Motorsport News Issue 415 - January 2012

REVEALED:Inside the Carofthe Future Australian

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WINNERS:The Championsof2011 MN'sFamous Christmas Quiz

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THIS MONTH’S FEATURES Unusual Suspects mjnnnJ

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After almost six years with Motorsport News, Andrew van Leeuwen is calling it quits. Next stop; the land of Apple-flavoured wine and wellengineered cars - Germany.

3x#1=WHINCUP

Jamie Whincup has won three titles in four years, in three different V8 Supercars. And he wants to keep going...

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During his many years as a motorsport writer, Steve Normoyle has seen a lot of racing cars. He's now been up close and personal with V8 Supercars' Car of the Future... check out what he thinks.

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V8 Supercars' Car of the Future was officially launched remhtly.

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Jorg Bergmeister probably didn't expect a hearty German feed on the Gold Coast, but by gum, we came through for the lad with a ripper nighto at Bavarian Haus.

People will talk about Whincup's three titles in three different models of car, but lets not forget that Adrian Burgess has now won consecutive titles with different teams. He talked us through his 2017 season.

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THE CLASS OF 2011 A photographic look into the Champions of'l 1, from Formula 1 to World Superbikes.

■ foaioLiu^ispeakstoMNabout 1 his up-and-down career m i Fommlaitlia

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NATIONAL FEATURES

NEWS

Editorial Executive Editor Phil Branagan editor@mnews.com.au Assistant Editor Andrewvan Leeuwen andrew@mnews.com.au Special Projects Editor Steve Normoyle snormoyle@chevron.com.au National Editor Mitchell Adam mitchell@mnews.com.au

The Grid

Editorial Enquiries

357 Nepean Highway, Brighton East, VIC,3187 (PO Box 7072, Brighton, VIC,3186) P 03 9596 5555 F 03 9596 5030 admin@mnews.com.au

Spontscar drivers took over V8 Supercars'Gold CoastMOm i&tdL'W'hil'e there, wemughtmp with Porsche factory§un Mr§

Contributing Writers

Bruce Moxon, Lachlan Mansell, Geoff Rounds,

iBergmeister.

Photography

Sutton Motorsport Images, Dirk Klynsmith, John Morris, Andrew Hall,James Smith, Geoff Grade, Phil Williams, Peter Bury, Rob Lang Cover Design: Chris Currie

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Snap!

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. What are our best pics of2011 worth?

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Trivia Newton John It's time for the famous Motorsport News Christmas Quiz!

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Drivers of the Nation We salute the winners of National titles in 20 7 7

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Dowel Jones Index

Advertising National Sales Manager Luke Finn lfinn@chevron.com.au P02 9901 6100

Chairman,Chevron: Ray Berghouse Circulation Director: Carole Jones

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Justin Dowel talks about his maiden Australian Rally Championship

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All Aussie Adventure Adrian Cottrell added an Aussie Racing Car title to his unique CV in 2011

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The Front Row

Chief Executive Officer, David Gardiner Commercial Director, Bruce Duncan

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Motor Mouth with Phil Branagan

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On The Limiter with Chris Lambden

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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

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eNews of the Month NEW CHIEF FOR V8 SUPERCARS David Malone is the new Chief Executive Officer at V8 Supercars.

Malone will replace Martin Whitaker, who was moved to an international role at V8 Supercars Australia earlier this year. Shane Howard has been the acting CEO since then.

Malone is the former chief executive of Premier Media Group, which runs Fox Sports Australia.

FIORE JOINS JIM BEAM RACING Dean Fiore will join Dick Johnson Racing for the 2012 V8 Supercar season.

It has been confirmed that Fiore will take his #12 Racing Entitlement Contract and his Triple Eight FG Falcon to DJR next year, where he will race in Jim Beam colours. It is expected that James Moffat's car will be backed by internet security company Norton.

MURPH STAYS ON WITH KELLY GANG Greg Murphy has re-signed at Kelly Racing.

The veteran will continue to race the Pepsi Max Crew Commodore at KR next season, with another five different liveries to be used throughout the 2012 season.

"Greg brings experience,supreme talent and a cool head to the driver's seat,"said Danielle Maher,PepsiCo's marketing manager.

Meanwhile, Karl Reindler is expected to be Murphy's KR team-mate in 2012, replacing David Reynolds in the #16 Commodore.

V8 SUPERCARS Jamie Whincup is the 2011 V8 Supercar Champion, but he didn't do it as easily as he might have.

Whincup went into the final round on the streets of Homebush with more than 180 points up his sleeve over his team-mate Craig Lowndes, meaning that anything above fourth on the Saturday would have sealed the deal.

After qualifying fastest - comfortably - it seemed that the job would be simple, but a broken damper and a trip into the wall left Whincup several laps down and 20th by the end of Saturday's race.

Lowndes, meanwhile, shrugged off a spin in the Top 10 Shootout to win Saturday's race, taking the title down to the final race on the Sunday.

With just 12th place needed on Sunday afternoon, Whincup still made it tough. He was very conservative throughout the race, often running further back than 12th. But some late crashes elevated Whincup to eighth, more than enough for the Victorian to claim a third title in four years.

At the front of the field on Sunday, Mark Winterbottom made sure it was a strong finish to the year for Ford Performance Racing, winning from Lowndes and Shane van Gisbergen, who was third on both days. Paul Dumbrell had been in the hunt for a fairytale win, but spun late in the race, collecting Lee Holdsworth in the process.

www.mnews.com.au

Reindler will in turn be replaced by Fabian Coulthard at Brad Jones Racing, who has agreed to race for the Albury squad after Russell Ingall and SuperCheap were announced as the driver/sponsor combination for Walkinshaw Racing's third entry next season.

RAIKKONEN BACK IN FORMULA 1 There will be six former World Champions on the Formula 1 grid in 2012, with Kimi Raikkonen signing for Lotus-Renault.

After failing to make an impact on the World Rally Championship, Raikkonen has decided to move back to Formula 1, signing a two-year deal with the Enstonebased squad. As MN went to press, his partner was not yet confirmed, with question marks now over Vitaly Petrov's place in the team.

In other FI driver news, Charles Pic has signed with Marussia Racing for 2012.

The Frenchman tested for the team during the recent young driver test in Abu Dhabi,and will replace Jerome d'Ambrosio in the race team next year.

And over at Hispania Racing Team,Pedro de la Rosa has signed on for the next two seasons.

Motorsport eNews available 8pm Mondays. www.mnews.com.au

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O ends another year of motor racing.

At this time of year, I often find myself looking forward and backwards at the same time. At my age, that is often hard on the neck. . There was a lotto like about 2011. There were some epic stories, some moments that provided laugher, some that caused tears. You can say what you like but It is hard to deny that the last 12 months have been an emotional roller coaster.

Marco Simoncelli caused much angst among some of his competitors for the way he raced, and his death was an emotional tragedy. Dan Wheldon was already one of the stories of the year after the snatched an emotional Indianapolis 500 win; the tragedy at Las Vegas was a heartbreaking event for many.

We are well-served by the Champions whose achievements we celebrate in this issue. Seb Vettel may get

lukewarm press in this country (because he beats Mark Webber) or the UK (because he is not Jenson or Lewis) but the German is not only a towering talent, but a great personality. If you have not seen his appearance at the Autosport Awards, find it on the net. We are lucky to have such a talented and personable man at the pinnacle of our sport.

Ditto, for different reasons, forTony Stewart and Jamie Whincup. Stewart is... well, the everyday guy who shows up looking like he forgot to shave but remembered to stop for a burger and a Coke on the way to the track. His 10-race Chase was a motor racing tour deforce; five wins, one title, few enemies.

I think that Whincup is under loved in this country. As we point out elsewhere in this issue, he has three titles and two second places in five years, a gigantic achievement in a hugely competitive V8 Supercar Championship. But when was the last time you saw JDub on a

Vodafone TV ad? For whatever AVL graduated from being an unseen contributor in reason, Whincup is not loved far-off Western Australia to the way that Craig Lowndes is. staffer when he and dad John I hope that changes; dealing with either of them is an somehow piloted an elderly Toyota Celica across the absolute pleasure. They are Nullabor. Since he arrived, he different, for sure, but maybe has worked tirelessly to make now is the time for Whincup to come into his own.

MN a better and brighter read, But in this column, I want . lately as Assistant Editor of IVIN and Editor of eNews. to point out the guys who Now he is stepping onto a finished second. As already mentioned, Lowndes is an icon bigger stage, literally, to live on the other side of the world and in this country and the manner see what that looks like. He and in which he handled the his gorgeous new bride Anne disappointment of not taking the title is a credit to him. in are leaving us, and do so with our great affection and heartfelt Formula 1, Jenson Button did himself proud. So did Will Power thanks. His thoughts about it all are on page 18-19; I may regret in Indycar (and, for that matter, giving him the keys to Box Seat.

JR Hildebrand at the Indy 500).

Carl Edwards told his wife "If I The Asst Ed's seat, and the steering wheel of eNews, passes can't win this thing, I'm gonna be the best loser NASCAR has to Mitchell Adam. He has big ever had." He was. shoes to fill, but his feet are pretty large, and so is his talent.

Finishing second is never This is also the time of year to quite as much fun as winning. pass on Season's Greetings to all But some pretty good drivers were P2 in 2011. our readers. It has been a huge year, and we look forward to 2012. Eat and drink much over or the last six years, this magazine has featured the the holiday season, but keep words and much behind-theaway from driving when you do. scenes efforts of Andrew van Stay safe, and we will see you Leeuwen. in 2-Oh-Dozen.

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Finishing second is never as much fun as winning. But some pretty good drivers were P2 in 2011 motorsport news

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1 h CHRIS

LAMBDEN

: ON THE LIMITER

OU may possibly have missed the big sporting scandal this month which, however,caught my attention.

The Scene: Melbourne.

The Australian Dancesport Championships.(Okay, we'll debate its inclusion under the category'sport'another time).

As the event draws to its n climax,there is uproar.The - winning couple has been : disqualified. More than .'";tHiat, they've been - horror Ms'esgorted from the building! , A,pi}otp appears in the Melbourne press of the forlorn r.'^erfuple sitting oiji the steps of i?ithe stadium,shattered. ^ And what brought the ]r Australian Dancesport ^'Championship to such a * dramatic conclusion? .- Well,.it seems the couple invquestibn,on top of their excellent posture, beautiful coiffure, spray-on tans and : .superb-costume,chose to 'wear 4dh my gosh - a yellow ;^ ., sas|ii during their performance, f SJiideking. ;a^-4- ilhis horrendous departure

r his battle to'tame'Senna,at the same time as advancing the cause of countryman Alain Prost is one of the highlights.

Balestre's autocratic bumbling, from accepted ballroom self-aggrandisement and etiquette was in fact a protest, penchant for'spontaneous' a show of support for six decision-making meant that other couples whose entry to he was never far from the the event had been refused headlines in the'80s. because they had earlier, gasp, He was at the centre ofthe chosen to compete in some two-year FiSA-FOCA battle other dance contest organised over FI finances. Representing by a different sanctioning FISA(the FIA's motorsport body.Oh My Gosh. 'department'at the time), Everything you ever he was up against- guess laughed about in Strictly who- Bernie Ecclestone, Baliroom,live, in Melbourne!

Ludicrous, I know.The next representing teams'group FOCA.Bernie and the teams day,'Dancesport'officials were won,and the first Concorde live on talkback,conceding that"this should never have agreement was signed,giving FOCA the commercial rights happened"and conceding to FI,while FISA (eventually that it was, possibly,an abolished and absorbed into over-reaction, the general FIA body)retained i couldn't help it. My first control of sporting and thought,once I'd stopped technical regs. Bernie and Co laughing(or LOL as my kids haven't looked back since then. would say), was two words: Jean-Marie!

There is no better example of Jean-Marie's impetuous Yes, motorsport hasn't been that'random'since decision-making than thatliterally taken within hours world motorsport was ruled -to ban Group B World by the ebullient Frenchman, Jean-Marie Balestre. JM has Championship rallying in 1986. of course re-entered our A horrendous,fiery crash had killed young Finnish star Henri psyche as a result of the recent Senna movie, where Toivonen and co-driver Sergio

Cresto on the Tour de Corse WRC rally. Overnight, Balestre announced that the powerful Group B cars would be banned from the end ofthe season and replaced by Group A. There were simple,technical reasons forToivonen's crash, and specifically the fire, which could have been addressed.

The move to boring Group A cars probably held the WRC back a decade...

That year,JM was elected as president of the FIA (while remaining as FISA president!), which he retained until the early'90s when he lost the FISA role to Max Mosley,then quit as FIA president in 1993,again facing unbeatable numbers in Mosley's favour as an election loomed.[Thatis the two ofthem, in 1981, beiowj Heady days.

It has probably as much to do with the needs of growing professionalism, but motorsport hasn't been the same since Jean-Marie Balestre's days.On balance, that's probably a good thing, but you have to admit, it was great theatre -just like the Australian Dancesport Championships of 2011.

Pasa doble,anyone?

Motorsport hasn't been the same since Jean-Marie Balestre's days. On balance, that's probably a good thing

motorsport news

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Coming Attraction Who’s the next big thing?

Jake Klarich - CIK STARS OF KARTING

What is he currently doing?

Perth teenager Jake Klarich has somewhat come of age in 2011, and as a result finished third in the Castrol EDGE Stars of Karting Series.

Born in Toowoomba,the 16-yearold followed his father and uncle into motorsport at the tender age of eight,just prior to his family moving to Perth, and has loved every moment since. While admitting his first couple of years were lower than his

expectations, over the past few years Klarich has succeeded in State Championships and is continuing to develop into a star of the future.

After finishing third behind Pierce Lehane and Joseph Mawson in the Pro Junior(KF3) ranks, Klarich went on to dominate the Meritus Racing KF3 Challenge at Kalgoorlie last month to secure a test with the JK Racing Asia Series team this month (January).

Where does he want to go?

Following his three-day test, Klarich will return to Australia to embark on his first year of senior karting that will see him line up in the Pro Light(KF1)field for the 2012 CIK Stars of Karting Series - which kicks off in Adelaide on February 25.

Klarich has got his sights set on making a career out of motorsport, his Number 1 aim

would be to follow his fellow Toowoombaborn racer Will Power into the IndyCar ranks, or competing in the V8 Supercar Championship.

His idol is Craig Lowndes, and names fellow Western Australian Michael Patrizi as one of the biggest influences on his career outside of his supportive family.

We asked out readers to tell us their motoring highliigiht from 2011. Here’s what some of them said.

My favourite bit of 2011 is hearing that Tekno is moving to Holden. Now, my brother works on a Hoiden - no more famiiy feuds.

beckenward Having Will Davison give me a tour of the Ford Performance Racing garage at Sandown and getting to sit in his car.

GoDRArmy

My highlight was meeting Dave Reynolds,of course!

Craifsy

if you're Arnotts,the highlight would be the profit derived from the sheer volume of Shapes sold to MNews Tweeters in 2011.

markwal ker Getting published in Tweetlane (sic).

And what about Kimt Raikkonan’s Ff comeback?

CALFEARN (can't wait to see Kimi pull some killer rally moves! Let's get a dirt Formula 1 track or some special stages.

Gougoodthing64

i Kim!will have less chance of getting : stuck in a snow bank in Formula 1.

Don’t forget to tweet us your thoughts @motorsportnews And folildw our live commentary during race weekends @mnewsupdates

74

motorsport news

MY FAVOURITE RACE

ADRIAN BURGESS - TOWNSVILLE 400, 2011

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HE favourite race of my whole career? Bloody hell, there are so many!

Putting down to a race is hard, but there are a few events that stand out.

Winning the World Championship with Mika Hakkinen in 1998 was a fantastic thing. I also remember standing on the grid in Brazil with Ayrton Senna in 1991; moments like that I'll take to my grave with me. They were special moments.

Even winning the Macau Grand Prix in Formula 3 with Carlin in 2001 was special. We won that race with Takuma Sato, and the year before we had the front row locked out with Sato and Narain Karthikeyan, but we finished nowhere that year. The next year we went out and got the job done, and it's a real achievement to win that race.

For 2011, one of the most enjoyable events was Townsville. There was a little bit of confusion with the tyre rules (ED: drivers who had retired early in Saturday's race were re-using fresh sprint tyres on Sunday), V8 Supercars had left that bit of a loophole.

k

and not too many people realised and reacted to it.

We collectively put our balls on the line with the strategy, because we believed we could do it, and we did it.

One of the great things about TeamVodafone is that we push ourselves.

We went to that race with the camouflage livery, which to me is a risky thing to do, because when you go to an event with this big fanfare, and you don't deliver, you look stupid. But we went to Townsville with the camo livery, and on Sunday we were first and second.

I thought we looked fantastic that weekend; I was watching the video at the Gala awards in Sydney, and they showed that weekend and it looked great. We were all on pit-wall in this gear.

That was a rewarding race; the whole team really enjoyed that.

There are more races I could list, but I can't single out one race above them all.

There's been quite a few...

Adrian Burgess spoke to Phil Branagan

k

If Kimi decides to come back, I think the main difference for me will be that the parties after the races will be a little bit better.

You’ve got your wish, Heikki Kovalainen. Double vodkas for everybody!

www.mnews.com.au

Clipsal 500 Adelaide, SA March 15-18 Australian Grand Prix Albert Park, Melbourne VIC March 30-Apr 1 Tasmanian Challenge Symmons Plains, Launceston TAS '"'ITM400 April 20-22 Hamilton, NZ May 4-6 Trading Post Challenge Barbagallo, Perth WA Phillip Island May 18-20 Phillip Island, VIC June 15-17 SKYCITY Triple Crown Hidden Valley, Darwin NT Sucrogen Townsville 400 July 6-8 Reid Park, Townsville QLD Coates Hire Ipswich 300 Aug 3-5 Queensland Raceway, Ipswich QLD Winton Aug 24-26 Winton, VIC Sandown 500 Sept 14-16 Sandown, VIC Oct 4-7 Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 Bathurst, NSW Armor All Gold Coast 600 Oct 19-21 Gold Coast, QLD Yas V8 400 Nov 2-4 Yas Marina, Abu Dhabi Nov 30-Dec 2 Sydney Telstra 500 Olympic Park, Sydney NSW

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WINDING BACK the year that was...

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When Valentino Rossi quit Honda tojoin Yamaha,not manypeople gave him a chance ofwinning-certainly notin his first race.ByPHIL BRANAGAN

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ALENTINO Rossi had a season he will want to forget in 2011.

The mercurial Italian switched to Ducati at the end of 2010 and much was expected.

After ail, Casey Stoner won three GPs on the Italian V4 the previous year and Rossi's arrival - and that of his Jeremy Burgessled brain's trust - was a clear indication that Ducati was very serious about the business of winning a World Championship.

To call the season a disaster is not far short of the mark. Rossi scored no wins, and neither did Ducati Corse team-mate Nicky Hayden. Rossi was equal sixth in the final points; Hayden was eighth. At times, both riders were outqualified by privateer Ducatis while they battled with various versions of their GP11 s.

But,things were not always like that. Seven years ago, in a blaze of publicity and some acrimony, Rossi also changed 18

manufacturers. After three titles with Honda,including in the final year of SOOcc twostrokes and the first of MotoGP four-strokes, Rossi was clearly unhappy at Honda and headed to Yamaha for rewards of, reportedly, more than US$1 Om. Yamaha had won races with its YZR-M1, Max Biaggi delivering three wins in 2002, but none came the following year. It had numbers but with Biaggi gone, to Honda,its riders were good, solid'number twos'- Norick Abe, Alex Barros, Carlos Checa, Olivier Jacque, Marco Melandri and Shinya Nakano.

And ... Rossi's first test on the Ml came later than might have been the case, Honda sidestepping the usual courtesy of allowing a departing rider to test for a new make and insisting an idle Rossi see out his contract. This was war. Honda was determined to prove that its bikes had won those titles.

and that the credit lay in Japan, not with the smiling man-child from sleepy Urbino. Yamaha, Rossi and Burgess were equally determined to prove them wrong - and despite's Yamaha's record,they were confident.

"I was confident from the first moment with Yamaha," Rossi said later,"because of the great history of this manufacturer."

The strengths of the Yamaha were handling and braking but the motor needed much work. So serious were Yamaha's engineers that its trademark five valve layout was ditched in favour of a more conventional four valve arrangement. In the long-term, a'Long Bang'engine was developed to deliver power more smoothly and better torque, making the engine more like the Honda VS Rossi was accustomed to. This concept was carried forward when Yamaha started work on its SOOcc GP engines a few years later.

But it was not about the engine. At the first test on the Ml in Malaysia, Rossi shocked Yamaha's engineers by expressing a preference for the least powerful of all the motors in their inventory. While Yamaha engineers worked on its engine, Rossi and Burgess focused on developing a chassis that would make the bike competitive in Year 1 with their new partners.

Both sides saw the season as something of a stop-gap, but equally, both were determined to win, and create some history.

They did not have to wait long.

Welkom in South Africa hosted the first race of the season, and Rossi faced Biaggi and Sete Gibernau, both on Hondas. Rossi qualified on pole - barely - and started steadily, allowing Biaggi to lead, stalking him from behind.

With just over two laps left, Rossi dived past into the lead and no matter what the yellow Honda could manage over the final motorsport news

Unfamiliar colours: By the time Rossi got to test a Yamaha for the first time in January 2004(in traditional carbon fibre black), it was only three months till the first race of ;year. With Jeremy Burgess his side, below, he won eight ces and the title in his first year th the marque.

lap,the man in the somewhat unfamiliar blue leathers did not flinch. He actually pulled a gap over the last lap to win by just over 0.2s, with Gibernau third. In doing so, Rossi became the first man in the history of the sport to win consecutive GPs at the premier level on different makes of motorcycle.

But if that was tough to stomach for Honda's engineers, worse was to come on the slowdown lap. Fully aware that his Yamaha was fitted with a lipstick cam pointing forward, and that the world was watching his every move, he stopped, got off his bike and kissed it.

For more than a decade.

Yamaha had been forced to watch as other makes dominated its bikes. Rossi triumphed a mere three months after he first rode the bike and later said he expected to win the race - as did Yamaha's racing boss Masao Furusawa, who was now looking like a genius. His confidence to hire Rossi and his inner circle was vindicated in year one, with eights wins and a title. In the next six years, they won another three titles together.

Only five men have won titles on two different makes of motorcycle at 500/MotoGP level; Geoff Duke, Giacomo Agostini, Eddie Lawson, Rossi and Casey Stoner. Nobody has ever won titles on three different makes.

Can Rossi create history, again, with Ducati? Stay tuned. www.mnews.com.au

The Battle Continues ONE of the interesting things about Yamaha is that they are quite public with their secrets when it suits them.

Recently, the MotoGP paddock parked its 800cc bikes and started testing its new-for-2012 1000s, leading Ben Spies to comment that his new Ml "didn't need any more power". For the record,Yamaha only ever claimed that its 800cc engines made"more than 200 horsepower",so we can expect that the litre bikes have"way more than 200 horsepower"...

But after the final race of the season, the

company did release some information about the development of the now-obsolete 800s between 2007 and 2011. It's amazing; in that ti me, power went up by 16 percent; torque was up by 12 percent. Fuel consumption also improved, by eight percent.

But while all this was going on, new engine rules were put in place to limit the teams to six engines per season. Because of that, the motors' mileages grew dramatically and the costs associated with developing and racing the Ml engines dropped by 25 percent.

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IVEN this is my final issue as Assistant Editor of MN,I want to discuss something very important - eating and

drinking.

Now, let me assure you of something; this isn't an 'eat well', primary school-style health promotion. In fact, most of the following content will focus on exactly the opposite.

The reason that I have food and drink on my mind is that, after almost six years, I'm leaving MN HQ. An overseas odyssey with my wife awaits,something that is terrifying and exciting in equal parts. In between the terror and excitement,there are moments of reflection.

In these moments of reflection, I realise that, if I had to run through a list of highlights from my time as part of the MN staff, most of them would include food and/or drink. It should be the opulent times, like the overseas trips to places like Abu Dhabi and Singapore, or test driving awesome racing cars like the Toyota Racing Series open-wheeler, but it's not.

These were all awesome experiences, no doubt about that, but there are less luxurious moments that I find myself reminiscing about most.

For instance. I'll never forget having a beer in a dingy bar in Bathurst on the Wednesday night before the Great Race back in 2006.There was nothing special about that particular moment, but I'd never been to Bathurst before that day, and I distinctly remember feeling like life couldn't get any better. I dare say I'll remember that feeling for the rest of my life-at least I hope I do.

The fact that there is a photo of Branagan and I on the wall of a tiny Japanese restaurant in Surfers Paradise never fails to make me smile. Every year we go to same restaurant?usually more than once,and every year we can't find the bloody place. But the beef sashimi is worth several hours of aimless wandering.

The best part of co-driving for two-time Australian Rally Champion Geoff Portman at the Rally of Melbourne in 2007 was stopping half-way through recce on a particular stage because we were outside his house, and his wife had prepared morning tea for us. We sat at'Porthole's' kitchen table, under a photo of him driving a Group A Celica in Malaysia, and had a cup of tea and some scones. It was a perfectly surreal moment.

At a Bridgestone function three days before the 2008 Australian Grand Prix, I found myself scanning a wine list with Sebastien Bourdais and his gorgeous wife Claire. I let them choose, and being quintessentially French,they got the choice of red just right. Later that evening, Seb Vettel and I had a long, and very 20

funny, conversation about Japanese toilets.

And then there was the Rally of New Zealand, where I watched Mikko Hirvonen stroll straight into a hotel bar, still wearing his dusty race suit, and order a frosty Steinlager. He sat down,covered in sponsors logos and in full view of the public, and drank the beer like a man without a care in the world. And why not?

It was Saturday night and he was second on the road for the final day, ready to get the best of the swept tracks and trails. I always admired Mikko for that.

It's strange how my highlights reel seems to be very focused on eating and drinking, but it's not actually about that.

It's about the quieter moments in this line of work,the times that shouldn't be remarkable, but somehow are.That's what I love about this sport.That's what I have loved about working for this magazine.

I

n saying that, something has been missing from my life for nearly six years.

Back in the old days, when I called Perth home,the highlight of my fortnight was getting the latest issue of Motorsport News. It was a pleasure that I enjoyed throughout my transition from reader, to contributor.

But the transition from contributor to staffer changed that. When I joined the MN team,there were no more pleasant surprises. I knew what was going to be in the latest issue of MN every fortnight, because I was a part of it.

That is, of course, what the Twitter generation call a first world problem.Yes, I have genuinely missed the anticipation of a new issue of MN, but the trade-off has been more than worth it.

To have spent more than half a decade flying around the country watching motor racing has been a heck of a lot of fun. It's been hard work too; when I started we were making 25 magazines a year. Now, with eNews, MN and Vic State Racer, we're making 66 magazines in a calendar year.

Given that we have thre^ full-time staff in our humble little office, it's a heck of an achievement.

It has been quite a journey. I consider myself so lucky that our former publisher Chris Lambden gave a 20-year-old acnecovered kid from Perth a shot at a dream job. I consider myself lucky that Branners has been such an amazing mentor and friend, and I consider myself lucky that Mitchell Adam (read: Madam) has made my life as eNews editor so easy by being so good at what he does.

Now,I'm going to consider myself lucky that I get to go back to being an MN/ eNews reader, with the same anticipation of a new issue that I used to have. Life sure is good.

(, ANDREW

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OTORSPORT NEWS:Congratulations on the weekend in Sydney and on the year. It must feel good to be back with the number 1.

JAMIEWHINCUP:Thankyou.

Is it difficult to compare championships? , It is difficult. I am still caught up in the 2011 championship. I have not really had the time to have it sink in.

If I try to compare this with '08 and '09, both were unbelievably special to me. In '08, that was my first [championship];'09 was in a brand new car, in a straight fight with my mate. Will Davison.This one was a big battle with my team-mate.That ijiade it so, so different.

Which one is better and which one is worse? To be honest, I don't really care. I have three championships and it think that every one of them is very special.

Did you carry a focus on the title forward this year, after the disappointments of 2010?

Yes, I did. Without a doubt.

It was not just me; we were all gutted after the disappointments of last year. We felt that we had the tools in the box to do the job; we had everything we needed to do the job, and we didn't do it. It just goes to show what a fantastic job that Jim Beam [Racing] did last year-they took us on and beat us.That was something that we did not want to experience again. We used that motivation to make sure that this year was as complete as it could be.

Has the penny dropped yet that you were a minute or two in the pits, in Sydney last year, away from four titles in a row?

I can go back to '07 as well, and I lost that by two points!

No; I don't think of that, at the end of the day. I am grateful for my three championships.

How was the weekend? It came down to 30 points, again! Every single year...

I say it every year, about Winton time, or half-way through the year;'Hey, it will come down to a handful of points on the last day'.

Everyone must think that this is all rigged, and we are all just puppets, running to the same script.That is not the case; this is the way that the sport is.

I am not a greedy person. I am very thankful for my three championships.

It is not just three championships; it is three championships and two second-places IN FIVE YEARS. I can't remember whether ever Peter Brock or Allan Moffat did that at their peak.

I wasn't around then! lamina great scenario, lamina great team, where people work hard. We have continuity going, as well. We try to perform at our best, every time that we hit the track. I would like to think that the results are showing,from our hard work.

www.mnews.com.au

How is the motivation going? You have achieved so much in a short time, and you are still a relatively young man.

Every time you go onto the track, it is an opportunity to prove your worth. I enjoy the challenge of trying to find a new limit. It is very difficult.

I do not like being behind. I do not like being behind someone else, to chase someone else. We all like to innovate. When we feel nil like, atTeamVodafone, we are doing one area the best that 23

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^iii we possibly can, or better than the rest of the field; we always try to look for the next step. 1 am actually enjoying now trying to improve for next year, with this year complete.

Over the last 20 years, I have got to stick my nose into a few teams' garages. I don't get any sense that there is any staleness in the team.

No, we are enjoying ourselves. We are having a good time and we are certainly not taking for granted the results that we are getting right now. It is not going to last for ever for each particular individual.

The team might go on with unbelievable success for a long time, but every individual in that team, we do not take it for granted. We realise that it won't be around forever. Whether we hit a problem, or people retire, whatever, I think that people are cherishing the moment and respecting what a special thing we have at TeamVodafone at the moment.

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If I compare this season with last season, it seems like it was a private battle over the last four races last year between you and James Courtney; it was one team versus another.This year, it was a private battle between you and Craig [Lowndes];everybody else was excluded. Did it feel different to you?

Massively. It was a massively different scenario.

To be honest, I much prefer racing someone from another team, than [racing] my own team-mate. I would use the work,'awkward'.

We spend so much time, working together, I didn't really want to be competing against Craig at the end. I would rather just take it out on somebody else!

Thankfully, we have got really good management.They managed the situation better than i have seen anything else managed in the past. Lowndesy and I are good friends, we don't allow the influences of outside pressures get in the way of our teamwork, or of our friendship.

24

What a great scenario at the end. I felt bad, taking the #1 away from Craig, but I am rapt that he had a fantastic Sydney [500]; first and second.The championship came down to, pretty much,a handful of points. I think that it was a good scenario, all around.

You mentioned management Jamie. If I can point to one major shift in the team,it was Adrian Burgess coming in and taking over as team principal. What changes - changes that you can explain, anyway - did he make?

[Long pause] We recognised weaknesses within the team in about March 2010 - no, April. There were obvious things that needed to be changed. New personnel needed to come in. I have to be really careful what I say here...

There was a much different feel, and quite a big change in the team this year, compared to last year. Adrian did a great job in educating and communicating well, to the guys that were already there - including myself-and why the changes were happening, and why they were better for the team. It could have been really easy for the original guys to get their backs up, and to make it an issue.

But he hit the ground running.The first week, after all the changes had been announced, I went in and everyone was in a good mindspace.That was a great start.

But the big thing that Adrian has got, is that he wants to win. He has got the passion. He does not like coming second. It has really lined up with the rest of the team.

He's just like you; he has won two [titles] in a row!

He has. He has had a fantastic couple of years. Of course, Kris Goos, my number one mechanic, both number one mechanics came from DJR to TeamVodafone [Ed: the ex-DJR mechanic on #888 was Nick Petrons]. Not that our mechanics were not any good last year. motorsport news

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WHINCUP ON HIS SUCCESSES

Those guys have won two in a row, so that is pretty special.

But the rest of it is pretty stable, apart from Dutto's [Mark Dutton, race engineer's] sideburns.

I think that it is pretty stable. Everyone is intending to stay on for next year; I think that except for one guy in the fab shop, the whole 45 people atTeamVodafone are intending to stay. One guy is going to move to Perth.

We all think that we have a pretty good thing going at TeamVodafone and we want it to continue.

At Sydney you were necessarily conservative. Does that rub against the grain?

It really does. I came away, I was doubting myself at debrief that I had the pace to be competitive. I drove so soft and I was worrying about everything, like finishing the race, rather than going out there and going hard.

I had to be careful. Instead of launching over the chicanes, I kept dropping a wheel on the back of the kerb, which is really dangerous.

You can easily damage the car. Driving slowly and cautious can hurt you just as much as the other. To be honest, the last seven laps of the race, I had no rhythm. I was not in the zone at all. I was paranoid about spinning out, or about coming around a corner and crashing into another car. I needed help from my engineer to get me home.

And he did.

Over the next two years, V8 Supercars faces a lot of changes; there is going to be a new car in 2013, with new events starting next year in Singapore and then onto Texas, hopefully. Is that enough motivation for you? In the past, you have talked about new challenges and, maybe, leaving the sport in your 30s? nil Those things are important. www.mnews.com.au

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25

The new car and the new events, are massively important to keep things fresh. Not so much for me, but I am thinking about Lowndesy,Stevie Johnson and the guys who have been around for a long time... without those changes, gee, it would become repetitive.

In some ways, I wish that Car ofThe Future was next year. 1 feel like we have achieved a lot with our current car. If I had my own way, I would try to make Car ofThe Future ready for next year.That will never happen but I think that I will try to focus on performing at those new events. I am looking forward to that.

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When we look at what you have achieved in the last few years, we need to start looking up the history books. Do you have any sense that you want to use your achievements and your profile to, maybe, achieve something outside the sport?

[Pause from JW].

[PB] I am taking about something like a 'Jamie Whincup Foundation'.

Without a doubt.

I am at the point where I need to start looking at life beyond my driving career. I am hoping that my driving career goes another 10 years. It is not like I am going to move on and just forget about it.

You do need to think of other things while you are competing. I have just signed a new deal with a new management company, that happened a couple of months ago.They are going to help me achieve that. I am looking at other things; investments, maybe even a foundation. That is a pretty accurate assumption. That is where my head is at, I want to be taking that next step.

Our sport is growing from strength to strength. Look at the numbers; 40,000 people went to the cricket at the 'Gabba over the [Sydney 500] weekend. But 172,000 people went through the gates at Flomebush. It was more than 50,000 on Sunday - which is over the number for all four days of Australia playing cricket at the 'Gabba.

It is a massive sport. It is a big thing. It is one that, I think, we should all proudly be involved with.

You have three trophies on the shelf now. What is a decent number? You just said that you can see yourself competing for another 10 years. How many championships will satisfy you?

I was happy with one! I am satisfied with three.

Every time I go on the track, I am going to go as hard as I possibly can. If I do that, those numbers will take care of themselves. I am unbelievably grateful for three championships. I will die a happy man no matter what happens.

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A wise old racing driver - I will not name him - told me once, 'Trophies are great but they do not let you carry take them onto the track with you".

[Laughs] Explain what that means...

His view was, he thought his championships were fantastic, but once he drove across that white line onto the track, they didn't mean anything.

You are exactly right.

From Adelaide, I will have #1 on my car, and no one can deny me that for the next 12 months. In the first qualifying session in Adelaide, the best man will be on pole.The best man will win.

Sounds to me like there is still a hunger there.

I still have the hunger, without doubt. I am pretty squeaky clean on the outside, but there is plenty of room for improvement. I can see a few other blokes really stepping up, or they stepped up at the end of this year. They will be hard to beat next year.

1 am already thinking about the challenge. I am looking forward to seeing if 1 can beat those guys again.

1

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www.mnews.com.au

we worked with James at DJR and we got results OTORSPORT NEWS:Jamie says it is difficult to compare championships - that way.

Coming here, it was very obvious that there but successive championships, with wasn't wholesale changes needed. We have made different teams, is a different thing some small structural changes this year, but the again. Can you compare them? early days were about keeping the ship going in ADRIAN BURGESS: I don't think that you can. It's the same direction. Roland [Dane], Ludo [Lacroix] like comparing two of your children. You love them and all the guys had already set the path; it was a both;they are both incredibly special in their own matter of carrying on thd"same principals. A small way. tweak and polish; it was not about reinventing the This year was more rewarding, in a way. Having wheel. both your cars running at the front, and going to every round, knowing that you should be It's fairly unique to have,in two years, a competitive - in the running for a podium view of three of your drivers contend for the weekend to weekend has been a great experience. championship. What is your view of what the I think that last year, we took our opportunities drivers have in common? we pounced at the right time. We were ... we were They are all extremely professional, highly smartly fortuitous. But that is not taking anything motivated.They all do it in a slightly different way away from DJR and James. At the end of the day, but they are all at the top of their game.They are you still have to do the job, and we did. probably the best drivers in this particular country This year was a little bit more straightforward. and they are all intelligent.They have commitment, I wasn't with a team that was trying to rip itself focus and drive.This is the world's most apart. I didn't need to get involved with politics.

From that sense, it was much more straightforward. competitive touring car championship; you don't get that [title] easily.The drivers who have come out and seen it over the last couple of years are Last year, you looked atTeamVodafone from the taking that message home with them.We probably outside. Did what you found when you got there don't give our drivers here enough credit. match what you thought it was?

There were not too many surprises when I walked The three drivers; I might characterise James as m.

I had experience working at a team like McLaren 'emotional'; Jamie is'workmanlike'; and Craig is 'the natural driver'. Is that fair? and there are things to compare. A team can look I would say that they are all natural drivers - but like one thing looking from the outside but when you are right in what you are saying. you are on the inside, it's then you appreciate all Jamie is very workmanlike. He is businesslike the hard work that goes into making it all work. in the way that he identifies what he needs to I could tell from last year, and previous years, improve his own game. I think he will try to analyse that they were a well-oiled machine.They did himself and see a weakness - and confront it, make make it look easy. I can understand why it looks a plan and work out how to fix it. easy from the outside, but I can see the amount of James is emotional -1 think he is the kind of effort, detailed preparation and organization that driver who responds more to people, and to goes into making it look that way. having the right people around him.That does No real surprises -just a confirmation of what I a lot for his confidence. Jamie and Craig, being saw when I looked at the team. in a team that is competitive day-in, day-out, are So is the approach not to try to change too much, probably more secure in knowing that they have the best car in the paddock. At DJR, it was probably too quickly or to identify the changes needed more a case of playing 'pin the tail on the donkey' and try to make them happen quickly and than some other people. We were closer to the painlessly? wind than some other people, in terms of what we It's a mixture of both. needed.

My style is definitely not,'Rip,Tear or Bust'. I have Craig is... there are so many things you can say got a firm belief, especially with drivers,that you about Craig. Yes, he is professional; in the car, he is need to have a consistent package - both in terms level-headed. He believes in his ability. He of staff and in equipment. You start with that and 111^ has a great relationship with the guys. He slowly finesse what you have got.That's the way 29

F

LAST YEAR WE TOOK OUR OPPORTUNITIES. WE WERE SMARTLY FORTUITOUS BURGESS ON 2010 WITH JIM BEAM RACING

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is such a great guy, and you cannot help but be drawn in by the big smile and his affection for the guys.

He hasn't been wowed by the'Hollywood' side of this industry. He has good management behind him and he is very astute.

The playing field changed a bit this year.

The Sprint tyre was a major point of difference between teams in 2010, but much less so this season.

I think it did. I think people learnt a lot more this year than they did last year.

Last year there were fewer occasions on which we could use the tyre. We [DJR] probably hit the ground running on the soft tyre and got on top of it faster than other people. We had four straight race wins at QR [Queensland Raceway] and Winton, due to James's ability and Scotty's [race engineer Scott Sinclair] set-up. We got to most out of the tyre, straight away. That obviously helped the campaign last year.

Like every good team, they [TeamVodafone] analysed 2010 and the pros and cons of the year. We [TeamVodafone again] knew that we needed to do a better job this year, and the engineers and the drivers did a great job in understanding that. There isn't a better car on the soft tyre straight away.

Big teams should do that. If they are not making progress, they should be asking the question, why? That is why I like, and Roland 30

likes, changes in the rules; it give you an opportunity to get ahead. Keep changing the rules; we don't mind!

the last race. I wasn't as hard as I thougbht it would be.

TeamVodafone finished 1 -2 in the

You mentioned challenges; one of them was, surely, how to manage two drivers both going for the championship. Can you make comparisons between those?

You are right but they are two totally different years for me, in that regard.

DJR is a fantastic team, I love them to death. I don't want to make too much of it but, clearly, there was a breakdown in the structure and for me as a manager, just to keep the crew together, to find the parts and out them on the car, was an issue. It was a difficult year.

This year, managing two extremely competitive driver... not just myself, but the crew, the engineers, everyone at the factory did a fantastic job in keeping the two drivers level-headed.

One positive here is that the drivers know that they drive for a team. Neither of them think that they are bigger than the team.

When they both need a tune-up, they both know to do the right thing. They respond; they listen to you. I believe that we have the respect of the drivers, as they are respected.

It wasn't as hard keeping them both level headed and focused on the job. Three or four months ago, I could see this coming and I was very happy, very impressed and very proud of all the guys, and how professionally they all acted up until the very last lap of

championship. The 'house', if I can refer to Triple Eight as that, won the Fujitsu Series.

Teams' championship'... no one has ever been at this altitude before. How do you top this?

We do not have any problems keeping ourselves motivated.

We have 45 people in this building that are born winners. They love to win. When we have a bad weekend, every single person is disappointed with themselves and looking for ways to improve. For me, that was a positive.

We didn't have a perfect year. The trophy cabinet is bulging, but we can still do better.

There were a couple of bad weekends. New Zealand for example; we can do better. At Bathurst, we could easily have come out of there 1 -2. We had the car speed, we had the cars and drivers, but we didn't get the result that we expected.

There were some car problems, but they were few. We can do better and we are going to aim to do better.

I always look back to McLaren winning 15 out of 16 Grands Prix [Ed: in 1988]. We are not arrogant but we set targets to push ourselves. Any team or driver going into a championship not believing that they can win it, won't.There is always room to improve. motorsport news

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IMAGINE if Ford or Holden mounted the biggest publicity and advertising campaign in their history to unveil their latest model car -the culmination of an unprecedented amount of research and development.

Imagine then that when they pulled . back the covers to reveal the shiny new vehicle to the world,it looked exactly the same as the current model car.That's what onlookers at the launch of the Car of the Future at Homebush at the Sydney Telstra 500 were presented with.

But anyonejudging the COTF book by its cover is completely missing the point.The point of this exercise is what's inside - and it makes for compelling reading.This has been a project undertaken by a group ofthe best engineering minds in Australian motorsport to take the existing concept of a V8 Supercar and make it safer, easier to drive and easier

to race,easier to build and maintain, have it incorporate more modern technology to make it more relevant and attractive to the contemporary Australian automotive industry,and make it cheaper to build.

And, ultimately, and indeed if new manufacturers do join in the fun,the option of changing the external appearance of the cars is one that will be open to them at any time they choose.

Changing the bodywork on a COTF is relatively easy.The really hard work, under the skin, has already been done.

This is, as Mark Skaife says,evolution, not revolution.That said, the deeper you look inside the COTF,the more you realise just how substantial a change this is going to be. It is, as the external appearance suggests,just like a V8 Supercar, only a whole lot better, across a whole range of different areas.

As COTF chairman,Skaife has been the captain guiding the COTF ship since the project was launched three years ago.

Skaife's role was to work with the team owners and manufacturers in developing a basic concept,a set of objectives the new car had to meet: "It's a very important step for us because it's a real cultural change,"Skaife explains.

'You've got to remember that in the history of touring car racing in this country, manufacturers have been homologating their own cars to go racing.

"What we've done is homologated the Ford and Holden car.

"That homologation process has been done by us, and that will be the same for a new manufacturer.So what we want to do is reduce the cost for any new manufacturer." nil

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Skaife oversaw the development of the original concept, but it was up to the engineering group, led byV8 Supercars general manager of motorsport, Adam Perry,to turn the idea of the COTF into a physical reality.

That group comprised Frank Adamson, V8 Supercars category technical manager; Vincent Dumarski,formerly of Prodrive and a Frenchman with lots of European touring car experience; Ludo Lacriox from Triple Eight; Doug Skinner from Walkinshaw Racing;Jim Stone of SBR; and former PMM engineer Paul Ceprinich, now of Pace Innovations, the engineering company that built the two prototypes.

The basic set of objectives, in simple terms, were: Provide the technicalframework of the sport to further promote and expand the category A closer alignment with the Australian automotive market Embrace the car industry as an opportunity for other manufacturers to compete Maintain at its heart the'DMA'of V8 Supercars Enhanced safety from reduced vehicle mass,fuel cell location and driver protection Reduce vehicle build and repair costs Ensure higher quality racing Meeting what are a bunch of conflicting parameters was, on the engineering side of things,the heart of the challenge. It helped, says Perry,that they had a pretty good product to start with.

"The brief was to take what we had," he explains,"limit the amount of redundancy of the teams'current equipment, and not step too far outside of what we had,so that we wouldn't lose the good qualities of what we already have. p "We needed to remain relevance to the automotive industry, and we needed to ensure teams can still manufacture a lot of their own components if they wanted, make it more cost effective to repair."

The extravagant launch of COTF was aimed at showcasing the 2013 V8 Supercar to the motorsport industry and, importantly,the manufacturers. But they also had a sell job to do on the fans,judging by some of the negative feedback on V8 Supercars'own website.

The common complaint is that COTF has gone too far down the NASCAR road. Yet this is something of an ill-informed criticism - because in terms of the way the cars are constructed, with the cage/chassis structure being built and then wrapped in body panels which themselves have no structural significance, COTF is no different from V8 Supercars as they are today, and have been for some years.

That's the reality. Our touring car racing has long since moved away from anything 34

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resembling a homologated performance road car.The last proper homologation special in Australian touring car racing was the VN Commodore way back a whole 20 years ago.

All it means is that with a control chassis, teams won't be able to keep evolving their chassis by increments which, while small, costa lot to develop.

And no one need fear that the cars will be NASCAR-style caricatures in appearance.

"One of the locked-in parts of the brief was we had to maintain external authenticity with the showroom car,"says Perry."Forward of the front three-quarter had to have OEM panels. We've done that.

"We've already overlayed seven or eight different model body shapes over the chassis, and the majority of them fit with no more problems than the current FG Falcon and VE Commodores.

"A body shape might need to be slightly stretched or shrunk in certain areas to fit properly, but that's no more than they're doing now.The FG and VE are slightly shrunk, and the VE runs a shorter wheelbase than the road car.

"The important thing is that there won't be change year-in, year-out.They can be mass produced by a chassis manufacturer, and any team will have the ability to have the same chassis as, say,Triple Eight has. Even working with Roland Dane, he believes he can build them for well under the $270,000 (rolling chassis) that we earmarked earlier in the year.

The current cars are between $350,000 and $400,000."

The biggest single change is the move to a transaxle transmission, which replaces the Holinger gearbox and the old timehonoured live rear end in one hit.

"The live rear axle is actually very expensive to maintain," Perry says."That's one reason to move away from it, but we also wanted to be more reflective of the current automotive industry.

"One of the reasons it's expensive is that it's difficult technically to make it work, and not flex, so it's been an area where teams have done a lot of development work.

"They've ended up with quite exotic pieces of engineering trying to make them work, but that means they're costing about $70,000 - and when you bend one against a wall at Adelaide, it's a throwaway item."

But a transaxle had not been part of the original plan. Indeed, as Perry explains, they virtually stumbled upon it.

"We wanted to continue with the Holinger gearbox but we had to develop a custommade differential for the independent rear suspension," he explains.

"It just proved to be a very expensive exercise for a differential. Albins actually won the tender to do the differential, so just prior to signing off on it we went down to their shop and had a look around.

"We were in their build room for their transaxles and I was looking at one of the transaxles...that is how simply it came about -1 said,'how much is one of those?'and Steve McDonald (of Albins) gave me a bit of an idea what a transaxle cost. I went back to the board and suggested we do it that way instead.

"It comes with some engineering challenges, in that you have engine speed on the tailshaft, so you get a bit more vibration, but we've got that under control now.

"In the end we have put a modern transaxle in the car for less money than it would have cost for a separate differential and gearbox.

Packaging wise it works well for us, and we get a better weight distribution front to rear, so in the end it was an easy decision."

All these measures at cost reduction and ease of maintenance are aimed not just at the bottom line but also at the bigger picture of an expanded Championship that might run as long as 18 events of a 40-week season.That's the aim for 2015 - that's what these cars are designed for.

And if it all works out as planned,the Championship will have also expanded beyond the regular Holden-vs-Ford battle.

"Rock solid," was Skaife's reply at the launch when questioned by journalists as to whether or not there would be any new manufacturers coming in with the COTF. "I've got a bet with one of your friends - it's going to be a very expensive night for him! It'll be 2013."

IIB^ motorsport news

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Inside the Future: The COTFs engine is mounted lower and further back in the engine bay than the current units. Presently, testing is being conducted with a 2011-spec motor while regulations are still being developed for 2013. Car rolls on Winch wheels and matching Dunlops, while fuel system Is much different. Tank is mounted amidships,and refulling set-up is designed to suit. Inside, there is lots to see;floor-mounted shifter is much different and links to rear-mounted Albins transaxle. Tunnel is low and narrow, allowing set to move inboard. Cage is spec item and there will be no further developments. Note custom pedal box built by Triple Eight Race Engineering, and polycarbonate windscreen makes current cars' 'Larry Bar'redundant.

Congratulations Winners' Ist^ 2nd and 3rd across the line: All winning drivers were using Dunlops DZ03G 1st 2nd 3rd V

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ENGINE No significant changes to basic engine specification or ancillary equipment. COTF will run a fly-by-wire throttle and have individual ignition coil packs.The engine's mount position relative to the front axle line has been shift back and down by 100mm.

V8SA will aim for an engine power output of around 445kW (600bhp) as opposed to the current(approx.)477kW.The desired figure will depend on the ultimate weight of the cars.

While the aim is 100kg less than the current cars, this is expected to drop back to about 75kg once the teams actually start building their cars. Prospective new manufacturers can run a development of their own engine,the performance of which would be equalised against the existing Ford and Flolden engines by V8 Supercars.

Alternatively they may opt to use a'generic' engine supplied by V8 Supercars.

Adam Perry:"Throttling back the engines is also a good option for us in the event of a new manufacturer coming in - so that a modern performance production engine doesn't have to be overly stretched to reach the power output of our current engines."

CHASSIS The chassis design and specification

are fixed. But while all chassis will be dimensionally identical, they will not come from one single chassis manufacturer. Rather, there will be seven or eight accredited vehicle builders, which means there will still be teams building their own cars.There will be different build options: the team will either get a flat pack of material, or they'll buy a chassis in partly assembled form and then do the rest of the assembly themselves.

Adam Perry;"The level of manufacturing the teams did in the past probably won't change much.V8 Supercars wanted teams to still be able to use the manufacturing equipment they've invested in, and that will continue."

FRONT SUSPENSION Basically unchanged.Teams will carry over their current designs.The prototype cars use Triple Eight front ends with geometry that's similar to the Project Blueprint cars, so teams will have no trouble using their existing components.

Adam Perry:"While these areas are free, we do not want it to become an area of development. So initially there will be a requirement that teams will have to be able to fit the 17-inch wheels over any new package they put forward.

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WINDSCREEN The windscreen is polycarbonate, a special laminated plastic material that's 250 times stronger than glass. The socalled'Larry Bar'diagonal brace seen in current V8 Supercars will not be a feature oftheCOTF. STEERING COLUMN A collapsible steering column is one of a number of major new safety features, it differs from conventional road car design in that the collapsible section is in the engine bay, not inside the cabin.

INSTRUMENTATION Similar to the current arrangement. The electronics package will be all control components, using Motec gear. Teams have the option of using larger D-shaped dash unit or the smaller steering column dash.There will be a control ECU and data logger, a power control module incorporating accident data recorder (which is currently separate) and a GPS system.

SEAT, SIDE INTRUSION Another key safety feature. The seat is not a control item, but it must comply with

the latest FIA 8862 standard, V8 Supercars is one of the few categories in the world to adopt this standard. The COTF team put a lot of work into testing driver seat and mountings to get to this.

TRANSMISSION The biggest single change. Transaxle (a transmission system which incorporates the differential and gearbox in one assembly) design allows for independent rear suspension. With the gearbox effectively moved back towards the rear axle line, it also improves weight distribution - a key factor of the new car's superior vehicle dynamics.

The design of the transaxle incorporates a drop gear arrangement, so that changing diff ratios does not mean changing the crown wheel and pinion. Initially there will be two final-drive gear ratio sets, and they'll be much easier to change.

REAR SUSPENSION All new independent rear suspension will have control pickup points, and a control specification uprights and wishbones - teams can manufacture their own components but they must adhere to a fixed dimension.

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Race smart.

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All the titles are important and memorable as they’re never put together in the same way.I’m proud to have become the most-

titled racing driver, even if one shouldn’t really try and compare the different branches ofthe sport. www.mnews.com.au

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^iii sum up his 2011 season.

"When we started this adventure with HRT, we knew where the car was, and everything appreciated when we got a strong result - like Montreal, where we finished 13th. At the end of the day, results are important, and the competition with your team-mate is really . important, "i think in the first half of the season we were really heading in the right direction. We were improving every time, everything was going really well. But after we had the change of ownership, and a few changes in the team,the development curve stopped a bit. We stood still for a while."

For Liuzzi, the move to HRT has been a lot about realigning expectations. When he was with Red Bull, the car wasn't great, but the budget was healthy and the mid-field was the target. With Force India in 2010,the car was a genuine Top 10 contender. With HRT in 2011, points are a distant dream, and just making a race distance is considered a great result.

"At the beginning it was tough, it was really frustrating," he admits.

"You know what a good car can give you, and you know that people looking from the outside don't realise how tough it is to drive a slow car.

"It's way harder to drive a slow car and to make it go fast. A fast car is simple; it's on rails, because it has so much grip. You can handle it easily. When you're at the back of the grid, you fight three times harder just to make the race distance!"

And that, essentially, brings us up to date on the FI career ofTonio Liuzzi.There may be a question mark over where he goes from here, but for now, Liuzzi is holding on to the fact that he does have an agreement with the team.

"I have a long-term contract with the team, and I believe that they are happy with me. But you can never give up.There is always pressure. You have to show your potential every race, you can never relax. ^ "I don't regret any stage of my career, or any result. I just think it's that Formula 1 is not about speed, it's about having big backing behind you.

"This is my seventh year in Formula 1, and I still enjoy it a lot. I think even 2011, which has been a much bigger challenge with HRT, it's been exciting.

That's why I want to stay there in 2012."

In Liuzzi's challenges haven't been restricted to2011, an unwilling Formula 1 car.

After meeting with Tony D'Alberto and his V8 Supercar team at the Australian Grand Prix, Liuzzi agreed to drive the #3 Falcon on the Gold Coast.

It was an interesting decision. Quality aside, the transition from Formula 1 to V8 Supercars is a tough job.The fact that Liuzzi consciously decided to take it on, knowing full well that the GT and sportscar aces were likely to be faster, is impressive.

"This is the opposite of what I am used to doing.

It's quite cool. It's very challenging, very different, but I really enjoyed it. It's really going from one end of motorsport to the other.

"I wasn't worried about a new challenge. I think every driver should try and do these kind of events, because a talented driver needs III to be versatile. You need to be able to go 52

1

motorsport news

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KUMHO TYRES Motorsports

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V70A 225/50ZR16(rhedium,hard)$253 $126 n ' i; $234 $234 ' : V70A 235/40ZR17 (soft) Three Step Plan: Liuzzi kicked off his Formula 1 career with Red Bull Racing, below, then moved to Force India, left, and is now with back-markers Hispania Racing Team, above.

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0418 404 945 0405 509 943 02 9683 5511 02 9679 8044 07 38651072 08 8431 5856 03 6274 1640 03 6631 2948 03 9379 2616 08 9354 7855

53

or anything else you drive. You have to show your skill, and that's why I accepted this challenge. talked with the D'Alberto's team when I was in Melbourne for the Formula 1 Grand Prix, and when they offered me the drive, I accepted very quickly. because I wanted to do it. I like the category, I think it's very competitive, and I really enjoyed the weekend." "he problem with being a Formula 1 driver in an environment like the Gold Coast 600 is that the expectation from the audience is huge.Those less educated in the field of motorsport might have expected that a current FI driver would be the class of the eclectic field of international drivers, in reality, Liuzzi faced probably the biggest task of any of them. Like his year with FIRT, Liuzzi had to make sure his expectations were realistic, and not get carried away. With that in mind, he did well. building up in speed and keeping the car off the walls. It was a truly professional effort.

'The hardest bit was being consistent with the driver change," he says.

Every time you have to jump out, there is a sequence to do, and for me,I'm on the wrong side of the car.

'There was also the brakes.The car's brakes are very different to a Formula 1 car, so you have to watch for front locking.There is no downforce. so if you brake one metre late, it's one metre too much.You need to get used to that, and on a track like Surfers Paradise it's very difficult, because the walls don't let you make mistakes. You can't afford to make a mistake. I was just slowly, slowly getting used to it.

The key when you start is just getting used to the car. On the Wednesday at the other track (ED: Queensland Raceway),there was no focus on the times. It was the same on Friday on the Gold Coast; I was just learning slowly, not rushing, because if you make a mistake, you are in the wall and you lose the session."

So what was Liuzzi's lasting thought on his V8 Supercar debut? Unsurprisingly, it was the quality of the full-time drivers.

1 had to switch on a bit! Formula 1 is the top of motorsport, and the drivers are all very good, but the drivers [in V8 Supercars] are not stupid!They are professional drivers, they do this every day. and that's why the competition is so tough.

'I really believe there is a high quality of driver in V8s, and that's what makes the championship so interesting."

Maybe,just maybe,the one piece of certainty in Liuzzi's future is that he'll be back for more this October...

54

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SPORTSCAR DRIVERS TOOK OVER THE GOLD COAST 600 THIS YEAR, SO MOTORSPORT NEWS TOOK OVER A GERMAN RESTAURANT WITH ONE OF THE BEST IN THE BUSINESS, JORG BERGMEISTER.

BY ANDREW VAN LEEUWEN

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HERE'S something strange going on here.

It's a Thursday night on the Gold Coast, and the MNews team are right in the heart of Surfers Paradise. We're sitting at a long table in the Bavarian Haus restaurant,joined by native German - and Porsche factory driver - Jorg Bergmeister and his stunning American wife Danielle.

And the waiter has just presented our entree of kangaroo and crocodile.

It doesn't quite fit; here we are in a German restaurant, with a German racecar driver, with crappy German pop music playing in the background. And we're about to chow down on some quintessentially Australian game.

"I had deep-fried crocodile once in the US," says Bergmeister.

"It tasted like chicken nuggets."

He chews through the un-fried version of the croc and looks a little puzzled; "It's fine..." he says, without making any attempt go back for more. Not that he would have any luck if he did; Danielle has quickly developed a taste for the dish, particularly the kangaroo.

Just to clarify, this isn't a normal style of interview. Most of the interviews we conduct are at workshops, or in

www.mnews.com.au

transporters or hospitality units at race circuits. It gets a little monotonous, so when we had the chance to take Bergmeister out for a German feed (well, as German as a feast that includes crocodile and kangaroo can be), we jumped at it.

You'd think that, as a German,the last thing that Bergmeister would want to do Down Under is eat ata German restaurant.

But, while Danielle and the pair's fiveyear-old daughter live in Langenfeld, 30 kilometres north of Cologne, Bergmeister spends up to eight months of the year in the United States, racing Porsches in the American Le Mans Series. A German feed is quite a rarity.

"I try to go home every once in a while to see my wife and daughter, which is quite rare," he says.

"If I have a chance to go home, if it's not weekend after weekend of racing, then I will try and go home for a couple of days. I fly overseas probably 15 times a year, so there are a lot of air miles.

"And when I am home, I am usually testing at Weissach at the Porsche test track, doing development on the racecars."

And despite Danielle being from San Francisco, those eight months in The States are generally lonely ones for Bergmeister,

with the family opting to stay put in Deutschland.

"Danielle and our daughter tend to stay in Germany. Our daughter is five now,so she has a home environment, and she's about to start schooi. When i'm racing in Germany, they come to the track every once in a while, but usually I try and focus on the racing.

That's my job."

Apart from the time away from his family, there's not much not to like about Bergmeister's job. He's a factory Porsche driver, and spends most of his time as Patrick Long's team-mate at Flying Lizard Motorsports in the ALMS, in other words, Bergmeister lives the typicaliy diverse world of a professional sportscar driver.

"A year for me,as a factory driver, means it's a long year!"he says.

"We start in the first week of January for the test day in Daytona,then the race there is at the end of January. By then we've already started testing for the ALMS season, with tyre testing and so on.Then its the 12 Hours of Sebring, which is the highlight for us; that's the biggest race on the ALMS calendar.

"This year, i also drove the GT3R Hybrid at the 24 Hours of Nurburgring, which involved a lot of testing before the

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"I will race or drive pretty much everything that Porsche makes during any year. It’s not bad, I can’t complain race. Then there is 24 Hours of Le Mans, which is the highlight of the year for me,and then it's back to the ALMS, with a lot of races in a row.

"How many series in a year? Well, it depends.The main focus for the last couple of years has been the ALMS, but I also did a couple of races this year in Grand Am.Then there were two races in the VLN (ED:The Veranstaltergemeinschaft Langstreckenpokal Nurburgring, an endurance series raced entirely on the Nurburgring Nordschleife).

"In terms of cars, I will race or drive pretty much everything that Porsche makes during any year. It's not bad, I can't complain. I get a nice company car too! It's a dream come true."

This year, Bergmeistertook motor racing diversity to a new level. With the success of his Porsche team-mate Long in the 2010 Gold Coast 600,the likes of Bergmeister and fellow Porsche driver Marc Lieb were 58

prime targets for the second running of the event. Jack Daniel's Racing were quick to snap Bergmeister up, and he repaid them by helping Rick Kelly to seventh on Saturday, and fifth on the Sunday.

"After Patrick drove here last year, he was really into it,"explains Bergmeister.

"He told me all about it and I became interested, so I tried to reactn out and see if there was anything available. It looked like it wouldn't work out for me,and then during the 12 Hours of Sebring race weekend Todd [Kelly] sent me a message, asking if I'd be interested. I was up for it! I gave him a call straight away,and then' I asked for the release from Porsche. Our racing season is over, so Porsche are very relaxed about it.

They like to give us the freedom to do what we love doing, and that's racing."

With a deal in his pocket, Bergmeister then set about trying to get his bead around the concept of trading big tyres, and lots of aero for, well, a V8 Supercar.

"Patrick gave me a good heads-up on what I should expect. He described the car as a Porsche Cup Car on steroids!The Cup Car moves quite a bit as well, which is a lot like theVS. "The power is something that I'm not quite used to. And the small tyres are hard. If you had good traction it would be one thing, but looking after the tyres for a whole stint is a different story. Patrick over exaggerated it all a bit, but he wasn't too far off. With the hard tyre, the car is pretty good.The tyres weren't dropping too much. But with the soft tyre, it's an eye-opener.

"We complain about the Porsches and how they are difficult to drive, but the V8 is a completely different animal.

"It's not that they are very difficult to drive; they are actually easy to drive, but going quick is difficult. It's a very unique technique that you need to be quick in the car, and for me it's very challenging.

"I struggled to do what the 110^ motorsport news

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TROFEO MOTORSPORT OFFERS FOR SALE ITS COMPLETE INVENTORY OF FACTORY BUILT UNIQUE MASERATI RACE CARS.

\Ne offer the cars displayed and a huge inventory ofspare parts moulds andjigs along with a wealth of knowledge about these cars for future maintenance.

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Spates new.and used: Geatim. Assoded engine/geaibox pads,4 sets Sachs Shocks. Body Panels. Moulds foi new Panels. SpHttei. Suspension Pads. Windscreens. Hubs, hake pads. Jigs lot new pads. Wheels & Much More. Phone lor lull list & puces.

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT ROD ON 0417 511 911 OR EMAIL ROD@TROFEOIVIOTORSPORT.COIVI www.mnews.com.au

59

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‘‘Michael Schumacher taught my brother and I a lot about karting - including how w to take people out. engineers told me, because its completely different to what I'm used to doing in the Porsche. In the Porsche, it's braking-on-throttle, so there is no coasting, but with the tyres on the V8, you have to over drive it a bit on the way in, and then delay your throttle input. I'm not patient enough! I want to get going again!"

III

While Jorg Bergmeister be his relatively unknown in might Australia, family have a proud motor racing history in Germany.

Bergmeister's father, Willi Bergmeister, was a racecar driver, backed by famous liquor brand Jagermeister. Willi's most ironic achievement was when he won the 1974 German Hillclimb Championship. Why ironic? Because, in English,'Berg'means 'Mountain', and 'Meister' means'Master'.

60

Havimg won the title, Willi was involved in Jager advertising campaigns that went something along the lines of'My name is Bergmeister, and I am the Berg Meister'.

Wi lli had one more motor racing connection...

"He owned an Audi and Volkswagen dealtership, and Michael Schumacher used to work there," explains Jorg.

"M.ichael taught my brother and I a lot about karting - including how to take people out(laughs)" While the Bergmeister family is in its second generation of motor racing, the third is well on its way. In fact, Jorg's daughter has already taken an interest in karting.

"She has been in a kart a couple of times, but Jorg isn't home enough to actually teach her," says Danielle.

"I offer to be the supervisor for these

experiments, as I call them, but I can't teach her anything about driving. I can tell her that the gas pedal is on the right and the brake is on the left, but that won't help her too much.

But she wants to be a firefighter."

"Yeah, well, she's still young,"interjects Jorg.

"But the next generation is already going.

My brother's son is six now, and he's been driving for three years already. He's on it! He's honestly very good. At the Kerpen kart track (ED:the circuit owned by the Schumacher family), the Bambinis race up to 11.The oldest kids get down to mid-to-high 54s on that track, and the second time he drove there he did a high 55."

Looks like the next generation of the Mountain Masters is in safe hands. Much safer than the schweinehaxes and glasses of Erdinger hefewiezens that graced our table that night on the Gold Coast... motorsport news

!

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1. Who set the fastest lap at Bathurst in 2011?

2. Back in 2002, who took Ford's first V8 Supercar Championship Series round win of the year?

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3. Before that, a Ford driver did win a non-points V8 race in 2002.

Who was the driver and where was the race?

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4. Who was the last American driver to finish on the podium of a Formula 1 Grand Prix?

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5. Ferrari is third on the list of highest winning percentage in Grand Prix racing.Two British teams are 1-2 on that list. Name them.

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6.The MINI team made its WRC debut in 2011. How many stages were won this season by MINIs? 7. How many drivers raced for BJR in'Main Game'races in 2011.

And, name them.

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8. How many circuits appear on the seven-round calendar for the 2012 Radical Australia Cup?

% THE Gf?2 CHWn< DRIVERS mo(mi^ WRONo mn wm motorsport news

^NOTHBK YEAR OF.NOTORSFORT HAS FLOWN FAST, WHICH MEANS ITS TIME FOR THE FAMOUS MOTORSFORT NEWS QUIZ. SO QRAB A ORINK, FUT YOUR THINKINQ CAP ON ANO QET STUCK IN ^ 20.FUMSU BNOBO ITS NAMm Rims SFONSORSHIF OF THB VB ^ SUFERCAR , OB\rBLOFMBNT " SBRIBSIN2011 CAN YOU NAME WINNERS OF I THBrUMSU SBRIBSr

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10. Valentino Rossi has been the dominant motorcycle racer for almost 15 years. One season, he won all Grands Prix in which he raced, except four. What year?

What bike?

11.Three new Formula 1 teams debuted at the Bahrain Grand Prix in 2006. What were their names?

12.Three drivers also kicked off their FI careers at the Bahrain race in '06. Name them.

13. Who is older; NASCAR star Carl Edwards or MotoGP racer, Colin Edwards?

14. Speaking of Edwards, at Flomestead, he and Tony Stewartfought an epic battle

for NASCAR's Sprint Cup.They finished 1-2 in the race, and the series. Who was third in the race, and who was third in the series?

15.You could hardly swing a cat without hitting an ex-Formula 3 champion this season. Name all the former champs from the Australian, British, German, Italian, Japanese F3 series, and F3 Euroseries who raced a V8 Supercar any time during 2011.

16. Who was the first Englishman to win the World Rally Championship as a driver?

17. Who was the highest-placed Aussie in the 2011 British Formula Ford Championship?

18.They say no-one remembers who finished second. Can you name the drivers who finished second in the 2006,2007,2008, 2009 and 2010 Formula 1 World Championships?

IS SUPPOSED DEVEUOP YOUWQ^ b PRIX STARS. SO, WHAT HAS BEEN op the last pour Of2TfTiUE/STS? www.mnews.com.au

19. Further down the order, who finished 11th in the 2011 Formula 1 Constructors title?

21. Before 201 l,the NHRATop Fuel Champion had not raced in

the category in how long - and who was he?

22. When did current V8 Supercars Driving Standards Observer Thomas Mezera last start a V8 Supercar race? For bonus points, where did he finish?

23. Dario Franchitti won the 2011 IndyCar title without winning the 'Road'or'Oval' mini-titles. Who won those?

24. Which of these drivers hasn't won an IndyCar Rookie ofthe Year title; J.R. Flildebrand, Alex Lloyd or Raphael Matos?

25.Who was a full-time Garry Rogers Motorsport driver longer Garth Tander or Lee Floldsworth?

26. Speaking of Garth, he added another Bathurst win to his CV in 2011.When he and Nick Percat won the Bathurst 1000, was it the first race Percat had ever won in a V8 Supercar, including the Fujitsu Series?

27. Who was Todd Kelly's co driver at the 2011 Bathurst 1000?

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28. H<m WNY ORJV'ERS RACEO A ^8 SUFBRCAR FOR THB FIR$T TIMB AT THB 20n ARMOR AU,GOLD COAST600? ^iii

29. How many drivers won their maiden ARC round during the 2011 Bosch Austraiian Raiiy Championship?

30. Which German has started more Formula 1 Grands PfixSebastian Vettel or Adrian Sutil?

31. Who was the last Italian to win a Formula 1 Grand Prix?

32. One of the 2011 Goid Coast 'internationais'finished 11th in the 2003 Bathurst 1000. Who was it?

33. Only two Australian-born drivers have won the Australian Carrera Cup title. Name them.

34. Who was the highest-placed Australian-born driver in the 2011 Porsche City Index Carrera Cup?

35. Before Marcos Ambrose's Sprint Cup triumph at Watkins Gien, how many drivers born outside of the United States of America had won a race at NASCAR's highest ievei.

36. Still on NASCAR,across the three major series'- the Sprint Cup, Nationwide Series and Camping World Truck Series what changed with NASCAR's

point scores in 2011?

37. in 21 Grands Prix starts, how many Worid Championship points did Gaston Mazzacane score?

38. Before he started racing cars, what Shane van Gisbergen's motorised hobby of choice?

39. In 2011,the KumhoVS

40. WHICH WON THB AUSTRAUAN OF: 20n MOTOR CHAMFION STBFAN BRAOL OR HIS FATHBR, FORMBR ^OCC RACER HBUm motorsport news

ANSWERS IN NEXT MONTH’S MOTORSPORTWEWS

41. /N WHKH COWITRY WAS THE FAMOUS SAFARJ RALtY WORM? RAM-Y CHAMFIONSHIF ROUND TRAOITIONAUY HELD? Touring Car Series took former V8 Supercar machinery to two circuits that the main game didn't visit. Name them.

went for a ride with Will Davison at the 2011 Phillip Island 500?

44. Who was the first driver to win a Grand Prix using a semi automatic gearbox?

42. How many times has Mikko Hirvonen now won Rally Australia in succession? And how many calendar years does this streak cover?

45. Who was the last driver to win a Formula 1 Grand Prix in a car not powered by a V8 engine?

43. Which football superstar

46. Before Cameron Waters,

who was the last driver to win the Australian Formula Ford Championship and make their Bathurst debut in the same year?

both Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost once. Where and when was it? And in what position did Schumacher finish?

47.Thetop 12 Sprint Cup drivers went through to the 2011 Chase.

Who finished 13th in points this season?

49. Flow many different car numbers have the'FISV Dealer Team'/'Walkinshaw Racing'cars from Clayton - i.e. not the FIRT entries - used since 2007? And what number will the team use in 2012?

48. Michael Schumacher only shared a Formula 1 podiunn with

§0, IN mv, THE LATE om mElMON WON THE INOY 500 IN THE COLOURS OF W\mm RASF, WH^TOOESTHE Hm-FROFILE CO-OWNER? www.mnew/s.com.au

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THE SECOND ROW national racing since we last met

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Andrew Thompson sealed the 2011 Fujitsu Series with a pair of round wins - taking his tally to six in a row.

After winning the penultimate round at Sandown,Thompson put the title beyond doubt in the first race at Homebush. He ended the year with third in the wet Race 2, behind Jack Perkins and Nick Percat. Perkins was second for the weekend,the same spot he secured at Sandown, where he won the opener before being caught up in a Lap 1 accident in the Reverse Grid Race 2.The round podiums saw Perkins leapfrog David Russell for second in the title.

Chaz Mostert switched to Ford Performance Racing's reborn FV8 program at Sandown and Homebush,finishing third and fourth.

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PRODUCTION CARS CARRERA CUP Jonny Reid didn't win a race in the final round of the Porsche City Index Carrera Cup at Homebush, but he still left as the round winner.

From pole, Englishman Ben Barker won the first two races - his first Porsche wins - but was caught out in the wet final, tagging the wall while leading. After finishing third in Races 1 and 2, Reid was second to team-mate Michael Patrizi to secure the round honours, with Patrizi second.

Craig Baird claimed his third Carrera Cup title despite a tough weekend. Second to Barker in Race 1, Baird and title rival Daniel Gaunt tangled atTurn 1 on the opening lap of Race 2. Baird recovered to sixth and Gaunt 10th, before they both failed to finish the final.

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Chaz Mostert and Nathan Morcom teamed up to win the Eastern Creek 6 Hour - the final round of the Australian Manufacturers Championship.

A stunning wet stint by Mostert saw the BMW 335i come from a lap down to win the race, leading home the Evo Lancers of Stuart Kostera InkyTulloch and Tony and Klark Quinn.

Kostera headed to the season finale having already sealed the title.

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On home turf, David Sieders capped his year in the Auto One V8 Lite Racing Series in style at Homebush.

From pole, the Falcon driver won the opener after points leader Chris Pither slowed with a mechanical problem. Sieders then worked his way back up to second in the inverted grid Race 2, and third in the wet final saw him secure the round honours.

Pither slipped to eventually finish 13th in Race 1 as title rival Ryal Harris finished second. But the roles were reversed in Race 2; Harris was sidelined with mechanical trouble of his own,as Pither finished fifth to seal the title. Cameron McConville won the final race ahead of Gary Baxter, Sieders and Harris, with Pither 15th after a Lap 1 off.

Andrew Miedecke ended the 2011 Touring Car Masters season with a round win on the streets of Sydney.

John Bowe won the opener from Glenn Seton and Miedecke, before Miedecke came from eighth to win Race 2, which featured an inverted Top 10. In the final, he was sitting behind Seton, before the new V8 Supercar Hall of Fame inductee's XB Falcon slowed with a lap to go.

Miedecke pounced to win the race and round, with Seton second in each. Looking to wrap up the title, Bowe played a conservative hand for the balance of the weekend. As it turned out, seventh in Race 2 and third in Race 3 was enough for the final step on the round podium and the 2011 crown ahead of Jim Richards.

AUSTRALIAN GT

AUSSIE RACING CARS

Greg Crick ended the Vodka O Australian GT Championship with a pair of wins at Sandown.

Crick qualified second, but had a clear run at the opener after pole-sitter Peter Hackett inadvertedly completed a second warm up lap and was sent to the back of the grid. While Hackett made his way through to second. Crick won by 25s.

In his Viper, Crick had more of a challenge in Race 2from Hackett, but he still emerged on top to seal the double, while Klark Quinn was third in each race.

Eighth in the opener from the rear of the grid - after a spin on the warm-up lap - and sixth in Race 2 was enough for Mark Eddy to win the title.

With an almost perfect performance at Homebush, Adrian Cottrell snatched the Aussie Racing Car title.

Trailing Tyler Owen entering the weekend, Cottrell qualified fourth, but came through to win the opening race, while Owen was fifth after qualifying a lowly 13th. With the Top 10 reversed for Race 2, Cottrell charged from 10th to finish second behind his title rival.

The pair shared the front row of the grid in the final, and while Cottrell got away cleanly, Owen's start was less rapid, dropping to third in the early stages. He got back up to second, but had no answer to Cottrell, who won the race to seal the round win and the 2011 title.

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COMMODORE CUP ADAM BEECHEY i

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"IT is very satisfying to win back to back titles, especially against ' Matt Hayes, who was great i competition all season.

I "Kenton Ferguson did a great ! job of preparing the car as he did n[ ^ last year, and the fact that I have J finished every single race over I the last two seasons shows just ( how reliable Kenton's car is."

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IN RECENT EDITIONS OF MOTORSPORT NEWS, WE’VE SPOKEN TO A NUMBER OF 2011 NATIONAL TITLE WINNERS. BUT THEY’RE NOT ALONE - HERE ARE SOME OF THE OTHER CHAMPIONS, ON THEIR SEASONS

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"THIS is awesome, my eighth Australian Championship now, seventh 250 International, I'm over the moon.

"I knew I had to finish 10th or better if Anton Stevens finished first in the final race at Morgan Park. I was actually trying to run faster than that, but we had had problems in Phillip Island's two tight corners again which hampered my progress there.

"I was lucky to finish where I did (fourth) and to win the championship."

POWER AND PERFORMANCE Just like V8 supercars, Fujitsu’s range of quality Inverter air conditioners are on the cutting edge of technology.

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FUJITSU V8 SUPERCAR SERIES - ANDREW THOMPSON O

IT'S nice to bounce back after the last couple of years; having been written off, never being given the right opportunity. ' j "Coming to Triple Eight, Roland [Dane]and everyone there have given me the right opportunity and support to show whatfcan do. All . year I've tried to repay the faith they've put in me by delivering results. I think we've done that and they can add a Fujitsu title to the list of all ofthe other stuff they've won. n ^ "All ofthe guys from the Monster side have made my life really easy to be on the top of my game and focus on what 1 need to and do fhe Job on the racetrack. It's been an awesome year." ''

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PORSCHE CITY INDEX CARRERA CUP - CRAIG BAIRD Tfee'ally^ielieved that this championship is over. I probably let the boys down a bit mid-season but it's great to have recovered and taken the serieswifii'llljiad two shockers, in Perth and Townsville, which I don't normally have, which meant I had to chase the leaders in the following rou^i,^' "1 haiialjiteof bad luck at Phillip Island, which cost me 60 points. I just had to get my head right. We had a strong car but I had to get it all workikg^laih at the right part of the season.

"Titife nqp'ber three is always nice.The series has been fantastic and I probably haven't enjoyed my racing this much for a long time."

TOURING CAR MASTERS - JOHN BOWE 'EARLY in the season I mentioned to someone that I was happy to get up into, probably,the top three.

"With a couple of round wins, though. It began to come together. By the time we got to Morgan Park,the last round, I just had to finish well in the Sprint races-so we wouldn't have to worry about the enduro, because anything can happen in motorsport.

"And it did. I got a flat tyre In the enduro,so I was lucky I wrapped it up on Saturday."

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'THE series is now fairly competitive.There's a lot of young kids coming Into It, the Garioch boys for Instance, and it's no walkover.

"We have to put a bit of effort into the car now,and as a result, the more effort we have to put in, the more rewarding the win. When this series started off, we were in it to support the series more than anything and it used to ' be easier, but now it involves a fair bit of effort.

"It's definitely sweet to win."

'IT'S good. I've never been In It to win the series or any of that stuff but the people who are Involved with sponsors and team from Savy Motorsport who prep the car -they're all very dedicated and this win is for them.

"I love racing in this category and i love racing against Andrew (Miedecke)and Jim (Richards), now with (Glenn)Seton,the Tilley boys and (Bernie)Stack all in the top group.They're all good, hard racers, but they're fair so I enjoy that and all the cars are at such a level that to win this championship in possibly the most challenging year yet is just brilliant.

"This is greatfor my people. Owning the car has been slightly debilitating for what I'm used to and I realise I've had a charmed life, but I bought the car from Drew (Marget) who did a terrific job in processing the build of it and here it is four years later, still very competitive."

I motorsport news

VODKAO AUSTRALIAN GT CHAMPIONSHIP - MARK EDDY

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THIS is a great result for Penfold Audi Sport and my personal crew from Melbourne Performance Centre.

"After bringing the Audi R8 IMS to Australia last year,so far from its support base in Germany,I'm thrilled we have won the Australian GT Championship against a field that at some stage has included almost every exotic brand in the world.

"This year we have achieved our first race win,two more wins including one at Bathurst, pole positions and fastest laps.Throughout two seasons we have continually developed the speed ofthe car and never once laid even a screwdriver on the engine. It's been incredibly reliable."

PORSCHE GT3 CUP CHALLENGE ROGER LAGO "THIS series win is pretty special.

It's been fantastic coming from being a club racer to winning two GT3 Cup Challenge titles.

"To go back-to-back is really nice. I think I won this year more on my own credit and form than last year. Jeff Bobik pushed me all the way, but you've got to finish every race and that's what I did.

"For me,this year was all about having the great car prepared for every round arid being physically fit as welli s6‘' you can relax in the car,;which?. allows you to be.mentally tougher.'

AUTO ONE V8 UTE RACING SERIES - CHRIS PITHER 'TO win the title is a great relief. Homebush was probably the first weekend all year that I'd been a bit nervous. I was there with everything to lose, I had a comfy buffer, I wanted to keep out of trouble,and then we started having dramas with the car.

"We did three engine changes over the weekend,and when we were back in 13th while Ryal [Harris] was running away in Race 2,1 was starting to think it might all go pear shaped...

"This is a tough series to win,and I am very proud to have taken the trophy,especially with my long time NZ supporter Ash Cairns, who gave me my first break in HQs,watching on from pit lane."

FOR years my ambition has been to win a National title in motor racing.

'And now I've done it. It's an amazing feeling. I never thought I'd get to this point after what we have been through over the past six or seven seasons. After Morgan Park(Ed: Where he won all three races) I felt I had a realistic chance %-{ to do it - and it was something I wanted so badly.

It showed I could take it to the best ofthem regularly and ^ compete on raw speed as well as consistency and pace. I basically doubled my win tally this year. which is great!'

www.mnews.com.au

VIP AUSTRALIAN MANUFACTURERS CHAMPIONSHIP STUART KOSTERA 'THE changes to the regulations at the beginning ofthe year definitely made the car slower, but we were able to get most of the speed back with set-up our lap times in the main were not far off last year's.

"Sharing the drives with Inky Tulloch rather than doing them on my own, made it easier. We were able to share the costs too,so that also helped.

"Sandown 500 was very tough - it was the first time we had been beaten to the line (ED:in Saturday's first leg) in a long time. In part that was caused by the safety cars but the Evo 9s were on the pace there."

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BOUT a iDonfh after winning the 201Ti Bosch Australian.Rally Championship in dramatic circumstances*iUstin Dowel'says the achievement is yet to sink in* But he does have a fair idea of when it would Really, it still hasnft," he tells MNews* It's funnyJl was talking to Simon |Evans!l and Neal Bates about this, and Simon said it's not goihgrto sink in until:you iput number one on your ear at the first rally next year, knowing that you're the number one car for the whole yearl' In the absence of Evans and iates, Dowai, far leftin pie wiHh co-driver Matt Lee, emerged: on top in one ofthe most-open ARC seasons in recent history* Four diferent drivers won the five rallies and the eventual title fight between the ¥ictorian and:Ryan Smart ebbed and flowed,right down to the wire.

For most ofthe season-endingRally Victoria, it looked as though Smart would wini the title. All he had to do was finish ahead of Doweli and:he was doingithat, as Evans led: the rally in his sole start of2011. But with three stages to go.Smart lost drive from!his front-right wheel,and:dropped six minutes..

Dowel inherited second place in the rally and won the title. l! was really disappointed for ly/an,that we've won the way we didr he adrhits But in the endi he clipped a bank which obviously damaged'the ^hat a few stages before it broke and that's just the way rallying!

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goes. You've just got to take the good with the bad, it could've happened to us Just as easily."

Between Dowel, Smart and Mark Redder, there was no single dominant driver throughout the year. All three had their ups and downs, trading stage wins along the way.

Smart and Dowel both claimed their maiden ARC wins. Smart winning two rallies and Dowel one.

'It could've gone either way in the end," Dowel reflects. ''Ithink, initially, to be honest, we had Ryan's number with speed most of the year, but at Melbourne we were expected to be quicker than him and I couldn't catch him, he was too fast for me.

"It's been a great year. Mark and Ryan are really, really great guys and they've been good fun to race against. It's been so close all year, the pressure's been enormous."

The second round of the season, the International Rally of Queensland, was the highlight of competition between the trio.

Dowel won Heat 1 and they started the final stage separated by two seconds. Smart, having not led the rally at all, won the final stage to snatch a frustrating rally from Dowel.

"We were really gutted by that rally, because we were basically penalised 10 seconds on each stage because of a failed launch control system that we had;" Dowel says.

"Basically, the car was stalling on the Startline of every stage, we would've won www.mnews.com.au

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it by a minute and a half if not for that. We expected Ryan to be super, super quick there and we'd try to finish second to him and that would've been great.

"But to go there, and have the speed we did... on the first and second stage, before the launch control system failed, we took 20 seconds off the field. Matt and I were quite shocked and said'great'. We had a 20 second deficit from the night before, when the car stailed on the line, which was the first sign of the launch control failing, and we made that up and actually took the lead of the rally - not Just the Australian Championship rally, but the whole APRC field as well, and we've never done that before.

"And that's when Matt and I sort of realised 'we're in with a good shot here, all we need to do is be consistent and not make any mistakes, drive as fast and neat as we can and we can do it'. But, unfortunately, on the very next stage, the car stalled, coughed and spluttered on the line and pretty much did that for the rest of the event.

"It was the most frustrating experience I've ever had."

At the very next rally, though. Dowel bounced back. He won his maiden ARC event in Adelaide as Smart struck trouble, to take the lead of the championship.

"We had one mission - we knew we had to win the rally or Ryan would probably take the championship," Dowel recalls.

"Our goal was to go from the very first stage.

try to take a 20 Or 30 seeond1eaJ andify4^!. maintain it forthe rest of the weekendlt wa^ a perfect plan and everything went reallyweff●T "I didn't take one cardo thework. it's probably tbe!beste.Yent- ' that I've driven, I reckon" By contrast. Dowel describes the’veryinext .' ^ event, the ARC component of Rally Australia^ -fii, in Coffs Harbour, as the lowlight Ofihl|sea|gd!-^: it was anothertwist in the title fight, fghting! H to finish fifth overall after engine troubles and: j a crash, as Smart reclaimed the points lead, "j: "On the transport on the way to the irst . i stage, the water pump failed and the ear was . pretty much cooked before thestart ofthe first stage," he said.

"I honestly thought, it was a 28-kay stage, that there was no way we were going to make it through. But we did. I cant believe it's a testament to the strength of the engine Johnny (Down, engineer) builds - that we made it that far with a cooked engine.

"I had a big crash on the Friday, trying to make up lost time because we'd dropped from second to fifth on one stage when the car overheated, and Matt got up me and said 'look, you're going to have to push on this one and try to get back to second', because we couldn't afford to let Ryan win that event either, because he was running away with it. I Just made one tiny error on a tight, two left...

"But the boys worked all night to repair the car. They hoped that they'd fixed the water pump, but the problem was that the IIIB^

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head gasket was too far gone,so then they had to pull the head off it to replace the head gasket.

"I think they had the car in at pare ferme at about a quarter to two in the morning.

It's Just amazing. If it wasn't for that effort that they made,we wouldn't have won the championship,there's no doubt about it."

The ARC finds itself in a transition phase, with outright competition changing dramatically over the course of three seasons.

The 2011 season was the first, with turbo restrictors removed and exhaust manifold regulations loosened for competitors opting to take advantage of new'Unrestricted' regulations,aimed at increasing speed and improving the spectacle.

- "From a driver's perspective,the cars are so jmuCh morefun to drive,"Dowel enthuses. ; .'llh comparison. Group N ears are as boring [■>.as batshit. These things are fast, exciting, ^■jldynamic- it's not about maintaining the ■ 1, ''perfect clean line and all of that sort of stuff »vin every corner. It's about throwing the car ^.[around and having fun in a racecar again, and i^tMt^ ywhat makes it exciting for spectators as jj^weil/With the, noise and the sound." i^-'lButthe shift hasnSt been without its I cliallengeS, both for engineers and drivers, as ■i Dbwei soon encountered. ; "Whatwe'found during the year when we Mid somp back-to-^back tests, the top speed of 1 ^he ear vvas upi But the problem was the grip," #e;|idmitS;, / ; ^feh the HOIIinger sequential gearbox

and the horsepower,we now have 400 horsepower at the wheels, we're just constantly spinning the wheels.What would happen is instead of going forward and using the torque of the engine to pull us through, we were always in our peak power curve and we were Just bagging them up all ofthe time.

"We worked hard to modify the tune of the car to reduce a bit ofthe top end power down low,so the car could pull, rather than Just spin wheels. Especially when it was wet, it was almost undriveable, because that's all it would do.It wouldn't hold its line, it'd Just be spinning wheels,digging trenches rather than driving forward."

The next phase of the ARC'S evolution sees the introduction of a class for Sports Utility Vehicles in 2012,alongside a new,two-wheeldrive formula - dubbed G2-that will become outright class from 2013.When MNews spoke to Dowel, his 2012 plans were up in the air. He'll be in the ARC, but it won't be in the Lancer,due in part to a lack of locally available spares.

"I'll be retiring the Evo 9,"Dowel says."It's my championship winning car, and that car has copped a hiding over the last two years,so I'm really happy I kept it straight at Rally Vic so I could put it in my shed and it can stay there.

"We're looking at a couple ofother options, we're not sure whether we're going to go twowheel-drive,either. Matt and I have worked hard to get the number 1 on our door,so we want to go and enjoy it next year and have somefun.Tm talking to a couple of

people about driving a car that I'm very, very passionate about."

Overall, he's passionate about rallying; and his own development. Dowel/40,was a relative latecomer to the top level ofthe sport.

Having made his rally debut in 1995,he won three Victorian titles before contesting his first full ARC season in 2008.While pleased with his 2011 achievements. Dowel admits he's still got room to improve,and that next step excites him.

"Having a trophy and allof that is great, but it's hard," he concedes.

"Although i'm the Australian Rally Champion, i know I'm not the fastest or the best rally driver in the country,so once I beat Simon Evans,then i'll be satisfied.

"That time will come,one day,and we're getting closer; I've Just got to stop making little mistakes. It's hard at that level, because I'm batting above my average, if you know what I mean, so generally I have to take a little bit more risk than our competitors.

"I've got to balance running a business with rallying and training and being fit for it all and those sorts of things, and what 1 need to do is spend more time in a car next year and hopefully take that next step.

"The hardest thing with Simon is that he's had 16 years of ARC experience, whereas this is my fourth or fifth. You can't beat experience like that, i've got a lot of respect for him, we're really good friends, and hopefully he'll be back in the championship next year and: it'li: be a great race."

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.Holinger Engineering would like to extend our congratulations to . *Justin Dowel and Matt Lee for winning the 2011 Australian Rally V Championship! ’

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AFTER BMK. mOTOCROSS. KARTING AN A SPEEDWAV. THE AUSSIE RACING CAR SUPER SERIES WAS ADRIAN CCnRELL'S FIRST STUP IN CIRCUIT RACING. LACHLAN MANSELL SPGKE TC THE HEW CHAMP ADCUT HIS UHIGUE PATH

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EWLY crowned Aussie Racing Car champion Adrian Cottrell has risen to prominence meteorically in the circuit racing scene over the last couple of years.

The 19-year-old South Australian claimed the national Aussie Racing Car title in just his second full season, and seems destined for a fruitful career despite his apparent inexperience. However,those who have followed his career a little more closely would know that he actually has more racing miles than many realise.

'I started racing BMX bikes in 1998, when I was six years old,"Cottrell tells MNews.

I started winning state titles when I was eight, and I won five state titles, then in 2003 I won the Australian national title.

It's like motocross, you do jumps and stuff, but you race each other. It was a different way of starting my career, but I was still racing and it kept me fit when I was young.'

After achieving so much in BMX racing.

Cottrell swapped pedal power for engine power, and two wheels for four, making the transition to go-karts. Unlike most aspiring young drivers, Cottrell achieved only moderate success in karts, and he was soon looking for other avenues.

I won a little bit in karts, but not a lot," he admits.

'We thought'how can we do something different, and race cars earlier?'and we moved into speedway racing. I started racing that in 2004, which taught me about car dynamics rather than staying in karts. We raced small cars like Datsun 120Ys and Daihatsu Charades. It was an under 1200cc junior category, and all the cars were pretty even.

We won an Australian title, two Victorian titles, two South Australian titles. two Northern Territory titles and one Queensland title. The fields were pretty big; there were about 140 entries in the Australian title, so it wasn't just a small category.

By this stage of his career, Cottrell was ready for the next challenge, and knew it was the time to progress to bitumen racing.

We could see that bitumen racing was definitely more marketable for sponsors. so we thought'where can we move that's not stupid budget,that's still national scene and has a bit ofTV and media coverage,'and we thought the Aussie

Racing Cars was the place to be,"Cottrell explains.

'We did a couple of rounds in 2009,and then we got some sponsors together to do the full campaign in 2010. 1 was doing Year 12 in 2010,so I had to juggle that with the full 2010 series, but I ended up fifth in the championship in my first full year.

'My sponsors wanted to support me in the Aussie Racing Cars in 2011, because they could see that we would likely be up the front of the field, and the Aussie Racing Cars had live races on TV. So we decided to do the 2011 series and the aim was to win the championship.

'It started well at Clipsal, and after Winton, when we got our first win, we thought'this could actually come true,'so we focused and planned to get the job done and we ended up just doing it."

Cottrell was fast in his first year in the series, but a number of incidents cost him valuable points, and with Aussie Racing Car Series'tight points system, any nonfinishes can be extremely costly. Cottrell cites consistency as his main area of improvement in 2011.

Last year, we had some good runs, but in a couple of races I made errors," he said.

I tidied up my act this year. Sometimes, I might have looked out of control and crazy, but I was just pushing out quick laps.

'Some people call it a high speed game of chess, especially those three-wide battles you see at Phillip Island or Clipsal.

It's where you position the car and the way you use the slipstream that's so crucial. Sometimes you need to use your brain more than you use your skill or your speed.'

Cottrell has his sights set on a progression to a different category in 2012, as he works towards his ultimate goal of racing V8 Supercars. He has nominated V8 Utes and Formula 3 as likely destinations.

'The aim is to move up, because the more you move up, the more opportunities you can unlock and the more people you can meet," he said.

'We've got a couple of opportunities in V8 Utes and Formula 3. If you can make sponsorship arrangements through those series, you can use those to move up to the V8 Development Series.

We're not as coined up as some people in the DVS Series, so we need to take a different route."

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nm cm steve braziier bult for his soh vms more mmmA comeback,geoff Roum ^|ithvtt^iE|irr Garifyt^ S:^Mei-fapiil»'gliahqed Spiiintcar ^[00>AUsfi;l)ian Sprintcar M![;S Chfi^idnshipiJNoWi it's eotnihg '^h(|ebe!hgfshelved,the car sat in Steve Iraiier's ra%ejhed', but it's been brought h natibml^charhpionship in late ^'SOT^^^ltthe track again at /'Speed^^irecently. ;i\fc raced'‘it r^ently at Parramatta.We i^pl^djit^ut of mgthballs and;raeedut i ag AirfiCTly because Garry wants to take

a3ilifii'Mmu^nry'looking to win a

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^^^j^kt^he titles in Adelaide in January; " Ih^l'inkliiB can with the title in it," Steve lightweight car and 'it's sat'in the shedi»uftiiie back for 111 years. Garryjust ^^-;^likeslhabifar.and he decided'to get it down a'ndirebuildiiil.

Ni was happy with ]t already with the way

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^^jtihandled^lknow Garry's keen to try and *■ . get another big win in it. It's a good car; 1; can'f see why it wouldn't do well again."

Garry'ihi his distinctive N21 car, grabbed his fourth: national title on February 5,2000 at Adelaide's Speedway City, where his father wOn his second; Sprintcar national title 20 years ago.

Immediately following the victory, Australian speedway officials deemed the

ear too light and changed the weight rule.

Steve knew he had'prepared a car that was legal but also very light.The weight rule at the time was virtually non-existent and the Brazier car weighed less than 1200 pounds (ED:545kg).Just days later officials, deemed that all Sprintcars rriust now weigh 1450 pounds(658kg),including the driver.

It's a rule that Steve believes finished many good cars ih! Australia, including his. and one that could be revisited by Sprintcar Control Council of Australia (SCCA)officials.

It did change Sprintcar racing for sure, no doubt"Steve Said of the change.

"Anywhere I could save any weight I did.

Il left nothing on that car with added weight.

"But they (officials) didn't muck around.

Straight away within a month,they bought" in the new bloody weight rule. It killed that car.The people who always seem to make these rules aren't racecar people,they're not racers themselves but they're the ones making rules for blokes like me who are racers. 1 guess it's why I don't really see eye-to-eye with them;they often all speak bullshit.

"The weight ini America is now 1400 pounds and we're 50 pounds heavlerin Australia, we're close. I think we should follow America really and have a 1400 pound rule. Really, Australian Sprintcar should just be like American ones "

The history to this famous ear is amazing'.It is a'Maxim'chassis tail'oiiedlit©/ specifications by the legendary American Sprintcar visionary Karl Kinser, and was powered by a Gary Stanton=b;uilt MOpar engine - not the customary Ghev that many teams iruiniJhle and his son Mark Kinser teamedi not unlike the Brazier fatherson combiinatiomto win all' before them/. i ncl'ud'ing'the tough 1:9-99'W'O:iild!<0l'©uitlaws, Championship, with.19 vaet0:mes..3ndi allfeo. the world-famous KnoxvillthietiOnate.

I. bought the car off Karl'ait the end'ofthat year,"Steve said.

"There wasn^t anything like that car at the time. It was fast and I can't see why iit couldn^ be again."

So just how good was this Spnintcar at the 2000 nationals in Australiai?

"Oh it was pretty good alright"Steve says, laughing while als'o puffing:on his. trademark cigarette: "It'd be the fastest ear I've ever had'."

Steve had his son's flying machine set uip impeccably for the Speedway City day ovaili fra:ok, and his son was in sensationaliform'.

Garry topped the opening,night's tiime trials, his sizzliiingi tl!.9.9s lap the first ever under T2s for the 43©m eir©ul.fhat'time stood for more than.a<decade at the venue, and;it was sight to behold as the packed: crowd;held theiir idl'lectiwe breathy befene

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AT THE TME,IF TOU HAO THE(JUTS TO GO AT^OUND THEOUTSIDE 70U COU.D(JET POSITION, I A « I! wmim OF UHlE CAR (XJM3INIEI3 l-IELPED SO enuptiing;as the nfvv tititiie was 0^^^^ posted.

Ihe pole shuffle to decide the gridifor the 40-iiap eha mpionship race was a iBrazier benefit. Brazier set a two-lap record of 24!.08s on his way to taking poie. For imiueh ofthe race,it was veteran Max Dumesny iihi control,but irazier kept ihiiimriiincilose range and!wiiith ififee Japs to go,he pounced to take the lead iii;lapped traffic, it was all over.

'UK'S one 0#the best cars I've had," said'Gainry, who has won the nationai ehampionship in T994,'95,'97,2000,'08 and Wi,and fi nished runner-u p th ree times.

'At the time, if you had the guts to go around the outside you could get position, that is what I did,the weight and power of the car combined helped so much in 2000.

Pad missed the Classic the week before to get the 21 car ready and he really did it to a treat."

Steve said he hoped the long haul in their twinrsteer Isuzu truck from their Sydney home to Adelaide (via the Warrnambooi Giassic,the week previous) would again evoke thoug hts ofthat famous victory 12 years ago.

"I knew we were going to be competitive

SYD:(02) 9679 1990 MELB:(03) 9338 7477

as !l drove to Adelaide for that 2000 title.

It was and will be again the same chassis with a Stanton engine, but it's going to be a Chev-buiit Stanton this tirhe. Stantoi wants me to try this engine out and I think we'll'l have a very competitive deal for the title and maybe the(Grand Annual Sprintcar) Glassic."

"Back then it was a fast car and we had' a very good motor back then too^ The'car being so light made it realiy fast.This time I've got to make sure everything's aboutthe Same but obviously things won't be quite the same,as everything's damn heavier"

#{bo$ter

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MODEL BEHAVIOUR

superstars It5 allabout the'7Os this month in the scale model world with the release ofsome famous Bathurst Touring Cars, To celebrate,BRUCE MOXON cracks open that can of Stud Cola he's been saving all these years forjust this occasion

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LASSIC Carlectables is at it again two fantastic models of two very interesting Bathurst Touring Cars from the 1970s and '80s.

We'll take them chronologically,so this month we'll look at the oldest, which is the XC Falcon Coupe shared by Sir Jack Brabham and number-one-son Geoff at Bathurst in 1977. Actually one of John Goss's cars, the XC qualified an excellent ninth on the grid, ahead of the sister team car driven by Goss

himself and Le Mans legend Henri Pescarolo.

This was an interesting matchup in Australia's most famous motor racing families.

Twelve months after Sir Jack had been lured out of retirement to share a Torana L34 at Bathurst with Stirling Moss, evidently the experience had whetted his appetite for more, as Brabham would return in 1978 running his own privateer Torana A9X. As for Geoff, at the time his US career was just starting to kick off, having left our shores

88 motorsport news

Nice touches on this carinciude the scrutineering sticker on the rear window,and the'sanded'tyres to make them look used.

after winning the Australian Formula 2 Championship in 1975.

In the race,the Brabham/Brabham Falcon had a rocker fail (one of many to afflict Fords at about this time - until Allan Moffat put enough pressure on CAMS to allow rollerrockers for the Henrys). After a long pit stop to replace the offending item,the Brabhams finished 18th, on 141 laps.

The model shows the car as it was; an XB upgraded to XC specifications (mostly sheetmetal).The interior is still the earlier car's, for instance. I rather like the old Aunger Hotwire wheels,too - I had some on one of my own cars at one point and they always say'1970s' when I see them these days.

Nice touches on this car include the scrutineering sticker on the rear window, and the'sanded'tyres to make them look used.

Meanwhile,from Biante, look for another

www.mnews.com.au

1971 XY Falcon GTHO Phase 3,this time the car Allan Moffat drove to win the Surfers Paradise Rothmans 250. Keeping a big, heavy car's tyres alive for 250 miles on the super-abrasive Surfers Paradise track would have taxed Moffat's legendary mechanical sympathy to the maximum.

He did it, though, with Leo Geoghegan's Charger second after a race-long scrap with the Holden Dealer Team cars of Brock and Colin Bond.

The XW/XY Falcon is easily the most identifiable Australian Muscle/performance car, isn't it? The Phase 3 is the one everyone wants and so it's a popular nil Flying the Coupe:Classic Carlectables hasjust released a very nice model of the Jack Brabham/GeoffBrabham Falcon from the 1977 Bathurst WOO.

89

Most of us will never be able to afford the real thing, so a 1/18 model will have to do!

Meanwhile, Apex Replica's range of old Australian Touring Car models continues to grow.Sourced through 1X0 models. Apex now has stock of its 1987 Jim Richards JPS BMW M3- the amazing little 2.3-litre, naturally aspirated four-cylinder that beat all the turbos and the V8 Commodores to win the Championship that year - as well as the Tony Longhurst/Tomas Mezera 1988 Bathurst-winning Ford Sierra. They're both in 1/43, and as you can see here, they look pretty good.

Those Hot Wheels people have got me. Not content with having me digging through row after row of cars in supermarkets and variety shops, looking for XB Falcons, now I'm caught up In theTreasure Hunt search. No,that's 1..^

Fast fours:Apex Replicas takes us back to the '80s era ofCroup A with models of Jim Richards'BMW M3and Tony Longhurst's Ford Sierra.

viwnw.opsxrop

90

motorsport news

sail Australian

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Here's your chance to relive all the rounds of the Australian FXSuperbihe Series.

Almost 6 hours of non stop motor I bihe racing featuring all the acts of bravery, good fortune and sheer bad luch that characterise this fantastic series. Australian super bihe action has always been seen at home and overseas as among the very best in the world.

So sit bach for the ride of your life as we revisit 6 rounds of Superbihe action.

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not a tautology; there's a regular annual series of models called Treasure Hunts.They usually consist of two cars per carton of Hot Wheels(out of 72 cars) and collecting the series has become a combination of nightmare and obsession.

They're distinguished by a green stripe down the side and there are 15 to collect.

Or is that 60? See,there are 15 models, but there's a superTreasure Hunt set as well - the same 15 cars in slightly different packaging, with differences in model paint and decoration.

And then there's the short and long car issue. Short cars generally go to supermarkets,to take up less shelf space, and long cards to the bigger shops like Target and Kmart. Some collectors are determined to get all 60 - short and long cars, regular and Super variations. I'm not that keen, but I do have 13 of the 15 models atthetime of writing, plus a couple of Supers.

And a couple of'errors'. Believe it or not, manufacturing faults are sometimes soughtafter. So the two I have that are actually defective might be worth a few dollars.

Who'd have thought?

Hitting the monthly Granville swap-meet in Sydney, run by Sydney Model Auto Club was a help - yeah, I gave in and cheated - it's hardly a hunt when you buy them here. But it's an addiction, right?

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GTs Cup Car

1978 Triumph TR8 Professionally built 98. Improved last lOyrs, all good gear, 4 Bolt Rover V8, 350Bhp, Bilstein coil-overs, Watts link,

Minetti 2006 i490cc Sports Car Minetti sports car,fresh 1490cc Hyabusa Suzuki engine, 220bhp @ wheels on dyno, M400 Motec ECU, Aims mini dash, purpose built lightweight trailer, spare wheels, all in very good condition and ready for use. Must sell. View in Brisbane. Very fast car to drive. Built in 2006.$29500 ONO.07 3390 5455

j^Mor an additional $15, our staff can %fput your listing up for you! Simply pype/write your advertisement clearly (no more than 50 words), nominate your category and include V your pic(s). Then send it by mail or i email (make sure to include your details) - see addresses below.

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Ex-Redline UK Mint Condition, zero hours on gearbox. Engine has 4000 kms, leakdown & compression tests excellent. No chassis damage 2 extra sets of wheels, air lance, cover, beacon etc. $135,000

MNews/mylOS classifieds are for the sale of private goods and vehicles only. Photos marked 'proof'will not be used.

One Season UK Carrera Cup 2010.

Re-shelled late 2010, immaculate

Porsche 996 Turbo

condition. Fresh gearbox (receipts avail). Engine 6358km. Known history. Car with 3 sets of wheels, normal spares & tools $150,000 (Plus GST) 0418 320 517

Targa Tasmania early modern class-winning car, formerly owned

by Matt Close. Won Targa Prologue in 2009, beating Jim Richards in 997 GT2.

Recent engine rebuild with all new rods, pistons, barrels and parts. Comes with $50k in parts. More than $150k spent on development. 4-61 398 675 500

www.mYi05.coin/6007

www.mYi05.com/i947

sits.'-

-1

AU Saloon Car

2008 Lamborghini Gallardo GTs Ex Tech9 UK and then ran in the

02 9647 1177

will appear as soon as possible after receipt.

Porsche 09 997 Cup Car

www.mYl05.com/6008

Email: info@my10S.com Notice to ad vertisers: We are unable to

www.mYl05.com/59l4

(plus GST) or best offer. Must sell URGENTLY. 0418 320 517

My105, Suite 8,11-21 Underwood Rd, Homebush, NSW, 2140

return photos supplied for advertising. Ads

www.mYioS.com/5846

Professionally maintained to the highest standards. Includes two spare sets of wheels, auto throttle blipper upgrade, Motec video logger, variant exhaust system. $215,000 plus GST. 0488 445 305

Porsche 08 997 Cup Car

Mail:

Fax:

adjust roll centre, big brakes, cage, seats, intercoms, CAMS logbook, etc. Full rego. Over $100K spent, competitive history targa/circuits. Email dcl.webb@gmail.com,0449 925 314

www.mYi05.com/6i5i

■

f.)

2011997Porsche

VE V8 Supercar Dencar PWR built. Low mileage car with all mechanicals rebuilt with less than 200km of running. Change of plans, requires quick sale. Price to sell now. $138000 firm. Full spares package available. 0414 646 873

Australian GT Championship 2010.

Fresh engine and gearbox. Upgrades fitted to vehicle as permitted in the Australian Championship include; windscreen, clutch, Ohiins dampers, video VBox, Price $195,0004-GST. 0416 172 961

www.mYi05.com/3260

Front running Ford Au Saloon Car, Rose engine, performance friction brakes, AIMS dash and logging system, quaiified 4th at Bathurst, no heavy hits, lightiy raced. Be racing at Bathurst Feb 2012 in a front running competitive car.

Spare wheels. 0414 575 451

www.mYl05.com/5665

www.mYi05.com/6072 motorsport news

EA Saloon Car - State Champion 4 time & current leader of SA State

●V

Sabre Buick Indy Big Boys Toy

I

Championship car. Pfitzner gearbox, new diff, 2 y/o motor, new shocks & brakes, AIMS dash, ready to race $16,000. New 16" Bridgestone tyres $1,100.0419814549

1

www.mYi05.com/S798 Over SOOhp 4.5L V6, capabie more power if needed 6x21 /2" throttle

Open Wheelers

A

I

I/"

\

i

Legend Cars

body, serious package. Full resto ready 2 race or musuem. Built/

New Fuliy Optioned. 0418 449 295

www.mYi05.com/S820

Under Floor Belly pan Storage Must sell, call for additional info.

0408 790108

www.mYl05.com/4248 A Lola A1GP car in very good condition. Has been used as a

www.mYi05.com/6229 Sprint Car 2010 J &J Sprint Car. Never Run. Fitted with OTT 410 engine. 6 shows since new. Full Tl Car. Red Devil Sander wheels

display car during last two years.

Still in Australia team colours Last raced Eastern Creek in last A1 series. Sold as a rolling chassis (minus engine and gearbox). A list of parts available to put car in race trim. May consider trade. +61 (0) 411 888 220

Coloured ad spaces available now.

www.mYi05.com/5464

LLuJ/ZjLL^tSt^mn online c assifieds

with the best money can buy and heaps of spares. Will talk a deal to clean out workshop. 0418 449 295

www.mYi05.com/58i9 Semi Enclosed Trailer 4800x2100x2000 enclosed trailer inci 2 bed accomodation and area at rear for small car or bikes etc. These trailers can be made to any size at all , Ultralite HoneyCombe panels used.

0412 731 608

Swift Formula SOO For Sale

www.mYi05.com/292

Sprint Car Van Diemen RF 06 Top 10 runner in AFFC. MoTeC w/ steering, brake pressure, G-force etc.

Data from 2009. Proflex dampers with H/L bump and rebound. Upgrades such as big front brakes, cold air intake, heat shielding, exhaust, K&A uprights and aero tweaks. Comes with spare corners.

Will sell to NZ/UK. Ready to race.

www.mYi05.com/ii70

Dual Axle Air Suspension Carries 2 Cars Enclosed Kitchen/Lounge Area Enclosed Shower and Basin Honda Twin Cylinder 5KVA Generator Air-Conditioning Fold down stair access Two Warn Works 3700 Winches Fantastic Tool Boxes

4 both http://www.youtube. com/watch?v=QoYWgMq8VhY 0419 381 533

(07)3282 0911

40ft Race Car Transporter

For Speedway or Circuit Racing. From $8000.00 second hand. To $25000.00

designed Roman Slobodynsky, Indy engineering excellence award & designer 7 Eagle Indys.

As seen Historic Sandown. Deal

AiGPCar

V

Transporters/Trailers

m '08

Swift

zDUimScsnB chassis

Yamaha R6, QA1

with

2002

shocks. Weld

wheels, Hoosier tyres, Kirkey seat, Holley black fuel pump, mostly Swift running gear, car race ready with some spares. Good car.

Reluctant sale. $14000.00 ONO 0409 690 338

Unfinished Project

2009 Maxim Sprint Car. Ex Kinser/ Stewart Car. Has fresh OTT 410 engine, full Tl Car, Red Devil Sander wheels, CFI body and hardly raced. Plenty of spares with car. Will talk a deal to clean out workshop. 0418 449 295

www.mYi05.com/58i3

48ft Tri-Axle Sprintcar Trailer, On Single Wheels with Airbags, 4.4mtrs High. $70,000 +GST 1 0418 936 753

www.mYio5.com/5874

www.mYi05.com/4ii8

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f PAUL

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)

THE FINAL WORD

A

NOTHER racing year complete, another epic V8 Supercar series on and off the

track.

As always, there have many highlights throughout the year, probably none bigger than the share sellout of V8 Supercars to Archer Capital. This will go down as one of the milestones of Supercar history, and certainly showed the world the championship has some value, not only as a sporting spectacle, but also as a business. In its formative years,team owners would have never dreamed of achieving the numbers (dollars) that the business was sold for.

This has been a very strategic move to fall in line with the requirement of a capital expenditure outlay for the Car of the Future hardware.The average sports fan that just sees the new cars rolled out in Round 1 in 2013 will not have a great understanding that the teams are building cars now - in 2011 -

for 2013. Many teams have put additional staff and resources into the design and changeover engineering positions. These people will use resources and funds to keep their program on track for testing in 2012.

So, next year, most of the teams will effectively have two concurrent programs that are both sucking up resources; the Car of the Future and the existing racing program. Both programs share equality in terms of importance.The current team needs to continue to race well and get results, while the Car of the Future team needs to ensure that they are ready to go,come Round 1 in 2013. Because everyone else will be, and we will see who has planned and executed it well.

It will be an interesting 'race' on its own,to see who has everything covered,the cars will be different and some different philosophies will apply to the new car and how they are engineered. So Supercars really

need a tick for this, and how the timing of a capital injection to the teams has worked out.

Tim Miles, who represented V8 Supercars with the sale, is a former partner in Tasman Motorsport,so he had a good understanding of dealing with growth,sponsorship, internal manufacturing and racing all at the same time.This would have given the Archer representatives a high level of comfort during the negotiations, as you had genuine industry knowledge at the coal face, providing valuable information and insight to what ownership is like, without getting distorted views from current owners with - perhaps a hint of self-interest.

This time of year can be a great or bad period of the year for a driver,team owner or staff member. It's usually the time that reality sets in, that you have lost a large sponsorship deal, your drive or your Job. If everything is locked away, it's a great time to reflect on the year and have break from all of the stress and travel. If it's the former, there is still a lot to do and it can be difficult trying to get something happening when

everyone else is on wind-down mode for the festive season.

The short break can seem like an eternity, waiting for the rest of the world to get back into racing mode to get some decisions on your program locked away for Clipsal. From experience, what will be will be and a Christmas worrying does not change anything. So my advice would be get fresh, have some family time, regroup in January and enjoy what short time there is between seasons.The new year will throw up a whole new set of events for everyone and there will be exceptional moments throughout the season that will define it from others, and there will be many changes over the break with drivers, staff and positions.

The big question for 2012 will be whether anyone has changed or improved enough to dethrone T8 and JW. By anyone's standards it's been an exceptional year for them - had they won Bathurst(which they were on target to do) you would have said it was the perfect year - so at least they have something to aspire to next year!

thatare both sucking up resources

m

Next Issue of Motorsport News on sale JANUARY 25 98

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