to make. And,once he'd opened by declaring his intention to create his >i ni own political party (a remark that several journalists immediately scribbled into their notebooks, missing the fact that he was joking), he went on to describe the 2010 season from Ferrari's point of view. He spoke for almost an hour, but the overriding themes were 1) nobody who was not in the Ferrari garage at the Abu Dhabi season-finale will understand just how painful that race was for the Scuderia, and 2)such mistakes cannot be repeated.

Just to make sure that everyone understood, a bag of gifts was presented to everyone as they left. Along with a nice scale model of Fernando Alonso's FI0 and a couple of very heavy books the bag contained, incongruously,the Italian version of the classic strategy boardgame'Risk'. It was accompanied by a message - the media claims to know everything about strategy, so play this over the break and whoever is best can have a job on Ferrari's pitwall. Another joke, but a slightly more strained one.

Fast-forward a few weeks,and we're back in Maranello,this time for the launch of FI O's successor,the FI 50.The event itself is pretty straightforward - speeches,cover pulled from car, gasps from the audience,the popping of camera flashes, and a bunch of press conferences to finish things off. di Montezemolo, now back to full' www.mnews.com.au

49

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was m answering a question the impact of KERS upon the rear packaging of the new car when di Montezemolo suddenly L-6 reappeared and grabbed the microphone.

I "Excuse me?"he said, adopting his best'probing journalist'expession."Luca di Montezemolo, I from Ferrari magazine. Do you think that your car will be the best one in this season? That is the target that your president gave you. Why are you so confident that this will happen?"

He was smiling, but again,there was a message behind the Joke, and this one didn't need explaining. It was telling that as the chuckles in the room died down,Costa felt the need to pick ! up the microphone and address di Montezemolo's question rather than letting Tombazis get on 1 with finishing his original answer.

Well, our target was clear," Costa said."We have to really admit that our president gives us clear I objectives, clear targets.'

Tombasiz then finally answered his KERS question, but then he, too, wanted to address di ^ Montezemolo's intervention.

"Talking about the question from this person from Ferrari magazine, we have very clear targets that our president gave us," he said."And also we have some very ambitious development objectives in terms of aerodynamics, but also in terms of car systems,engine, other things."

Car development in FI is already undertaken at a pace that's difficult to comprehend, particularly among the top teams,so for Ferrari to describe this year's targets as"very ambitious" speaks volumes about Just how high it has set the sights for 2011.The obvious question from there is, what happens if it fails again? mmediately after the chequered flag fell at Abu Dhabi last year, Ferrari was putting up the barricades;trying to Juggle dealing with its own shock at the way the race had played out with defending itself against the inevitable criticism over how it had handled things from the S pitwall. After the initial grief, denial and then acceptance, came the anger.Team principal Stefano i| Domenicali admitted later that he had offered to resign in the days following the race, but when N- the technical reshuffle came over the Christmas break, it was chief engineer Chris Dyer who appeared to have taken the hit, the Australian being redeployed Into a still-undefined factory! based role. ^ si

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At first glance then,the changes seemed like a robust response to a serious mistake. After all, the team has some recent prior form in this regard. Luca Baldiserri was shunted out of a similar strategic role with the race team and back to the factory in 2009. His tasks now include overseeing the Ferrari Driver Academy. Being sent from the race team to work in the factory has been made to seem like Ferrari's equivalent of being sent to Siberia by the Russians under Communism;the implication being that the team's physical heart is the apogee of its spiritual one - the racetrack.

So relieving Dyer of his trackside duties might have seemed in keeping with Ferrari's desire to project an image of intolerance towards such messily-squandered championships, but the truth might be a little less dramatic. For one thing, as grave a mistake as the Abu Dhabi miscue was, demoting Dyer as a result would imply that one error at Yas Marina cancelled out the

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r/7e Alen under pressure:Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa got to start the pre-season early,as the FI50 was the first car to be launched this year. Stefano Domenicali offered his resignation after the Abu Dhabi debacle. Chris Dyer now faces an uncertain future back at Ferrari HQ, while Luca di Montezemolo has made it clear that failure will not be tolerated in 2011.

three championships that he delivered the team as race engineer to Michael Schumacher(2003,2004)and Kimi Raikkonen (2007). If that was indeed the team's thinking, it's interesting to wonder why Dyer would feel any need to remain loyal to a team with such a'win together, lose alone' mentality; particularly when he could probably find a trackside role with another team within 15 minutes, if he tried to do so.

There's also the fact that Dyer's replacement at the track, Pat Fry, had actually been hired by Ferrari several months earlier. He was initially unveiled as an assistant to Costa, but it's entirely possible that a reorganisation had been on the cards for some time.

The other hint lies in the team's attitude at the FI 50 launch.

Before Christmas the tone had been very much one of the 2010 championship being lost at Yas Marina, but as the cogs began to whirr on 2011,the team instead began to reflect upon the points it had squandered in the early part of the season. Abu Dhabi hurt because it left no opportunities to rebound. But had Alonso not been spun in Australia, or had an engine failure in Malaysia, or jumped the start in China, or missed qualifying following a practice crash in Monaco,or been dealt a drive-through for an illegal pass on Robert Kubica at Silverstone, the Spaniard would never have been in the situation of having to worry about the Red Bulls at Abu nil Dhabi in the first place.

Do ^ou think that your car urill bo tho bo$t ono in thh <oa«on? Why aro ^ou so confidont that thh urill happen? di niontozomolo plai|f reporter at the team launch www.mnews.com.au

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F you have difficulty keeping up vyith the model numbers of Ferrari's Grand Prix racers,Velax/you arfe not alone.

Other teams name their cars in a semblance of order.

You can backtrack through the lineage of any Williams by counting backwards from 33- this year's car is the FW33and the same goes for McLaren,so long as you are prepared ( ' to sidestep all the clumsy capital letters and slashes.

But Ferrari is not like other teams.The John Barnardj designed 640,641,642 and 643 were way too simple to last, p j and led to the F92A (that was 1992)and F93A(good guess, ''93).Then,it all went to heck;in 1994 came the412T1. No, I we couldn't follow that either. j In 1996,order was restored,even if it was on a different i glide path.The F310(Ferrari, 3-litre, VI0) was followed ] by the F31 OB. But the next car wasn't the F31OC,it was : the F300,and the one after that the F399. Now,we were S' j confused. ! For 2000, it was all change,again.The F1-2000 was ! followed by the F2001,the F2002 and the F2003-GA, which I gained its suffix in tribute to Fiat boss Gianni Angelli, who ; : died shortly before the car was rolled out.The departure i from form was understandable and a one-off, and the next ^ two cars were the F2004 and the F2005.So far,so good in j the new century.

J Then,chaos again.The 2.4-litre V8 engine regulations 5 prompted the team to name the next car the 248F1 - and vP.: I that was followed by the F2007 and the F2008. And, | F2009,

j right?

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i N ope.The 2009 car was the F60,to mark Ferrari's| 60th I year in GP racing (and let's not even think about the fact 1 j that the Ferrari Enzo road car is sometimes referred to as 1 i the F60). So you'd think that last year's car should have ¥ j beentheF2010or,atapinch,theF61?Nope,itwastheF10 | This year,the name game changed again-twice. | Ferrari said that it would race a car called the FI50 this season. f

It was so called to mark the 150th anniversary of the ^ i unification of Italy.Then Ford stepped in, with a legal ^ : challenge;its f-\50 has been the best-selling pickup truck rl I in the country for three decades. Ferrari clarified matters; I it turns out that the 2011 Ferrari was called the'150th Italia' j all along,and that is the name that will be used this year.

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because in a championship like P"lt fundamental start well, last is year if you don'tto gain points from the very beginning, you may pay the price at the end,"Domenicali said at the launch."! think that in terms of reliability and performance it is important not to lose points."

So how is Ferrari going to do it? The team was the first to unveil its 2011 car, and hinted that it also expected the launch version to have less in common with the car that it takes to Bahrain than those of its rivals.

"The first race package will be managed very aggressively,"Costa said."What does that mean? We will leave Nic and the aerodynamic team as much time as possible for working on that,so [that means]logistics, race experimentation, track experimentation, and also desk experimentation tests. So all this is important because we can have the best possible configuration for the Bahrain test and Bahrain race. And there's a big effort in this, believe me.This effort has been made by all employees."

It is also hoping that its experience with KERS from 2009 will offer an advantage, particularly over the likes of Red Bull and Mercedes, which will be using the system for the first time.

52

"KERS is a quite complex system, not only in technical terms, but also the battery, and the electric engine,the control system,"said Marmorini."rm also talking about the logistic management and the heat coil management. All of this will be very complicated. And I believe that at beginning of the season, Ferrari and McLaren will have some benefits over the others.There are a lot of details that you can't develop at a test."

Domenicali agrees.

"We should not forget that with KERS in 2009 we had many problems," he said.

'Let's hope we do not have these problems anymore.We hope to start off well with KERS,and [be] better than those who have never used it."

The team is also looking for more from its drivers. As good as Alonso was during much of 2010, he claims that he is better-prepared this time around.

"There is no doubt that when I arrived in January 2010,1 drove a car that had different characteristics to what I drove in the previous years,"the double world champion said."Now, I will drive a car that is a continuity of the car that I drove in 2010. 1 think all the developments and all the directions you take with improvements in the car over one year have some kind of reflection of your driving style, and that I

think helps the designer and'the technical people for the next year's car.

"In 2011 there is some of the direction that we took in 2010 regarding my driving style.

I think that I will feel more confident with this year's car. I will feel more comfortable driving the car,[it will feel] more predictable tome.

"And I know the team now. I know the people. I know the name of my mechanics, something that was not the case in Bahrain last year.So that will also help."

The real pressure,though, is on Felipe Massa.The Brazilian was so anonymous during the second half of 2010 that di Montezemolo later commented that he thought Massa "got a bit tired and went home,and sent his brother to drive."

Massa,for his part, believes that many of his problems will be erased by the switch from Bridgestones to Pirellis.

"The main issue of last year was that from 2009 to 2010 Bridgestone had completely changed front tyres, and this decreased grip in front tyres," Massa explained.

"For my driving style, it was difficult to warm the tyres up. So I had to completely change my car in order to have front tyres working correctly. But by changing the car, you were basically struggling constantly with the car set-up.This was really impacting negatively on me.

motorsport news

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Something old,something new:KERS is back in 2011 and Ferrari has a lot ofexperience with the system The Abu Dhabi GP,in which Alonso gotstuck behind Vitaly Petrov,has become a call to arms for the team - and in case you forgot, Ferrari is the Azzurri(italian national team)ofGrand Prix racing...

more pit-stops in terms of races, but in ( terms "WithofPirelli tyres, there willgrip be on driving youmaybe will have more

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the front tyres, and for my driving style this has always been very important.So I hope this will make it possible for me to have a competitive season from the beginning to the end."

The other question mark, particularly in the wake of last year's German Grand Prix when Massa was asked to allow Alonso past, is that ofteam orders. Massa insists that it will not be an issue this season.

"I am part of a team where I really want

to win," he said."I am here for that. I am not here just to race, I am hereto win. I do have a guarantee,and if one day a team should tell me that I don't have any guarantees to win a GP, well actually, I would not go to the team. I trust my team here 100 per cent."

In recent years, Ferrari's expectation that it would at the absolute minimum be a strong contender for the championship has been a given, but there's an extra edge to the urgency with which it seems to be setting out upon its 2011 campaign.When Domenicali described the aims of the F150 as"so simple, I don't even want to say it", it

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was hard not to wonder Whether the reason he didn't want to say it was that he himself was sick of having been told it over the past few weeks.

But in case he missed the point di Montemolo was there,as always,so make it for him again. Asked about which rival drivers he feared most, his reply was immediate.

"The real problem is not who will be the strongest competitor in terms of drivers, it is about who has the best car. If we have the best car,then we are not afraid of any driver."

Message received. Loud and clear.

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MfH9BSTIS AVPPf Fl'yjIByj H^PIIL.iU^O IN EUROPE,NOT ONLY IN AUSTRALIA.WHILE WE HttLA55lAi^YE®^BBW®&DISCUSSlNG IT INTERNALLY ALREADY,FOR SOME REASON,ATTHE HOTEL BAR ONENKSHT' — AND THElieer mr,JAWgSOroiEN CAME OVER TO US WITH AN INFORMATION BROCHURE AND SAID"WOULDNT THIS«“ 'SOMETHING FORYOOrWE STARTED DISCUSSING IT AND EVERYTHING,AND FPS RESULTED IN WHAT YOU SEE NOW. - JOEST RAONG MANAGING DIRECTOR,RALF JUTTNER The story of Audi race expeFienceTeamJoest contesting,and ultimately dominating,lhfi'2'01i?rA%rtnolAlllaiikwstjSM.0iF starUii|M^^ " A month outfrom thg 20«T0 Merdeka Millennium Enduran£e_race,Joest gets a call from Audi Sport bosslbmolo LiebchehJtg'put together program for the race.

-r -.— The squad fields an R8 IMS for Frafiklieia, Mare© Werner and ©aryi OYoung,finishing second^ and,durinq.the^week^'d,^eets%ZFIo^ promoter O'Brien, who is in Malaysia to drum up interest among international competitors. A program is puttogether and annp.un^d'.ihTate.l _ December,with Australians CraigLowndes,Warren Luff and Mark Eddy(an architect ofthe program)in one ca^Oined by a second'wlth Mafc T~: Basseng, Christopher Mies and'O'Y0ung7:O'Young;.a reg;ularin;Asian sportscar racing w.hpcohtested thejlli02\®C£^is th'eOn1^niimgw^gte team,from the Malaysian race. Basseng contests the FIA Gf1 World Championship.in alamborqhini and the Nurbufarina's VLN SeriesWairRS while Mies won the 2009 FIA GT3 Championship in an R8.

I'VE HEARD A LOT,I'VE WATCHED VIDEOS AND EVERYTHING,BUT GOING AROUND IN A RENTAL CAR,LOOKING ATTHE ELEVATION CHANGES,IT'S CRAZY!

With a total of40 people,including drivers,the crew is a combined effort. Joest Racing provides 12 staff members,nine areTbrals- eightfromH Eddy's Australian GT squad plus respected engineer Paul Ceprnich - and the balance from the Race Experience'oatfifand Audl itseIf.The internationals meet at Sydney Airport on Tuesday, with some having flown from Prototype testing in AmericaArfd others3Tprn:Ge1:ma.iiy Tts

IT'S THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE THAT I'VE HAD FORTo YEARS WITH A TRACK.IT'S INCREDIBLE. ' ■-

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Upon arrival, the internationals are paired off with a local - Basseng with Lowndes, O'Young with Luff and Mies with Eddy - to.do laps in a road car^= followed by a trackwalkto kickoff a weekend of learning for ail involved. The Australians in #7 know the circuit, andthe internationals the car. ' ■ ■■

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AUDI ... THE SHOW THEY PUT ON, FOR THE CORPORATES UPSTAIRS AND ALSO THE TEAM THEY BROUGHT OUT, BLEW ME AWAY HOW PROFESSIONAL THEY ARE. THERE'S NOT REALLY A BUDGET, IT SEEMS - IF YOU WANT SOMETHING, YOU JUST GO OUT THE ■■ BACKANDTAKEIT! MARi^ pnnv Meanwhile, the Australians get a taste of the sheer scale of the weekend's set-up. Including a pair of 2010-model Audi R8 LMSs, 13 tonnes freight - eight spare gearboxes, for instance - have been shipped to Australia to occupy the set-up at the Turn 1 end of Bathurst's-pitlane.

Upstairs, Audi Australia prepares a corporate hospitality suite to entertain 60 customers throughout the weekend. tiLii.

IT'S LIKE ANY AERO CAR, THE MORE SPEED YOU CARRY, THE MORE AERO IT PRODUCES ANDTHE BETTER THE GRIP LEVEL GETS. IN A V8 SUPERCAR, YOU VERY QUICKLY FIND THAT THE LIMIT OF THE TYRE IS THE LIMIT OF THE CAR, WHEREAS THIS KEEPS ON INSPIRING MORE AND MORE CONFIDENCE. ---WARREN LUFF On-track action kicks off on Friday. For the Australians, it's a steep learning curye^hile Eddy races an 'Og'RBIn AustraiiaTi GT, the left-hand-drive rear-engined machine is a world away from Lowndes and Luff's V8 SupercarsTwRIIcfeaturftcbnaforts such as aerpdynamfc grip, traction controJ, ABS and paddle shifters. Overall, the car is quicker across the top of the Mountain, but about 25km/h down on FSupercar bh Cdhrod Straight.

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IT'S A REALLY EASY AND BEAUTIFUL CAR TO DRIVE.IT'S EVERYTHING A V8'S NOT- IT ^OPS AND TURNS.IT'S VASTLY DIFFERENTTO WHAT I'M USED TO.ACROSS THE TOP OF THE MOUNTAIN,IT'S INCREDIBLY QUICK - YOU CAN FLOW IT A LOT BETTER AND HAVE CONFIDENCE. FROM PRACTICE 1 TO PRACTICE 2, WE LOWERED THE FRONT BY A MILLIMETRE AND THE REAR BY FOUR MILL, AND I WAS TALKING TO MY[TEAMVODAFONE]ENGINEER,JEROMY[MOORE],AND HE LAUGHED AT ME. WHEN WE TALK ABOUT THE V8 SUPERCAR,WE'RE TALKING ABOUT FIVE OR 15 MILL. CRAIG LOWNDES The teatifl 4efemef.asrai>whiile illereaifesessi0h,»ii|jhalt six#4vers^fee#tfi Ecaisihifathe^iT-Z track after lungh for the second sessi&n.- Lapped trafliic.a§atai;presea:^.a.€hailenge, v^thj3ver:30TeconarjDeTw^nl r the slowest ofthe ProduMon Cars.lra rising temperatureslambientteaches 36 degrees),jt's,the-internationals’whd-enda;heida^ as s^isePa^l^ setters, with iasseng;setting a 2:111.64©;7 lateihfte sessiohj^ finish:aTsecondf cle'atdfthefi^pfed'ro'fifs n

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WHENEVER WE GO TO EUROPE OR,NOW,AMERICA,WHERE WE DO A LOT OF RACING,EVERYTHING IS A KNOWN QUANTITY.‘ HERE IT'S THINGS YOU DON'T KNOW-YOU DON'T KNOW THE RACE ORGANISERS,THE RACE DIRECTORS,THE PEOPLE,THE ' FACILITIES, AND IT'S THE SMALL LITTLE THINGS THAT ARE NO BRAINERS AT HOME,LIKE THE REGULATIONS FOR THE AIR BOTTLES. IT'S ALL DIFFERENT, BUT ALSO,IT'S FUN.IT'S A BREAKOUT OFTHE NORMALTHING^ JUTTNER^ Conditions are set to remain mtrch the"same ohfaturday. B'dtb'efdre the oppressive heat retgrps,Jbefrst qualifying,session, kicking'offean^g at 8:T0am,looms at the best opportunity to setfest times. Anew qualifying format means thatthelaptimes ofall'fhre5^dhvefs count,with theS fastest of each three to fee combined .toiferm aifear-'time.

- v:— - - ~ ^ Luff heads out first for #7,followed by Basseng in #8.The ,pair proceed to bump in the fastest timesTQEthein:eai5f0iStheday3i2:O9:636Q for Luffand a 2;10.8233for Basseng. Running second in #7,traffic hinders Lowndes,who sets a 2:11-.2991 and is followed iqjfi^ar'by EddyTwhile Mies with a 2:13.0452 and O'Young's 2:11.7549 round out the session for the internationals. ' — —— - ■■ ^

IT'S ALL ABOUT TOMORROW AND THE 12 HOURS WE HAVE TO DO TOMORROW.

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Between sessions, Juttner determines the driver orderTor #7 during-the raeetRather than a lengthy terr0:meeting,-he'approaches Lowndes with the paperwork to nominate a starting driver and asks if he"wants to start. LoW'ndes isn't fussed and-asks what Luff hasTald. inforrning Lowndes thal:Luffwasalsohappyeitherway,JuttnerwritesLGwndes^nameon-thepapervvorkandjaysJ^!PK,yoUiGaprstaft"; ■ . .

With far warmer track conditions, and' teams loBking to manage seven sets of tyres across quaiifyingrand ther.acE7T!h^fi;ernaoh.quajijyingsession is a write-off Mies and Eddy are given some extra track-time before parking.their_cars at the halfway-iTTarl6As1tturnsout.the morning efforts are enough for lock out the front row, withthe-TSiustraliansfinishing three-tenths up on thg'ihtemationals. -

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A pair #;pess G©:ij)fetiences» ©:tne f0P the ewertamdi ©Be for Audijollow the seeondi session before delbfiSfs anid a: a spirited session.of dniwer-dhian§e practiEei the Australians ending up on top, before tine driwers-and key personnef dspaaifor afortiaSlnnerAw^^ eust0:rners.flne'erew>irrieanvwbi;le,eontinueworkinguniliaroundrnidnight. ' — ^ 'ir' . 'ww:

:D for quite a longtime at mountPANORAMA! LOWNDES By4i|®arn/tbe€revw stai^^ at the cireui,Mfew§d;hy'the dnwers a little after 5atrf>lt-ltlji§l'M(^tfti'l3een?a1hmeel<ieridi'Whefetheiears leawe the garage atfSlafaihefore the 6:1 Sarti start,ill's dark,tOOi-wItifrmoths buzzlng.around;the'garag.e asettled^assutedi;atinn®iphereasiiltrnmutechedfe§>3reQorripleted.lMost:Qfthe crew have-d0rii''t'ind'wo'n:^plerTt:vi^lbriqgdis^nie;Ea.ee5;~'^'~^ CAR,WE Wi^STILL LEADING THE RACE.WHEN WE HAVE A GUY WHO HAS WON ^ESAT-BATHURST BEHIND YOU,IT'S BETTER TO FmOW HIM AND NOTTO BE TH^LEADER IN THIS SITUATION. BASSENG

●3

:Lowrid’esfeadsi:©rri;tlne irdlliing startih;ever-increasitng light but is paSsed-bv-Bassenoi^4ap>4,7whl'wants td4u8'et,a:g,ui:^ker-i^aEC:%hilg;IVlies"^'~^ an;d!i0'"i(®tiri|,grab;ib're'ikiiftiintheWripOratesuite,the German buildS%six^sgGlffid:;bdfet»whietediih^tO:inauMlnfew^^^Bunetu^}tvre2ends^-i*i B. ,-i ;Beam.Grari&Mdslerint0>1;he.wi!allaust.over.half;an-taourinto-the-race'brindin^out~tfefirsfe5a^Byj(ga’rB'oth:Gaii5:nCTafeedilngit5ftrifs in foiTOation unii around'the twolpw a light sh0wer-arri.ves^Bas^ng.hind^fi®iS!iSadk t.oiOwhdes,si^^^5ar^r^SjS.ed^hy a ehargingrGralgHBaiirdijfethe'^^ Porsche, befor&pttihg and^handing-over^lirlEaMyilHsif^p^tii^y AND I WERTjOKING LAST NIGHT; HE SAID"AS SOON AS I GET OUT OF THE CAR, I BET IT'LL RAIN." HE WASN'TTOO FAR WRONG. LUFF A GRES'iOB IN THE WET. I HAD A LITTLE BIT OF RAIN, A SPRINKLE THAT DIDN'T REALLY AFFECT US TOO MUCH, BUT ^^LUFFYRUNNINGAROUNDINTHEWETONTHESLICKTYREISREALLYWHATKEPTUSIN THEGAME. LOWNDES ●fy

nCl lhetra:lkd'rieS€®®:p:lltifi;Jteteiahothersfe0®?t'heiawierand.long^hits.the'drcu^plh||!®^ttoaK'iirngearnsidi ^res,ib.uttheAudiseigettl>p.yshon with diGlii.fliiB:4fcond Safety'Car.Qfthe~day.is.elll.edtdst-afteFikuiha5ipas5eiiipitenfry,and.hehas^toJMh mm slow illpiihehindi tle lafely Cat; while Mies pl^aMtakes the-lead'.

What turnt outtO^^betheinal-anid heaviest showeTof^he day falls durind.tfe-fdurthahour, witlifeothLcars.agl!Mtajini;iMfensliCks as— - -- “ warrnjrubb^^^ ^ . faptrmesihtowioufe'AfterMies iRiportSJthat his car-fe "fl&ating ar£dnd"he'charigiS'^reSalfflsjnekt stop, while'■*^rerhafc“hn%is _ Iddy tndr0-Muigi.enter-the<raGeduring#iefifth‘haur,-iddyfprhiiQnl5tstmilgfe^fy|asjte^]^0nto are the only,jtw©^]the i|ea:d!ll'apiEddy has an off following a Safety Car-restart, before LoWndeSi® rnpsrhaeBhtlr#y durino the seventh hour. _ :BCttearsnm>akeanb:rfafe&|pilohaig;e^during-the-'elghth"h6ur.witEBasser>q-returnliaqjoJhgW!¥eeiyf#8 AS THE DAY GOES ON, WITH ATTRITION AND SAFETY CARS, THE STRATEGY GOES OUT THE WINDOW. AND AS THE DAY WENT ON AND MORE RUBBER WENT DOWN, THE CAR WAS MORE COMFORTABLE. WE GOT A PUNCTURE, WHICH DIDN'T HELP US, AND, BECAUSE OF THE RULE THAT PITSTOPS HAVE TO BE 10 LAPS APART, THAT REALLY HURT US IN THE END. LOWNDES 'J

iinterinfirH'^rJi itieibig:feWss»'eiffcciil^ltpd. was aii'wHh^allfcolOwerheatin'girt^ffiduring Which Lowndes was d:0wni'Conr0#Strai'ghtfor.aiSrng;lefiprSiyihg::b0thr.e0TOp;leted 1fipit^ps,iheears^Oil@se-tfttaikwfth;three:h0urs'rerr)aining,bef0reLowndes ■is-'forced'tO'Oit with arpurrotiaM'RedulatiOnsspecifredOiilinimuririofilil'.fO^seGdnd! stops for the Audis, each fobe-eornpleted-at least 10 laps apart, :P@ii®s!xii‘p5,.aiftei®lsiprewi:ous4st0psentenG^'therloe3ls^oh^nwahi%^|3j^'pitstQp%.andLowndi«5ei®ii^^RafiniTO^ 'BassengigalinQugh Safety Cars'negatethat^tragk - before Luff and Mies jurnp'in for theigfinal stmts. - - Cf«UG WAS REALLY PUSHING TO CATCH US AND I KNEW WE HAD TO PUSHTO MAINTAIN A GAP BECAUSE WE HAD TO DO A SPLASH AND DASH IN THE LAST COUPLE OF LAPS. SO I REALLY HAD TO PUSHTO HOLD THE GAP AND CRAIG WAS REALLY GIVING ME PRESSURE AND THE TEAM TOLD ME I HAD TO PUSH MORE, I WAS GIVING IT EVERYTHING I COULD! DARRYL O'YOUNG As'0^¥®dnSiiliiliwidiS;1iaMeiliejijtsito5tarttrhJr-%!^'Stints,-0:y0unihas a half-spin-exiting pitlane. Lown^ Sfssecondiilea’di settihf a new#stest&pj§f lhf;race and weekend-his 2:0^08® a full: second faster than anyone had gone all day. When L@wn1ip:®akgr®#nilfst©;piwith#iaps'rernainingrhe rejoins, a MrauteTjehind'O'fgBnfiah# GO

“

Craig Lowndes receives instructions from team boss RalfJuttner before a stint, above, while Christopher Mies and QafiyiWfodhg share a momentduring the race, below, ' I,

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It becomes apparent in the garage that the internationals will need more fuel, and O Young pits with about 10 minutes remaining -for a shorter stop, with their 90-second stops completed - rejoining with a TO-second advantage.The gap quickly comes^wn as Lowndesedhtinues^hls' charge but O'Young safely navigates his way to the flag, resulting in a form finish.^fter i'2rhoufs:one minu’teand-30secondsu3f-racina covering 292 laps and 18T4km,the final mijgin is sevenrtenths of a second,ln favour ofth^intematio:nals.:On:pitwall and;;in^the garage,;brows unfurrow as hugs and high-fives are dished out. For a team with as much success as Joest, winning is still fun^ .Jt-

1, GORGEOUS FOR ME,TO BE HERE. ACTUALtY,IT WAS ALREADY REALLY NICE,BUT NOW TO HAVE WON THE 12 HOURS OF BATHURST ON OUR FIRST TRY... INCREDIBLE! D ACCCMr^

Afterwards,the jovial mood continues with a post-.race gafhefihg in the corporatesuite. After the iritervMws^andLinitiafstages^paeleugare ~ _ concluded,the whole team'heads into town for a party to,celebrate the win.On Monday,the ddvers retuKfOrlnofeltteMews andJhe team fo‘„ re-pack their freight before heading to Sydney Airport. Lowndes and Luff arejoined on their Abu Dh'abT' on the crew, while some representatives stay on to discuss the future of Audi in Australian cornpetition-onjhe back ofa triumphant weekend.„ I HAVE TO SAY THAT COMING HERE HAS BEEN A LITTLE BIT OF AN ADVENTURE TRIP,WE DIDN T KNOW ANY OF THE DRIVERS, INCLUDING MARC AND CHRISTOPHER-THE ONLY DRIVER WE KNEW WAS DARRYL FROM THE MERDEKA RACE LAST YEAR. IT WAS AN UNBELIEVABLE EXPERIENCE AND A LEVEL OF PROFESSIONALISM I WOULDN'T HAVE THOUGHT YOU COULD , ACHIEVE WITHIN THREE OR FOUR DAYS. I HAVE TO SAY THANK YOU TO ALL SIX[DRIVERS]FOR MAKING THIS A REALLY, REALLY NICE EVENT,EVEN THOUGH IT HAS BEEN NERVE-WRACKING. JOTTNER

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HEN people ask / if I've ever been to Dubai or not, I

don't know what the place looks like outside of the airport. Pretty sure I'm not the only person in the world guilty of that little white lie.

Now, when people ask me if I've been to Dubai, I'll say'only to the airport, but I did spend a week in Abu Dhabi recently'.

And when they ask why, I'll say 'to watch V8 Supercar racing why else?'

Y T generally say yes. rechnically, it's true. In fact.

I've been there twice - I had a one-hour stopover at the airport on my way to Germany last year, and two hours at the airport on the way back to Melbourne. So, technically, I have been there, but for all intents and purposes I

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^Nednesday February 9,2011 Having left Melbourne a bit before midnight on Tuesday,the flight landed in Abu Dhabi at about 5:30am local time.

Etihad is a very comfortable airline, even in economy class, so there was a level of slumber achieved on the way.

Still, landing before breakfast and knowing you have to get through a full day without going tp sleep,just to beat jet lag, is a daunting prospect.

Once i got to the Crowne Plaza, dropped my bags in the room,admired how spacious my digs were,and laughed at the fact that the television screen read'Welcome Mr Van Lee Uwen' on the menu screen, it was time to work out how to spend a full day in Abu Dhabi, without succumbing to the numbing effects ofjet lag. I started with a quick trip to the gym,to try and remove the clumps of blood that had formed around my ankles during the 14-odd hour flight.Then, it was a dip in the pool. Right after that, a stunning buffet breakfast. At this point, I realised this was going to be a whole lot different than a trip to Queensland Raceway...

Everyone who was there in an official capacity for the V8 Supercar event was staying in the Crowne Plaza, which made the hotel seem a bit like a V8 Supercar Club. That first morning in the breakfast restaurant, everyone was there.

Team guys were in their work clobber ready to go and set the garages up, the drivers

were relaxed and chatting, and Tony Cochrane was wearing board shorts.The sharing and caring didn't end at the breakfast table; in one breath you'd see Mark Winterbottom playing squash, the next you'd see a group of Garry Rogers Motorsport mechanics playing table tennis outside. The atmosphere, a day before the cars were due on track, was already totally different to that of any other race.

After breakfast, it was time to head to Corniche Beach in the city of Abu Dhabi for some beach soccer.The idea was that it would be V8 Supercar drivers against the GP2 Asia drivers, with the media there to take photos, get some quotes, and wish they were playing. As luck would have it, the open-wheeler jockeys never showed up,so the V8 Supercar guys were split into two teams and the media were invited to take part. What resulted was a footballing Dream Team, comprising of Winterbottom, Steve Johnson,Steve Owen and Fabian Coulthard, with Van Leeuwen in goals.

Thanks mostly to Winterbottom's deft touch on the ball, we came away 3-1 winners, with the likes of James Moffat, Craig Lowndes and Jason Bargwanna left sulking.

Unfortunately,the only time I featured in the Fox Sports News package was when'Moff' got onto his single touch ball that gave the losing side their consolation goal at the end of the game. Oh well. nil motorsport news

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Thursday February 10,2011 Night racing is an excellent concept,for no other reason than the late starts. With the first V8 Supercar session on track at 3:20pm each day,there was no need to rush in the morning.

Perfectly satisfied with my wake up, gym,swim, breakfast strategy from Day 1, it was repeated on the subsequent three days.Then, about 11:30am, it was time to wander to the track. Actually, there were two options; either a 15-minute wander to the track, or a five minute taxi ride, which cost exactly five dirhams - which is less than two Aussie bucks.

Anyway, arriving at the track for the first time is a jawdropping experience. It's a sea of aqua paint, towering light poles, with the massive Yas Flotel as a centrepiece, under which the circuit runs.

In the middle of the circuit, and right behind the media centre, is the marina from which the circuit takes its name.

It was impressive enough when it was half full during the V8 Supercar event; it would be something else when it's chokkas with expensive boats during the Formula 1 race.

As the sun sets, and being winter time that happens about 6:00pm,the circuit gains even more character, with the flood lights shining bright, and the hotel turning into a massive haze of blue and purple, it is, in a word, a stunning sight.

66

Friday February 11,2011 This was the day that I discovered GP2 racing.

The Yas 400 was supported by the GP2 Asia series, which up until this point was the eldest generation of cars, with off shoot teams and second-rate drivers. By all accounts, it was never super impressive.

But this year is differentin Abu Dhabi,the brand new generation of Dallara's GP2 car was raced for the first time and,as a way to prepare for the upcoming European season, all of the proper teams were there (ART, DAMS,iSport etc), and all of the proper drivers were there (Ferrari junior Jules Bianchi,former Renault FI driver Romain Grosjean, even Johnny Cecotto, son of the Venezuelan of the same name who raced at Bathurst in the 1980s).

The new cars are stunning; they wouldn't look out of place on a Formula 1 grid and,to be honest, they'd probably give the Flispania Racing Team a run for their money. In fact, in loose terms,the new GP2 car is what FIRT would have fielded in the World Championship last year if they'd continued to pay their bills to Dallara.

Anyway,GP2 racing is kind of like a cross between FI and Formula Ford - the cars look like Grand Prix cars, but they race like Formula Fords. It's what FI probably should be like, and an event like the Gold Coast could do a lot worse than have GP2,or GP2 Asia on the cards...

Anyway, with the racing done

for the day, and Jamie Whincup's incredible run of overseas race wins unbroken, it was time to head to Ferrari World and watch Eric Clapton bash out a few riffs on the old axe. Not a bad way to spend a Friday night, all in all.

Saturday February 12,2011 With the sun setting on my trip to Abu Dhabi, literally, given the time of day, I made sure I took everything in on my final couple of tours up and down pit-lane.

Along the way, I bumped into Ford's motorsport boss Chris Styring. Years and years of following the Formula 1 circus with Williams means Styring has seen a lot of race tracks, but even he was blown away with the sheer decadence of the Yas Marina facility.

"This is the way a racing circuit, or even any sports facility, should be,"Styring tells me.

"Obviously there is tremendous money in this part of the world.

but they still do things perfectly - the facility is amazing. I think this whole concept started in Shanghai when they built the Grand Prix circuit there.

That reaily raised the bar, and changed what countries need to do if they want to hold an FIAsanctioned race."

All weekend long, there was debate over whether the V8 Supercar season should kick off on the other side of the world.True,the attendances were pretty low, particularly compared to the Clapton concert on the Friday night. And James Courtney threw more fuel on the fire in the lead-up to the event by saying he though the circuit lacked character. But the thing is, the racing was good, and V8 Supercars can claim that their series gets underway at what is genuinely the best racing circuit in the entire world.

As far as I'm concerned,that can't be a bad thing.

bJTHO

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VEN if you're a race fan in Abu Dhabi purely to watch V8 Supercars burn around and around, you'll find yourself with some time to check out the sights and sounds; after all, on-track activities are an afternoon pastime for the event,so the mornings are free and easy.

If you're staying on Yas Island - a highly recommended practice if you're there to watch racing cars - it's about 20 minutes in a cab to get into the city.That sounds like an expensive journey, and anywhere in Australia it would be, but in Abu Dhabi, it won't cost you much.You can bank on a trip from Abu Dhabi to Yas Island being around 50 dirhams, which you can divide by three for a rough conversion to Aussie dollaradoos.

Just make sure you use a proper taxi, with a yellow sign on the roof, and check that your friendly driver turns the meter on.

There are also taxi look-a-likes with green roof signs, but they are'limousines'(in name only!), and they don't have a meter.

The driver will make his own payment arrangements, and you're bound to end up paying way, way too much,so steer clear.

For all intents and purposes, Abu Dhabi is a young city. As a result, it is a modern city, so the skyline isn't littered with mosques, as you might expect. However, like most predominately Muslim cities in the Middle East and Asia, prayer time is played through massive speakers out the front of the mosques,and the haunting sounds reverberate of the buildings and can be heard for miles. It's a fascinating reminder that, despite how Western the city is, the heart of the place moves to a different www.mnews.com.au

cultural drum beat to what we're used to.

The one thing that there isn't much point looking for is an open-air, stereotypical 'souk', or shopping market. Don't get me wrong,there are plenty of places to go shopping, but that cobblestone lane market, with incense burning market and donkeys wandering around, doesn't seem to exist.

Instead, the souks are either part of the shopping mall, like the Gold Souk at Madinat Zayed, or uncharming wharf-edge markets, like the Iranian Souk, at the New Mina Port.

But while the souks don't look like they do in the movies, or in more traditionallyorientated cities like Doha,they are still full of vendors who are eager to offload nongenuine watches and sporting apparel and so on,so they aren't totally without their charms.

There are also super-modern shopping centres, like the Abu Dhabi Mall, which,to be honest, is like going to any Westfield in Australia.They are shiny, new and very, very big, but not overly fascinating.

Temperature wise, if you're in Abu Dhabi for the V8 Supercar race, you'll have no dramas. Days are pleasant during their winter, with maxs in the late 20s, but make sure you have a light Jumper on hand in the evenings, as it can even cool down a little.

As is the norm for the Emirates, getting hold of a beer isn't quite as straightforward as wandering down the street and finding a bar. Pubs and bars don't really exist outside of the major hotels, but the hotels usually have at least one bar, and often several. You may need to provide a passport before you'll be served alcohol, even if you're clearly of European descent, but that isn't the case at all the bars.

As for eating, as you'd expect from an east-meets-west city, the range offood is extraordinary. You can get everything from traditional Middle Eastern cuisine, to European gastropub fare. And,like with drinking, if you're not sure of where to eat, head for a hotel. You can't really go wrong.

- ANDREW VAN LEEUWEN

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AND V8 SUPERCARS - AND HE WANTS IN

BY PHIL BRANAGLAN

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HE Rolex 24 at Daytona is a Big Deal.

The list of winners ofthe twice-around-the-clock enduro in southern Florida reads likeSportscar racing's Hall of Fame. If you get your name on that honour roll, you are in the esteemed company of the sport's legends forever.

There are some who rate the race, which combines the speed ofthe oval track's banking with the tortuous infield section, as tougher than the Le Mans 24 Hour,for many reasons. Le Mans features long straights, even after the chicanes appeared 20 years ago,so the drivers get a chance to flex their tired limbs, it is held in summer,so while it does get hot,the mentally draining night hours don't iast long. Most teams can and do run the Le Mans race with three drivers.

On the other side ofthe Atiantic, when you are going at full whack at Daytona, you are on the banking, often two or three wide,so there is no rest.The race is run in winter, so there is a lot of running with the headlights on - but it still gets hot during the day. A look at the entry list reveals that the vast majority of teams choose to split up the race between four drivers, not three. It is a physical grind.

So, when Chip Ganassi headed for the 2011 Rolex, he brought his big guns with him. In one car, current IndyCar Champion and 2010 Indy 500 winner Dario Franchitti partnered Scott Dixon, who has trophies for both those titles from previous years, Jamie McMurray, who won the Indy/Daytona Sprint Cup double last year, and Juan Pablo Montoya,former Monaco GP winner and current NASCAR firebrand. In the other car were former race winners and current Grand Am Champs Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas, and Ganassi newcomer Graham Rahal, still the youngest driver to win an IndyCar race.

So, with no disrespect intended at ail, here is the question. With all that racing royalty on the payroll, how come almost all ofthe past-race media fizz was about the only one of Chip's drivers who most fans in this country have never heard of?

Joey Hand is like that. When he hit a tyre in the pitlane, late in the race he was leading, it might have cost his #01 BMW Riley team the race.Then, having owned up to a mistake and served his penalty, he dragged victory from the jaws of defeat. In the Ganassi's lead entry, he set off on a staggering charge back to within seconds ofthe other Ganassi car, which led by almost a minute and which was being driven in that stint by Dixon.

Hand all but caught him, within a single stint.

"I was thinking, when I came into the pitlane for the stop-and-go penalty,'Man, this is when this race may have just slipped away from us7 he said following the race.

"I was trying to calculate the time,30 seconds, plus stop and go,the pitlane time... I was thinking that maybe it would be a lap.That was trouble; not undoable, but tough.

"But I was on the lead lap when I came out,so I knew I had to get out clean and push. I saw my dad standing there on the other side of m

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the box, and he does not what you can and cannot do come to a lot of races. He in a GT car. 1 knew to watch out gave me the sign;'Brush it Off'. for guys who have never driven a GT before, but someone like I thought,'This is not necessarily a bad situation to be in. In my [Andy] Lally, he will give me world,this is where 1 thrive'. I space. 1 am normally that guy; I have not driven a DP car since was in an underdog-comeback situation, but I knew that I had '08. Nobody in a GT car, near the end of the race, will give you the a really fast racecar, and I knew I inside because they don't want could do something with it.

"So, I decided to throw down, to be on the marbles.You gotta know that.They will stay right in on all my laps. I was gonna pass GT cars, not on the safe side Turn 4,for instance,so you go to the outside, outbrake them and like we did for 20 hours, like give yourseif room. Hopefully you have to wait to be clear; I they see you, and you can carry was gonna pass them right, left, on." whatever.

The thing is, there had already "So I pushed. I was on a different level. If I knocked off been problems. When the #01 was in its first stint, Pruett an endplate, so be it; it would became alarmed when the car be a casualty of war. I changed ran straight to the rev limiter my mindset,to full-tilt qualifying in top gear. Despite all the laps. I knew I was with a great team,the best in the series, and I planning and practice,the gear ratios were wrong. Ignoring it knew this was my time to prove would be a ticket to a DNF. that they had picked the right "They said they are changing guy.

"There was no downside. It the set," Hand explains, "i was standing by the pit cart, was a tight situation, but I was and I heard [Team Manager] not thinking like that. I was 52 seconds back, and if it was green Tim Keene yell to the guys,'Get that stack ready, we are going to for a long time - say the last three hours - and I ran the same doing it on the next stop'. I was like,'A stack? A gear stack? We pace as Dixon in the #02 car, I are gonna change a gear stack?' was going to end the race 52 seconds behind.That's not good; We were short on top gear, but that would suck. So I knew I had they said that they could do it in two and a half, three minutes. to take risks, and 1 took some They took three and a half.They risks. Not crazy, but I passed were in the window. around the outside of Turn 5. 1 "Then we did a camber change passed around the outside of on the right-rear, because of Turn 5 once every two laps. You don't do that in the race. You some tyre problems that the #02 had.The team did not tuck under a GT car at the exit, have a walk in the park, but but if they get it wrong, and hit that is where the Ganassi guys you, you are in the outside and in the wall. That was a risk i was make their money.They are so switched-on,and so practiced willing to take. But I figured I when it comes to this stuff. A would survive that... gear stack change does not take "Experience counts. I know 70

"It worked out for me. I think you out of the race. A complete I did the right thing.There brake change,they did it faster were some tough years with than anyone 1 have ever seen. some cars that we not as fast It was scheduled, but they did and some others'but it worked it quickly.That is where, I think, the race was won. It could have out. I am driving for Bobby Rahal and David Letterman ended the race for us."

They won. It was a great result, in a BMW factory team.Then I get to drive for Chip Ganassi a fairytale victory for a driver in another great ride.Then I whose career is not heavy with have a Turner Motorsport drive fairytales. After racing anything in the Continental Challenge. I he could get his mitts on as a have found my way into great kid - karts. Midgets, you name it - Hand had the look of an racecars, across the board,and American on the move. But I have a shot to win just about every race that I am in.That is a like others in a similar position big difference to years ago."

(Memo Gidley springs to mind) A factory BMW M3 GT is an a lack of sponsorship was no interesting beast. At the front is help to break into CART,at a time when drivers from around a powerful V8 motor, driving the rear wheels,and there is not a the world were numerically huge amount of aero grip.That dominating the series. He had is not dissimilar to a V8 Supercar, made some contacts on the way and Hand is well aware that through and when it became there is a need for International obvious that he would have drivers for the Gold Coast 600 in to look elsewhere, he did - to late October.

Sportscars. Eight years later, he "The date works for me!" he has a career. says.

"I was not in the right place," "I have watched a few races Hand says without a trace of bitterness. and I enjoy what I see.The thrill "Timing is everything in racing. of racing is what I grew up wanting. Driving laps is great but My Formula Atlantic deal was the dogfighting is what 1 live for. happening at a time when The American Le Mans Series GT CART was not a strong series for category is a lot more dogfights Americans moving up, basically. than it used to have. Same with I was not there at the right time, the Daytona Prototypes, and the then I had a testing accident in Continental Challenge, where I the Atlantic, and that stunted run a BMW M3. my momentum.

"V8 Supercars? Holy cow! It's "So, did 1 take a 10 percent, maybe,chance to be in IndyCars, awesome!That has me written all over it. A little push from the or go over here and take a ride guy in second on the guy in first, that was 95 percent waiting for to shove him and tuck under, me? I always said, I want to drive and then that guys says,'No way!' racecars, and driving them for and he chops down to keep that a living is what I want to do. I guy on the bottom. Side-by-side, didn't see any potential to get drag racing to the next corner? an Indy deal, but I could see the That's me! potential in the BMW ride. motorsport news

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Talk to the Hand: Hand's profile leapt immeasurably after a dazzling drive at Daytona last month,far left. His regular drive is in Rahal Letterman's BMW M3,in the GT category in the ALMS,left and below.

IT WORKED OUT FOR N£E. I AM DRIVING FOR BOBBY RAHAL AND DAVID LETTERMAN IN A BMW FACTORY TEAM. THEN I GET TO DRIVE FOR CHIP GANASSI IN ANOTHER GREAT RIDE.

www.mnews.com.au

"I have always been good in rear-wheel-drive cars with big horsepower. I think that I would fit in perfectly. Off the brakes, work hard on the throttle, use the power, do traction control with your foot... that is me.

Those guys all look strong under brakes, and it looks like a fun race, do a show up and a oneoff race."

But surely, he races left-handdrive cars and we race RHD...

"The other side of the car is not a problem. I drove a Crawford for a whole season,and 1 had some great results in that car.

That was right-hand-drive and I figured it out in three laps. V8 Supercars are right in my style; deep under brakes, control the power, bump and run."

Whether he makes it Down Under or not,Joey Hand is a winner. No matter what happens for the rest of 2011, he is already having a great year. If you don't believe that, ask him the time,and cop a look at his new watch.

"I got a Rolex Daytona," he explains, adjusting the expensive timepiece every race winner receives.

"I am not that up on watches, I was wearing a $150 watch that I bought with two coupons, one from my wife and one from my mom.I was worried about wearing it for a few days, but now, I wear it. For me,if I did not get a watch, I would not care.The opportunity to win that race, the 49th 24 Hours of Daytona,to have your name in the record books,to me,that was the greatest part of it."

If he feels like that about a watch, I wonder how Hand feels about a surfboard?

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OTORSPORT NEWS: To start with, we'll go back almost two years. After you had the accident at Winton, initially in the recovery process, what sort of goals did you set yourself in terms of getting back on the track?

MARCUS ZUKANOVIC: After I had the accident, it was really just about trying to speed up and get back on it, I just wanted to get back in the car. Once I'd had the accident, the '09 season was pretty much a wipe off,just through the injuries I'd sustained, so that year was out of the question and it was a case offocusing on 2010.

Obviously the steps I had to take to come back from the accident, I sort of really couldn't go too high with the goals, considering the VZ was a little bit old in the tooth and considering some of the other cars and teams that were out there.

I guess,the goals were really just to have a solid year in 2010, which I think I did,finishing eighth out of however many cars competed,and really sort of try to set my goals on this year. I've really got to try and do something this year. www.mnews.com.au

I spoke to you at Queensland Raceway and you mentioned that at that point of the season (the second round),that you were still getting used to being back in a racecar. How did that process pan out over the course of the year?

The shakiest moment for me would've been Clipsal, my first run back in the car.That knocked the old confidence around a fair bit. It sort of took me ...(pause) I didn't have a boatload of confidence heading into the season, so it sort of took me until Townsville, where I started to get some pace out of the car and out of myself and all of the guys, we started to gel.

If it wasn't for the shock problem we had in the first race, we might've had a better result up there, but I think that's where I started to feel more confident in the car. it was still a little bit shaky.Just trying to find my feet again and trying to get a rhythm happening throughout the season.Townsville was probably the turnaround.

Did you get a chance to test at all before the start of last season?

I did about 20 laps at Winton, prior to the start of the season,

just due to the Mustang build.

That consumed all of my time, basically. I did a little test day before I went to Clipsal and that was 20-odd laps worth, it was just enough to make sure the car actually started, ran and drove, so it was a very shaky 20 laps for me.

Talk me through the timeframes and what went on in the various stages of the recovery, between the accident and getting back in the car.

The surgeon said that he didn't want me in the car, to race while I had the steel rod in my leg, because if something similar happened, a steel rod doesn't give as well as a bone does. It would've done more damage.

So they really said to me'you can't be in the car for 12 months until we take that rod out'. It was basically about enjoying my time off and making the most of healing. I did try and rush things along a little bit, but I did it, I guess, in a proper way with all of my treatments in a hyperbaric chamber and certain things like that to try and speed the healing up as soon as possible.

It was definitely a long road, I think I was in a wheelchair for the first four or five weeks,

because the collarbone couldn't sustain the weight on crutches; with the leg, collarbone and ribs, it was all a bit of a mess. So for the first five weeks I was in a wheelchair and from then on, it was sharing between crutches and a walking frame and then, slowly, healing and getting stronger and stronger and healing faster and faster, I guess.

It was definitely a long road, the first six months were very tough,just to try and get my mobility back.

And is it fair to say that during that time,there would've been times where being able to get up and do day-to-day things were of a higher priority than thinking about getting in a racecar?

Yeah,the hardest thing was trying to deal with a bit of depression to begin with.

I think I had the crash a week out from Clipsal and sitting there under painkillers watching the Fujitsu Series on TV was gutwrenching,thinking 'I should be there, I should be racing'.

Not only was I dealing with the physical things, I was dealing with the mental stuff also. Trying to deal with a bit of depression, nil 73

anger and frustration, it was pretty tough to deal with.

As it was, you mentioned your doctor had given you 12 months out of a racecar, but I think it was around eight when you jumped back in the Commodore Cup car for their last round of 2009?

Yeah. With all of my hyperbaric chamber treatment, the actual healing process sped itself up by probably three months.

I had that race in the Commodore, the Sunday was the raceday, I think, and I was having the operation on the Tuesday to have the rod taken out of my leg. So I was kind of pushing the boundaries but I was pretty comfortable and confident with the Commodore.

1 did that, had that little race.

Just to see if I still had the desire to do it, and I guess the nerve to do it, and I did. I ended up coming second or third that round, in Commodore Cup, and it was enough for me to say'yep, this is still what I want to do'.

The hyperbaric chamber sped things right along, 150 hours in the chamber did a lot of wonders.

At the point where you started to think about having a run 74

in the Commodore Cup car at Sandown in November, did you ever think that in September and October 2010 you'd be having a run in the Main Game endurance races, as you did with Greg Murphy Racing?

No, it never crossed my mind at all.

I thought to myself, and I still think it's a little bit like that, where people look at me as damaged goods from my accident and I figured that's just how the reception was going to be from big teams last year, which is why I never really pressed any issues to try and get an endurance drive.

Probably, a), I was never really fit enough, still being on the comeback trail, b) not mentally strong enough and, c) probably thinking that teams would still look at me as damaged goods.

That's why I never pressed the issue.

When I ended up doing the enduros and doing a halfreasonable Job, I thought, it was a huge step, it was a massive confidence boost.

From the way we read the weekends, it was more than a half-reasonable job. In your sprint race at Phillip Island you qualified 21 st, I think it was, on pace and then during your

stints at Bathurst, I remember watching you in one stint during the race, bringing your times down to, eventualiy a 2:10.6.

That would've been my first stint, as we got lapped for the first time. I'd gone out as the leaders went past and took the opportunity to learn a fair bit ●and, yeah, brought my times down.

I followed the guys and learnt a bag-load, I learnt a lot out of those two race meetings.

Late last year, you said that doing the enduros this year, ideally with a fulltime Main Game team, was one of the priorities for 2011?

I'd like to think it would be.

Everyone says that all of the seats are already locked in and taken, but I think stuff changes, once they see people getting results in the Fujitsu Series and things like that.

When you've got guys doing constant miles in Fujitsu, that's always going to go down well when it comes down to enduro time.

I don't have a seat at the moment, I haven't really had any offers or anything at the minute, but if I can get out there and get some good results in the first two rounds maybe that might

open a door for me to get a run somewhere.

From here, you're stepping up from the VZ to a PMM VE for the Fujitsu Series, which should be handy.

We've taken delivery of it, we're Just going over it now, learning the little bits and pieces that are a little bit different to my Walkinshaw car and I'm really looking forward to the challenge.

I think the car's probably good enough, all of the guys here are good enough and I think I've been doing it long enough now that it's time to start getting some results this season.

We were talking earlier about the progress you made during 2010, and Homebush, where you finished fifth for the round, that must give you a fair bit of confidence heading into 2011.

Definitely. The VZ wasn't far away, but obviously it wasn't there.

To have that fifth result, even in front of some cars that were better quality and guys that have some good confidence and good miles under their belt, that was a good confidence builder for me, which is why I'm pretty confident for this year, motorsport news

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UNNING comparatively quietly in the background of Top Fuel for the past 19 years, Terry Sainty has definitely come into the headlines in the last few weeks.

Sitting third in the points, Sainty was given the opportunity to drive for Santo Rapisarda at the recent Perth round. Making the semi finais, it was a great chance to keep his position in the points strong.

What Sainty didn't expect was a conversation that happened in the traiier while quietly looking over the data with Santo.

"After the last run, I was sitting there quietly and he asked me to come and drive in America for him, I was like, wow,"Sainty said.

"I just thought(Perth) would be a one off driving deal, and then either Mark (Mariani) or Dobbo (Allan Dobson) would hop back in the seat for the US. "I had to think about it for a little while to make sure I could 100 percent commit, you can't half do something like that, it is a big privilege and an honour."

Sainty's only previous experience in the USA has been a spectator. While his own team once had dreams of racing in the NHRA,they were put on a very long backburner when the sanctioning organisation banned exotic motors like Sainty's three valve.

"It will be interesting to go from a spectator to actually running down the track," he said.

"When we built our Sainty motor it complied to American rules but not long after they banned it for use there, at that point 1 didn't think the chance to race was there.

"After it was banned it all came back to doing our own thing over here, that was that."

Sainty felt that he gelled well with the new team. He has previously done some launches for them but it was his first time at a championship round.

"This is a whole different deal for us, driving a Chrysler, a different crew, but in Perth everyone did a really great job in the preparation of the vehicle," he said.

"Santo Jnr and Santino Rapisarda all do a lot of hard work behind the scenes;to run these cars reliably and competitively there is a lot of work."

As far as driving differences go, it was mainly to do with driving position and small things like which way levers go.

"You are sitting up more in Santo's car, when 1 built our car I liked the idea of laying back," he said.

"The foot box is shorter so your head sticks up a bit further, it's a bit easier to see out the front, but harder to get in and out of.

"The fuel shut off is back to front,the forward reverse lever is back to front,just silly little things, when we built our car, I didn't have a car to copy,so the cars have evolved differently."

Surprisingly for someone ahead of big budget teams like the Lamattinas and Reads,Sainty says the points aren't and have never been a major consideration for the team.

"We've never really been focused on the points, we're just trying to develop the Sainty engine," he said.

"When you're running it, sometimes you need to make calls that aren't the best thing for qualifying, you might be swayed to make a decision on losing a race but learning information."

It is this part of Sainty that has been the most inspirational in his racing. His familiar yellow dragster is Australian built, much of it by his own family motorsport news

who are legendary in drag racing for their engineering prowess.

"We're finishing this season in Australia. I think we're just focused on putting a good show on for the crowd while developing the engine, if we can go rounds then that is a bonus," he said.

"It's a little bit different with our team because it is Aussie made and family built, with a hard working crew doing a lot of thankless hours.

"If we can keep progressing, it looks good for everyone."

The heart of it all is the billet aluminium, three valve, overhead cam motor the team has developed. It's a constantly changing beast as the team finds ways to improve it.

"We're not tuners, but when you're not a tuner you end up with a strong motor," Sainty said.

Behind the scenes are Terry's father Stan Sainty, Stan's brother Norm Sainty and Dennis Maccan.Together they have pioneered the development of one of Australian motorsport's most interesting engineering challenges.

"We're always developing something, at the moment Norm, Stan and Dennis are all focused on the camshaft design;they're in the process of building new cylinder blocks out of billet, making crankshafts/'Terry said..

"When we are running it and trying different things we are eating up parts. Stan and Norm are making parts everyday, we can't run without the parts and we need to do runs to learn what to do."

Each part of the motor has been pored over as plenty of thought goes into the design before a block of billet aluminium is sacrificed to the nitro gods.

"They're looking at grinding the camshaft differently at the moment to retain more cylinder pressure and increase the boost, moving stuff around on the inlet and exhaust

and trying to make it less prone to dropping cylinders," Sainty said.

A recently developed item has been a new one-piece cylinder block.

"It has a lot of design improvements, we couldn't physically buy a big enough piece of aluminium before to make a one piece block.

"It will now be stronger and lighter by design with smarter bolt patterns and a lot of improvements.

"We're learning a lot about crankshafts, heat treating and how to make the crankshaft live a bit longer, there is a lot of development everywhere from the top to the bottom of the motor."

One of the main difficulties in developing the package has been that nitro definitely requires a skilled tuner behind the scenes.

While clearly no slouches when it comes to this, Sainty says he has sought the input of some imported tuners to get their thoughts.

Typically, however,they are out of their depth when it comes to something that isn't Chrysler Hemi-based, and even then they generally require very similar parts on every motor.

"Since we have been mucking around with our own engine there has been a lot of Americans come out and we have approached them when they are at the track for what they think,"Sainty said.

"And usually politely they tell us it's not a Chrysler, it's different to what we're used to, different combustion chamber, different spark plug, different headers and everything is home made,they tell us'good luckT It hasn't greatly phased the team, not being able to have that input.There are still plenty of great minds who have been providing assistance where they can.

"Gary Evans(former Graeme Cowin crew chief) helped us. All we can do is put the information together of what we have learned before. He has been a great help and

a good friend," Sainty said.

"Jay Upton's bike is similar to ourTop Fuel engine in that he had a four valve and has now gone to a three valve.

"We always talk to him about what we have learned and trade information, people like Jim (Read)and Santo let us look at their data, but we have to interpret it the best way we think. It's an educated guess."

The team recently got the boost in a form of another generous offer from Santo Rapisarda, providing then with a McKinney chassis to put a Sainty motor into.

"I am modifying it now to suit the little things we have to change.That was very generous of him to do that and will really help us a lot as it will let us know what is right or wrong with our home made car," he said.

The goal is to create another version of his own chassis using the best features of a variety of chassis designs.

"From what I've seen of the Madman and McKinney chassis, I think combining the two, there is a lot of good parts with both cars," he said.

"I will be looking at Attacs too and I think it will change the way we think about the design "Motor location and position, the way the wheelie bar is used, making the car leave different,the general weight of the car, all this stuff comes into it."

But most of the attention this year will be on the USA, with the Rapisarda team set to race for the first time on February 24-27.

"I'm excited about racing in America,for the first meeting Mum and Dad are coming over and there will be a few Aussies to cheer us on,"Sainty said.

"I don't know what the Americans will think about me coming over but we will be respecting them and other crews and putting on a show for the crowd."

This is a whole different deal for us, driving a Chrysler, a different crew ...

Sainty, left www.mnews.com.au

79

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and this win is all the more special with all my family here, including my Uncle Joe (Tatnell).This is a really special victory for me.

Is this Australian Championship win some sort of redemption for not winning the recent 39th Grand Annual Sprintcar Classic, which you did lead for a long time?

I looked up at the lap board and saw three to go and I tell you, man,it was a long way home. At the Warrnambool Classic, you never know what's going to happen and I've sat there scratching my head trying to figure out what went wrong. We were out driven and the driver messed up.

We came from the B Main and we just never gave up.This is one of the ultimate Sprintcar races anywhere in the worid and I honestly mean that, notjust because I've won one.

MOTORSPORT NEWS: It's just Really, did you have 25 tear-offs on moments after you've clinched a your helmet? fourth national Sprintcar title at Yes, I really did. i only ever have them Warrnambool's Premier Speedway - in case of oil. I used one for dirt and what's going through your mind? the rest once I got the oil leak hitting BROOKE TATNELL: It's been a bit of my helmet with just a few laps left - it a money bank for us coming here was a struggle to see at speed. over the years, it's also been a place of heartache. It will really hit home Right now you have four Australian when I race again with Australia 1 Sprintcar Championships(2011,'07, on the tail tank. For us this is just the '06 and '05)and your Dad (George best piaceto race.

Tatnell) got one,in 1988- are you thinking of him right about now?

The talking point is still the choice Yes I am.This place broke my dad's heart more than once. GT was out of right rear (soft) tyre you ran in the 40-lap feature. there and I knew he was also driving I can't say enough about my guys on us tonight. My mum's here, my wife the Krikke Motorsport Team.They and my kids and there's not a night i made the choice and it was a cali race that I'm not thinking about him. i they made on their own. thought about him a lot racing down They asked me what i thought and the back straight tonight.

I just said 'go with your gut feeiing'.

We win and lose as a team but Your praise of the Bunbury-based tonight we won. But i was scared to Krikke Motorsport Team will be death of having that RDl 5 tyre on. paramount,I'm guessing?

We all think we drive for the best team Was the plan to get to the front so but there's no denying this team is the early in championship decider? best.There's two guys on the road for I said to the team we have to get up them for six months of the year in Pete there (near the lead) in the first 10 Caporn and Shane Finch and they just or 12 laps. are tireiess in their preparation of this Once I got up there I expected the Sprintcar. slick track to take rubber,then once i was near second or third, maybe It must be very special, your family back off a little bit and then crack all flying out for the USA at late notice. it again at the end. It happened quicker than I thought. I got to I have to really thank my big sister the lead and we ran at about nineKelly, who went to the States to get tenths and I just tried to pace myself, Amy and the kids and bring them back here for this. but then the oil leak came and I just thought'l'm going for this and we'll I've been away from my family for see what happens'. six weeks until tonight(January 29) au

What lies ahead for the remainder of the 2011 season for you?

We're out here for a little while in Australia, as we have the Krikke Boys Race coming up(March 5-6). it's an event I'd dearly love to win. i've crashed out twice in the last two driving for Shane Krikke and his family, so it would be very special for us to do extra well in that race and win one.

Is it still tough in the USA for Sprintcar drivers and their teams?

The economy in the USA is tight right now and there's not a lot of drives going or team owners with cars available.

For me though. I'll just go back and race in the #59 carforTom Leidig of Florida. I think i did okay for this team iast year as we won two Outlaws races, both in June, (Knoxville Raceway and Junction Motor Speedway), only with a budget of US$20,000 for 22 shows, it will be a siightly similar deal this year and we'll be again at the big shows in the US. What's the outlook for your racing career this year and beyond?

There's returning to the US to race in the tough Outlaws,then from there I would like to think I will be back to defend this national championship in Adelaide early next year.There's also going to be World Series which I'm guessing I'll race in for Krikke Motorsport. Really though, my family is my priority and I have to really continue to perform to provide well in a sport that I just love racing in.This to me is the bestform of motorsport in the world.

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ASON Meyers uses just two words to declare his 2011 racing intentions;"to dominate."

Meyers,the reigning World of Outlaws Champion,the sport's unofficial world champion, delivers the phrase without arrogance,just hunger.

He is as humble as people come,and he says he never tires of signing autographs for his growing band of loyal fans.

The native of Clovis, California has returned to Australia six times since 2001 and he is now starting his defence of the Outlaws championship, which is stretched across nine months and includes about 80 races.

But he also rates highly his chance to race in the summer Australian season as critical to his racing preparation.

"This year the (Grand Annual Sprintcar Classic) is a little earlier and I start in Florida one week later, so it works out," he said.

"The Classic is the biggest race over here.

"It's a prestigious race which everybody would like to win, Australian or American.

"It's good racing, it's an opportunity to make some money and it qualifies you for the World Challenge at the Knoxville Nationals."

The latter is particularly appealing to Meyers as it gives his Elite Racing team - which he owns - a chance to give something back to its sponsors.

He believes recognising sponsors and fans is "all part of the job", particularly after his WoO victory.

"You have an obligation to the sport and to the fans when you're the champion," he said.

"At the end of the night, whether you've raced good or bad, you have a responsibility to meet the fans and sign autographs.

"It's something I enjoy.

"Your Job's not over until the back door of that trailer goes up."

The Californian took the steering wheel of the Steve Caunt Racing KPC machine at Avalon on January 19, finishing sixth in the opening race of his Down Under campaign.

Meyers does concede he had underestimated the significance of the Classic in his first visit a decade ago.

But after claiming a come-from-behind victory in this year's Saturday night feature race, the Australia/ America Challenge on January 22, he revealed he fully appreciated the event and the level of competition.

His ability was underlined with a narrow victory over countryman Joey Saldana and young Mount Gambler star Steven Lines in the 25-lap final.

"We came here to win and it's started off well,"

Meyers said on the infield after a couple of victorious fist pumps.

He said winning the Challenge, which gives him prime position to claim the American leg in front of a packed Knoxville crowd later in the year, was important to him.

"That's one of the main reasons we are running this race. I came here once before 10 years ago and I don't think I really recognised the prestige of it."

Meyers, 32, became just the eighth driver ever to win a WoO title and the first from the state of California, with a career high 12 A-Feature wins at 11 different tracks in 10 states and one Canadian Province, pocketing $US308,000 in prizemoney.

After finishing second three times in his career, including the last two years, he really dominated the 2010 Outlaws season. From 69 A-Features, Meyers racked up 56 Top 10 finishes and 36 Top Fives enroute to his first championship.

He also was recognised by the Knoxville National Sprint Car Hall of Fame, as its 410 Sprint Car Driver of the Year.

"There are two moments that stand out to me," Meyers said.

"I will never forget standing in victory lane at Lowes Motor Speedway with my family and team in front of over 12,000 fans as not only the World of Outlaw champion, but a two-time feature winner in one evening.

"I will also never forget winning the Gold Cup Race of Champions in my home state, at the track where I won my first Sprintcar race 11 years ago."

This year's tough 2011 Outlaws schedule lends itself to Meyers defending his series crown. He has won at 21 of the tracks on the schedule and with an extended tour of the Golden State (California) in March and April, Meyers will be on point to make it two-in-a-row.

"I'm looking forward to 2011," he said.

"At the World Finals (North Carolina), it felt like we were just coming together and becoming the team we truly can be. in racing, you find that the ones that stick together and build chemistry.

"I am excited, because we were able to keep the team together and look to take the momentum from the end of the year on to this year. I am happy that we will be racing at so many tracks in California, some that I have not had a chance to race on in a long time.

It will be great to race in my home state and celebrate the championship with my great fans in California.

"This sport, you work at it every day. I'm looking forward to coming back and defending my Outlaws championship with the great team I have."

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(MEETMG THE FANS)IS SQMETHNGI B^>Y.YOUR S N5>T OVER UNTL THE lACK OF THAT TRAIER GOES U» No wonder Meyers has so many fans 84

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85

DE ORflUE UEUW It has heea a wiiile since The IHetheilaBils has had a decent Geand m driver, bet it the world harthig scene is amf indcatisn, that is about to change...

HERE'S.been a lot of emphasis in the lastfew years regarding formula 1 turning'green'. But if the current world karting scene is any indication. Formula 1 may well be about to turn a shade of 'Oranje',thanks to a host of speedy young Dutchman.

For a country that is dwarfed by most of Europe,The Netherlands is a land that has a history of developing good sportspeople.

Look at the current Dutch football team> or Peiter van den Hoogenband,for example.

The Dutch even has a One Day International cricket team, which is currently competihg at the ICCWorld Cup.Fouryearsago,it beat England in one of the group matches!

But recently,there's been a bit of a lull in Dutch Formula T drivers. Since Jan Lammers and Jos Verstappen,there haven't been any drivers with genuine class coming out ofThe Netherlands.Sure, Christijan Albers hung around for while, but he never looked like a world beater. And Robert Doorrtbos struggled to make an impression in FI, although he did snare a few wins in the latter stages of Champ Car. It would seem that all of that might be about to change. Leading the orange charge is Bas Lammers,Jan's nephew. Lammers is currently dominating the KZ1 class, winning the World and European Championships In 2010 as a factory Intrepid driver. But, at 25 years of age, he's already at great risk of missing the Formula 1 boat.

Nyck de Vries has no such age worries.

Born in 1995,the tiny Dutchman has already twice been German KF3 Champion;(2008 and 2009),twice won the World Series Karting KF3 Championship(2008 and 2009), been European Champion in KF3(2009), and won the World Championship for CIK-FIA KF2 (2010). And if those results don't make his Formula 1 ambitions clear enough, he has a management deal in place with Anthony Hamilton, Lewis's dad,as well as a link to McLaren - not unlike what Lewis himself had as a young karter.

"McLaren has a long-held commitment to assisting young talent- we believe it's part of the responsibility of the motor racing community to encourage and nurture junior racers, and we are committed to doing just that,"said McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh when de Vries was signed.

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"Nyck appears to be a very exciting prospect, and we are looking forward to assisting his junior career, providing him with the support and training he requires to succeed."

"Nyck is an extremely promising youngster/'added Anthony Hamilton.

"His father Hendrik has been fantastically supportive of Nyck's career, and has been instrumental in raising him up to notjust be a great young racing driver, but also a fine young man.Together, we both believe that, with the right level ofsupport, we can take his career to the highest level."

In 2011, deVries will step up to the KFl World Championship.

Another young Dutchman that has burst onto the scene in karting is Max Verstappen.

Sound familiar? That's probably because he

is the son offormer FI driver Jos Verstappen.

Like his father. Max has Formula 1 aspirations. And he has picked up right where db Vries has left off, by winning the 2010 World Series Karting KF3 Championship.

He also won the WSK Nations Cup,and the 13-year-old will continue to race KF3 in 2011, joined at CRG by another young Dutchman, Max Koebolt.

"We weren't expecting such a good result at the beginning,"said Max at the end of 2010.

"Then,after the success in the first race of La Gonca in the WSK Euro Series, we understood we were strong and we could try to get the title. And we made it! I won the KF3 championship both in the WSK Euro Series and in the WSK World Series.Then I got my kicks out ofthe CIK-FIA races. I placed

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second in the KF3 World Cup and fifth in the European Championship, but on these two occasions i had been battling for the win. I've just turned 13 and next year I will be racing in KF3 again, and I'll try to do even better.'

And as for his famous father, a man who is still greatly respected in The Netherlands despite never winning a Grand Prix, Max says he couldn't go racing without him.

He is fundamental. He helps him a lot; he is a rock! He assists me on the track during each phase of the race and gives me lots of advice."

That's the state of play;the Dutch are coming thick and fast through the ranks of karting. Better start dusting down the stands at Zandvoort - the country might need its Grand Prix back soon.

MODEL BEHAVIOUR

Mini Coopers

Lots ofmodelnews this month as BRUCE MOXONscours the specialty modelretailers as wellas the big departmentstoresin search ofsome exciting new releases

F

IRST of all, I can report success. Yes, I found a Matchbox Holden VE Ute. Unlike many others, who are still scouring their local toy and department stores, I got lucky and found one in Kmart, right at the front of the shelf. Rumour has it that employees at some shops are opening boxes and cherry-picking the VEs and other desirables before they get to the shelves.

Never mind, eventually the market will be saturated and there will be enough for everyone.

In the meantime, as those happy blokes with guns say, you 88

wasn't a racing success, but the can have my VE, when you take it bravery of the design has made from my cold, dead hands...

Last month's feature on the it a popular choice for model makers and collectors alike. wonderful Tyrrell P34 was timely.

Hot Wheels have released this Biante's progress on the Jack Brabham collection is car in model form in the last few months and it's quite a beaut proceeding. Look for the first of little device. It's available in the Cooper FI cars in the near either blue or white and is a nice future (April, we're hoping).The first car will betheT53 - the little mould. I also have aTomIca 1960 car and will be in both version In my collection.There 1/43 and 1/18 scale.There will are interesting differences; the be removable body panels Tomica car has the right'Elf'signs (engine cover only in the 1/43 and no driver figure, while the Hot Wheels has more detail in car) and the car will eventually the body,engine and under-floor, be available in several versions.

Can't say too much now, but but lacks the correct signage. bear in mind that a lot of really The P34 has always been one great drivers raced T51 andT53 of my favourite Formula 1 cars; it

Cooper-Climaxes.

And (ta-dah!)the Jack Brabham/Stirling Moss Holden Torana L34 will be very soon available for order.The striking Blues Union/2SM liveried car attracted enormous attention but went nowhere on the starting grid, the gearbox jamming in both reverse and first at the same time.

ThisTorana will look brilliant, the stitched'denim'outlines around the car were striking and the white-on-dark blue signage looked terrific.The model will be available for Bathurst and will feature, along with all the usual great detail and so on, a motorsport news

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certificate of authenticity signed by both Sir Jack and Sir Stirling.

We'll have first pics of this model next month.

Dick Johnson Racing attracted a lot of pre-season attention with its provocative door numbering, which at a distance of anything more than 20 metres leaves you with the impression that the cars are running the number 1. It's a cheeky reminder that they were the winning team last year, even if their Champion driver James Courtney did up and leave for the HRT,taking the coveted number 1 with him.

Of course, the fun till police atV8 Supercars www.mnews.com.au

The first ofBiante'sJack Brabham Cooper FI cars will be the 1960 TS3,and will be available In both 1/43 and 1/18scale.

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^Ig Lowndes’ Year 2010 toamVodatone VC Commodore

Australia just couldn't help themselves and had put a stop to it, thereby denying DJR and the V8 Supercars Championship a whole heap of hard-to-generate pre-season media airtime and column inches. Makes you wonder, sometimes...

Anyway, all this reminds me of the livery change DJR made for last year's enduros. That 'spilled drink'paint job was an eye-catcher, for sure, and now with Biante releasing its 2010 V8 Supercar range, we can admire our very own smaller version at home. Check out the pics of the Biante 1/18 Courtney/Warren Luff Bathurst Ford - it looks a 111!

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million bucks.

But Bathurst last year was all about TeamVodafone. The Triple Eight cars captured first and second and this triumph is soon to be available as a boxed set from Classic Carlectables.

The pair of 1/43 Holdens will be in a commemorative box with a numbered certificate of authenticity. Your challenge, dear reader, is to get all four drivers'signatures.

The twin-set won't be available until the second quarter of this year, but in the meantime Classics'will fill the void with a 1/18 scale reproduction of the race winner.

The bigger model comes with a scale model of the Peter Brock Trophy and is also in a very nice presentation case (making its own little display).

If you only get one model this would be a good one to nil have on your short-list. motorsport news

Balhiipst 2010

Previous Editions of The Great Race still available: n Issues 15,18 and21only AS'eis. n Issues 22,24,A$77. n lssue25,26,27A$88. n lssue28,29A$98. ^11 prices include postage within Aust.

The Great Race 30 teils the fuil story of the 2010 Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000. This is the originai Bathurst annuai hard-cover book, the definitive pubiication on Australia’s Great Race. The story of this always-epic and often heartbreaking event is presented in 256 pages, iiiustrated by some 400 images.shot by some of Australia’s best motorsport photographers. The book also boasts a comprehensive statistical analysis covering aii facets of the race - there’s even a fuli race history record for each competing car.

This fabulous annual hard-cover book is a collector’s prized possession, and a great gift idea.

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Same goes for the Bathurst winner of 30 years previous, which Classics now has in 1/18.The 1980 HDT Brock/Richards Bathurst Commodore was always a stylish looking machine (not to mention successful) and Classics has surely done this famous Brock Holden justice.

The 1980HDTBrock/Richards Bathurst Commodore was always a stylish looking machine

Commodore Classic: A classic Brock Commodore was the HDT VC which Brock drove to victory in the 1980 Bathurst 1000 with Jim Richards -and now it can be had in 1/18 scale from Classic Carlectables.

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92

Nitm Early Girl plentiful, and of that's a shame because division ofthat the SCALE models Australian drag racingthis cars aren't all sport has served up some wild and wonderful machines over the years.

Like this one,a nitro-fuelled FJ Holden -'Capt. Nitrous'- which has Just been immortalised in 1/43 by Revolution Models.

'Capt. Nitrous'was originally raced by Rob Sloan as'MrTerrific' in the stock classes until it was sold to Bob Hamilton,some 20 years ago. At the time it was still running the original 2.2-litre 'Grey'six-cylinder.

After achieving his aim of running a 12-second pass, Bob Hamilton then parked the car for 18 years. But with the recent boom in Nostalgia drag racing. Bob dragged the Early Girl Holden out of the shed, updated her with a 186 (3.0-litre) red six (on nitro, naturally), and now runs wheels-up 12 second passes all day long at the Nostalgia Drags.

As for the smaller version, it can be had for $150 plus $10 postage.

For more details check the website: www.models56.com.au

motorsport news

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Dick Johnson - 35 years at Bathurst

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Simpson Safety now had a fill range of the Italian brand, which combines quality and style with sensible prices.

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E are underway in 2011. Abu Dhabi threw up a few surprises, but as we have previously suggested, it's probably not a great form guide to the year. There were certainly some aspects of the Middle Eastern round that will transform into the championship during the year.

Here is what we did find out: JDub and the 8s will be hard to beat. The team looks focused and both drivers look to be in good form. SBR has a good package on soft tyres (as they did last year), but it also has three drivers in the team who want and need to show their worth within the SBR group. Ross and Jimmy have had a restructure over the break and they look like they are well organised and prepared to provide the three drivers with the tools they need to keep competitive.

They have brought in Dan Kroehn from FPR to engineer Alex Davison's car, which will bring in some fresh ideas for

the existing team. Paul Forgie and Wes McDougall are very competent engineers and both work very hard within the SBR team under Jimmy Stone, but sometimes a freshen-up with a slightly different approach can proveto be just the thing a team needs.

With all the changes in the team personnel, most of the cars are following a similar engineering philosophy, and while some teams may think they have some secrets, there wouldn't be many cars with tweaks that all the cars on the grid don't have.

HRT has got two drivers who are capable of winning when given the opportunity. James' win came out of the blue, but he made the most of the situation and that wins championships.

Garth must be getting sick of the long flight home with little to show for his efforts, but I am sure the focus for him would have quickly shifted to Adelaide and the Clipsal 500, which would have made the journey home a

little easier.

The Kelly gang would be concerned with their pace, . particularly in qualifying. David Reynolds got a great result in Race 2 and proved he is very much one of the men of the future; maybe DR is the most underrated driver in the championship. He is a Formula Ford and Carrera Cup champion, and that doesn't happen by being just an 'OK' driver. My prediction is that he will be a V8 Supercar champion within five years if he is given and makes the most of opportunities. I still don't understand why Walkinshaws let him go, it's easier to knock some rough edges off a fast driver than bring one up to speed.

It will also be interesting to see how Kellys handle dealing with four drivers with high expectations. The Kelly team is still, relatively speaking, a new group and they have taken a massive undertaking to turn their team into a front-running outfit. It has certainly been to the detriment of some results for Rick and Todd. You wonder how many race wins they have missed out on, compared to staying as Walkinshaw drivers.

FPR have maintained their

The boys from Albury have been quietly building and creeping up on things

good speed. Frosty certainly has the early upper hand on Will Davison, but I am sure that will get closer as the year progresses.

FPR didn't disappoint by, again, bungling a pit stop - they need to fix these issues if they are to compete for a championship.

BJR is looking very good with Jason Bright. The boys from Albury have been quietly building and creeping up on things; they have assembled a very good crew with a good mix of experience, engineering and organisational skills.

Adrian Burgess has a very good reputation for his team management skills, but Chris Clark' needs credit for assisting Brad and Kim to knock their team into shape. It's such a shame Jason Richards is not there to carry the momentum through from last year. It must have been very hard for JR to be watching 'his'car on TV challenging for a race win. Let's hope we see JR back as soon as possible.

We will see at Clipsal who the real contenders will be for 2011.

QUICK QUIZ

Answers ■"f I

7. Team Joest has won at Le Mans 17 times.

2. Kubica's sole GP win came in Canada in 2008 - and the man next to him on the podium was his BMW. Sauber team-mate, Nick Heidfeld.

3. Owen has driven for an impressive 17 teams in the V8 Series: GRM, Imrie Motorsport, Briggs Motor Sport, Robert Smith Racing, K-Mart Racing, Britek Motorsport, Autobarn Racing, DJR, Team Kiwi Racing, Walkinshaw Racing and TeamVodafone.

4. Force's daughters are Ashley, Courtney and Brittany.

His fourth daughter, Adria, is the CFO ofJohn Force Racing.

5. Buemi, Loeb, Ogierand Bourdais all spell their first name Sebastien (or, to be technical, Sebastien). Vettelis a Sebastian.

98

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