Motorsport News Issue 424 - October 2012

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No. 424 October 2012

Australia $8.50 NZ $9.99 inc GST

SERGIO PEREZ:

THE FORMULA 1 STAR NO ONE SAW COMING

LEE HOLDSWORTH: www.mnews.com.au

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Editorial Group Editor Steve Normoyle 5r\ormoyle@chevron.com.au At Large Phil Branagan

Editorial Enquiries

THIS MONTH’S FEATURES

The Grid

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

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Contributing Writers

Mark Glendenning, Andrew van Leeuwen, Ray Bell, Edward Krause, Chris Lambden, Geoff Rounds, David Greenhaigh, Bruce Moxon

Photography

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

Art Director Chris Currie

BATHURST PREVIEW

Advertising Advertising Director Chris West cwest@chevron.com.au P02 9901 6376 M 0416 125 252 National Sales Manager Luke Finn lfinn@chevron.com.au P02 9901 6368 M 0423 665 384

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You reckon you know what's going to happen at Bathurst this year after a season that's featured only four different winners? Phil Branagan has had a cold hard look at the contenders and thinks there Is potential for an upset.

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

chevron ^y^PUBIJSHING GROUP a division of nextmedia Pty Ltd.

Lee Holdsworth left GRM and Holden tojoin SBR'Ond Ford ' _ to enhance his championship^ prospects. There hasn't been much sign ofthat happening thus far this year,so how has it been for Lee in his new sumomds?

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

lotorsport News is published by nextmedia Pty Ltd ACN: 128 805 70, Level 6.207 Pacific Highway, St Leonards NSW 2065 © 2012. .11 rights reserved. Motorsport News is printed by CaxtonWeb, istributed by Network Distribution. No part of this magazine may e reproduced,in whole or in part, without the prior permission of le publisher. The publisher will not accept responsibility or any ability for the correctness of information or opinions expressed in le publication. All material submitted is at the owner's risk and, /hiie every care will be taken nextmedia does not accept liability 3rloss or damage, rivacy Policy /e value the integrity of your personal information. If you 'rovide personal information through your participation in any ompetitions, surveys or offers featured in this issue of Motorsport iews, this will be used to provide the produas or services that you ave requested and to improve the content of our magazines.Your etails may be provided to third parties who assist us in this lurpose. In the event of organisations providing prizes or offers 0 our readers, we may pass your details on to them.From time to ime, we may use the information you provide us to inform you f other products,services and events our company has to offer, i/e may also give your information to other organisations which lay use it to inform you about their products, services and events, intess you tell us not to do so. You are welcome to access the iformation that we hold about you by getting in touch with our irivacy officer, who can be contacted at nextmedia. Locked Bag 555, St Leonards, NSW 1590.

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MID YEAR MARK Phil Branagan's exclusive mid-season chat with Mark Webber.

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From grid-filling pay driver to podium winner and potential future Ferrari driver, Sergio Perez has been a revelation in Formula 1.

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vGRAND LARSON Like Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart nearly a generation ago, Kyle Larson is a kid we'll be seeing on our speedways next year as the talented young American takes the tour down under. And speaking of Stewart, he says Larson is going to be a star.

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David Greenhalgh's understanding of technology is so rudimentary that for years he believed a MacPherson Strut was some kind of Scottish highland dance. This makes him the ideal man to explain the hybrid systems used at Le Mans - because ifGreenhaIgh can understand it, the rest of us will.

EIGHT IS NOT ENOUGH

Eighth, that is - which is an understandable lament when you've won four consecutive ANDRA Pro Stock championships, as has Aaron Tremayne.

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REGULARS

Edward Krause has been writing for us here at Chevron for years, but this is his first appearance in MN. Fie tracked down Lee Holdsworth for a chat about what's not been so far the kind of first Ford season he was expecting.

The Front Row Motor Mouth with Phil Branagan

The Scoop with Steve Normoyle On The Limiter with Chris Lambden Box Seat United States of Origin Model Behaviour

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Trade Classifieds My Favourite Race Parting Shot

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IMM There are a few enigmas in Formula I at the momentPastor Maldonado, for one. But Sergio Perez is an interesting case, because the conventional wisdom was that, as a pay driver, he would only be making up the numbers and helping keep Sauber on the grid. Instead, he's been on the podium three times this year.

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THE FRONT ROW since we last met V8 SUPERCARS One point was all that separated first from second place in the V8 Supercars Championship as they headed to IVIelbourne for the Sandown 500.

The unprecedented dominance of two teams, FPR and TeamVodafone,continued at Sydney Motor Sport Park with Craig Lowndes and Jamie Whincup scoring on consecutive days.

It wasn't all plain sailing for Whincup, who suffered a variety of dramas in Saturday's race in which he wound up a paltry 23rd.

In his absence, FPR Ford twins Mark Winterbottom and Will Power filled the minor places behind Lowndes.

It was Lowndes'third win in a row, but there would not be a fourth as Whincup took control on Sunday. Lowndes recovered from a pit mishap to deny Winterbottom second - a result which kept team-mate Whincup's points lead intact.

Fourth place for Garth Tander on Saturday was a welcome return to form of sorts after a disastrous run at Queensland Raceway, but once again it was Russell Ingall who was best performed of the Walkinshaw Racing stable, the veteran following Tander home on Saturday before scoring a fourth place on Sunday.

With Davison and Lowndes each trailing the near-lockedtogether Whincup and Winterbottom by more than 100 points, Sandown loomed as a crucial event in the championship battle.

INDYCAR Will Power went into the final round of the IZOD Indycar Series at Fontana in the box seat to finally win the series. Only Ryan HunterReay remains in a position to deny the Australian, with HunterReay pegging Power's lead back to 17 points following his victory in the penultimate round on the streets of Baltimore.

It was the American's first win since his three-race winning spree that ended in Toronto in July.

The best Power could manage was sixth place, which came off the back of a second place result in the previous round at Sonoma.

Team-mate Ryan Briscoe was second in both races, in a late-season flourish that saw him in a position to oust Simon Pagenaud from fifth place in the points.

Briscoe is said to be departing Penske at the end of the year, possibly to be replaced by Flunter-Reay. Penske's courting of the team's current main rival has provided a fascinating subplot to the season finale and one which some observers say is aimed at destabilising Flunter-Reay.

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GP3

Mitch Evans won the GPS Series after a dramatic final round at Monza.The New Zealander went into the final round leading the series, but retirement in the first race left Evans vulnerable in the final race of the series.

His only championship rival, German Daniel Abt, needed no less than a win to clinch the title. Evans was a rear-grid starter on account of his race one DNF, but then he suffered a puncture after a clash with Aaro Vainio.

Meanwhile Abt had assumed the lead, and looked on course for the win until Tio Ellinas found a way by on the second last lap. With Evans limping home in 20th, Ellinas'win was enough to hand the Kiwi the title.

As series winner Evans picks up $400,000 from Pirelli, but which is conditional on him graduating to GP2 in 2013.

QUICK QUIZ 1. Sergio Perez scored an impressive second place in the Itaiian Grand Prix at Monza.

How many other times has he been on the podium this year?

2. Lee Holdsworth joined SBR this year with high hopes but heading into Sandown he was yet to post his first win as a Ford driver. What has been his best race result so far this year?

FORMULA 1 In a compelling season of constantly changing fortunes, Lewis Hamilton reenergised his championship changes in spectacular fashion with a dominant victory in the Italian Grand Prix.

The win came just one week after Hamilton's Spa disaster in which he was bundled out of the race at the first corner, and has for the moment quietened growing speculation that Hamilton was seeking to leave McLaren at the end of the season.

Hamilton's main threat came from unexpected quarters - the Sauber of Sergio Perez, who started 12th but finished second, comfortably ahead of Ferrari's Fernando Alonso. It was Perez's third podium result for the season.

For Red Bull it was a race to forget, with both Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber failing to finish. Also retiring with a mechanical issue was the previous week's Spa winner, Jenson Button.

No scores forVettel, Webber and Button went a long way to negating the disaster that Spa had been for the likes of Hamilton and Alonso.

With seven grands prix remaining,the Spaniard left Monza with 179 points, 37 clear of Hamilton, who was Just one point clear respectively of Kimi Raikkonen and Vettel.

Webber's early exit dropped him to fifth, on 132.

3. When the now-traditional Ford/Holden Bathurst rivalry began, there was a third outright contending manufacturer in production car racing. What was it?

4. Audi used hybrid turbo diesei technology to win the 2012 Le Mans 24 Hour. How much extra power does Audi’s hybrid system generate?

5. What was on the wali of Mark Webber’s Queanbeyan bedroom when he was a teenage kart racer?

QUIZ ANSWERS ON PAGE 98

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I PHIL

BRANAGAN 'motor mouth

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OMETHING interesting happened in my house last month.

My son watched the first episode of Series Seven of Dr Who. At 14, he is an expert in the ways of the Ood, Daleks or some other imaginative aliens who,for some reason, always seem to prefer to land somewhere near London. Along with thousands of other Australian fans, he was mere hours behind his UK counterparts in watching the latest adventure of a time travelling medico.

The interesting thing is that ABC Television did not broadcast the episode on TV; it will get around to doing that. It was a webcast. He watched, perfectly legally, on his laptop, in his room, in the wee small hours.

Such is the fast-changing world of broadcasting.

In terms of motor racing on television, I reckon that in Australia, we are going alright. We get to see Formula

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1, MotoGP, NASCAR and V8 Supercars on free-to-air television, plus SBS's Speedweek picks up some of what is left, like the Shannons Nationals and Drag Racing. If you want Indycars or the Superbike World Championship, you need to subscribe to Pay-TV. But I reckon that we are ahead of the curve, and do better than a lot of other countries.

But the television landscape is changing.The combined capital value of the three commercial networks is nothing like it was even six months ago - certainly, not as high as when the $1.25 billion AFL media rights deal was done.The almost-as-big media deal for the NRL mirrors that of its rival code in that Pay-TV will take a bigger role.

And yet... Just before the London Olympic Games, I had a new antenna installed in my house.The installer told me that while he used to install four, maybe five units in a day, he was now doing six and,depending

But now that One shows the on travel times, maybe seven. likes of Get Smart and Beach He explained that two-thirds of Patrol, webcasting it is. My his customers needed antennae . understanding is that the results because they had recently had were quite positive and it may Pay-TV disconnected. Yes, this is anecdotal evidence, but it would happen again with Le Mans in 2013. point to the fact that whatever is My point is, this is a happening, it is not a universal trend. complicated business.The V8 Supercars media rights And,things change. At deal is being negotiated is an present, in Italy, the WSBK is on environment much different Pay-TV broadcaster La7.The from the one in place when the good news is, from next year, it will be on free-to-air Mediaset, current deal was signed.

Three years ago,there was no alongside MotoGP. But that such thing as a tablet computer. won't last; MotoGP is moving At the Sydney Motorsport Park to Sky [Pay-TV]from 2014. 1 can V8 round,for the first time in imagine Italian bike racing fans almost 20 years, I did not pack being upset. a laptop computer. I took my Which brings me back to new tablet and a keyboard webcasting. You can sidestep and had access to everything the networks altogether and I needed. It worked perfectly, sign up for packages to watch using essentially mobile phone the races of your choice on the software. Mobile devices will media of your choice. And there are some free webcasts; having play a far bigger role in the motorsport I watch in the next acquired the rights to show the world feed.Ten webcast the year.

2012 Le Mans 24 Hour, rather But for the time being, we than show it on a digital channel. have a lot of motor racing on Had One HD continued to follow free-to-air TV. I hope that lasts, its original model, launched but I don't expect it to last in early 2009,to show sport, forever.Times change fast. Dr Who said so. sport and more sport, the 24 Hour may have been broadcast.

having acquired the rights to show the worid feed. Ten webcast the 2012 Le Mans 24 Hour,rather than show it on a digital channel

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Racing Team into a winning decade.The last true roughle position in the closing stages. win was 1998, when Jason ; THE SCOOP It's worth recapping.This Bright destroyed one half of . was a game-changing moment his SBR Falcon against a wall when the 888 Skaife/Lowndes on Friday, and then from 15th had to queue behind the sister that the 1000km race at this on the grid came through on eptember is here; 88 Whincup/Thompson car after Sunday with Richards to score spring is in the air. For place has a history of throwing the latter's battery died. an unlikely win. footy fans it's even up all sorts of unforseen But car 888 had spent virtually The general, proven rule scenarios. It might be.the more special because the whole race being delayed it's finals times. For is that there are only ever a toughest, hardest race of the behind 88 at the pitstops, a state handful of genuinely serious us, it's merely the month that year, but there are other, nearcontenders at Bathurst.

And if of affairs that went right back to leads us into October,and we imperceptible factors which lap 15, when Skaife slid off the know what that means. this year's form is a guide,that don't apply at other tracks but road and Thompson went past. can make the difference here. means we're looking at the two It might be said that Bathurst TeamVodafone Commodores At almost every stop after that, these days is just another They'll be encouraged also and the two FPR Falcons - one car 888 had to sit there waiting V8 Supercar race. And for all by the fact that those at the in pitlane while 88 was serviced. of them more than likely will practical purposes, it is. But it is head of the points table will win the race.

There is a simple message to not just another race - it never be juggling dual objectives of be taken from this: whoever is That being so - and I know will be just another race, and getting a result at Bathurst and in front of you as the first stops that Garth Tander will be doing that's not just because It's twice protecting their position in the approach, make sure it is not his determined best to prove as long as the next longest standings. But if you're having me wrong - the real point of your team-mate. race In the V8SC, or nor simply such a lousy season that you're interest could be the battle for because it's held on one of the Maybe this year the crucial already out of title contention, supremacy within each team. turning point won't be early biggest, baddest pubic road then you've got nothing to lose courses in the world.

And that is real a talking point, In the race, as it was last year when push comes to shove in because the recent changed on lap 15. Maybe the point at It is simply Bathurst, our Great the final sprint to the flag. which the race will be won co-driver rules(which prevent Race, and after a season that A comforting thought for will be even earlier than that teams pairing theirtwo main has featured only four winning some, maybe.The reality, drivers) has turned the contest drivers from two teams,there is maybe even a whole day earlier, though, is sadly somewhat different. within teams into the significant in fact, when they line up to a whole raft of runners looking factor it's hardly ever been In shoot for those crucial top 10 at this year's Bathurst with a You've got to go back 13 the past at Bathurst. grid positions. sense of hope that maybe here, years to find anything close Elsewhere in our Bathurst on the western tablelands of Or maybe it will be none of to an upset result, but even then Steven Richards and preview feature,Tander makes that. Maybe the Mountain itself NSW,something good can the point to Phil Branagan of somehow be salvaged from will Instead remind everyone Greg Murphy had form as how the two TeamVodafone what's otherwise been a failed who's boss here, and unleash past winners (Richards the a sudden torrent, or deliver its Commodores inadvertently 2012 campaign. year before) and it was Gibson infamous trademark winterconspired to put their Flolden They'll be buoyed by the fact Motorsport's third win for the in-October sleet - it can snow at Bathurst at this time of year. and one day surely it is going to The simple message is: whoever is in front ofyou as the happen in the race - or let loose wildlife, or... first stops approach, make sure it is not your team-mate Whatever happens up there on October 7, 1 can't wait.

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CHRIS

LAMBDEN : ON THE LIMITER

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ou know when Bathurst is looming that another year ofV8 Supercars is racing to its conclusion.This year, it has evolved into a straight fight between the two manufacturers'top-performing teams -TeamVodafone (Holden)and Ford Performance Racing, which have won every race between them in the lead up to the endurance classics.

This year it is also the drawingdown of the curtain on the current breed of cars, as the category's biggest single change,to the Car ofThe Future, gathers pace.

It's no coincidence that it is the two teams above who have been the first to roll out their CoTF for initial testing in recent weeks. Both are among the top-three budgeted teams, and understand, and can implement, the need to be at the head of the development queue if their position in the contest is to be maintained.

It is also the case that between the two, including the cars they will manufacture for other teams,they will be responsible for a third of the over-all field.

Over forthcoming weeks there will be a series of milestones as they, and other teams, reach crucial points in their preparation for 2013, none more so than the unveiling just over a week ago of the engine which will propel Nissan into the V8 Supercar arena.

Nissan's re-entry into the sport is a key'plus'to the CoTF validity, and managing it fairly and well, in a parity formula, is crucial.

Aside from Nissan Australia Managing Director and CEO

William F Peffer Jnr, the key speaker at the launch was Todd Kelly, who retains his dual role as Racing Director, and team driver, and who has overseen the creation and development of Nissan's V8 Supercar engine to date.

In the past,Todd has appeared less comfortable in the media spotlight than some.

Maybe it's just that he comes across as a slightly serious, quiet type. Maybe it's that he's just flat-out with his multi-roles.

Regardless, on this occasion, he was the key contributor to an impressive launch, sitting down with a dozen of the country's key motorsport journalists after the official speeches for a good half-hour of unscripted straighttalk. From what I overheard,the chat was both user-friendly and comprehensive, and filled in many of the gaps.

In an era when many young racers are overly'media-trained' into sanitized policy-speak machines,there should be more of it.

One of the key misunderstandings out there appears to be that Nissan, coming in with an all-aluminium, overhead-cam, 32-valve V8, will have some form of performance advantage over the incumbent Ford and Holden engines which isn't the case.

The V8 Supercar engine has been purpose-built, using a sleeved-down version of Nissan's successful 5.6-litre VK56DE engine (used in FIA GT1 racing), itself evolved from the base VK56 engine which powers many Nissan vehicles, such as the new Patrol.

This results in an engine with a similar 102.69mm x 75.31 mm bore and stroke configuration

(the stroke ofa V8 Supercar engine must be within 75.18mm to 77.22mm)and 5-litre capacity as the existing V8 Supercar engines. Combined with the same 7500rpm rev limit and 10:1 compression ratio, it should result in an engine pretty close to the existing 'ball-park'out of the box.Then V8 Supercars itself gets directly involved.

The first engine should be on the team's dyno now and, once basic tests are done, it will literally be handed over to V8 Supercars for its official parity testing and set-up.

This may involve some tweaking of remaining variables - especially camshaft profile/ valve lift - in order to end up with an engine matching, to within very small margins,the power and torque performance of the current Holden and Ford units.

Once that is done,that original engine will remain with V8 Supercars, as a physical

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reference, and the spec sheet governing the Nissan engine will be finalised and released to all teams.

It is a fairly comprehensive process - and there's lots to do, and it's already September ... but like everything in racing, you'd bet on them being there when it counts, at the 2013 Clipsal 500, ready to roll.

While Nissan's entry is, as I said, an important and serious part of the whole CoTF change, there was also a nice moment of levity at the launch. As Todd explained it, the first base Nissan prototype engine was put together by the team, before Nissan itself was approached to be sold on the idea. Secrecy was thus paramount,so anyone asking about the strangelooking V8 in the engine workshop was simply told it was "just one ofTodd's weird projects (of which there have been a few), a boat engine ..."

Worked a treat. Nice one.

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The original engine will remain with V8 Supercars, as a physical reference, and the spec sheet governing the Nissan engine will be finalised and released- to all teams.

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I'm going to be just =t. like Kimi and not care what anybody tr else calls him. For yminer he's done a bloody good job this

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IMI Raikkonen's return to Formula 1 has been an unmitigated success.

That's a comment that might upset a few people. At the end of the day, Klmi is a driver who tends to polarise opinion, Some find his laidback, I Don't Give a Shit attitude charming,' some find it disrespectful and irritating.

Regardless of which side of the argument you lie, there's little doubt that he's done a fantastic job so far in 2012. OK, he hasn't won a race, but he's been getting so much out of that Lotus, even on occasions when it shouldn't have been that quick.

Now,I know what you're thinking: imagine if Fernando Alonso was in that Lotus. Surely that would be a winning combination.Yep, you're probably right - but let's not forget that Alonso isn't fresh off the back of a two-year stint out of Formula 1. And,as Michael Schumacher has proven,spending time away from the sport can be a tough thing to recover from.

So, while Raikkonen is yet to win a race - and please know that I write this before the Singaporean Grand Prix - he's been one of my stars ofthe season so far, right up there with Alonso(what a freak), and Lewis Hamilton (unbeatable when it all goes right).

While some may be letting the big 0 in the wins tally get in the way of calling Raikkonen's comeback a terrific accomplishment,the Finn's impressive drives aren't going completely unnoticed. What has inspired me to even broach this subject is Kimi's performance at Monza.There, he started the race working towards a two-stop strategy, and stopped on lap 17 in accordance with that plan.Then, late in the race,the team decided to swap the strategy to a one-stopper,so Kimi was told he had to go all the way to the 53rd and final lap on that one set of tyres,and hold off Michael Schumacher, who was on fresh rubber, in the closing stages of the race. Kimi got the job done.Sure, it was only for fifth place, but it was a mega drive.

While just how mega it was got a little lost in all the Sergio Perez hype, Lotus'trackside operations director Alan Permane found the time to praise the drive post-race.

"We weren't looking forward to coming to Monza as it doesn't play to the strengths of our car,so we're very happy to come away with fifth place from Kimi,"said Permane.

"He drove exceptionally well at a circuit where we knew we weren't going to be super competitive. It's fantastic that he has moved up into third place in the drivers'championship, and is now just one point off second."

And that's the bit that nobody seemed to pick up on after Monza.

That result put him just a point behind Hamilton in the championship, and well within striking distance of Alonso. It prompted Ferrari boss

ANDREW

VAN LEEUWEN BOX SEAT

stefano Domenicali to admit that, suddenly, Kimi was a man they needed to keep a close eye on.

"I have to respect all of[the contenders],"said Domenicali.

"I always said Kimi step-by-step is a dangerous driver, and he is getting closer and closer."

The comments from Permane and Domenicali camejust a week after Lotus boss Eric Bouilier predicted that Kimi would be a factor in the championship at the end of the season, a forecast he made after the Belgian GP. "I believe in myself that he can fight for the title definitely," he said.

"It is up to us to give him a good car and not miss any opportunity, but Kimi does not miss much. If you are scoring podiums every weekend then he is going to be in the position to fight for the title. He has three podiums in the last four races and even if he does not have the best car, he is still right there."

I'm not the first avid FI viewer to suggest that Kimi is having a belter of a year. Back at Monaco, Alain Prost made similar comments. OK, he was there as a guest of Renault, which supplies engines to Lotus, but still, when a four-time World Champion starts talking, it's usually worth listening to what he has to say.

"It is a surprise a little bit when I see him,"said Prost.

"His mentality, his attitude, it is very good. It is still Kimi, and I like him because at least he is not playing a game.We all know him,a nd if( n i you accept him, his positive attitude and the way he drives is not bad.. . .

"It is not that easy to come back after two years, even if he has done some rallying. It is quite impressive, and he could be quite a surprise this year."

So what does Kimi think? He's driving superbly, and making what seems to be a sneaky play for the World Championship. But does he even care if he wins or not? Not according to these comments he made at Spa: "I always said that if I win one [title] I'm happy,and then if something comes after that good, but I am not desperate on it. We do everything that we can to try and win it, but if it doesn't come, it doesn't come.

"It doesn't change my life in the long run. We are here to try to win n races and championships but.it is not like it is going to suddenly change my life completely."

Frustrating. A title threat. A potential race winner. A has been. For the moment. I'm going to be just like Kimi and not care what anybody else calls him. For mine, he's done a bloody good job this year, regardless of whether he wins the title or not.

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he shards of carbon fibre still hadn't finished settling around La Source,and Twitter was already in overdrive as a faceless,self-appointed jury of worldwide Formula 1 fans debated the merits of Romain Grosjean.

Economists like to talk about the wisdom of crowds, but if you look at the messages directed to Grosjean in the immediate aftermath of the Spa crash, you're less likely to find a general consensus than a mash-up of wildly conflicting vocal minorities.

There were the loyal fans, ever hopeful of a retweet:'smileboy, we want you back', pleaded someone named @roksakis.There were those with an eye on the bigger picture,such as @trev_garrett_: 'Please try not to take the McLarens out next race. Do what you like to the Ferraris'. And inevitably,there were the deep thinkers:'Ur fucking shit u shit French twat'opined @OnikasSolider, who appears not to have noticed that Grosjean is actually Swiss.(Yes, he races under a French license - a matter of convenience for a guy who was a product of the Renault junior system - but that's a different thing.

Just ask formerly Lebanese driver Graham Rahal).

As soon as Grosjean's one-race ban was announced,the Twitter community transformed from de facto judicial system to driver management service,sounding out potential replacements to gauge their interest. Pretty much anyone who has ever raced seemed to be fair game,so it was inevitable that a lot offans would zero in on a guy who has started more Formula 1 races than anyone on the planet. And for anyone who has chatted to Rubens Barrichello in the IndyCar paddock this year, it was equally predictable that the 40-year-old liked the idea.

'People are asking in case the Lotus FI team[Renault] called me to race in Monza if I would go???the answer is YES' he tweeted shortly before Jerome d'Ambrosio was given the call-up.This presumably elicited quite a response, yet although Barrichello never misses an opportunity to advertise his permanent state of readiness for another FI opportunity, he wasn't getting carried away.

'Tks for the messages today my twitter friends,' he wrote.'Now back to reality ... and sleep a bit with the kids. Goodnight'.

Anyone who has read this column in the past will know that I have a weird fascination with how athlete mindsets change as they enter the late stages of their careers, and in particular with howto recognise the moment whe;n it is time to let go. As a category that is meant to represent the absolute pinnacle of the sport - including driver talent - it has often seemed strange that drivers were able to hang around so long beyond their expiration date.

What is the point in spending an absolute fortune chasing incremental gains in the car and drivetrain if you're then going to hand the finished product over to a jaded, demotivated-JarnoTrulli or Giancarlo Fisichella? Without resorting to hypnotism,there's no way of knowing whether those drivers failed to notice the signs or whether they chose to ignore them. If you can get a huge paycheck for going through the motions with no real pressure to deliver, it must certainly be tempting.The fact that you're probably doing so at the expense of someone young,quick, and hungry is, frankly,the young,quick and hungry guy's problem.

But it would also be easy to miss the signals. Gil de Ferran told this writer back in March that his first hint that it was time to step back came when he realised that he was 10 minutes into a run along the beach and he hadn't contemplated an upcoming test day yet. Alex Zanardi described waking up one morning and noticing that his first thought was of something other than his race car. Dario Franchitti admitted in these pages just last month that it is easy to slip into complacency when you've had success and earned some money, both of which he has done in vast quantities. But they're all smart, deeply self-analytical guys. A less contemplative senior driver might not even notice that it's the Tuesday before a race and he's just spent breakfast thinking about his new motorbike.

The thing is, my suspicion is that Barrichello is not one of the 16

complacent guys. Given a point-scoring FI car, he could more than likely take the thing out and score points with it. All drivers like to claim that the driving is enough of a reward in itself and that the trimmings are just that, but Barrichello is oneof the very, very few who really means it. It's not widely known that his paycheck for his first season of IndyCar was the princely sum of... zero. He drove for free, because he wants to drive.

But you hope he is also a realist, at least where FI is concerned.

Still having the ability to be a good FI driver after so many years in the cockpit is a rare trait, but it's hard to point to any team in the top eight or nine in the constructors'championship and offer a compelling reason why they should hire Rubens over who they already have.(Or over a promising youngster, likeVaItteri Bottas).

A second season of IndyCar, on the other hand, makes a lot of sense, and for all of the public talk of wanting to return to FI, Barrichello's behind-the-scenes maneuvering suggests that he's thinking along similar lines. It's been a disappointing first year for him, but he would benefit greatly from a move to a different team.

Rahal Letterman Lanigan is believed to be clearing space in its workshop to put a second car alongside Simon Pagenaud's, and some news on that front is expected shortly.

Barrichello's frustrations with trying to learn the intricacies of IndyCar pit strategies should also be alleviated if some races are slightly lengthened to reduce the potential for fuel mileage racing - an idea currently being evaluated. And finally, there is the not-insignificant matter of bruised pride, and a desire to prove that he can win in a new environment.

The door to FI might be closed, and Barrichello will have to summon enough puff to extinguish 41 candles on his next birthday.

Age is one thing, but genuine fire is something you can't fake. And inside Rubens, it stiil burns bright.

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Bathurst 1000 preview

With only four dpivers splitting the wins in the Sprint paces,the 2012 Bathurst 1000 is going to be the most predictable race we have seen ior some time,right? Wrong.

PHIL BRANAGAN looked at some ot the men behind the headlines for this yeai^ Onmt Race 18

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HERE has never been a touring car racing season like the 2012 V8 Supercar Championship.

In the 19 races that made up V8 Supercars'Sprint'season, all 19 were won byTeamVodafone or Ford Performance Racing. All four of the teams'

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drivers won races.

As the teams prepare for the Bathurst 1000,there are several observers in the pitlane that are prepared to stake their reputations that one those teams'cars will win the biggest race of the year.

But there is a lot more to watch at

Bathurst this year.There are a lot of stories, and it may be that there is a winner in store.

So Motorsport News cast the tea leaves, examined the form and came up with some stories that might be overlooked in the build up to the biggest race of 2012.

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T se^ms odd to include the defending BathiSrst 1000 Champions as one of the unexpected contenders for this year's race but context is important in motor racing.

Garth Tander knows that. He goes to Bathurst with his 2011 win,shared with protege Nick Percat, still strong in the

memories of those who witnessed a truiy great Great Race. But with the Holden Racing Team having had a tough 2012,there are some who may downplay the chances of a successful defence of that hard-fought win.

So,context; at the end of this year's sprint races,Tander sat sixth in this year's championship. A year ago,as the teams

prepared to take on the endurance races, GT was ... sixth in the championship.

"We are actually in much the same place," he says, even before he realised that he was in the same spot in the points.

"We certainly have not had the championship year that we would have liked. But we do not have the pressure of thinking about the championship when we go to the biggest race of the year. We do not have to worry about the external pressures that come with having to manage a championship position, versus a race win.

So,from a championship point of view, we are in the same piace. From an organisational point of view, I think that we are in much better shape. We have had Steve Hallam with us for the entire year,Tony Dowe has come on board over the last couple of months,so from an experience point of view, I think that we are stronger."

The difference is, Tander scored two wins in the sprint races a year ago,and in 2012, he has none.

"We have had a good run in recent races, like at Eastern Creek," he says thoughtfully.

"But we had good speed at Adelaide and Townsville; we have had speed at our 'traditional'circuits, if you like. But the wins have not been there; having said that, every team other than Triple Eight and FPR can say motorsport lews

www.mnews.com.au

the same thing ...

Last year.Tander was heading to Bathurst with an unproven rookie. He had faith in Percat, and it paid off in droves.This year, he goes with the only V8 Supercar driver with a 100 percent winning record in the race.

"I think Nick is a lot further down the road.

His Dunlop Series has clearly not gone as it was planned but, certainly, every time he jumps in my car, he does exactly what is asked of him. His maturity and experience have gone up another level, he can handle situations better than he did 12 months ago. He knows what to expect now.Going to Bathurst last year, he had never done a stint of more than 16 laps. He has all that experience under his belt now.

He also goes with another Bathurst winner in the Walkinshaw Racing group. Russell Ingall has also upped his results in recent races. andTander see the addition of the Supercheap Auto driver as a plus.

He brings a lot of experience and I think that has helped the group. A new sponsor Joined the group as well,and they are very . proactive in V8 Supercars,as a whole.So rA' as a group,it has been a better thing,and {< that is said with no disrespect to the people who were here before. Russell is driven; I am not talking out of school when I say he is in the twilight of his career. He is taking the opportunity to put his best foot forward at every opportuniity,to be competitive and to extend his careeri'His motivation is very high.

That helps James,and it helps me.'

All things considered,Tander looks to have almost exactly the same chances of a 2012 win as he did a year ago. , "Triple Eight will be strong," he admits."FPR ' ' was strong there last year but they made a .■t ilot of mistakes. Will's car had speed, but only

when Will was driving it.

Look at our results over the last few years; two wins and a third.That is pretty good. But Bathurst is Bathurst; it is a hard race. It can be a cruel race. It can strike you out in the first 10 metres of the race -1 have been there before.You can't put the cart before the horse. It's tough, but you can't go there too confident."

And,Just as he is about to go, he turns around and adds something that is obviously on his mind; 'Context is ABSOLUTELY important.The reality was, last year, it was a three-car race; us and the two Triple Eight cars. But what happened in the last laps was set up in the first 15; Mark Skaife fell off the road; Andrew Thompson got in front of him. From that point on,#888 had to queue behind #88 for the rest of the race.Yes, it is a 1000km race. and people might tell you those first 15 laps do not matter.They DO matter. You can trace the last laps, last year, all the way back to the first 15 laps.

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You can plan a function around events like the Clipsal 500, Bathurst or any of the Formula One Grand Prix and enjoy a pizza, a bowl of pasta, one of our famous Stonegrill™ steaks, or the catch of the day with a glass of your favourite wine as you view the coverage on our large plasma screens.

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0,in putting together a preview for the biggest race of the year, one guy we want to talk to is the one 28th in the points before the endurance races start, who drives for a team that is not performing as it would have hoped at the start ofthe season and 'which he is, in all likelihood,leaving at the end of the year. . Oh yeah, he has a bad back.

But'he'is Greg Murphy and even in a bad year, in an ordinary car, he has performed near-miracles on . the Mountain before. Four Bathurst 1000 wins;the Lap of the Gods, his record-setting pole lap of nine years ago; almost a win with Mark Skaife in the last hurrah for Tasman Motorsport; heck, a podium finish -from pole - with Allan Simonsen,in 2011.

You can never, ever count Greg Murphy out at ^ Bathurst.

"If one of those four cars- Triple Eight or FPR does not win, it would be an absolute shock,"said Murph, who will share the Pepsi Commodore with the experienced Owen Kelly.

"We are not where we would like to be.You need to be a contender to be on the podium but Bathurst is not like any other race. Like the weather;the Kelly Racing cars always go well in the wet.That might even things out, if it was to happen.

"Last year, we were quite confident that we were going to do something.We did. Other teams have moved forward this year, but every time I go to Bathurst, I feel quietly confident.There is no part of the track in which I do not feel confident. You take all those things as they come."

At the start of the enforced break, Murph has had two vertebrae fused in his back,the L5 and the SI [Ed:fifth Lumbar and the first Sacrum vertebrae]. Fie says that he has had no problems since the surgery.

"It is going really well. I had testing for two days at Winton and it feels fantastic. I have to go see a doctor for clearance, but it is all good."

Even his fitness, which one might expect to have suffered, is fairly good. Fie is not quite back to his old self, but then again, Murphy is rarely a man you would see falling out of a car, out of everything, at the end of even the most physical race.

Is a win out of reach for Murphy? Maybe; maybe not. It's a long race; many things can happen. Pole?

Not likely. Count him out over 1000 kays? Never.

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HAIL TO THE CHEF HE last yeaiir lias been a time of change for Paul Dumbrell.

At th is Itir^sra 12 months ago, Dumbrell vwas preparing for his ,13th steitih the Bathurst

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|,000. He was the leacd diiver in Rod Nash's pottle-0 Ford, withDiesin Canto plugged in tb co:Slrive. Unfortuimately,the race did not turn oW as well,as the pair may have wanted.

Dumbell started 111tih|missing out on the Top TO|hoot Out by dlliof 0.04s) and moved the car eiose to the leaders, but a dash with Shane van Gisbergenrfscar started a chain of events that saw him OWF in his last start as a

EXECUTIVE

full-time V8 Supercar driver.

But if retiring was on his mind,that changed when Roland Dane came calling and offered him a seat alongside Jaime Whincup for the endurance races.

"Jamie is a good mate of mine,"says Dumbrell."Will Davison,Jamie and I grew up together, hanging around Melbourne, through our teens and early 20s,so if I can help Jamie win another championship,that would be great."

As the CEO of retail group Automotive Brands(which counts Autobarn and Autopro among its outlets) Dumbrell is a busy man.

but he has kept in trim by driving the #1 Commodore in the co-driver sessions this year,and by training for the races and his other great passion,triathlons.

Far from missing his previous full-time driving role, he is relishing the opportunity.

"It is actually quite exciting. For the last 10 years, I have done there as a primary driver, or a full-time driver, so this is a different context. It is unusual to be going there as a 'co-driver' but especially so as co-driver to the championship leader.The expectation is to deliver a good result. But, every time you go to Bathurst, it is exciting, and there is

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pressure as well.

"I assume that there is going to be, when I am sitting there, at Bathurst, waiting to get in [the car], more pressure. It is completely different to what I have experienced previously,and that expectation is always going to be there. Jamie had a really fast car there last year, and he did not get a result in the end because a number of things went wrong.So there is something about redeeming Jamie's Bathurst record as well.

Every year you go to Bathurst trying to win;this time,there is a realistic chance of winning."

One thing yet to be decided is what role Dumbrell will play. As a recent retiree, he is accustomed to being a lead driver, so starting is not a problem. Likewise,Team Vodafone has been known to split strategies, starting races with primary or co-driver at the wheel of the cars.

"Not quite sure," Dumbrell muses on the question.

"It all depends on where the championship is, how we qualify,things like that. Last year, it was a mixed bag;a number of cars had primary drivers starting,some had co-drivers.

I think it will be much more how it is on the day, and how strategy is worked out.

"But I am not there to win the race myself; I am there to do a job. I am there to race the other co-drivers and be in a position, at the end, where Jamie can win the race."

He is not expecting to bring any particular insights into the workings of Ford Performance Racing to the team;

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Teams evolve so quickly. What I was involved with, with FPR last year, is probably far from what they are doing this year.There have been a lot of changed; Will [Davison] came to the team,James Small joined the team at the end of the year,so there are a couple of things there that I know. But at the end of the day.Triple Eight has been the form team for the last five years. FPR has threatened that mantle, particular earlier in 2012."

One aspect of this year's race could be that it is Dumbrell's last Bathurst. He has long harboured an ambition to compete in the Hawaii Ironman Triathlon, which is held on the Bathurst weekend.To date, his

racing commitments have made the race impossible,so could a win cap off his career so that he can take in the race, in 2013 and beyond?

You never know," he says. I did an Ironman in March and I took 35 minutes off my PB. I still have an hour to go to qualify for Kona.

I would love to get there but I need to have the frame of mind and the fitness to get there. It could be delayed a couple of years, but I am training now and who knows where I will be on three or four months now.

"But I have had a great career, and I am so thankful. I am having a very good crack, it will be unique and I am really excited."

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HEN did John McIntyre become one ofthe best V8 Supercar endurance drivers?

Over the last few years,the Kiwi, known universally as Johnny Mac, has quietly legged his way up the pecking order of the breed known as'once a year'drivers.

His piloting of Stone Brothers Racing's Fords over recent seasons has been exemplary and, even if he was not getting headines, there were people watching.

"After all the endurance races, we look at the performances of all the endurance drivers and benchmark them,"says Ford Performance Racing principal Tim Edwards.

"Our spreadsheets said that Johnny was one of the best."

So,just like that, Johnny Mac became an FPRenduro driver.

"He has fitted into the team perfectly,"says Edwards."! am confident we have made the right decision."

So was the driver.

"I was really great[to be asked],"McIntyre says."I guess it means that, over the last few years, I have put in enough good drives to get noticed by a team like FPR.You get opportunities like this and you grab them with both hands.The team atmosphere is great; Will and Frosty are having a great year. .

I could not be happier, really.

"I think you take these things one step at a time. FPR has been on a podium,or close to it, in every race.The signs are there that the team is in for something good at both enduros, but I am here to help them to win a championship."

One of the common threads between the two Ford teams is the role of Campbell Little.

The long-time engineer has a technical role with JMR's development of the car that Mac and Steven Richards race in NZ,and that is far from a negative.

"It certainly helps,"says McIntyre,"! knew Campbell before I came over here. But

everyone else is new to me,and they are doing the job that they know that they can do. It is my Job to make sure that I DO my job and help them."

Of course,this year, he has had more than just V8 Supercars to worry about. John McIntyre Racing has run two Falcons in New Zealand's growing V8 SuperTourer Series.

With Steven Richards in the team's second entry, McIntyre edged out Jonny Reid to take out the'sprint'title before NZ's endurance season started last month.

"There are some similarities," he says,"but the nuances of the cars are quite different.

But the one thing is does give you is race readiness;! have just hopped out of a relatively heavy V8 touring car after chasing and having my mirrors filled,for a whole stint, on one set of tyres.That prepares you well to where these[V8 Supercar] cars are.

"So it is not an advantage. But when I have come to Australia in the last few years, it has been after we finished racing in New Zealand in April - and my next race would have been , at Phillip Island. What kind advantage is to be ^ had now is something we will only find out with time."

The list of New Zealand-born drivers who have won on the Mountain is an illustrious one, but McIntyre is not getting ahead of himself in anticipating joining them this season.

"I do go into any race wanting to finish second or third.To win [at Bathurst] would be a dream come true.That is one of my major goals, and you need to keep putting yourself in the right position. But there is a long way to go." motorsport news

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HE 2012 Bathurst 1000 marks the end of a chapter for Dunlop.

For the company that has supplied tyres for V8 Supercars since 2002, this year's 1000 will be the last in which all the Supercars - in both the 1000 and the Development Series (which is, appropriately enough, sponsored ● by Dunlop) - will wear the same boots. Next ' year, th4 Cars of the Future will roll on 18 inch Dunlop^f the Dev cars will stay on the current 17s.

Bathurst, always presents a challenge to Du'nlop»Motorsport Manager Kevin Fitzsimons (below right) and the 2012 edition is no different. ' ''it's the usual story," he says, "I just need these blokes to understand that cars face loads at Bathurst that they do not face anywhere else. Some of the teams are off on a tangent of running lower pressures at the moment, to try to get better drive on both the soft and the hard tyre. So this is a really good time to remind them of what happens.

"It is the nature of the circuit. People will always push the limits; if they can get a couple of tenths with the pressures down, they will try to do that. You Just need to hammer home to them; how long does it take to do a pitstop if you have a tyre failure, as opposed to making the car more comfortable to drive? At the end of the day, the tyre is not bulletproof; we have had issues at Bathurst in the past.

"It is a unique environment. You have such massive vertical loadings, going up and down the mountain. You get across the mountain, then a huge build up of temperature at the Chase, then a big cool down up one straight and down the other.

Turn 2, with a full load of fuel and the driver standing on the throttle, puts so much pressure on the left-rear tyre. It makes is very very difficult to come up with the perfect

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"We can make a tyre that would be 100 percent ideal for Bathurst. Unfortunately, it would be terrible for most other tracks."

If you think that the life of a tyre supplier sounds easy, consider this; Dunlop Motorsport will take 32 tyres for each of the entries in the Bathurst 1000, With 29 cars entered (the 28 Usual Suspects, plus Kelly Racing's wildcard Supercar Showdown entry) and eight tyres for each of the DDV8 entries, that means that Dunlop will have 1128 slick tyres at Bathurst.

There is also the small matter of the more than 1500 wet weather tyres that Fitzsimons has in stock. So far as the Main Game is concerned, they will be Just about useless after the Sydney 500. That amount of wets will be enough to shod every DDV8 car for

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wet races for the next two seasons if ALL the races are held in wet weather.

If you see a man in a yellow and black shirt doing a rain dance at Mount Panorama, there chances are good that his name will be Kevin.

Go and say hello. motorsport news

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b visit to Mount Panorama is complete without a stop at the £ National Motor Racing Museum, right beside the track at Muj^av's^^^g^^jH 1 -L Corner. Inside you’ll find a constantly-changing array of vehieles f made their mark on not only Mount Panorama, but Australian motorspo®f ifE The main hall is packed with not just touring cars, but open-wheelers, motbfcydl m&m of fascinating memorabilia - trophies, driving suite, leathers, helmets, posters andphot'bgrap Take a break in the 40-seat theathrette and watch the videos covering the gloribt^liifbr^; of racing on Mount Panorama since 1938, and the just-released version on the motorcycle racing at the track.

Enjoy a coffee and check out the museum shop. It’s packed woth official yearn merchandlsiSi^, books, video and collectables. Naturally, any visit to Mount Panorama is not complete withouit 1 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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motorsport news

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LEE HOLDSWORTH WENT TO STONE BROTHERS RACING WITH THE AIM OF WINNING THE V8 SUPERCARS CHAMPIONSHIP BUT THAT’S NOT AN OBJECTIVE THAT’S GOING TO BE ACHIEVED THIS YEAR. HOLDSWORTH SPOKE TO EDWARD KRAUSE ABOUT WHAT’S PROVEN TO BE A TOUGH DEBUT SEASON WITH FORD AND THE EFFORTS BEING MADE TO TURN THINGS AROUND www.mnews.com.au

35

o

N the Saturday night at Eastern Creek, Lee Floldsworth tweeted to his 5,000 plus followers: "Long debrief tonight at the track. We've had a tough couple of races lately but I know it won't be long till we get back to the pointy end".

Frustratingly that 140-character summation could apply to any of the last few rounds for Floldsworth as his season approaches the'business end'of his first year as a Stone Brothers Racing V8 Supercar driver. After a promising start in the Irwin Tools Falcon, the results during the middle of the season have been disappointing.

After some bad luck at the Townsville round things got worse at Queensland Raceway. But Eastern Creek saw Lee hit rock bottom results-wise, qualifying 25th and finishing 26th on Saturday. With a follow-up 24th and 21 st on Sunday, it was one of his career-worst weekends.

"We seem to roll it out of the truck pretty good every weekend," he said over breakfast on Sunday morning.

"We've got a good base set-up, but we don't find any speed on the green tyre. We're trying different things and we're throwing a lot at it and working pretty hard trying to find what it needs. It's only a matter of time before we get on top of it, but at the moment it's been a pretty frustrating couple of races."

Indeed Floldsworth was fastest in the opening practice session on the Saturday morning. But as the track gripped up and the soft tyres went on, he went backwards fast.

"We went into qualifying feeling fairly confident that we'd be in the top 10," he admitted.

"We put on the hard tyres first up and were well inside the top 10.

We put on the green softs and all of a sudden we've got a change of balance and we're nowhere. We're just not chasing the track well enough."

That weekend the whole Stone Brothers Racing team struggled to varying degrees at the return to the renamed Sydney Motorsport Park. Shane van Gisbergen handled it best, qualifying inside the top 10 for both races, but finishing only 11th and 13th while Tim Slade 36

could only manage 16th and 14th place finishes.

After the weekend, Ross Stone admitted his team was probably'trying too hard'to bridge the gap to the leading pair of TeamVodafoneand Ford Performance Racing.

By contrast, Holdsworth's old team-mate at Fujitsu Racing GRM, Michael Caruso, qualified fourth and finished eighth on Saturday, backing it up with a sixth and 11 th on Sunday.

It may seem churlish to point out the comparison between his old team-mate's performance and his current predicament on what was an uncharacteristically bad weekend, but Holdsworth had gone to SBR to take the next step in his career - to be a regular race winner and championship contender.

During his six years at the Garry Rogers team he had outshone his team-mate every season except his debut year in 2006 and improved his champio'nship position every year, culminating in seventh place in 2010. SBR was the place where he would be given the opportunity to show if he was a championship contender, or just one of several very good drivers.

That he eventually finished 12th in the 2011 title race, the first time in his career he hadn't improved his season result, was another indication thattime was right to make the move, it also made sense from a family perspective. Both he and wife Alana are from Brisbane,so moving to the Gold Coast to be close to their family and friends was an attraction. By the time they packed up their Melfcourne home they knew that they would be starting a family of theirown mid-season. Every part of the deal made perfect sense.

But it also, brought a new challenge to Floldsworth. After five years as the number one driver, he was joining a team with two incumbents: both young, hungry,fast and, in van Gisbergen's case, an established race winner.

But Leethal, as he's known,sees only the upside in the new challenge.

"I think it's good. With two strong team-mates it can only be good.

I have had strong team-mates in the past and these guys are really strong. We're all pushing each other to get the most out of each other motorsport news

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and I think it can only push you to greater heights.'

He knew he would have to get used to a new team, new processes and a new car, but he had made sure that he would have a familiar face engineering him at the Yatala workshop.

As part of the deal to bring Holdsworth to SBR, Brad Wischusen, his former data engineer at Garry Rogers, was recruited across from Paul Morris Motorsport.

'When I knew that I was coming I requested Brad as my engineer. 1 worked with Brad at GRM back in 2007,so I already had a relationship and we've been friends ever since. We both wanted him to get in there to get a heads up on a bit of knowledge on the cars before I got there, so he came with about two rounds to go last year.

We work well together but it does take a little bit of time to get that bond,to get the lingo and understand each other and know. when I say'I've got a little bit of understeer'for him to recognise whether that's a vital point in what we do with the set-up or whether it's not too bad."

While working with a new engineer was not a new experience -"At GRM I think 1 had six engineers in six years"-the biggest adjustment was going to be learning to get the most out of the car. Holdsworth quickly realised that would be a larger task than he expected. He not only had to learn how to set a completely different car up, but adjust his driving style to suit it.

"The biggest thing is knowing what the car needs.When I was in the GRM car I could say to the engineer'we need this'and I knew what It was going to do and how it was going to respond and we didn't usually go backwards.

"So this year, that's been the hardest thing, knowing what to do with the car. I'm slowly learning, but there's also more adjustments in this car, so it takes longer to know what everything's going to do because we haven't tried them all yet."

"I (also) have to learn a new way of driving because the way I approach a corner is different now,the turn-in points are earlier, you've got to be smoother with the steering input, so at each round it's like I'm learning the track again." www.mnews.com.au

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With so much to learn, adapt and adjust to, Holdsworth says he was realistically ambitious for his first season in a Ford.

"I didn't expect to come into a new team and blitz the field, or blitz my team mates or anything like that,"said.

"1 knew it was going to take some time to get on top of the car, to find some speed and consistency.This year was always going to be my learning year and not so much thinking about the championship.

My goal was always to finish in the top five in the championship. It still is and I still think it's achievable."

Six rounds into the season and Holdsworth was on track to achieve his goal. He had a promising start at the season-opener in Adelaide, where he finished fifth and eighth and was the best-performed SBR car across the weekend. He was then in the top 10 in three of the four races at the Grand Prix and in both races at Tasmania.

A slightly up-and-down weekend at Hamilton netted a 13th and a sixth, before his best performance of the year so far at Barbagallo.

Qualifying tenth for race one, Holdsworth stormed through for fourth, narrowly missing a podium. On the Sunday he qualified fourth, his best of the year, before finishing fifth. He was a victim of circumstance in the third race - a red flag preventing his final run in qualifying, leaving him 13th,from which he moved into the top 10 during the race before the controversial safety car'bungle' put him near the back of the field, leaving him to finish 21st.

Having achieved his best qualifying and race finishes of the season so far, Holdsworth really felt that they'd turned a corner. It was backed up at Phillip Island with a fifth and a ninth before heading to Darwin.

There he qualified for his first Shootout of the year, but his race performances weren't so flash, dropping to tenth in race one before climbing from grid 19 to 12th on the Sunday.

By this point, he was sitting in sixth in the championship with his SBR team-mates either side of him in the point score, the trio separated by only 86 points.

Townsville didn't bring much joy. Ninth place in race one was a respectable result, but on the Sunday, after qualifying only 17th, his competitive race lasted less than three corners. He returned 38

to the pits at the end of lap one with his old teann-mate Caruso's rear diffuser jammed in his front bumper. He eventually returned to the track 10 laps down, but it was apparent that their qualifying performance had not improved enough and it was starting to seriously impact their championship results.

"If you don't qualify well in these races, you get stuck with the loonies down the back and get caught up in their battles and get taken out," was his frustrated assessment, not only of Townsville but oftheyearsofar.

"It's really hard to battle your way forward when the field is separated by a second,sometimes less, so a little bit of extra speed on the track in the race isn't going to get you from the back to the front as it disperses."

AfterTownsville,the SBR team held a successful test day prior to their home race at Queensland Raceway and were hopeful of a good result.

"We thought that was where we would resurrect our championship charge.

"We had a shocker at Townsville and we thought this is where we'll get a bundle of points and get back in this championship. We went there(QR) with high hopes and..."

Instead of being the resurrection round, QR simply dropped them further into the mire. In addition to the lack of qualifying speed, in both races he was affected by mechanical issues - which is a rarity on SBR cars.

After a promising Saturday qualifying result of 10th, Holdsworth was racing inside the top 10 before suffering some braking issues, leaving him to finish 26th. On the Sunday he could only manage 19th on the grid before a stuck throttle ended his day.

"It was pretty frustrating to come out of your home race with very few points," he said.

"These guys(SBR crew) are probably more frustrated, having those things go wrong and SBR is known for their reliability. It's probably made the processes even more disciplined and in the long run it could be a good thing because we'll have our checklists to make sure motorsport news

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After all, Rogers is known for his outward eccentricities while there are few laces straighter than the Stone Brothers in the V8 paddock.

But for Lee Holdsworth, he found a surprisingly familiar set-up when he moved north.

"Ross and Jimmy have a bit of an old-school approach,they like to keep it basic, which is a good thing.That was also Garry's philosophy, keep it basic, try and get the results, don't overcomplicate things, so there's some familiarity between the two teams.

"I had a really good relationship with Garry and we still chat on the phone every now and then. With Ross and Jimmy I get on really well with them as well.

Everything's an open book and there are no secrets. You can talk to them about anything, so in that way it's very similar.That's a good thing.

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www.mnews.com.au

39

that stuff will never happen again."

But for Holdsworth, a life-changing event occurred that couldn't have been better timed to take his mind of his on-track troubles.

"Usually I'd be pretty upset after a weekend like that, and I was, but I was able to get over it pretty quick because my little girl was born a couple of days after. So I had something good to look forward to and get my spirits backup."

There's no doubt little Ava Holdsworth is daddy's little girl, the way Lee's eyes light up and the smile on his face when talking about his daughter. It was also a good circuit-breaker, allowing him to switch off from the racing woes and concentrate on something wholly joyous. In doing so, it helped him clear his head and think objectively about how to turn things around.

"I wanted to run into Brad with some ideas, and he had some ideas and we got together a plan for the next meeting and, all of a sudden, you're hopeful of some good results for the next round and that you might be onto something. We did have some better speed at Queensland, which was a positive.

"The engineers have been hard at work trying to get us to a point where we do start catching FPR & Triple Eight and I think we have made little gains here and there.

"But, it's hard to say that we're bridging the gap at the moment.

Every round I'm sure they're making little gains as well so It's going to take a little bit of time to catch them.You're looking for little improvements so it's not going to be one thing that gets us from where we are to the front, it's going to be a couple of things working together."

Unfortunately the Sydney round had the opposite result to van Gisbergen's prediction, and Lee's hopes.

The green-tyre issue he was struggling with on the hard tyres was exacerbated on the soft tyres for one of his worst weekends ever.

By the end of a difficult weekend van Gisbergen stayed in fifth in the championship, but lost ground on the leading four while Slade dropped to seventh, overtaken by Toll HRT's Garth Tander.

Holdsworth stayed in ninth but was now almost 350 points behind 40

van Gisbergen heading into the endurance races.

For a championship performance context, at the corresponding point last year, Holdsworth was in 10th position in the title race, albeit only 200 points adrift of fifth position. Also, his former team-mate Caruso is currently sitting in 14th in the championship.

But while a year-on-year improvement(however marginal) is one thing, there's no question that Holdsworth came to SBR to win races and compete for a championship. At this point, the FPRCTriple Eight duopoly isn't giving anybody else a look in, but potentially Car of the Future just might provide the shake-up the series needs to see other drivers in the hunt.

"I'm hoping so,"enthuses Holdsworth."! think it may put everyone back on a little bit more level playing field.These guys(SBR) have been working night and day trying to get everything in order so that we can come out next year firing.

"Obviously what we're learning at the moment will correlate to next year in some way, but hopefully those little things, like FPR and Triple Eight run brake cooling systems and water cooling systems, they're banned for next year. I think they're getting a fair gain out of that. It's little things like that, restricting the development,that should bring everyone a lot closer hopefully.

"I've driven the COTF already. It seems like a car that's a lot easier to drive and probably won't have to fight it so much as you do now. It should be a good thing for the category."

One thing that the Car of the Future project has affected Is developing new parts. As of Eastern Creek,there will be no more development parts on the SBR Falcons and they will work to optimise their current package. Given the performance issues Holdsworth is struggling with, and the recent decline of all three SBR Falcons, this may seem crazy, but it might just be what the team needs to get back on track.

"You put a new component on a car and it'll take you three race meetings to get on top of it," he explains.

"Because you've got to mix it with other things, other set-up components and all the rest of it. motorsport news

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By Bathurst Legends Artist Mike HARBAR

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"With the development side of things, what we do this year we might not be able to take into next year, so we're to a point where we've said 'righto, let's settle with what we've got and get the best results we can and try and make this thing work to its absolute optimum."

The old saying goes a win at Bathurst makes a successful season and the enduros give Holdsworth an opportunity to get his season back on track.

While the Stone Brothers don't have a great record of Bathurst success, a sole victory back in 1998,they do have a strong record of competitive finishes. Since 2003 they've been in the top six seven times, including a hat trick of podiums with James Courtney from 2006 to 2008. A strong top six result would do wonders for both Holdsworth's points and confidence for he and his Irwin Tools crew.

"I think at this stage, it's hard for me to say," he said about his chances at Bathurst.

"I feel confident because you don't need to qualify well there to get a result. What you need is a good racecar and we've had that. Over 161 laps you can win it from any position.

"But, I need to find more speed in the car because in that final stint you need a very, very good car on a brand new tyre. Usually the last stint is a green tyre run. So I feel we still have a little bit of work to do before we get there, but Gizzy's car seems to be close to the mark, a little bit off still but a lot closer than where I am,and probably where Tim is as well.That's why you have three cars, so you can find the best set-up."

He's got the experience and speed of Craig Baird alongside him in the endurance races and the knowledge that if the car is good, he can race as fast as anyone at the mountain.That gives him some confidence, plus the knowledge that at SBR he's got some of the best engineering minds in the country.

Add a happy home life with his new family,the promise of Car of the Future for 2013 and Lee Holdsworth is in a good place right now.

Pretty soon those tweets hopefully optimistic tweets will be replaced with some good news from on the track. www.mnews.com.au

47

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Celebrating the 40th anniversary of the King’s first win in the mighty ■ XU-1 Torana. Peter Brock is part"bf Bathurst folklore and his first win in The Great Race in 1972 remains one of the most popular stories in Australian touring car racing history. This DVD features a 30 minutes telecast of rarely seen highlights from Network Seven direct when . - Brock and the XU-1 Torana conquered Allan Moffat and his works ■ . ■ Falcon. As a special bonus, witness another 30 minutes of rarely seen vision of the 1973 Flardie Ferodo 1000 as Brock came perilously , , close to back-tO:back victories. Both are in black and white.but fully capture rare and previously unreleased vision of two of the Moun tain's most famous races. r

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WE ARE PAST THE HALFWAY POINT IN THE SEASON AND MARK WEBBER IS ONE OF AT LEAST SIX DRIVERS STILL IN WITH A REALISTIC CHANCE OF BECOMING WORLD CHAMPION. IN THIS EXCLUSIVE PHIL BRANAGAN INTERVIEW, MARK REFLECTS ON AN INCREDIBLY UNPREDICTABLE FORMULA ONE SEASON SO FAR,ON HIS DECISION TO TURN DOWN THE OFFER TO DRIVE FOR FERRARI, AND ON HIS CHANCES OF WINNING THE BROWN LOGIE

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MOTORSPORT NEWS:From the outside,it looks like this year's Red Bull suits you a little better than last year's did.

MARK WEBBER:Yes, it does.

The regulations changed and that forced the teams to make changes to the front and back of the cars. Last year's car, I got on pretty well with it at the end of the year, but when you are looking for that last little bit, I probably struggled more than I should have.The main thing was set-up; early in the weekend,finding a situation that you are comfortable with.

The RB7 was something that I never got my claws into completely. Even Seb had a few problems. He was very, very dominant in that car, and he just got more out of it, finally.The RB6 was the nicest car to drive. It was probably more predictable.The RB8 is somewhere in the middle.

They are different racing cars, I suppose.This one has been good.

MN:These things are part of the cycles,the inevitable changes that are part of being a professional driver.

MW:Absolutely. Since I have been in FI, we have had VIOs and V8s, KERS,different aerodynamic regulations and so on. I have driven cars that have not been that competitive, no matter what the rules were.So for me,or any driver for that matter,to have a decent length of your career in the top category, you need to be very adaptable.You need to be able to perform the best you can when the rules are changing so often.The rules change,the cars are different and you really have to knuckle down and work on getting the best out of the car for your team.

MN:So did the form of this year's cars piay on your thinking for 2013? The teams will,for the most part, not

be changing the cars a huge amount with a completely different car coming for 2014.

MW:That is right.The cars are not going to be massively different next year. In terms of the length of my contract, you mean? It was not really integral in that.

MN: No, I mean,in terms of staying with Red Bull.

MW:In terms of staying with Red Bull, A. I am performing well, B.The team is performing well, C. I love working with Adrian [Neweyj.There were Just too many things for me to think,'Why wouldn't I want to continue doing what I am doing?'

I think I am getting the best out of myself. It is challenging at times, but you would not want it any other way, really.There are difficult times,successful times and we want more of those. But,for me,to commit to another year was a complete no-brainer. In terms of it being another year,that was spoken about and we are quite happy.

MN:So, having made the decision, which was it; a decision to STAY at Red Bull or a decision NOT to go to Ferrari?

MW:[Long pause] It was a decision not to go to Ferrari, I think.Talks with both of the teams got to the advanced stages with me,but everything was set up for me to stay with Red Bull with Vettel.There were just too many things that, ultimately, led me to stay.That probably, without going through all the nooks and crannies, made up my mind. Some people might think it was a strange decision, but I know 100 percent, in my gut, that for next year, I have made the right decision.[For]the next 18 months, I am in the best place I can be.

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—peeptewho-afe+egends with hindsight who say that they MN:Let's go back36>years.-You are dfftomeTin Quea'nbeyani'ira'diig ikarts and getting ready to go racing eould have done a better job with the tyres, with the cars, but making decisions on the hop during race weekend is 'FoTfRuTa-FofdsfWhatisph the wall in your bedroom? I critical - even more critical now.You miss your qualy lap am going to bet there are pictures of Ferraris. by a tenth and a half, and that is the difference between MW:|did,afitually! Probably the'88 car of Gerhard Berger; fourth and 12th. And 12th means you have a difficult first That car. Absolutely! lap, then a difficult first stint, and that first stint means pBsapwai'^gFTEle'Se to the 1988 car the other day,actually! you do not get the points that you envisage.

I u. -There is-something about it. The first Adelaide Grand There are plenty of good cars and good drivers, and that Prixlwentto, I remember the'91 car that Nicola Larini makes it very interesting out there. was driving.[Alain] Prost was not there.[Ed: It was actually ^Gianni Morbidelli]. I have had different guys work for me MN:But we saw the flipside ofthat at Spa.If you and over the years and tell me about Ferrari, and tell me that Vettel qualified in the top five* you would probably ?^fhey are firing such-and-such,and you can't help but have been taken out in the first corner. think about that.

MW:True. And the penalties thatI have had have not been a help.

- MN:And,it has to be nice to be asked. Not that It was not good at Hockenheim; at Budapest, I lost the _ jnany Australians have been invited to drive for diff and that killed the tyres. At Spa, we saw that there Ferrari, have they? are a few guys that are a bit wet behind the ears and MW:No, probably not. At the end of the day, you can thinking thatthere was a chequered fag just around the say Ferrari is just another Formula 1 team, but it's not. It first corner!

I was fortunate, I suppose. If you are in the will make a good book one day. wrong place at the wrong time, you can't get away with that. Luckily, at Spa, I did.

— MN:So,ending your career in a Ferrari, maybe?

MW:No,no ... I am with Red Bull. But, never say never.

MN:As one of the senior drivers in the sport now* what is your view on the position taken by the stewards so far as -MN;Have you ever seen a Formula 1 season like this?

Grosjean's penalty was concerned?

Fernand6*0*it-at'SpafJehson-coming back to win, MW:They have to show that they will take some level of :. Raikkonefi fight up there,It is all over the place. aetion,jl suppose.They can't Jet thatikindl ofiteld'effit go r_>MW:.lt,iis,CornpletelyJ have never seen one like this; L unpunished. It is pretty heavy,iefore they get to Formula don't think that anyone has.The form guide is all over the i 1, they need to tidy up what happens oh the way there: —jointrl'have not added to my tally that well in the last three Formulai li is not a'tnishiing!sehoOltyouiineed;tolbedirivingi n or four races,and that needs to be addressed. But things very, very well, week-in, week-out,and there needs t® be respect between the dri»ers.There is veryi very hardi he turns it around to score the most points in three races. racing; we have seen plenty ofthat,but'you'heed!#® give a The rules have tightened it right up. It has made it pit sometimes. incredibly difficult to get an advantage.There are a lot of

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As individual drivers, when there are bad things happening,they need to be looked into. I think that it is reasonable that[Grosjean] gets to think about it for a week. He will come back better for it. He will.There are probably a few other candidates that are not far off having them getting the 15-plus out as well.

MN:That was my next question.There must be other drivers out there...

MW:I think that Pastor[Maldonado] knows that he is under heavy review. Again,there has been an amount of incidents on-track. We can't be coaching drivers on etiquette; it is Formula 1. It is THE category where you need to be driving competitively AND precisely at a very, very high level. And he has had problems, in qualifying and the races. And he knows; he is above average in that regard.

It could have been nasty at Spa.Several peoples' cards have been marked.They know that they are being watched by the stewards and I think that is only a better thing for the sport. In the categories,the youngsters who are watching, if they think that it is OK to do certain manoeuvres, particularly at tracks like Spa and Monza ... There was a marshal killed a few years ago at Monza because someone was weaving around too aggressively on the straight.You cannot really go anywhere at 350 [kmh].

MN:On another tack, I have spoken to a number of people here in Australia who have FI backgrounds, and some in the FI media corps. I am surprised by the number of people who are uncomfortable with the level of unpredictability this season. How does it sit with you?

MW:That is a tough one to answer.

There are several drivers from the past who have come out - and I think that Niki Lauda is one of them - and said that they do not want it to be too much of a lottery. It is n not really a lottery at the moment; people are getting a resultibecause, generally,they deserve it. What I do think is frustrating for the teams to some point is that there is a lot of head scratching going on.That is something that is hard for us to get our heads around! FI is not a category where we are, normally, used to that; we are normally able to measure and understand why it is that we are performing,or why we are not performing.That has not been straightforward this year.

It is good for the'neutrals'and good for the people at home. But in terms of having randomness,and seeing drivers who you would think might be not quite at the same level as, say, Fernando or Lewis Hamilton,there are other parameters playing a HUGE role in performance. We are seeing sessions now where you are 0.2s off and there are seven drivers you would not expect to see in front of you,in front of you. I mean, I have won a race and gone to the next event, and it is just like,'What?'

You can talk about whether that is good or bad for the sport. People like to see whoever it is that they think are the good guys at the front. And, who are the good guys?

You can't be a good guy unless you get a reputation yourself,for doing well. You want to see them racing each other week-in, week-out,so that you can get a picture of the rivalries in the sport, whether that is the drivers or the teams.

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MN:But, I would have to say,this year,that is all around

64

the sport. Both Tony Stewart and Carl Edwards,who fought out a tie in NASCAR's Sprint Cup last year,are struggling this season. I don't think many people expected Will Power to be fighting Ryan Hunter-Reay for the Indycar title; they expected another fight with Ganassi.The only normal in the world at the moment is V8 Supercars!

MW:I am not in a position to talk about that!

There are a lot of categories like that. Look at MotoGP; it completely busted apart with Casey's decision [to retire] and then he got injured, and then Pedrosa stepped up, literally overnight,and his performances have gone through the roof.That is unbelievable. Bizarre, right across the board in motorsport.There are more to come,, certainly, in Formula 1.

MN:One thing this year, you seem to be riding the knocks very well, not getting too down in bad times.

MW:That is just experience!The guys in the team know how much I am putting in and how much we are getting out of it. I am doing the best I can, but we are suffering some friendly fire at the moment.We have had some amazing victories, and I have been very proud of getting those with the guys. But there are also weekends where we did not get the results that we want.You need to understand those and not dwell on them, particularly these days.You do the next event and things can be a bit different.You grab what you can from it, and with age, you get more and more balanced.

It helps the other way too, I feel more and more relaxed when things are going well. You do not want to get too carried away with it.

Racing is a really, really great drug. I really enjoy the competing,doing your best and beating other people.

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MN:This season could come down to how you go in the final races.There are a couple of tracks, Abu Dhabi and Brazil,on which you have been really competitive.

MW:I have got to be in the hunt,first thing.That meat^| finishing every race and getting some wins. We need'sonip champagne.

You only need to look at the quality of the teld thisy^ to see what is going on.Seb has one win at the moment?"

[Ed: post-Spa]. It is pretty heavy going out there and there is a long way to go.The summer break meant that there were nine races to go,and there is still a shitload of racing to go. I am looking forward to it.

Tyres are going to be crucial. We are still trying to get to the bottom of that, and to get more speed out of the caf.f have a huge amount offaith in Adrian. We will be giving it a good go.

MN:One more thing; you have had a lotof accoiades in your life. What will you do if you get awarded the Brown Logie?[Ed:That is the award,given out by ABC-TV's , The Gruen Transfer,for the worst performance by a pro athlete in a TV commerciai.Webber has been nominated for his, urn,singing in a Canberra Milk advert. He did not know about it until I told him].

MW:I am obviously a very patriotic Queanbeyan/Canberra boy. I did that for charity!

What they need to do is to get some of the footage of the Canberra Raiders doing it. I grew up with some of my heroes from the Canberra Raiders singing that song. I did 'my best and I warned them that I can't sing!

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HE WAS DERIDED AS LITTLE MORE THAN A PAY DRIVER WHEN HE ARRIVED IN FORMULA ONE TWO YEARS AGO, BUT SERGIO PEREZ HAS ALREADY CLAIMED THREE GRAND PRIX PODIUM RESULTS, INCLUDING A STELLAR EFFORT AT MONZA THIS YEAR A RESULT WHICH WILL ONLY ADD TO THE GROWING SPECULATION THAT THE MEXICAN WILL ULTIMATELY END UP IN A FERRARI. SO, WHO IS SERGIO PEREZ? By Andrew van Leeuwen T seems strange now, but when Sauber announced that Sergio Perez would drive its car for the 2011 season, it looked a really odd choice.

Actually, calling it an odd choice is wrong. It's more that it seemed like a decision based on bolstering the team's fragile commercial state rather than getting the best driver available into the team. After all, proven performer Nick Fleidfeld had spent the latter part of the 2010 season in the car, and looked to be a shoe-in to partner Kamui Kobayashi in 2011 - only to be ousted for a relatively unheard of Mexican and his bags and bags of Telmex sponsorship.

In essence,the conclusion that Perez was just another pay driver was an easy 66

one to draw. What seemed to be forgotten was that, even before Perez came along, Sauber was a team famous for uncovering talent. For example, look at Kimi Raikkonen - Sauber brought him into Formula 1 as the reigning British Formula Renault Champion, and everyone though it was a crazy move.

Six years later, he won the Formula 1 World Championship with Ferrari.

It seems that in Perez, Sauber has done it again. By signing up a GP2 runner-up (compared to Raikkonen, Perez was actually quite experienced), the team has probably unearthed another World Champion.

Indeed we are different, and we are proud to be different,"Sauber's CEO Monisha Kaltenborn told <i>Sky<i> after Perez

finished second at the Italian Grand Prix.

'We're very Swiss. We believe in what we are doing,and we're very focussed on that.

That's always kept us on track.

'It is also that which attracts us to young. talented drivers. When we took up Sergio, 1 remember we were criticised a lot for getting him onto Formula 1, and today everyone just praises him, and even last year he was showing good performances. So we seem to be doing something right, even though we're not in England, with the young talent."

In the wake of Perez's stunning second place at Monza, we all now know who he is in the context of Formula 1. But what do we really know about Perez's career pre-Fl ? When you look back at the likes of motorspont i;ews

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Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel, these were drivers who appeared on the radar long before they actually raced in FI. For Hamilton, he was being lauded as a future McLaren driver before he'd even finished racing karts, and his appearance on the grid in 2007 was anything but a surprise.

The same goes for Vettel, a driver who Red Bull very publicly ear-marked as their future star back in the Formula BMW days. When BMW itself tried to get involved in his career (when its FI team was, naturally, called BMW-Sauber), Vettel had teams fighting over him before he'd even start an FI race.

But the same isn't true for Perez. He fought his way up from karts in Mexico to FI without raising too many eyebrows, much like Lee Holdsworth came from Commodore Cup to V8 Supercars without anybody paying too much attention.

But that's not to say he wasn't any good before FI. Let's take a look.

As usual, it all started with karts. In his native Mexico, a young Perez was a hot karter, emerging as one of the real talents

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aturity of those drives as as their sheer shock value left a lasting impression. He never once had his car cnit of his control, hod to ran wide at a chicane, or made contact with a rival, he |ust drove round them all in the junior fields. He moved to the United States of America at the tender age of 11 (in 2001), and instantly looked the goods In 125s, before switching to cars in 2004.

At just 14 years of age, Perez found himself racing in the Skip Barber Championship in the US, both in the National and Midwestern classes. But it proved to be a fairly inconspicuous debut; while Perez took Rookie of the Year titles in both classes, he was just seventh in Midwestern,and 11th in National.

Despite the quiet start to his car racing career, Perez wasted no time diving into the deep end, moving to Europe in 2005 to race in Formula BMW in Germany. He signed with the mostly uncompetitive 4speed Media team,and showed the first glimpses of potential at the opening round at Hockenheim, where he finished second in a rain-affected second race. But the rest of the season was harder; in a year where Nick Hulkenberg pipped Sebastien Buemi for the title, Perez could manage just 14th in the championship, his next best result being a fifth place at Spa-Francorchamps.

For 2006, Perez decided to stick with German Formula BMW,but moved to the much more competitive Miicke Motorsport outfit, the same team that took Buemi to second in '05. While Perez was never able to

eclipse his best race result from the previous year, he did manage to take two third places (at Oschersleben and Zandvoort),and finished sixth in the championship, Christian Vietoris winning the title. Unlike the previous year Perez found consistency, but still seemed to fall short of setting the world on fire in terms of pure pace.

The following year, that started to change.

Perez moved to the British Formula 3 Championship,signing with T-Sport for a full National Class campaign. And he absolutely smashed it, winning a whopping 14 of the 22 races, and wrapping up the title with a whole three races left to run. It was a warning sign that the lad from Mexico was starting to come into his own in Europe. He also made his A1GP debut in 2007, with an inauspicious outing in Shanghai for Team Mexico, which resulted in a 15th and a DNF. Despite the disappointing A1 GP debut, Perez's F3 efforts had given him some credibility in Europe heading into the 2008 season. Having missed out on a Formula Renault 3.5 seat with Interwetten, he chose to re-sign with T-Sport, moving from the British Formula 3 Championship's National Class to the outright competition. While T-Sport wasn't the best team in the field, particularly compared to Carlin and Double R, Perez was fancied enough to cop a

mentioned in Autosport's season preview.

"Reigning National Class champion Sergio Perez is back with T-Sport for a Championship Class assault and has made a good start, placing regularly in the top three during testing,"read the preview.

"The team will be looking for their first top class victory this season and Perez is quick enough to bring it home if they have a good day.'

The team didn't have to wait long for their first win. In horrible weather conditions, Perez stormed his way to victory at Croft in just the third race of the season, leading home Sebastian Hohenthal. It was a landmark moment for both driver and team.

"That was the longest half hour of my life," said T-Sport boss Russell Eacott at the time.

"When it's a wet but drying track the grip is changing every lap and it's so easy to make a mistake and throw it all away. But whatever Seb threw at him, he could respond and pull the gap back out."

The next meeting was, quite fittingly, at Monza,and Perez was simply brilliant. He won both races, having started them both from 14th on the grid.They were calculated, intelligent wins, and set Perez up for a shot at the title, something that seemed basically impossible at the start of the season.

In the end, it didn't work out for Perez. He won another race - a thriller against Marcus Ericsson at Brands Hatch, but the title ended up going to Jaime Alguersuari. Not that it mattered; having been so competitive in such an unfancied car was enough to have the F3 world talking, and he was lauded as a star in Autosport's season review.

"Perez put on a master class at Monza and alerted people to his potential early in the year,"the British magazine wrote.

"He was pushed down to 14th on the grid for both races after having his best laps in qualifying taken away for jumping chicanes(as did several others), but used the legendary Italian circuit's straights to his advantage. He charged through the field in both races, passing the rest inside and out, making everyone but him look rather average.The maturity of those drives as

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much as their sheer shock value left a lasting Impression. He never once had his car out of his control, had to run wide at a chicane, or made contact with a rival, he just drove round them all.

"Somewhere between Perez himself, theT-Sport team and the Mugen-Honda engine,the momentum to maintain the championship led fell away. But that shouldn't detract from the achievements of any of that trio. Each did a fantastic Job to punch above what everyone expected their weight to be."

Stepping up to GP2 was the obvious next step, and Perez kicked the transition off with a deal to race for Barwa International Campos in the 2008/09 GP2 Asia Series. At the third meeting of the season, Perez found himself starting the Sprint Race on pole, and promptly held off Davide Valsecchi to take his first win in a GP2 car. A round later, in Qatar, he proved it was no fluke by winning again, leading home his team-mate Vitaly Petrov for a Barwa Campos 1 -2.

For the regular GP2 season in 2009, Perez switched to Arden, a team that had won races in every single season since the series' inception in 2005. But despite being talked about as a title contender, it never really worked out.There were two podiums in Valencia, and a second in Portugal, which was later taken away when he was penalised post-race for passing under Safety Car conditions. As a result he finished the season 12th, prompting a switch back to Barwa Addax for the 2010 season.

The move seemed to suit Perez better, and he took a lights-to-flag win at Monaco, the second race meeting of the season. He went on to win more races at Silverstone, Hockenheim,Spa and Abu Dhabi, ending the year second in the standings, behind Pastor Maldonado.

However, it was a year punctuated by both triumphs and mistakes, prompting some to question why he was quickly signed by both Sauber and Ferrari's young driver scheme.

Peter Sauber explained at the time: "Sergio is brimming with talent," he said in a 2011 pre-season interview.

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w«s a year umtuated by both triumphs and mistakesf prompting some to guostion why signed by both liniiber and HrrgrFs young iliior scheme For him, it's a question of learning quickly.

Here, he can pick things up from Kamui [Kobayashi] in the same way that Kamui did from Pedro [de la Rosa] and Nick [Heidfeld], Plus, it's worth remembering that 2001 was one of the most successful years to date for Sauber - and that season we had a rookie by the name of Kimi Raikkonen alongside Nick, who was in only his second year in FI, as our drivers.”

Kaltenborn, meanwhile,found herself explaining the decision to sign a driver who had never driven an FI car to veteran FI reporter Dieter Rencken.

'We don't see it as a risk,"she said."It's not a bigger risk than what we did taking Kamui Kobayashi.

'We've been following him, of course, and achieving second position in GP2 is quite a good result so we are convinced that he has the talent.

It's very difficult to judge the performance in GP2, but that's a feeling we have and I think that the team has a track record for not ha\/inn 3 KaH ●foollnn fnr Hrlx/orc \a/K/^ ar<a n

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'HE time had come.

In 2011, the big sports car manufacturers had made it fairly clear that they would be racing hybrids at Le Mans just as soon as it became advantageous to do so. In 2012, with the rules again tightened to reduce the fuel range of LMP1 prototypes, the balance had shifted far enough to make it worthwhile to try the new technology.

But how would it be implemented?

The first consideration is that the system was never going to be used all the time; after all, that's why it's called a hybrid. The manufacturers would only be allowed to use their supplementary boost in relatively short bursts, in prescribed parts of the lap.

It transpired that several different approaches would be favoured in an attempt to grapple with the problem.

Peugeot had experimented with a hybrid system in private testing back in 2008 but, according to technical director Bruno Famin, it was little more than a 908 with a battery and an electric motor grafted onto it.

Although there were vague hopes that this car would race in 2009, the company felt it would be better served trying to win Le Mans with what it had, rather than experiment with technology which may not yet have an advantage. The decision paid off, returning the marque a strong win in the 24 Hours that year.

By the end of 2009, when the 2011 regulations became available, Peugeot began work on creating a built-from-scratch hybrid version of the car, which was duly unveiled in March 2011. As Famin's earlier comment had suggested would be the case, a battery system was used, feeding power to the rear wheels.

The electrical systems added about 45kg to the weight of the car. More significantly, there was a keen discussion about whether batteries were the right way to go at all.

Batteries would lose some extent of power during the course of a race, and when the primary aim is to run for 24 hours, that was a disadvantage not to be taken lightly.

This aspect therefore became the main centre of attention at Peugeot (together with the vexed issue of how to keep the battery cool: water-cooling was eventually abandoned in favour of oil-cooling). It seems that Peugeot also helped solve its problems in a political, rather than technical, way, by lobbying the ACO (organising body of Le Mans and the WEC) to slash the amount of power which could be released on one lap of Le Mans to 500kJ instead of the originallycontemplated one megajoule.

Speculation was accordingly rife that, if such lobbying was necessary at all, then the battery system must be operating on a very narrow margin indeed, and that power loss remained a real problem when 73

! -1'

3 tackling a very long-distance race. Sadly, the withdraw/al of Peugeot from the WEC early in 2012 meant the theory has not been put to the test - yet.

Toyota,for its part, chose a super capacitor, driving the rear wheels. A super capacitor is an electro-chemical component which features very high energy density. It generally has the capacity to store less energy for its weight than a battery, but it has a very long life with little degradation,together with high output power.

Toyota, of course, has extensive experience of hybrids in its road cars. Hisatake Murata, Toyota's hybrid project leader, reasoned that the power-to-weight ratio of a super capacitor is well suited to racing.

"It is important to recover and store energy very quickly under braking then release it quickly to deliver additional power," he says.

"But we did not choose super capacitors in isolation: the decision was based on all aspects of a hybrid system and an understanding of exactly what it needs to deliver. We considered that for our racing hybrid system,super capacitors complement the strengths of the other elements and therefore provide the most suitable storage system."

There was a feeling in some quarters that Toyota might choose to go all out for speed at Le Mans this year, to take from Audi what headlines it could salvage before the new TSOSOs(probably)failed. However, Pascal Vasselon,Toyota's technical director, had already made it clear that performance was in fact the dominant design priority - unlike, he points out, how it was in past years, when 74

reliability was more significant in terms of who won the race.

So outright speed was in fact the perceived key at Toyota; it was a fundamental philosophy, not just an attention-seeking device in the face of a superior opponent.

Audi, meanwhile, embarked on a markedly different route, opting for a flywheel (spinning at up to 45,000rpm) delivering power to the front wheels.The system, developed by Williams, is especially notable for its lightness(notwithstanding the extra driveshafts required at the front), as well as its ability to deliver a rapid surge of power.

But it wasn't quite that simple.The mere mention of'Audi'and 'all-wheel-drive'in the same breath creates uncomfortable spectres in some minds of dominant Quattro rally cars and A4 SuperTourers, which ultimately had to be banned. And here's where the ACO came back into play: energy release to the front wheels is not allowed until the car reaches 120km/h. Again, Audi's competitors had lobbied very hard to have that rule introduced.

So the traction advantage which would otherwise be available to an all-wheel drive car out of slow corners at Le Mans like Mulsanne and Arnage is somewhat diluted, or at the very least delayed.Toyota's Pascal Vasselon argues that this rule alone is enough to negate the advantage of running the extra power through the front wheels in the first place.

So how has the intriguing and competing theory of hybrids played out in practice this year?

Audi debuted its hybrids in the second

round of the WEC, at Spa.They lost. Victory was claimed by the'regular'turbo diesel R18, referred to as an Ultra, of Dumas/Duval/ Gene. But it was a race of changing wet and dry conditions, which put much more of a premium on correct tyre choice and set-up, rather than on the difference between conventional diesel and a hybrid.

So no strong conclusion could be drawn from Spa, especially given the weather and the fact that Toyota had withdrawn from the race after a big shunt in testing.

And so to Le Mans. It had always been Audi's plan to enter two hybrids (referred to as e-tron quattros) and two ultras, the 2011 car having now been substantially improved.

Not only was Audi covering its bases by this approach, but Audi says it simply didn't have enough components such as flywheels to enter four hybrids.

One of the e-tron quattros was allocated to defending winners Fassler/Lotterer/ Treluyer, and one to the illustrious old guard of Capello/Kristensen/McNish. But in practice and qualifying, it seemed that the quattros were no faster than the ultras. Bearing in mind that Audi says that the hybrid system can generate up to 150kW,even if only for a few seconds, we asked Audi Sport Team Joest technical director Ralf Juttner why the hybrid wasn't noticeably faster than the ultra.

"This I ask the drivers of the e-tron quattros all the time!" he joked. He then explained that, with the nature of the Le Mans circuit and the fact that the traffic can make a big difference to a lap time.

"To get a really clear picture, you need statistics over a very long time - it's not motorsport news

five laps or 10 laps, it's two,three or four stints. maybe a six hour race and for sure a 24 hour race.

'Everyone thinks we are looking for 10 seconds - well, we are not.The amount of benefit we are expecting is only a few seconds.

Both the ultra and the e-tron quattro are underweight,so both need to be ballasted. In the e-tron quattro it's not that much ballast. about 20kg, but the ultra is carrying about 100 kilos ballast, which we can place where we want - much lower in the car than the components of the hybrid equipment [in the quattro]. So a little bit of the benefit of the propulsion is lost by the extra weight.''

Juttner added that one of the first things Audi noticed on the e-tron quattro was that they needed a completely different brake distribution - there needed to be much more front brake bias on the ultra than on the quattro.

The drivers echoed these comments.Triple Le

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Mans winner Rinaldo Capello explained: "When you brake and release the brake, you still feel there is some friction which slows down the car, like a very strong engine brake.There are parts of the track where you have to go very quick from throttle to brake then throttle again, probably with this system you can just back off and with the extra friction you can avoid braking."

His co-driver Allan McNish agreed, but it was noteworthy that the two of them offered quite different descriptions about the sensation when the extra power cut in.

Capello;"The area where you feel the difference is the kick you get for a few seconds when you put on the ground the extra power. It is a big kick which lasts for a little time."

McNish, on the other hand,commented that he felt it in only two small areas."One is coming into the corners, when you start to turn, and you feel like a resistance because it's charging through the front wheels, so you feel that through the steering a little bit, then when you get back onto the throttle you've got a little bit extra sensation of acceleration.

"It's quite gentle in its activation. It's one of the areas which means we sometimes have to look at the data as opposed to sensation or feeling. Once the 500kJ is dispersed it's gone until you get into the next braking area where you can recharge it."

Marcel Fassler took a more direct approach:"you're disappointed when it [the power burst] is over!"

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Ralf Juttner readily concedes that they haven't yet found the optimum way to use the hybrid. But he also said that when Audi first started testing the quattro, the drivers all wanted to stick with the ultra - and as more testing was done,they all wanted to get on board the hybrids.

It was difficult to divine many lessons from the race. If Spa depended on which Audi had the right wet-weather setup, Le Mans depended on how quickly or slowly 76

the various Audis were going when they hit surrounding objects: three of the four were delayed by off-course adventures during the race.

The quattro crewed by the'old guard' consistently reached 12 laps in a stint more often than did Lotterer and co in the similar car which eventually won the race - but the hybrid system malfunctioned in the winning car, needing to be rebooted twice, before finishing in what Audi describe as safety mode.

Meanwhile,the ultra of Dumas/Duval/ Gene, when it wasn't being fished out of the scenery after yet another excursion, reached 12 laps in a stint much more consistently than did either of the hybrids. With a huge 13km lap, it is no mean achievement to consistently run one lap further per stint and what's more, Loic Duval set fastest lap of the race.

Audi of course has access to far more sophisticated data than is made publicly available, and will draw its own conclusions as to the relative merits of the hybrid and non-hybrid version of the R18. But to an outsider, it is not really clear from this year's race how much, if any, of an advantage it was for the first two cars to have the hybrid system.

Over at Toyota, one car was lost in a

disastrous high-speed shunt with a Ferrari, while the other one was out with engine failure before half distance. Ironically,Toyota's customer, non-hybrid, engines ran like a charm in the two Rebellion Lolas.

Even so,Toyota's Racing Team President Yoshiaki Kinoshita was pleased with how it went.

"In terms of performance we are happy with how the hybrid system contributed to our overall speed," he says.

TheToyotas certainly ran impressively, giving the lie to the claim that a petrol engine can't compete with the diesels.

Nonetheless, it was noteworthy that Toyota's design priority on speed was more in evidence in qualifying than the race.The TS030s were third and fifth on the grid, well in amongst the Audis, but in the race the fastest lap of any Toyota driver was nearly three seconds off Duval's mark.

Where to from here? Somewhat curiously.

Dr Ullrich, head of Audi Motorsport, was keen to say that the company was not strictly banking on hybrids, but on the simultaneous further development of the conventional drive. In light of that comment, and the comparison between the two technologies to date, it is possible we will see them both run again in 2013.

But it doesn't seem very likely; 2012 will probably stand as the only year when the two systems were evenly balanced, as surely Audi will now throw the weight of its development resources behind the hybrid.

After all, Audi is in sports car racing because of the technological challenge, and (like Toyota) sees direct benefits for its road car programmes from the experimental work being done on hybrids on the track.

And if Audi still seems to have a foot in both camps, others do not.Toyota driver Alex Wurz prophesied that:"I don't know if hybrid is a stepping stone to electric motorsport or if it will dominate more and more on its own, but we are definitely at the beginning of a shift in the basic nature of motorsport."

It's a hard argument to toss.

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WINDING BACK

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It enjoyed a long andsuccessfulcareer in Australian touring car racing but in different circumstances the sweet little Alfa Romeo GTV could have been a winner at Bathurst.By Ray Bell 78

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USTRALIAN touring car racing wasn't The race saw the Alfas running with the always dominated by big V8s. In the Falcons through the first hour,though early'60s it was common for lighter, Bartlett pitted 47 minutes into the race to more nimble cars such as Ford's Cortina tighten some wheel nuts. Chivas followed and the legendary Morris Cooper S to five minutes later with the same problem. defeat the bigger cars, which tended to be Paint on the wheels was being blamed, hamstrung by a combined lack of brakes, allowing Hawkins to take the running.The handling and reliability.

Alfas took the race lead for a long time, The Bertone-styled Alfa Romeo 105, Hawkins forging past the Fords and then released in 1962, was one such giant killer.

Chivas following through.

With a sweet 1600cc twin cam,excellent A pretty good start and one which must brakes and supple handling to match those have caused concern among the Ford attractive styled-by-Bertone coupe lines, it men.The Alfas were running less than two was a formidable little machine. seconds a lap slower, and would get through But it never really got the chance to show on two stops - compared to the Falcons' what it could do at Bathurst. Eligibility three stops.There's no doubt the little cars factors kept the Alfa out of the Bathurst 500 were a serious threat. until!967, when the rules were changed. An But disaster soon struck the Melbourne upper price class was added for cars over car as a stone went through the radiator, $4,500 and the GTV became eligible. But that leaving Hawkins and Fisher to spend the rest was the race where the first'muscle car'VBs of the race stopping occasionally for coolant also first appeared, with the XR Falcon GT. top-ups. Chivas pressed on in the outright Particularly keen to get racing exposure lead, but ultimately the pressure from the for the Alfa was the Sydney distributor, Alec Falcons saw the Geoghegan and Firth cars Mildren. His showroom was the biggest out in front. At the end there was only 30 outlet for Alfas in Australia, and the former seconds between the winner and Chivas.

An Alec Mildren advertisement after Gold Star Champion also had a very active racing team. the race carried the message,"Four cars To be kept out of Bathurst by a price limit completed the 500 miles.Two were Alfa must have been galling enough for Mildren.

Romeo GTVelocelThe Giant Tamers!" It also But to then finally be allowed to enter just points out that the four cylinder engines of when the first serious V8s came along, that the Alfas had a smaller capacity than three must have been an utter frustration ... of the Falcon cylinders.The introduction of Mildren's pairings for the'67 race were the GTV to racing in Australia might not have Kevin Bartlett/Laurie Stewart and Doug achieved victory, but it had been a success.

Chivas/Max Stewart. Melbourne Alfa agent For 1968 there was a wider range of Murray Wright entered a car for Paul Hawkins, races for the Alfas, which gained a capacity increase to 1750cc. Bartlett recalls that this out from England to drive, along with Sid Fischer. only made them fractionally better."We had Pre-race speculation had the Alfas a little extra torque, but we were down four as potential winners. Bartlett wasn't so or five hundred revs," he says.The cars had a confident,though."I'd driven a Falcon GT on taller rear axle ratio to go with the enlarged the road and I knew how good they were," he engine. Engine builder Stewart Randall recalls. Indeed,the Mildren camp as a whole remembers that they were actually slower didn't seriously think they could beat the down Con-Rod straight(116mph compared good V8s, but Bartlett also remembers that, to 119mph) because of that.

"Once the race started to develop, we got Series Production racing was getting more optimistic. interest and in June a 4-hour race was held at "They really shone down the Mountain,"he Surfers Paradise. Mildren gave the Brisbane dealer, John French, a car to run and he beat says."We'd eat them down there!" But a lap the V8s to win the event. at Bathurst goes a long way between flings Sandown's 3-hour race marked the arrival down the Mountain, and it was on the long of the Monaro GTS 327, and so the Holdenstraight that the Falcons could draw away, then accelerating out of Murray's Corner vs-Ford battle was finally Joined. But Alfa was for the run past the pits, and up Mountain a third player in this contest, and it looked Straight. Even so, it wasn't as though the like the French/Chivas Alfa would prevail as Alfas were being blown away down Con-Rod. the V8s spent too much time in the pits. But The Firth/Gibson Falcon GT was clocked on the Alfa shed a wheel a few laps from the the long straight at 202km/h - this was only end, Chivas losing two laps and dropping 7km/h faster than the Alfas. to fourth place.The Mildren crew went into What the Alfas had that the others didn't a panic with Bathurst Just weeks away,the was brakes that could match their pace and wheel failure indicating that they had some homework to do. live out the duration of the race.They didn't need to nurse anything, whereas the Falcons "Alec had the Bathurst wheels shot peened," French told us. The Mildren team was did, with extended braking areas and greater tyre wear.The big Fords also used more fuel. running racing tyres in an effort to offset the 79

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So they went on to Bathurst, Brian Foley and Laurie Stewart joining the Alfa ranks together as Mildren teamed Bartlett and Chivas in one car, French and Frank Gardner

in the other.

Foley was 10th on the grid behind an array of colourfully decorated Monaros and Falcons. Bartlett was 11th, French 12th. By race end,the capacity of the Alfas to be driven hard and to keep on stopping, and the tenacity of the drivers, had the Bartlett/ Chivas car fourth, a lap and a half behind the winner, while Foley was three laps further back in sixth and Gulson another lap behind him.

French and Gardner were disqualified, but that wasn't their whole problem."Frank didn't want to get back in the car after it broke a wheel," French explained,"so I did most of the race."The car was brought back into the pits at one time on a tilt tray, while the other Alfas also suffered wheel problems.

"We finally worked out what the problem was years later,"Stewart Randall told us.

'When I was with Foley running the Improved car for Sue Ransom and Christine Cole, we put wider rims on the original centres and we soon had the same kind of failure."

Originally blamed on paint on the back of the wheel centre, it turned out to be the way the discs were machined."The face of

the disc where it fitted over the hub and provided the surface where the wheel bolted up was machined very coarsely, like a thread of a bolt, like a 78rpm record compared to a 45.The ridges wore as the wheels flexed and allowed the wheels to become loose."Cornering forces and wheel movement did the rest.

Bathurst'69 was obviously going to be tough as the number and the speed of the V8 Falcons and Holdens increased. Even so, some thought the Alfas might win if it rained.

It didn't rain, so we'll never know.

French and Chivas were quickest of the Alfas in practice, but even they were 21 st on the grid, 12 seconds off Geoghegan's pole.

This was the race where the massive first lap crash occurred over Skyline. French and Thomson were out right there, so it was left to Bartlett to carry the weight of the Alfa effort through the race.

It was in this race that the sheer speed and reliability of the cars was really shown.

Nothing was faster over Skyline and down through the Esses, and it's something hard to describe today - how evident this was to the spectators as they absolutely pounded

Dick Johnson's Alfa adventure N between his mid-'70s switch from Holden to Ford, Dick Johnson raced an Alfa Romeo GTV.It was 1974 and Dick couldn't afford a Torana L34,so he teamed up at Bathurst with John French in;the latter's GTV.It did not go well. Here is part of Johnson^s account of that race,from his biography The Unforgiving Minute: ..there was a crack in the exhaust pipe and the fuel breather tank," Johnson related,"down near the rear axle, would suck any backfire into the fumes it was dumping into the boot."

French discovered the consequences of this when the bootcaught fire during his first stint.The fire marshals were able to put it out and French resumed. But soon it was Johnson's turn.

"I g.et in the car and I'm driving up Mountain Straight with my head out the window. I couldn't breathe and my eyes were watering and I couldn't see where I was going. I thought,there's got to be something wrong here. So I'mdrivingacross the top over Skyline and* I dump my motorsport news

down that twisting downhill stretch. Bartlett and Goodwin flogged the car mercilessly throughout to come up eight outright,four laps down, but and first in class.

"I'd shared a Monaro with Spencer that year at Sandown," Bartlett recalls."! knew they were a boomer. But we had a lot of faith in the mechanicals of the car and drove them hard all day.They didn't wear brakes because we barely used them, we could drive them as fast as our tyres would let us."

The Alfas would never again go to the Mountain as any kind of outright contender.

But they'd keep racing as class contenders (once the race had shifted from classes based on engine size rather than showroom price) and there'd be plenty of success over a total of no less than 14 Bathursts - which was more times than any other individual model in the history of the race.

Into the Group C period of the 1970s,the little Alfas enjoyed a resurgence under the Brian Foley led Alfa DealerTeam. So much so, in fact, that for a while in 1975 Christine Gibson looked a chance of becoming the first Australian Touring Car Champion. Ironically, Gibson was only in that position due to a points/class system which, unlike the old Bathurst price-based classes, was weighted to the advantage of the Alfa.

It's a shame the Alfa remained ineligible forThe Great Race until the arrival of the Falcon GT. It's a car that's been largely forgotten in the history of this race but it could easily have won outright in 1967.

And had it been allowed to run in the earlier Bathurst races, who knows?

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THE MOST COMPREHENSIVE ACCESSIBLE PHOTOGRAPHIC HISTORY OF AUSTRALIAN MOTORSPORT Autopics.com.au is a photograhic history of Australian motor racing from the early 1950’s to the current day. Log on and explore! foot on then brakes and there's this almighty bioody boom and the back seat comes out and hits me fair in the back of the head, i thought: what the f— was that? i couidn't beiieve what was going on.This thing is on fire, and I don't want to know about this. I stopped at the first thing that iooked like a fire marshal and he put out the fire. So i kept going, "i still didn't twig as to what was going on. Another 30 or so iaps later with another fuil load offuel I arrive at Forrest's Elbow and it all goes boom! And the bloody seat comes out and hits me on the head again. It was on fire, i went straight for the escape road and Fred with the extinguisher put it out.

"Then the exhaust came adrift. So i brought it ail back and said to Frenchy:'You can get into this thing, i'm not getting into it any more. It is trying to kili me.'He said;'Why?'I said:'Mate, it keeps blowing up.'By this time the bootlid is shaped iike a butterfly. So Frenchy gets in and does four iaps and it goes boom!again and he comes back in and says'i don't want to know about it either'. So we parked it. it was his wife Marie's shopping car too." www.mnews.com.au

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GRAND

lARSON

Older speedway fans might remember past ^ summers when a fresh-faced American ^ i ybungster named Jeff Gerden teured the dewn under clayways.Butthese whe missed I that chance te see a future American racing legend in actinn shnuld keep an eye nutfur the arriyal nn nur shores of Kyle larsonbecause by all accounts,including that of Tony Stewart,this kid is going to be a star.

By Geoff Rounds

O matter which form of motorsport you follow just remember this name - Kyie Larson.

This 20 year-old Californian who has been dubbed'Young Money'and'a freak'is already being closely compared with NASCAR stars Tony Stewart and Jeff Gordon and Larson may Just be the hottest racer on the pianet.

While the pint-sized, baby-faced Larson made a fleeting visit to Austraiia iast January, his next visit to our shores looks could possibly be his last as he may leave America's dirt speedways for the world of NASCAR or Indycar.

One of Larson's biggest fans is current NASCAR champion Tony Stewart, no iess.

"The kid is absoluteiy phenomenal,"Stewart told Speed Channel recently."Kyle Larson is a kid that definitely stands out right now ...and has a iot of potential."Stewart also stated that Larson should be crowned the 2012 SPEED Performer of the Year.

The massive wrap from one of NASCAR's toughest and best drivers is backed by Earnhardt Ganassi Racing, which placed Larson under contract at the start of the 2012 NASCAR season as a development driver.

Larson is currently leading NASCAR's K&N Pro East Championship and has grabbed a victory and pole position during June and leads the series.

He says he doesn't feel any'added pressure'being in one of American motor racing's biggest organisations and the quick step-up to the NASCAR ranks.

"It doesn't feel much different other than I'm racing stock cars a little bit," Larson said.

"I still get to race sprintcars. I don't pay attention (to the publicity).

I just try to race and do the best i can."

Larson's busy 2012 schedule consisting of 120-130 races in sprintcars, midgets, wing, non-wing, pavement and dirt began during January in New Zealand and Australia, at the 40th Grand Annual Sprintcar Classic at Warrnambool,Victoria where he told Motorsport News of his lofty ambitions.

"I realiy want to run in the Sprint Cup series one day. I'd like to run NASCAR for sure. If I ever get a chance to run in the Indy 500,that would be cool too. A lot will depend how this year goes for me.

"I hope as each year goes on, I can just take racing at it comes and move up a bit each time. As of now I just want to go out and win as many races as I can and build by name-up. I just love winning. I know if I keep winning,the spotlight will be even better."

That winning feeling has been a habit for Larson since the age of seven when he began racing karts. He then progressed to openwheel speedway cars, including; United States(USAC) midgets.

Silver Crown and sprintcars, which now includes the busy World of Outlaws.

Larson made world speedway really take notice of him in 2011 when he won 22 A-Main features of 90 in which he competed.This number of wins is more than any other open wheel,short track competitor has ever achieved in.the United States.

But it was his extraordinary efforts at the 4-Crown Nationals last September at Tony Stewart's famed Eldora Speedway in Iowa, where he became just the second driver (with Jack Hewjtt)to win all three USAC divisions. Larson won the three A-Maln features in three different cars which comprised a massive 105 laps offierce racing.

"I swept the four crown last year at Eldora Speedway and I did it in my first try.That was cool to do. I know that night did a lot for my career. I guess it's a reason why I got to Australia too."

While Larson is yet to fully understand the hype surrounding him it was his'rock star-like'intrigue in Australia that he still can't grasp.

"I've got no idea why there's so much hype about me here (in Australia). It's like I am the main attraction; it's pretty cool,though."

Maybe that reason is because of the Australian speedway fraternity's ciose and constant watch on their American sprintcar heroes.That watch grew from our shores when Larson's sublime talents came to the fore at the 2011 Gold Cup at Silver Dollar Speedway in Chico, California late last year. motorsport

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Larson of Elk Grove, California, who has been racing sprintcars since just 14, would clinch his maiden World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series win after starting from pole and was never headed.

I never would have never dreamed of getting an Outlaws win,let alone that race. I'd been going to this race since before I even tumecJ a year old and then I'm standing there holding the Gold Cup. It ms absolutely surreal. For me running the World of Outlaws is where my heart is and I love running those races.''

But it seems highly probable Larson will race NASCAR sooner rather than later. His debut drive in late June in NASCAR's truck series was again nothing sort of astonishing. Driving for Chip Ganassi Racing under the auspice of Rev Racing at Kentucky Speedway, Larson came through the pack from 25th to eventually finish 10th and finish on the lead lap with such names as Brad Keselowski, Jason Leffler and truck legencf Ron Hornadayjust ahead of him.

That was a big surprise," Larson told Speedwaymedia.com after the race.

"I just wanted to spend the first part of the race figuring out how the truck handled and how the air moved around. Once I learned some stuff,1 could really race and I could start picking off people and then I found myself in the Top 10,so I was really excited about it.'

I felt like a super star. It was even great to just get interviewed.'

Larson rates sprintcars as his favourite and wants to eventually own his own race team in NASCAR. "Hopefully the route I'm going will take me to the Sprint Cup Series someday," Larson said."That's my goal and that's what I want to do. I want to race with Stewart and Gordon and Kahne and all those guys every week.I'd like someday to own my own team like Kahne and Tony do."

"That's my goal is to get to the Sprint Cup Series so I can help young kids coming up."

Larson's incredible talents are likely to be on show again in early 2013 In Australia as a deal Is currently being brokered to bring this emerging superstar to con test the 41st Grand AnnualSprintcar Classic at Warrnambool's Premier Speedway. www.mnews.com.au

T

HE 2012-13 season for Aaron Tremayne was a character building experience, to say the least.The Queenslander took just two round wins in total. Three losses were due to red lights (foul starts). With a motor down on horsepower compared to his competition, it left Tremayne resolved to start anew for the 2012-13 series.

"The top eight is pretty pathetic as far as I'm concerned," he said, in a blunt assessment of his season."If you red light, you red light; we tried to slow the car's reactions down and opened up the air gap in it. I thought it was pretty close but you get a bit more amped up and react faster at the Winternationals. We just went testing and I was .022,.019 and .009 on my reaction times. I'm happy with that and if I can drive like I have been driving we should be racing in finals."

A new engine program for Tremayne should provide the boost in horsepower he needs to return to the competitive edge of Pro Stock. His brother Tyronne finished fifth in the series with a new car making its debut during the season.The team did have a new engine program planned part way through last season until a new motor they had developed hurt a bearing and they were forced to revert to the old set up.

"We were struggling a little bit for power, I finished my brother's new engine off and we started showing power at the end of the season," he said."We went testing with my new engine and ran equal to the national speed record.

"It's our own engine program with our newTXl cylinder head which will be made in Australia.The head has taken us about two years to design, manufacture and get up to scratch."

Tyronne's Pontiac had a small performance gap on Aaron's Chevrolet-bodied car, but Aaron says he is not looking at a new car just yet. At least, not until the used drag car market picks up. With new cars from the USA so cheap,that may take some time.

"His car is a little faster than mine in launch sector times, but it is hard to sell cars at the moment," he said."If I could sell it for OK money I would get another one. We just want to wait and see if the new cars are any faster.

"My car will go down any race track. It's not necessarily the fastest but it is consistent.This year I lacked on consistency because I was spending a lot of time trying to develop the engine side of things and I wasn't looking at the whole car enough.

"I was running tyres that were 50 or 60 runs

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

old; we normally only do 30 runs on tyres and as soon as you go over that the launch time falls away. I wasn't looking at the car as a whole and focusing on getting my brother's new car happening."

There will be plenty of horsepower in the bag come the start of the season but it will have to be on reserve with Adelaide International Raceway the first stop.The all-bitumen surface is not as grippy as the concrete launch pads most other tracks have, meaning clutch set up and downforce will be all important.

"The power won't show in Adelaide," he said."I think Adelaide will be a challenge for everyone; it will come down to lane choice and I think it's really anyone's game.

"Nearly the top 16 cars are capable of winning - if you have a quick car on the day.

"Adelaide is a bumpy track so people will have to not try and drive too crazy and learn to lift off - when the track is bumpy and the car steps out you will be in big trouble.

"Top Doorslanimers have a lot of downforce but our cars are real slidey and when they go they won't come back. You can put more bite in the car, which everyone will be doing, but your wing downforce doesn't come into play until halftrack, until you get enough speed.

"We will just have to wait and see what performances come. No one has really run there so it will be very interesting."

Adelaide won't be the only new challenge with a return to Melbourne also on the cards as ANDRA championship drag racing hits Calder Park.

"I've never run Calder but I've heard it is a left lane biased track, meaning it will come down to lane choice," he said."It makes it hard because you want to try and run as even as you can. Whoever has the quickest car will have lane choice and then you have to try and hold that."

Tremayne has also spent the off season in search for some sponsorship support for the team.They have been self sufficient in the past but running two cars does put pressure on and Aaron said the team is thinking about skipping the Perth round.

"Without a decent sponsor it is hard to keep running the cars all the time, we probably won't go to Perth at this stage because it is a big expense," he said."That will hurt our championship chances a lot but we will do as many meetings as we can."

The ANDRA Drag Racing season starts on October 20 at Adelaide International Raceway.

AUSTF3IAUA

MODEL BEHAVIOUR

It's Bathurst time again,and it's the 50th year ofthe GreatRace atBathurst,and our model makers have been busy creating their own smallscale reflections ofsome ofthe cars that have starred on the Mountain over the halfcentury.By Bruce Moxon

H

AVE you grabbed your Apex Replicas Dick Johnson Falcons yet? Make sure you do;these pioneering models will be sought-after as the earliest of the new generation of resin-bodied cars. Not to mention the fact that the two Jim Beam cars, the VIP Petfoods one and the Norton one great-looking cars, but they're to be joined (soon) by this year's Bottle-0 Falcon.

I've said this before, but for some reason green always looks good on a model car.

Biante has a couple of new cars coming well old cars, but new models,that should be interesting. First, there's the LJ Torana shared

by Bob Forbes and a young bloke from Brisbane called Richard Johnson. Holden fans Black Falcons:But not an SLS AMG In sight ... Apex Replicas is the place to go for Dick Johnson Racing Falcon models, above, below left, but if you fancy Allan Moffat's Cenovis EB model, Biante has you covered, right.

86

might.like to buy this model just to annoy their mates who think,"Dick only ever drove Fords so shut up that's why,just shut up.

Where's me beer?" Here's a thought: who will make a model of Dick driving the Holden Dealer Team Torana at Surfers Paradise in a one-off? That'd be cool!

The other new Biante is the Cenovis Falcon, entered by Allan Moffat and driven by Klaus

Niedweidz and Ken Douglas. I even got to help with this car, by identifying the Killer Mullet RallyeTeam stickerthat was on the back window.The Killer Mullets (a bunch of lunatics from mostly NSW) used to run the pit information service for the Bathurst 1000.

They discovered their fluorescent stickers were the same colour as the greeny-yellow on the Cenovis car and when nobody was

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looking, whacked one on the back window.

Where it stayed.

I don't know if Allan Moffat never noticed it, whether he did and didn't care, and whether the mechanics assumed the boss had said 'OK. But Biante's William Hall seemed pretty happy when I found him the correct logo and (in my own small way)saved the day.

There has been several recent Bathurst releases from Classics Carlectables. One that's been out for a little while now, but which we've yet to feature, is Classics'Peter Brock/Doug Chivas HDTTorana XU-1 that finished second in 1973.The car had looked on course for the win, but then it ran dry on fuel before its scheduled stop, leaving the slightly-built and then middle-aged Chivas to push theTorana up pit lane.The time lost cost the Holden DealerTeam the race.

Classic is also offering a 1/18 model of the following year's winner,the John Goss/Kevin Bartlett Falcon. Goss and Bartlett had,the year before, been on pole, set the fastest race lap and were running away with it until they got involved in someone else's accident and that was that. In 1974 they took a much more measured approach, running near the front, not at it - well, not by choice, as they didn't have the pace to run with the new Torana L34s - and when the HDT cars both had engine dramas and Moffat's Falcon had new-car issues, JG and KB were there to pick up the pieces.

Although it wasn't plain sailing. First, Goss had a tyre fail and had an agonising drive back to the pits.Then the rain that had been hanging around all day got heavy. It was dark, Kevin Bartlett, having left his walkingstick in the pits, couldn't see worth a damn, but had to fend off the charging Bob Forbes to take a brave win. It's a shame that this was Kevin's only win - like so many other truly great drivers, he's under-represented in the winner's list at the Great Race.

Classics is releasing another Lola T332 Formula 5000, using the brilliant mould they developed for the Alan Jones car.This is the Vern Schuppan-driven version, winner of the 1976 Oran Park round of the Rothmans Series.This was aTeam VDS car, and the red and silver will look sensational next to the Theodore Racing version already in my collection. I can't wait. And in case you were wondering,this model was so good, I spent my own money on iti Interest in Formula 5000 seems to be growing - they were very well-received at the recent Muscle Car Masters and will be back at Sydney Motorsport Park for the Tasman Revival at the end of November.

Clasic Carlectables are also releasing another Hardie hardtop:John Goss and Kevin Bartlett won a classic Hardie Ferodo 1000 in 1974, and Ciassic Carlectables has the model in 1/18, above right. Sydneysider Nigel Betts' Jim Richards Falcon Sprint'home made'from a Hot Wheels model,right.

88

motorsport news

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Empty six pack:But for a litre or so offuel, the Brock/Chivas HDT Torana XU-1 might have won Bathurst in '73. Here is Classic Carlectables' 1/18 version, below.

variation on the Kevin Bartlett Channel 9 Camaro.This one is the Sandown race winning-car - this car's first win.The wins were few and far between - certainly the car deserved better. And for the love of...

When you see Kevin and get him to sign it, DON'T ask him to sign it upside-down or on the bottom. I know you think you're being clever, but remember all the great things he did, not that one rollover. He's still a big fella. you know...

And lastly here's another reworking of a small-scale model. Nigel Betts,from Sydney's Brookvale used a Hot Wheels Real Riders Falcon Sprint as the base for a Jim Richards version. Stickers from Ebay and Nigel used a setting solution to get them to go on smoothly. Pretty good for a few dollars and some effort, I reckon. What have you done?

Send me a picture and some details to moxophoto@gmail.com

The car had looked on course for the win,butthen it ran dry on fuel before its scheduled stop,leaving the slightly-built and then middle-aged Chivas to push the Torana up pit lane.

f n

motorsport news

The Great Race: Bathurst 50 years SPECIAL LIMITED EDITION

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Here's something that caught the eye here in mNews's office - a 1:18 scale remote control version of Brock's Bathurst'72 winning GT-R XU-1.

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MY FAVOURITE RACE

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●7i 2007 MALAYSIA 12 HOUR, SiRAHO

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N 2007 I did the Malaysia Merderka Endurance Race, a 12-hour Pro-Am race at Sepang with Mark Cini and Ian Geekie. I'd raced against Mark in Carrera Cup since 2005 and we became friends and he asked me to come along.

I'm glad I did because it was the best race. It was just a comedy of errors and events that led to, probably, the funniest race I've ever been a part of.

We were in Ian's (Porsche) 996 Cup car with a team of around 15 Malaysians and it was so funny because you'd come into the pits and it looked like an FI team. You'd have all these people just diving on the car and start working away.

We barely turned a lap in practice and qualifying. We'd do one or two flying laps and then, it was like a fuel surge problem so the car started cutting out.

Our car wasn't that fast, but somehow we managed to qualify eighth, which we didn't expect. We were in the Open class, which were GTS sports cars and there were a lot of faster cars. There was a factory BMW team, the Petronas BMW team, the Farnbacher Porsche, a couple of RSRs - Bairdo (Craig Baird) had an RSR, he was racing with Shaun Juniper back then - heaps of really good teams and we were just in a dirty old 996, just trucking along. The next 996 was 12th or 14th or something so we did a pretty good job of in qualifying.

But we still couldn't actually figure out what the problem was. They thought it was a heat issue, which it probably was.

They had a spare car out the back, which they couldn't use because it had a different stamp number on it, so they had to transfer everything from that car to the racecar.

The guys worked all night and we just made it to the race. Then, after they rebuilt the car overnight, they figured out that they just had to add another fuel pump to it, so they did all this work for nothing, and had to add the extra fuel pump anyway!

Then, on the start line, one of the young kids who was working all night had a seizure through tiredness. Fie started frothing at the mouth and they took him to the ambulance people. We walked up to them and said 'our guy's had a seizure, can you come help?'and they said'No, take him to the hospital yourself'and pointed us where to go!

The race went from 11 am to 11 pm and it was stinking hot. I've never had that much humidity before and 1 can't believe how hot it was in the car.

We had ice vests, like what they put on AFL players after a game, but no cool suits like in V8s. The stints were about an hour and 15 minutes, but the vests were only good for about 40 minutes. The next 35 minutes it was like a tea kettle, everything melted and starts heating you up. I drank about 30 litres of water during the day.

There were about 80 cars in the race and three or four categories below us and there were a lot of slower cars. If we were doing a two-minute lap, some of them were doing four-minute laps, so you'd see some cars almost twice a lap and you were passing cars left right and centre. They were in all types of shitboxes, like old Toyota Corollas with big pipes out the back, roll cage and stripped out. It was like they just dragged their road cars out, put some slicks on and tried to go racing. There was even a V8 Supercar there too.

We had Ian's wife on the radio doing the communications, but I had no understanding of what she was saying. So I'd have to get Mark to talk to me while I was in the car.

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ike- ttey |iiiet dlrag§€ slioks om and Iried ta ge (Despite all this), by the six-hour mark we were leading the race!

It was so funny, me and two amateurs leading the 12 hour because everyone had dramas or crashes with slower cars.

The seat mounts broke in our car so every time you accelerate the seat would fall back and every time you braked it'd come back up. It was dangerous when I think about it and I probably shouldn't have done it, but it was just the funniest race.

Mark blew the clutch at one point and we lost a lot of time in the pits and dropped back to fourth.

In the last stint I was back in the car and we were trucking along OK, didn't have any dramas and then the guy who was third had a crash with a slower car with about 10 minutes to go. All he had to do, because we were so many laps behind, was stay at the start-finish line and just cross it when the chequered flag came out. But he tried to make it one lap with only three wheels on the car. One hundred metres before the finish line the car stopped and caught on fire and he had to get out.

We didn't know this at the time, so after the race we're all 'We motorsport news

sons Bathurst 12 Hour Highlights

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BATHURST REGIONAL COUNCIL

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2012 BATHURSTi 12 Hour Highlights

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came fourth, we did a pretty good job, can't believe we were leading the race...'and then Mark's run in yelling'Yeah, we came third, YEEEAAAAHHHH'. A massive party erupted, it was crazy. Everyone's just buggered because they worked all night and all day and 12 hours of racing is ridiculously hard.

Mark described it as God and the Devil fighting for the whole week, because good stuff happened and then bad stuff happened. Right at the last minute, when that car caught on fire he said: 'God won'.

I don't remember what happened to the trophy, but we all got paid. We all won something like 15,000 ringgit, which is like two grand Aussie. I didn't expect anything out of it and it was an awesome thing to be a part of I can't keep saying how good it was, because it was just so much fun, a money-can't-buy experience.

Unreal track, really good fun, it was just the best race and I'd love to be a part of stuff like that again.

David Reynolds spoke to Edward Krause www.mnews.com.au

AUDI'S "INTERNATIONAL" ENTRY SPLASHED TO A SECOND STRAIGHT ARMOR ALL BATHURST 12 HOUR VICTORY. WITH 2011 WINNERS MIES AND DARRYL O'YOUNG JOINED BY CHRISTER JOENS, THE ’RB LMS DRIVERS DOMINATED THE RACE, AFTER RAIN SET IN DURING THE EARLY STAGES. IN THE END, THE TEAM WON BY 13 SECONDS OVER THE MERCEDES-BENZ SLS AMG OF HACKETT, SLADE, BLEEKEMOLEN AND CURTIS, WITH THE FERRARI NSB OF BAIRD, GRIFFIN AND WENG SUN THIRD, THE HIGHLY-FANCI ED ^S8 OF SIMONSEN, BOWE, FARNBACHER AND EDWARDS DIDN'T DISAPPOINT EARLY, AND SIMONSEN BROKE MOUNT PANORAMA'S RACE LAP RECORD,BUT THEIR RACE EVENTUALLY ENDED WITH ELECTRICAL DRAMAS. THE LOCAL AUDI OF LOWNDES, LUFF AND EDDY HAD AN EARLY SHOWER TOO, AFTER EDDY CRASHED MID RACE. SO SIT BACK AND ENJOY ALL THE HIGHLIGHTS OF 12 HOURS AROUND THE PUNISHING 6.2KM MOUNT PANORAMA- THAT'S ABOUT AS TOUGH AS IT GETS IN THE WORLD OF MOTOR RACING.

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Robert Kubica made his return to competition in triumphant style in September when he drove a Subaru Impreza World Rally Car to victory in an Italian domesticrally. It was his first event since he sustained horrific injuries in a rally crash in Italy in early 2011.

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Answers 1. Two other times.

2. Fourth, Barbagallo Raceway.

3. Alt Romeo.

4. Upto150kWfor a brief period.

5. Ferrari posters.

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