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NEWS

Editorial Group Editor Steve Normoyle snormoyle@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@ninews.com.au

Contributing Writers

Mark Glendenning,Andrew van Leeuwen, Edward Krause, Chris Lambden, Geoff Rounds, Mitchell Adam, Bruce Moxon

Art Director Chris Currie

Photography

Sutton Motorsport Images, Dirk Klynsmith, John Morris, Andrew Hall, James Smith, Geoff Gracie, Marcel Stawiczny, Paul Cross, Clay Cross, Ray Berghouse, Greg Taylor

TWO INTO FOUR Casey Stoner Is quitting motorcycle racing with two world championship wins at the age of27. It's not been announced yet, but it's expected he'll race cars next year, more than likely V8 Supercars. So, how will he go?

Advertising Advertising Director Chris West cwest@chevron.com.au P 02 9901 6376 M 0416125 252 National Sales Manager Luke Finn lfinn@chevron.com.au P02 9901 6368 M 0423 665 384

Warren Luff's had,anmhmudl'r career and even though he's,.

-ho:longer affuUitimer■im'VSi.i ( ' » Smgt^ars he’s'never enjoyed '^su'efisuccess as heiis nowi ‘ \

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

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PUBLISHING GROUP a (division of nextmedia Pty Ltd.

Level 6,207 Pacific Highway, St Leonards, NSW 2065 Locked Bag 5555, St Leonards, NSW 1590 Chief Executive Officer, David Gardiner Commercial Director, Bruce Duncan Motorsport News is published by nextmedia Pty Ltd ACN: 128 805 970, Level 6,207 Pacific Highway, St Leonards NSW 2065 ® 20T2.

All rights reserved. Motorsport News Is printed by CaxtonWeb, distributed by Network Distribution. No part of this magazine may be reproduced, in whole or in part, without the prior permission of the publisher. The publisher will not accept responsibility or any liability for the correctness of information or opinions expressed in the publication. All material submitted is at the owner's risk and, while every care will be taken nextmedia does not accept liability for loss or damage.

Privacy Policy We value the integrity of your persona! information, if you provide personal information through your participation in any competitions, surveys or offers featured in this issue of Motorsport News, this will be used to provide the products or services that you have requested and to improve the content of our magazines. Your details may be provided to third parlies who assist us in this purpose. In the event of organisations providing prizes or offers to our readers, we may pass your details on to them. From time to time, we may use the information you provide us to inform you of other produas, services and events our company has to offer.

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GETTING A GRIP ON CONTROL TYRES

Just because it's a control tyre doesn't make it easy for the tyre companies. Andrew van Leeuwen discusses the challenges of making control tyres with the chiefs at Hankook, the tyre of choice in the DTM and a string of other European series.

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Vheihside storydfhow Craig Lowndes' TeamVodafone Commodore ended up in Br&ok MM livery a t

www.mnews.c0m.ay motorsport news

Unusual Suspects

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She is the feisty blonde from Germany \ who can get around the Murburgring iri. a transit van i almostas fast as Jeremy Clarkson can in a Jaguar.

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Edward Krause was a key contributor to Chevron's The Great Race yearbook for longer than we can remember. He was at Bathurst this year, and got the inside story on how Vodafone's bold 'Marlboro' Holden Dealer Team '70s style livery on the Craig Lowndes/Warren Luff Commodore came to be done.

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WINNSNG POM That's what his Aussie team calls him, and it's not a bad description of the two-time Gold Star winning Pom who would like to call Australia his permanent home in the future.

DAN’S THE MAN THE popularity ofregular American visitor Danny Smith to Australian shores this time every year is immense - Smith enjoys the kind ofreception usually reserved for our home-grown heroes.

SUSHI & DESERT From the desert sun to the land of the rising sun, our photographer followed the World Endurance Championship to deliver this pictorial coverage.

^REGULARS

Our globetrotting photographer Andrew Hall has been wracking up the frequent flyer points oflate, dropping in at Dubai for the WEC round before heading for the cooler climes at Japan's Mount Fuji for the following round.

Motor Mouth with Phil Branagan

The Scoop with Steve Normoyle On The Limiter with Chris Lambden Box Seat United States of Origin Retrovision Model Behaviour Trade Classifieds My Favourite Race Parting Shot www.mnews.com.au

He's two wheels short ofqualifying as a usual suspect in this magazine, but as Casey Stoner prepares for what is almost certainly going to be a shift into car racing in Australia, we thought it time to reflect on what he's achieved, and take a look at how he might fare with a steering wheel rather than a pair of handlebars.

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ARLIER this month, I had lunch with my friend Phillip.[Yes, I do realise that we have slight variations of the same first name.]

A generation after we spent months and months backpacking, eating, drinking and chasing women across the northern hemisphere together, we ate and drank again, and discussed mortgages, kids and grey hair. We do not get to do it often now; I live in the south of Australia and he lives in the south of England. He went on to have a real life, working in finance. I did not.

Despite being born in England and having lived much of his life there, he considers himself an Aussie. He supports the Essendon Bombers first and Liverpool FC second.

He is looking forward to'Us' (Australia) winning the two Ashes Test Cricket Series coming up, and when Mark Webber wins a Grand Prix, he plays it up with 'the Poms in the office'.

Phillip's view of motor racing is shaped largely by the English

media. Our Jenson, Our Lewis -gap-everyoneelse in F1;Le Mans; Dario;then nothing. He likes racing, but does not follow it with the passion that, clearly, I do.

The reason I bring all this up is that he flew to Melbourne, to celebrate his dad's birthday, from a family holiday, while his wife and daughters flew back to England,to face grey skies, only moderately profitable banks and a cold but traditional Christmas.

They like to holiday somewhere that is hot, clean and safe, and cheap and easy to get to from London.This year,for the third time,they travelled to Dubai. By a coincidence, Phillip flew south and his family flew north a few hours after qualifying finished for the V8 Supercars at Abu Dhabi.

He knew Formula 1 was on that weekend at Yas Marina; apparently it was hard to miss it, even 130km away in Dubai.

But until I told him, he had no notion that the Aussie V8 circus, and some fans, were there too, at a track to which he could have driven in far less time than

my trip from home to Winton.

(For that matter, he had no idea that the V8s are shown in British TV, either.) judging by the TV images I saw, Jamie Whincup won his three races at the track in front of a few hundred spectators.

Hours after the V8s packed up, the stands appeared to be wellpopulated for FI qualifying, and looked nearly full for the race. It was a real contrast.

A few days after our lunch together, it was my turn to have some down time. My wife and I were in southern Queensland, enjoying the sights and sounds.

Some of the best of those , came from inside an Audi S7, an impressive combination of luxury, safety, Quattro poise and nearly ridiculous horsepower. \A/Kcin \A

Judging by the TV images Isaw, Jamie Whincup won his three races at the track in front ofa few hundred

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"No, I Just get to drive it."

He ahhhed, perhaps not quite sure what I meant,then gestured to the'VST'badge on the S7's flanks.

"NowTHIS would make a great V8 Supercar!"

Maybe it would. It is doubtful that Audi, already with programs in the DTM, Le Mans and GT racing, is planning any such move. My guess is, they are not.

I also have no idea whether that bloke was an MN reader or'just' a V8 Supercar fan, but it WAS interesting to hear what he said.

Whatever, it appears that the profile of the sport is just fine in SEQ but there is much work to be done in the Middle East.

And Audi; the S7 was great.

It may be the best four-door car I have ever driven. If other manufacturers want to change my mind, 1 am open to drive their latest models. Heck; I am even willing to go to Dubai to

spectators. Hours after the V8s packed up,the stands appeared to be well-popuiated for FI qualifying r.

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HE Japanese never MX5 - an unapologetic attempt come up with new at building a contemporary ideas of their own. representation of the mid-'60s Lotus Elan. What began as a Rather,they take someone else's form of imitation has itself invention and do it their way, created its own legend - the which is to say much better.

MX5 continues today and the Like most generalisations, latest version - literally bigger there is a small element of truth and betterthan the original to this. Certainly the early efforts - retains all the Elan-esque qualities that made the MX5 so

by Japanese car makers were not much more than cheap good 23 years ago.

Mazda's RX7 in the late copies of popular European cars.

'70s was a breath of fresh Indeed,the Nissans of the 1950s were identical (licensed) air, combining everything Mazda had learned from its copies of Austins. From this development ofthe Wankel arrangement, Nissan later rotary engine pioneered (but developed its own engines based on the BMC A-series four never mastered) by NSU in a stunning and quite original cylinder once it started making looking sleek coupe. But when cars of its own design. it came time for RX7 series two, The Austin-derived engine the boffins at Mazda appear to was the powerplant for the have made the unfathomable mid-'60s Datsun Fairlady decision that it would be better roadster(we knew it here as the Datsun 2000), Nissan's first real if the RX7 looked like a cheap Japanese imitation of a Porsche attempt at making a sports car.

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But the Euro influence wasn't When Nissan decided to merely hidden underthe skin - take a close look at this car revive its Z-series coupe in the and it's hard not to think that early 2000s after decades of decline as the original classic Nissan's engineers went out and bought themselves an MGB, 240Z grew into the fat, lazy 300ZX ofthe late'90s, it came studied it inside and out, and then made a better version of up with the 350Z coupe.'Drive their own. the reborn Z car and you could feel the spirit ofthe original Mazda did something similar to this in the late'80s with the 240Z living within it. On the

8

outside, though, it was hard to spot too many obvious Z car styling themes - rather, it looked like an AudiTT having a bad hair day.

Honda perhaps stands apart as the most innovative of the bunch. No one could call the aluminium-chassis NSX sports car derivative, and some of the variable valve timing and associated electronic wizardry Honda has built into some of its engines certainly wasn't technology they'd sourced from the likes of Chevrolet.

Toyota,too, despite popular perceptions of the brand as white-goods-on-wheels, has had its moments of refreshing originality.

In fact, it was a desire to shake off its staid image that led to the Toyota 2000GT sports coupe of 1965. Granted Yamaha as well as some Germans were involved in this project, but the 2000GT was some kind of sports car.

In the'80s Toyota did something decidedly unexpected by making a small, relatively inexpensive mid-engined sportscar. It's true that the Toyota MR2 as a concept was pretty much no different from the pre-existing Fiat X1/9(and it even resembled the Fiat's boxy styling), but with the brilliant 4A-GE twin-cam 1600 pulled straight from the AE86 Corolla, and not to mention Toyota's build quality.

the MR2 was the Fiat's superior in all areas.

As for the Corolla AE86 coupe that supplied the MR2 engine, it was great little car in the 1980s. Fast forward more than 20 years, though, and the AE86 coupe has become an unlikely classic, the ideal weapon for that curious Japanese-invented motoring contest known as drifting.

If Toyota did a new version of the AE86, you'd have think it'd be a huge hit. It is the kind of fun little car- a light, cheap, sporty rear-drive coupe - that no one makes any more.

Until now,that is.

There have been thousands of words written in praise of the new Toyota GT86(and its Subaru BRZ sister), so I'll not add mine here.

Except to say that if you're looking for an affordable coupe with supercar looks and proper sports car handling, well, hallelujah,the world is now blessed with just such a car.

And this time,far from taking ideas from others and doing them better,Toyota has referenced its own past, with a machine that embodies the spirit of the AE86 and the style of the 2000GT. In doing so it has come up with one of the most surprising, and most fun-todrive cars in decades.

And it's a Toyota. Who would have thought?

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F LAMBDEN r CHRIS

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0, whatv;/rereyo.(j doing wli^n you were 27? ('Orforr that matter, if yo y've- Fiot readsed that milestone, .what do you think youllTi bedoing?).

Not a lot of you retired at 27, I'd be guessing. In fact, mi ost of you were probably ijustgetting going down wihat\was, is,, .or will be your life patli.

Yet that is whatAustraS ia’s double world MotoGP champion has don'e. Most world-class riders ( andidcrivers for that matter)eii d their career when their team d umps them, or when injuries acid up, but Casey Stoner has walked away, on his own terms, at the top of his game,at theage of Z7.

His reasons, ort.tioselte's put out there to date, centre around falling outof ifove .with the sport; he has, he says,lost the passion.

He reckons the sp ort has lost the lustre it lhad back- tn the Rainey/ Gardner/Docyhan days.

There% less poliftics in bike racing than thelikes of FI,so I reckon he's nefernrinoto the

1 way the bikes themselves have evolved - the degree of riderassistance offered by electronic aids; the fact that many races are affected by the need to watch fuel-consumption.You sense that Casey Stoner just wants to get on a bike where the throttle is, once again, a simple direct link to the engine and its output.

No frills, no techno tweaks,just raw uncontrolled power.

You can see where he's coming from on that one.

Casey dismisses his new role as a father as having any influence on his decision to quit, but I'd be surprised, even if subliminally, there wasn't some element of it. Remember, Casey's been riding since he was four; won everything there was to win on dirt bikes and was headed to England with his Mum and Dad at 14 to go road racing because the minimum age here was 16.

Like a number of other motorsport'prodigies', he missed out on all the normal teen-age stuff, so when life

then deals him a wonderful girlfriend and wife, and then a baby daughter, the opportunity, and responsibility, to enjoy that 'normality'must have entered his thoughts. Along with his own mortality.

Most forms of four-wheeled racing, including Formula 1, are now very much non-life threatening thanks to the massive steps in car and track safety. Not quite so on two wheels. In MotoGP you're gonna fall off; you're gonna get hurt; and as so tragically illustrated

by Marco Simoncelli just over a year ago,sometimes you're just going to be unlucky.

Whether all that ultimately turns out to have affected Stoner's decision to quit is his business anyway, but it won't change an ounce of the massive respect we should have for his achievements, and his decision.

Remember,this was the guy who won grands prix and a world championship on a bike that, subsequently,the great Valentino Rossi was unable to get near the podium with unless it rained ...

Australia has a tendency to overlook the achievements of its sporting greats who do their

Yoiu sense that Casey Stonerjust wants to get on a bike whem the throttle is, once again,a simple direct link to the engine and its output No frills, no techno tweaks.Just raw uncontrolled power.

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thing 'over there', who don't kick a ball or take a pack mark, but it would be a mistake to overlook Casey Stoner's impact on MotoGP. On many a late Sunday night. I've just shaken my head at the sheer breathtaking exhilaration of C Stoner at his best...

Will he ever come back? You'd doubt it. Drivers do come back in Formula 1: Messrs Lauda and Schumacher spring easily to mind. But not a lot come back to bikes. In fact, I can't think of one.

It's just too hard.

No, it does start to look like Casey might just get enough of a kick, and something of a new challenge out of V8 Supercars if the rumours are correct.

Whether its next year, or later, it seems we may well see the young man in an Aussie V8.

For Casey, it'll be the equivalent of the rest of us heading off to the local indoor karting centre - a heap of fun, no real physical risk, but nevertheless the chance to satisfy that competitive instinct (you should have been there the year the Motorsport News crew had its Christmas party at the karts. Intense...).

In the meantime, my Sunday night MotoGP attention now looks like being focussed on the fortunes of Casey's replacement at Flonda - the sensationallygifted young Spaniard Marc Marquez, who's smashed'em all on the way through 125s and Moto2,capping it by coming from the very back, grid 33,to win his final Moto2 race, at Valencia just a week or two ago.

In a'spec'racing category, that's stunning...

That is until a certain youngster by the name of Remy Gardner appears on the scene, as seems likely. Wayne's 14 year-old eldest son is already running top 10 in Spain's Moto3 feeder class, CEV, having run second in the junior CV series (the Gardners have moved to Spain to support the youngster's racing) but, due to minimum age requirements in Moto3, is a couple of years away. But, by all accounts, it's going to be worth the wait. And by the way, 11 year-old Luca's apparently pretty handy too.

The next generation of Casey Stoners is already on the train, motorsport news

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understood that the bad language had to be left at work. It wasn’t to be used around the family, or at the supermarket,or in a restaurant (for example).

But that was completely lost on my Great Uncle. He just figured that was how everyone taiked in Australia, and used very inappropriate language in very inappropriate situations. Not intentionally, not because he was a bad person, but because,at least at first, he didn't know any better.

What does that story have to do with Formula 1 ? Well,the recent Abu Dhabi Grand Prix wiil be remembered for three things: Kimi Raikkonen winning, Kimi Raikkonen telling his crew to"leave him aione",and Sebastian Vettel dropping one heck of an F-Bomb during his televised post-race chat on the podium with David Coulthard.

Personaiiy, i though it was quite funny - but i'm not someone easily offended by swearing (anybody who knows me personally will attest to that). And it probably wasn't that big a deal in Australia anyway,firstly because Australians are generally relaxed about a little colourful language,and secondly because the race was shown at night, and the kiddies were all tucked up in bed.In fact, it's a fair bet that at least one other channel was showing a movie with even worse language being thrown around at exactly the same time.

But in the UK,it was a bit of a big deal. It was big enough for the FIA to issue a letter to both Vettel and Raikkonen(who said 'shit', not for the first time on TV, moments before Vettel got hold of the microphone) warning them to clean up their act while on the podium.

Fair enough. It was the middle of the day in England,and the race was one shown on both the BBC and Sky,so it was to motorsport news

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The recent Abu Dhabi Grand Prix will be remembered for three things: Kimi Raikkonen winning, Kimi Raikkonen telling his crew to "leave him alone", and Sebastian Vettel dropping one heck of an F-Bomb during his televised post-race chat a decent audience. Vettel, in particular, took it on the chin, swiftly issuing an apology, "I'm terribly sorry for using the wrong word on the podium today and I'm sorry if I have offended anyone who was watching," he wrote on his website.

"In the heat of the moment, I didn't use the right words and I apologise. I'll do better next time."

While I don't condone swearing in that situation, despite how hilarious it may be, it's worth keeping in mind that for neither of these drivers is English their first language. That really has to be considered.

For guys like Vettel and Raikkonen, swear words are just words. Yes, they know they are swear words, but they don't properly comprehend the meaning behind them. At the end of the day, to Sebastian Vettel, the F Word is just four letters put together. He may know it's literal meaning, but that's not really why it's offensive. For us Anglos, it's more than a word.

For a German, that's very difficult to understand. As someone who lives in Germany, I know this for a fact. For example, one of my good friends here in Mainz likes to refer to everyone as 'f****r'. His friends, his boss, his colleagues. He doesn't do it out of malice, he just thinks it's funny. Why? Because while the Germans might learn basic English at school, they refine their language skills by being barraged with American movies and pop music, most of which is littered with bad language.

Music is actually a good example. One particular commercial radio station here in Germany likes to break down English-langua ge songs, playing them bit-by-bit and relaying the text and meaning in German.The other day the song was a certain hit by Cee-Lo Green ... except they didn't use the family-friendly 'Forget You' version that was played on commercial radio in Australia. Nope, they used the original version, and even had someone call in and sing the chorus. This was just after lunch on a weekday. I've honestly www.mnews.com.au

never heard that many F-Bombs in a row in my life, in any.situation.

And I'm from rural Western Australia.

Fora racing driver like Vettel, his English isn't just influenced by movies and songs, but by his immediate environment as well. By that I mean race teams, and the people that work on race cars. While the Austrian national anthem is played every time Red Bull Racing wins a race, it is, after all, an English team. You can imagine that in the garage, there is plenty of colourful language being thrown around. And, in the privacy of the garage, it's absolutely not a problem. But how is Seb supposed to make that distinction? It's very similar to the situation my Great Uncle found himself in ail those years ago.

Since moving to this part of the world. I've been guilty of mistakes like this myself. I too am grappling with trying to communicate in a second language, and there have been times when my word selection has been a little off. I know tons of German swear words (they tend to be the first thing you learn for some reason. Probably so you can avoid using them, which doesn't really make sense), and there have been occasions when I've accidently used them in the wrong situations.

But think about it; as an Australian, are you offended by the word 'scheisse'? I'm guessing not. In fact, Australians often use it as a polite way of saying shit. Because of that, my impression has always been that it's a pretty harmless thing to say.

However, that's just not true. In Germany, in certain situations, it's right up there with dropping an F-Bomb. And boy, it's a bomb I've accidently dropped a few times. Okay, never on worldwide television, but you get my point.

I'm not for a single minute saying that swearing in that situation is acceptable, or saying that the FIA were wrong to warn the drivers about it. In fact, I think everybody - the FIA, Vettel and Coulthard, who was left stranded next to Vettel at the time - did a good job of getting through the awkward little situation.

All I'm saying is that it's not acceptable, but it's kind of understandable.

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t's the unassailable right of a sports fan to deal in absolutes.

You see it everywhere,from the supporters of an English soccer team calling for their manager's head after one loss, to the forum threads on motorsport website with titles like 'Romain Grosjean is an idiot'.

IndyCar fans are no different. One particularly self-aware member of the series'supporter base recently noted in an online comment that IndyCar fans could 'find the poop in a field full of unicorns and kittens' So it should come as little surprise to learn the sudden news of the departure of a popular fan figure like now-former CEO Randy Bernard was greeted with a distinctly sky-is-falling brand of dismay amongst the majority of IndyCar supporters, as well as a significant branch of its media. Many fans have expressed their intention to never watch the series again, and others are convinced that they won't have the option because it will no longer exist.

There's no doubt that Bernard's split from the series was a surprise not least to Randy himself-and there's also no doubtthat the whole episode was handled rather less gracefully than it might have been. But beyond that, a few people need to sit down with a cool drink. Yes, Bernard is gone. But IndyCar will be just fine.

The first step to understanding the whole thing is to realise that Bernard's popularity with the fans was far from universal across the series' other stakeholders. Developing a workable relationship with the team owners proved especially difficult. Sometimes it was hard

not to sympathise with them, like when the costs of the new car came in vastly above what the teams had been told to expect, and it was also easy to understand their frustration when they didn't feel that Bernard was responding when they presented him with hard numbers.

The flipside is that Bernard was overstretched, even if he rarely showed it. CEOs of companies the size of IndyCar are not usually as hands-on as Bernard was - they install a layer of specialised management and get on with doing CEO-stuff like setting the broader strategy and vision. Key to the success of whoever is installed as his permanent replacement is not just what they bring to the table themselves, but what sort of structure they have around them. Whatever it is, it needs to be better than what Bernard had.

But it's also critical to dilute some of the emotion from the whole thing. From a personal perspective, Randy's presence in the paddock will be missed. He's a nice guy, very genuine, loads of energy and integrity, and was motivated by a real desire to leave IndyCar in a better state than he'd found it. He left with two years still remaining on a five-year contract, so he didn't get as much time as he'd expected, but he definitely improved the sport.

The fan hysteria is another matter altogether. In part, it's stoked by the fact media neutrality is an idea that has been slow to gain traction in the

There's no doubt that Bernard's splitfrom the series was a surprise - not least to Randy himself- and there's also no doubt that the whole episode was handled rather less gracefully than it might have been.

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GLENDENNINC happens all the time.(FI writers learn this the first time they report something vaguely negative about Ferrari). In IndyCar a significant minority of writers actually take sides. One of the side-effects of this is that people become cast in roles. For the pro-Randy collective, Bernard's predecessor Tony George is the ultimate evil, followed by former race director Brian Barnhart.

As an outsider, it's easy to get drawn into this. But the reality can be more complicated. At Sao Paolo this year, Darth Tony sat at my table in the lunch room one day.There was no whiff of sulphur as he took a seat.The flowers in the table didn't wither and die. We didn't really speak beyond a few banalities, and he probably doesn't even remember the conversation, but he seemed like a pleasant enough bloke.

1 also spoke to Barnhart several times this year. Few fans know it, but he was a key figure behind the scenes in negotiating a compromise between the owners and the various suppliers, including Dallara, over costs. Whenever I went to him with questions, he was generous with his time, and gave me thoughtful answers that actually addressed whatever I'd just asked him. Fie certainly had his flaws as a race director - he was as rigid and inflexible as Beaux Barfield is free'n'easy, and the ideal lies somewhere between them. It's also difficult to imagine him championing Bernard's cause behind the scenes, given that Randy stripped him of the power he once held on the competition and regulatory side. But he's not fundamentally evil.

The point is not that we should rally behind the old guard, but rather that while perception counts for a lot, it also passes through a lot of filters. The hundreds of voices online denouncing Barnhart

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-Just to pick a random example - come from mostly from people who haven't met him, and who might get a lot of their IndyCar news from a journalist who doesn't happen to like him, and isn't afraid to say it. The fans calling for unity are the same ones who interpret the sport as being run by a cast of good guys and bad guys.The fact is, they're just guys.They don't always make great judgement calls, and they're certainly not above a bit of politicking. But you get that in any company, right down to the guy that sneaks off and tells the supervisor what everyone was talking about around the water cooler.

It's far from ideal, and doesn't do much to breed harmony, but neither does it bring the whole show crashing down.

Jeff Belskus, interim IndyCar CEO and CEO of Flulman & Co, which owns both the IndyCar Series and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, left himself badly exposed with the way in which Bernard's departure was handled - a limp statement of support on Friday, an announcement that Randy was out on Sunday. Fans don't like feeling that they've been lied to, and they're slow to forgive betrayals of trust.

Belskus has said that rallying the fan base is one of his first priorities, and regaining their confidence will be critical in shaping how the series is perceived by the wider world in the months ahead.

Bernard's exit is disappointing on many levels, but it also creates opportunities. Many of the ideas that he introduced helped to give the series some wings.The job for the person who replaces him is to make it fly.

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The electififying two-wheeli career of Casey Stonerls over. Unless he has a change of heart, the 27-year-old has ridden in his last MotoGP and new challenges await. After two titles and 38 GP wins jh A/lotoGP,five wins on 250s and another two on 125s,the leathers are staying on the hook, until such time as Stoner decides he wants to ride again, not for money orfame, but for fun.

The forrner Honda:and ©ueati star has not. said what it is that Wiil feed his competitive spirit inthe future. His enthusiasm for V8 Supercars is well-known,and there are plenty ofsuggestions that he will take to the track in onepfthe cars in the near future. He has tested a TeamVOdafone Commodore and the support ofTriple Eight boss Roland Dane for Stoner's need for speed - Dane is a massive fan of bike racing anyway - is welhknown.

Motorsport News sources are suggesting that the rumours are true. We expect to;see Stoner's famed #27 adorning a T8 Commodore,backed

by Red Bull, in the Dunlop Series in 2013.We expect no announcement to be made untii the team's current obligations, which of course include one to energy drink Monster and its driver, Scott Pye,are concluded at Homebush's season finale.

How will it go? ChanGes are, well. Stoner is young and enthusiastic, and anyone who has seen him will a Ducati or a Honda through a 170km/h corner, sliding the rear tyre and playing with the throttle, realises that he lacks iittleii n the way of skill - oni two wheels. But history is littered; with those who have made the switch and' not done as well, for reasons wide and varied.

Until such time as an indiyiduaf aCtually Steps up to the highest level, there is practically no way of knowing if they will make it work.

Beating Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo on two wheels is one thing;-taking on Jamie Whineup and^Will Davison on four is another.

So, we wondered whomrwe might ask about how a bike racer becomes a car racer. We came up: with a pretty good list of names and most of them were happy to give us their insights.

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Mike Hailwood is considered by many to be the greatest motorcycle racer of all time.

In the midst of winning nine World titles on 250cc, 350ccand 500cc bikes,'Mike the Bike'turned his hand to car racing, and made his FI debut in the 1963 British GP - fi nishing eighth! Because of his car racing commitments, he made only 50 GP starts, getting within 0.2s of a win at the famed 1971 Italian GP. Surtees on Hailwood; "Mike had trouble to start with but that was partly because people did not understand him. Mike was totally non-technical! He was a natural and people did not understand that he could explain what he was doing. That is a part of the reason that he came and drove for me. I said,'Mike, I think that I understand you', so he did. He was immediately going well in a Formula 5000 car, then the Formula 2 and Formula 1."

Hailwood was killed in a road accident in 1981. He was 40.

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cars, initially I had to set the concentration, and the stress, much higher. I did not have the experience in dealing with all the situations, I was finding out new things all the time. 1 also did not know anything about the other drivers, which Is a very important factor. I also did not have experience with, or even really know,the people who ran the sport."

Even the physical side of the sport was no problem.

'Physically It was not too bad. I was used to keeping myself pretty fit, I was always active. but there were much different strains. The neck takes a different strain and today, that is a lot more, because of the G-forces. Obviously with a bike, your whole body has a bigger effect on the handling of the bike and the way you manoeuvre a bike. You have to work hardi In a car you are fixed into the seat and you have to communicate with that piece of machinery in a much different way. But just the same, you try to create the same relationship with it so that. in a way,the machinery talks to you.

'When you really get onto the pace, you have to become as one, no matter if it is a bike or a car.

Surtees continued driving in Formula 1 until 1972. At the age of 38, he stepped out of the cockpit to run his own FI team, which he had started in 1966 to allow him to race in the Can-Am Series. In 1970,the team moved into GP racing, and at one stage Surtees Racing Organisation was in FI, F2 and F5000.The team closed in 1978.

Surtees was awarded an MRE and OBE for his achievements.

mm

In the history of motorcycle racing,few men made such an impression, so quickly, as Johnny Cecotto.

The Venezuelan arrived in France for the opening round of the 1975 World Championships as a virtual unknown. Armed with'production'Yamaha TZ250 and TZ350 racers, Cecotto won the races in BOTH classes - in the latter, running away from defending World Champion Giacomo Agostini.

It was always his plan to race both bikes and cars, and he wanted to do so at a high level.

"My father did the same," he says now."He was racing bikes and then he raced cars as well.

After I did my first race in Venezuela -1 was 16 - he said that the race was OK, but a chain broke. He said that I should wait until I was 18 to race cars - that was the[minimum] age, 18 - so I told him yes, I would stop and wait until I was 18 to race cars. But I said that I would go on with the bikes. So I did! But 1 always had in my mind that I would race cars."

After a promising start, he built a link that would set him on the road to World Championship successes.

"Luckily I got help from Venemotos,the Yamaha importer in Venezuela. After the first year, I got to go out to race in Brazil and then Japan, and finally to Europe. It was 1975 and when I got to Europe, it was just to do a few races.The budget was not big enough to do the whole championships. But I won both races and from that moment, I got sponsors and support from Venezuela and I stayed in Europe to do the whole championship."

The motorcycle racing landscape was different in the mid-seventies. Yamaha would sell customers versions of its racers, and then show up with works bikes that were, basically, prototypes of next year's models.This is what Agostini had under him, while Cecotto was on a well-tuned production racer. In today's terms, it would be like showing up with a Yamahapowered CRT bike and beating Jorge Lorenzo for the win. By the end of the season, Cecotto had won another four GPs in the two classes, and taken the 350cc title to become,at the time,the youngest-ever World Champion. He was 19.

"It was incredible!"Cecotto recalled."It was the first time,for me,to race at Paul Ricard - as it was for all the other circuits. Ricard was a very fast track, and we just had the customer bikes.

We were against the works bikes and I was beating Agostini by one second per lap!"

But the plan was still there that he would move to cars and he did, at 24.

"In 1980, 1 did the World Championship with the motorbikes and I did one or two Formula 2, in a private BMW-March.The next year, I decided to stay in Formula 2 and not race motorbikes. I knew my potential on motorbikes, I knew that I could still win championships. But with the cars, that was a question mark. I did ike it, very much,and the technique was completely different. It was a new challenge.

"I proved that I was quick enough but I had to get the experience

PIKENZV>M^ II I

1 needed. On two wheels, with all the years that I raced, I had that experience. It was difficult to be against the younger drivers who had started in karts and in other racers at an early age.

It was a difficult decision. My idea was that I wanted to get into Formula 1. It was either now or never; I could not have waited much longer to get into FI.' After he finished second in the 1982 Formula 2 Championship in a works-backed March, it was time to move up. In 1983, Cecotto found himself in Grand Prix racing, with Theodore.

Theodore was a small team and. unfortunately, it was not the fastest car. In my second race, I was quick on Friday and I got up to fourth place in the race. But there were problems with the gearbox and the tyres and 1 dropped back. I fi nished sixth and it was only one point."

'Only'underplays what a great performance it was. Cecotto had performed well, and it was to be his only score of the season.The team had no budget to develop the car and its performances were going from bad to worse. By the end ofthe season,Theodore had stopped completely butToleman was looking for a new lineup and he moved there for the 1984 season - alongside a rookie named Ayrton Senna.

"The engine was not the same as the one Ayrton was using,"says Cecotto."His had electronic fuel injection and mine was from the previous year, with mechanical fuel injection.

The power was very different. But I could not fi nish races, there was always something going wrong."

But there was a new car coming,for Brands Hatch. It was running late and as Friday morning dawned,the mechanics were still

He did not start racing motorcycles untii he was 27,and combined bikes and cars until 1931. He was immediately quick on four wheels, driving for Alfa Romeo,Scuderia Ferrari and Maserati. In 1938, he Joined Auto Union, but his career was interrupted by WWII. He resumed racing in 1946, but his deteriorating health prompted him to stop racing in 1950. He suffered a stroke in 1952, and died after another a year later. He was 60.

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putting it together, "it was a new car, they finished the car in the morning before Friday Practice," he says.

"Normally I would have been able to run in the car the previous week, but it was only Just finished on Friday. On the second lap, something broke and the car went off into the barriers. This was the beginning of the carbon fi bre monocoques and it just exploded. I destroyed my legs.

"But there were teams talking already about 1985, like Williams and Brabham. After the accident, I had to stop completely. It was a big disappointment."

Fiis rehabilitation was long, and any hopes of GP racing were dashed. So Cecotto turned to Touring Cars.

"For 10 years I was a BMW works driver and we had a lot of success. It was nice, not the same as Formula 1 but after such a big accident, I could still manage to drive and have a normal life. I still have pain in my legs, every day. I enjoyed the racing."

And there is a third generation of the racing Cecottos. Johnny Jr raced in GP2 this season, finished ninth in the championship with two wins, and his younger brother, Jonathan, 13, is racing karts in Italy.

"I am happy but I never pushed them to race.

The reason he is in cars is because they never saw me on the motorbikes! Since they were born, they only ever saw me driving cars.They never thought about bikes, only four wheels."

Cecotto remains a follower of bike racing and is an admirer of Stoner.

"He is a fantastic rider.The races he can do are incredible. He will do fine, if he has the motivation like he had with the bikes.

If he likes it, there is no reason why a good motorcycle racer cannot have the same sensibility to driving. You need to be neat and precise but he needs to get the experience to be able to make the changes to the cars.'

Wayne in Spain

The Stoner proposition,to move from the top level of motorcycle racing to V8 Supercars, is close to the path followed by Wayne Gardner exactly 20 years ago.

The racer from Wollongong won the SOOcc World Championship in 1987, but five years later, it was four wheels that took his fancy. At the age of 33, he grew two wheels.

"It was different then," he says."My thing came about because,towards the end of my bike career, i was getting offers to race cars. I always fancied being a car racer one day, so I did a couple of races in the BMWs over in Europe. I had friends in theTouring Car game, so I ended up doing a few celebrity drives. I quite liked it. My last year of Grand Prix racing was'92, so I went home and got offered a drive at Bathurst, with Graham Moore.

"Then HRT called me, Crenno [John Crennan] asked me if i would like to come and test the HRT Commodore. So I did, with Tomas Mezera, and 1 managed to get down to the lap record straight away. 1 got the offer to do the full season with HRT in '93, so I took it."

Gardner says he needed to mentally'slow down'when he took to the Commodore.

"When you drive Touring Cars, they are considerably slower than a Grand Prix bike.

They are slower even than a modern street bike.

When you get into them, you need to re-adjust your focus points, your braking points. On a

GP bike, you go into the first corner at Phillip Island extremely fast - 330 or 340km/h. Going into the same corner in theTouring Car, at well under 300km/h,seemed easy.The hardest part is slowing all that weight down. It is, kind of, playing a trick on yourself; you expect to go in at a slower pace but they have fairly skinny tyres, for the size and weight of the car. There is not a lot of grip, so you need to adjust. You need to pull back, to slow yourself down.

"For me, it was very frustrating. I was expecting cars to be faster in corners than the motorcycles. Generally they are, but because of the size of those V8s, you have to brake much earlier than you want to. It was frustrating.

The learning curve is as much about the car itself, and what you need to do to make it faster.

"You need to understand the car's dynamics," he says."They are much different. First of all, you are sitting in a big safety cell, so you feel safe inside it. On a motorcycle, you are vulnerable, and that is what makes it exciting.

You get far more bang for your buck out of a bike ride than you do out of a car drive. On a bike, you are on the edge; you can crash, anywhere and, possibly, even hurt yourself. You are strapped into a car, and you tend to feel more protected. You can potentially push your limits more.

"In a car, it feels like slow motion,compared to a bike. You want to push deeper, but the physics of a Touring Car makes you readjust."

11 For me,it was very frustrating. I was expecting cars to be

faster in cerners than the metercycies. Generally they are, but because of the size el those V8s, you have te brake much earlier than you want tn.The learning curve is as much about the car itself, and what you need to do to make it faster.

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In 1995, he had his first race in a Ford Mondeo Super Tourer at Phillip Island, but at the end of the first lap, he ran off the track, bounced off a tyre barrier and was struck by a following car, which killed him instantly. He was 42.

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I think that Casey will do well, but I think he' ( will be shocked,"says Gardner."He will need to adjust. Once you get your head around the cars, he could be a bit frustrated. He '■ might love it. But he will do good, he is very, I very talented. An amazing rider and it's a ^ shame that we are losing him to bike racing."

We turned to John Surtees for a perspective; "Sometimes, people ehange when they were ; overthe hill! Casey.is.not over the hill!

"Casey has been able to develop Into a , superb rider. Look at him, when he was on the Ducati. Everyone since him has had such a lot of trouble. So, it all depends; whether he wants to go out and havea little bit of pleasure occasionally, or whether he wants to be very serious. Who knows? He has achieved an awful lot In his bike racing, particularly in light of having a young family.

I did not have a young family when I raced.

'Someone has to make their own mind up ● butfor him to make up his mind early Jn the early part Of the season. It was a positive decision. There is a lot more to life.

*

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FROM CLUB CARS TO SUPER CARS,FROM WURBURGRING TO BATHURST, WARREN LUFF HAS ENJOYED ONE OF THE LESS TRADITIONAL AND MORE INTERESTING CAREERS.IN THIS TWO-PART FEATURE,EDWARD KRAUSE TELLS THE STORY OF HOW HE TOOK THE LONG ROAD FROM ORAN PARK TO BATHURST.

T

HE saying goes that if you can make your passion your profession,then you'll never have to work a day in your life. To that, Warren Luff calls'bullshit'!

From national one-make series championships, production cars in Europe,V8 Supercars and factory Audi sports cars and more. Luff, often described as a'versatile journeyman', has enjoyed one of the more diverse and interesting careers - but he's had to put in the hard yards for over 15 years to get there.

He was practically raised at Sydney's Oran Park Raceway, where his father, Ian, ran his successful driving school. He was behind the wheel from eight years old and bypassed the traditional go-karting route and instead learned to drive cars. But he didn't start racing until he was 16 when he and his father teamed up in a Honda CRX for the annual Alfa Romeo 6 Hour race at Eastern Creek. He progressed from there to Improved Production club car racing, driving a Mazda RX-3.

Here, Warren acknowledges, his lack of karting experience hurt him initially as he had no real practical race craft. But he learned - fast.

He was also learning the family business working as a road and race driving instructor for his father and was on-track most days. Other than his father, there would be very few, if any, that have done more laps around Oran Park than Warren.

The business was also teaching him the off-track skills needed to succeed - communication, networking and building relationships.

That was how his racing career got the start it needed via the Suzuki Swift GTi one-make series.

When it was first proposed the general manager of the Rick Damelian Group, who had a long-time association with the Luffs, approached them about entering a car for Warren.

So in 1995 Luff was one of 32 hotshot competitors in identical Suzukis.The field included drivers from other categories and several former karting champions, many of whom had been racing since

www.mnews.com.au

they were seven. In sheer racing terms - Luff was close to the most inexperienced driver in the field.

"It was almost a kill or be killed mentality," explains Luff.

"It was good hard racing. Some of the best memories I have are from that championship. We were a bunch of young guys, wanting to make an impression and progress our racing careers. It was just a lot of fun."

But not only did he survive - he thrived - eventually finishing fourth in what was one of the most cut-throat and exciting championships in memory.

Unfortunately the Suzuki importer withdrew support for the series after the first year, leaving Luff without a drive for 1996.

But the Suzuki series did exactly what Warren hoped it would do - it opened a door for him that would.eventually take him to the Nurburgring 24 hour race.

At the end of 1995 he was invited by Peugeot New Zealand to drive the guest car in three rounds of its 106 one-make series. He set a lap record and scored a couple of podiums during his time. He also made friends with veteran racer Peter Scharmack - after a brief cooling off period.

"My first encounter with him was on the first lap of race a Pukekohe,"he says, smiling."We're both off the front row on the first flying lap and we took each other out. I ended up going through the horse railing and he speared back on and took out another two cars.

"After that we had some stern words, but somewhere out of that we had a beer on the Sunday night and shook hands. Each time I went back as the guest driver we kept getting on well. He was a great guy to race with. He was one of the guys that really taught me to be a very hard racer. Pete won the championship and at the end he said 'Why don't you come to Nurburgring and come and drive my car?'."

"All I knew was the track was about 26 kays long and Niki Lauda 27

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had his big crash there, i didn't even know what direction it went, i turned up there, a 20 year-old kid who'd never been out of Australia before, after a 24-hour flight, we went to the track and paid our money to go do laps.

First lap I was just in awe of the place, how long and dangerous it was.Then on the second lap, about a third of the way around. we've come around a corner and there's this guy in leathers waving us down. As we've come around the corner there was already an ambulance there and there were bikes and bodies scattered all over the ground and they were putting a white sheet over a second body.

So,second lap, seen two guys killed on this circuit - it was a real eye-opener.

Racing a Group N spec Peugeot 306 his first attempt resulted in a 14th outright and second in class at the daunting 24-hour before rejoining Scharmack at the Spa 24 hour later that year.

In 1997 he again didn't have much of a program - another crack at the Nurburgring race with Scharmack before getting a break courtesy of the Bathurst'war'that had erupted.

With both the V8 Supercars and Super Touring both running their own Bathurst 1000 races, Luff was invited to drive a Honda Accord at the two-litre event with ex Formula 1 driver Julian Bailey. It was a troubled debut.The car struggled for pace and reliability and it wasn't a harmonious working environment with Bailey.

They finished 10th, many laps down. By a quirk of fate, his father Ian raced in the'V8'1000 two weeks later - finishing one place higher.

Luff then drove the Honda at the following rounds of the championship at Lakeside and Amaroo Park, but suspension and engine failures put paid to any chance of a result. Without a budget to bring, he couldn't run the car in the 1998 series.

His only racing in 1998 was competing at the New Zealand Formula Ford Festival, where he finished second in his debut drive in a Formula Ford and an ill-fated return to the second Super Touring Bathurst 1000. He shared a Ford Mondeo with Mark Zonneveld which only lasted 18 laps.

But once again it would be the launch of a one-make series that would kick-start his career.

When we knew about the (Mitsubishi) Mirage series coming on board we put a program together and presented it to Penrith

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Mitsubishi. They'd done a lot of corporate days with us and these were guys that dad had known for many, many years.They embraced it and enabled me to do that championship for two years."

Luff went on to comfortably win the championship in both 1999 and 2000, but unlike the hard fought Suzuki series of 1995,this was far less competitive and much lower profile series. With mostly amateur drivers in the field. Luff was rarely seriously challenged and won most of the races, often quite easily.

After two years the Mirage series also fell by the wayside and in 2001 Warren did a couple of Porsche Cup races, filling in for Martin Wagg and Warwick Miller, plus the Bathurst 3-hour GT-Production race with Rob Chadwick in a Mitsubishi Magna.

The one thing you notice when you speak with Warren is his attention.

Like his father, who can not only talk underwater but also in front of a room of CEOs, politicians,journalists andTV cameras about his passion - road safety - Luff is a great communicator. He doesn't do idle chit chat, he engages in conversation with people. He builds relationships, notjust contacts, and is one of the most likeable guys in Australian motorsport. Without cash to bring to the table, he built the early part of his career upon his father's contacts and the relationships they've both established.

It also helps if you're fast, don't crash a lot and have a good attitude.

So as 2002 rolled around, Luff was again looking fora racing program and a combination of all the above was about to deliver him the major turning point in his career was about to unfold.

Just prior to the season-opening Clipsal 500 event in Adelaide he was offered a one-off drive in the V8 Utes by Rod Nielson. Quickly pulling together a budget courtesy of local Adelaide company Laminex, which had been clients of Luff's for many years, he put the Commodore on pole and won the weekend overall.

Nielson was impressed and at the end of the weekend offered Warren the drive in the Gow Street Commodore - that Mick Donaher had raced at Adelaide - for the remainder of the championship.

Nielson wasn't the only one impressed with his Utes debut. Lansvale Racing V8 Supercar team owners Trevor Ashby and Steve Reed had also noted his performance and shortlisted him as a potential endurance driver.

Mid-year he was offered a test drive with the Lansvale team as an evaluation for the chance to co-drive with Cameron McConville.

"They were testing four drivers, and then two of us were going to be invited back to the next test day as a bit of a shootout," explains Warren.

"So I went to the first test day, did a good enough job and the second

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29

test day was between Tim Leahey and myself and, obviously they liked what i did and got the drive with Cam." The Queensland 500 was a disaster, the car only completing 33 laps before retiring with Luff not getting a lap, five years after his Bathurst 1000 debut he was getting his maiden'V8 1000'start. And unlike the car and co-driver difficulties from 1997,this time he thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

"Trevor and Steve were great guys and Cam was fantastic to work with," he enthused."He really helped me out in learning how to drive a V8 Supercar and get the best out of the car. "i thought i knew the circuit, but when you go there in a V8 Supercar for the first time it's almost like you're re-learning it again because the corners come up so much faster, some corners that (aren't in other cars) become legitimate corners,the undulations effect the car a lot more,so it was a really big learning experience."

After running strongly in the top 10 for most of the race, a steering problem late in the day put them two laps down,eventually finishing 15th.

Luff went on to win the Utes title, his third national one-make series championship.

This was undoubtedly Luff's breakout year - strong performances at high-profile events and a national championship title.The result was a second full season of V8 Utes and an offer to test drive with Dick Johnson Racing.

"They were looking for someone to partner with Steven (Johnson)for the enduros. It was a case of'no promises, come and have a drive of the car, see what you think, see what we think and we'll go from there"' explains Luff.

Again Luff impressed and earned the drive, in the meantime, he was on his way to winning his second \ consecutive Utes championship when it came time to suit up in the iconic Shell/DJR race suits.

This wasn't just an opportunity to race for a legend - this was a chance to race for his boyhood idol and alongside a good mate.

"I was a huge Dick Johnson fan as a kid," he explains."When i'd raced in New Zealand (in the mid-90s)Steven was over there racing TranzAm and we became really good mates way back then.

"Obviously DJR is an iconic team so it was a real eye-opener coming here (Bathurst) as part of Dick's team and the support it gets and the love that the fans have for him and that team.'

So in addition to his Utes program and enduros, he took over the Fujitsu-backed Falcon in the Development series afterTony Ricciardello and the team parted ways - running both the Mallala and Bathurst rounds of the series.

At Mallala he qualified and finished every race in the top six before heading to Sandown a couple of weeks later for the 500.

Unfortunately it was a bad day all round of DJR. "Early on in the race Steven got turned sideways by Garth Tander down at Dandy(Dandenong) Road. Max Wilson (in the 18 DJR car) was two cars behind and had nowhere to go and slammed him in the driver's door. It did all sorts of damage to Steve's car and smashed all the front of Max's car."

They lost time in the pits and all driver changes had to be done through the passenger door, leaving the team with no worthwhile result for the weekend.

At Bathurst they were looking strong, Steven qualifying for the top 10 shootout, but in the race an electrical problem put them a lap down,from which were unable to recover and they finished 13th.

Luff, though, had been impressive in the Development series. He qualified and finished the race in second place, both times behind eventual championship winner Mark Winterbottom.

After two consecutive championships in the Utes Warren was keen to move onwards and upwards and, after his performances in both motorsport news

V8 series'he and DJR began talking about doing a full Development series campaign in 2004.

But a few weeks before Christmas things took a dramatic turn. Max Wilson and DJR decided to part ways a year earlier than contracted, leaving a vacancy.They offered it to Luff, despite a V8 career consisting of four main game and two Development series events.

"It was kind of, ah,jumping in the deep end and just swim like mad," admits Luff.

The week after the deal was announced, we were with Warren at Oran Park where he was doing his semi-regular driving duties for the Serious Performance series of performance car DVDs. He was in the midst of organising his move to Queensland and was absolutely buzzing about his opportunity of a lifetime.

There was the tinge of bitter-sweet to it - to move to Queensland he would be resigning from working full time with his father, with whom he'd been working since he was a teenager.

The 2004 series kicked off at the Clipsal 500 and started acceptably enough - qualifying 24th - nine places and 0.6s behind Johnson before finishing race one in 11 th and on the lead lap. But he only made it to lap 16 on the Sunday race, ending the weekend on a dampener.

At the second round at Eastern Creek he out-qualified Johnson, before finishing 21 st in the single 77-lap race.

But at the next few rounds at Pukekohe, Darwin and Barbagallo an obvious trend was unfolding. Luff was usually a couple of tenths off Johnson's pace in qualifying, which was anything from six to 10 grid positions. His fastest race lap was often just as quick as Johnson's, but his finishing position was well behind his team-mate, more often back in the 20s. Other than Adelaide his best finish in the first five rounds was a 15th at Barbagallo while Johnson had made a handful of appearances in the top 10. He was struggling, he knew it and the team knew it.

"When the tyres were new and everything like that the speed was there, but my inexperience with the cars, as the tyres start to go away

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31

it took me a little bit to get my head around."

At the team's home race at Queensland Raceway Luff had a more solid run, qualifying and finishing the 300km race 16th. But by that stage the decision had been made.The option on his one-year deal wouldn't be taken up and for 2005 he would make way for two-time champion Glenn Seton.

'They called me into the office and said,'look, we need to have a talk to you about next year', and as soon as they said that I knew what was coming. It was a hard thing to hear but I understood their reasons behind it. I think there were some external pressures there. but I wanted to do the best I could in that second half of the season for them,to, I suppose, reward them for putting their faith in me.'

Those'external pressures'was the decision of Shell to withdraw its long-standing title sponsorship which, while no longer the biggest commercial deal on the grid, was still a sizeable hole to fill.

The lack of podiums and race wins during the year was making the search for a replacement even harder and so the decision to sign someone with the profile, experience and proven credentials as Seton was a logical move. Not long after, the ultimately ill-fated deal with Westpoint was announced.

Talks between Luff and DJR then turned to a plan for 2005,for Luff to run the Development series and as co-driver for the enduros.

But while Luff's debut season had been difficult, Ross and Jimmy Stone believed in him enough to offer him a full program for 2005 a Development series drive in an SBR Falcon run by Paul Cruickshank and partnering Marcos Ambrose in the enduros.

At the time Stone Brothers was the team in V8 Supercars. Ambrose was on his way to winning his and SBR's second consecutive V8 Supercar title. The chance to race with the benchmark team and driver was an opportunity he couldn't pass up.

"I thought,for me to develop as a driver, 1 could stay here {at DJR), which would have been the easy decision, I knew everyone, I was comfortable, but I wanted to challenge myself and push myself to learn more.

* Ul'M'JU

32

motorsport news

his friendship with Steven was unaffected.

The pair teamed up again for the endurance races, a tough year alleviated a little by a strong performance at Sandown. Johnson qualified the car sixth and they finished on the podium behind the SBR Falcons - Ambrose and Greg Ritter leading home Ingall and Cameron McLean.

Bathurst wasn't quite as successful, but a seventh place finish was a solid result for the team.

At the penultimate round of the championship in Tasmania Luff posted his best qualifying result ofthe year and his first solo top 10 finish to record his strongest round ofthe year.

He finished the 2004 championship in 21 st position, one spot behind Craig Lowndes and only three places behind fellow rookie Mark Winterbottom.

After such a tough season, was the decision to jump ahead into the main game the right one?

"You've got to take those chances when they're there,"answers Luff.

"In a perfect world it would have been great to have a year doing the Development series, but that option wasn't there and that was on offer.

"You look back at times on your career and you go'should've done this or that', but I don't look back with any regrets. I had a fantastic year."

Driving an SBR-supported car in the Development series, and pairing with Ambrose, had Warren motivated for a 2005 that had so much potential. But the Cruickshank-prepared SBR Falcon wasn't the as competitive as had been expected.

"That was the year they changed the regs and the Development series cars had to carry an extra 100kg,"he explains.

"For some reason, it really changed the balance ofthe car. We had Marcos drive the car on a few test days and even he struggled to get the best out of it. We couldn't understand why the 100kg affected the balance so bad. So yeah, it wasn't the greatest year."

The Development series was fought between Luff and Dean Canto, driving the DJR entry that Warren had knocked back.

While Canto went on to win 10 of the 17 races. Luff scored 11 podiums - five seconds and six thirds - but no race wins,finishing second in the title race, 30 points behind Canto.

As the main game category headed into endurance mode Luff turned his attention from his championship battle with Canto to pairing with Ambrose and being part ofthe Stone Brothers outfit for the biggest races ofthe year.

"At that time he and Stone Brothers were the benchmark of V8 Supercars and for me it was a great opportunity to learn from the team and driver that was doing the best job at the time. I went in there wanting to see what makes this place tick, what makes them so good.Those guys had the best chassis, but their engine program was a long way ahead of everyone else's."

Unfortunately, neither he nor Ambrose would be able to repeat their podium results from 2004. After qualifying fastest and then starting from the third row after the shootout, a hole in the radiator caused several unscheduled stops and they eventually finished 13th,two laps down. Ambrose still left the race as championship leader, albeit by a reduced margin to his team-mate Ingall. But having already announced his intention to go to the USA and pursue NASCAR,this would be Ambrose's last chance to win the Bathurst 1000 - and Stone Brothers were leaving nothing to chance. As Warren would soon discover.

MIXT ISSUl:

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Part two of our feature on Warren Luff includes:The real story of'balaclava-gate'; racing for Britek and Lucas Dumbrell,the reunion with DJR and suiting up for Audi and Triple Eight to finally achieve a Bathurst podium,and much more.

www.mnews.com.au

33

34

motorsport news

"I

F

ACT:Tyres play a significant role in almost all forms of motorsport.

Given that you're reading this particular magazine, it's a fair bet that you already knew that. It doesn't matter if your poison of choice is V8 Supercars, Formula 1 or NASCAR,chances are that at some point, and in some way, you've seen a race turned on its head by tyres.

The old days of'tyre wars'are basically gone now. In the.1990s, V8 Supercars had Bridgestone, Dunlop and Yokohama going head to head on the track. For Formula 1, it was Bridgestone and Michelin doing battle up until the mid-2000s.

Now,control tyres are the norm - but it hasn't necessarily made life any easier for the tyre manufacturers. Whereas the challenge was once to simply make the fastest

www.mnews.com.au

tyre possible, the tyre makers now have to think about providing rubber that keeps the racing interesting, and the customers(by which I mean series organisers and the teams that pay the bills) as happy as possible, it's a whole new challenge.

South Korean tyre makers Flankook are big players in European motorsport right now.

Through their Ventus line, they are currently supplying control tyres to Germany's DTM, Italy's Superstars Series, and the Formula 3 Euro Series, as well as the GT Sprint International Series and Sweden'sTTA Racing Elite League.

As FI an kook's Team Manager for Motorsport, James Kim plays a big part in the racing program from his base in Frankfurt. Fie took the time to give Motorsport News an exclusive insight into how Ventus race tyres are designed and manufactured.

DEVELOPMENT AND PRODUCTION or each set of Hankook Ventus race tyres, the process starts in a specialist manufacturing plant in Daejoen,South Korea. It's here that the Hankook engineers take the brief given to them by whichever series it is that they are working with, and begin designing the perfect prototype tyre.

"The starting point is meeting the given technical requirements - that is tyre dimension and size,"says Kim. "We also consider the performance requirements the tyre has to meet, and other decisive factors such as the car's weight, aerodynamical downforce,the distance to be raced and the circuit characteristics.

"When designing a new tyre, Hankook always strives to combine and further optimise it with a view on successful reference tyres that have been developed in the past and already proven themselves'in action'to leverage our experience in the field of motorsports, and provide drivers with the high-performing, reliable and safe tyres."

With all of that considered, and a basic design drawn up,the folks at Hankook begin the arduous manufacturing process.

"Based on this so-called spec-book,the best possible design, carcass construction and tread compound mixture are selected to meet these requirements,"adds Kim. "Next,the curing mould is designed and a prototype tyre is produced.This is followed by initial tyre tests and quality checks indoor tests on a rig followed by'real'tests on the target vehicle. Once all specification

DR V NG P

k requirements are met, serial production of the approved specification starts and the tyre can be provided to teams and drivers.

"It usually takes about two-to-four development loops until a prototype racing tyre gets approved for serial production and is ready to be used in competition."

THE RIGHT FORMULA ankook's three major motor racing partners in Europe are without doubt the DTM, the International Superstars Series, and the Formula 3 Euro Series.

While they are three very different series, there is a level of crossover. For instance, Hankook has found that the same tyre works in both the DTM and Superstars.

"The Superstars Series is using same tyre dimensions as did the DTM in 2011," explains Kim. "After extensive testing of the DTM tyres with regard to compound and construction, it was decided they perfectly meet and fulfil the technical regulations of the Superstars Series, and ensure high performance and safety on the various tracks raced in the series."

F3, however, is a totally different kettle offish when it comes to tyres.

"The main difference between a touring car and open-wheeler tyres is in the wheel diameter, which is 13-inch for formula cars, compared to 18-inch for most touring cars.

"Formula cars are much lighter than,for example,the ones raced in the Superstars Series. Therefore,formula car tyres come with a softer sidewall that also does a part of the damping work by absorbing shocks.

"Touring Car tyres, on the other hand, are more reactive, and their sidewall construction is accordingly much shorter and stiffen" One man particularly qualified to talk on the

differences between open-wheeler and touring cartyres isTonio Liuzzi. This time last year Liuzzi was racing Formula 1 cars, before making a pre-2012 season switch to the Superstars Series. Now, with his maiden season as a touring car driver behind him, he admits that learning to drive on a tyre made specifically for a tin-top was a heck of a challenge.

"It took a while, because you have to get used to the weight of the car, and how to feel the weight transition through the tyres," says the Italian.

"It's very different, because the car is heavier, and when you brake you are hitting the brakes at least 70 or 80 metres earlier than you would in a single-seater. The feeling approaching the corner is completely different.

"In a way,for me the feeling in the beginning was like riding a horse, because it was the other extreme. I had to completely change my driving style,to learn how to feel the car and translate that performance into the tyres. It was difficult.

I took a few kilometres to get used to that.

"I also had to learn how the shoulders of the tyre were working, what the compound needed, what tyre pressures worked best... everything is a bit different.The basics are similar, but the tyres react differently. When you jump from car to car, you have to switch into a different mode."

THE AGE OLD BATTLE With engineering,there is invariably a trade off. If you give a racing car a lot of downforce, it will be slow in a straight line. If you give an engine a lot of horsepower, it will usually be less efficient.

For tyres, the trade off is grip versus longevity. A softer compound will offer more grip, but it won't last anywhere near as long,and races become too dependent on tyre failures. But if a tyre is too strong,the

Whereas the challenge was once to simply make the fastest tyre possible, the tyre makers now have to think about providing rubber that keeps the racing interesting, and the customers as happy as possible.

36

motorsport news

o

BURCHARTZ

LEGAL I ADVISORY

DELIVERING CLARITY

ERFORMANCE

racing becomes sterile and boring. It's a delicate balance.

Using the DTM/Superstars tyre as an example, Hankook has developed a compound that will do around 80km without any significant drop-off.That seems to work well with both series - the DTM has longer races with a pit-stop, while a Superstars race is simply a 25-minute sprint with no stops at all.

According to Kim, it's these factors that a tyremaker considers when first developing a control tyre.

"The individual compound of a race tyre is chosen based on circuit conditions, as well as other expected influential factors, such as weather.

"For example,the VLN Series will only race on the Nurburgring Nordschleif, whereas the Superstars Series is racing on various racetracks with differing characteristics.

"These factors have to be taken into account when developing a tyre for a race series or event. An ideal race tyre will allow for good initial peak performance (especially for qualifying), and provide reliable endurance performance throughout the race distance.

Of course, other factors such as a rigid carcass construction to maximise safety have to be taken into account as well.

Of course, no tyres are perfect, and there are times when a Hankook Ventus will fail.

However, in the case of DTM and Superstars tyres, the most likely causes of tyre failures come from outside factors.

"Overall, we only experience very few tyre failures," Kim adds.

"Most of them are either caused by accidents, for example when a wheel gets damaged,or by sharp-edged kerbs. Debris on the track - carbon fibre or gravel - sometimes can become an issue, but normally doesn't harm the tyre seriously. An exception would be deep cuts caused by debris that reach down into the tyre's sub-tread zone."

In terms of tyre life and overall grip, how does these Ventus tyres compare to the Dunlop rubber used in the V8 Supercar Series.

To answer that we went back to our driver expert Liuzzi, who has now twice raced on the Dunlops on the Gold Coast. www.mnews.com.au

HAN KOOK is a comparative new piayer in the motorsport and performance tyre market. Butfrom its first foray into the sport less than 20 years ago,the company has not wasted any time.

As control tyre supplier to the DTM, Superstars Series, the Formula 3 Euro Series, GT Sprint International Series and Sweden's TTA Racing Elite League, Hankook now enjoys a substantial presence in European motor racing.

It's also involved in Japanese Super GT, Asian Le Mans Series and Formula Drift in the United States, but it's Europe that forms the core of Hankook's racing activities.

That a Korean tyre manufacturer is focussed so heavily on Europe rather than Asia could merely be a case of the company choosing to compete where the action is. But it's a bit more than that- as a new

Of all the things you need when faced with a, legal or commercial situation, the first and-foremost is a clesL and accurate presentation of the facts and your position.

LAWYERS WHO UNDERSTAND MOTORSPORT

player in this market, Hankook sees Europe as a pathway to wider global recognition. Because if its tyres are good enough for such GT exotics as the Mercedes-Benz SLS and Audi R8, not to mention the DTM and the various other Euro series its supplies, they're surely good enough for everything else.

In this part of the world we're likely to hear more from Hankook in the future.

Already it supplies the New Zealand V8 SuperTourers, and its involvement in the Shaky Isles'version of V8 Supercars is far from passive - the company is reportedly a key behind-the-scenes player in a bold plan to export the NZ V8s to Korea to race at the new Inje Autopolis circuit currently under construction and which is expected to be race-ready by mid next year.

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LEGAL ADVISERS TO TEAMS, DRIVERS, SERIES OWNERS & MANUFACTURERS T:-f613 9804 8311 R-F613 9804 8586 INFO@BURCHARTZINTELEX.COM.AU www.burchartzintelex.com.au 2.08/Level 2,9-11 Claremont Street South Yarra VIC 3141 ADVICE - STRATEGY - OUTCOME MANAGMENT 37

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Austnali^VSs, that II was a real surprise.

The tyres are quite a soft compound for a touring car, so there is a big drop off with new tyres in qualifying, after two or three laps.

And the consistency changes a lot during §●

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'Australian V8s, that was a real surprise for me in terms of performance," he says.

"The tyres are quite a soft compound for a touring car, so there is a big drop off with new tyres in qualifying, after two or three laps. And the consistency changes a lot during the race.

"There is also a different in the size. With

approximately 60°C or above. Below this mark the tyre does not work properly because it lacks grip. The maximum temperature for slicks is about 120°C. If the tyres get hotter than this the tread compound will suffer from overheating."

the Hankook tyres, you need to work a lot harder on temperature and less on pressure.

In Australia, you work a lot more on pressure, because the sidewall is higher, so you can use the compression of the tyre. There are a lot of differences between the two tyres, because the cars behave differently."

While motor racing is a summer sport in Europe, it's still more heavily affected by wet weather than, say, V8 Supercars and it's winter schedule.

So, Hankook has to make sure that its wet weather Ventus tyres are up to the job - and it's not as simple as just cutting some random grooves into a slick tyre.

"The compound used for rain tyres is much softer than the one applied on slicks,"says Kim. "It also changes with different types of racing - Formula tyre compounds in general are softer than the ones used for GT car tyres.

"Hydroplaning performance Is related to tread pattern design as well as the depth and width of the grooves. However, due to the softer tread compound that is used for rain tyres, the size of the contact patch is also Important In order to prevent overheating occurring on the tyre surface.

Tyre footprint and water-drainage characteristics need to be balanced in

PUTTING THE PRESSURE ON

As Liuzzi mentions, pressure and temperature are crucial when it comes to a tyre performing properly.

But it's a difficult science. More temperature means more pressure, which means that, before a race, the tyre has to be pressured to work at racing temperature, not static temperature. Part of Hankook's job as a control tyre supplier is to give the teams advice on starting pressures, something they monitor throughout the early development of the tyre.

"The tyre's inflating pressure is both supporting the construction and ensuring safety," says Kim. "A certain minimum tyre pressure therefore needs to be respected at any time, otherwise the carcass might suffer damage. On the other hand, the tyre pressure should not exceed a certain maximum, as this might result in loss of performance and increases the risk of overheating the tread compound.

"During the development process many factors are being taken into account to determine the window of optimal inflating pressure for a specific tyre, such as safety, durability and essential performance characteristics like steering response, cornering and braking.

"Just as for the inflating pressure, there is also an optimal temperature window for a tyre. If the tyre is operated within this window maximum performance can be achieved.

"Slicks need a tyre temperature of 38

RAINING SUPREME

a rain tyre to make it work optimally."

ONE FOR THE ROAD

So, just how similar are these custom-made racing tyres compared to the road tyres that the average motorist can buy for his daily drive? Obviously, Hankook invests money in its motorsport program because it provides both marketing leverage and invaluable development. As Kim explains, road legal tyres require more care in terms of tread pattern design, while racing tyres are pushed harder in testing to make sure they're up to the task.

"During the prototype stage, more hand crafted tyres are necessary for the development of road-legal tyres," he says.

"For example, designing the tread is far more complex on a road tyre. For racing tyres, the tread pattern is of minor significance, as slicks don't have grooves at all. The

development focus for racing tyres therefore is more on optimising key racing performance characteristics, such as grip and tyre feedback.

"In terms of tyre testing, racing tyres have to undergo much harder indoor tests in term of severity, as they have to withstand much greater forces and punctual stress when in use. Road legal tyres have to deliver on many other characteristics, such as rolling resistance, pass-by noise and comfort."

Two of the major differences between road legal tyres and specialist race tyres are weight and stiffness, with dedicated materials playing a big part in the light-weight Ventus racing rubber.

"Race and road legal tyres are designed to deliver on different requirements in the best possible way: a racing tyre is designed to deliver maximum performance for very limited mileage, whereas road legal tyres are expected to deliver consistent performance and provide maximum safety over a long tyre life,"adds Kim. "For race tyres, the lighter tyre weight and maximum performance is achieved by using other materials for the carcass compared to road legal tyres, as well as by reducing tread depth and compound mass.

"As for rigidity, there are several possibilities to achieve higher stiffness in a tyre. Influencing factors are, for example, tyre height, shape and the material used for the bead-filler. In addition, various extra-layers can be applied to the shoulder part as well as underneath the tread to increase the tyre's stiffness."

motorsport news

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TEAMVODAFONE'S 'BROCK' LIVERY AT BATHURST WAS THE RESULT OF BOLD VISION, LONG-TERM PLANNING AND MAXIMUM SECRECY. EDWARD KRAUSE REVEALS THE INSIDE STORY OF HOW IT ALL CAME TOGETHER. mong a host of retro-inspired liveries to celebrate the 50th year of the Great Race at Bathurst 1000,the TeamVodafone'Brock'tribute was at once the most predictable and the most surprising.

With the well-documented relationship between the late Peter Brock and his protege,TeamVodafone's Craig Lowndes, a Brock-inspired tribute was always on the cards. When it was announced that the unveiling would be held at Brock Skyline and with Bev Brock, it merely confirmed what everybody expected.

But when the car was revealed, it was a genuine surprise.That TeamVodafone had produced a design so close to the original Marlboro HDT livery of the late'70s and early '80s was both unexpected and impressive.

For in a year that historic footage of racing cars with cigarette branding, including the very cars that this paintjob was inspired by, were having those logos blurred out on TV broadcasts,such a literal throwback to the 'cigarette packs on wheels'was a bold step for a major, global corporation.

It had a massive impact -far bigger than any other livery release. And while some debated the aesthetic merits of the different paintjobs,for sheer scale, authenticity. publicity and execution, nothing came close

to the release of the 888 Commodore.

Much like the Holden Racing Team had two years earlier with its 20th anniversary livery,TeamVodafone went the whole way.

In addition to the car, there were team uniforms, driving suits and a range of merchandise for sale at the TeamVodafone store.The end result was a massive production that was nearly nine months in the making.

Discussions kicked off early in the year, when Vodafone began planning its 2012 program with TeamVodafone.The Brock angle was the obvious one and the discussions quickly went from what to do,to how to do it. How to respectfully integrate a Brock tribute livery into its Bathurst promotion, which Brock livery to reference, and how to execute it for maximum impact.

Steve Saunders, head of sponsorship and events at Vodafone, explains the sensitivities and reasoning behind how they reached that decision.

"Obviously you think of Brocky when you think of Bathurst, and then you think of the relationship he and Craig had. So, I don't think anyone else could have pulled off the Brock livery, to be honest. And that's the

reason we haven't done it to Jamie's car. It's out of a respect... Craig had that very close relationship with him and the history, so that's what we went for.

"Then we looked at iconic Brock cars and the Marlboro livery one was one of his most famous and most popular.Then we set down the path of trying to work out how we recreate that."

The first step was taking it to Lowndes and Triple Eight management.This was important notjustforthe logistics, but also for Vodafone as a gauge of the appropriateness of what they were planning.

Anything that could be viewed as tacky, or disrespectful, would incur a backlash from the faithful.

"Lowndesy was over the moon, he was pumped,"Saunders says."We had to make sure they (Triple Eight) were up for it. Which they were.They're fantastic to work with.

Pretty much anything we've thrown at them

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over the years they're up for - if it's good for us and good for them."

Once the team were on board, Bev Brock was consulted and once she gave her seal of approval then it was all systems go.

"From there we had to,from a legal perspective, work out what sort of trademarks and IP (intellectual property) there was that belonged to Marlboro, work out what we could and couldn't do.We wanted to make sure we weren't going to offend anyone and went through all the right steps. We had to go and change a few shapes slightly and that's why certain parts of the car ended upthe way they did."

Despite all the enthusiasm,this was an idea to put what was effectively a retro cigarette livery on a Vodafone car - a brave concept that needed to be presented properly by Saunders and his team.

"It went to our marketing director at the time - and he was supportive. We sold in

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the story and the opportunity. He gets, thankfully, how big Bathurst is and the 50 years is a massive opportunity, and now being the last year for TeamVodafone here, it ended up being a no-brainer in the end."

To execute properly required a fourmonth lead time and complete secrecy from Vodafone,Triple Eight and its partners and suppliers. This included Holden, which had to be looped into the conversation, as well as the suite of other TeamVodafone sponsors.

One word out of turn from any of them would minimise the impact and the resulting publicity. Saunders explains how this was achieved.

"Back in early June we had to make the call. We formed a tight project working group and managed it very closely. Only key stakeholders (at Vodafone) had seen it - probably about 10 people in the business before it got revealed.

"It took us about six to eight weeks to go through our internal processes and get it signed off and then the team was straight onto it, with, in particular, merchandise designs and getting that produced and here in time from China.You (also) need race suits and team uniforms.

"To be honest,the car's probably the easiest bit, but it's still a big effort in that they have to do three sets of panels - I think they've done six front splitters. It's a fair bit of work that we've made the guys go through, but they were all on board, which was great."

There was one other potential concern the HRT. While not a direct descendant of Brock's HDT,the factory outfit at least had a logical association with Brock, including having him drive for the team at the end of both his full-time driving career and his final appearance at the Great Race.There was every chance HRT was planning its own 'Brock'tribute.

"Always when you do this type of stuff, you don't know what other teams are doing," admits Saunders."But working with the

SEE NO EVIL While Vodafone was very insistent on referring to their retro scheme as the'Brock' livery, there's no question that it was referencing the Marlboro branding of 30 years past. Vodafone's decision to go with this design seemed even bolder in light of Channel 7's decision to blur the tobacco branding on historical cars - even the racing footage.

"At the end of the day it's about remembering Peter, and honouring him and the relationship he and Lowndsey had,"explains Saunders.

"I think more people think of Brock and his legacy here at Bathurst when they see that car than they do a cigarette brand.

"We admit we've pushed it, we took a couple of risks, but that's how we like to do things and I think it's paid off.'

a conversation.Thankfully it's all come together and it's looking good."

The secret held and nobody outside of the core project group knew exactly what the car that was being helicopter lifted to Brock Skyline looked like. The result was one of the sporting launches of the year.

The media coverage was immense, with air time on the evening news and stand alone stories in newspapers around the country.The merchandise walked off the shelf, and there's a model car due out early in 2013 that will surely be a strong seller. As a publicity and branding exercise, it was close to perfection.

Even more importantly, the public response was almost entirely positive. It was seen how Vodafone and Triple Eight intended it - a tribute to the King of the Mountain by his anointed heir apparent.

"The response from the fans has been amazing. People saying they've been coming to Bathurst for 30 years and it almost brought them to tears seeing that livery revealed and the fact we involved Bev, everything's been awesome. I think we made the right call."

GOING OFF BRAND Most companies the size of Vodafone will have a brand guideline book thicker than this magazine. Diverting from approved style guidelines is never an option. But in Vodafone's case - for Bathurst and for Brock - they were prepared to make this one-time exception when they removed the speech mark - a core item of their branding.

"We've got a certain level of autonomy here locally where we can do what we need to. We haven't messed with the brand too much.There's certainly... we've used a bit of sponsorship licence on it."

"It's only because it's this (Bathurst) and it's a one-off.There were some good discussions internally around leaving the speech mark on or taking it off. We were trying to maintain the integrity of the original livery. Ideally it would have been great to use that same font of the old Marlboro car, but... there's only so far you can take it. We've tried to maintain the integrity ofthe brand as

well."

WHICH BROCK LIVERY WAS IT? The livery was,at heart, a tribute to Brock and the (nearly) all-conquering era during the Marlboro Holden Dealer Team days from 1978-1984. Most people assumed that it was the 1982 Commodore design - but according to Saunders,the 888 Commodore livery was based upon the 1979Torana A9X. This was the car Brock drove to his most dominant,and arguably most famous win where he beat the field by six laps and set the race lap record on his final lap.

Such dominance ensures that the 1979 Great Race will forever be Brock's , masterpiece. jEPnews

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SHE IS THM EEISTY GERMAN BLONDE WHO CAN GEE AROHND THE NHRBDRGRING IN A TRAN GOMES TO THE NORDSGHLEIEE SHE IS BEnER THAN MOST, BEGADSE SABINE SCHMIDT IS Ql

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HAT do Alan Jones and Sabine Schmitz have in common?

The answer is that both have a hotel to thank for their motor racing career. As strange as it sounds, that is the genuine link between the 1980 Formula 1 World Champion,and the'Queen ofthe Ring'.

In case you don't know the story, when a cash-strapped Jones first lobbed in England to pursue his dream of becoming an FI driver he made money by buying a bunch 60

of cheap bunk beds and offering travellers somewhere to sleep for five quid a night.

For Schmitz, it's a different story. As a kid, the likeable German grew up in a hotel owned by her mother, a famous inn called Flotel am Tiergarten that is literally 500 metres from one ofthe entrances to the Nordschleife. Naturally, the hotel was (and still is) an absolute favourite for people travelling into the Eifel to tackle the Green Hell.

Throughout her childhood, Schmitz was

overwhelmed with professional racers, test drivers from car manufacturers and countless tourists talking about the magic of the Nordschleife. For her it had never been anything special,just a bit of road that she would occasionally see through the trees as she rode her horse or pushbike through the mountains. Eventually she was persuaded to go and see what all the fuss was about, by means of her mum's car. In that moment,a Nurburgring legend was born.

"All of the racing drivers who stayed with motorsport news

SIT IN lUMOST ns FAST AS JEREMY GIARKSOfl CAN IN A JAGUAR. RUT THEN WHEN IT EEN RE THE RING. ANRREW VAN lEEUWEN WAS GRANTEH AN ARHIENGE WITH HER HIGHNESS us, and all of the tourists who came for the open days, were always talking about the Nurburgring,"she recalls.

"They'd talk about how it gets your blood racing, and that it's just crazy. I thought 'what's crazy about the Nurburgring? Why does this place drive people crazy?'

"So I decided to take my mum's car for a drive on the track. I didn't even have a licence.Then I drove several laps with the BMW test drivers, because they stayed at our hotel all of the time - they still do. I did some www.mnews.com.au

laps with some other guests as well, and I thought'hey, this is really cool! I want to do more of this!'"

Schmitz certainly got what she wanted. At 43 years of age,she estimates that she has now done a whopping 30,000 laps around the Nordschleife. Now, let's not forget that this is a circuit that is more than 20km long.

One lap is roughly equivalent to a whole club-level Formula Ford race in both time and distance.To have been around there 30,000 times is an amazing achievement.

"It is a lot of laps, but they build up quite quickly,"she says casually, as if it isn't a big deal."With the Ring Taxi I was doing at least 1000 laps per year, sometimes closer to 1200.

Then there are the VLN races, the 24 Flour, so it just never stops."

The VLN she mentions there is the Veranstaltergemeinschaft Langstreckenpokal Nurburgring (Nurburgring Endurance Cup, when simply translated), a series that Schmitz and her Frikadelli Racing Team still compete in with their Porsche GT3 R. 67

i It’s funny, it’s like... the way te schuni fur me. I well, because I was oning amund it un a horse, i

Between that, the famous Nurburgring 24 Hour and Frikadelli's Ring Taxi service, Schmitz is still racking up the laps... and showing no sign of slowing down anytime soon.

"I'm still fast. Last year I was on pole position in qualifying [for the 24 Hour]. When I'm not at the front anymore,then maybe I will decide that it doesn't make sense 62

anymore (laughs). But the team keep saying 'no, we need you'. 1 tell them I'll just do the catering and make the coffee, but they keep telling me that 1 have to drive. Why not?"

Let's just back track a little bit. We already know how Schmitz fell in love with the Nordschleife, but how on earth did she get into a position where she is a professional driver with more than 30,000

laps under her belt?

"When I turned 18, 1 got my drivers licence," she explains.

"You weren't allowed to do races without a normal drivers licence back then - now it's no problem, but at this time you needed a proper licence. So I did that as soon as possible, and then ... let's go! I was 16 years old and I wanted to be a racing driver.

"They had the Ford Fiesta Mixed Cup, where there were only couples allowed.

There was an age limit; both drivers together had to be under 55 years old. So they were looking for fast girls. It gave me the chance to make some money from my first few races.

"We went all over Europe, and I learnt all the tracks. It was a great championship.

I finished the year as the champion, so, even better."

With that first year out of the way, momentum took over. She started racing, and winning, in the VLN and the Castrol Flaugg Cup, before becoming the first woman to win the Nurburgring 24 Flour in 1996, sharing a BMW M3 with Johannes Scheid and Hans Widmann. A year later she won it again,this time sharing the M3 with Scheid, Hans-JurgenTiemann and Peter Zakowski.

Along the way Schmitz also picked up motorsport news

Schmitz on Top Gear

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ABINE Schmitz has a lot to thank Jeremy Clarkson for.

Long before her appearance on Clarkson's ultra-successful Top Geor television program,Schmitz was a local icon in the Eifel. But it wasn't until she took Clarkson to task over his relativeness slowness around the Nordschlelfe during a now famous episode that she became known to anyone around the world with an interest in fast cars and big, scary racetracks.

In case you missed it, as highly unlikely as that Is, Schmitz's breakthrough appearance on Top Gear went a little something like this: Clarkson attempts to drive a dieselpowered Jaguar S-Type around the Nordschlelfe in under 10 minutes. Understanding the enormity of his proposed task, Clarkson enlists Schmitz to help him learn the ropes.

The tuition works, Clarkson eventually dragging the lumbering Jag around in 9m59s - albeit after nearly two whole days of trying. But upon sharing the news of his success with Schmitz,she quips that she could beat that time in a van, before besting Clarkson's time by 47 seconds in the same car on her first attempt.

Halfway through the following season. Top Gear decided to take Schmitz up on the challenge of taking a van around the Nordschlelfe in less than 10 minutes. Despite her best efforts, the best she could coax out of a 136 horsepower Ford Transit was 10mBs still an impressive effort given how entirely unsuitable the vehicle was for the task.

But while she failed the challenge,the two Top Gear appearances did wonders for Schmitz's television career. In fact, when one-time V8 Supercar hopeful Ben Collins outed himself as the show's famous'Stig'character and was subsequently fired, Schmitz was even hotly rumoured to be his replacement in the white suit and Star Wars-like Simpson helmet.

"Being on Top Gear was worldwide exposure,so it was a big advantage for me," she admits.

"Even in Australia and New Zealand people know me. Everywhere in the world, which is good for me.

"It was surprising, because in Germany Top Gear was never big. Now it's starting to become bigger, but before no one in Germany had heard of it. Crazy,isn't it? I've still never really seen the show,except my episode!You don't normally gefit in Germany, and when you do it's translated into German and the British humour doesn't work.

"Now,I've been working with Jeremy for 12 years."

Being on Top Gear didn'tjust help Schmitz when it came to being recognised abroad.

Having so easily taken to being in front ofthe camera,German TV network DMAX . decided to launch its own Top Gear-style program. D Motor was hosted by Schmitz, racecar driver Tim SchrikandTV host Carson van Ryssen.

"We tried to make a little copy[of Top Gear], but we didn't have the budget," laughs Schmitz.

"Maybe we had one percent of the budget! But it was good fun.We have some good ideas. We even had a battle between Germany and Britain, with my TV show against Top Gear. It was so funny. We did it on neutral ground in Belgium, but the Brits won. Because of the budget!"

-ANDREWVAN LEEUWEN

kiiew the track very I a bicpie, by foot the gig of driving one of the original 'Ring Taxis', which meant thousands of laps at the wheel of an M5,scaring the unholy bejesus out of tourists.

That experience is exactly why she is still a force to be reckoned with when the 24 Hour rolls around each year. In quieter moments,even professional racers will admit that sometimes there are stretches of the Nordschlelfe that go missing from their memory banks - even mid-way through a lap.That's a problem that Schmitz never, ever has. She knows every centimetre of SP73R D93J

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the 25.947km that make up the combined Nurburgring circuits, and when it comes to being fast around there that's more than half of the battle.

"Yeah, sure, 1 know the whole circuit,"she says, casually.

"Absolutely all of it. It's funny, it's like ... the way to school for me. I always knew the track very well, because I was going around it on a horse, on a bicycle, by foot... but it's always a question of the car as well. Not every car is the same to drive there. On my 19th birthday I set a new lap record for Group N cars, so I was always very fast."

While simply knowing the direction of each upcoming corner (all 147 of them)is more than half the battle, it's not the only secret to nailing a lap-time that doesn't require a calendar as means of timing.

"Usually you go on the track, and you drive right on the edge,"she explains.

"You put everything into it. Here, you need a good rhythm. If you try too hard, you won't be fast on the Nordschleife. You have to let the car go."

Given the sheer length of the circuit, and the sheer number of corners and complexes, you would think that picking a favourite part of the Nordschleife would be a tough job. But, after so many laps Schmitz has no trouble naming her two favourite bits of the track.

"I like the fast sections, like Schwedenkreuz(Swedish Cross) and Fuchsrohre (Foxhole),"she says immediately when quizzed on the subject.

"They are dangerous, particularly Schwedenkreuz, which is a top-speed crest.

I love that part of the track. I don't like the sharp,tiny corners. I like speed."

An equally tough question should be which, out of all of the cars Schmitz has driven, is her favourite. Again,she takes no time to respond.

"I drove an old Mercedes DTM car, which was unbelievably fast," he says, "it was very light, plenty of power, big brakes, and a sequential gearbox. It was really quick.

"Our Porsche is fun to drive too, but it's hard to drive. It's so fast that you can't wave to spectators! Usually I see friends at the track, especially when I come into Brunnchen. I want to wave but this isn't possible anymore. It's a shame (laughs)."

While Schmitz has lost the ability to wave to people during a race, she has far from lost her human touch. One interesting service offered by Frikadelli Racing is the'RaceTaxi' experience, which not only includes a lap of the Nordschleife in a race-spec Porsche with Schmitz, but takes patrons behind the scenes for the full Friday of each VLN round.

It's so popular that it is already fully booked until the end of the 2012 season.

And let's face it; if you're only ever going to do one lap of the Nurburgring Nordschleife, why not do it with someone who's already banked a cool 30,000?

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25.947km Length: 170 Turns: Elevation Change: 300m 8m 26.730s Lap record: Timo Bernhard, Porsche(997 GT3 RSR), 2008 24 Hrs NOrburgring, FIA GT2

Length: Turns: Lap record:

20.81km 154 6m 11.13s Stefan Belief, Porsche(956), 1983,WSC

motorsport news

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ACK in 2006,the entry list for Australian Formula 3's appearance as a support category at the Australian Grand Prix had a distinctively international feel, w/ith a host of imports tackling Albert Park.

Of course, Bruno Senna stole the headlines, but he wasn't the only invader to visit the top step of the podium. Brit James Winslow won the opener, and Australia and its Formula 3 championship have been a big part of his life ever since.

"To be honest, no I didn't,"Winslow admits when asked if he ever thought he and Australia would become so linked."But I'm very happy it is; I hope to stay here and establish myself in V8 Supercars.

"That first race was amazing, beating Bruno Senna and the series regulars in a big field, at the FI GP. It's a moment I'll never forget."

In 2007, he contested the majority of the season alongside winning the Formula Asia V6 Championship, before becoming engaged in a title fight with LeanneTander and Nathan Caratti in 2008, arguably the championship's strongest year. Eventually, it would be Winslow sealing the Gold Star in a dramatic finale.

Having tested a Champ Car in late 2007, Winslow's next step was America, with a view to cracking IndyCar. He spent time in the now-defunct Atlantic Championship and the Indy Lights feeder classes, in addition to a stint as a rookie driver forTeam Great Britain in A1 Grand Prix.

Then, Australia called again. Winslow appeared on the entry list for the opening round of the 2011 Formula 3 Australian Drivers Championship at Winton. His weekend with R-Tek Motorsport was initially a one-off but he'd end up doing all bar one event, eventually falling Just shy of Chris Gilmour in the points.

"I was racing in Indy Lights and the F3 drive at Winton was just a one off, then I got the opportunity to do the second round and the third round ..."he recalls.

"I was leading the series by 30 points when I had to stay in the USA and honour my racing commitments there and miss a round.To win a series after missing three points-scoring races shouldn't be possible, really; the same thing happened to, Mitch Evans in 2010.

"It was just nice to drive an F3 car again and win races."

In 2012,though,there was no such absenteeism. Sticking with l R-Tek, Winslow was the dominant force, sealing a second title with a round to spare. But how do his two championships compare?

"It differs in some ways. In 2008 there were 25 cars on the grid or more, even, at times and $120,000 in prizemoney at stake, including 80,000 for the champion,and a couple of top-line and international drivers.

"This year the numbers haven't been as big, as is the case for F3 around the world since the GFC, but it still has the Gold Star status and the cars are still the fastest cars in Australia. We race at the biggest events in the country and the competition is still very good,so to win a second Gold Star and break the record for the most wins in a season and most F3 wins ever is very special for me."

Winslow nominates racing at Bathurst earlier this year as a highlight of the last two years - likening it to Macau - but another came off-track, helping F3 mainstay Ian 'Ricko' Richards claim his first title as a team owner since forming the squad in 2007.

"Ricko is a great guy. He calls me many different names - some can't be repeated - and gives me a hard time 90 percent of the time. But I think he likes me," he jokes."'WP'is the regular name for me. He tells me it stands for'winning Pom', but I have a feeling it stands for something else, as it's normally shouted

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across the garage after I've asked for a set-up change!

'At the end of the day, Ricko won this title as much as me,and was very pleased to win his first Gold Star, I'm glad to have been a part of it. Meryl Richards was a big part of this also; they're a great family and good people. It was very rewarding."

Beyond his F3 campaign, Winslow has been a busy man in 2012. Fie contested a handful of events in NASCAR's Euro-Racecar Series Championship, became the works driver for West Race Cars, and also made an appearance in the Australian GT Championship.

'They were great fun, very different to F3," Winslow says of the NASCAR machinery."! have driven V8 Supercars, GT cars, Grand-Am cars and so many similar types of cars to the ones used in the series.They're not the same, but it teaches you to adapt to the driving style required pretty quickly."

Still, with all of the different cars he's sat in, Formula 3 racers remain Winslow's benchmark.

'I love F3 cars. When you get the set-up right and nail that pole lap on new rubber you know you've just done something special," he enthuses.

'1 have been lucky to have driven many different single seaters, possibly nearly every class except FI, and I love the feel of a well set-up F3 car on new tyres. I'd rate it as my

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number one car to drive."

Motorsport is littered with drivers who appear for several years, then disappear from the scene after running out of money. Go back and look at a Dunlop Series or Formula Ford timesheet, for instance,from a couple of years and have a blast from the past. Winslow,though, has been able to make his money go further than most. taking whatever chance he can to stay in the game.

I have become used to following the opportunities wherever they might be, or wherever I can create them," he reflects.

I have always worked very hard on my racing.

I'm not from any family money at all and have had to chase the sponsorship money hard and have had to be successful to keep in the game.

I believe the harder you work the luckier you are, and I'll not give up until I have ticked all the boxes on the goal list."

Taking opportunities as they arise brought Winslow back to Australia and Formula 3.

Cracking V8 Supercars remains his priority. although he's also pursuing an IndyCar berth in America. As long as there's smoke,Winslow will try to make sure there's a fire.

'V8 Supercars is the primary goal," he said.

'IndyCar is still a strong possibility for a couple of races in 2013, including Long Beach. But for a long term career and my current primary career goal, V8s is it. I'm working hard on it."

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HE popularity of regular American visitor Danny Smith to Australian shores this time every year is immense - Smith enjoys the kind of reception usually reserved for our home-grown heroes.

But it's not Just the fans, because on the Australian circuit since the early 1980s Smith has been one of the most respected competitors among sprintcar teams.

"I like Australia and a lot of people in it," Smith said."They always make me feel very welcome, and it's certainly a place that's kind to me."

The accomplished professional sprintcar driver has winged his way from his native Danville, Indiana, to race Down Under since 1982.Yet for all those the long travel hours every season.

Smith cites laziness as the main reason he took up motor racing.

"I guess I was too lazy to get a job."

His philosophy for racing is quite an easy one to understand.

"I'm simple as a person, not too complex but fast. There's no, bling bling."

Since that very first visit he has gone from the villain to hero with Aussie speedway followers when he became famous for telling the Warrnambool fans'the louder you boo, the faster I go'.

"I guess it was a bit of a way of getting them to follow me at the time.The thing is they don't boo me anymore, so I guess they've liked how I've raced. I think there's a lot of respect there too with the fans and other racers."

Two years ago it nearly all ended for Smith when a vicious crash at Attica in Ohio sidelined him for most of the 2010 season. He had broken his back and was stripped of a majority of his income.

"When I crashed I knew something was wrong because of the instant pain.The pain was just unbelievable. All I could just hear was the rear wheels spinning as my foot remained on the accelerator.Then I just reached up and shut the car off."

News of the back-breaking crash spread immediately like wildfire throughout the US and Australia as an overwhelming amount of cards and donations poured into Smith's home.

"Gee it was good to know how many good people there are out there. If you treat people right then things turn and good things happen to you. I've always tried to be nice to the fans, as selling a t-shirt is like sponsorship for us."

Smith bounced back in a big way to racing during 2011 as he won 75 races for 17 wins in the USA and add this to the six Grand Annual Sprintcar Classics he won in Australia and it's quite easy to see why he's so popular.

His Classic wins have included 1983,'85,'87.'88,'89 and he has also placed second (1991 and 2001) and grabbed third in 1992 and 2002.

Over a period of eight consecutive years, if it wasn't Smith who won, it was the great Garry Rush as the pair monopolised the annual Australia Day weekend Classic.

A combination of luck and shrewdness handed him his sixth victory in 1996 in a race that took a dramatic turn in the final five laps.

Emerging from a seemingly hopeless position when the drying track surface took its toll in the latter stages of the 35-lap

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final, claiming tearaway leaders Garry Brazier and Rush, Smith went on to an unlikely win.

Brazier punctured on lap 33, and as the field slowed on a caution flag. Rush suffered a similar fate.

With his right rear tyre also devoid of tread, Smith held off a late charge from compatriot Greg Hodnett in a two-lap dash to the flag.

Smith,the top pointscorer, conceded after the race he was unable to match the early pace set by Rush and Brazier.

"Once I saw their tyres smoking I knew they weren't going to make it. I just tried to keep the car straight and protect the tyres.The brain won that one for sure.That Classic was one of those where everything went just right."

Smith has been racing since 1975. In 1980 he got a huge break when he became the regular driver for country music icon Kenny Rogers, driving the Rogers-owned and built Gambler chassis.

"Kenny Rogers put his name to the Gambler Chassis Company which was started with by CK Spurlock in Tennessee and they used the name from Rogers'hit song 'The Gambler"' Smith said.

The impact was huge during the 1980s/90s as Gambler was one of the fastest and widely used Sprintcars, with such drivers as Steve Kinser, Sammy Swindell and Doug Wolfgang driving them to many victories. Smith helped Rogers and Spurlock spread the Gambler name in Australia with legendary drivers such as Rush and Steve Brazier using Gamblers to win multiple Australian Sprintcar Championships.

"That was an amazing time working with Kenny and CK.They manufactured a real good damn race car. It was very popular on the sprintcar tracks in America and Australia."

Things have changed since then. Smith is now slowly feeling the effects of dwindling sponsorship and believes that a worldwide open tyre rule would be beneficial to the sport.

"Sprintcar racing for me has outgrown the grandstand. Like a lot of motorsport, you can't charge those people more money to get in but we need to be racing for more money and that's not really happening anywhere.

"That's where sponsorships are just so important. We're all stuck a bit between a rock and a hard place. For me every sticker on my sprintcar means a lot to me."

No matter what the outcome,one of the world's best speedway ambassadors will always be noticed and remain hugely popular.The tall Yank who loves nothing better than hard battles on the track and with the cigarettes offtrack (he's tried quitting numerous times, he admits) is adamant he'll keep competing.

"As long as we can keep winning some races and I'm not running at the back of the pack, and we're having fun,then I'll keep doing it."

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DOES THE Bahrain desert and the foothills of Mt Fuji have in common? They both recently held ROUNDS OF THE FIA WORLD ENDURANCE CHAMPIONSHIP AND THEY WERE BOTH ATTENDED BY MOTORSPORT NEWS MASTER LENSMAN ANDREW HaLL. ENJOY THE VIEW.

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Rising sun: More cloud than sun, but when the skies did clear it revealed the first snow of the season on the top of Mount Fuji, below. It was Toyota's day, with Alex Wurz, Nicolas Lapierre and Kazuki Nakajima sharing the win.

^ .. tsjhe name suggests,, this quatityTjSrfeet bound' pubCfcation is a pictorial histoiyofAustralia’s biggest'and mostfamous annual motor race; tire Bathurst 1000.

In 2012 this event, which is universally known simply as The Great Race', was run for the 50th year on the famous Mount Panorama circuit.

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Competition open to all Australion and New Zeoland residents, over 18 yeors of oge. Compelition commences 12:01 om 14/11/12 AEDT ond closes 11:59pm 20/02/13 AEDT. Enlrants must subscribe to participating mogozines for 6 monihs or more to be outomolicoliy in Ihe drov/, Mulliple entries ore accepted however o seporote subscription must be purchosed tor each entry. Two winners will be drown at 11:00am AEDT on 26/02/13 at Ihe Promoter's premises. Winners v/ill be notified by phone and moil and published in The Austroiion Newspaper on 01/03/13. The totol prize pool is up to AUO $14,606. The Promoter is nextmedia Pty Ltd (ABN 84 128 805 970) of level 6, Building A. 207 Pocific Highv/ay, St Leonords NSW 2065. Authorised under; NSW Permit No. LTPS/12/09125. Vic Permit No. 12/2801. ACT Permit No. TP 12/04142. SA Licence No. T12/2144. Visit v/v/w.mymogozines.com.ou for full terms and conditions. ●BONUS DVD otter Peter Brock- Rood to Glory (111146) or 2011 Muscle Cor Masters (112300) is available to Australian ond New Zeolond residents only. Pleose ollov/ 4-6 weeks for separate delivery of your bonus DVD. Includes GST. Expires 19/12/12.

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THE FESTIVESEASON IS UPON US AND ITS A TIMEOF GIVING.AND FOR THOSE WHO LIKE THEIR GIFTSSMALL, THEREISPLENTY ON OFFER THIS CHRISTMAS,SAYS BRUCE MOXON

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S it Christmas already? Must be,'cause the decorations have been in the shops for three months or so.

I got my annual Hallmark Collectible again this year. For the uninitiated.

Hallmark (yes Virginia, the greeting card company) makes several series of collectible tree decorations - one of which is American classic cars.

This year's offering is hardly one of my favourites, unfortunately, but that's not to say it's terrible or anything. It's a 1977 PontiacTrans Am Special Edition - the one that was black with a big gold bird on the bonnet - sorry, 'hood'. As seen in'Smokey and the Bandit'.

Regrettably!

As with previous years, there's a hoop in the top of the car to hang it from your tree and in keeping with the time of year, there's 86

a wrapped gift on the back seat, I'm not sure they've done as good a job of the scaling of the car this year as in the past; it looks a bit too long for the width and height, but the level of detail and the finish are both very, very good, considering the (about 1/43 scale) car costs just $18 from Target shops.

If anyone out there needs to find a Christmas present for me,they could start with Biante's new 1/18 scale BMW M3,finished as the 1987 Australian Touring Car Championship winner.

The mighty M3 swept all before it in not just in Australia, but in both local and International racing. It also won the biggest prize of all, the inaugural World Touring Car Championship falling to the Bavarian beauties.

Biante's car is limited to just 1,150 examples and will no doubt be very popular. Of course, the detail is amazing,the fit and finish worldmotorsport news

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class and the collectability supreme. And as with all these cars, a bit of research will find you a source of the stickers to fill in the blank areas on the car.

It's always instructive to look at the models of older cars and see that they are much closer to their road-going versions than a V8 Supercar.

Indeed, the Group A cars were either built up from bare shells and 'kits'supplied by manufacturers or their racing divisions, or converted from road cars. And of course, there had to be a minimum number of road cars made for homologation, so in a way you really could buy on Monday what you watched win on Sunday. Sort of.

One thing that always strikes me is how little roll cage was in the older cars - yet they still stood up under some fearful impacts.The roll cages were just that - roll-over protection, not as much a space-frame as they are now.

The M3 is $195 from either your favourite retailer or online from www.biante.com.au Then there's this - a Red Bull model with a big difference, it's a model of a car that only exists in electronic form, as part of the game Gran Turisimo 5.The Red Bull X2010 was born out of the game, a'what if project, initially with the covered wheels and driver canopy you see here.

Then Adrian Newey got involved, adding'fan car'technology to the mix. Fan cars have raced before - the Chaparral Can-Am car and the Brabham FI notably, both being legislated out of racing - not only is the technology very effective, but it spray following cars with dust and grit - making it hard for them to get close.The fan sucks the air out of the void under the car, creating a low-pressure area and sucking the car's body down. Normally you have some sort of a seal running down both sides of the car - like a sliding skirt.

The Red Bull Is powered (virtually, of course), by a twin-turbo V6.

After Newey's improvements to other aspects of the car's aero, the top speed is 450km/h. Sebastian Vettel'drove'the prototype on GTS and smashed the lap record at Suzuka.The incredible aero package means the car Is also more effective on slower corners, too - the fan generates 1000kg of downforce, no matter the speed.

If only it was real!

Speaking of models of cars that never were... I have a few such of my own. First of all, there are several Batmoblle models available -from the orIgInalTV series cartothe latest incarnation, like the FlotWheeis 'Arkham Asylum'version.

Back to Flallmark Collectibles for a moment. Last year they did a TV

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View our online shop to see all of 0? our pro(Jucts currently in stock, We are based in Sydney and ship Australia & New Zealand wide.

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Contact Steplien on 0413 389 33^ motorsport news

This special DVD presentation race Features spectacular action from the 2012 Australian Muscle Car Masters at Sydney Park Motorsport (formerly Eastern Creek Raceway) on Sunday, September 2.

Relive some of the best action

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from Australia's premier annual It's a retro racing carnival wide-ranging celebration of the country's unique muscle car heritage.

Featured cars and drivers include Bob Jane and his ATCCwinning Camaro ,Allan Moffat and the infamous Phase 4, and tin-top/single-seater ace Kevin Bartlett.

Meanwhile on track, John Bowe, Jim Richards and Andrew Miedecke slugged it out in the Touring Car Masters, then back up to battle the best from New Zealand's Central Muscle Cars series.

This year's event paid homage to the open-wheel greats via races for the menacing Formula 5000 open-wheelers. Classic Bathurst machinery was put to the test in the Group C/A races. while famous models did battle in the ever-entertaining Group Nb and Nc races for cars from the 1960s and '70s.

The 2012 Masters was held on SMP's newly extended 4.5km circuit - a new battleground for the some classic confrontations.

This DVD is a must-have for any motorsport enthusiast and muscle car fan.

Running Time over 90 Minutes

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Batmobile - like the Pontiac, it's got a hoop for hanging it from the tree but there's no gift; evidently the Caped Crusader isn't in a giving mood...

1 remember with some fondness the adventures of that gang of meddling kids that were friends with the dog, Scooby Doo. Who can forget the talking dog,the stoner Shaggy and the delectable Velma (yes, I know they were only cartoons, but...) and Daphne and Fred, the All-American boy.They got around in the Mystery Van - which has been reproduced

by Hot Wheels - yet another very interesting model brought to us from Mattel for just a couple of dollars or so.

Speaking of Hot Wheels,they might have gone too far with all the'sets'and'collections'well. I'm starting to think so.This year, there are four variations of the Hot Wheels Racing series - 10 cars in four colours.There are three sets of 10 Muscle Cars - Ford, GM and Mopar,there's the Treasure Hunts (15 cars) and then there are the SuperTreasure Hunts, which this year can be from any of the above sets or from several other collections you can chase.

Michael Schumacher's comeback sadly hasn't hit the heights in three years that Kimi Raikkonen's did in one, and at the end of the year the seven-time world champion will hang up his helmet for the second and, presumably, last time. So if you don't have a model of any of Michael's FI cars, now might be right time to get your hands on one - and Apex Replicas has this nice 1/18 rendition of Michael's Mercedes

Imagine these 1:18 scale remote control models racing around your loungeroom.They come with rechargeable NiCad batteries and 9V battery for the transmitter.They are part of the Holden Heroes range, which includes James Courtney's 2012 HRT V8.

A visit to www.modelengines.com.au revealed that 1:10 scale XU-1 s are also available in electric or, wait for it, Nitro.

W02 available right now (below), made by Minichamps.

DRIVER TRAINING

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

L

^eiiKalesisewriipB

90

motorsport news

The Great Race: Bathurst 50 years SPECIAL LIMITED EDITI^

The official history

Pre-Order your copy now Australia’s Greatest Motor Race 50 Years at Bathurst. This book is the fourth historical compilation being the 20,30 and 40 year books which all sold out very quickly to an enthusiastic and appreciative market. This new book of over 500 pages details the 50 year History ofthe running of The Great Race at Bathurst. This huge book is the definitive history and a collectors must.

Includes Australian Postage & Handling

Available Mid 2013 TlieoHiciallwlofy

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TOURING CAR CHAMPIONSHIP

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50 years of the Australian Touring Car Championship 50 years of the Australian Touring Car Championship is a detailed ’ '' n“ history of the Australian Touring Car Championship and the V8 Supercar Championship Series. This huge 500-plus page book is the definitive history of our touring car racing, tracking the development of the championship from its humble amateur beginnings to today’s multi-million dollar industry that is V8 Supercars. A must-have reference book for fans of Australian touring car racing.

Available Now Price: A$99

The Great Race: 2011 Supercheap Auto 1000 The Great Race 31 tells the full story of the 2011 Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000. Last year’s race will go down as one of the classics, with a determined Garth Tander holding out a hard charging Craig Lowndes in possibly the most exciting finishes in the history ofthe race. This is the original Bathurst annual hard-cover book,the definitive publication on Australia’s Great Race.

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

Price: A$98 Available Now

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MY FAVOURITE RACE

11^ HOliCA itc

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NE of the best, believe it or not, was the 1998 CART race at Surfers Paradise.

1 was driving for Newman Haas in a Swift, and I finished third. I was just telling someone in Brazil about this the other day, actually. I didn't win the race, but it was definitely one of the best races in my career. It was certainly one of my best races in IndyCar, that's for sure.

It was a great race because the advantage of being on a Firestone tyre in those days was huge, and I was running on the Goodyears. For that whole weekend, we were by far the fastest guys on Goodyear.

When it came down to the race, I had no chance in the championship,so 1 drove absolutely like it was qualifying from lap one until the very end. I remember hitting the wall twice, but I was lucky and nothing happened to the car. We finished the race third, and the car that was fourth was another Goodyear car, but he was miles behind, it was a huge difference.

I don't know why we were so fast that weekend. I mean,the tyre still wasn't working as well as the Firestone, because 1 got killed by Alex Zanardi and Dario Franchitti. They finished 1-2, and I was a long way back in third. But still, something clicked that weekend.

When I went back to the hotel that night, I put my head down to sleep and I thought'wow,today I'm happy. I know I didn't win the race, but I know that I managed to extract 110 percent out of the car'.

I was satisfied because I knew I took every single tenth of a second out of that car. I went to sleep very, very happy that night.

Surfers Paradise was an awesome place to drive in that era of openwheel racing.That one race, we basically waited all year to go to Surfers. OK,a lot of people don't like driving on a street course, but it's like Formula 1 and Monaco - it's different. It's tight, and it's hard to overtake, but Surfers was just like Monaco in FI. We waited all year to go down there.

Obviously there was a lot of parties as well. People were throwing parties everywhere, particularly after the race. The atmosphere was just great. We used to walk to track because we stayed in a hotel right in the middle, and then on race day we had 150,000 people watching the race. It was amazing.

Unfortunately,things change, and it's not quite the same anymore.

The only thing I can say is that I'm very, very thankful and very lucky that I was part of that era in IndyCar. Nowadays the series is

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try'll

m mm ap invest wheel raeing. Thai one raie^ wl competitive again, but it's not the same.The cars are so different.

They have three or four hundred horsepower less than we had back In those days. It's a different ball game now.

I'll tell you one thing. When I came to America from Formula 1, 1 thought... well, initially, my idea was never to do IndyCars. 1 was surprised to come to IndyCar so early in the game, but I got so fed-up with the politics and lack of opportunities in FI. People playing games with you and all that stuff. I said 'I want to have some fun. I want to be competitive, and I want to drive, because I've wanted to drive my whole life'.

At that stage 1 knew I could still be competitive. I knew motor racing was hard, and I knew I had to work hard at it, but given the proper chance I knew I could do it.

So I went to IndyCar, and the first year led me into my first Newman Haas contract which was three years, and then that led me Into a renewal of two years, an then I looked back and I had lost my timing in Formula 1. It only takes three or four years for that window to close in FI. Like for every sportsman, you only have a certain window where you need to hit the nail on the head. And I lost that.

So I lived my life in America, I made a racing career in America, and I'm very happy about that.

Christian Fittipaldi spoke to Andrew van Leeuwen

96

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QUICK QUIZ j

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Test your knowledge of openwheeler racing in this month’s quick quiz and ki you could win a copy of the new book, Formula 5000 Thunder. Send your answers to editorial@chevron.com.au or Motorsport News, Locked Bag 5555, St Leonards 1590 Only one person has ever won world championships at the highest level on two and four wheels. Who is he?

For Warren Luff’s Bathurst 1000 debut he was co-driving with an ex-Formula 1 driver. Who was the driver, and what year?

Name the manufacturer which supplies the control tyre to the DTM. Christian Fittipaldi rates the 1988 Surfers Paradise Champcar race as one of his best ever - but he did not win it. Where did he finish?

It was generally assumed that the retro Brock/HDT livery on Craig Lowndes’ Commodore at Bathurst was inspired by the 1982 HDT can According to Vodafone, this is incorrect- which past Brock car was the livery based on?

Last issue’s answers: 1. 1995 2. Alex Premat 3. 1975 4. Warwick Brown 5. Max Stewart And the winner is...

Next Issue of Motorsport News on sale DECEMBER 19 Dennis Millar of Burnie, Tasmania, wins a copy of Formula 5000 Thunder.

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