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Issue No. 188 Jan 18 - 24 2011
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Issue No. 188 | Jan 18-24 2011
news 4
Sons of Guns Moff to join Junior at DJR 6 What’s yellow, red & Russell’s? The new Supercheap Holden 8 Floody Hell! QR/Lakeside cop QLD floods 10 Smoke Signals NASCAR star gets ina bingle 12 Rossi’s got a new bike The #46 Ducati. Drool.
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comment 28 Queensland Raceway owner John Tetley talks about the floods
race 30 New Zealand V8s 34 Dakar 36 World Series Sprintcars 38 Sydney Speedway Sprintcars 40 24 Hours of Dubai
trade 42 Classifieds
MOFFAT/DJR CONFIRMATION IMMINENT Expect to see James Moffat confirmed as Jim Beam Racing’s second driver within a week, but don’t expect to see a fresh livery until after Abu Dhabi ... V8 SUPERCARS
J
IM Beam Racing will confirm its driving lineup in the next week, and James Moffat will be named as the team’s new driver. As we reported two weeks ago, the team will unite two of the most famous names in the sport’s history, when the 26-year-old joins Steven Johnson in the team’s two Ford Falcons. eNews expects that the new Moffat/Johnson partnership will be announced within the next week. At the same time, the team is currently undergoing significant change, with a new ownership structure being put in place after former co-owner Charlie Schwerkolt parted ways with the team at the end of its championship-winning 2010 season. Dick Johnson and Steve Braebeck, the managing director of long-time team sponsor Crimsafe, which is now a minority owner of the team, have been joined on the board of the team by Wayne Cattach. The vastly experienced former CEO of AVESCO and V8 Supercars Australia, who retired at the end of the 2008 season, has returned to the team for which he was once Team Manager in a
temporary role, as a consultant. At the same time Glenn Turnor, who joined Dick Johnson Racing as its commercial director in May 2008, moves into the role of General Manager. Prior to joining DJR, Turnor was General Counsel at V8 Supercars Australia. One position which is yet to be settled upon is that of the team manager, which has been made vacant by the move by Adrian Burgess to TeamVodafone. Burgess and fellow Brit John Russell, who is that team’s Director of Engineering and Production, started work with the double title-winning team last week. One of the variables that DJR faces is its team 2011 launch. With many teams planning to unveil their new looks at, or just prior to the official V8 Supercars test day at Eastern Creek at the end of the month, it is possible that the team may delay showing its colours until the other side of the season-opening races in Abu Dhabi. Like other teams with alcohol sponsorship, Jim Beam Racing has traditionally run an alternative livery in the Middle East, and it could be that ‘The Team’ will appear in 2010 hues on the cars, prior to the new-for-2011 Beam look appearing prior to the first race of the ‘domestic season’, the Adelaide 500 on March 17-20. motorsport news
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THREE ROUNDS FOR PERTH V8 SUPERCARS
THE Trading Post Perth Challenge will make up three individual ‘rounds’ of the 2011 V8 Supercar Championship. It has now been confirmed that the Barbagallo Raceway meeting, which will feature a now unique three-race format (each earning up to 100 points), will only have one qualifying session – a 20-minute all-in session on the Saturday morning. However, one issue that is yet to be resolved is whether or not the meeting will feature progressive grids. Back when three-race rounds with a single qualifying session were
the norm, the grids were always progressive (ie, grid positions reflect the finishing order of the preceding race throughout a weekend). However, when the series went to individual races counting as rounds in 2009, nonprogressive grids were introduced, with just a single qualifying session. The format only lasted a single round before a second qualifying session was added on Sunday mornings. eNews put a call in to V8 Supercars Australia about the planned format for Perth, but no clear answer was available before we went live on Monday evening. – ANDREW VAN LEEUWEN
SMALL MOVE FOR REYNOLDS V8 SUPERCARS KELLY Racing has made significant changes to its engineering staff, in preparation for the 2011 season. The Melbourne team has recruited Ryan Webb as its Engine Research & Development Engineer. Webb moves to the team after a decade with Walkinshaw Racing. KR has also made changes its car engineering appointments.
Brendan Hogan moves from the team’s #11 entry to Todd Kelly’s #7 Jack Daniel’s Commodore and James Small will be the race engineer for his former Formula Ford rival David Reynolds, who will drive the #16 Stratco Commodore. David Swenson continues on in his role as Head of Race Engineering as well as race engineer for Rick Kelly’s #15 Jack Daniel’s Commodore and Stuart McDonald will engineer for the
#11 Holden Commodore, which will have its driver (Greg Murphy) and sponsor (Pepsi Max) confirmed at the Eastern Creek test day on January 29. In other engineer news, Dan Kroehn will take over the race engineer role on Alex Davison’s #4 entry this season. Kroehn is exFord Performance Racing, and has previously been the race engineer for both Mark Winterbottom and Steve Richards.
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BRIEFLY n Leanne Tander won’t be on track in 2011. Tander has announced that she and husband Garth are expecting their first child, due in July. As a result, racing will take a back seat for Tander, who spent 2010 in the Touring Car Masters. “Until now, my focus has always been 100 percent on getting a full-time V8 Supercar drive,” Leanne Tander said. “It has become apparent over the last year, however, that the chances of me landing that drive were slim to none, at best. So it seemed to me that now is as good a time as any to start a family.” n Porsche’s fleet of Carrera Cup cars have arrived in Australia. The machinery for the reborn series arrived in Melbourne last week and will be handed over to their new owners on January 29, before a test day at Winton on the 30th. In other Carrera Cup news, V8 Supercar media man Dan Jordan is heading to Porsche Motorsport as head of media. n Daniel Ricciardo will change teams for the 2011 Formula Renault 3.5 season. Last year’s runner-up has signed with ISR Racing, who won the 2010 title with Mikhail Aleshin. The Australian will be joined at ISR by last year’s F2 Champion Dean Stoneman England. n The Shannons Nationals has made a slight alteration to their 2011 calendar. Following a shuffle of Barbagallo Raceway’s V8 Supercar date, Round 2 of the Nationals at Mallala has been moved back a fortnight, to May 13-15. Perth’s V8 round was shifted back a week thanks to a clash with the Australian Football League.
QLD RACEWAY RESURFACE POSTPONED FLOOD CRISIS
QUEENSLAND Raceway has postponed its resurfacing until November. The track was to be resurfaced over the next few weeks, in preparation for the 2011 season but discussions with the contractor who was to do the job have determined that the job will now start post-season. “The floods mean that there are other jobs to be done,” circuit boss John Tetley said late last week. “There are so many roads that are going to be needing repairs. The circuit will be fine for another season.” With the floods causing so many problems in Ipswich, there were fears that the surface would suffer, but the track stood up to the
rain remarkably well. The garages and pitlane suffered relatively minor flooding on Tuesday, but that had receded by the following day. “Garry Dean and the hydrology team did a great job,” Tetley said. “The track is in the bottom 100 acres, but the banks we put up on the west side of the circuit stood up really well.” Queensland Raceways’ other track at Lakeside also escaped without damage, a remarkable turnaround for the track that has twice had major meeting cancelled when parts of the track were metres under water. “Lakeside has a bit of water at Hungry [Corner],” said Tetley. “But we upgraded the drainage some time ago, and it worked really well. A metre of water drained in less than eight hours.” motorsport news
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SMOKE ON FIRE
Police interview Stewart after fracas at TSS SPRINTCARS
John Moris
TONY Stewart and Donny Schatz flew back to the United States on Sunday after a tough night on and off the track at Tyrepower Sydney Speedway on Saturday. Stewart spent time with members of the New South Wales Police after an alleged altercation with track co-owner Brett Morris, while an alleged argument with Garry Rush left Schatz with a bad taste in his mouth. The American drivers, in their last local engagement of the summer, took part in the heat races following which an unhappy Stewart was seen in discussion with Morris. Stewart, who is believed to have been unhappy with the track’s surface, is alleged to have thrown his helmet during the argument, which reports suggest struck Morris, and witnesses report that an altercation ensued. The NSW Police Service issued the following statement; “Police from Rosehill Local Area Command were alerted to an altercation involving two men at a car race track at Wentworth Street, Granville, about 7.30pm yesterday.
“A 39-year-old man was arrested at the scene and taken to Parramatta Police Station after a 46-year-old man was allegedly struck in the face by a racing helmet. “The 39-year-old man was released by police without charge pending further investigation.” Witnesses report that Stewart was nursing a black eye when he left the track. With Stewart in transit, requests to his PR representatives were not answered prior to this issue going live. Stewart’s NASCAR career has featured a number of firey incidents with fellow competitors and officials alike, but since he assumed a team ownership role two years, his demeanour has tended to reflect the expectation of his team’s sponsors, which include Chevrolet, Office Depot and Old Spice. Stewart and Schatz have been regular competitors at Parramatta over recent Australian summers, and while there is every chance that they will return to Australia, eNews believes that at least two racetracks other than TSS would like to see the high-profile Americans race at their venues in future years.
It’s Young Talent Time V8 SUPERCARS
V8 SUPERCARS V8 SUPERCARS Australia has outlined the Fujitsu Series’ model transition for the coming years. The 2011 season was originally scheduled to be the last for Ford’s BF Falcon and Holden’s VZ Commodore in 10
the series. However, given the delay in introducing the Car of the Future to the V8 Supercar Championship Series (now due in 2013), that has been revised. While this will remain the VZ’s last year in the Fujitsu Series – leaving the VE as the sole Commodore in 2012 – the BF has been given an extra year
Dirk Klynsmith
Reprieve for BF
and will remain eligible for the 2012 season. The newer-model FG Falcon joins the series this year. In a related move, the BF Falcon is no longer eligible to run in the Main Game. It last appeared at Phillip Island and Bathurst last year with MW Motorsport’s wildcard entry.
SCOTT Young is the new Executive Producer of V8 Supercars Television. Young is the former Executive Producer of Motorsport for Network Ten and during his 22 years’ experience in the industry has been involved with the Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix, Phillip Island’s MotoGP and the World Rally Championship, as well as V8 Supercar when it was on Ten. He has also acted as Head of Global Television for the Red Bull Air Race. Young started his position yesterday [Monday], replacing Murray Lomax as V8TV Executive Producer. motorsport news
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TERMS AND CONDITIONS Competition starts 17/11/2010 00:01 ends 16/02/2011 23:59 AEDST. Open to Australian and New Zealand only. 1 Major prize to be won consisting of a Toyota Corolla Levin ZR hatch manual valued at AU$31,564 / Toyota Corolla GLX 1.8 litre auto hatch NZ$36,039. Drawn 22/02/2011 11:00 at nextmedia Pty Ltd, Level 6, 207 Pacific Highway, St Leonards NSW 2065. Winners published in The Australian on 03/03/2011. Promoter is nextmedia Pty Ltd, ABN 84 128 805 970 of Level 6, 207 Pacific Highway, St Leonards NSW 2065. For full terms and conditions go to www.mymagazines.com.au. Authorised under NSW Permit Number: LTPS/10/10310, ACT Permit No: TP10/04739.2, SA Permit No: T10/2615, VIC Permit No: 10/3891 11
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F1 GOES HIGH DEF FOR ‘11 FORMULA 1
IF you do not have a high-definition television, you might want to pop out of the shops and pick one up before the start of the Formula 1 season in Bahrain. Network Ten has confirmed that ONE HD will show all 20 races this season in highdefinition, after the news broke last week that Germany’s Sky TV would do likewise. The news came as something of a shock, as only months ago Formula One’s Management’s Bernie Ecclestone said he doubted that there would be much demand for the sport to be broadcast in HD for the next two years. While the racing action will be in HD, cars will still carry standard definition cameras, as the technology for such small HD broadcast 12
quality cameras is still being developed. On the audio side, the BBC has confirmed that Martin Brundle will be joined from the Bahrain GP by David Coulthard in the commentary box. The broadcaster has dropped Jonathan Legard, who moved from the broadcaster’s radio coverage to TV two years ago. “I’m absolutely delighted and very motivated that BBC Sport has asked me to become the lead Formula 1 commentator, alongside David Coulthard,” said Brundle. “We have been friends, rivals and colleagues for 18 years and, combined, we have driven in more than 400 F1 Grands Prix and attended over 700. I’ve never felt more passionate about Formula 1 and I can’t wait to get started.” motorsport news
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RED RIDER MOTOGP
John Morris/Mpix
RED is the new red, after Ducati unveiled its new GP11 MotoGP racer in Italy last week. The team has made significant developments in the new bike, and not in the direction that many may have expected. “The GP11 Ducati will start in Sepang [testing] as ‘step zero’,” he said. “The engine has an evolution in that the goal has been to have a flatter torque curve. The aerodynamics are very similar those you saw in Valencia. “We’ve worked on decreasing drag, increasing top speed and helping the fuel consumption. The bodywork has been based around Nicky Hayden [who is broader across the shoulders than Rossi] for his top speed. Also we’ve concentrated on having less lift on the front.” The bike, which features a lighter shade of red designed by Valentino Rossi’s graphics and helmet design guru Aldo Drudi, carries a development of the front ‘wing’ seen on last year’s GP10, in a bid to stop front-end lift problems reported by Hayden and Casey Stoner last year. There are also a number of ‘retro’ innovations. The bike bucks the trend of racers have thicker and stiffer forks, with 42mm units replacing last year’s 48mm units. Also, flex has been ‘built in’ to the bike’s carbon fibre chassis, in a bid to instill the bike with better feel. Test riders Franco Battaini and Vito Guareschi will shake the bikes down this week at Jerez before the teams heads to Sepang’s first test of the season later this month.
VERMEULEN TESTS, THEN RESTS WORLD SUPERBIKES
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Lotus-Renault took the covers off its ‘11 challenger at the Autosport Show in Birmingham. Still looks awesome. www.mnews.com.au
CHRIS Vermeulen tested his new Kawasaki ZX10R Superbike at Sepang last week, but cut short the session to continue his recovery at home in Queensland. Vermeulen joined Tom Sykes and Joan Lascorz in Malaysia and while the latter continued the bike’s development, the Aussie focused on rehabilitating from his knee reconstruction. His priority is to participate in the last test of the pre-season at Phillip Island on February 21-22, before the Wolrd Superbike Championship kicks off the following weekend, so he will skip the upcoming tests in Portugal at the end of the month. “After day one we all decided that he did not need to run on track any more at this stage and it was better for him to go home and carry on with his rehabilitation,” said Team Manager Paul Risbridger. “We also came to a consensus that there was no point in him coming all the way back to Europe for the Portimao tests, as it would just interrupt his overall recovery. Riding the bike is not assisting his recuperation at this stage, so Chris will carry on with his very effective programme of physiotherapy and exercise so that he is ready when it matters most, at the start of the new season.” 13
Drivers, choose your championship NASCAR
NASCAR Media
NASCAR has made a rule change that will affect the way that its Nationwide Series is run, and won. On January 21 during Daytona testing NASCAR will hold what it terms a ‘competition update’ which, among other things, will announce that at the beginning of the year drivers must nominate the championship in which they want to run. Drivers will only score points in their chosen series. The move is expected to have much greater impact on
the Nationwide Series than it will on the Camping World Truck Series, as the latter features fewer appearances of Cup drivers than does the NW Series. The move means that only a full-time driver will be eligible to win the series, and that while Cup drivers (like Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards) will be able to run a full series, they will not score points for their wins. Last year, 33 of the 35 NW races were won by 10 drivers with full-time Cup seats – Busch, Edwards, Tony Stewart, Kevin Harvick, Brad Keselowski, Denny Hamlin, Joey Logano,
Dale Earnhardt Jr, Marcos Ambrose and Jamie McMurray. The only ‘Nationwide’ driver to win was Justin Allgaier, who won at Bristol, and road course expert Boris Said won in Montreal. In the 2010 Truck Series, 13 of the 25 races were won by Cup drivers. NASCAR had many meetings
with its teams during January, instead of the open forum ‘town hall’ type meetings it’s held more recently they opted to meet with team officials and drivers individually. Competition, costs, schedules, rule packages were on the agenda. – MARTIN D CLARK
Vickers returns NASCAR
14
TOYOTA Media
BRIAN Vickers has climbed back behind the wheel of a Stock Car. Vickers, who was forced out of the Sprint Cup Series last year because of a blood clot disorder, tested a Red Bull Racing car last Monday at Walt Disney World Speedway in Orlando Florida. “Today was just a huge weight off of my shoulders,” he said. “Not only for myself, but for the guys on the team. There were so many rumours, assumptions and speculations about my health and status for 2011, but today hopefully put all of them to rest. It felt damn good to get back in the car. Everything fit. Everything felt right.
Everything was just the way I left it last May. Just to fire the car back up was awesome, and then to punch it for the first time was such a great feeling. We are here to get more seat time for me and so I can back in groove with the road crew. I don’t think we are going to learn anything ground-breaking today, but it’s really just a great chance for us all to work together, and the bottom line for me is just to get back in a race car and log some laps.” Red Bull Racing is yet to confirm its full 2011 program, other than a Kasey Hahne’s seat in its #4 Toyota Camry. Providing he gets medical clearance, Vickers is expected to drive the team’s other car.
motorsport news
Sam’s Sprint Cup runneth dry NASCAR
NASCAR Media
SAM Hornish Jr may have driven his last Sprint Cup race. The former Indianapolis 500 winner is expected to have a 10-race program in the Nationwide Series, but will not drive a Cup car for Penske in 2011. Team owner Roger Penske has confirmed with FOXSports.com that Hornish will be in a Penske NW car with Chad Walters as his crew chief at Daytona and at least nine other races.
Steve Wallace will make his Sprint Cup debut in the Daytona 500. The son of Rusty Wallace is guaranteed a start in the race because the owner points for Hornish’s No. 77 Penske Racing Sprint Cup Dodge will transfer to his Rusty Wallace Racing entry. Wallace, 23, finished 10th in the 2010 Nationwide Series. Hornish failed to win a race in 108 Cup starts, with a best result was a fourth at Pocono in August 2009. He scored one top-five and eight top-10 finishes.
INDYCAR INDYCAR has made a number of rule changes for 2011 In short, they are:
Pit selection
With the exception of the season opener in St. Petersburg pit selection will now be determined by qualification results from the prior similar event instead of by entrant points. Teams will still have the option of averaging their drivers’ results to pit next to each other. The Indianapolis’ pit locations remain decided by its qualifying results.
105 percent rule
IndyCar will now require a driver’s qualifying speed achieve a minimum of 105 percent of the fastest lap time (miles per hour on ovals) to advance to the race at that venue.
Practice sessions limited
The initial practice session of 75 minutes will allow rookies and drivers out of the top 10 in points to run the first 45 minutes.
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Teams can purchase an extra set of tyres if desired. The final 30 minutes will be for all cars.
Tyres for qualifying limited
Road course knock-out qualifying rounds will now restrict the yire use for each session to only one set of tyres. Drivers use to be able to change tyres during each of three sessions, from black to reds (the softer tyre) to insure making the cut. At least one of three sets of red tyres is still required to run in the.
Double file restarts
Drivers will now have to accelerate on the front straightaway for a restart rather than begin in the third turn on the ovals. And during 2011, double-file restarts on ovals will be introduced with the leader lining up on the inside. Road courses remain single file for restarts. “All the drivers are together and we have a different opinion about it,” three-time Indy-500 winner, Helio Castroneves told USA Today. “But I’ve got to give them credit because they are trying to change things. This is not like NASCAR where we can rub
HONDA Media
Indy Shake up
wheels and doors and get away with it.” CART used a double-file restart with lapped cars on the inside in the late 90s, which created the opportunity for a driver to get back on the lead lap and hope for a yellow. At that time there was competition between four to five chassis and four engine manufacturers. But current day IndyCar drivers will have difficulty passing another car due to the spec package.
2012 engine and car specs amended
The engine displacement for the new turbo engines in 2012 has been modified from the originally announced 2.4 to 2.2 L for the V-6 turbocharged engines. Speeds will be controlled by different RPM levels, 550 hp for ovals and 700 hp for road courses. The boost level will further fine tune the speeds on road course venues. With three engine competitors committed to the new formula for 2012, Honda, Chevy, and Lotus, they will have the additional challenge of using a smaller fuel cell, reduced in size from the most recent 22 gallons to 16 or 17 gallons. – MARY MENDEZ 15
Uhrhane gets BFF gig AUSSIES OVERSEAS GEOFF Uhrhane will lead a group of Australian drivers in the British Formula Ford Championship this year. Uhrhane, who has spent the last two seasons driving for Sonic in the Australian Formula Ford Championship, will join front-running squad Joe Tandy Racing for the season, having tested for them
before Christmas. He will drive a Mygale chassis, and is hoping to replicate Scott Pye’s 2010 form, which saw him win the British title. “I’m definitely excited about the opportunity to run in England,” said Uhrhane. “It’s going to be a big change for me, but it’s something I’ve wanted to do for a long time. I’m going over there to win; we’re not going there to
run second, so that’s my aim. Seeing what Scott [Pye] did last year gives me a little bit of confidence as well, because it shows that the Australian Championship prepares you well. “The test went really well in December, even though it was really cold and wet, but JTR were really impressive throughout the entire process. The team has proved that
they’re competitive in the past, so I see no reason why we can’t be at the front straight away.” Uhrhane won’t be the only Australian in the championship. Richard Goddard will join Jamun Racing, the squad which Scott Pye won the 2010 title, while Victorian Nick McBride is also expected to join the field, having tested in England late last year. John Morris / Mpix
FFORD GRID COMING TOGETHER Synergy goes testing, gets signing FORMULA FORD SYNERGY Motorsport will be looking to three youngsters to defend its 2010 Australian Formula Ford Championship. Team boss Justin Cotter
and his squad have just completed a major test that involved five cars, two tracks – Wakefield Park and Eastern Creek, above – and numerous drivers, and confirmed that 16year-olds Mathew Hart and
Liam Sager and 20-year-old Shae Davies and Liam Sager will race his Spectrums in 2011. All three made selected appearances in last year’s Australian Formula Ford
Championship in addition to state Formula Ford campaigns, with Hart having raced with Evans Motorsport Group, Sager as a CAMS Rising Star and Queenslander Davies as a privateer.
Goess and (probably) Burdon in at Team BRM FORMULA FORD JOSH Burdon looks set to join Tom Goess in Team BRM’s 2011 Formula Ford line-up. Goess has confirmed he’ll remain in one of the Adelaide squad’s Mygales after his debut season in 2010. Having made inroads in off-season testing, the 18-year-old is looking forward to the new season. “I’m going into this season 16
with a full year under my belt so that’s going to be a big help,” he said. “I know a lot of the tracks now and know the cars well so that should put us in a position to be competitive from the very first lap. With a year of experience under my belt and the changes the team has made to the car, I think it will be a really good year.” Meanwhile, Tasmanian Burdon will make his Formula
Ford debut in the season opener. Burdon, who tested with BRM at Mallala recently, is confirmed for the first round in Adelaide, but is likely to complete the full season. He has previously raced Aussie Racing Cars and Formula 3. “We’ll wait and see how the funds go,” he said of a full campaign. “The Formula Ford is a lot different, from the wings and slicks you have in Formula 3,
but it all seemed pretty good. “I was watching BRM and the way they work in Formula 3, and they’re a professional, world-class outfit. I had a talk to Mark [Rundle] and the opportunity came up to test Formula 3, but we had a look at the calendar and we weren’t sure if it was going to suit what I wanted to do, so we changed to Formula Ford instead.” – MITCHELL ADAM motorsport news
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Richo x 2 for TCM? TCM
Dirk Klynsmith
STEVEN Richards could join the Touring Car Masters alongside his father Jim at selected 2011 rounds. Work continues on the build of Jim’s new Javelin to race in the series, with the car set to debut early in the 2011 season, possibly the season opener at the Clipsal 500. Richards is happy to let the program run its natural course, knowing he still has the 2010 title-winning Falcon Sprint at his disposal. “The Falcon’s all ready to go,” he said. “We’ll run the Javelin as soon as it’s ready, but if it’s not, it’s not a panic. We’re not working
AUSTRALIAN GT BEN Eggleston will be a busy man in 2011, with a season of double duties ahead of him with the Fujitsu Series and the Australian GT Championship. Eggleston, who will again www.mnews.com.au
run his Walkinshaw Racingsupported Fujitsu Series program, will campaign an Aston Martin DBRS9 GT3 in the AGTC. The Aston, pictured, is ex-Ross Lilley, and Eggleston will debut it at the Clipsal 500 in March. “I first saw the Aston at
Eastern Creek in 2009,” said Eggleston. “Ross Lilley did a swap with a Porsche for the car from Marc Cini. It was then I knew I wanted it. “I am hoping to have my first test of the Aston early in February, and having
Dirk Klynsmith
Ben goes green
until midnight every night because we’ve got to get it ready ...” Richards will assume control of the Javelin when it is race ready, and may continue entering the Sprint for a handful of rounds with Steven behind the wheel, pending his son’s other commitments. “As soon as the Javelin’s going, more or less, and if everything goes right, I’ll run the Javelin,” he said. “I might run the Sprint for two or three rounds this year with Steve in it. It depends on what he ends up sorting out. That’s definitely a possibility, but it wouldn’t be for the whole year.” – MITCHELL ADAM
never driven GT cars before it will be a great challenge. I am really looking forward to being a part of this excellent championship, and particularly the longer format races, which give you plenty of track time to come to grips with the car.” 17
BATHURST 12H
THE Production Car ranks for next month’s Armor All Bathurst 12 Hour have grown by one. Peter Conroy Motorsport has lodged an entry to run their Evo X Lancer in the race, having finished fourth in last year’s Production Car race with Peter Conroy, Anthony Robson and Mark Brame behind the wheel. The trio will drive together again
in the 2011 race. “With the introduction of the GT cars very much changing the flavor of the event this year it doesn’t necessarily mean they will all still be there at the finish,” Conroy said. “Only a handful of the GT car teams have had the endurance experience on the mountain that will actually get them to the finish. This will be a deciding factor.” The race’s overall car count remains at 28, though, following the withdrawal of
Marshall Cass
BIG SUPPORT FIELD FOR B12H
the Rob Thomson-led Lotus Exige S. In the other Lotus entry, Richard Meins and Chris Lillington-Price have signed up to join Aussie Racing Car driver Adam Gowans. A strong contingent of cars will tackle the support races, with over 235 entries lodged across five categories. A fleet of 58 Improved Production cars lead the list, along with 55 HQs, 45 Formula Vees, 32 Group N cars and 20 Group A&C Touring Cars.
AUSSIES AND COMMCUP ALSO BATHURST BOUND BMF AUSSIE Racing Cars and Commodore Cup have added Bathurst to their respective 2011 series calendars. The two categories will appear at Easter’s Bathurst Motor Festival, which returns after a three-year absence. The April 22-24 event will be the second round of the year for both categories. 18
They will be joined at Bathurst by Kent-engined Formula Ford (as previously reported by eNews), statelevel Saloon Cars, Production Sports Cars and regularities for the Porsche Club of NSW and NSW Road Racing Club. Promoter James O’Brien is pleased to have the seven groups locked in, with the event only launched late last year.
“We pulled it together very quickly and locked in the seven categories,” he said. “Now we’ll pull together the event organisation and the big mission for us, which will be securing enough officials for the Easter weekend. “I think, if anything, it proves that there’s demand to go to Bathurst. There are only three opportunities to race there a year. It also proves
that, outside the National Categories, there’s demand. “For the Saloon Cars, we’ve had the National Series there at the 12 Hour before, but for the Motor Festival, it’s essentially been brought together by the Queensland State Association. “There are a lot of Statebased Associations that are keen to get involved as well.” – MITCHELL ADAM motorsport news
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F3 ANNOUNCES MOST OF CALENDAR FORMULA 3
John Morris/Mpix
THE Formula 3 Australian Drivers Championship has announced the bulk of their 2011 calendar. A previously-announced appearance at Hidden Valley’s V8 Supercar round has been joined by four Shannons Nationals events; at Eastern Creek, Morgan Park Raceway, Sandown Raceway and Phillip Island. Of those, Eastern Creek and Sandown are the Australian Formula Ford Championship’s two rounds on the Nationals bill. F3 organisers remain in negotiations with V8 Supercars aiming to secure “two to three additional rounds” and complete a seven or eight round season.
“Formula 3 organisers are aware that 2011 marks a critical year in the development of the class and is confident of piecing together a schedule that will offer enhanced value to drivers looking to race Formula 3 in Australia,” a statement read. “The confirmed rounds
notably bring the Formula 3 Australian Drivers Championship in line with at least two events – Eastern Creek and Sandown – that will feature the Australian Formula Ford Championship, a noted stepping stone to F3 around the world. “Formula 3 officials feel it important to expose the
championship to the young drivers racing in Formula Ford whilst at the same time offering fans of open-wheel racing two events that will get the mouth watering. “Plans are also currently underway to forge further links between Formula Ford drivers and Formula 3, to be announced in due course.”
ERICKSON’S 24H DEBUT ON HOLD AUSSIES OVERSEAS DANIEL Erickson won’t be on the grid for the Daytona 24 Hour. Erickson was set to drive a Bayer Racing prototype in the race, but the entry has been withdrawn due to a funding shortfall. The 23-yearold will return his focus to lining up an open-wheel drive in the USA for 2011, having raced in the F2000 Championship with Primus Racing last year. “Obviously I’m disappointed not to be going to Daytona, but no drive is certain until all the pieces are in place, which unfortunately didn’t happen this time,” he said. “Daytona was always an addition to my main aim for this year, which still is to compete in an internationally recognised ‘development’ openwheeler series. “Jon [Baytos, Primus Racing boss] told me that he regretted having to pull the pin on Daytona, but he didn’t want to go there with an underfunded team. “He has some exciting projects in place for 2011, and I hope to be involved in some way because he’s one of America’s leading team owners and we got on really well last year.”
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Amon in the Spotlight FORMULA 1
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KIWIS Ken Smith (Lola) and Steve Ross (McRae) go into New Zealand’s doubleweekend Festival of Motorsport set to renew their on-track contest at the front of the Formula 5000 Tasman Revival series. The last time the pair met, at Christchurch’s opening round, the contest was resolved when Ross’ incar extinguisher went off as he led defending champion Smith! A 30-car field is entered for the Jan 22/23-29/30 weekends, with seven Europeans and Canadian Jay Esterer (McRae) joining a healthy field of Kiwis – albeit, sadly, without any Australian entries. The F5000s head the on-track race programme, with the second weekend’s action set to include F1-style ‘knockout’ qualifying. Following the success of last year’s Bruce McLaren tribute, the primary theme of the meeting is a tribute to former NZ F1 star Chris Amon, who will be present, along with a number of cars from his varied career, including the exquisite Tasman Ferrari 246T in which the then-F1 Ferrari driver won the 1968 NZGP, eventually finishing second in the Tasman series to the great Jim Clark. Also present will be his early (1954) Maseratu 250F, the unique Talon F5000 car, which Amon raced late in his career and, for the first time in Australasia, the Amon AF101 driven in just four Grands Prix by the man himself in 1974 before his fledgling team shut its doors. Chris will re-acquaint himself with the car, pictured, with a number of demonstration laps. Launched at the Festival will be a new book, “Chris Amon: a Celebration of a Kiwi icon”, available at the event or via the www.BruceMcLarenTrust@clear.net.nz website. A large entry of significant NZ and Australian historic race cars – and for the first time bikes – make for a superb dose of nostalgia – NZ’s version of Goodwood. Hampton Downs is just 45 minutes south of Auckland and well worth a weekend visit: check out http://www. nzfmr.co.nz for more details.
Brit Ron Maydon has fully restored the recalcitrant Amon F1 car and is bringing it to NZ. Apart from Amon himself, the other driver who attempted to qualify the car for the 1974 German GP was … Larry Perkins.
COMMODORE CUP HEADS SOUTH OF THE BORDER COMMODORE Cup’s 2011 season will be held entirely across New South Wales and Victoria. The series originally listed Mallala in South Australia on their 2011 schedule, however that has been dropped in place of a slot at the Bathurst Motor Festival, see separate story, given the closeness of the dates. Bathurst’s race format is yet to be determined, while Mallala’s format – a pair of 30-minute races each with a wheel change – will transfer to Round 4 at Eastern Creek. Wakefield Park, though, will see Commodore Cup introduce a unique format. Grid positions for the opening race will be drawn out of a hat, and then reversed for Race 2. The grid for the third and final race will be based on points from the first two races. “Whoever draws pole for Race 1 will start Race 2 from last and vice versa through the field,” Commodore Cup’s David Stevenson surmised. “We think that’ll be a bit of fun, mixing it up a bit for the start of the season.” Meanwhile, behind-the-scenes work on the category’s new formula continues. As previously reported, the next generation Commodore Cup car is likely to be a VE
COMMODORE CUP CALENDAR 2011 1 2 3 4 5 6
Wakefield Park NSW Bathurst NSW Winton Vic Eastern Creek NSW Sandown Vic Phillip Island Vic
Apr 2-3 Apr 22-23 Jun 24-25 July 16-17 Sept 10-11 Nov 5-6
Commodore with a six-litre V8 engine. Stevenson has marked 2011 as a “development year” which would see a prototype hit the track. “I hesitate to say that we’ll be building a prototype by the second half of the year, but that’s not out of the question,” he said. “It all came together far too quickly at the end of last year to have a prototype on track at the start of this year, but we have committed to developing a prototype through the year. “It’s nearly guaranteed to be the VE with a six-litre crate engine. It’s just all of the other things, like what brakes, suspension and gearbox it’ll use, and whether we’ll have a control chassis or let guys build their own – those are the sorts of questions that need answering, but the concept’s there.” – MITCHELL ADAM motorsport news
Held over 2 huge days on Saturday January 22nd and Sunday January 23rd, 2011 the countries best Doorslammers are coming back to Calder Park! Come and see the 2010 Spring Horse Power Challenge winner, Peter Kapiris, compete against the likes of the great Victor Bray, Ben Bray, Sean Misfud, Phil Glendenning, Maurice Fabietti, Mark Belleri and Peter Blake just to name a few!! With an overwhelming response to the Spring Horse Power Challenge, this event promises to ignite a great year of drag racing here at Calder Park.
Along with the Doorslammers we have the following brackets confirmed to take part in the 2011 True Blue event:
Calder Park are also excited to announce that Luke Follachio (aka Lukey Luke), one of Australia’s prominent motorcycle stunt riders, riding with factory support from Triumph Motorcycles, will be back to provide ultimate entertainment to all supporters of off-street drag racing.
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Champion Chris Holder started his 2011 Australian Speedway Title campaign in the best possible fashion at Kurri Kurri Speedway on Saturday, taking a dominant victory. Holder was beaten only once in the course of the meeting, and that was by his Poole Pirates teammate, Davey Watt. Watt went on to finish second in the Final, with the determined Jason Doyle third and Cory Gathercole fourth. Home town hero Doyle was granted his A-Final berth through winning the last chance B-Final. Hard luck story of the night was Darcy Ward. The reigning under-21 World Champion had an engine failure in his first ride, and fought well to get a B-Final start. He – nor South Aussie Rory Schlein – could best Doyle in the last chance qualifier. The brand new speedway stood up to the capacity crowd that packed its spectator banks. It received a further boost when a $15,000 grant was announced by Cessnock City Mayor Alison Davey (also State Nationals candidate for Cessnock) should she win her seat in the upcoming New South Wales State election and the Coalition takes power. The four round Series now moves to Gillman Speedway in Adelaide this Saturday night. – MATT PAYNE
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MUNNERLEY JOINS TONY KART KARTING
ANOTHER name familiar to Australian karting will return to the CIK Stars of Karting Series this year, with 15-yearold Phillip Munnerley to make his debut in the Pro Junior class. The Victorian will line up
alongside the Smith brothers in a Tony Kart attack. “Securing a drive in the Tony Kart Team is a great opportunity,” Munnerly said. “I have been doing a lot of testing and everything is going to plan. I’m looking forward to working with the team to achieve some good
results this year.” After the assault on the Pro Junior Title in 2011, Munnerley – whose brother Robert is well known on the national karting scene – will look towards competing in some international events in 2012. – MATT PAYNE
GREENBURY SWAPS SIDES KARTING
IN a massive coup, Toowoomba’s Tyler Greenbury will headline Team Intrepid’s 2011 Karting attack in Australia. Greenbury – regularly seen in the Tony Kart colours – will spearhead the Intrepid attack in both Rotax competition and the CIK Stars of Karting. The former Australian Rotax representative will continue his Rotax Light commitments around the country – where he is considered one of the best in the nation – and will step
up to the Pro Gearbox category for the Stars of Karting Series. The Italian brand has grown steadily throughout the world in recent years, with a great deal of success being generated in Rotax competition worldwide. They are looking to translate that success into the CIK style of racing, which Greenbury will play a large part in. He will obtain support from long time Intrepid dealer, Kaos Karting, clothing company Rampant, and Bolt Pro. His engines will be tuned by Graham Armstrong Engines. – MATT PAYNE
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Brand new DVD! Peter Brock “Road to Glory” Peter Brock loved living on the edge. From rally driver to nine-times Bathurst winner, Peter loved pushing the boundaries. Many things have been written about Peter and his achievements. Our story covers parts of Peter’s life that are little known. We travel back to his childhood, talk to his family and some old friends that helped him in his early days of racing, from the old tractor on his uncle’s farm to the Austin A 30, then interview some of his more famous racing opponents, culminating with his first Bathurst win in the fantastic Torana XU-1 at Bathurst in 1972. Included are interviews with Harry Firth, Colin Bond, Peter Janson, Bob Jane, Bill Tuckey and Ian Tate (Chief Mechanic for HDT). This is a fascinating journey, with never before seen stills and family home movies, together with classic Bathurst footage from 1969, 70, 71 and 1972. Plus with every purchase you have an opportunity to enter the competition to WIN a Peter Brock limited Edition full size replica 1996 race suit and two great runner up prizes. Produced by
Running time approx. 90 minute with some great extras.
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Great 8th DRAG RACING FOLLOWING the success of 2010’s Queensland Eighth Mile Series, organisers have announced the series will continue in 2011 complete with a new naming rights sponsor. The 2011 Queensland Street Car Magazine Eighth Mile Drag Racing Series will take in Willowbank Raceway, Warwick Dragway, Benaraby Dragway and Ironbark Raceway between February and September of 2011. Series founder John Winterburn said he expected approximately 500 competitors to take part in the event by the time the Grand Final was run and won. “In 2010 for our inaugural season, we were blown away with the level of interest in the events with approximately 100 competitors at each event,” said Winterburn. “In 2011, we expect the numbers of competitors per event to grow by around 25 percent by the time the series comes to an end in September. “Eighth mile racing is all about providing a race meet where competitors can enjoy themselves, have fun, and race in a well-run yet relaxed environment with their fellow racers, friends and family. “We received a resounding thumbs up from the racers in that regard last year and we will certainly be continuing to build on that this year.” – LUKE NIEUWHOF
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Top Fuel revs up for WA
DRAG RACING JUST two weeks remain until the ANDRA Pro Series heads west again, for the fourth round of the Australian Top Fuel Championship. After rain ended competition in the first round in Brisbane, all teams will be keen to resume hostilities at Perth Motorplex. Darren Morgan has his sights set on his first championship
as a team owner. Earlier this month, Morgan posted the fifth fastest time during qualifying at Willowbank Raceway to line up alongside Terry Sainty in the first round of competition. While rain ended the event early, Morgan was encouraged by the speed of the newlook Hungry Jack’s Top Fuel car, pictured, and he will enter the next round of the championship, to be held in
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Ken Ferguson
his first time in the long and skinny version of the beasts. With US tuner John Smith assisting, Sheehan could be a threat at the event. “I’ve wanted to (race a dragster) for the last 18 months, it’s about doing more laps at home and having two nitro cars is a cool thing,” he said. Sheehan said he would be happy if the team could advance past the first round in what is likely to be a tough field of drivers. “If I could qualify and go a round in a car that we put together in three weeks, then we will be more than happy,” he said. As for what happens with his Top Fuel racing beyond the local season, Sheehan remains unsure. “We haven’t looked into running the rest of the series yet, I’m yet to discuss future meetings past March with John, he has NHRA commitments with other teams he tunes for, but if we do well then we will be looking at that,” he said. – LUKE NIEUWHOF
terms is very little, we’ve just got to go out there and win every race possible now to win the championship.” Cowin sits second in the championship, enjoying a top speed bonus points haul at Willowbank following a 308mph blast, in addition to being the highest of the regular runners in qualifying with his 4.86s putting him second to Steve Read. It will be the first time the
Luke Nieuwhof
Perth on January 28 and 29, as the championship leader. “It was very exciting to unveil the partnership with Hungry Jack’s Mildura earlier in the month and the car had some good speed that I was looking forward to transferring into a top result, but the rain ended that thought,” said Morgan. “With four rounds left in the chase for the championship, I’m two points ahead of Andrew Cowin, which in real
Cowin team has run at Perth Motorplex since his return to racing in Australia. Surprising privateers Terry Sainty and Bob Shepherd in the third and fourth positions of the series, but they are unlikely to travel to Perth. Phil Read will be there to usurp their positions, having not enjoyed a stellar season so far with just one race win to his name. It is a similar story for Phil Lamattina, with his Willowbank event full of dramas as he chased an ignition bug in qualifying and then was shut down in Round 1 when the heavens opened up. Three Western Australians could play spoiler. Reigning Champion Martin Stamatis will be back after skipping the Willowbank round, while Damien Harris will make his first home track appearance in the Best Tractor Parts dragster. Set to compete in Top Fuel for the first time is Mark Sheehan. Sheehan is no stranger to nitro, having raced Funny Cars for several years now, below, but this will be
Next ANDRA Pro Series Round: Top Fuel Champs, Perth Motorplex, Jan 29 ANDRA Pro Series on TV: Friday February 25 Top Fuel Championships www.mnews.com.au
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Five Minutes with ...
GREG RUST
With the move to high-definition broadcasting gaining pace, we thought it was time to yack to Rusty about Formula 1, ONE HD’s first year and the Daz and Craig Show
It must be easy to get blasé about some of the breakthroughs but have seen some sports in HD, I can only imagine what F1 is like. It will go to a new level. Some have said that people who are not even motor racing fans will enjoys it. The crashes, for a start, are going to be so eye catching … For the purist, though, we are in funny times. We more or less DEMAND high quality images, whether we are talking about the PC you have at home, your laptop of the vision that is broadcast into your home. There is more or 26
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MOTORSPORT NEWS: There are a lot of changes coming up, in terms of the coverage of Formula 1 on ONE HD this year. GREG RUST: There are. Probably the most significant one is the move to HD. For us, that is going to be fantastic. Just as the BBC did in Britain, we moved very quickly to grab that, as soon it emerged that it was available. We are absolutely delighted to be doing it. It is going to look un-be-liev-ab-le. I was treated to an early look at it a couple of years ago. We were at the first European Grand Prix, on the streets of Valencia, and the FOM TV guys said to us, ‘Come here, we have something to show you’. At the back of the TV production area, they had a lounge set up, with a plasma, and they played us an on-board lap, on Fernando Alonso’s Renault. In full HD, it was unreal; the clarity was brilliant, and it sounded fantastic.
less and expectation, for a viewer standpoint, to have the best. It will look and feel tremendous. The audio will change too, because of the changes that the BBC has made to its commentary lineup. They have. I do not know all the details yet but Martin Brundle and David Coulthard [above] will, I think, work together brilliantly. Jonathan Legard ws very well-regarded in the paddock, by the people in the teams, and there is some sadness that they made that change. But the BBC obviously thought that this would be a good combination. To look after the F1 afficionados, to have Martin and DC deliver what they are capable of delivering will, I think, be great. It will amaze people. They may not agree with each other a lot of the time, though! David brings a lot of information to the table and for Martin, he has been doing it long enough that for him
to step into a lead role will not be a drama. If you look domestically, Neil Crompton has done it on occasion in V8 Supercars and done it quite successfully. There is no reason why Martin could not step into Jonathan’s shoes, and he will do a good job, I think. Brundle has become so accomplished as a broadcaster it would be easy to forget he was an F1 driver. He is exceptionally good with his explanations, his diagnosis of a situation. He was one of the first last year to offer a view on the much talked-about incident between Mark [Webber] and Sebastian [Vettel] in Turkey. He holds an opinion, and they will disagree but that will add an element to the broadcast. He knows it in depth. It has been a year since ONE HD started and it has meant a lot of changes for we, who like Formula 1. What has been your feedback? Very good. To be honest, it is not just
Formula 1, but for the viewer, it has to be live. That is the first thing they want; no matter if it is on TV or watching it on the internet, people want it to be live. When we started, our foundation for building the programs for big sport, is live, as often as we can. We cannot always do that for F1 qualifying. Saturday is a very difficult day for us – various broadcasting challenges present themselves from around the country. MotoGP can be the same. In addition, we sat down to ask, ‘How can we give the viewer as much as we can do, from the buildup to the race?’ We feel like we can add to that from the studio with the bloke-style barbeque, and we have crosses from Tom Clarkson, James Allen and on the bikes side – and we knew he would work because he is so much like his mate Barry Sheene it is not funny – Steve Parrish. Those guys have been delivering some great stuff from at-the-ground. It’s always fresh and the feedback has been very position. You and the other two blockheads are living the dream ... We are! They well and truly are! They work very well together, Craig [Baird] has slotted in very well. We have all known each other for a long time, and that is a part of it, but he has worked very hard on making sure that how he goes about this job, on television, is going to right way. Daz just likes to let the air out of our tyres whenever he can so yes, we are living the dream. motorsport news
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THE DAY THE RAIN CA
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AME DOWN
OPINION John Tetley – Owner of QLD Raceway/Lakeside
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HE floods here in Queensland gave us more water than we expected but, I am happy to say, less damage. Remember the story about King Kanute? I know how he felt! It is interesting; the silence with which it happened, and watching the water level creep up and up around you, is an interesting scenario. You have to stand there and watch it and there is nothing you can do about it. If you don’t have levee banks in place by that stage, it is not going to happen for you. We put a lot of work into both tracks. The investments that we made, and they are significant, have paid for themselves already. We spent about $25,000 at Lakeside and about $15,000 at Ipswich. We thought that once the drought broke, we needed to be prepared. As soon as we had Lakeside operational again, we re-did the drains. There are new drains around the buildings, we re-did the drains at the dam, which was very important, and we dug out the old drain from Hungry to the dam. We dug out the 300mm drains and replaced them with 600mm drains. Given the time of year, we did not have too many bookings last week anyway, but Ipswich was only ‘down’ from Saturday until Wednesday and we could have reopened at Lakeside on Thursday. We had cleared the track by then – before we did the new drainage. when Hungry had water on it, it used to take a week to clear ... The priority has to be for the public roads to be rebuilt, so that will delay resurfacing the racetrack. We have been out there already, fixing the edges, and we have an expert from Fulton Hogan due to come out next week. It is obvious that they will not be able to get to us before May, and that is no good for us because you need six weeks of curing time. It will have to be next summer. In the meantime, we have been trying to help out where we can with the floods. Our canteen caravan has been out in the towns, serving meals to the community and we have had an event at the track at Lakeside, which raised $2000 for the Premier’s Appeal.
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BNT NZV8s TERETONGA PARK, NZ
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A BAIRD IN THE CATEGORY WI
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HE HAND IS WORTH TWO WINS IN TERETONGA Craig Baird was too good for both the Porsche and V8 fields at Teretonga. Now, if he can just get a ride in the Toyota Racing Series ...
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RAIG Baird has taken over the lead of the BNT NZV8s Championship, after a round-winning, but not race-winning, performance at Teretonga on the weekend. With wet weather lashing the circuit, there were three different winners from the three races. John McIntyre was the first to register a win, taking out Saturday’s first race. He was third in Race 2, and on for a great weekend until Simon Richards punted him off the track in the reverse-grid final. 32
The next to register a win was Kayne Scott. He barged past earlier leader McIntyre in Race 2, and the held off Baird to take the win. The final featured a full reverse gird, over 22 laps. This time it was Angus Fogg’s chance to win, a Lap 3 move on the outside of slower traffic setting him up for victory. Baird chased Fogg hard, but while he had to settle for another second place, the inconsistency on the top step of the podium gave him the round win and the series lead. “The car may be more suited for Timaru next week, as we were struggling in a straight line here all
weekend,” said Baird. “I know the car is working very well on corners, so it was a good round, but I’m still looking forward to Timaru.” Meanwhile, McIntyre rued losing the opportunity to win the round. “This is actually the highest points round we’ve had all season with 161 points gained, so we are quite happy about that,” he said. “That’s just the way it goes in the rain with some people a bit out of their depth, but we will just have to keep soldiering on.” Jason Bargwanna finished sixth, fourth and seventh in the three races. motorsport news
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GAUNT v BAIRD! GT3 CUP CHALLENGE
THE battle lines for the 2010/11 NZ Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge are being drawn, and after the latest round at Teretonga, its shaping up to be a beauty between team-mates Daniel Gaunt and Craig Baird. Gaunt drew first blood on the weekend, winning Saturday’s Zoagn 500 from Baird. He took control of the endurance race after starting from pole, and comfortably took the win. “I got a second lease on life when I came in for the pit-stop and tyre swap,” said Gaunt. “It’s often where the race is won or lost, but the team did a great job so I could keep Baird at bay for a bit longer. “It was a very long hard race for all 38 laps, and I have to thank the Triple X guys, MPD and
VnC Cocktails for their time and effort. I don’t think there was a moment of that race where I remember breathing.” But Baird hit back on Sunday, winning both of the remaining races in atrocious conditions. Gaunt’s third in the final race was enough to maintain his series lead, but Baird is closing in ... “We’re only at the third round; I’m not holding my hat on the championship, but there is always a chance,” explained Baird. “I’ve got to take every opportunity that’s presented to me, race by race. Obviously it’s a bit harder when you’re leading the championship, as you don’t know when to push and when to hold. But we’re in a much better position now than when we started the weekend – we’ve just got to keep forging ahead.”
TRI-NATIONS IN TRS TRS
THREE races, and three different winners from three different countries – the International Toyota Racing Series got underway in style at Teretonga on the weekend. It was an Australian who got the winning underway for the 2011 series, with Scott Pye taking out Race 1. Having started next to Kiwi sensation Mitch Evans on the front row of the grid, Pye seemed destined to follow Evans to the finish. But a missed gearchange from Evans late in the race gave Pye a chance www.mnews.com.au
to sneak past, and he grabbed the chance with both hands, opening the season with a win. Evans got his revenge in Race 2, leading home a Kiwi 12-3 ahead of Nick Cassidy and Damon Leitch. The race saw a thrilling battle between Evans and Cassidy, with Evans having to pass, and then hold off, his rookie team-mate. Pye was fourth. In the final race it was England’s turn to have a win, with Brit Alex Lynn braving terrible conditions to take Race 3 honours. Lynn was gifted pole position thanks to a reversetop-six start, and once in front
he stayed there. German Mario Farnbacher finished second, a good comeback after he crashed heavily on Saturday afternoon, following an ontrack altercation with Josh Hill, which left Farnbacher’s steering broken. Hill, son of 1996 World Champion Damon Hill, was out of the race, and finished a lowly 14th for the weekend. As for the other Australians, Nick Foster and Jordan Skinner both struck problems over the weekend, and wound up 12th and 13th respectively for the round. Evans now leads the series from Pye, Lynn and Cassidy. 33
DAKAR 2011
Volkswagen swept the placings in the Dakar, but this time, it was Nasser Al-Attiyah who became a ...
Qatar Hero
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V Volkswagen Dakar
One of a kind: Al-Attiyah became the first Arab driver to win the Dakar. Stephane Peterhansel chased the VWs home in his BMW, above, while Helder Rodrigues did likewise to the KTMS on his Yamaha, below.
Dakar
Volkswagen
OLKSWAGEN has completed another 12-3 sweep of the Dakar, but this time, it was Nasser Al-Attiyah who took out the victory. The Qatari driver, in his second year with the dominant German team, took the lead in the second week and never looked back, to take victory by almost 50 minutes. His win is something of a make-good, after having fallen two minutes short of winning the 2010 event. The win was Volkswagen’s third successive Dakar victory with the diesel-engined Race Touareg and its most dominant performance yet, with 12 stage wins out of 13. “I’m absolutely delighted to have been the first Arab to win the world’s toughest desert rally,” said Al-Attiyah. “These feelings are incredibly difficult to express in words. I reached my greatest goal thanks to the world’s best cross country rally car and the best team in this sport. I’m delighted for the entire squad which slaved around the clock for three weeks for this victory.” Giniel de Villiers took second ahead of Carlos Sainz, who led the first week and looked set for the win, until it all started to go wrong last Monday. He lost the lead when he was stuck in sand duns twice on the Antofagasta to Copiapo stage, and he lost an hour the next day with punctures, gearbox problems and broken suspension. In the end, he dropped to third, and had to be content to hold off VW’s nearest challenger, the X-Raid BMW of Stephane Peterhansel. A stage win on the final stage of the event was little consolation. On two wheels Marc Coma took his third win in the event, adding the 2011 trophy to the ones he took home in 2006 and 2009. He cruised home fifth on the final leg to beat Cyril Despres by 15 minutes, the two KTM riders miles ahead of Yamaha’s Helder Rodrigues. The Kamaz team came through to win the Truck Division, Vladimir Chagin taking his seventh title. In the quad bike category, Alejandro Patronelli, who finished second a year ago behind his brother Marcos, took the title ahead of fellow Yamaha rider Sebastian Halpern.
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30/11/2010 13:14:21
WORLD SERIES SPRINTCARS, R11 & R12 MOUNT GAMBIER & SPEEDWAY CITY
Paris Charles
Back in action
After a weekend off, World Series Sprintcars returned to the track in Mount Gambier and Adelaide last weekend, with David Murcott strengthening his points lead and Jason Johnson claiming an emotional Adelaide win. PARIS CHARLES watched it all
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Paris Charles
FTER a series of rainouts in Brisbane, the well-travelled World Series Sprintcars field assembled at the Murray Bridge Speedway under a clear blue sky and bright shining sun, for Round 11 of the 2010 / 2011 series. With 36 competitors on hand, it was David Murcott who started and finished the evening with his name at the top of the field. Murcott started the night with a great performance in the time trial, posting a quick time of 11.358s, which set the night up with a solid foundation for the Horell Motorsport Team to build upon. Coming from Position 10 in his opening heat race, Murcott scrambled his way forward to cross the finish line in fourth place ahead of many fancied rivals, including Brooke Tatnell and the Australian Champion James McFadden who had both started further up the field. Murcott consolidated that with a ninth in his next heat, which earnt him enough points to enter the Pole Shootout as highest point scorer. In a race against the clock, Murcott again proved his quick time was warranted as he went on to win over Robbie Farr and locals Jamie Cobby and Luke Dillon. The cream always rises to the top and with the championship leaders starting on the front row together neither of them wanted to give up any ground, as they both looked for the
upper hand. Ultimately, it was Murcott who claimed the win ahead of Farr. Cobby proved that he was more than capable of mixing it with the contracted drivers to start and finish in third, edging out Tatnell in fourth position. “It’s nice and close at the front,” Murcott said as he collected his trophy. “We couldn’t ask for a better race ... we touched a couple of times in the feature.” The teams then made the short trip to Adelaide for the following evening’s 12th round, which was also incorporated Round 7 of the Revolution Racegear Speedway City Track Championship Series. Once again, it was a hard fought affair as American star Jason Johnson, above, became the seventh different winner in as many open Sprintcar features run at the Adelaide venue this summer.
The evening proved to be an emotional night for Johnson, who had claimed victory at the same meeting seven years prior when his sister was put on life support after a horrific car accident back in America. With the emotions bottled up inside, Johnson took the bit between the teeth and knuckled down to comfortably lead every lap of the feature event over Farr, Murcott and Warrenne Ekins from Darwin, late in the race. However, a late race stoppage regrouped the field and with just three laps to be run it was local gun Matt Egel who pounced to forward to round up Ekins, Murcott and Farr to claim second. The restart caught Farr out, and he fell back to fifth, as Murcott picked up a handy swag of points for third to extend his World Series Sprintcars points lead over Farr. Sixth in the race was Luke Dillon, who took the lead of the
Revolution Racegear Speedway City Track Championship Series over Daniel Pestka and Cobby who both finished further down the field. Johnson said it was hard to block out the emotions and get on with the job to claim the win. “The last three laps were pretty difficult,” he said. “It’s a difficult time; I lost my little sister in a fatality seven years ago. I really do think she looks down on me like an angel ... she made tonight possible, she was riding along.” Murcott leads the World Series Sprintcars points tally with 2805 over Robbie Farr on 2765 and Steven Lines on 2545. The series now takes a break for a few weeks before a busy 10day stretch in Western Australia incorporating the final four rounds, kicking off at Kalgoorlie International Speedway on February 9.
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INTERNATIONAL SPRINTCAR SERIES TYREPOWER SYDNEY SPEEDWAY
Schatz + Sydney = Victory
John Morris / Mpix
Donny Schatz completed his summer stint at Tyrepower Sydney Speedway with a pair of wins last Wednesday and Saturday nights. GREG BOSCATO was there
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ONNY Schatz continued his Tyrepower Sydney Speedway dominance in taking out the final two Sprintcar Internationals held in the Harbour City before he flew back to the States to prepare for the upcoming World of Outlaws season. Schatz, racing the Garry Rush owned J&J Sprintcar, went into last Wednesday’s (January 12) International as favorite, but with his fellow Americans still in Sydney and the Madsen brothers (Kerry and Ian) joining, it looked like
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he would have a fight for the $10,000 winners prize. After a hard-fought 35 laps that saw numerous stoppages – the field also had a fuel stop – Schatz claimed the victory over fellow yanks Shane Stewart with NASCAR superstar Tony Stewart third. The Aussies followed with Kerry Madsen, Garry Brazier and Adrian Maher the top six finishers. Maher, making one of the rare appearances this summer, was running hot early in the main amid couple of stoppages before Shane Stewart took control. Behind, Schatz was on a mission,
powering into second with Stewart, Maher, Ian Madsen, Joey Saldana and Marty Perovich in pursuit. After another stoppage, Schatz took the lead and, despite more stoppages the fourtime Outlaws Champ held his ground while the battle behind was sensational. Tony Stewart was impressive, moving towards the leading duo, but it was Kerry Madsen who just missed out on a podium finish after the pair traded places and thrilled the Sydney crowd. Eventually, Schatz claimed another A Main in Sydney with the two
Stewarts, Shane then Tony. Earlier, heats saw Shane Stewart, Perovich, Tony Stewart, Schatz, Brazier and Cody Darrah sharing victories, while Jason Sides had to qualify into the A Main, winning the B Main. Then it was onto the International Series final on Saturday night, January 15, with 24-year-old American Jessica Zemken joining the field in an ex-Schatz machine in just her second Australian appearance. Schatz didn’t have it his own way during the night; after winning Heat 4 he was
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John Morris / Mpix
Donny Schatz, far left and middle, was unstoppable in Sydney. Tony Stewart and Kerry Madsen had a big battle for the final podium position on Wednesday night, above.
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John Morris / Mpix
John Morris / Mpix
penalised after clashing with Mitch Dumesny as they crossed the line fighting for the victory. Schatz was officially placed in eighth and last position and the loss of points saw him start way back in the 24-car A Main field. Dumesny’s drama’s continued, after tangling with another car he flipped over in Heat 8 and had to qualify from the B Main. Unfortunately his great drive in the B failed, finishing fifth to just miss the transfer. Even having to start from 14th, Schatz made it look so easy and simply bolted away
from the field after taking the lead mid-race. He rounded out his tour with another victory ahead of Brazier and Saldana. Schatz’s Rush team-mate, Ben Atkinson jumped into the early lead and was comfortably leading the 35-lap race with Darrah, local Glen Saville and Brazier following. Schatz was on the gas and quickly moved fourth by Lap 8. When Darrah’s challenge started to fade, Schatz took Brazier, moving into second, but he didn’t stay there long, passing Atkinson before Brazier also powered by the fellow Aussie with just 12 to run.
Schatz took the win over Brazier and Saldana, who moved past Atkinson for third late in the race, with Atkinson, Shane Stewart and Darrah the top six. Ian Loudoun was seventh with a brilliant Craig Dallansky – who started from the rear after changing a tyre before the feature started – picked up eighth at the checker. “I was first and third in the heats but I guess I got penalised hitting someone I didn’t know were there,” Schatz said. “I just had to do it the hard way and that’s what they
Mitchell Dumsney, left, was in the thick of it on Saturday night.
wanted to see. My car wasn’t as good as the other night, but we just tried a little different with the shocks and I guess it made it a little worse but it still was a good night.” With 44 Sprintcars on hand, Damian Abbott, Darrah, Atkinson, Roddy BellBowen, Brazier, Sam Walsh, Perovich and Schatz shared the heat race wins. Rod Maxwell defeated Zemkin and Jeremy Cross to win the B Main Sprintcars now take a break from the Tyrepower Sydney Speedway for the next few weeks, before returning on February 5.
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24 HOURS OF DUBAI DUBAI AUTODROME
24 HOURS, 0 PROBLEMS
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UT of the six times the Dunlop 24 Hours of Dubai has been run, BMW has now taken three wins, after the Need For Speed Schubert team won the 2011 running of the event on the weekend. The team comprised of Claudia Hürtgen, Edward Sandström, Tommy Milner and Augusto Farfus, the latter coming in at the last minute to replace Patrick Söderland, who suffered a neck injury. And as far
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as 24 Hour race victories go, this one was straightforward, the Z4 GT3 taking over the lead in the seventh hour, and retaining it to the finish, thanks to a troublefree run. “We came close to victory here two years ago, but then we had an accident in the closing stages and ended up second,” said Hürtgen. “Now, I have finally scored my maiden victory in a 24 Hour race. In that last few laps, I started hearing many strange
noises, but fortunately, we were able to make it home. Fantastic!” Milner did admit to having had one scary moment during his final stint: “I slightly touched another car, but fortunately, that didn’t cause any damage.” Second, albeit four laps behind the winners, was the Italian AF Course Ferrari F430 of Eppe Perazzini, Michael Broniszewski, Lorenzo Case and Marco Cioci. Second place was a good result for the team, after they lost one of their other
cars – which was being run by NASCAR team owners Michael Waltrip and Rob Kaufmann – during the warm-up. The Dubai race was the debut for Mercedes’ latest GT3 racer, the SLS AMG ‘Gullwing’. Three of the gorgeous cars started the race, and all three made it to the end. However, the best of them was the Black Falcon #7, which finished third thanks to Thomas Jäger, Kenneth Heyer, Jan Seyffarth and Sean Paul Breslin.
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For once, Porsche failed to make an impact on the race. Car #1, entered by Gianluca de Lorenzi, did look threatening early, even leading the race in the evening. But Martin Ragginger got a passing move wrong during his stint, severely damaging the Porsche. As for the Aussies in the field, the best of the green-and-gold teams was the Racer Industries Holden Astra. The former Bathurst 12 Hour campaigner took to Dubai with Ryan McLeod,
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Jake Camilleri, Brett Holdsworth and Scott Nicholas behind the wheels, and came home 26th outright, and fourth in class. They were one position ahead of the all-West Aussie entry of Malcolm and Brett Naill, Clint Harvey and Nathan Callagham, in their SEAT Leon Super Copa. A second SEAT, with Mark Pilatti, Kerry Wade, John Piavanini and Brit Daniel Welch finished 45th outright and eighth in class, after struggling through problems.
See Gull: Mercedes debuted its stunning SLS ‘Gullwing’ GT3 car in Dubai, top, while Dutch brand Donkevoort showed off its ... ummm ... interesting looking D8 GT, above. Ryan McLeod led an all-Aussie squad in his Holden Astra, below.
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Lending a hand
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USTRALIAN motorsport has been chipping in to help those affected by the Queensland Flood Disaster. Among the entities getting involved, World Series Sprintcars’ two South Australian rounds on the weekend featured ‘Racers who give a Dam’, a campaign which saw over $4,000 raised across two nights. During each event, drivers walked around the venues with open helmets and thousands of race fans happily donated to the worthy cause. Additionally, Speedway City Promoter Wendy Turner and Bill Wigzell’s daughter Ann promoted a ‘Shoe Box Of Love For Animals’ affected by the floods. People donated pet food by either dropping it at the Speedway City office during the week leading up to the event, or by bringing it to the track on race night. Using the clay sprayed on the fence during practice, a message was written under the World Series Sprintcar big screen which read WSS : ) QLD. This message of support for Queensland was announced over the PA system and also broadcasted to the thousands of people who had tuned in to the internet webcast. www.mnews.com.au
Other entities within Australian motorsport have also been active, including V8 Supercars Australia, which has donated $50,000 and pledged manpower and goods, while James Courtney and personal sponsor JELD-WEN combined to donate $25,000. The Australian Grand Prix Corporation is also auctioning a ride in the two-seater Minardi F1 car during March’s GP which can be found on eBay. “These are tens of thousands of proud Queenslanders who are in dire consequences right now, many of them being our fans and our friends,” V8SA Chairman Tony Cochrane said. “Whether it’s Rockhampton, Chinchilla, Goondwindi, Gympie, Brisbane, Toowoomba, Ipswich or any of the devastated areas, we have massive fan bases in all of them and they need our help. V8 Supercars wants to do its part in any way we can.” As of Sunday night, the Premier’s Flood Relief Appeal had raised almost $85,000,000. You can donate through www.qld.gov.au/ floods/donate.html – PARIS CHARLES 43