Motorsport News Issue 421 - July 2012

FRENCH AFFAIR:PREMAT'S AUSSIE V8SUPERCARS CULTURESHOCK 0

THE National MoM*

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o visit to Mount Panorama is complete without a stop at the National Motor Racing Museum,right beside the track at M\Sffa^& Corner,Inside you’ll find a constantly-changing array of vehaii^^l made their mark on not only Mount Panorama,but Australian iftotof^(^PiWl^i^M^SHH| The main hall is packed with not just touring cars, but open-wheelers, offascinating memorabilia - trophies, driving suite,leathers, helmets,posters Ti^se a break in the 40-seat theathrette and watch the videos covering the of racing on Mount Panorama since 1938,and the just-released version on the hisl^^^^S^H^ motorcycle racing at the track.

Enjoy a coffee and check out the museum shop.It’s packed woth official yearn merchanl^^B books,video and collectables. Naturally, any visit to Mount Panorama is not complete withoial^ spin around the famous circuit itself - just remember to obey the 60 km/h speed limit! Bathurst is just two and a half hour’s drive from Sydney,so there’s no need to wait until the next race meeting - make it a memorable day trip any time.The whole family will love the experience.

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Editorial Group Editor Steve Normoyle snormoyle@ichevron.com.au Assistant Editor Mitchell Adam mitchell@mnews.com.au At Large Phil Branagan

Editorial Enquiries

Chevron Publishing Level 6,207 Pacific Highway, St Leonards, NSW 2065 Locked Bag 5555,St Leonards, NSW 1590 admin@mnews.com.au

Contributing Writers

Mark Glendenning, Andrew van Leeuwen, Lachlan Mansell, Geoff Rounds, Paul Carruthers, Bruce Moxon

Photography

THIS MONTH’S FEATURES

The Grid r

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THENEWUON KING

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Results in recent times haven't matched the Holden Racing Team's lofty ambitions. We spoke with their new chief, Steve Hallam about rebuilding

Sutton Motorsport Images, Dirk Klynsmith, John Morris, Andrew Hall,James Smith, Geoff Grade, Phil Williams, Peter Bury, Michael Vettas, Ken Ferguson Paul Carruthers, Rob Lang

Art Director Chris Currie

Advertising Advertising Director Chris West cwest@chevron.com.au P 02 9901 6376 M 0416125 252 National Sales Manager Luke Finn lfinn@chevron.com.au P 02 9901 6368 M 0423 665 384

Most V8Supetcgr drivers come from the DevelopmentSeries, not the DIM.We met up'with Alex Preifiat tO)discuss his new career path

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Chairman, Chevron; Ray Berghouse Circulation Director: Carole Jones Subscriptions; www.mnews.com.au

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Level 6,207 Pacific Highway, St Leonards, NSW 2065 Locked Bag 5555, St Leonards, NSW 1590 Chief Executive Officer, David Gardiner Commercial Director, Bruce Duncan Motorsport News is published by nextmedia Ply Ltd ACN: 128 805 970, Level 6,207 Pacific Highway, St Leonards NSW 2065 ® 2012.

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'1

Johnny Herbert's enjoyed a long and successful career, especially in light of an early setback. We caught up with him to look back

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Unusual Suspects

j He's hardly a 'rookie', bat I Simon Pagenaudrs turning ; heads in his first fulltime j IndyCarseason

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Ring Ring A look at the 2012 Nurburgring 24 Hour through the lens ofa first-time visitor

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Parks and Renovation

He's worked with some of the best in the business in Formula 7 and NASCAR. Now, the straight-talking Steve Hallam is at the helm of the Walkinshaw Racing empire.

We check out the revamped and renamed Sydney Motorsport Park 72

Having a Ping Meet Brendon Pingel, a second-generation driver impressing in Aussie Racing Cars

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Looking Veally good Victorian youngster Jamie Veal is making waves in Australian Sprintcar racing

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Zapp Attack John Zappia now has a fifth Top Doorslammer title, but he's not done yet...

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Getting Territorial We preview the 2012 Australian Sprint Kart Nationals, being run in Darwin for the first time

For his final edition as a Motorsport News fulltimer, Mitchell Adam spoke to a French driver and a Swiss team owner. His nextstop? Europe.

How's that for synergy?

He rhay be French, butSimon Pagenaud was dubbed 'Aussie Pag'during the Team Australia Champ Car days. Since then, he's finished on the podium in a V8 Supercar race and sent Alex Premat down under.

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You may not know Marcel Stawiczny by name, but we guarantee you're going to love his photos from the 2012 Nurburgring 24 Hour. www.mnews.com.au

5

THE FRONT ROW since we last met

FORMULA 1 The 2012 Formula 1 season boasts seven different winners from the first seven races,following victories to Mark Webber and Lewis Hamilton.

Webber became the first Australian to win the Monaco Grand Prix twice with a controlled, start-to-finish performance. In the end,the top four were covered by just 1.3 seconds,Webber followed over the line by Nico Rosberg, Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel.

A fortnight later, Hamilton stormed home to victory on a two-stop strategy.

While Alonso and early leader Vettel attempted to complete a one-stopper, Hamilton committed to the strategy early and used the fresher rubber perfectly.

Romain Grosjean and Sergio Perez completed the podium, with Vettel eventually making another stop to secure fourth, ahead of Alonso.

Webber was a quiet seventh, with Daniel Ricciardo 14th.

Hamilton now holds a two-point advantage at the top of the standings over Alonso, with Vettel a further point behind. Webber sits fourth, nine behind Hamilton.

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V8 SUPERCARS Will Davison headed north to Hidden Valley with a slender lead in the V8 Supercar Championship Series,following another dramatic weekend at Phillip Island.

Davison's Ford Performance Racing team-mate Mark Winterbottom won the Saturday race and moved into the championship lead, after Davison and fellow title contender Jamie Whincup came together atTurn 4 late in the piece.That clash followed a frenetic Safety Car restart, with Davison forced wide atTurn 3 while dicing with Tim Slade. Unable to stop his car on the grass, he cannoned into an unlucky Whincup atTurn 4.

The very next day,though, Davison made amends, holding off a late charge from Craig Lowndes to win, with Jason Bright third. In claiming FPR's seventh-straight win, and with Whincup and Winterbottom fifth and sixth respectively, Davison reclaimed a 10-point advantage at the top of the standings over Whincup.

Victories at Le Mans and Barcelona have seen Jorge Lorenzo extend his buffer at the top of the MotoGP standings.

In France, Lorenzo led home Valentino Rossi and Casey Stoner, but it was the Australian attracting all of the headlines, having announced before the race that he'd retire at the end of the year.

With Dani Pedrosa second, it was a Spanish 1 -2 on home soil a fortnight later. Andrea Dovizioso was third, with Stoner fourth.

After five rounds, Lorenzo holds a 20-point advantage over Stoner.

QUICK QUIZ QUIZ QUESTIONS 1. Before moving to Australia to become Walkinshaw Racing’s Managing Director, with which NASCAR team did Steve Hallam work?

2. Which of the following championships has Alexandre Premat 6

not won? Formula Three Euroseries, A1 Grand Prix or Le Mans Series?

3. Before Premat, who was the last proper international i.e. not counting New Zealanders- to race fulltime in the V8 Supercar Championship Series?

4. When did Eastern Creek Raceway -

yes,Sydney Motorsport Park - open?

5. V8 Supercars will return to the Sydney circuit in August for the first time since 2008- who won that round?

And why was it significant?

QUIZ ANSWERS ON PAGE 98

motorsport news

NEWS OF THE MONTH TEAMNODAFONE

INDYCAR Will Power continues to lead the IndyCar standings, despite his winning streak coming to an end.

Power headed to the Indy 500 having won three-straight races, but was eliminated in an incident when Mike Conway rejoined the race with a damaged front wing. Dario Franchitti, pictured, survived a last-lap dive from Takuma Sato to win, while Ryan Briscoe was fifth after starting on pole.

Having been second to team-mate Franchitti at Indy, Scott Dixon reversed the Ganassi 1-2 at Detroit a week later. Power was fourth, with Briscoe a troubled 16th.

Briscoe, though, returned to the podium at Texas,taking third behind Justin Wilson and Graham Rahal. Power was eighth after a controversial penalty for blocking, but retains a 36-point lead over Dixon in the standings.

This will be the last season of'TeamVodafone', with Vodafone Hutchison Australia to cease its title sponsorship ofTriple Eight at the end of the 2012 V8 Supercar Championship Series.

Vodafone joined T8 at the beginning of 2007 and the decision to withdraw was accompanied by news it would end its sponsorship arrangements with Cricket Australia.

LOWNDES GETS 0AM It wasn't all bad news forTriple Eight- Craig Lowndes was among those recognised in the 2012 Queen's Birthday Honours List.

Lowndes received a Medal ofthe Order of Australia in the General Division,for"service to motor racing and to the community, particularly through road safety education programs and charitable organisations".

BREAKING BACK Greg Murphy is set to be out of action until the Sandown 500 in September.

Murphy injured his back in a crash with Jono Webb in Adelaide in March,and missed the following round at Symmons Plains.

Further surgery is required and he'll miss the next three months of competition, "Despite the discectomy procedure I had after Clipsal,the disc has continued to rupture and I've been in a fair amount of pain and discomfort this week,"said Murphy.

"I need to get the vertebrae fused to sort this once and for all and while it means I'll be out of the car for the next three months, I expect to be 100% and back racing for the Pepsi Max Crew here in Australia and Mike Pero Racing in New Zealand by the end of September."

Kelly Racing endurance driver David Russell replaced Murphy in the Pepsi Max Commodore in Darwin.

FORD’S FOUR PLAY

WORLD RALLY C’SHIP Sebastien Loeb claimed his fourth win ofthe 2012 World Rally Championship in Greece.

Loeb continued his march towards a ninth crown with a 40 second victory over Citroen team-mate Mikko Hirvonen, but the Acropolis Rally wasn't quite that simple.

Ford's Jari-Matti Latvala was just 2.2s behind Loeb on Saturday morning, but a puncture ended his push for victory. The next day, Petter Solberg closed to within 10s of Loeb, before he crashed out of contention.

Loeb then had to survive a puncture of his own, but had done enough to lead home Hirvonen, with Latvala third.

www.mnews.com.au

Ford Performance Racing will field a fourth entry from the start of the 2013 V8 Supercar Championship Series.

Charlie Schwerkolt will take his Racing Entitlements contract to FPR in a'multi-year agreement;to run alongside the two factory Falcons and Rod Nash Racing's entry. Schwerkolt's licence is ■currently in use at Dick Johnson Racing, with James Moffat's Falcon, a legacy of Schwerkolt's former ownership stake in the team.

A driver for 2013 is yet to be named, but FPR's Dunlop Series hotshoe Chaz Mostert heads the list of early contenders.

"I am very pleased to align myself with FPR as for me it is by far the best place to position my licence for 2013 and beyond."

Schwerkolt said.

"This sport is about people and FPR seem to have the right mix throughout the whole team. I believe whoever ends up driving my car will be in one ofthe best seats possible on the grid."

NOT A ROLLING STONE

Shane van Gisbergen is staying put at Stone Brothers Racing.

The flying Kiwi has signed a new, three-year deal with Ross and Jim Stone that will see him remain with 5BR until the end of 2015.

Title sponsor on his entry, SP Tools, is also locked in for the duration.

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MITCHELL

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i MADAM’S MUSINGS

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VERYONE is (correctly) lauding this year's Formula 1 season as one of the best in years but, closer to home, the 2012 V8 Supercar Championship Series is also bubbling along quite nicely.

We've seen some cracking finishes and, as part of that.

Ford Performance Racing are putting together what looks to be their best shot at winning a title yet. The speed is no surprise, it's been there for a couple of years, but consistency is what hasn't.

Take 2011 for instance, they started and finished well, but fell in a bit of a hole mid-year on the Sprint Tyre. However, with that rectified and a gain on fuel economy, things are looking good for Will Davison and MarkWinterbottom.

So much so, that TeamVodafone have acknowledged the fight they're in. I may well have simply missed it in past instances, but a couple of things Jamie Whincup said on the Barbagallo telecast felt like the first time in a long time they've publically suggested they weren't the top team in the paddock at that exact moment in time.

Even in 2010, in a fight with Dick Johnson Racing and James Courtney, I didn't hear anything from The Fones to suggest that they didn't feel comfortable - not that they seemed cocky - about the situation.

The surge in FPR's performance is good news for their newest recruit, David Reynolds. The split from Kelly Racing was messy, but he's joined FPR at the right time.

Wins (plural) can't be far away (I'm writing this before Darwin) and there's nothing to suggest he won't win a title one day.

Should that happen, it'll be a win for the series, in that they'll have a genuine character to go out and market in Reynolds.

He's not as ... predictable as many other drivers out of the car, or many other elite athletes.

'Davey', as he now seems to be exclusively known among the Channel 7 commentary team, is his own lad. He's always had a good sense of humour and generally isn't too fussed by perceptions, without coming across as unprofessional.

Too many youngsters in sport are put through session after session of media training ● to the point they become

beige. Saying the right things but little else. That's not Reynolds, fortunately.

But here's my challenge to V8 Supercars - don't wait for him to win to start marketing him.

Start pushing him now. He's probably not a Dancing With The 'Stars'type, or someone you could put solely on a billboard to sell V8 Supercars, but surely suitable opportunities in the media landscape exist. He's owned every press conference he's been a part of, purely by being himself.

The first step is an easy one.

Find a way to use him in the telecasts. Why not let him run amok in the paddock for half an hour with a cameraman, talking to whoever he wants, and cut it down to a segment?

(Sorry Reynolds. Any of this would result In more work for you, and I remember the talk in the Friday Phillip island press conference about wanting to do less, like Kimi, but think of the long-term cash.)

Beyond that might be a slow burn, but it'll be worth the effort. Not that V8 Supercars Australia is flush with personnel to be pitching Reynolds.

I find it odd that a series with such lofty ambitions has (ostensibly, anyway) a PR department consisting of one person, even in the venture capital era. Before I

Why not let Reynolds run amok in the paddock for half an hour with a cameraman, talking to whoever he wants, and cut it down to a segment?

go any further, (want to state that this isn't a whack on that 'department', Cole Hitchcock.

And, yes, the teams have their own PR arrangements, but from a series perspective, it seems understaffed to me.

Especially now that V8SA is the 'promoter'of so many events.

Until the end of the 2011 season, there'd been a second staffer, but they always looked as though they had a bunch of marketing intern-spec jobs - i.e. organising meeting rides with teams and putting hats on people- taking away time that could be used proactively, to push the series and its people to media outlets.The Dunlop Series also fell under their umbrella, but now goes largely unloved.

I should also state that this isn't some sort of backwards job application, even though this is my final edition of Motorsport News as a full-timer.

I'm going to head to Europe to see what's happening over there and see where life takes me, while filing the odd yarn for this fine magazine.

Since coming on board in late 2009, I've thoroughly enjoyed working with A-Teamers Lambden, Branagan and van Leeuwen, and, in more recent times, Normoyle and Currie.

It's been rad.

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PHIL

BRANAGAN MOTOR MOUTH

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I

AM pretty sure that it's OK to tell this tale now.

Last October, Craig Lowndes stuck his digital foot in it. As part of his social media patter, he tweeted; "Just want thank nokia [sic] and Vodafone for my new N9 phone, its [sic] great and easy to use. At the airport heading back down to Syd." Not much wrong with that, but according to the trace, the Lowndes tweet was sent 'via Twitter for iPhone'. Nokia had a turbulent 2011, and not just because of Craig; it started the year as the biggest maker of smart phones in the world. It is not now; Apple and Samsung are dominating the market. It feels safe to tell the tale because TeamVodafone is now branded with Samsung, not Nokia. It made a seamless transition between the brands, just as it did some years ago when

Sony Ericsson departed to back tennis (which, it has announced recently, it is exiting at the end ofthe year). You can bet that Lowndes and Jamie Whincup are now fully on the Samsung train; both played a part in Samsung's local roll-out of its new Galaxy S3 super phone.

I mention all this mobile phone yackity-yack because ofthe news that Vodafone will split with Triple Eight at the end ofthe season - or, more accurately, it will cease being the team's title sponsor.

The timing ofthe news is probably not great, though it is difficult to remember a team/ sponsor split happening at an opportune time.

Pessimists might dwell on the fact that Vodafone's decision leaves T8's marketing department looking for a new partner at a tough time; in a flat economy, and when V8 Supercars'media rights

arrangements for beyond this season have not been locked away - or, at least, made public.

Optimists may point to the fact that the new media deal could present new opportunities, and that JDub and Lowndes are both signed up for the next three years - as is Holden. Plus, there is the small matter of the team's successes; three championships (all to Whincup) and four wins at the Bathurst 1000 (not to mention the fact that the team may add one more to each of those tallies this year) is a mighty carrot to dangle in front of a potential sponsor.

As for who steps in ... who knows? Norton? Monster Energy? Samsung? Toshiba? A quick look at the TeamV website shows more than 40 sponsors' logos. Many of them are multi nationals and could step up, or there could be a new player.

Chances are, team boss Roland Dane and marketing manager Peter Jamieson are already well in the process of sorting out 2013. My only bet; a Spanish bank seems a longshot.

We can hardly fault Vodafone for its support of the sport over the last half-dozen years. When the team, which emerged from the ashes ofTeam Betta Electrical, was launched in Sydney, the media lunch that followed was across the road at the Aria restaurant. Because of its tie-ins with McLaren, we have seen things I never dreamed we would, like Jamie Whincup driving a Formula 1 car around Albert Park, and Lowndes steering one around Bathurst.The partnership has shown some best-practice examples of how to activate a sporting sponsorship.

It is time to say thanks to Vodafone.

My own Vodafone contract runs out this month. New deals, new handsets are calling my name. I have always believed one should try to support those companies that support this sport, my sport, and I cannot help noticing that there is a Red Bull mobile brand now. If Webb or Seb can get me a deal on a shiny new handset, I may just be tempted to move.

The timing ofthe news is probably not great, though it is difficult to remember // a team/sponsor split happening at an opportune time

motorsport news

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HERE are few more volatile relationships in motorsport than the one between V8 Supercars Australia and the Australian Racing Drivers'Club.

In recent times they haven't been on speaking terms but over the past few months the ice appears to have melted somewhat.So much so, in fact, that a date has been agreed for the pair to spend a weekend together in Sydney in late August.

Whether the arrival of Spring the following week will lead to the blossoming of a more meaningful affair between these strangest of bedfellows remains to be seen.

Certainly when they first met, a whole 15 years ago now, it was anything but love at first sight. It was war, in fact, as AVESCO (later to be renamed V8 Supercars Australia) teamed up with Network 10 to wrest control of the jewel in the Australian Touring Car racing crown,the Bathurst 1000, from the ARDC and Channel Seven. It was Australian motor

racing's equivalent of the rugby league'Superleague'split, which was happening at around the same time.

It was no less damaging, either, at least as far as the ARDC was concerned.The battle raged for two years, but eventually AVESCO won control of the Bathurst event, which had belonged to the ARDC ever since it migrated north from Phillip Island in 1963.

It would be safe to assume that in the immediate aftermath of all this, AVESCO was not on the ARDC's Christmas card list.

However,they do say that time heals all, and before long the hatchet had been buried as the V8 Supercars returned to the ARDC's Eastern Creek venue in 1999.

And V8 Supercars liked the Creek,too, with its pit garages and expansive corporate hospitality facilities which, at the turn of the new century, were the best of any of our permanent race circuits - and arguably still are today.

The V8s liked Eastern Creek so much,in fact, that in 2003

and 2004 they made two trips, with two separate rounds of the Championship being promoted respectively by the ARDC and V8 Supercars Australia itself.

They took a break from one another in 2005, but the V8s were back at the Creek in 2007 and'08.

But then they famously fell out once more. When the then ARDC president John Cotter said that the V8SA sanction fee made it impossible for the club to make a profit from running a V8 round, V8SA Chairman Tony Cochrane returned immediate fire. He did not mince words, saying the ARDC had 'zero idea'about how to promote an event, that Eastern Creek was a'disaster'and,furthermore, it would 'never see a V8 race again'.

And with the Homebush street circuit event kicking in for 2009, the V8 Supercars haven't been back to Eastern Creek since (well, not counting last year's pre-season test day).

But now that's about to change as the ARDC prepares to host races 19 and 20 of this year's V8 Supercars Championship, on August 25-26.

All has been forgiven. Eastern Creek, we can only presume, is

no longer a 'disaster'.(Disaster or otherwise, it is a very different venue that the V8 Supercars will encounter in August.)

As for Tony Cochrane's declaration that Eastern Creek won't ever see a V8 Supercar race again, the thing is that he's actually not specifically incorrect.The place they're going to race in August is the race track formerly known as Eastern Creek, but now known as'Sydney Motorsport Park'.

Surprisingly, V8 Supercars Australia won't be racing on the new 4.5km layout, and instead have opted to remain on the original 3.9km track.

It seems an odd decision.

It is a shame we won't be seeing theV8 Supercars being challenged by the spectacular elevation changes offered by the extended section.

I guess,though,that after all the water that's gone under the bridge in this relationship, that the ARDC will be able to see the bigger picture, and won't feel as though it's gone to all this trouble to dress itself up all nice, only to be snubbed by its suitor.

And there is always next year for the new layout - provided there isn't another falling out in the meantime.

Tony Cochrane did not mince words,saying the ARDC had 'zero idea'about how to promote an event,that Eastern Creek was a 'disaster'and,furthermore,it would 'never see a V8 race again'

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CHRIS

LAMBDEN ON THl LIMITIR

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ONACO Grand Prix weekend turned into one for the insomniacs.

With Mark Webber on pole in the Principality, Ryan Briscoe on pole for the Indy 500 a few hours later, ahead of IndyCar championship leader Will Power, and Marcos Ambrose sticking the Richard Petty Motorsports Ford on the front row for the Coke 600 in Charlotte, Australian motorsport was in the spotlight.

Pole at Monaco means everything - if you can turn it into the lead atTurn 1 you are half-way there. And thankfully, after a series of duffed starts, Mark and the RB techs got it right and our man was on his way to a second win in the most prestigious, if not the weirdest.

Grand Prix of them all.

Contrast that with the two oval-track races in the States, where pole is hardly worth getting out of bed for. Races on ovals have been won from last on numerous occasions, so while it was nice to see our guys grab the pre-race headlines, it meant little on race day. in fact, Webber was the sole Aussie winner - Briscoe finished fifth.

Power a DNF after getting involved in someone else's accident(although he still leads the championship after a string of earlier wins), while Marcos ran at the front until half distance, before strangely being sidelined by a rare wheel hub breakage.

Those dramas aside, Australia's stocks in international motorsport are running high (not to mention Casey Stoner and Jason Crump on two wheels). And while all of the quartet above are now into, in some cases well into, their 30s, they probably have some good years left.

But where is the next wave?

The next Webber? The next Aussie IndyCar or NASCAR stars?

Do we care? Is it important?

International success is important for any sport Soccer's profile in Australia spiked after the Socceroos started to qualify for the World Cup - but in motorsport terms it is getting tougher and tougher for young aspiring stars to follow that pathway all the way to the top.

Ultimately, in motorsport, money,sponsorship, is crucial.

That the superb Daniel Ricciardo finds himself in Formula 1 is thanks mostly to the Red Bull programme. Daniel impressed early in Formula BMW and Formula Renault (Italy), and from 2008 has competed under the Red Bull banner - winning the British F3 championship before getting the opportunities which have led to his full-time 2012 Toro Rosso, owned-by-RedBull,F1ride.

If there's a down-side to the Red Bull programme,it's the sheer number of young drivers in it at all levels. Remember

Sebastien Buemi and Jaime Alguersuari?They were in FI iast year, with Toro Rosso, but with no vacancy at the senior Red Bull team this year, both are gone, making way for Ricciardo and Jean-Eric Vergne.

It's crunch time for Daniel. He needs to nail it - and have the Webber/Ferrari rumours come to pass-for his FI career to have longevity.

Behind Daniel,there's a void.

Having won the British Formula Ford Championship in 2010,supported to a degree byTriple Eight's Roland Dane and the Australian Motor Sport Foundation,and taken on British F3 last year,finishing 10th, Scott Pye is now following the path trodden by the likes of Russell Ingall, Marcos Ambrose,Jason Bright, James Courtney, Will Davison and others before him, having to give the international dream away and head back to Australia for what will probably turn out to be a successful career in V8 Supercars.(That Ambrose was able to then turn V8 success into a door opening in NASCAR is one of the great Australian success stories).

But you get what I mean:the jump from somewhere around British F3 level, through that tiny opening towards Formula 1 is getting harder and harder. No wonder that more and more of our young drivers are opting to stay home and aim directly at V8 Supercars to start with - it's a top-level series with good career/income prospects these days.

Bizarrely, our cousins across

the Tasman appear to be closer to their next FI star than we are at present. Under Webber's mentorship - but funded by Kiwi business - young Kiwi star Mitch Evans is running at the front of GP3, while a second young Kiwi, Richie Stanaway, is also poised. Having won 13 out of 18 races in last year's German F3 Championship and one out of two contested GP3 events, he is now part of the Lotus FI development program, contesting Formula Renault 3.5 this year. His task has Just become a little complicated thanks to two cracked vertebrae suffered in a crash last month, but by all accounts he too has talent.

As we head into the Olympics, with government millions invested into athletes, many of whom,with the best will in the world, aren't even going to make finals, it is frustrating that we don't have greater support, both government and commercial, in the search for the next Webber.

And at a time when there is a greyness hovering over business confidence in Australia as a result of the European dramas, little is likely to change in the immediate future.

Which is a shame.Somewhere out there, most likely in junior karting, is a youngster with all the ingredients. Whether that talent ever gets to top level will depend on real support when it really matters. Let's hope things pick up in the meantime - or our current golden era of international success may be the last for a while.

## Thejump from somewhere around ^^ British F3ievei,through that tiny opening towards Formuia 1 is getting harder and harder

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SPEED NEWS AUSTRALIA AUSTRALIA’S MOST COMPREHENSIVE MOTORSPORTSSHOW THE BIGGEST ISSUES EXCLUSIVE GUESTS LATEST HIGHLIGHTS WEDNESDAYS? PM

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HAT would you do if you were Mark Webber,and you were offered a one-year Ferrari contract for 2012?

Just to make the whole scenario a little more complicated, let's throw a little spanner in the works;several hours after the Ferrari contract lobs, Red Bull Racing tables another year as a rolling extension as well.The pay is almost identical, and the performance bonuses don't differ enough to be a genuine factor in the decision. Put yourself right in Mark's shoes. Now what will you do?

Let's have a look at a few of the factors that would more than likely come into play - but first. I'd like to premise this whole discussion by saying that this is pie-in-the-sky thinking out loud, not a journalistic investigation based on hard facts or insider knowledge.

I also should add that, because of the deadline. I'm penning this column a few days before the Canadian Grand Prix,just in case the situation changes in that time.

The first step of consideration would have to be competitiveness.Just 12 months ago this would have been a lot more straightforward. When RBR were winning everything, it would have verged on being a no-brainer. Why would you leave the best team in Formula 1?

But the game has changed.The levelling of the playing field has turned Red Bull from runaway pace-setters into a competitive team capable of winning races - and there is a big difference. Without a crystal ball it's impossible to know how it will all shake out for 2013, but if you've learnt anything in the first part of this season it's that things can,and do,change rather quickly.

What about longevity? In our magical scenario, both contracts are for one year. But there is a difference; an RBR extension would be part of an on-going set of one-year deals, and therefore well and truly open for another year on top of that.The Ferrari deal, however, reeks of being a stop-gap between Felipe Massa being flung and Sergio Perez being suited up in red.That's not necessarily the case (Luca di Montezemolo very recently said that"Perez is a good driver but to drive a Ferrari you need more experience."), but it would be of some concern.

However, let's not forget that you're a racing towards your 36th birthday. How long do you expect to be doing this? How long do you want to be doing this? Is it time to start choosing quality over (potential) quantity when it comes to these things?

Then there's your team-mate.While your relationship with Sebastian Vettel has come a long way from where it was in 2010,and you have been cleaning his clock in qualifying this season, it's not perfect. He's always going to be the guy who speaks the same language as the guy who owns the team,and the guy that Red Bull nurtured

from a karterto a Formula 1 World Champion. He's always going to be the golden boy.

Fernando Alonso,on the other hand, is a good buddy of yours. He's your pal, and the idea of being happy when your team-mate does well has some appeal. But would that have an effect on your competitiveness? Maybe you need to really want to beat your team-mate to get the best out of the car and yourself? Would it have an effect on your friendship with'Nando? Is it worth the risk?

Around you,the people are already starting to talk.

Christian Horner,for example, has been telling the media that he can't understand why on earth you'd want to leave..

"Why would he want to leave?" was his direct quote following your win in Monaco."He is comfortable in the team.The team know Mark very well and he knows the team very well. A lot depends on his motivation and desire going forward, which at the moment looks very clear."

Alan Jones, however, has a different view of your future. In a recent episode of the Australia'h Grand Prix Corporation's Keeping Track podcast,Jones made it very clear that Ferrari was the best option.

"Mark has already done one of the two things that most Formula 1 drivers would like to do,and that's win Monaco,"he said.

"The other one is to drive for Ferrari. If he goes to Ferrari, it could be a breath of fresh air - it's very prestigious and something really good to have on your CV. He gets on extremely well with Alonso,so maybe that could be a good way for him to go." n So, with all of that in mind, what would you do?

For the record, I would choose Ferrari if I were Mark Webber.Why? I agree with Jones. If I'd won races, won Monaco,and the twilight of my career was fast approaching, I'd be thinking about what I wanted to take with me from the sport. And a bright red Ferrari suit with your name on it would be a great souvenir. Webber might win more races and even a title by staying at Red Bull, but he also might not. If he signs with Ferrari, nothing (within reason) can happen to take that away from you.That's an honour that would be so tough to turn down.

Okay, back to reality. If these Ferrari rumours are indeed true, it would be my guess that Webber will wait as long as possible to make a decision. He'll want to know exactly where he's at in the hunt for the'12 title before he makes a call that big, because with a box like winning the title checked, you could be more open to your heart ruling your head.

And,in a year where the races that you don't win are likely to affect the outcome of the championship more than the ones you do, make no mistake - Mark Webber is a genuine title contender.

Ifl'd won races, won Monaco and the twilight ofmy career was fast approaching,I'd be thinking about what I wanted to take with me from the sport. And a bright red Ferrarisuit with your name on it would be a greatsouvenir HI

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N the city of Fort Worth,the police cars bear a large Texas longhorn motif and the slogan,'Where the West begins'.They're not kidding. Last year, I went to a bar to escape the 40-degree midday heat,and watched as a gentleman in a cowboy hat rode up,tethered his horse outside,and strolled in for a beer. In cliche terms, it could only have been topped by him getting cheated in a card fight, pushing over a table, and eventually getting thrown through a window.

For racing fans. Fort Worth is less about livestock and large hats, and more about the formidable 1.5 mile Speedway located a short drive to the north. It's an extraordinary venue; one that totally dominates the landscape. It's also a place that does real justice to the potential of the cars -1 wrote in these pages last year that standing next to the Turn 1 fence during an indyCar practice session was the first time in years that I had felt any fear at a race track.

But for the last few years,there has been a problem.The very things that make it so fast - its length;the nature of its banking were the same things that left the cars droning around and around In packs. IndyCars had so much downforce that even a not-very-good driver could run lap after lap completely flat, meaning that there was nothin. It was the same at Las Vegas last year, and that was ultimately found to be one of the factors that led to Dan Wheldon's accident.

The recent Texas race was IndyCar's first visit to a 1.5-miler since Vegas, and as you'd expect,the entire paddock was a bit tense.The series had spent the off-season looking into how it could solve the

pack racing problem with the new DW12 chassis, and on paper,the solution was obvious: take away some of the downforce. Create a situation where the driver has to have some sort of input aside from keeping their right foot planted - such as lifting for a corner - and you immediately start to create an opportunity to break the packs up.

The tricky bit was figuring out exactly how much downforce to chop out. Ryan Briscoe and Tony Kanaan were the first to try the new car at Texas when they tested there during the pre-season, and immediately reported that It was still too grippy. Downforce levels were revised for the group test a couple of months later, but still the consensus was that it was too easy to drive.6o when the teams turned up for the race weekend the final aero package still hadn't been finalised, and in fact it wasn't settled upon until after qualifying.

We in the media often get criticised for only ever reporting negative stories. In some cases, it's a fair point. Someone being angry, or some sort of conflict, makes for a far easier headline than people being happy and everyone getting along.There are times when tension has genuine news value, and other times when you'll see a journalist take it as the easy option.(That, or their editor has insisted that they write about someone's outburst rather than the latest tweak to the sidepods).

But the flipside is that a lot of the time, people being content is not really a story. It would be a challenge to come up with 300 interesting words about Oriol Servia being reasonably satisfied

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with his team, car, and season. Not only that, it would be a pointless challenge, because nobody would read a'Servia reasonably satisfied after fairly routine weekend'piece anyway.

But in Texas, we had one of those situations where happiness and co-operation equaled news. Right from the start of the weekend, the series, drivers and teams worked in constant consultation with one another in an effort to find the sweet spot between having a car that is just about driveable, but not to the point where it's too comfortable.

It was clear that they'd gotten close when the drivers climbed out of their cars looking borderline terrified.The car was driveable, they reported, but an absolute handful, and tyres were falling off after about three laps. Some felt that they could work with it; others were concerned that the degree of difficulty had been pushed to the point where the car was becoming unpredictable in corners.

One last, minor change was made for final practice and the race. If you tuned in, then your first hint that this was going to be something out of the ordinary would have come when in-car shots showed drivers sawing the wheel to the right mid-corner in an effort to retain some semblance of control.(If you didn't watch it, the entire race is on YouTube).

Afterwards,the drivers looked shattered, but thrilled. Several, including Will Power, described it as the best racing they'd ever experienced on an oval.This, on a track where everyone traditionally

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droned around like slot cars. It wasn't just the racing that left a buzz, it was also the degree to which everyone had co-operated to make it happen. It was a credit to everyone involved.

As time goes on,the 2012 Texas IndyCar race may come to be seen as a watershed event. In just 225 laps, it completely redefined what it means to race powerful single-seaters around a 1.5 mile oval, and is already being talked up as a blueprint for the future.dt also showed what could be done when the various factions in the paddock channeled their energy towards a common cause.

But it could also have ramifications for the DW12 itself. Originally, the plan had been to offer the option for teams to use alternate aero kits to the standard Dallara bodywork,although after protest from the teams over the costs,the series reluctantly delayed that until 2013. But in Texas, IndyCar boss Randy Bernard admitted that the racing has been so good this year with the standard aero that introducing alternatives might actually do more harm than good.

More presciently, the tweak that made Texas amazing - the addition of a 1/8th inch high gurney flap along the rear wing - was only possible because everybody had the same kit. After the success at Texas, it's by no means guaranteed that the series will be keen to do anything that might compromise similar situations in the future.

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In just225 laps, the 2012 Texas IndyCar race completely redefined what it means to race powerful single-seaters around a 1.5 mile oval

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HE WAS RACE ENGINEER TO,AMONG A PLETHORA OF STARS,AYRTON * SENNA AND NELSON PIQUET.HE WASPART OF THE BACKROOM BRAINS a THAT DRAGGED THE MCLAREN FI TEAM OUT OF ITS EARLY'90S A LOSING SPELL,AND NOW HE'S THE MAN CHARGED WITH THE TASK OF M RESTORING THE HOLDEN RACING TEAM TO ITS FORMER GLORY.HRT M MANAGING DIRECTORgg||jggGaSPEAKS WITH^J^j^^^J

OTOR racing is not fair. It never has been.

It is especially unfair if you are Steve Hallam. Such is the level of expectation that the new Managing Director of Walkinshaw Racing is seen by some fans (many, perhaps) as the team's saviour, and the man to return the fortunes of the Holden Racing Team to those of the glory days and they want to know,from him, why it is has not happened yet.

"I get mail," he told me on a grey Melbourne day.

"Mail,from fans?"I ask.

He nods assent. Fans of HRT, pining for the days when the likes of Brock, Lowndes,Skaife and the Kellys won races, no matter what- opposition,engine alarms,floods, locusts, pestilence - and ruled Planet V8 Supercar, send letters to Hallam.

These missives contain suggestions, solutions and,sometimes, encouragement. When he can, Hallam tries to make sure they get a reply.

Everyone, it seems, has a question about why Team Red is not 20

in the winners'circle.The day before I spoke to Hallam, I was asked myself; in a cafe queue, by another dad, who asked what I did for a living. I replied,"! write about motor racing."

"What, Formula 1 and V8 Supercars?" he asked.

I replied in the affirmative.

"So, why isn't HRT winning races?" he countered.

Considering all the answers I could give, I thought the simplest was the best; "Because FPR andTeamVodafone are beating them."

HRT fans are like that.The have expectations. Hell, sometimes, they have demands.The Fones may have taken over the mantle as the team that has performed the most recent heavy lifting for Holden, but that is not enough for HRT fans.They want to see Red,their Red, in the winners'circle. Asking them to be positive about anything else is a bit like suggesting that Manchester United fans should be happy because Manchester City won the English Premier League. iiii^

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WE HAVE TO GET BETTER AT WHAT WE DO.THE PEOPLE THAT WE HAVE GOT THERE ARE GOING TO BE THE ONES WHO STEP UP AND DO THAT HALLAH ON HAT'S CURRENT POSITION nil

And Hallam understands this, even if he was not quite prepared for it when he agreed to take on the task. He has had a few months to get a handle on the Clayton set-up now,and he notes the positives.

"The Holden Racing Team is populated with a lot of very good people, who have a lot of experience," he says."That is one of their greatest assets. What our task is, is to harness that experience and, I think, to move on from the plateau that had been established.

"You are asking me a question where the answer is obvious; we have to get better at what we do.The people that we have got there are going to be the ones who step up and do that."

There has not been sweeping changes. Garth Tander and James Courtney are still HRT's drivers, and the team's personnel largely resemble that who ended the 2011 season under interim management, with Holden Special Vehicles executive Ivan Krizman stepping in mid-season.(ED: Hallam was introduced as WR's new MD at Bathurst in October, and started his new role on January 3.)

He brings a very solid CV to the role. His most recent role was with Michael Waltrip Racing, where he was Executive Vice President and Director of Competition. He joined MWR in 2009, after 27 years in Formula 1. His most recent role in that arena was with McLaren, where he rose to the role of Head of Race Operations. In almost 450 Grands Prix, he worked with some the most decorated drivers in the history of the sport, including 22

four-time World Champion Alain Prost, three-time titlists Ayrton Senna and Nelson Piquet, double Champ Mika Hakkinen and Nigel Mansell.

And now, he has to acclimatise himself to settling into life in Australia, a task made somewhat easier by the fact that he is married to a Melbourne native. That means learning the cultural landscape as much as it means finding out where all the racetracks are.The next one on the list after this edition of MN hits the stands will be in far-flung Townsville;following that event,there is also the small matter of celebrating his 60th birthday.

One aspect of the timing of Hallam's move is that he arrives at HRT at a time when it, and all other V8 Supercar teams, are required to accommodate not only a'normal'race program for 2012 but a development program for the Car of the Future.

Hallam says that the timing of that does him no favours. "[It's] twice the work to do in the same period of time," he says.

'It will be [a more level playing field] when we get there, but we are not there yet. We are still in 2012 and you are complaining about us not winning in 2012.That is the issue."

In theory,the most logical thing to do would be to expand your team to run two'streams'; one to continue the 2012 race program, one to build a new car.The problem is, motor racing does not often run to theory and, with finite resources, the ideal model is not really achievable.

"If you have the resources to do that [split programs] III!

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FAMOUS NAMES H

lAV^ING worked with so many of the sport's leading lights, it is somewhat irresistible to ask Steve Hallam for a few comments about some ofthe famous drivers and team owners he worked alongside during his career.

Ironically, one ofthose whose name is not on this list is Tom Walkinshaw. Despite the Scot's history with teams such as Benetton, Ligier and Arrows,Hallam says with an ironic smile,"I never metTom"...

AYRmSiNMA When Senna joined Lotus at the end ofthe 1984 season, Hallam was his race engineer.

"What can I say? Super chap. A very sad loss. He was a serious game changer, both in terms of him being a racing driver and from the point of view of what he, as a human being, brought to the sport. His was a big loss.'

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The Brazilian left Williams as World Champion to replace Senna at Team Lotus for the 1988 season.

"Mike Doodson wrote a very good piece on Nelson {ED: in British weekly Autosport) recently and he questioned whether his accident at Imola had a very significant effect on him.To a certain extent, Mike may have been correct. "i worked with Nelson in'88 and'89 and he did not seem like the chap that we had raced against in'86 and the early part of'87, in terms of what we were expecting from him. He took over a team that had been, essentially, built around Ayrton and with a lot of resource put in, by some exceptionally clever people. We did not instantaneously build a poor car. All the drivers, when they get into these cars, give their all. Mike actually raised the point whether Nelson was carrying some effects of that Imola accident."

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In 18 years with McLaren, Hallam was a track engineer,then chief track engineer,then head of the race team.

"A man of unbelievable vision and courage. A great person to work for, I have an immense respect for Ron and what he has achieved and what he will continue to achieve as he builds the McLaren brand."

MICHAEL ANDRETTI The American replaced Gerhard Berger for 1993 when he moved to Ferrari, but after a string of poor results, vacated his seat after the ltalian.GR "[Long pause] A missed opportunity. I think that Michael tried very hard. He elected - and he will disagree with me - but he elected to live in the'States and commute,like his father had done before him.Times had changed and, in my opinion, Michael needed to be closer to the team and the car. His was a missed opportunity."

I could not resist a follow-up question: Q: Is that a rule that applies across the board in motor racing?

"The more technical it gets and the more involved it gets... there isn't a hard and fast per se rule -'That is what you must do'. It varies from formula to formula. But as a generalised comment, it does help the team if you are close."

MICHAEL WALTRIP The MWR Toyota NASCAR team was rumoured to be In financial strife some years ago, but those suggestions are quiet nowadays. Hallam was with the team from 2009 until mid-2011. "[Even longer pause] Anyone who sets up a racing team,from scratch which Michael did - that is a brave move. In that competitive arena,and Formula 1 is very competitive, NASCAR is very competitive,V8 Supercar is very competitive, at that high level, it always takes more money than you think and longer than you think. I think that Michael initially was very impatient for success and I think that by stepping out of the car, he has found that patience. He is now reaping the rewards of that patience, because the team is starting the come together very well."

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IT WAS VERY HARD FOR THEM AS WELL,AND THEY ARE MUCH BIGGER TEAMS THAN WE ARE.THE TEAM THAT I WAS WITH WAS Z50 PEOPLE on nascar's cot introduction vs vs's cotf nil

yeah," he agrees,"but I doubt that anyone in V8 Supercar racing has the resources to operate like that.

We are operating on budgets of $3m to $4 million per car, per season, in current racing. Where in Australia do you go, to get the extra money you would need to have that dedicated resource? A special team, off in one corner? It doesn't happen.

"From a business point of view,they are inextricably linked.

Everybody who is designing and building a Car of the Future is faced with the same problem: do you elevate your spend for a short period of time,to bridge the gap, because you do not want to sacrifice... every race that you go to is an opportunity to win. You do not want to sacrifice any of those, ie, current car. You want to do the best job that you possibly can on the new car.

"Everybody is in the same situation. We are being forced, and it is a choice,to run two programs in parallel. Every organisation is trying to cover those two programs, without adding more than it wants to, to their staff, to deal with it. Then we have to see what falls out at the end. It's hard, very hard, at the moment."

Even if such a thing were possible, a significant irony of expanding a race team to such a level would fly in the face of the COTF program, which is primarily meant to allow the teams to spend less money in the long-term.

"That remains to be seen,"says Hallam thoughtfully.

"In any form of motor racing, you spend as much as you can.

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We are spending to our budget; if I had more, I would spend more. One of the tasks for our commercial department and our financial department is to, either generate more income or create more savings, elsewhere. You can only make within the business the money that enables you to spend on the cars."

One thing that is sometimes overlooked in the Car of the Future program is that other forms of the sport have undergone similar transformations. In NASCAR,for instance.

Sprint Cup changed from its older cars to a much more standardised Car ofTomorrow, starting with a limited program in 2007 before the new cars became mandatory the year before Hallam joined MWR.There are similarities, he says, but the scale is much different.

"It was very hard for them as well, and they are much bigger teams than we are," he says."The team that I was with was 250 people. It was a stretch for them, when they did it. Fortunately, V8 Supercar is not going down precisely the same path that NASCAR did. NASCAR had the teams running the same cars during the same year, and that really was quite a challenge, from a engineering perspective,from the driver perspective, let alone generating a new car and all that that took."

NASCAR made the change to the new car primarily for safety reasons. Cost-saving, one of the mantras behind the new V8 Supercar, was not really a consideration, but the COTF provides an interesting counterpoint; III! "Let's be realistic," he explains."If you weigh one

motorsport news

WHERE SIMPLICITY MEETS INNOVATION

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F MRT fans wonder whether a man with vast experience at McLaren - one of Formula 1's most successful teams ofthe last three decades- is one equipped to turn a program back to success,they may see some coincidental parallels, or stars lining up,to consider.

It is easy to forget that McLaren has not always been successful.

After all, it has set so many benchmarks for the sport, including the most wins in single season (15 out of 16,in 1988)and the most in a row(11, in the same year).

But there was also a dark period. Its longest dry spell was exactly three seasons,in 1994-'96. Between Ayrton Senna's win in Adelaide in 1993,and David Coulthard taking the flag at Melbourne in the opening race of the'97 season,there were 49 GPs without a win.

I mentioned to Hallam that the statistic is easy to forget.

"Not for me,"he says."I lived through it." if possible, HRT has even greater expectations. Its six Drivers' crowns in the A?CCA/8 Supercar era came in seven years but,as Hallam is only too well aware,the last ofthose came in 2002.In 2011,HRT finished fourth in the V8 Supercar teams'championship; coincidentally,the same position in which McLaren finished in the Constructors'Championship during those three winless seasons. _ If you want to look at what was the low point for McLaren,July 1994 may be a good place to start. With Damon Hill having edged Michael Schumacher off pole position by an impossibly narrow margin,and going on to win the race by more than a minute, it was easy to miss the flames in the back of Martin Brundle's McLaren even before the start of the race. Its Peugeot motor gave up the ghost even before the green light, pictured, it was a public low point.

For HRT, perhaps the equivalent moment of the doors falling off was Bathurst in 2010 when,literally, a door fell off, which led to Cameron McConville saying after the race;"Garth was wondering why I wasn't getting in [and]it was because I was actually holding the door. I was waiting for the Benny Hill music to start."

Of course,Tander and McConville salvaged a result(third, behind theTeamVodafone 1 -2)from the embarrassing situation - and for McLaren,the Silverstone fire was confirmation, if it was needed,that its future lay not with Peugeot. By the end of the season,there was a Mercedes-Benz deal in place and that partnership continues to this day - after 71 GP victories, and Championships for both Drivers and Constructors.

A man who lived through those three barren years at McLaren would appear to be well-equipped to oversee a similar situation, even if Clayton is half a world away from Woking and even if the racecars he works with now have doors - well, most ofthe time they have doors... www.mnews.com.au

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A.

I DON'T HAVE THE MAGIC BULLET.THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A MAGIC BULLET hallam'sfirst words at clayton were direct of those cars, you have a given amount of tube and sheet metal and it doesn't change the cost of putting it together.

What you are doing is putting it together in a different way.

In fact, there is a cost increase because you have to change your tooling, to assemble it in a different way. Physically, you get an incremental cost with the tooling - and then you get the same product.

"So, you spend more. How is that cheaper?"

When Roland Dane and co took over what had been,to that point, Briggs Motorsport, in late 2003,there were not immediate changes, but soon, new people appear on the engineering side,followed by driver changes. As Kelly Racing morphs into Nissan Motorsport,so too John Crennan and Tony Dowe are changing and expanding the team's staffing and technical capabilities. In his short time at HRT, Hallam has not made sweeping changes yet. Behind Tander and Courtney, both V8 Supercar titlists and signed on multi-year deals, are Alistair McVean and Scott Sinclair as their race engineers, and they have been in recent years. But Hallam does add,"If I need to..."

Hallam is impressive.Three decades in the sport, winning and losing races with some of the best in the business, have left him grounded and realistic. He is not going to say things to make people feel good because he knows that winning provides the best feeling in motor racing.

And ... it is worth pointing out that even Triple Eight did not march into the winner's circle in year one. In 2004,the III

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team's first full season in V8 Supercars, its drivers Paul Radisich and Max Wilson finished 19th and 28th, respectively, in the championship.The following season, Craig Lowndes was second;the following season, Jamie Whincup arrived, and the rest is history.

For an even more realistictimeframe, one needs only to look at the history of Ford Performance Racing, which in its 10th year is now getting results similar to those by TeamVodafone in recent years, or ones that FIRT had a dozen years ago. As Flallam himself says, these things take time.

Once most of the Walkinshaw Racing staff returned to Camp Clayton In January, Hallam recalls he got them together to have an introductory talk.

"I don't have the magic bullet," he said."There is no such thing as a magic bullet.The only thing that is going to get this team to where we want it to be is if we all get our heads down and work hard."

There are a number of people who have come to V8 Supercars management from FI backgrounds, and some from other areas of the sport around the world. Some have stayed; others have not.There have been varying levels of success; it is of some irony that the two team principals whose squads have fought out the 2012 V8 Supercar Championship thus far, FPR'sTim Edwards andTeamVodafone's Adrian Burgess, both have extensive FI experience in their CVs. Flallam has all that, and more.

FIRT fans, heed his words.There are no miracles in motor racing. Stay patient; your team may just have the right man.

motorsport news

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LE NOUVEAU PIL

GARRY ROGERS CAUSED A STIR WHEN HE SIGNED FRE^ 2012 REPLACEMENT.BUT HOW'S THE FORMER LE MAN AUSTRALIA AND V8 SUPERCARS? MITCHELL ADAM CAl

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OTORSPORT NEWS: It's been a big start to the year for you, how would you describe the last few months with everything that's gone on?

ALEXANDRE PREMAT: I would say it's been crazy since I arrived because we've done a lot of things. I'm learning every weekend the tracks and how to drive the car, the set-up and everything.

And even the life in Australia, Melbourne. It's very good, it's completely different to France,to Paris, but I really like the approach from the people and from the country. Definitely, it's

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making me so happy to be here, it's so different but i need to iearn a iot stiii about the country so i'm trying to read things and to go to Wikipedia to iearn. i wouid say in these first three or so months, i've had no free time, i'm just trying to get everything good for the team,so i'm going quite often to the team to fix the car, to change things for the next run and iearning the country, i bought as weii a book with aii of the good restaurants in Meibourne,so i'm trying those, i have so many things to do - definiteiy my iife is much more fuii compared to Paris, in Paris, i was iiving since i was born there,so i

OTE SUPERCAR

CHIVIAN ALEXANDRE PREMAT AS LEE HOLDSWORTH'S > SERIES, GP2,AIGP AND DTNI DRIVER FINDING LIFE IN GHT UP WITH HIM TO FIND OUT knew everything there. When you discover a new country and all of these things, you're just so happy to learn a few things.

It's nice. It's unbelievable the feeling that even at 30 years old, you are like a kid in the country. But it's nice, I like it.

Talk me through the timeframe and the chain of events that resulted in you moving to Australia to race a V8 Supercar.

It was quick. Really quick.

I got a phonecall from Garry in December and then we had a few conversations together and it was decided maybe to get a European g

or international driver. I made a request to him because I knew Simon Pagenaud who drove for him last year, I had a few discussions with Simon and I went in discussions with Garry and [team manager] Pierluigi Orsi, and then we went through all of these things.

I came here at the end of January to try thecar atWinton, in the 'taxi ride'[car] and it was quite good,and they were quite happy.

Then it was decided in the next two or three days that I would be the next driver, the team-mate to Michael Caruso. It's been a big judgement definitely in my life because in two weeks I had nil to prepare everything.

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All of my stuff back in France,family, daughter's school to stop everything in France and to come here. Definitely it was a very big shock for a lot of people in France, especially my family, but it was a good move and I'm happy to be here continuing my career.

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How has it been picking up the family and moving to the other side of the world?

Definitely I will lose some friends and some family from Paris, but I think now it's three-and-a-half orfour months, but I don't miss them. We have Skype and it's quite easy,the communication,so we can see them.

At Phillip Island,for example,the family of my wife came,so that's really good. We'd love some friends to come and see us, but I'm not scared about that because it's life. Australia is definitely a long way from Europe, but we need to face that. I'm happy to be here,so I'll never give the ride up.

If not V8 Supercars, what were you looking at racing this year?

I should have done the World Endurance Championship with a good team and I would have driven as well with Sebastien Loeb because he now has a team in Porsche Cup and I would've done as well the GT1 World Championship with McLaren.

When Garry called me, he said,'have you signed your contracts?'

I said,'1 have the contracts on the table, so maybe we have to be really quick because since two weeks they are asking me to sign the contracts'and he said,'OK, don't sign anything. I'll come back to you very soon'.Then he got back to me after two days and then we did all of the process from there.Then I had to tell the guy from the WEC team all of these things,that it was gone because I was going to V8 Supercars.

And definitely, even if you look at the results from the start of the season, it's pretty hard for me because I have to learn tracks,the car, the settings. In the past, what I was driving was single-seaters,DTM, Sportscars, with more downforce, and these kind of cars are Touring Cars with low downforce and even to set-up the car is much harder than a Sportscar or DTM car or single-seater, because there are many different components.

I would say the fashion from the car is a bit older than a bit of Europe, but I think it's good for motor racing and even for fighting if you see all of the field, between first place and 28th, it's only one second. It's really close. And I think for the public it's fun, it's really good.

What were your very first impressions of a V8 Supercar when you came out to Australia for the sneaky test in the ride car at Winton in January?

Power and the braking.

The engine power was quite huge, I was surprised because in DTM we were running with 500 horsepower and at Le Mans sometimes with 700 or 800, but I was surprised with the engine power on these cars, really pushing 650. And it's without any assistance, because in Sportscars we have assistance and in DTM as well, so it makes it harder for the driver. And the brakes as well are really good.

How much interest did you have in V8 Supercars,say,this time last year? Had you seen any or many races?

I had seen ... I don't want to say'many races'but I have seen some on MotorsTV because they were following the V8 Supercars. So I've seen already some races at Sandown,Winton and Bathurst and all of these races.

JM

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HONESTLY, AT SOME ROUNDS, I FEEL THAT THIS WILL BE THE END [OF THE LEARNING PROCESS], BUT ANOTHER ONE WE START AGAIN WITH LEARNING THE TRACK, THE SET-UP AND ALL OF THESE THINGS Before coming out to do the test, did you get on YouTube to find some videos for some information about driving the cars?

Of course. I went on YouTube because now on there you can see everything, crashes, footage from the car inside and outside and you can see what drivers are doing when they're driving the car. I think it was a good help.

I'm still working quite hard on the footage from inside the car, from each session, to know where is the line to find the limit of the car to drive it.

Yeah! A lot of people know Garry better than me. I know him only for three months, we didn't spend a lot of time together because actually, since the first race, he's only been to one or two rounds.

But he's a funny guy. I can see when I go into the workshop that he's always making jokes with the guys. He's trying to give a really good mentality from the team, a really cool atmosphere and these things. I think he has the right mentality. It's always hard to be involved and committed for so many years and still to be so passionate like he is.

You mentioned Simon before, was his involvement in the international race last year really what putVS Supercars in your mind as a possibility?

Definitely. Simon has been a really good friend since 2001 because we raced together in the same team.

Just after he raced in Indy, he went to Zuhai to race a Sportscar and I was there. We had a few talks and he said, 'I don't know what your plan is for next year, but I drove there, it's very nice. Quite fantastic, the drivers themselves are good and the team, the ambience, is different to Europe, but I think it should fit to you'and a few words like this. He gave me the number for Garry and we went into contact like that.

In terms of driving the cars, you've mentioned that it's an ongoing process. How comfortable would you say you feel now?

Honestly, at some rounds, I feel that this will be the end [of the process]. But another one we start again with learning the track, the set-up and all of these things, it will take more time, much more time than I thought so.

I thought it would have been quicker but I think also in the middle of the season we'll be more able to be quicker and in the field without making mistakes. A lot of drivers, with a lot of experience, even with a good car, are making some mistakes. The category's so hard because the cars are so hard to drive, from the tyres, brakes and downforce.

Speaking of'different to Europe', Garry is a very unique character, what did Simon have to say about him and has that matched up with what you've learnt about him so far?

Is there any one thing you've found makes it so hard, coming from your background?

It's the lack of downforce. Only downforce, because that

gives you everything; it gives you the braking,turning, mid-corner.This is what's missing for me right now and I need to get used to that because it's really hard, still hard.

When I'm coming in for braking, I go'fuck, I braked too late', but because I'm missing downforce, I could brake at this point if I had downforce. But you learn about the vision and thinking that you're too quick and then you get some understeer and that's where I should go a step backwards to understand about the car.

^..1

From here, is it still primarily a case of getting used to the downforce,or are there other areas the time will come from?

We need to face as well that even Michael, who's quite good with the car, is struggling with the car because it's really hard. We have some plans to get some more grip from shocks and springs and those things and we need to go through them.

It's tough,even Michael,for example, in free practice he is good with the used tyres but we're always missing the peak performance of the new tyre. We are losing one second compared to the others, we're good with the used tyres but as soon as we put a new tyre on, we are far. That's our main problem with the car at the moment.But we need to find out why.

How have you found working with Michael, who's been driving these cars for five years and Richard Holloway, your engineer, who has a lot of experience as well; is that helping the process?

Of course, it's giving me a really good feeling. When you're in the car and it's feeling good, we try our best to set up the car. I'm happy about that. But now we need to put more components, new components into the car. For example. I'd done maybe, before qualifying on Saturday at Phillip Island, maybe 16 laps on the

racetrack and in qualifying I was P21, but if you look compared to Lee [Holdsworth] last year, I was three tenths quicker than he was.

But a lot ofteams have improved and we're at the same level as last year.That's the problem,teams are moving forward, but we're still on the same pace.

You've just come off a two-day test at Winton, how did that go?

The test was quite good, I would say.There weren't so many drivers there, on the first day there were maybe five or six cars, and all of the timing wasn't shared. We know what they were doing but it wasn't clear whether they were on soft tyres, hard tyres or new or used tyres.

So it was hard to find a good reference for where we were. Naturally, we went through a lot of things on the set-up and it was good as we try to get better.

How many test days had you done before that?

We did one test day at Winton,one at Sandown,and now these two at Winton,so four all up.

So these last two days would've been the most intense testing you've been able to do...

Yeah,the most intense, definitely, to get mileage and to learn more about the car and set-up. It was really good because we were able to do per day, more or less, 100 laps. It was quite good,and we did many, many things to go through the car, so I'm quite happy about that.

How valuable was it at this stage of your V8 Supercar career to go testing and get the opportunity to try things you wouldn't normally be able to do at a race meeting?

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I THINK WE'RE GOING TO START FROM ZERO NEXT YEAR AND IT WILL BE MUCH EASIER FOR ME TO BE IN THE TOP 10 OR TOP 5 You have so many things to do and learn about the car.

For me,at the beginning, it was really hard, especially the first races. It was a new track, new set-ups, I didn't know what,for example, we were going softer in the springs and logically we should've gone stiffen It's strange how the car is working, it takes a lot of time to learn it and the opportunity to have a test day really helped me a lot. nil

You mentioned downforce earlier, as being the biggest thing to get used to, has the Sprint Tyre,the running you've done on that, helped?

The soft tyre fits me a bit more, because there is more grip. As soon as I have more grip, it's a bit better because I could feel a bit better in the car and go through the corner a bit quicker. At the test, we found some really good solutions for the hard tyre that didn't work with the soft tyre, but my driving style would definitely be more suited to the soft tyre now.

We're trying to find a solution to get used to the hard tyre. For example, at the beginning of the year, the first three races on the hard tyre were really hard for me. Now,since Flamilton and getting used to the hard tyre, it's quite good and using the soft tyre as well, but still we need to make some big improvements with the hard tyres and soft tyres.

These cars will change next year when the Car of the Future is introduced. As an outsider coming in, what do you know about that at this point?

I know more or less everything about the Car of the Future.

What will be the new parts,the new material, the rear axle will be independent so it will be more like a car that I drove in the past like DTM. 1 think it will be more efficient and a bit quicker.

The car will be lighter, the weight distribution will be better with the fuel tank more towards the front of the car and many things.

Bigger brakes, it should be the same downforce and some other things will be better as well.

I know quite a lot of things about the new Car of the Future and it looks pretty good.Just now,the team is building the new car and there is still a lot of work to do. I think the Car of the M

Future will definitely suit me more, it will be much easier to learn.

I think the main things that are hard for me now is that the car, there are so many parts and with so many races, the engineers and the other drivers know everything about the car and the tricks that I don't understand or know right now. I think we're going to start from zero next year and it will be much easier for me to be in theTop 10 orTop 5, to learn quicker the car and make some good tuning in it.

In the meantime,there's still a lot of racing left this year, what are you looking forward to?

I'm definitely looking forward to seeing Bathurst. Every person has told me about this nice racetrack and about the magic attitude of the racetrack during the whole week.

Honestly, I'm really enjoying learning every new racetrack from Australia. I would give everything to be the best that I can for every race. Sometimes it's hard, sometimes it will be more easier but we'll see.

Between now and the end of the season, in order for you to get to the end of the season and be happy with what you've achieved, what needs to happen? What sort of goals have you set yourself?

I would like to achieve a few things. At the beginning of this year, I saw that I could really race.The competition in V8 Supercars is really tight. If you're in a good car, you're always in theTop 5 or Top 10 but it's so easy to be out of the window.

So I think definitely I'll try my best to go to the podium because we've seen like in New Zealand that I could be really quick during the race. But we didn't work well in qualifying. I think we need to be very clear and smart to be in theTop 10 and definitely if we do a really good job for the whole weekend, maybe in one race or race weekend we can get a really good result like a Top 3 orTop 1.

But we need just to be really focused on what we're doing. My goal is to finish every race inside theTop 10 and if I can grab a victory ora podium by the end of this year it will be so good as well. It won't be easy but we are definitely trying our best. iriro<i[5i-iaoroj«iiiiavfc'

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THE ACCIDENTAL

PETER SAUBER IS ONE OF A DYING BREED IN FORMULA 1 - A RACER SAT DOWN WITH HIM FOR A CHAT ABOUT SPORTSCARS, THE CHANGI

36

motorsport news

F1 TEAM OWNER

RUNNING A TEAM HE BUILT UP FROM THE GROUND. MITCHELL ADAM IG FACE OF FORMULA 1 AND OVER 40 YEARS IN THE GAME www.mnews.com.au

37

jrtk ipiORi enetigy dtiink tmatiketers, venture capilal groups and airline G®nersy!i*aiornifula I teaimi wasnft owned by ani ![^^vautowQtive lnanulaoturer,il was genera owned and run Sentiemen like Sir Jack Brabham,Sir Frank W/iil:iams, Bruce McLaren andiiKenfy/nrell!s toinarne but afew- took ©ni the sport with;west and ;n®uSi;earwiing!©utsueGess3ndilasting;:l:egacies.Tihese days, Formula; il team owners represent a vastly broader demographic.

Killiamsiisstiithereanditheoldast ofthe notable owner operators, aith0ughilhiis.iinwOlwementi® bein:g;SGalled baek,.but he% not alone in; the'old!school;iranks. /'jfter over 4i years itii; motorsport,;there's still Peter Sauber.

When SaWber mowed!his eponymous squad!from sportscars to iPormUla;% ii« l®Mv it was one of i)!3 teams iin;the Chamipionshipi Of those,only iPerraini, Williams,iMCLaren and Sauber remain in their original identities today.Tyrrell became BAR,then Honda, Brawn, and!Mercedes,Jordan;went through;ai similar in,um!ber of transitions beforeibecomilngifforee India, Minarditurinediiinto Red Bui'S.junior squad.andiiBenetton ibecame Renault and now Lotus.

The likes of Larrousse; Ligier/Prost, Lola (twieej;and! poQt\moi-k/ Arrows are gonei,as are the short-liwediSimtek, Paeilfic and!Fortl’from the rnidhfgiBs.iwem the world's largest car manufacturer at the time, Toyota,came,and!wentfrom Formula;1 with a whimper.Peter Sauber has outlasted!them;all.

Not a.!badi effort for a;q.u3l!iied electrician who says he got involved in the sportthir©ug!h;!hifcdlim;bing"by accident". Let alone one doing it all ifrom ihis native Switzerland, where circuit racing was banned for over fOiyears following;the tragic;Le Mans 24 Hour in 1955.

"For sureilit was.f0:rr lfiuinfSauber teilsMHews of his start in,the sport.

'1l,!haMein© ;relati©n:t© m0t0;rspO:rt,;nO relationship to cars, absolutely nothingi III started dOing;some really low-level tuning on the VW Beetle, and! step by step I got into that and I got intrigued by the designi ofiracecars" Sauber won;a Swiss Championship in 1970’with his first selfconstruetedi raceear,the Cl =- the'C'noting his wife Christiane. Soon; Sauber was,out of the seat,,dhurning out sportscars a nd winning lo:ca'li;titles as,a;constructor,on>ai!regiular basis..

But bigger opportunities lay aheadUIn T982,Sauber debuted in the World!Sportscar Championship, before embarking on a major paiftnership;WithiMtercedes-Benzin 1’985. ''It'wasinever the iidea;to ibuildbigi sportscars,for exampie,for Le Mans,lit was imipossible. My education wasn't in this direction," "My goali was always the way to get somewhere.It was impossible atthis time to have the goal of going to Le Mans or Formula T, especially Formula 11,, "When;!|lsmrtedithe business,there were two people,then for severali years there were fouir people but not more; how could you

think about being here(ED: Formula 1)? Ijust tookitstep by step* The partnership with Mercedes-Benz- the German;manufacturer's return to the sport after the '55 Le Mans disaster ^ was a fruitful one, with the C8 winning the Nurburgring TOOOkm race in 1986.

Its successor,the Sauber-Mercedes C9,took a 1-2 at Le Mans the following year, in addition to sealing the Manufacturers'and Drivers' titles in the World Sportscar Championship. A year later, the CI1: made it back-to-back Manufacturers'and Drivers'titles.

"I think a sportscar for Le Mans is maybe, not a bigger chaiienge technically than 3;Formula I car, but overall,t's the bigger chaiienge," Sauber says.

"For threecars in Le Mans, you need more than 100 people on the track, maybe even double of that.The whole infrastructure,the whole management is more demanding."

It's an era he.looks back on fondly, which is evident throughout the conversation. When asked of his favourite moments in.the sport, Sauber nominates the 1989 Le Mans 1-2- with Jochen Mass, Manuel Reuter and Stanley Dickens leading home the sister car of Mauro Baldi, Kenny Acheson and Gianfranco Brancatelli.

"With age the memory is becoming weaker," he jokes.

"Maybe the most important race for me was the double victory in Le Mans,in 89.That was fantastic. We had about 120 people on track, nine drivers for the C-Class and we finished first, second and fifth, which was really excellent.The 24 Hour race had very strong competitors; it was fantastic."

Throughout the sportscar program,there'l^a's'afrdxpectationithaJi^, it would result in Sauber and Mercedes entering ipormula 1 together, as a concerted factory effort. But that never eventuated. With some backing from Mercedes and Ulmor-brandedi engines,Sauber made its Formula 1 debut in 1993. Mercedes became the formal engine partner in 1994, before switching to McLaren for the 1995 season.

"We worked together with Mercedes for over 10 years and,of course,at the end of this period,the idea was there to go to Formula 1 with them,in '91,as a normal step,"Sauber recalls.

"I think it was economic reasons.The economic environment was bad at the time and they were politiCa1ly<ini'aiidjp,eult situation and that's why they couldn't really do it, it would've been the wrong sigjj}^ to the outside world to enter Formula 1 as a works team, with all of the spending.

"During the last four years, between 88 and 91, we were a works team for Mercedes in sportscar racing,the World Championship and especially Le Mans without any other sponsors on the car. It was a silver car "On short notice they decided they wouldn't be entering as a works team, bUtwould supply engines. For Sauber it was difficult to make the step because there wasn't enough funding.Then Mercedes in '95 decided to go with a team that did have the funding,and that was McLaren at the time,and Sauber had to find its own funding and its

SAUBER MOTORSPORT THROUGH THE YEARS

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1970 = DEBUTS FIRST SPORTSCARJHE Cl 38

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When the team' made the switch in 1993, Sauber Fl: had a team of 70'staff at a* new factory in Minwili 3'Okm from Zurich, and an operating; budget of approximately $30 million. A graduate from Mercedes'junior sportscar team, Karl Wendlinger rejoined the team, aiongslde J^' LehtOi in' the team's very first race, at Kyaiami in South Africa, theCI J d'elveredi with iLehto finishing fifth, f he new squad would eventually secure six poirats finishes and: seventh lin the Construcitors' title

"It was funny," Sauber reflects.

"We had no experience in Formula 1, but the step - on the technical: Side -- wasn't a big step. It was more a step sideways. We started in Kyaiami as a new team and we finished in P5 and that was with a long pitstop, we had to change an electronic box for the gearbox.

"It would've easily been better without that long Stop. And that was not a problemThe problem was that Formula 1 is another league - the problem wasn't on the technical side - it was that nil Formula 1 was a higher level Of competition.'

1993-POINTS IN F1 DEBUT 1989 = SAUBER=1V1ERCEDES 1990 = JNR TEAM WITH SCHUMACHER & FRENTZEN AT KYALAm WITH LEHTO Ci DOMINATES LE MANS www.mnews.com.au

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F

MIforward to Sauber FI Team's 20th season and theyVe stil] alive and kicking, despite some rocky timesof late, The team fouiimdi stafeiity through:long-ruraitnimg;sponsorship deals with Red iuII andiiPetnonas - a:fact Sauher is proud:of-the latter badgingi eustomer Ferrari engines between 1997 and 2005. NeinzNaraid Prentzen: recorded:the team's first podium:at Monza in 1995, and:the ipartnerShip’ofINIick iHeidfeldi and rookie Klmii: Raikkonen took the team:to a:peak ©ffou rth In the Constructors'title in 2001.

Then, another German manufacturer came knocking, with BMW/ buying!a majority stake ofthe team in miid:-2005. Sauber remained:on the iboard!and retained a 20% ownership stake. But the tearnirracediuindfer the iBMiW Sauber banner from:the start of the 200:6 season, with iMiW'S iDr. Mario Theissen taking the role of team principal.

After stints with Jordan and W/illiams, Heidfeld returned to HinwiI, joined ihitiaiy iby Jaeqiues Viilileneuwe before the Canadiani was replaced: by Robert Muibiea. BM W Sauber inished second in the 2007 Constructors'standings after McLaren was excluded: before the team's crowning moment came in 2008- a maideni victory, a 11-2 in fact,with::Ku!bi:ea- leadling: home Heidfeld:in Montreal.

But by the end!Of 2009;that era- was over, BMW wiithd rawlng amid the ©l0:bal :Flnainctal Crisis. Faced with the possible closure of his team, his baby,Sauber stepped up late in the piece to repurchase BMW's stake and'keep it all alive.

"It wasn't iby Choice,'but it was the only way to save the workplaces,andi teChniical faciliities," he says of returnIng to the role ofteam iprincipal:.

"For me ipwhen BMW purchased'the teamj, I was 62. It was a 100 percent solution:.:f gave the team in good and safe hands, it was exeellent for me,an;d!'li went back, I think three steps. I kept stilil 20 percentofthe shares,ili'had a contract as an advisor, not more. I had no iresponsiibiillity;;lt was excelilent."

In his second stint as a formula 1 team owner,Sauber has scaled back'his involvement slightly. How 68, he has no need to be involvediiin:every aspect of the business, instead delegating much of that t0 CI®;M©nisha: KaJtenborn, who has been anointed as his eventual successor and'recently received a third stake in the Sauber Groupi Ever the racer, though:, his passion is stili there.

"I'm notinvolved:lih the daily business,"he explains.

"Maybe sometimes if we have to make an important decision on the personnell or inancial issues. For example, if there are important ihirings in key positions. Of course, during the race weekends. I'm: responsible for the team. 'l:ihave - maybe It's ainiadvantage, maybe it's a disadvantage - but Ithin'killm the only team principal who builds complete cars. Not Formula: 1l„ but sportsears, completely from the drawing to welding the frame to dirive the cars. iiii

"I'm still very interested in the technical side of it and I understand, more or less, the whole car, and I understand what the car has to do."

The step back to a private team hasn't been without its challenges. When the team's 2010 challenger was rolled out for pre-season testing,the lack of sponsorship signage was glaringly obvious. And while they persevered,Sauber couldn't imagine doing what he did:in 1993 almost 20 years later - even with the team's current workforce of almost 300.

"In 2010 we started with basically a plain white car - it was basicaily impossible to start, but we were there.The situation is always difficult - sometimes more,sometimes less. We never have enough money," he said.

"Today,to go Into Formula 1 as a private team> to do it as a good level is nearly impossible.We see that with teams on the back of the grid, it's very, very difficult. Maybe it's possible with huge amounts of money, but not over two or three years, maybe five years.I think it's possible. But who's got this money?

"I think When we entered Formula 1, Formula 1 was on a good level. When we started,for example,to shift the car on the steering wheel with the paddles, 1: think that was the first step to go to.The paddle shifting was the first step to fast shift, to semi-automatic gearboxes and all of these things, and I think these years, 1992,93 and 94, was the beginning of what Td call a technical explosion.

"Together with this technical explosion was the financial explosion,that was the bad conseq uence of#i§TtT)'ry. I think iitwas^ the end ofthe easy entrance in Formula 1."

In 2012, Kamui Kobayashi and Sergio Perez, who joined the team in 2010 and 2011 respectively, represent Sauber on track.

While their backers are part of the equation,they'rethelatestllh a long line of young drivers to race with the team,dating back to a successful junior Mercedes sportscar program that helped Michael Schumacher and Frentzen get into Formula 1.

Sauber's bold decision to pluck Raikkonen from the relative obscurity of Formula Renault- aged just 2T and with few rhore races under his belt - is famous and was vjndipated, while his team mate that year, Heidfeld joined the team after a disastrous rookig i season with Prost. In 2002, Raikkonen was picked up by McLaren and replaced by another rookie, in the form;of'Felipe Massa'. At Sauber's recommendation, Robert Kubica made his FI debut with BMW Sauber in 2006 and Sebastian Vettel got his first crack at FI with the team a year later,filling in for an injured Kubica.

Of that crop, Raikkonen and Vettel scored points on debut, Massa points iln his second race and Kubica a podium In justihis third, while Heidfeld scored his first-ever points In his maiden Sauber appearance. Last year, Perez finished inside the points on debut at Albert Park on debut in 2011 before being excluded for a rear wing technicality.

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2001 CLIIVIB TO FOURTH m C0I\!STRUCT0RS’ TITLE motorsport news

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ME ptMtiH wm PHO^D THE TEiM], I WAS 62. If WAS A100 ■ Pmn^ SiLUTKlN.riSFrSTiy.20 PmENT0PTiESHAHES, I HADA CCMIACT AS AM AMSOR, NOT MORE. I HAD NO MSPONSIBIUTY

MdBIR^ ABOUi WHlEGH DIREGlORlflLLy RAMPF AND TEAM PRINGIRAL DR MARIO THEISSEN AT BMWSAUBER^S 2007 LAUNGH Sauiben pll'ays dowin biis knack for spotting and blooding: young talent,, and is itiglluctant tomakeGompafisons between any of bis dniwers, jpast and: present, "if i had one, I wouldn't telli you; because it'd be unfair to all of the 0thers"le says after a chuckle, when asked if he has a fawou rite."! still hawe a::reaiy iniice relationship: with many drivers.

"Of course today we can't make eomparisons between, on one side, the McLaren: drivers, and on the other side> the Sauber drivers.

For sure it's not the same. Maybe the talent is siimi'ar, but they (the McLaren drivers)) have a lot of experienee and the experience is very important ini this business."

Wh ile Sauber was keen to steer clear of eomimenting directly on

2005 = SELLS MAJORITY STAKE m TEAM TO BMW www.mnews.com.au

his drivers, both has shown more than flashesuof.promise. Perez In particular looks set for a big future. Part of Ferrari's Driver Acadeniy,. before entering FI , he claimed his maiden FI podium in Malaysia with an inspired drive to second behind Pernando Alonso. It could and some say should - have been even better, but it was still a big result and Sauber was visibly moved post-race.

"It was a great and important day for the team," he surmised.

In addition to being the team's first podium since BMW's departure, the points haul is bound to be crucial for the Constructors' Championship and prize money at the end of the year. With the C31, team has taken a step forward in Hi performance over 201: T, and is right ih: the thick of a

2007 - P2 FOR BMW 2008 = KIJBICA SCORES SAUBER IN CONSTRUCTORS MAIDEN BMW SAUBER WIN 47

ex'pexeteai mnit-nmnnetis OBi oecasion. 'illitihiilhk tiile miditel’d is in one ipiece and the gap between the fflididid!and the front-.runners is very smallfSauber, aceurately, predictedat AiibeFt Paiik, At the timeifenez^ podSium lifted Sauber weili eiear of their iikelly midieidi riwaiS. Wowever, Lotus and Wiliiams have also raised theiir games, withi Wiiiams winning!their first race ance 2004 in, what's quickly becoming one of the most unpredictable Formula 1; seasons inimemory.

Prom ISth* Perez was a strong third in Canada,highiighting the C3It's potential!and!the team's ability to execute shrewd strategies, something!they've shown regularly in the option tyre era. iit's uraiikely to be^ their last podium of the season, but that will: be dependentonkeepiing up with;the development race, whiGh will be a tough tglht with -- as ever -iimited resources. Even with some ofthe 20T2’©n-traCk surprises,the commercial gap between the haves'and'have nots'in Formula i: is a gulf, and not helped by the reluetance ofthe'haves'to pursue common cost cutting measures through the fagged!Resource Restriction Agireement.

"The future? The future !is very hard,"Saiuiber admits.

won't 's insane. teaiiiiis I nvesting am arnount money accept to be limited by the Resource Restriction Agreement. If you have a big organisation, you need an amount of money to run the organisation.

The problem!is that if you want to be competitive> even iihithe midfield, you need a certain amount of money.The challenge is you have a certain requirement in money,and if you don't have the money you would like to achieve a certain performance,then,you have to explain to people that they are'hi^an'owed to use what they wanted* particularly to the engineer.

'And that's a ehaliengeyou always have; not only for us, all!df these teams around us in the midfieid;- VWilliams, a famous team, Force India, Lotus and Toro Rosso.'

Sauber's ongoing viability and success in the sport will be shaped by the future ofthe sport. It's likely to be a testing chapter, but the future has a way of sorting itseif out.Just ask a man who started tinkering with a VW Beetie and ended up as an:F1 team owner. ratherthan working in his family'straffic light business.

"Maybe it's not the same,like 40 years before^he says of his current involvement,"but I'm still happy with motorspOrt."

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2010 = BMW GONE,STEPS 42

SAUDER MOTORSPORT -lO ANNIVERSARY

2010 = CELEBRATES 40 YEARS IN MOTORSPORT

2012= TEAM RETURNS TO PODIUM WITH PEREZ motorsport news

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JOHNNY HB SrBNT a YEARS IN FORNUBA I WHILE ENJOYINOA WH0L£ SEPARATE CAREER IN SPORTSCAR RACING-- ANO ALL THIS AFTER SUSTAINING LEG INJURIES THAT MIGHT EASILY HAVE PERSUAOEO HIM TO CALL rr wrrs.

JOHNNY HEREERJ REFLECTS ON HIS FOUR DECADES IN THE SPORT WITH ANDREW VAN LEEUWEN

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T'S a typically cold and miserable day at Donington Park in the middle of England. I find Johnny Herbert taking shelter in a garage, killing time in between practice sessions for the International Superstars Series.

We'd already made a rough plan to have a chat, and when I ask him if it's a good time he skips across the garage and jumps on a quad bike.

'Join me in my office," he says, patting the seat next to him.

Right at that moment,sitting on a quad bike in a modest garage,.it would have been easy to forget just who 1 was talking to.The friendly smile,the laid back attitude,the willingness to answer questions he must have been asked thousands of times before.These are not traits you expect from a guy who started 161 Grands Prix, winning three of them. In other words, he seems to show no signs of realising that, in the world of motor racing, he is a big deal. For example,along with the Formula 1 career,there is a Le Mans win (1991 with Mazda,far right), countless successful cameos in series all over the world, and a budding TV career that has really been kicked into gear since Sky took over the FI broadcasting rights for the United Kingdom this season.

Coming back to Formula 1, three wins from 161 starts could be construed as being not that impressive. Up to the Monaco Grand Prix, Sebastian Vettel had won 22 races from just 87 starts. But while Vettel has had a pretty seamless run from the junior formulae to two World Championships, Herbert always did things the hard way. Remember, for the majority of his career he's raced through an ongoing injury, having sustained two broken legs in a Formula 3000 crash at Brands Hatch in 1988. While he managed to be back in a car the following season - an FI car nonetheless - his feet never quite recovered from the horrific injuries. As you will soon read, it had a huge affect on Herbert, both physically and mentally.

That he was able to still forge such a successful career is quite impressive. While Herbert himself expected so much more from his time in Formula 1, three GP wins (Silverstone and Italy, ma/n, in 1995 with Benetton and Nurburgring in 1999 with Stewart) and fourth in the 1995 World Drivers Championship is not to be sneezed at. Along with Benetton and Stewart, he also drove forTyrrell, III 44

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Lotus, Ligier, Sauber and Jaguar,finished on the podium seven times and scored nearly 100 World Championship points.

And, being the down-to-earth sort of guy that he is, Herbert is a man much more focussed on how lucky he's been to achieve these feats, than how unlucky he was to never have the chance to live up to his full potential ...

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IVIOTORSPORT NEWS:When you look back at your remarkably long Formula 1 career, what are the highlights? Is it the races you won?

Was it performing well in cars that maybe shouldn't have been capable of good results?

JOHNNY HERBERT:Sometimes, I mean,there are a couple of races that weren't wins, but for me were the best drives.There was one for Sauber, where I finished third in Hungary in 1997, and the other one was 1999 in Malaysia when I finished fourth in the Stewart.That was all about the strategy we used, and the pace I could go with that particular strategy.

So yeah, it's not necessarily the wins.The wins are lovely, yes, and Silverstone - the first one - was great because it was my home Grand Prix. But there are other times that were just as good. At Lotus 1 had a wicked time in 1991 and 1992 when Mika [Hakkinen] was there, and I enjoyed my time even later when [Alex] Zanardi joined. But then the team started to suffer.

It's like anything; there are always good times and bad times. But the only thing I wish never happened was my feet. But there's nothing I could do about that.

Just how big an effect on your career did that accident have?

Dm,no real idea. What I had is what I had. I was just working with the tools I had.

From what I can vaguely remember of what I did before [the crash], there was a definite mental difference. Before I believed I could beat anybody, at any track, in any conditions, and in any car. I never had that afterwards.That seemed to leave me.So, I remember driving was much more natural before the crash. Afterwards, I had to think about it, and work at it, to make it happen, it wasn't too bad, but I do remember I struggled more when we went to the grooved tyres and they started cutting the aerodynamics in the floors. With the way my feet were, when I could push very hard on the brakes with all of the grip we had in the early'90s, it suited me much better. Later on,the feel wasn't quite the same. It changed for the worst in some ways, because my style was compromised.

However, I was very good at looking after tyres. I probably would be doing quite well this time around, because that's so important now.

That's just the way it goes. For Michael [Schumacher], it is exactly the opposite. He was better when the tyres were built around him and it was 100 percent attack. You can't do that now.You do in qualifying, but you can't attack as much in the race. Personally, I think it's a good thing, because the driver has to work on different inputs. It's not just about going slower to make the tyre last, you have to find the balance to make it work and know when you can push,and when you can't push.

In Michael's time, it was just push, push, push.

You drove through an era where there were huge changes in the cars(1989 to 2000).You've already mentioned the early 1990s as a time when you felt comfortable in the cars, but would you call that your favourite era?

Yeah, I think so.The best cars that I ever drove were the turbos, although I never raced them,only testing. I found they were really different to drive. In modern Formula 1,the entry is important,the apex is important, and the exit is important. With the turbo it was different; the braking was okay,the entry was okay, but on the exit, because you couldn't use all the power, you had to short shift and it was very different.

The argument that Michael would probably have used was that you couldn't attack - and you couldn't, because it was so violent. So again, it was a completely different style.

The early 1990s was good. Wide suspension, big wheels, nil 46

Despite the severe leg injuries sustained in F3000 in 1988, Herbert made it to Formula 1 -the very next year -scoring points on debut with Benneton,above. That drive didn't last, but he soon found a home with Lotus,above right.

In the mid 1990s, he returned to Benneton, winning two GPs including his home race,right, while 1999 brought a furthit« race win with Stewart GP, below.

FKpn W«AT I C^N VAQUBI-r REMEWegROF what/0(0 KFORE THE CRASH ,THERE WASAOEF/W/TEMEWTAiDfFSREHCE.^ORE(EEUEV'ED / C<HIU)miTWYBOOY,ATAWTRAC/C, //V AW CONOmONS, AND(W AW CAR. / WEVER had thatafterwards HEBERT

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OHNNY Herbert is a three-time Grand Prix winner, a Le Mans Champion, and took out the 1992 Formula 1 Indoor Trophy.

Wait, what was that last one? The Formula 1 IndoorTrophy? Surely that's a typo.

Actually, it's not. Between 1988 and 1996, a non-championship sprint race for Formula 1 cars was held at the Bologna Motor Show in Italy. Despite its name,the'race'was held outside, with a short sprint track constructed in a carpark. In 1992, Herbert took out the title in his Lotus, beating the BMS Dallara pair of Michele Alboreto and JJ Lehto, and Minardi drivers Christian Fittipaldi and Alex Zanardi.

While Herbert certainly remembers winning the IndoorTrophy, his recollection of the details is... sketchy, at best.

"There was two cars... I think," he says.

"There must have been. Maybe it was just one and down to time. I really can't remember!There was money involved, and for Lotus at that point they always needed a budget. So we got the cars there, and then there was prize money at the end of it.

"It was an outdoor circuit, but it was about 300 metres long in a carpark. It was great, because it was all just short blasts. But it wasn't on a shiny surface and all out of control, you could actually give it a little bit. I think the whole thing was first and second gear, although on the back stretch I think you could grab third.

"But it was really good.You could never really play around in an FI car, but there you could just enjoy the feeling of driving those cars - on what was effectively a go-kart track.

"It's a shame they don't do it anymore, but things have changed.Things have moved on."

-ANDREW VAN LEEUWEN

4

none of this sissy power steering.You had to manhandle the car. You had to fight the thing.

Probably the most interesting time in my career was during active suspension. Although we weren't very competitive,that was fascinating for me.There were thousands of different set-ups that you could do.You couldn't go through the list, because there were too many variants.

I remember starting a Grand Prix with three wheels on my wagon once! One of the wheels had died on me as I went to the grid, and it was shuddering.They tried to fix it before the lights, because in those days you could work on the cars until the 10 second board came out.

I took off, and it was like a dog with a broken leg, in that the other three compensated for that one to make sure the car stayed flat. It was amazing! It was on the right, but when you went left it didn't fall over, it just found a way to level out. I passed three or four people on the first lap! That time was very interesting.

How do you compare your Le Mans win with your Formula 1 wins?

At the time, I didn't enjoy sportscars.The Mazda wasn't very reliant on aerodynamics, but it had 750 horsepower or something like that, and we had the efficiency working well in the race. But to drive, it wasn't about getting hold of it by the scruff of the neck and getting the best out of it.

When I went back to Le Mans in 2001 with Audi, it was very different.

The car had a lot of aero, so it was a real challenge to drive.You could push the whole way through the race, because It was a very driveable car. I enjoyed that time, with both Audi and Bentley.

But despite the cars, when I won it was brilliant because it is still the only Japanese make to win Le Mans,it was brilliant because it was a popular car of the time, and it was brilliant because it's still a very prestigious race to have won. It's nice to have that on the CV, because there is still a historic link to that event. It's still one of the biggest races of the year.

How do you approach your role in television? Can you see similarities between the way you prepare for a Grand Prix weekend now,and the way you prepared when you were a driver?

Yeah.The mentality is the same.You still have to be prepared and have as much information at your disposal as possible.

The biggest difference is that the information builds up when you're racing, as in the way the car evolves through practice. But the similarity is that the races, you can't plan.You can't plan how a race will go.You can't plan a start; you can only form a rough idea of what you might be able to do with the car that you have.

Doing theTV thing, it's still about having the information in your head. It is about historic factors,such as what has happened at,for example, Monaco before. When you're driving,that doesn't really matter. Okay, what's happened before you can use a little bit in terms of experience, but it's always evolving. For theTV,these facts are always relevant.

How long will you keep doing things like the one-off Superstars appearances? These races,are they something you'll Just keep on doing,or will you eventually call time on any sort of competitive driving?

Eventually. I still enjoy it. I'm still competitive, and I still get frustrated after a session when I'm not as far up as I think I should be.That's a competitive instinct that you need.

But there will be a time. When I'm not mentally and physically giving it my full attention, then that will be it. I could probably argue now that, with theTV, my attention is slightly diverted. And I know theTV work is the future, while the driving is the past. I could have done the whole Blancpain Endurance Series, but I kept that away because of theTV. So I am aware that the racing will stop, and it will probably stop fairly shortly. I'm happy doing what I'm doing now, but I know that what I really want to do is theTV stuff.That will, more and more, become the priority.

48

Herbert has been busy in life after FI, with Le Mans campaigns,above,and hitouts in categories such as the Speedcar, below,and Superstars Series on his dance card alongside a growing media career.

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T'S a Tuesday in 2007, a couple of days after a Champ Car race.

Simon Pagenaud wakes up, looks at the clock, swears to himself, and climbs into his gym gear. For all he knows. Team Australia team-mate Will Power might already be working out, and anything that might give the Power an edge the next time they meet in the garage cannot be tolerated.

Motorsport is built upon a network of relationships, but none are more complex than that which exists between two team-mates, and particularly when both drivers are young and feel that they are driving for their careers every time they get into the car. This was particularly the case for Power, then still under the wing of patron Mark Webber, and very much a subscriber to what for a long time was Webber's approach to team-mates: crush them, and let their psychologist sort it out.

Indeed, Power cheerfully admits now that he"hated"Pagenaud at the time, but a lot of water has passed under the bridge. At time of writing Power was leading the IndyCar championship standings, and Pagenaud was comfortably ahead in the rookie count. Both have the security of multi-year deals, and both have matured, both as drivers and as people. Nevertheless, Pagenaud admits that going headto-head with Power at the start of his career forced him to grow up quickly.

"It was very intense!"the Frenchman says."lt was probably the most intense season I have ever had. It really was - and don't take this like I am being pretentious - but it was the first time in my career that I have had such a strong team-mate.

"Will gave me such a hard time on the race track. And also away from the race track; we were both trying to get into each other's heads.

But we were also both conscious that we were helping each other by pushing the team so hard. At the end of the year we started to relax a little bit and agreed on the fact that we'd had one of the best seasons we'd ever had.

"Having Will there was such a strong motivating factor -1 was in the gym every day, as much as I could, until I would collapse. And it was the same for him. It was all about getting the edge on the other. He was so strong, and I needed to be stronger. So whatever it took to be stronger than him, I did. And he was doing the same."

The pair hadn't been strangers when they first suited up in their yellow and green Aussie Vineyard racesuits. Pagenaud had been the team's driver in the Atlantic Series (Champ Car's Indy III! Lights equivalent) the previous year, when Power was driving ■m

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in Champ Car, and before that, they'd raced against each other (and Robert Kubica) in the Renault World Series.

But the collapse of Champ Car at the end of 2007 denied them the chance to build upon their rivalry. Power managed to find a home in IndyCar straight away, but Pagenaud was less fortunate.

Having finished his rookie season eighth in the championship, he - like so many young drivers on the threshold of breaking through - found himself sitting at home contemplating an uncertain future.

"The insecurity factor was very present in my career," he says."Until 1 got into sportscars."

His path from single-seaters to sportscars was opened via a phone call from Gil de Ferran, who sounded him about joining his LMP2 programme in the American Le Mans Series.

"I have to say that I started to only think about sportscars in 2008," Pagenaud admits."Not before then. When I went to Champ Car my goal was Champ Car, IndyCar, whatever -1 wanted to be in openwheelers. But when Gil de Ferran called me for the Acura programme, I thought,'Why not?'. Plus,to be quite honest with you, I didn't have anything else! So I thought that being with Gil I would learn a lot, and I thought it was the time in my career to take a different approach, think about all the positives I could get out of it, and try to come back stronger."

He certainly put his time in sportscars to good use. He made his debut at Le Mans with Oreca in the same year that he started his ALMS career with de Ferran, and returned to contest the French classic a year later with Pescarolo. For 2010, he stepped up on both fronts, switching to Honda partner Highcroft in the ALMS,and being picked up by the works Peugeot team for Le Mans. Not one to let an opportunity go begging, he helped Highcroft to win the LMP2 class championship in the ALMS,and scored an LMS race win at Spa for Peugeot along with Sebastien Bourdais and Pedro Lamy. Last year he picked up another LMS win alongside Bourdais for Peugeot at Spa,and finished second at the Le Mans 24 Hours with Bourdais and Lamy.

Besides clogging up his mantelpiece with silverware, Pagenaud believes that his time in sportscars laid the groundwork for his re-entry to the world of single-seaters.

"Sportscars completed me as a driver," he said."Now, I am using everything 1 learned in sportscars, and I am way, way stronger than I was in 2007.They helped me technically, but also on the racetrack. In sportscars, you are looking ahead a lot. You're planning your pass, but you also have to react quickly to situations, and you have situations being thrown at you very quickly.

"At Le Mans,for example, when you catch a GT car and you have to react quickly to it and you are going so much faster, what you do you? You do not have time to think, you just have to react. It was like that every lap, every race in sportscars, so it really taught me how to clear people, how to pass people, and how to be more aware of my surroundings. So my level of aggressiveness on the racetrack has changed, but also the way I think about how to set my car up for a full race, how long the race is going to be, and how aggressive my race car can be."

That kind of experience has already paid dividends in IndyCar at races like Texas, where the series stripped as much downforce as they were safely able to from the cars in order to make them impossible to drive flat lap after lap and break up the pack racing that for years had been a hallmark of 1.5 mile, high-banked ovals. Drivers right through the field were visibly wrestling with their cars, but Pagenaud was able to recover from a drive-through penalty to finish sixth.

"When I got out of the car in Texas, I said that it was very similar to Le Mans," he says."Obviously the race was a lot shorter, but it was at night,the temperature was changing,the car's behavior was changing -1 started with a pretty neutral car, it went to understeer, and then I ended up with oversteer.

"And like Le Mans, you have to take care of your tyres but still be fast.

There is a lot of strategy going on. It's very similar in many ways. A lot of people were struggling or not struggling at different points of the race, and it's exactly the same at Le Mans.You just have to run nil your race, be patient, but still be fast. I found a lot of parallels."

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LONG with the various sportscar and single-seater trophies in Pagenaud's collection,there's also one from last year's V8 Supercar race on the Gold Coast, where he teamed up with GRM's Lee Holdsworth to finish on the podium.

He'll be returning with Stone Brothers this year, and there's already a big red circle around the date on his calendar.

"Those cars were so much fun," he says."It was a bit similar to Texas, because there was no downforce, a lot of power,skinny tyres that do a good job but don't last very long... it makes for great racing.They are difficult to adapt to because they are so ?. much heavier than an IndyCar,and the driving style, with the spool in the back, is very different.

"The biggest thing for me was to drive on the other side and use my left hand to shift gears. And being in Surfers Paradise, I couldn't really tell if I was going to hit the wall or not! It took a while to get used to, but it was really good fun.The V8 Supercar drivers are really, really good,and the competition is really strong.

It is one of my best memories of last year."

Memories that were so good,in fact, he went on to recommend the series to close friend Alexandre Premat.

-MARKGLENDENNING

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CongratuSations Winners! 1st, 2nd and 3rd across the line: ADI winning drivers were using Dunlops DZ03G 1^ a IHIK m m

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As much as he was enjoying his sportscar stint, Pagenaud's long-term sights remained on IndyCar. His first opportunity came early in 2011, when Dreyer & Reinbold called him up to stand in for the injured Ana Beatriz at Barber, where he finished eighth.

Later in the year he was called up by the same team,this time to stand in for Justin Wilson at Mid-Ohio. And just when Dreyer & Reinbold's drivers stopped hurting themselves and opportunities looked to be drying up, HVM's Simona de Silvestro ran into visa trouble when trying to re-enter the US after a trip home to her native Switzerland just days before the Sonoma round.

This time, when the phone rang, Pagenaud was in Spain.

"No notice at all," Pagenaud says."I was at Aragon with Peugeot the day before [I arrived at Sonoma]. When I got into the car, I'd only slept a few hours. So considering all that, I was pretty happy with the performance. But those races were my opportunity to show what I had become and what I wanted people to know about me,so I drove with everything I had,even though it was really difficult in that position."

Which brings us to this year.The arrival of the new Dallara DW12 delivered on its promise to shake up the series by being so vastly different to its predecessor that the banks of knowledge that teams had spent years building up were rendered useless overnight. If ever a team was going to break the stranglehold of powerhouses Penske and Ganassi,this was the chance. Few teams have capitalised on the opportunity as strongly as Schmidt-Hamilton Motorsports,for which Pagenaud drives, and he is convinced that having his deal sorted out early helped them to get a head start.

"Having a new car helps a lot, especially on the ovals where the car makes such a big difference," he says."But it also helps on the road courses, where we gained a little bit of ground on the others because the deal with Sam [Schmidt] was done very early on. And having Honda behind me,we were able to test the works car very early as well.

So that was good for us to prepare as a team and understand what the car needed."

That Pagenaud and the Schmidt team have been quick should not be much of a surprise in itself, but what has made their success so unexpected this season is the fact that the Frenchman is flying solo.

Everyone ahead of him in the championship drives for a multi-car team.(As do the next nine drivers behind him). Pagenaud, however, is flying solo. Are team-mates overrated?

"I don't know!" he says."I think if I had Will as a team-mate we would be a lot stronger, because we could share information.The biggest thing we did in 2007 was that he would try something in one direction and I would try something in the other direction, and we both trusted each other's feedback.

"Now ... at Detroit,for example, we were trying some things, but Penske has three cars and Ganassi has four, so we were going three times slower than them with our changes."

Ironically, the one weekend that he has had someone to work with - Indianapolis, where the team signed Indy specialist Townsend Bell for a one-off second car - he found it to be more difficult than going alone.

"I felt really comfortable with the car," he says."Townsend didn't really like the car to begin with,so he went in his own direction and the cars were completely different, so we couldn't really share anything.Then he came back to my set-up for qualifying because his car wasn't fast enough. We raced with the same car, basically. We lost a bit of time that way, but I think because of the new car he was a little bit confused about what he should do. Sometimes you can go the wrong way with team-mates. It can be a set-back sometimes."

So for now, he's content to go it alone.The obvious question is, how far? On current form, a first win can't be far away, and if he starts doing it consistently then it will only be a matter of time before one of the 'big teams'decides that it's easier to fight with him than against him.

"I am with Schmidt for several years, so at the moment the goal is going to be to win with them,and then we'll see what happens next," he says."But my goal is definitely to win the championship,and hopefully try to have a shot at winning Indy as well. I want to give Will and Dario [Franchitti] a run for their money." '^aii

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THE SECOND ROW national racing since we last met

NZ V8 SUPER TOURERS Scott McLaughlin and John McIntyre were the big winners in Round 4 of New Zealand's V8 SuperTourer Series at Hampton Downs.

McLaughlin,pictured, won all three races, while McIntyre wrapped up the maiden 'Sprint'title.

After a troubled start to the season, it all turned around for McLaughlin at the Mike Pero 250.The youngster took pole position and went on to lead home Andy Booth in all three races to secure the round honours, with Greg Murphy third.

Leading the points entering the event,Jonny Reid's weekend started well, qualifying second,just 0.002 seconds shy of pole. While he survived a first-corner incident in the opening race to finish third, a Race 2 gearbox failure handed McIntyre the upperhand with one race to go. Reid recovered to fourth in the final, but eighth was enough for McIntyre to win the Sprint Series by two points.

V8 SUPPORTS

CARRERA CUP If anyone was going to win a round of the Porsche City Index Carrera Cup Australia after pitting at the end of the first racing lap with a puncture, it was probably going to be Craig Baird.

The three-time champion sustained a flat in an opening lap clash involving Alex Davison and first-time pole-sitter Nick Foster that eliminated Davison. Baird pitted for a new tyre but got back up to third in an eventful race, which included a late rain shower, won by Daniel Gaunt.

Baird claimed the second ahead of Gaunt, before Jonny Reid - another Race 1 retiree dominated the final. Reid led home Davison, while third was enough for Baird to win the round and extend his points lead. MaxTwigg won the Elite Class round and leads the standings.

64

With a pair of race wins and the Phillip Island round win. Jack LeBrocq reclaimed the lead of the Australian Formula Ford Championship.

Mathew Hart won the opener, before LeBrocq claimed victories in Races 2 and 3, to secure the round honours ahead of Hart and Garry Jacobson.

Also at Phillip Island, Kyle Clews won three of the four Aussie Racing Car races and the round to extend his lead at the top of the standings.

Tyler Owen won the other race on his way to second for the weekend.

motorsport news

AUS RALLY C’SHIP SHANNONS NATIONALS Greg Crick won a dramatic second round of the Australian GT Championship at Phillip Island.

The Tasmanian, above, was fourth in the opening one-hour race, as Peter Hackett and James Brock claimed Erebus Racing's first 1-2 finish. In Race 2,though,the Mercs struck trouble; both went off atTurn 4 in greasy mid-race conditions. Hackett eventually finished 18th, while Brock later crashed exiting the final corner.

Crick had no such troubles, putting a late pass on Ben Eggleston to win the race and the round, with Hackett and Brock's Saturday results helping them to second and third for the weekend.

Gavin Bullas claimed his first Touring Car Masters round win in over 18 months. Bullas was second to John Bowe in the opener after a tough fight, and sixth in Race 2, despite an early off. He won the final to secure the round honours ahead of Brett Youlden, whose Race 2 win was his first in the class.

The Australian Manufacturers Championship was dominated, again, by Evo Lancers. Dylan Thomas stormed to victory in Saturday's one-hour battle, leading home Garry Holt in his new Evo X. On Sunday, Holt, below,turned the tables to win the round.

Kane Rose stepped up to a 997 and promptly won two of the three Porsche Staff Solutions International GTS Cup Challenge races and the round. Jeff Bobik won the other race.

With two race wins and round honours, Kerry Baily extended his lead of the Kerrick Sports Sedan Series. Darren Hossack dominated the final and set a new lap record - a blinding 1:29.8884 - but earlier dramas were costly. Hossack,though, won the opening round of the Australian Superkart Championship ahead of Jason Smith after winning three of the four races.

Chris Atkinson won the International Rally of Queensland to extend his lead in the Asia Pacific Rally Championship.The Skoda driver dominated on his home turf, leading home former team-mate Alastair McRae by almost four minutes.

In the Bosch Australian Rally Championship, Eli Evans continued the strong start for Honda's Jazz. Evans won Heat 2 and the event in the Two-Wheel-Drive class, but only after Jack Monkhouse won Heat 1. Monkhouse's Nissan Silvia, though, was sidelined by suspension problems in Heat 2.

Of the Four-Wheel-Drive contenders, Michael Boaden took his maiden ARC victory ahead ofTom Wilde, moving into the lead of the championship in the process.

Making a rally cameo in a Polaris, V8 Supercar driver Tim Slade finished a surprise equal-first in Heat 2 in the Side by Side category, sharing top spot with Michael Guest.

DRAG RACING Darren Morgan was among the titlists crowned as the 2011/2012 ANDRA Pro Series wrapped up with the Fuchs Winternationals.

With a rain delay adding to the drama, Morgan did enough to take out Top Fuel over Damien Harris, while Allan Dobson won the event for Rapisarda Racing.

In a dramatic conclusion to Top Alcohol, Gary Phillips claimed the crown after rival Adam Marchant was eliminated in the semi final. Steve Reed won the weekend.

The semi-finals were also pivotal in Top Doorslammer, with Peter Kapiris'elimination helping John Zappia to a fifth-straight title as Andrew Sutton won the final.

Shane Tucker won Pro Stock at Willowbank Raceway as Michael All sealed the title, while Chris Matheson ensured he had a 2011/2012 clean sweep to go with his Top Bike championship.

Lachy Ireland may have lost the final to Luke Crowley, but second in Pro Stock Motorcycle was enough to seal the bracket.

www.mnews.com.au

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motorsport news

E CREEK

RISING

WITH AN INJECTION OF $12 MILLIDN FLOWING INTO EASTERN CREEK, THE DROUGHT IS NOW OVER FOR A NSW MOTORSPORT COMMUNITY STARVED OF CIRCUITS SINCE

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THE CLOSURE OF ORAN PARK. BY STEVE NORMOYLE

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www.mnews.com.au

YDNEY Motorsport Park. It's a motorsport facility located smack bang in the heart of Greater Western Sydney.

It features the only permanent road course In Australia that meets FIA Grade 2 requirements, which means it can host any racing category in the world except Formula 1.

Not only that, but it boasts four different track layouts,two of which can be operated independently - meaning the venue can run two separate race meetings at the same time.There's also a purpose-built skidpan, a four-wheel-drive off-road track, and even a licensed bar that offers front-row views of the first corner. And its next door neighbours include a kart racing track and a drag racing strip.

It is, of course, the venue we all know as Eastern Creek. However,the Creek's custodian,the Australian Racing Drivers' Club, henceforth wants the only motor racing facility in the Sydney basin to be known as Sydney Motorsport Park.

The name change is part of a rebranding to coincide with the opening of the new 830m circuit extension that also forms the basis of the second,smaller circuit.

The $12m transformation, which has been jointly funded by the ARDC and the NSW government, is a Godsend for motorsport in that State.

Professional level racing in NSW might be well serviced by the excellent facilities available to the V8 Supercar teams and their support categories competing at Bathurst in October and Homebush in November/ December, but for the greater majority of amateur competitors it's a very different deal.

The 2010 closure of Oran Park has meant that Australia's most populous State has fewer full-time racing venues than both Victoria and Queensland. When it comes to people who wish to drive or ride on motor racing circuits in NSW,demand right now is acutely ahead of supply.

So, what do we have with the new Eastern Creek (sorry, Sydney Motorsport Park)?

There is the original 3.9km'GP Circuit' which remains operational - although it isn't exactly original, as the opportunity was taken during the upgrade to simplify the approach toTurn 7 by removing theTurn 6 kink (Turn 6 has always been an unfathomable piece of track design, a squiggle that does nothing other than making sureTurn 7 is notan overtaking opportunity. It will be interesting to see, when the 3.9km track is being used, whether or not this now does become a place of passing).

The'North Circuit'layout is the original track but using the new Corporate Hill by-pass section.This track has already been in use and, not surprisingly given it has two long straights and total length of only 2.8km, is very fast. Adam Procter's Stohr WF-1 Sportscar set the outright lap record last October at 58.9813s - that's an average of 171.95km/h, which makes this the fastest track in Australia outside of Phillip Island (and it might ultimately prove even faster than the Island if Formula 3 cars ever run on it).

The 1.9km 'South Circuit'incorporates all of the new section and is the smaller'club'track that will be able to operate concurrently with the North Circuit. It's not quite ready to go, awaiting only the completion of pits and control tower complex.

With a total of 12 corners in under 2km, this will not be a high speed circuit. It will be interesting to see just how fast (or rather slow) this track proves once it's fully operational, because there's a good chance that what we have here are both the fastest and the slowest tracks in Australia, all at the same venue...

Then there is the 4.5km'Long Circuit' which takes in the extended section between Turn 7 and what now becomes Turn 14, on the approach to the old Turn 9 (the ARDC will soon be taking public submissions for names for the 18 III!

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corners of the'Long Circuit', it's a shame they didn't extend that to the names of the actual tracks rather than simply recycling the old Oran Park circuit names...).

One alternative might have been to use this as an opportunity to honour the club's history by naming corners after past ARDC luminaries, or even past ARDC venues anyone for Catalina Corner or Amaroo Loop?

But then as much as the club is celebrating its 60th anniversary, it is very much focussing on the present and the future.

"We are extremely proud of our long and distinguished history,"said ARDC president Andrew Leithhead at the launch, "but looking towards the future we have made these changes to ensure that the ARDC and Sydney Motorsport Park brands remain strong and relevant for a very long time.

"We encourage all motorsport fans that haven't been out here for a while to come and experience the new Sydney Motorsport Park, and be a part of history at Sydney's home of motorsport."

Opening lap

ON the map it looks ludicrously tight.

68

For sure, the snaking 830m Eastern Creek extension is not going to be a fast piece of road, but you need to see it in person rather than on paper to really understand why British track design company Apex Circuit Design has done it the way that it has.

Jonathon Webb was the first racing driver to experience it at speed - and he was quietly surprised.

"If you put that same layout on a flat track with no elevation changes," he explains, "it would be pretty boring. But the way it winds up and comes back down - and that right hander that feeds back up onto the old track, the way it winds back up hill; that's a cool piece of road!"

Webb was offering his impressions of the track after a few laps ferrying NSW Minister for Sport and Recreation Graham Annesley around it in a Radical Sportscar.

But what about his regular mount - how will a V8 Supercar go around these new twists and turns?

"I think it'll be good. No doubt that bottom section hairpin is going to be a bit tight, but in saying that I think it's wide enough to be able to handle two cars two-wide without too many dramas. Having

a tight corner with pienty of width, i don't think there'ii be a probiem.

"The entry's quite fast and fl owing, and i think it'il open out very niceiy back onto the oid circuit, it should be interesting."

The downhill run into the hairpin is the signature section of the extension - the elevation changes here are quite spectacular.

It's also likely to be deceptively fast.

"Around the top, that left-hand sweep, that'll be third gear for sure in a V8 Supercar.

Speed wise I couldn't really say, but you'd be heading for about 180 down the hill into the braking area."

This will be a likely overtaking area, Webb reckons.

"No doubt you could get down there under brakes - it might get a little hairy going side by side coming out, but that's what racing's all about, isn't it?"

Watching Webb's tentative first laps in the unfamiliar Radical, it seems fairly clear that the approach to the oldTurn 9 (nowTurn 15) will be a fair bit faster than it used to be.

Webb agrees: "Absolutely. It's a lot quicker than it was.

How much faster is tough to say without having driven my own car here yet, and it will vary depending on the type of car, but probably at least 20 kays faster. I'd say.

"Overall I think it's a good mix - we've got sixth gear stuff through Turn 1 and now a first gear corner over the back. It's going to be an interesting track to get right in terms of car set-up, but that's part of the challenge of motorsport.

"It hasn't really changed the character of the track, but it's mixed it up a bit. I can't wait for it to grip up and for us to be back here in a couple of months."

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Club matters THERE are hundreds of car clubs in Australia. Some are small, some are big, but together they service motorsport in this country -from the lowliest club event right up to professional racing, V8 Supercars included.

The larger clubs operate their own motor racing facilities. In the days before internal category management,and in particular V8 Supercars Australia, these clubs were more than just organised gatherings of motorsport enthusiasts.They were the commercial promoters of motor racing - and that made them hugely influential, and highly profitable.

In Victoria, the Light Car Club of Australia was motorsport in that state from its 1924 inception until at least the late'70s. In NSW, the ARDC has been the preeminent club for much of the past half century, rivalled

only perhaps by the Australian Automobile Racing Club(AARC) which operated Warwick Farm from 1960 to 1973.

The ARDC has always been a big club.

It has owned or managed circuits for all of its 60 years. At one time it owned both the Amaroo Park complex and the Mount Panorama pit/paddock area. It was the original promoter of the Bathurst 500/1000, the club overseeing the Great Race's gradual emergence as an iconic annual Australian sporting event.

But the 1990s brought a dramatic change to the circuit promoter landscape as the professional touring car teams got together to challenge the position of the circuits and their car club custodians.To do this, they formed a body called AVESCO, or what we know today as V8 Launch:ARDC CEO Glenn Matthews at the opening ofSydney Motorsport Park, below.

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AVESCO didn't muck around.

Within two years it had wrestled control of the Bathurst event from the ARDC.The battle left the club significantly weakened at a time when it already had its hands full shifting its base from Amaroo Park to Eastern Creek.

The past 10-odd years have been difficult as the club sought to consolidate its new home and redefine its place in the sport.

This is a process that's been going on for some time, but which has reached a maturation of sorts with the opening of the new track layout.

The ARDC mightn't be the motorsport power broker it once was. But nor is the LCCA, or the AARC - neither of those clubs still exist today.

The role large car clubs play in motorsport today is something that's still up for grabs.

The ARDC in 2012 is part commercial promoter, part facilitator of motorsport

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and also a kind of umbrella organisation for smaller clubs.

Redefining the ARDC's place within the motorsport landscape has been the responsibility of CEO Glenn Matthews.

He came into this role in 2010 without a background in motorsport, but as the former chief of the Penrith Panthers Rugby League Club, he does understand sport as both consumer pastime and product.

"We no longer see ourselves as just a track-for-hire operation," Matthews says, "but rather a strong,flexible and willing partner to all those involved in Australian motorsport.Together we want to create the best environment for all of our stakeholders, be they racers, or race-goers."

Garage days IN the 1960s,the ARDC had its headquarters in Leichhardt, in inner western Sydney. It was a licensed premises, and it was mecca for anyone involved in motorsport

in NSW. Later, once the club moved from Catalina to Amaroo Park, it opened a new bar at the entrance to the circuit. Like the old Leichhardt rooms, this was not only a place where club members could socialise after a day at the track, it was also a facility that was utilised by other car clubs.

This sense of motorsport community is part of what the ARDC hopes to recreate within the lavishly decorated walls of the'ARDC Garage',the club's new licensed premises occupying one of the former hospitality suites atop the pit garage building.

'When you think of the ARDC,"says CEO Glenn Matthews,"it is the Australian Racing Drivers'Club, and there's a lot of heritage and history there. We've tried to recognise that, because it's one of our strengths.

"We should be the heart and soul of Australian motorsport, and so what we're trying to do is elevate that brand and create surroundings where people can come and rub shoulders with people who are either racers today or racers of yesterday.

"It's amazing how many older members talk about how it was when they were in Norton Street, Leichhardt, and with this we're trying to create a sense of home like that was back then.

"We're already having other clubs use the Garage for their meetings - the Appendix J Association and the HSV club are doing that now.

"We want to be a club of clubs, where everybody's welcome. We're about to put on a bit of a cocktail party for all the presidents ofcarclubsand bike clubs around NSWJust to show them what we've got and that our doors are open for them."

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SON OF A GUN

OLDER FANS OF OPEN-WHEELER RACING WILL REMEMBEF PINGEL. YOUNGER FANS MIGHT SOON BE FAMILIARISING T NEXT GENERATION PINGEL. AS SON BRENDON CONTINUES FOR HIMSELF IN AUSSIE RACING CARS. LACHLAN MANSEL

72

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ENERATIONAL transition is common in motorsport, and the Australian scene is no exception.The current V8 Supercar field is rife with second and third generation racers with illustrious surnames like Johnson, Moffat and Davison.

This trend is evident in many of the support categories as well, with one of the most notable examples being Australian GT Championship competitors Tony and son Klark Quinn.

In addition to their purchase of the Australian GT Championship last year, the Quinns recently bought the Aussie Racing Car Series, another category which is home to a second generation racer, albeit one without the profile of some of the names mentioned above.The driver in question is Brendon Pingel, whose father Derek Pingel established himself over a few decades as one of Australia's top open-wheeler competitors.

In a career that started in the 1980s and stretched well into the 2000s, Derek Pingel amassed many podium finishes in Australian Formula 2, and became the oldest Australian Formula 4000 champion, in 2006.

But now the spotlight is shining on his son Brendon, who has become a consistent front-runner in Aussie Racing Cars.

Pingel started off in short-track club-level racing in a Datsun 1200 in Queensland, winning titles in both junior and senior classes before stepping up to Improved Production Under 2 Litre, ariother category in which he notched up state title victories. When he was given the chance to drive an Aussie Racing Car in 2010, Pingel jumped at the opportunity.

"Qne of the lease drivers pulled out at Queensland Raceway and they needed a driver to fill the spot," Pingel recalled."They asked one of the CAMS officials if they knew anyone, and the official they asked had been watching me race in the Datsun, so we went out to Queensland Raceway, had a race, and I instantly fell in love with the category. We did the rest of the year, and made the decision to keep going.

"Last year was the first full year for us, and we had a pretty good year.

We had a few mishaps on my behalf, because I was learning the car, but I finished seventh in the championship and won Rookie of the Year, so I was quite happy to take that title.

"We're going pretty well this

year; I'm currently fifth in the championship."

Despite his father's success in open-wheelers, Brendon Pingel has indicated that he prefers tin-top racing and is concentrating on pursuing a career in touring cars.

"I've never been the biggest fan of open-wheelers," he said."I like the sedan sort of racing. I used to love watching the British Touring Cars because they were so close and competitive, and these days I really enjoy the V8 Supercar racing."

Pingel's V8 Supercar aspirations could well come to fruition, because he has already completed some testing with the Greg Murphy Racing V8 Supercar Development Series team.

"Before I jumped in an Aussie Racing Car, Dad had won the Formula 4000 Championship and the prize was a V8 Supercar drive. They wanted Dad to run one for a year and he said 'No, I've done what I want to do, but you should put my son in a car because he's more likely to pick it up and carry it on'.

"We went down to Winton and Greg Murphy took us around for a couple of laps first to show us what it could do,then they let us have a goon our own.

"Kevin Murphy has been keeping a close eye on me. Fie comes down at the Aussie Racing Car rounds, sees how I'm going, and gives me a few helpful'criticism'tips!

"When I think I'm right, and we get some sponsorship together. I'll try to move up to the Dunlop Series and hopefully get into V8 Supercars."

Pingel has attracted some sponsorship for this year's Aussie Racing Car campaign, with League Engineering Services coming on board.

"I was pretty rapt with that, because as a car detailer, it's a lot of cars to wash to afford to go racing!" Pingel said.

Pingel also believes the recent purchase of the Aussie Racing Cars by the Quinns will be a positive step forward for the category.

"Phil Ward and the boys have done a fantastic job to create such a competitive series, and I believe that Tony and Klark Quinn are probably some of the best people they could have chosen to sell it to, to raise it and make it a better category," he said.

"They will be really good people to make it better, make it more professional and make it a more recognised series."

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HOUIHG OHE OF OUSTROLA’S BIGGEST SPRINTGOR RACES IN HIS BAGKVARD HAS HELPED SHAPE IIEIL' CAREER, BUT HE'S ALSO CASTING HIS NET FURTHER AFIELD. liiFF CAUGHT UP WITH THE VOUNGSTER =i 7-

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I GOULD HAUE lUON THE SRA CHAMPIOHSHIP [LAST SEASOH] BUT I JUST MADE SILLV LITTLE MISTAKES. I UIAHT TO IMPROUE OH THAT THIS VEAR BV RAGIHG on AGAinST THE BEST AS MUCH AS I CAH f

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Veal's 'background always 'meant he- wouldi eventuai ly sold in.Australia/and;;^[^^d^firfeE^^M^fi{liW@pjgg S'trapintoari: 810,horsepower Sprlntcar. iSsfather^Ken em^lCyees*5is.'n0^|me^^qihie^l^^^^iTn|eS(^a@l^ won the if990\Vieiorian 'Spnintcar Championship at ■ ● newlyxrdwkedM^CTaF^grvKal3^illm^Miat1^|l@frgjM Wa'rrnambooii wheniiamiig was lust'1'li -, i-'Dairen Mojiet^yux.V'j’’ it came at a time when his parents Ken and;f|afne?s tkenl =r,' burgeoningPreeisioniiRace Components pRQ corhfany was lust ‘rivalry; ~p.artiqula|:ly^lgaJjyyit's.a':p£|§^^eJ'ilDat&:ietw^i^^^, getting; int0;full; swiingi.and'helped change the way Australian.

-He's raGedi?ifew^^re^veai!s^liSla^^^^Sl^^^^fQ‘WO"i^l^^^f^ teamsfurchaseditheirracing spares. . .

-' also„sb"Mojy's a I Wi^^g|[{4||u^^pb‘ggj:Mfi|e;anyPnj| Vealisaysthea1lways-;Gaimingtiiinfl:uenGe.ofhisfa®he:rdoeS'ihe|f; .. racing-wise^^nis^re sdrt5>0ven^t^P^^^^j 5t keep things in check, as well' as staying aiway firdm the ever-ugl.^^ the 'inS§’e^jtalfent4hat;ydal,p0:s|es.s|;s)_h^aTs0 seen^rn ^ polities of Speedway, land iQ.th'e'Teat of otherSprintcb te|fi5Sfabpd?^H^buntfy; "©ad used-tOfrace andf was always around watching him"he It's sometliing’lie is#0pi|i^ni;e^tin;^|^ updomirig; 20i'2-13sea'ion.' injeFs > ; said ofhis father, "liaiways wanted;toracea:S;printear. When i was 12„i started "I really hope the drive I'ye^had ih:Sydney eaf:<-0htihu&w Dave ^Doherty, as they're a decent teamclt all came iogither ●_ racing junior sedans andthat just snowbalied into Formula S00s through lvioth*(ED:'oi;jm;Glee^0n')i/ . , ,r - r' to now Sprintears. KrA'24‘ thisyears0 it's been a g0,od'il 2yearsof "It's good .to go'a¥^race for someorie different as they have Speedway and this Is my sixth season in Sprintcars;'|thinkwete different gear and ideas, and their home track is one^e not eomingion well as a team.

"He's Pad!), pretty quiet about it all and: just takes it atin. When raced'on rnuch^at Parramatta.^also.dro^ fo'r'Queenslander Dave we race my 3'5 car he's always th ere, 'but he doesn't realiy say Horre'll. at thetSi 2;Austraji^'.Sp?int£ar« tide, vyh'icK was good. ''I'm'not sure why'g^gettingthese drivesibut we'veb'een decent much. We just goes along! quietly and doesn't get too carried jln,these cars too as well as mine.^ definitely measure rny driving away with it aliUPadi's never been one.to get caught up in ail the by vwho !l beat, ypuVe got to."' bullshit, he just pots aiongi andbe putsiin and keeps us ai in- line when be needs too."

Veal plans to be on the road even more next season and not solely foeusing; on the SRft series.like he did this year, where he PRC was at the time a, small, shed-type set-up where Ken narrowly placed second'to Mollenoyux in the final: standings. wou Id manufaetu re SprintGar components and pa rts that were motorsport news

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MOTHERS "I could have won the SRA ehampionShip but Ijust made silly little mistakes," he admits."I want to improve omthat , this yearbyiracing;agalnstthebest as^much as^ejnii|i|try_ racing Brisbane early^lfrecfcon,to gelilhpS’iin beforethe:[201,3\ AustraiianifprintGaril:tii'e.fhen justpmpTn:®g;truGkeach week and travel'arou ndiifSIust race a nywhereg also a bit-more in Sydneytoo.

"I don'tiplan to just chase the local's.eries {tl>SRA) he?e in Victoria, it's just to® hard-and some of the tracks-itfithe-SRA aren't real great, ©nee youdock-into a'series you're pretty much: committed and'fd'on't want to just do that next season."

Mis immediate thoughts.are with'hisrregular tour ofduty competing in ithf'Uijn ited^ States of America between now and! early August,ilt's wherehe says his vast driving improvement has come from.

"This is my thirdi year in a row overthere and‘J||again start in the MOs andi race m’aiiniy through Iowa)"Veal explains.

"It's a good time to ibe there and itil be 1:5 to;20i nights of racing in six weeks, litli be busy enough,iacingiftiAmerica's good'beeause it's where i?ve noticed the biggestchange in my career, particularly whenlc-ome back to Australia'.

"It's just done totally different over there,asyo:u,d0n% know half ofthe cars aroundlyouiand'ihowthey react.flove Knoxville I could;easily race there weeklyfhere are just so-many things that are really great about racing in America -^think it's the way racing shouldiibei" www.mnews.com.au

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FIVE TITLE FLUSH J

OHN Zappia edged ever closer to Victor Bray's six straight titles when he won his fifth on the

trot at the season-ending Fuchs Winternationals at Willowbank Raceway in Queensland.

The road to number five was at times

rocky, with Peter Kapiris getting out to an early lead, but a late season recovery from Zappia and the Fuchs/Procomp Motorsport team got him across the line.

It was a nervous wait for Zappia, however, when,a rare first round loss to Ben Bray saw his fate in the hands of other racers.

Kapiris needed to make it to the final and either win the event or get runner-up with low time and top speed bonus points. As it turned out the thorn in Zappia's side for so many years, Robin Judd, would prove massively influential as he took out 78

Kapiris in the semi finals and closed the championship for Zappia.

"I was watching from the grandstands and it was pretty stressful,"Zappia said."It was a big relief. Even though Peter still had to win the final it was good to be able to close it there."

times into the mid 70s and that put them all into panic mode.

"They were all trying some stuff.This weekend we went for consistency and to go down the track without having to pedal.

In hindsight we should have gone for it in the first round and not worried about

The weekend began well for Zappia when he ran a 5.750s time,the quickest ever for a Top Doorslammer and a mark that stood as top qualifier. Things did get a bit strange from there on in for the Western Australian.

"After the session where we ran 5.75s we

consistency, we should have gone for the fast run as we knew it was there."

lost a qualifier when I got towed into an island in the pits; I couldn't see it and it took out the front spoiler so we had to patch that up, by the time we got it fixed we missed the third session," he said.

"It was his (Kapiris') to win and he lost it, we kept the pressure up as we got the

Zappia's eyes are now firmly on Bray's record of six straight championships. Victor Bray performed the incredible streak back in the formative years of Top Doorslammer when he won every championship from the category's inception in 1996 to 2001.

"That was the most important thing as we now have a shot at that record, if we had have missed this one we would have been starting all over again," he said.

Pushing the performance barriers is also motorsport news

IT’S RVE TITLES DOWN AND ONE TO GO,AS FAR JOHN ZAPPIA’S HOPES OF MATCHING THE LEGENDARY VICTOR BR/srS RECORD IN TOP DOORSLAMMERS ARE CONCERNED again on Zappia's mind.The 5.75s pass showed even more of the potential of the Holden Monaro, improving narrowly on the 5.76s previous best, and Zappia thinks even 5.6 second times may now be possible for the supercharged sedans.

"I do think 60s are approachable," he said.

"For a while I was thinking it was never going happen as we were running 80s and staying stagnant for so long. We did a lot of research and development at the start of the season and a lot of it looked like it was going to work but then the harder we tried it was just burning up parts.

"Now we have found the happy medium where the motor is happy and it is running 70s without hurting a thing with big speeds over250mph regularly."

Zappia is a little concerned about the slow reaction times he has had, such as the www.mnews.com.au

one that cost him victory against Ben Bray.

Reaction times are how soon the vehicle leaves the startline after the green light comes on and are a combination of both the driver's own reactions and the way a vehicle launches.

Zappia is sure it is the set-up they are using that is costing him time on the start line and not just his own reaction times.

"I don't think it is all me," he said."We've got the quickest and most consistent car but now we are going to need to change stuff to get reaction times,down;that is an area where we will keep chipping away."

With the ANDRA season reaching its end,teams will now get some time off until November, as the season transitions to a calendar year. The first championship round forTop Doorslammer will be at the Australian Nationals at Sydney Dragway.

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I DO THINK 60s ARE APPROACHABLE FOR A WHILE I mS THINKING rr ms NEVER GOING HAPPEN AS WE WERE RUNNING 80s AND STAYING STAGNANT FOR SO LONG 79

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HE Top End is calling for karters As the saying goes,"You'll never ever know, if you never ever go." For more than 250 of Australia's top kart racers, on the second weekend in July they'll know.

For the first time in the 50-year history of the Australian National Sprint Kart Championships,the prestigious event will be contested in the Top End, with nine National Titles on the line across the weekend of July 7/8.

It is anticipated that the championships will become the Top End's largest motorsport event in terms of participation.

"Holding the National Championships in Darwin for the first time marks a significant moment for our sport, both nationally and in the Northern Territory," said Australian Karting Association National President Craig Denton.

"Over the past few years we have seen the Darwin Karting Association develop

80

well and the Hidden Valley circuit is undoubtedly one of the leading venues that we have anywhere within the country.

"The Darwin people have shown in the past with their support of the V8 Supercars and the Australian SprintcarTitle that they love their motorsport and we hope that this event will be no different."

This year's event has been three years in the planning for the Darwin Karting Association, and President Greg Meyer is aiming for the competitors and supporters to not only have a great time at the track but also In the Darwin region.

"For the past three years, the committee and members have been working towards this project and it's going to be great to see everybody's hard work come to fruition in July,"said Darwin Karting Association President Greg Meyer.

"We will have competitors from all parts of the country coming to compete at the event and I'm confident they'll all go away

from Darwin with some great memories."

Of the reigning champions, no less than seven drivers will be out to defend the championships they won at Cockburn in Western Australia last year - including Cian Fothergill who claimed both the Clubman and Leopard Light crowns.

In winning his two titles last year, Fothergill became the first driver to win both the Clubman Light and Leopard Light titles since the latter class became a national class in 2006. If successful in defending his Clubman Light championship, he will become the first driver since Jason Hryniuk in 2002 and 2003 to win backto-back crowns in the category. Hryniuk and current V8 Supercar driver Mark Winterbottom, who won four Clubman/ Formula Yamaha Light titles in five years, are the only drivers to win back-to-back championships in the highly competitive category in the past 25 years.

"Winning the Clubman Light title is motorsport news

thi»fflonth for the first time ever darwin will play host to the austraKan nationalsprintkart championships,the event should be a huge boost to territory karting aswell asintroducing a whole bunch Of southernersto the attractionsof the top end.paui carruthers previewsthe landmark event something that we've been working for many years and to finaiiy come away with it is an amazing feeiing, so to get two in a row wouid be just something eise,"said Fothergiii, above.

"After winning iast year's titles I felt as though the pressure that was previously on me to prove I had what it takes to succeed has probably been released a bit now and I think with that off I've been enjoying my

racing more.

Victorian Lee Mitchener will be aiming to join an exclusive group of drivers who have won three consecutive titles in the nil same category when he lines up in

DRIVER TRAINING

By Doc Pearson DKK - Docs Kart Kraft Tel 04 0956 5483. Fax 03 9844 2894 www.dkk.com.au

'liVickTaSi.&tSAlftitierit Sn^F^earits www.mnews.com.au

81

KiVe google never maps, been sotoi’m darwin, heading i*veup seen there the with track myon eyes wide open - mitchener,above,on hidden valley the Leopard Heavy category. Out to halt Mitchener from joining the group, which is headed by Brian Hunter who won three consecutive 200cc Super crowns following the inaugural event in 1963, are the likes of 10-time National Champion Matthew Wall, Hryniuk, Energy Corse Australia's Jason Faint and West Aussie Brad Fitch.

"I've never been to Darwin, I've seen the track on Google Maps,so I'm heading up there with my eyes wide open,"said Mitchener.

"The championship is pretty open and I'm not going into the event with any expectations,just simply going there and not expecting anything in particular and do the best I can.

"I've raced wheel to wheel with just about every driver in the field quite a few times before, and by all means anyone who gets on top of their game when it matters most will be able to win.The quality of drivers is very high.

"I'm not putting any pressure on myself but it will definitely be a big feat if I'm able to get three in a row. I just need to keep a level head so I can concentrate on what needs to be done."

Many of the competitors mentioned above in the Leopard Heavy category will also be doubling up to contest the 82

Clubman Heavy category, where Kip Foster is the reigning champion.

One of the local drivers expected to figure prominently.at the event is Bryce Fullwood in the Junior National Light category.

The 14 year-old is currently in his fourth year of karting competition and has already enjoyed success at the state level with victories in Western Australia and South Australia during 2011.

While he has never competed at a National Championships previously, Fullwood is confident of his chances at taking home the green plate (awarded to the winner) on his home track.

"I'm really excited about the Nationals being held in my home town, it's going to be awesome,"said Fullwood.

"I won two State Championships last year and came closer in a couple of others, but I've never raced at a Nationals so it's going to be a bit of a new experience for me.

"I'll have the local track knowledge on my side but the top drivers won't take long to catch onto the circuit and I'd say there will be at least half a dozen drivers, if not a dozen, drivers who will be serious contenders for the title."

It is believed that this year's event is the first time since the inaugural event in 1963 that the championships have been held

reigning champions JUNIOR NATIONAL LIGHT

n

n

James Golding JUNIOR NATIONAL HEAVY Anton de Pasquale JUNIOR CLUBMAN Jesse Elliott SENIOR NATIONAL Matthew Waters & Nicholas Ellen CLUBMAN LIGHT □an Fothergill CLUBMAN HEAVY Kip Foster CLUBMAN SUPER HEAVY Stuart Verco LEOPARD HEAVY Lee Mitchener LEOPARD LIGHT Cian Fothergill on a weekend other than the traditional Easter Long Weekend. The 2012 event was moved to July 7/8 to be held in Darwin's dry season. As a prelude, the Northern Territory Championships will be held on the weekend prior, which will allow many drivers a warm-up to the Nationals. motorsport news

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THEINDIANAPOLIS500IS MORE THAN WO YEARS OLD-SO THERE'S A LOT OFSCALE MODELS OUT THERE OFFAMOUS CARS FROM THE BRICKYARD. ByBRUCEMOXON

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Indy legends: Apex Replicas will soon be offering Indy 500 models, such as Graham Hill's 1966 Lotus, left, Johnny Rutherford's Chaparral 1980 winher, bottom left, the Kurtis-Craft in which Bill Vukovich lost his life in 1955, centre, and Bobby Unser's '68-winning Eagle, below.

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ITH all the best intentions in the World, I slept through most of this year's Indianapolis 500 -1 lasted until just after Will Power got taken out, then Mr Sandman got me. And they tell me it was one of the best races ever.

Even though I failed to complete the Marathon (I did see the Monaco Grand Prix before Indy and the Charlotte 600 after), I thought that we really ought to look at models of famous Indianapolis racers.

After all, there have been cars racing at Indianapolis Motor Speedway for 101 years. And as the biggest car race of the year, anywhere, there's plenty of great models around.

While I think the new Dallara cars are, shall we say, aesthetically challenged, they're clearly fast and overall, a very good racing car. And you can already get models of them - Greenlight in the USA have them in both 1/18 and 1/64 already.The smaller ones are under $20 so they're pretty good value.

Also in the little ones is the Hot Wheels 2011 car. There's a generic on in Hot Wheels livery that's pretty freely available right now, with some others coming, including one as a tribute to Dan Wheldon, last year's Indy winner and victim of a fatal crash later in the year.

But it's hard to tell a modern Indy car (apart from this year's Dallara) from any other modern-ish single-seater of the last 30 years or so; function has driven form so that FI, Indy, AIGP and even minorformulae cars look pretty similar.

Older Indy cars - say up to the sixties, were more visually exciting, to me anyway. And it's models of these cars that are getting me a bit excited, even though they can be thin on the ground. I really love the look of the 'roadsters'- those long, low front-engined cars from the '50s and '60s.

Bill Vukovich was a Californian that was on his way to winning his third-straight 500 in 1955 when he got caught in someone else's accident and paid the ultimate price. But the Fuel Injection Special 58

■r- .

'^Dii

- a Kurtis-Craft with the big four-pot Offenhauser and mechanical injection.There's a gorgeous-looking model of this car in 1/18 from Carousel 1 - a spectacular-looking model of a spectacular looking car.

The Watson Roadsters came next, and there are equally-great models ofthese.The Watsons were the car to have up to the rearengine revolution, started by John Cooper and Sir Jack Brabham with a Cooper-Climax.

Jim Clark and Colin Chapman killed off the roadsters with their Lotus entries. Models of the Lotus are soon to be available from Spark, via Apex Replicas.

This is part of Spark's new Indy-car series - my fingers get itchy when I think of it. Over 70 models in 1/43, showing the

development of winning cars in the World's biggest car race.The first lot has the Clark and Graham Hill Lotus winners,the 1968 Bobby Unser Eagle, Mark Donohue's 1972 winning McLaren and John Rutherford's 1980 Chaparral.They're all 'available soon'and $70 a pop from www.apexreplicas.com.au You'd think the first winner, Ray Harroun's Marmon Wasp would be popular. Not so much. Hot Wheels did a version (with big fat wheels) and there have been a few others. I did hear rumour of a model coming out soon but can't find anything real. I did find a link to a scan of the plans to make a paper version,from a 1965 issue of Rod & Custom magazine!

Meanwhile, closer to home,things do not stand still.

Classic Carlectables sent me pictures of a couple of those great Aussie Muscle Cars from the seventies. One Holden and one Ford -talk about balance!

The Holden is a HZ GTS Monaro in a metallic blue. A very nice-looking model, to be sure. As you'd hope (indeed, expect), all the doors,the boot and bonnet open, everything inside and under the car is beautifully detailed and accurate.

The makers find a pristine road car and then, with the owner's permission, crawl over, under and through it with pencils, notepads, rulers and cameras.Typically, they'll take over 10,000 measurements to make each model. And boy, don't the results show it!

You know what I'd like? How about the

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the big V8 is well-detailed with all the right stickersfrom the factory- you almost wantto : muusiiiiuruf^check the oil and water!

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Monaro LS - the last of them in burgundy with the honeycomb wheels. A bloke down the road from us sold Holdens and brought one home once every kid in the street was in their driveway in about three seconds!

The Ford is equally gorgeous - an XA Falcon GT four-door in Yellow Fire.

I reckon the four-door looks better than the two-door (those rear quarters are just too big for me)and the yellow looks fantastic - it really leaps off the car. As with the Holden, the big V8 is well-detailed with all the right stickers from the factory - you almost want to check the oil and water!

When I first saw pictures of Biante's upcoming EH Station Wagon (in Fowler's White), I thought it was a 1/18. First of all, it's got opening doors, bonnet and tail gate. But it's a fully-loaded Special wagon - with extras like the Venetian blinds and rear wheel spats, seat belts, bumper-bar overriders and external mirrors. Hopefully there's a blue or green one with a surfboard coming!

Finally, back to Hot Wheels; have you seen the'limited edition'Shane Warne-designed 'Spin King'.They're everywhere. Limited? Ha! Only limited in a strictly mathematical sense; in that there are less than an infinite number of them.

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87

WINDING BACK the year that was...

1995

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OST years there are some outstanding young drivers in the Australian Formula Ford Championship. No surprise there, because that's the whole point of the exercise Formula Ford is meant to be the bridge between karts and a serious car racing career, either in local touring car racing or, for those who dare to dream, on the international stage.

But the 1995 Championship was a particularly vintage year. In fact, so deep was the talent pool that it would have been a remarkable Formula Ford season even if this hadn't been the year that marked the emergence of a young guy from Queanbeyan by the name of Mark Webber.

But Webber didn't win it in 1995. Nor did he go on to win it the following year, or any other year, in fact, because by the end of '95, he was out of here (in an unlikely statistical anomaly, Webber is still yet to win a championship of any kind!).

Even in those early years, Webber's focus was more on the bigger international picture than on glory at home. At the conclusion of the '95 season he was already preparing to move to the UK to try to launch himself onto 88

11

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Y',-

the world stage.

Webber was far from the favourite in 1995.

He was a barely-known 18 year-old, although some of his drives in 1994 - like his charge from nowhere to fourth place in the wet at Phillip Island - had already marked him as potential future star.

The smart money in 1995 was on Jason Bright. He'd been third in the '94 Championship in a Spectrum (the champ that year was Steven Richards, who won an incredible 13 of the 16 races) but was now aboard a Van Diemen with decent backing.

Also flush with sponsorship was the new Agip-backed Australian Motor Sport Academy, a four-car show run by no less than 1980 World Champion Alan Jones.

But as flash as AMSA looked off the track with its European-style pantech transporter and professional-looking.pit set-up, on the track they were, with the exception of Mark Noske and Con 'the fruiterer'Toparis, a disappointment.

At the opposing pauper end of the paddock was a seven-year-old Reynard, whose driver was scraping by race-torace, transporting the car himself round the country on an open-top trailer and

sometimes sleeping in the tow car to save on hotel bills. Jason Bargwanna would only finish the season ninth overall, but more than once he had the old car causing trouble up amongst the leaders.

But when it came to doing more with less, neither Bargwanna nor anyone else that year could match the driver of the number 44 Van Diemen.

It's hard to think of a less likely Formula Ford driver than Mai Rose. There's no doubt he could drive - he'd been Australian Production Car Champion in 1993 - but he was 33 years old, and had spent the previous 13 years racing sedans. He had never driven an open-wheeler before, and the pedal box of his Van Diemen had to be extensively modified just to accommodate Mai's feet, on account of injuries he sustained years earlier in a motorcycle accident.

Rose, who would be judged rookie of the year for finishing seventh in the points, could not have known then that in his one and only season in open-wheelers he'd be up against a future two-time Monaco Grand Prix winner...

Likewise for Gavin Monaghan, who years later would be dining out on the story of motorsport news

how he beat Mark Webber in Formula Ford.

Monaghan's career never kicked on, but that wasn't because the Sydneysider lacked ability. He was quite a talent; he'd been runner up to Steven Richards the year before and loomed as a real threat to Bright in'95.

Monaghan took the opening pole position for the year, at Sandown, but on a wet track Webber's blossoming skills shone through.

He was never seriously challenged, but then second-placed Bright had problems of his own,chiefly the fact that he was sitting in a pool of fuel for most of the race.

Race 2 did not go Webber's way,an opening lap tangle with Noske putting him back to 13th. He made it back to second place,then spun off while chasing leader Bright. With Webber gone. Bright opened his winning account.

Bright scored in Race 1 at Symmons Plains, but had to survive a protest from Noske after the latter went off the track at high speed on the back straight while challenging Bright. In Race 2, Webber got the job done after Bright dropped back, having lost out badly in a battle against Monaghan.

Next round was the first time at Mount Panorama for most of the field. Bright took www.mnews.com.au

As you were:AyouthfuUason Bright, top. The pole from Monaghan and Webber, and the start atSandown,left, with Gavin Monaghan first race was a fantastic drafting battle (2) fighting with Con Toparis(45)flanked between the trio that went the way of by Mark Noske(4) and,in the number 14, Monaghan.

18-year-old Mark Webber. Yellow Pages came This fight continued in the second race. on board with Webber halfway through his This time Bright was free of the brake issues '95 Formula Ford season,above,and stayed that saw him drop to third in Race 1, and on with him all the way to FI. the final run down Con-Rod he was able pull out of Webber's draft to take the lead - with At Lakeside it was Bargwanna's turn to Monaghan also making it by to demote the star. It required some wild sideways slides future FI star to third. from Bargs to keep the old Reynard ahead Clearly Webber was still learning. But his of Bright, but that's what he did - only to be career was about to receive a significant later excluded due to an engine irregularity boost. His car arrived at the Phillip Island dating back to an earlier round. round with a change of colours from green With Webber crashing in the first race. to yellow, thanks to new sponsor, Yellow Bright won both, with Noske second each Pages. It was the start of a long-term deal, time and Rose claiming his first Formula and one which would over the coming years Ford podium.

- along with the odd benefactor, such as Those Lakeside wins consolidated Bright's Canberra rugby international David Campese spot at the top of the points table, and a - help push Webberthrough the junior open repeat performance at Eastern Creek pretty wheeler scene In Europe. much sealed the deal. Noske was second In Webber celebrated the new deal with the first race, while Webber was runner up a massive victory in the wet on the Island, later in the day. a clear 16 seconds ahead of Bright and On the same weekend, a young local Monaghan. But in drying conditions later in karter named David Besnard made the day it was Bright on top and the order nil a Formula Ford debut that was both reversed, with Noske trailing Webber home.

89

1 ; P&nomma dmmatw&skei(mmng wrong,direction)and trerndine&Mkei)md (08)iim trotible as Con foparis I mmmtiondkroutedownallieMountainilrigM

impressive and disastrous.The former was due to his amazing speed in an old car; the latter due to the fact that he made heavy contact with theTurn 1 wall and suffered a badly broken leg.(Besnard would return in October to finish second in one of the non-championship races at Bathurst, but only after breaking his leg again on race morning when he slipped down some stairs...)

Rose had been near the front at Lakeside and Eastern Creek, and at Mallala he qualified on the front row alongside Webber. Rose ended up finishing here where he qualified, but behind Noske rather than Webber.The AMSA team had enlisted a new crew chief in Bobby Smith, and as the man who had engineered the title wins of Steven Richards and Russell Ingall, he clearly knew his way around a Formula Ford.

Noske made the most of his Smith-tuned car to make it two a row later in the day after an intense battle with Rose, Monaghan, Dugal McDougall, Bright and Webber.

The Oran Park final didn't count for much, but it was an opportunity for Monaghan to score his second win of the year and wrap up second place In the points.

The final race of the series was a shambles.

Noske's race ended in the motorcycieprotecting'pillows'after he clashed with Bright (not for the first time), and the win went to fourth-home Cameron Partington, after'winner' Monaghan, Bright, Darren Pate and Tremaine Dickenson were penalised for jumping the start. motorsport news

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Draft battle: Bright, Webber,Monaghan three abreast in sight ofthe flag at Bathurst, below. A young David Besnard, opposite, recovered from a broken leg in his Formula Ford debut to almost win at his next start.

The exclusion of the first four elevated 15-year-old Todd Kelly to third place.

And Webber?

He ended his Championship in the wall, and in fourth place overall behind Bright, Monaghan and Noske. Later in the year Webber would share the spoils with Bright in the Formula Ford support races at the last Adelaide-hosted Australian Grand Prix, returning the following March to drive in the Formula Holden support events at the first Albert Park-hosted AGP. It would be another six years before Webber's next race on Australian soil. That too would be at Albert Park, but this time it wasn't in the support races. www.mnews.com.au

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Birrana 274 The Grace Bros Car Winner 74 F2 Championship with Geoghegan - Hart Twin Cam, FT 200 Alum tub, fresh K&A engine, mounted wets, maintained regardless of cost 2nd set panels,spare ratios - Famous car with good history, Gr Q Log Book, COf D. Competitive car and great to drive.

Original factory car for Geoghegan.

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Clean RX3 4door. New 13B injected bridge port by Selectmaz 2hrs old.

Rebuilt/new Selectmaz 5 speed.

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\animsi Corvette C6-Z06 GT Car We offer two near new identical 200E C6, Z06 Corvette, 7 litre, Tremec bo> custom, cage, air jacks, AP brake; Pedalbox, logger, diff and Gbox cooler; JRZ shocks, purpose ground up bull GT car has had little practice use onl> spare wheels, suit GT Challenge clas or state racing, price $110k each 0417511 911 www.mYl05.com/6736

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225" S&W Dragster 511 BB Chev Engine, Enderlie bird injection, Brodex heads, MSD ignition. Powerglide by Dimoff Trans, ATI Convertor, air shifter, 9" Rear with 4.11 ratio, super comp rear wing, runs straight & hard 7.80 @ 170MPH. Must sell, new project on the go, turn key $29,800 ono or $15,900 Roller.

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1969 Porsche Group SB Very competitive Group SB under 21 car. Built from a bare shell, as light weight race car 2.0S spec engine on Webers. Engine specs on request. Top of the line suspension pkg. Well known competitive car. Car is located in Sydney and can be viewed by appointment Email for specs timgt3@hotmail.com.

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LX Hatch Back 355 stroker full roller engine by Tai engines,527 hp supert 10 gear box. Kei Hasting tail shft platinm track, 31 splini diff, 4spot Wilwood calipers, singli spot om rear. New brown davis rol cage, new paint only run one meetinc Philip Island 20th april 2012, 1.49.5 laf has a lot more to go. Improved prod 0418 395 273 'www.mYl05.com/7256

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Ex Minardi FI. Available at end of season. Selling due to upgrade. 2-4 car transporter, large office with air conditioner/heating, tv monitors, hydraulic tail lift, benches, roller draw storage cabinets, large awning, flooring. Some small cosmetic wear & tear. First to see will buy at this price!!

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MY FAVOURITE RACE

TONIO UUZZI

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WOULD normally say that all of my favourite races were when I was karting, but the 2010 Korean Grand Prix was a very entertaining race for me.

I was driving for Force India. It was very wet, and I finished sixth after starting from the back row of the grid, which was quite an amazing result in those conditions.

We had a problem in qualifying, but I can't remember exactly what it was. I think it was a gearbox issue - I'd need to go back through my data, because I have everything recorded. Actually, I think we changed gearbox and we had to start at the back because we lost some places with a penalty.

The best part was that I made most of the positions on the track, not in the stops. There were a lot of little 'moments' in that race. I think I was almost off the track every single lap. But that's what was great; you drive for two whole hours and you can't afford to make a single mistake. Every lap is crucial, you can never relax. I think a lot of the mistakes that drivers make in the rain happen when they relax.

They think'I'll just relax a bit this lap', and the next thing they are screwed because they have aquaplaned, or they've had a little spin.

When the car is drifting in the rain, it won't work for long unless you are concentrating.

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I love those kinds of races, because they are intense. They are mental, and very, very physical. You Just can't make a mistake. Every lap you cannot relax.

The hardest thing about driving a Formula 1 car in the rain isn't the drivability, but the aquaplaning. I think the grooves in the tyres don't quite have enough drying sections to dry up the turbulence from the water. That's what makes it so difficult when it's raining, the aquaplaning.

Also, the cars are so fast in wet conditions now, to the point where the difference is like 10 seconds, from dry to wet. That contributes to the aquaplaning as well, because the cars are just going so fast.

When it's raining, it's a very good feeling for a lot of Formula 1 drivers. In Formula 1, if you don't have a good car like the first four or five teams, you can forget it. You can forget about getting a really good result unless something crazy happens, like the rain.That's why you have to make wet races like that count, and it's an amazing feeling when you get to the end and get a result.

When it's raining and the conditions are wet, anything can happen.

That's why you have to get the best out of it. When it's raining, you always arrive at the track with a bit of a smile. You always know that something could happen to you too, but you have much more chance. motorsport news

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THE CONDITIONS ARE WET,

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5 ANYTHING WHEN IT’S RAINING AND THAT’S CAN HAPPEN. ; WHY YOU HAVE TO GET THE BEST OUT OF IT. YOU ALWAYS KNOW THAT SOMETHING COULD HAPPEN TO YOU TOO,BUT YOU HAVE MUCH MORE CHANCE

Personally, I've always loved driving in the rain. As I said before, when you're not in the top four or five teams, you might be fighting for points, but you will never have the car to win races.That sort of kills the enjoyment a little bit, because you're doing more than 100 percent, pushing to the absolute maximum, but it's difficult to get anywhere near the podium in the dry conditions. When it's wet,the whole thing changes.

That race in Korea reminded me a lot of Fuji in 2007, which had very similar conditions. I was driving forToro Rosso then, and I started from pit-lane because we opted for a dry set-up in qualifying.Then it rained - it absolutely pissed down - so I had to start from pit-lane so we could change the set-up to suit the conditions.

Anyway, I drove through the field and finished seventh, which was the first points finish for the team that year. But then we had a 25-second penalty added to the race time because of something to do with the yellow flags.

Still, although the result was changed after the race, it was still an amazing feeling to come from so far back in those conditions and finish so close to the front.

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Tonio Liuzzi spoke to Andrew van Leeuwen www.mnews.com.au

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issue of Motorsport News on sale JULY 25 Formula Three Euroseries. He was second in 2004.

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