Motorsport eNews Issue 132 - November 24-30, 2009

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Issue No. 132 November 24-30 2009

GRIDLoCK 2010 entry list all but done

Barb a g a l l o ’ s p i t plan

eNews chats exclusively with wa sports minister

Editorial Editor: Andrew van Leeuwen andrew@mnews.com.au Executive Editor: Phil Branagan editor@mnews.com.au National Editor: Mitchell Adam mitchell@mnews.com.au

Australasian

The ‘A’ Team

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Issue No. 132 | 24 - 30 Nov 2009

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Contributing Writers F1: Will Buxton, Mark Glendenning, Paolo Filisetti Europe: Quentin Spurring, David Addison US: Martin D. Clark, Phil Morris Speedway: Greg Boscato, Geoff Rounds, Darren Sutton, Tony Millard (UK) Drag Racing: Dave Ostaszewski (USA), Ken Ferguson, John Bosher, Luke Nieuwhof National: Lachlan Mansell, Mark Jones, Aaron Shaw.

Photographers Sutton Motorsport Images, Dirk Klynsmith, Marshall Cass, John Morris/Mpix, AF1 Images, James Smith, Peter Bury, Neil Blackbourn, Chris Carter, Coopers Photography, Geoff Gracie, Paris Charles, Neil Hammond, Joel Strickland, Ash Budd, Mike Patrick (UK)

news 4 Lock it in, Eddie 7 Yes, Minister 9 Webb of intrigue 13 Jenson McButton 16 Krist-almighty

chat 20 5 minutes with ... opinion 22 Fitzsimons 23 Branagan

race 24 V8 Supercars 32 MINI Challenge 34 Formula Ford 36 NASCAR

2010 grid close to sorted Exclusive Q&A with WA polly Jono Joins Johnsons Champ changes team Lindbom for F3 Jimmie Johnson Time for a change English Racing Board T8, Too Good Caratti Kids Fiore’s in the money Jimmie Four-titles

trade 44 Classifieds

Motorsport eNews is published by Australasian Motorsport News ABN 55 125 120 702 Publisher: C Lambden Copyright: Material published in Motorsport eNews is copyright and may not be reproduced in full or in part without the written permission of the publisher.

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Opinions expressed in Motorsport eNews are not necessarily those of Australasian Motorsport News or its staff.

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The final pieces of the puzzle Bargwanna to Kelly Racing all but solves the 2010 team/driver mystery V8 SUPERCARS

T

HE 2010 V8 Supercar field is just two drivers away from being a complete lock.

Jason Bargwanna was announced as a Kelly Racing driver over the course of the Barbagallo Raceway weekend, replacing the outgoing Jack Perkins, who is Lucas Dumbrell Racing bound.

As exclusively reported in eNews after the recent Phillip Island round, Bargwanna was also in the frame for a third seat at Brad Jones Racing, or a fourth seat at Stone Brothers Racing, using Jason Bright’s remaining Racing Entitlement Contract.

The decision at BJR was between Bargwanna and Karl Reindler and, with ‘Bargs’ out of the question, eNews understands that Reindler may well suit up for BJR next season in a third Commodore, alongside Jasons Richards and Bright.

The deal will be the young West Aussie’s first full-time gig in the main series, after a stand-out season in the Fujitsu Series in 2008. He has spent much of ’09 on the sidelines, but impressed at the Bathurst 1000, where he shared the Fujitsu Racing entry with Bright.

However, this is yet to be confirmed, and eNews sources are still suggesting that the #333 REC ending up as a fourth Stone Brothers car remains a possibility ...

Other confirmations after last week’s board meeting include new teams Tony D’Alberto Racing, and Lucas Dumbrell Racing (see separate stories), each taking a Tasman Motorsport REC. The sale of Bright’s #25 REC wasn’t approved last Wednesday at the board meeting, but eNews understands that the terms were made clearer over the course of the Barbagallo weekend, paving the way for Jono Webb’s debut with Dick Johnson Racing in Abu Dhabi (see separate story).

Paul Cruickshank’s REC was sold to James Rosenberg, which, as eNews exclusively revealed last week, is set to become a third Stone Brothers Racing entry, for Tim Slade.

The most interesting remaining seat is the one Paul Dumbrell will leave vacant at Walkinshaw Racing. With sponsor Autobarn tied to Dumbrell, and Fabian Coulthard set to drive the Bundy Red entry, a sponsor will need to be found for the second car.

According to the team’s commercial manager Bruce Stewart, it’s a process they hope to have finished sooner rather than later.

“The only thing I have to say on the

matter is that we want to have the full driver/sponsor combination locked in within the next two weeks,” said a tightlipped Stewart.

Current Bundy Red driver David Reynolds may still remain with the team, if a sponsor can be found. But Michael Patrizi, who has been left out in the cold by the closure of Paul Cruickshank Racing, is also in with a shot of the drive. If the Walkinshaw deal doesn’t come off, Patrizi is content with sitting out next season.

“I’ve got no problem with that,” he told eNews.

“I’m a racing car driver, and here, where I am right now, hasn’t worked. That’s no fault of mine, or the mechanics, but with the amount of mechanical failures we’ve had ... how are we meant to put a championship together?

“I can’t say much, but if the options that are available to me come off – and the team’s that I’m talking to are working very hard to make that happen – it will be great. Given the right equipment, I can be at the front. There is no doubt about that.”

The other available seat is the fourth car at Kelly Racing, currently inhabited by Mark McNally. That seat is likely to go to the highest bidder, and may not be settled until closer to the start of next season.

news

1 Jamie Whincup TeamVodafone Commodore VE

This is it ...

The 2010 V8 Supercar grid

2

3

4

5

Garth Tander Holden Racing Team Commodore VE

Tony D’Alberto Tony D’Alberto Racing Commodore VE

Alex Davison Stone Brothers Racing Falcon FG

Mark Winterbottom Ford Performance Racing Falcon FG

6

7

8

9

Steven Richards Ford Performance Racing Falcon FG

Todd Kelly Kelly Racing Commodore VE

Jason Richards Brad Jones Racing Commodore VE

Shane van Gisbergen Stone Brothers Racing Falcon FG

10

11

12

14

TBA Walkinshaw Racing Commodore VE

Jason Bargwanna Kelly Racing Commodore VE

Dean Fiore Triple F Racing Falcon BF

Jason Bright Brad Jones Racing Commodore VE

15

16

17

18

Rick Kelly Kelly Racing Commodore VE

TBA Kelly Racing Commodore VE

Steven Johnson Dick Johnson Racing Falcon FG

James Courtney Dick Johnson Racing Falcon FG

22

24

25

33

Will Davison Holden Racing Team Commodore VE

Fabian Coulthard Walkinshaw Racing Commodore VE

Jonothan Webb Dick Johnson Racing Falcon FG

Lee Holdsworth Garry Rogers Motorsport Commodore VE

34

39

51

55

Michael Caruso Garry Rogers Motorsport Commodore VE

Russell Ingall Paul Morris Motorsport Commodore VE

Jack Perkins Lucas Dumbrell Racing Commodore VE

Paul Dumbrell Rod Nash Racing Falcon FG

67

111

333

888

Greg Murphy Paul Morris Motorsport Commodore VE

Tim Slade Stone Brothers Racing Falcon FG

Karl Reindler Brad Jones Racing Commodore VE

Craig Lowndes TeamVodafone Commodore VE

Tasman Motorsport Folds ONE of V8 Supercar’s oldest teams – Tasman Motorsport – will be no more after the 2009 season.

With it’s licences heading to Tony D’Alberto Racing and Lucas Dumbrell Racing, Tasman Motorsport will cease to exist, having first been formed as a

privateer team by Trevor Ashby and Steve Reed back in 1986.

“It’s is a shame to end such an era in the sport, but, our business model would not support the sporting success that we desired,” said Co-Owner Tim Miles.

“During the period of our ownership,

the team has showed promise, and we were gutted to come so close, but still miss out on a pair of podiums at Bathurst this year.”

The team’s two VE Commodores will be used by Greg Murphy Racing in the Fujitsu Series next year.

WA V8 round looks safe Temporary in-field pits likely to keep V8 Supercars heading West V8 SUPERCARS THE future of V8 Supercar racing in Western Australia is looking safer than it has in years, after positive meetings between WA’s minister for sport and recreation, the Honourable Terry Waldren, and Tony Cochrane over the Bigpond 300 weekend.

After an initial meeting last Friday, Cochrane and Mark Skaife escorted the minister on a lap of Barbagallo Raceway on Sunday morning, discussing ideas to keep the category coming west.

While neither Cochrane of Waldren gave much away during the press conference on Sunday, eNews understands that temporary pit buildings may be constructed on the inside of the main straight next year, giving team’s a chance to house their cars and equipment on the side of the circuit, not back in the paddock.

While that plan wasn’t officially discussed on Sunday, both Cochrane and Waldren did say that the meetings were possible, and

that a V8 return to the Barbagallo Raceway in 2010 was highly likely.

“On Friday afternoon I met with the V8s, and we had a very productive meeting,” said Waldren.

“There were some issues raised, and some statistics put forward about how we could make some changes. That’s why I’ve come down here today with the V8 boys, to see what those issues are, and then they’ll come to us formally, and together with the V8s and the WA Sporting Car Club, I feel confident that we’re going to continue to see V8 racing in WA. “I’m very positive. It’s been a great opportunity for me to actually meet with the V8 people, and hear their expertise and positive suggestions. It will help me greatly, and help us to work together to get a good outcome for motorsport in Western Australia, for the V8s, and for the public of Western Australia.”

“Firstly it’s great to meet a can-do minister,” added Cochrane.

“I put some ideas to him about some things we’d like to see happen, and I got a positive response. We’ve shared our vision about how the five million could be better utilized to ensure that the V8s keep coming here. It’s a state we want to come with, and a venue we want to come to. Working with Mark Skaife we’ve got some great suggestion, and like the minister, I’m pretty confident we’ll find a way forward here.”

Cochrane also threw his support behind the WA Sporting Car Club’s grander plan – an extension to the north of the existing circuit, complete with all new pit garages.

“We’d love to see all the track developments take place here, and that’s a big spend. It’s probably $30 million. But it will be money very well spent for the future of motorsport in WA, and it will ensure we keep coming for many years to come.

“I remain very hopeful. We’ve got some things to work through, but as I said before, I’ve met a can-do minister.”

– ANDREW VAN LEEUWEN

news

NEWS EXCLUSIVE ANDREW VAN LEEUWEN had a one-on-one chat with WA’s Minister for Sport and Recreation Terry Waldren

MOTORSPORT NEWS: How important for Western Australia is it for the relationship with V8 Supercars to continue?

HON TERRY WALDREN: The V8s are important to Western Australia.

The V8s have a great following over here, it is a national sport, so we want to make sure it continues.

But we do have limits. We have limits on how much money we can invest. The idea now is working through to try and use what we can invest wisely.

John Morris/Mpix

At this stage, what are you thinking would constitute a wise investment? What were the main points you and Tony Cochrane were discussing on your lap of the circuit?

It was about the pits, and about the safety of coming in and out of the pits, as well as the structure of the pits. V8s have got some positive ideas about that. We need to see those ideas in writing, and then obviously we have to work out whether these ideas can be done, and the costing.

I’m hopeful that we’ll be able to work through that.

Can you elaborate on what their plans are for the pits?

Obviously they’re looking for more safety, and they’re looking for more area. There are a couple of possibilities they are looking at, but I won’t go any further than that at this stage.

Five million dollars have been allocated, but the WA Sporting Car Club has some big plans to utilize the land north of the circuit for a major extension. How is the government situated to make that happen?

We’ve already allocated the five million, and in looking what V8s have put to us, and they’ve been meeting with the Sporting Car Club, as have we, it may be that we re-adjust how we utilize that funding. If we can do that to the benefit of both, we will. There are some changes we can make that will see the V8s back here racing.

But your department is fully on board with the concept of making the major extension?

Yes, that plan is there. And the scope of the circuit can still be changed. You need to remember that this is also for the benefit of the Sporting Car Club in WA, that operates for 51 weeks of the year. It was good to have the opportunity to share that with the V8s, so they understand now where we’re coming from. They are supportive of that.

Dunlop flags tyre changes V8 SUPERCAR DUNLOP’S motorsport operations manager Kevin Fitzsimons has called for a review of the V8 Supercar control tyre, following the

last round of the 2009 season using the Sprint tyre.

In an exclusive opinion piece with eNews, Fitzsimons revealed his thoughts on an evolution of the control tyre, perhaps involving a softer control, or two different control tyres, depending on the

circuit the cars will be racing on.

“We could build a specific tyre for Bathurst, but it would be a dog at every other track we go to, because of the different loading on the tyre,” said Fitzsimons.

“The control tyre is a compromise; it’s built to be raced on 16 different circuits, with 16 different track temperatures.

“You could almost sit back and say ‘right, this tyre does Phillip Island and

Dirk Klynsmith

Bathurst, and this tyre does here, here, and here’. That would mean maybe having three tyres, which is a logistical nightmare, but you can do it.”

Leading driver Greg Murphy agrees that changes need to be made to V8 Supercar’s current rubber.

“I think that the current tyre is rubbish,” said Murphy.

“It’s very hard to use, and you just drop time, you lose so much time, because it becomes so difficult to drive so quickly. The sprint tyre is a good thing, I reckon, it’s a good tyre.”

– ANDREW VAN LEEUWEN For more with Kevin Fitzsimons, check out P20.

Night race gets thumbs-up V8 SUPERCAR CRAIG Lowndes has thrown his support behind the return of night racing to the V8 Supercar Championship Series.

The 2010 season will kick off with a day/night race at the Yas Marina circuit in Abu Dhabi, the same concept at the track’s maiden Formula 1 Grand Prix used earlier this

month. It will be the first V8 Supercar race held under lights since the Calder Park round back in 1997.

“I think it’s a great concept,” Lowndes told eNews.

“It would be nice to do more of it, because a lot of the circuits we go to could accommodate a twilight race.

“The time frame will be better for people in Australia viewing the race. I know there is a lot of criticism for us going to Bahrain and Abu Dhabi, not only because it is outside Australia, but because the viewing times are messed up.

“And it’s a great spectacle.

In the old days you could see the flames from the exhaust, although that won’t be the case now [with the E85 fuel].

“Still, you can see brake discs glowing; all the stuff you can’t see during the day, you can see at night. It becomes more of a spectacle.”

Lowndes also said that any crossover between data

gathered during the last two visits to Bahrain and the maiden trip to Abu Dhabi will go out the window, with cooler ambient temperatures likely in the evening.

“What we’ve found in the Middle East is that grip levels are very dependant on tyre temperatures, so the later in the afternoon we race the better it is. That’s something that teams will have to get their heads around.

“It’s definitely something different for the drivers, too.

You have to concentrate much more on your brake markers.

At Le Mans and Daytona and other events when you have to drive through the night, some drivers really slow up during the night. Drivers can have trouble seeing as well at night, it makes it hard to pick markers and lines and that sort of stuff. It throws a whole new element into the mix.”

– ANDREW VAN LEEUWEN

race

V8 SUPERCAR DICK Johnson Racing will be a three-car operation in 2010, despite last week’s board meeting delaying the approval of Steve Webb’s purchase of one of Jason Bright’s Racing Entitlement Contracts.

As eNews understands it, clearer details of the sale were finalized in the west, meaning

Jonothan Webb will drive a third Dick Johnson Racing car next season. The commercial aspect of the entry is yet to be finalized, but DJR will purchase a third Triple Eightbuilt FG Falcon, one of the current TeamVodafone race cars.

“We’re working through all of those details at the moment,” said DJR co-owner Charlie Schwerkolt.

“This is the best business model. We’ll be spreading the costs over three cars, including the costs of building our own engines and all of the R&D associated with that.

“And we’ll be starting with three absolutely identical cars, and that’s the best way to make the concept work.”

Schwerkolt also added that he is excited to have Webb

Peter Bury

SJ + JC + JW = 3@DJR

on board, particularly after strong showings for the team during the two endurance races earlier this year.

“He did a great job for us at the enduros, and he’s looked really good in the Fujitsu Series this year,” he said.

“We’ve really wanted to bring a young guy up through the team, so this is a great chance for us.”

– ANDREW VAN LEEUWEN

Dirk Klynsmith

Less varieties of cash V8 SUPERCAR

THERE could be changes to the structure by which V8 Supercar teams are paid next season.

A proposal to do away with prizemoney is being considered by teams at present, and payment may be based purely on appearance money in the future. The present system divides

the payments teams receive from V8 Supercars into appearance money and prizemoney on a 90:10 split.

“We have proposed that all the money is paid as appearance money, to assist teams with their budgets,” said TeamVodafone boss Roland Dane.

“It would impact negatively on a couple of teams, like us and, probably, HRT, be revenueneutral for a number of other teams and help everyone else.”

New Truck For The Bottle-O ...

V8 SUPERCAR FORD Performance Racing will have an impressive transporter setup next season, thanks to its alliance with Rod Nash Racing.

Rod Nash purchased a new transporter last week, and will have all of the access placed on the right-hand side of the Bottle-O trailer, rather than the traditional left-hand-side access. That will mean, when parked next to the FPR truck in the paddock, the teams will

have an increased working area, and visible integration.

“We want to have an area between the trucks that we can use,” said Nash.

“And there will be an area at the back of the bus perfect for the engineers to be working, which will be air-conditioned and so on.

“Between myself and [FPR team boss] Tim [Edwards], we’ve thought this through. The trailers will be perfectly integrated. We’re taking it to the next level.”

– ANDREW VAN LEEUWEN

Dirk Klynsmith

... Relief for D’Alberto V8 SUPERCAR

TONY D’Alberto Racing is ready to continue in the V8 Supercar Championship Series in 2010, with the team’s purchase of one of the Tasman Motorsport Racing Entitlement Contracts approved at board level last week.

Nothing much will change for D’Alberto and his team, apart from the name on

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the REC; instead of being in alliance with Rod Nash Racing, as it has been for the last two seasons, TDR will be the master of its own destiny.

D’Alberto will continue to use the same ex-Walkinshaw Racing VE Commodore, and already has the infrastructure and staff to run the team.

“We’re just relieved that the sale of the licence was approved,” he told eNews.

“We were confident it would

go through, but when Tony Cochrane started talking about 28 cars, we were a bit worried.

“We’ve supported the category for a long time, so it’s nice to see that rewarded.

“All we have to do for next year is get rid of a lot of green stickers, re-paint the truck, by some new uniforms, and go racing.”

With title sponsor The Bottle-O heading to Ford

Performance Racing with Rod Nash, D’Alberto is now on the hunt for a new commercial partner.

“The short answer is that we don’t have a major sponsor,” he said.

“It was hard to plan for that when we weren’t 100 percent sure on the licence situation.

The income from the licence itself is good, so we’re not over committed.”

– ANDREW VAN LEEUWEN

race

Dirk Klynsmith

PC: I’ll Be Back V8 SUPERCAR PAUL Cruickshank might not be a team owner in 2010, but he vows he will return to the sport as a licence holder in the future.

The sale of Cruickshank’s Racing Entitlement Conract to James Rosenberg was approved at V8 board level last week, confirming the end of Paul Cruickshank Racing as it stands.

But the likeable Kiwi will still be involved in the category next season, servicing some commercial agreements attached to the Rosenberg REC, which is set to be a third Stone Bothers Racing entry driven by Tim Slade.

“I’m actually quite excited about it,” he told eNews.

“A lot of people are asking me if I’m sad because the team isn’t continuing, but it wasn’t going to continue in its current form anyway.

“Now, we’ve got some commercial agreements, and we’ll take them to a team and I’ll service those.

“We’re also already planning for our next involvement with a team in an ownership role; whether that takes 12 months or 24 months I don’t know.

“What I am sure of is that we’ll be back as a team. This is purely a re-group to tidy some things up, so I can come back and re-attack it in a better way.”

– ANDREW VAN LEEUWEN

Slade Gets REC V8 SUPERCAR

Dirk Klynsmith

TIM Slade’s place on the grid in 2010 has been secured, with the sale of Paul Cruickshank’s Racing Entitlement Contract to Slade’s backer James Rosenberg approved by the V8 Supercar board last week.

As exclusively revealed in last week’s issue of eNews, Rosenberg is likely to use the REC to run Slade as part of Stone Brothers Racing next season, with Greg Murphy set to replace the South Australian rookie at Paul Morris Motorsport.

And while the finer details of the SBR deal are yet to be sorted, Slade says he is relieved to have his immediate future secured by the Rosenberg deal.

“James is in Macau at the moment, and when he gets

back on Tuesday, we will sit down and work through this stuff,” Slade told eNews.

“Nothing is confirmed yet, but with James acquiring the licence, it’s both a great investment for him and a continuation of his support for me, which I am so grateful for.

“And sure, it’s a relief knowing that something is in the pipeline. It was all looking a bit shaky around Phillip Island, so it’s nice to know something will be locked in.”

While SBR is clearly the expected outcome, Slade remains cagey about exactly where he and the REC will end up.

“We’ve spoken to Stone Bothers, there’s no doubt about that, and they are clearly a good option. We’ve just got to weigh everything up.”

– ANDREW VAN LEEUWEN

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Dirk Klynsmith

Kimi’s Holiday FORMULA ONE

Lord of the Manor TOYOTA refugee Timo Glock will drive for Manor Grand Prix in its debut season next year.

Glock was expected to drive alongside Robert Kubica at Renault next season, but made the shock move to Manor, casting fresh doubt on Renault’s long-term Formula 1 plans.

“It might seem like a brave step,” said Glock. “But there are many good reasons to join this team. For me as a driver, for example, it was important that I was assured I would be involved in the development of the team and the car.”

“The car is being designed by Nick Wirth. That was another argument in the team’s favour as far as I was concerned.

Nick has a lot of racecar design experience and a very good reputation.”

Glock’s signing is the second of the new-for-2010 teams, coming a couple of week’s after Bruno Senna agreed to a deal with Campos Meta. And there will be more soon, with Argentine Jose Maria Lopez expected to sign with USF1 in the near future.

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Dirk Klynsmith

FORMULA ONE

KIMI Raikkonen is likely to spend 2010 on the sidelines, after McLaren opted to sign Jenson Button instead of the 2007 world champion.

Raikkonen told the official Formula 1 website that McLaren was his sole competitive option for next season, and that driving for a mid-field team held no interest for him.

“I felt McLaren offered the best opportunity to win races and challenge for the drivers’ championship, and if that would not work the one-year break is the result,” he said.

“And to be honest, I will only return in 2011 if a competitive drive is available. I do not want to race just to make up the numbers.

That does not interest me. But there’s a lot of time until then, so let’s wait and see what happens in the months ahead.”

news

Button heads ‘home’

World Champ signs for McLaren, the team that gave him a taste of F1 in 1999 FORMULA ONE

McLAREN’s driver line-up will feature two British world champions in 2010, with Jenson Button signing to race alongside Lewis Hamilton.

That means that when the Formula 1 season kicks off in Bahrain next year, McLaren will, for the first time in F1 history, start the with the two most recent successive world champions.

According to Button, the decision to leave Brawn GP – which will be known as Mercedes in 2010 – was based on his desire for a fresh challenge.

“It’s always a difficult decision to leave a team when you’ve been there for so long,” said Button.

“But life is all about challenges – and, most important of all, it’s about challenging yourself. So, although I won the World Championship with Brawn GP last year, and I’ll never forget that, I was always adamant that I wanted to continue to set myself fresh challenges.

“So that’s why I’ve decided to join Vodafone McLaren Mercedes. You can’t help but be affected by this team’s phenomenal history. McLaren is one of the greats of world sport.”

Hamilton says he is also excited about the challenge of a new team-mate – not surprising, given he was hardly pushed by an underperforming Heikki Kovalainen in ’09.

“I already know Jenson, and we get on very well together,” said Hamilton.

“We both really want our team to succeed. Although we’ll be pushing each other hard, I’m sure we’ll very quickly establish a great working relationship. He’s an exceptional driver; very controlled and very smooth, and he has a real depth of knowledge and experience.”

Dirk Klynsmith

Mercedes buys World Championship team FORMULA ONE DAIMLER has taken a majority stake in Brawn GP, and will rebrand the team as Mercedes F1 in 2010.

As a result, in the Brackleybased team will go from being Honda’s factory team, to Brawn GP, to Mercedes’ factory team in the space of three seasons.

It will also be Mercedes’ first proper factory Grand Prix

team since 1955, and means the brand will sell its stake in McLaren back to the team over the next two years.

“Mercedes-Benz is the most valued and best-known premium automotive brand in the world,” said Dr. Dieter Zetsche, CEO of Daimler AG and Head of Mercedes-Benz Cars.

“This brand looks for competition of the utmost quality in all relevant fields in

order to continually improve its performance in the face of such new challenges.

“Due to the new Formula 1 environment, we will face the competition in future on the most important motor sports stage with our own Silver Arrow works team.”

With Jenson Button headed to McLaren, Nico Rosberg is a certainty to be one of Mercedes’ drivers next season, with Nick

Heidfeld widely tipped to take the second seat, making it Germany versus England in the Mercedes camps.

But while Kimi Raikkonen has indicated he is likely to take a year off in ’09 (see separate story), he has shown some interest in a Mercedes seat. And the name Michael Schumacher has been thrown around too, which isn’t totally out of the question ...

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VW NASCAR? No – but ...

NASCAR

RELAX, Volkswagen is not going to join NASCAR – but it might have a crack at Grand Am. A meeting between German racing legend Hans-Joachim Stuck, now Volkswagen’s Motorsport boss, and NASCAR officials at Homestead-Miami Speedway fuelled speculation that VW could join Stock Car racing in the near future.

NASCAR limits participation in

its various series to makes that manufacture in the USA. BMW, Honda, Hyundai, Nissan and Mercedes-Benz all build cars in the USA, and VW will join them when its new US$1billion plant, in which it will build a midsize sedan, opens in 2011 in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

But a recent report by speedtv.com clarified the visit, with Stuck and VW showing interest in the low-cost Sportscar series that is also run under the NASCAR umbrella.

Kahne points to split NASCAR KASEY Kahne looks set to split with Richard Petty Motorsports at the end of next season.

The popular Dodge driver, who will switch to a Ford when the team changes brands next season, hinted at the split in an interview at Homestead last week.

“At this point, I have one year left (on my RPM contract),” Kahne said.

“I want to do the best job for Richard Petty Motorsports in my final year. It’s up to them what happens. They do their thing and I’ll do mine.

All I can do is make myself better at driving racecars and communicating with [crew

chief ] Kenny Francis. If I do that, I’ll be happy next season.”

Asked whether 2010 would be his last year with the team, Kahne responded, “That’s hard to say. Come January, I can start looking around; I can talk to other people. I would imagine the Gilletts [PRM coowners] are going to talk to me at that point. But as of right now, the Gilletts haven’t talked to me and I’m just kind of doing my job, doing the best that I can through the end of the season. The ups and downs of the team has made it difficult for me to really say, ‘Man, I’m going to be here for 10 more years.’ I really don’t know what’s going to happen.

Truthfully, I don’t know what’s going to happen right now.”

Mac Time at Chip’s NASCAR AS reported in eNnews in August, Jamie McMurray will return with Earnhardt Ganassi Racing next season.

McMurray will driver the number one Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet in 2010 replacing Martin Truex Jr, who moves to Michael Waltrip Racing with

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sponsor NAPA. His team-mate will be Juan Pablo Montoya This will not be McMurray’s first stint with the Ganassi team. He drove for the team between 2002 and 2005, collecting a win the first time he drove for them while subbing for the injured Sterling Marlin.

– MARTIN D CLARK

Power Back, in INDYCAR

SANTA Claus has come early for Will Power, who has landed a full-time ride at Penske Racing for the 2010 IndyCar season.

Power ran a part-time schedule of six events for Penske during 2009, missing his final scheduled outing due to fractured vertebra from a major IndyCar accident last August.

“I’m very happy to be part of the Verizon Wireless Penske Racing Team,” said an elated Power, who will return to the cockpit of the #12, black and red Verizon Wireless car.

“It is a dream come true.

Working with the team this past season was the best experience of my career. It’s something I’ve worked very hard for my whole career to end up in a place like this. I think that we have a very strong driver lineup for next year, and we’ll be expecting to win a lot of races. I want to be running up front all year and be a title contender. So I’ll be doing my absolute best.”

Roger Penske now has Verizon in multi-year deals involving both his IndyCar and NASCAR teams.

“Will did a terrific job for Penske Racing this past season and we are excited that he will

Bridgestone out of F1 – NASCAR BRIDGESTONE may bid to become the new tyre supplier to NASCAR. eNews sources have reported that the Japanese company, which is now the largest manufacturer of tyres in the world, is considering bidding to take over the exclusive deal to supply NASCAR’s three

major categories, Sprint Cup, Nationwide and Camping World Trucks. Currently, Goodyear has that supply in a deal that runs until the end of the 2012 season.

Enews believes that the recently-announced exit of Bridgestone from Formula 1, which will take effect at the end of next season, is part of a long-term plan that will see the company make a huge marketing

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Honda Racing

– to NASCAR? push in the USA. Goodyear has been publicly criticised in recent seasons by a number of drivers, and there is speculation that it will not seek to extend its 50-year relationship with NASCAR, the longest in motorsport.

Meanwhile, Goodyear is moving into different areas of the sport, and recently announced a supply deal to the World of Outlaws Series.

Toyota Motorsports

be able to drive full-time with the team in 2010,” said Penske. “Will proved that he could consistently compete for wins and poles in 2009, despite his limited time on track. We believe he can be a legitimate championship contender next season for our team, along with Helio (Castroneves) and Ryan (Briscoe).”

Penske Racing hasn’t competed with three cars since the mid-90s, deciding two cars work best to be competitive. The CART rules in the past allowed a lot more open development, which was a huge challenge to keep up with parts for three drivers.

– MARY MENDEZ

Buono Vecchio Ragazzo Which translates from Italian as ‘Good Ol’ Boy’ NASCAR JARNO Trulli and Mika Salo have completed their first NASCAR test.

In conjunction with Toyota, Michael Waltrip Racing gave the two Formula 1 drivers a full day test each on the 0.5-mile New Smyrna Speedway in Florida last week, driving the #55 NAPA Auto Parts Camry.

“Both Jarno and Mika have done really well,” said Steve Hallam, Executive Vice President of Competition for Michael Waltrip Racing and a 27-year F1 veteran.

“They have both delivered competitive lap times. They bring a different perspective to our ears. We are able to hear about the cars in a different way. Also, Trevor (Bayne, the team’s #99 Nationwide car driver who was on site to coach both F1 drivers) being here is very useful because he is articulate and able to relate their experiences to reality. It has been a really positive test and has brought good value to us.”

“It was a big shock for me,” said Trulli, stating his initial impression after turning nearly 300 laps on his first oval test last Wednesday.

“It was the first time in my life I was leaving pit road in a closed cockpit. I needed to get used to that feeling of not having my head out. And, I’m used to being in a stiff car on the ground.

Things around me felt extremely different and strange. I started running some laps to get use to the environment.

“The car is really heavy compared to a solid platform of F1. Obviously, I had to deal with that and try to understand the feeling of the car moving around, rolling around, and being so heavy. After a couple of runs I got into the

race pace. I’m pretty happy at the moment.”

Trulli talked to his former F1 rival, Juan Pablo Montoya, who has become especially competitive in NASCAR this year.

“I didn’t know about NASCAR until Juan Pablo Montoya switched. I wanted to see how he did. I had a chance several times to talk to Juan Pablo who was kind enough to give me a lot of interesting and important tips about how to drive this oval car. It’s something you get from experience. But I must admit at the end of the day after several runs I was already on pace. It doesn’t mean that I can challenge everyone out there tomorrow. It’s still a race car and you have to understand the concept about driving on an oval and driving this heavy car. It has a lot of power.”

Although Trulli, above with Waltrip, is still in talks about an F1 ride for 2011 now that Toyota has left competition, he’s keeping his options open, especially for the future after F1.

“The world has changed and everyone is looking at different series. I’m very close with some F1 teams for next season. But I keep my door open even for an eventual NASCAR switch, because it is interesting, it’s a new series, and a new challenge. The fact that they run 38 weekends, I don’t’ care. I’m a racing driver. I grew up I racing every weekend. Until the last year or two in F1, we use to race and test every week. It is a different lifestyle. It’s nice because if during a weekend something goes wrong, you can get your revenge the next weekend!”

Sounds like Trulli is ready for some bump racing.

– MARY MENDEZ

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BRIEFLY... n CRAIG Lowndes will feature in the next season of Australia’s Greatest Athlete.

The series will be filmed on Queensland’s Stradbroke Island in the week following Homebush, with Lowndes to miss the V8 Awards dinner. Channel 7 will air the competition in early 2010. n AUSTRALIAN GT competitor John Briggs has retired from racing as he prepares to battle prostate cancer. The former Sports Sedan Champion and Supercar team owner has withdrawn his Mosler from Homebush’s season finale, where GT will announce their 2010 calendar. n CHEVROLET has recruited Yvan Muller to its World Touring Car team.

Muller will join Rob Huff and Alain Menu in a trio of Chevrolet Cruzes, prepared

by RML in the UK. n Sprint Cup Champion Jimmie Johnson has signed a contract extension with Hendrick Motorsports that will see him behind the wheel for Rick Hendrick until 2015. Lowe’s, which ends its 11-year naming rights deal of the Charlotte track this week, is staying with Hendrick, re-upping through the 2013 season.

F3 SuperPrix Field Set FORMULA 3 A PAIR of Formula Ford regulars and another international driver have completed the field for this weekend’s Formula 3 SuperPrix at Sandown.

Kristian Lindbom, Bryce Moore and Chinese driver Li Zhi Cong are late additions to the 16-car field for the season finale, with the trio to line up in National Class.

After finishing fourth in the 2007 Formula Ford Championship and third last year, Lindbom has spent 2009 on the sidelines. His drought will break this weekend when he joins Astuti Motorsport, driving one of the team’s F304model Dallaras.

“I’ve always wanted to drive an F3 car, other than a couple of demo laps in a Formula Toyota I’ve never driven a wings and slicks car,” Lindbom said.

“The aim is to go out there and try to impress and see if we get something together for next year. I haven’t raced anything at all for a year and

there are a few international drivers in the field, so it’s a bit of an unknown quantity.

“Sam’s (Astuti Motorsport team owner Sam Astuti) been really good. He’s put together a thorough program for the weekend, hopefully we can do well and see what happens from there.”

West Australian Moore will race TanderSport’s F304 Dallara, most-recently driven

by Leanne Tander at Phillip Island.

Moore was equal-fifth in his rookie season in the Western Australian Formula Ford Championship this year, and contested the Phillip Island round of the Australian Formula Ford Championship.

As predicted by eNews last week, R-Tek Motorsport has signed a second international for the event.

Li Zhi Cong, 16, will join fellow Chinese driver Zhang Shan Qi with the team, taking the tally of international driver to seven – the most-ever for an Australian F3 Championship round.

The pair both race Asian

Formula Renault with the PTRS Racing Team, who will have a number of team members at Sandown working with R-Tek. At the head of the field, all eyes will be on the title fight between ’07 Champ Tim Macrow and Englishman Joey Foster. Macrow holds a slight advantage heading into the weekend, Formula 3’s first visit to Sandown since 2004.

Elsewhere within the Shannons Nationals paddock, the Kumho Australian Saloon Car Series will end an up-anddown season strongly, with 36 cars entered.

The 21-car Commodore Cup field will include Marcus Zukanovic’s return to racing after injuries sustained in the pre-season Supercar test at Winton in March.

Action from all six Shannons Nationals categories will be streamed online this weekend.

In a first for the series, live video footage and audio of course commentary will be available through www. thenationals.com.au on Saturday and Sunday.

– MITCHELL ADAM

n Robby Gordon finished fourth in the Baja 1000 on Saturday, the finish was enough to net Gordon the 2009 SCORE International Off Road Championship.

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Dirk Klynsmith

n Nelson Piquet Jr. has apparently not made concrete plans to race in the NASCAR Truck Series next season, if he can bring sponsorship with him the Red Horse Racing team has interest in fielding a Truck for him.

- MARTIN D. CLARK / STAFF

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Winslow Gets V8 FUJITSU V8S

2008 Australian Formula 3 Champ James Winslow will make his Fujitsu V8 Series debut at Homebush.

The Englishman has been on the hunt for a V8 drive since winning the F3 title last September, but ended up racing in America’s open-wheel Atlantic Championship.

At Homebush, Winslow will race Jay Motorsport’s ex-HRT VZ Commodore, driven earlier in the season by Shane Price, while Garth Walden will race the team’s ex-Team Dynamic Commodore.

Winslow was among a group of drivers to test with Jay Verdnik’s outfit at Mallala last week – including new Formula Ford champ Nick Percat – and he also tested with Greg Murphy Racing at Winton a

week before.

“It’s great, I’ve been aiming at this for a while, but now I’m finally in,” Winslow told eNews.

The test went pretty well, I did about 20-odd laps in the car to add to what I did with GMR “I’m surprised at how natural the cars feel to drive, compared to everything else I’ve driven.

At Winton, I did a couple of passenger laps with Greg Murphy at the start of the day, which were incredibly helpful in getting to grips with it all.”

As a Homebush resident, the Fujitsu season finale will be Winslow’s adopted home round.

“It’s literally a 90-second walk from my place to the circuit,” he said. “It’ll be a nice change from commuting to and from America to race as I’ve been doing all year.”

– MITCHELL ADAM

Rally Oz Restructure

Raymo’s New Ride RALLY GLEN Raymond will campaign a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X in next year’s Australian Rally Championship.

For the last two seasons Raymond has been using an exfactory Toyota Corolla Group N(P) car, but ran into difficulties a couple of months ago when he wanted to compete at Rally Australia. As the car doesn’t have international homologation, he was forced to rent an unfamiliar car for the event.

To avoid a similar situation in the future, Raymond sold the Corolla to a state competitor

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Dirk Klynsmith

THE rotational system of the World Rally Championship has taken its toll on Rally Australia’s organizing staff, with three contracts not being renewed by the Confederation of Australian Motorsport recently.

Having got the first running of the re-born Rally Australia out of the way in September, CAMS has decided to let General Manager Garry Upson, Operations Manager Bob Newman, and Event Support Coordinator Sam Pearce go.

“Consequently after the event and given we do not know whether we have an event secured for 2011, the employment contracts of Gary Upson, Bob Newman and Sam Pearce have

in Western Australia, and began the hunt for a new car.

He found it in the form of a road-going Evo X, which he and his family team will spend the summer converting into a Group N rally car.

“We’ve built cars before, but there’s a lot of technology that has to go into this one,” he told eNews. “We want speed and reliability, because we want to be competitive in outright terms. That’s why this is such a great challenge for us as a team.”

Raymond and his co-driving brother Matt finished second in this year’s ARC. – ANDREW VAN LEEUWEN

not been renewed,” said CAMS CEO Graham Fountain regarding the situation.

“It is important to note that these staff have not been “sacked” as is being inferred by some.

“However, in order to assist with organizational continuity and to honour our commitment to maintaining an office and presence in the Northern Rivers Region, Janah McLean has been offered a further 12 month employment contract, and will continue to work from Murwillumbah.”

This news comes two weeks after Garry Connelly resigned as Director of Rally Australia, to concentrate on his commitments with the FIA through CAMS. – ANDREW VAN LEEUWEN

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Ford’s new S2000 Rocketship

Alphabetical Guest Drivers: First, Brabham. Then Bra MINI CHALLENGE

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V8 UTES

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MINI will put the ‘star’ into Uber Star at Homebush, when Le Mans winner David Brabham lines up on the grid for the season finale.

The Uber Star MINI Cooper S will be a far cry from Brabham’s 2009 sports car rides. He took a works Peugeot 908 to outright victory at Le Mans and won

the P1 Class of the American Le Mans Series in an Acura ARX02a for Highcroft Racing.

Brabham’s run ties in with a number of anniversaries.

2009 is the 50th anniversary of his father, Sir Jack’s, maiden Formula 1 World Championship in a Cooper Climax and the 50th anniversary of the first Morris Mini.

STEVEN Bradbury is the first guest driver to sign up for the V8 Utes’ 10 Years of Legends races at next year’s Clipsal 500.

The 2010 Yokohama V8 Ute Racing Series season opener will feature a two-driver format, with a wide range of noteworthy drivers targeted to

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M-Sport developed IRC racer on sale in 2010 ... at a price to be announced (ie, lots) THIS is Ford’s new S2000 Rally Car, based on the Ford Fiesta.

Ford’s first global rally car, jointly developed with M-Sport, is eligible for the IRC and S2000 World Cup in 2010, and will also form the basis of Ford’s WRC effort in 2011. It was due to appear for the first time as a course car at the weekend’s Rally of Scotland, the final round of this year’s IRC. The Fiesta features a 2-litre fourcylinder engine that produces 280bhp at 8000rpm, and 192lb ft at 6500rpm.

That power is sent through a six-speed sequential gearbox and AP clutch to all four wheels.

Brembo-supplied 300mm discs and

four-piston monobloc callipers all round take care of the stopping, all that under 15-inch aluminium wheels on gravel, but tarmac events will see those items grow, the front brakes to 355mm and the wheels to 18-inch magnesium items. Rolling weight is on the category minimum of 1200kg.

M-Sport plans to build 50 cars in the next 12 months, to be offered to privateer teams, at a price to be announced.

Video of the car can be seen at http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=gziZfXEMxoM and http://www. youtube.com/watch?v=oFsEwVMItpk&fea ture=response_watch

adbury. Obviously, Branagan’s next share seat time with series regulars.

Since winning his Winter Olympic Gold Medal in 2002, Bradbury has taken tentative steps into motorsport, including Formula Vee races and a run in the MINI Challenge at Symmons Plains earlier this year.

Bradbury will share a Falcon Ute with 2009 Rookie of the Year contender Jason Gomersall at Clipsal, with each driver getting their own practice and qualifying session and race.

“I love the V8 Utes,” Bradbury said.

“I can’t wait to have a drive at Clipsal.

Jason and I have scheduled some practice sessions in the lead-up to the race so we hope to have a good battle on the streets of Adelaide.”

A host of past V8 Ute drivers, including Warren Luff, Damien White and Marcus Zukanovic are in line to race, with the series also hopeful of getting the likes of Mark Skaife, Brad Jones, Glenn Seton, Allan Grice and Andrew Miedecke into seats.

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5 Minutes with ...

JIMMIE JOHNSON Jimmie Johnson has raced eight seasons at NASCAR’s highest level and won four straight Cup titles. No wonder he sounded happy after finishing fifth at Homestead QUESTION Jimmie, congratulations. You made history tonight. Four in a row. Your thoughts about what you achieved and the championship in particular this season.

JIMMIE JOHNSON: I am just blown away by the things we’ve been able to accomplish over the last eight years in the sport. Obviously the last four years have been just unbelievable.

To love the sport like I do and respect it like I do, and the history, the pioneers of this sport from Bill France Sr to the Petty family, you go through many eras up to Mr. Hendrick and what he’s done over the last 25 [years] ... to look at all of that and to have done something that’s never been done in the sport before is so, so amazing and something I am so proud of.

I’ve always set my marks high and really wanted to try to set high marks and all those kinds of things, but I had no clue this stuff would happen.

Just so honoured, so happy, so fortunate.

At the same time I’ve worked my entire life to be in this position. So has [crew chief ] Chad [Knaus], so has Rick.

So it’s not that we backed into any of this. It’s not that it just happened. We’ve gone out and worked really, really hard and have dedicated our lives to it, and it’s paid off. It’s extremely rewarding to have that pay off, and we’re really going to enjoy this.

Seeing you out there as you walked back to the stage after your set of interviews,

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you seemed like the weight of this run had really started to kind of impact you. Can you describe all that you put into this, how much of a weight it was to attempt to achieve history and how it’s maybe wearing on you?

You know, the pressure of winning the fourth didn’t really hit me until I hit the fence at Texas, and then it was like, man, you can’t relax, you can’t hope or think that things are going to be smooth.

You’ve got to go out and earn this thing – it was a great reality check to step up and go to Phoenix and really race for this thing. And also to come here.

Now that we don’t need the points, I look back and can say that I’m thankful for it, because we went to Phoenix, we stepped up and we showed what this team was made of. And here today, we ran fifth. I feel that we could have been better than that, and at the end of the race, I felt like we had a car capable of winning the race.

I’m very proud of what we learned here this weekend.

There were some tough moments in qualifying practice and also yesterday in practice, but Chad did a really good job working with the engineers to understand what we need here, and I’m excited for the future coming back here. I think we have a good understanding now of what we need at this racetrack.

So the pressure side of it, I feel that I managed the pressure a lot better this year.

That’s the most relaxed I’ve been in the race car. This week,

the nights, all of that stuff has been very, very good. There was a lot of pressure, and definitely relieved and the pressure is off, and I feel so light all of a sudden.

I agree with what you say. But I think I have done a very good job this year of understanding the Chase, understanding the pressure, understanding what I’m capable of, what the team is capable of, what to focus on, and now that I’ve got a comfortable understanding, and so does the team and can operate in this environment, that we can continue it the next couple years.

Don’t you have something in your head like I want to be 50 and sitting here doing this?

I have so far blown past those marks that I’m just sitting here like, okay, well, let’s try it again.

‘I hope to win a race at the Cup level’ was my goal when this whole thing started and I was racing ASA, and I felt like probably even before that, if I could win a Cup race, that was my goal.

And then that happened. I keep readjusting. So I never thought I’d be here.

You know, I’d love to win more championships or more races than anybody else has done, but I’m not sure how realistic that is. So I don’t have a good answer for you. I’m trying to recalibrate. I feel like I’m driving and doing the best job I’ve ever done in the race car, and I hope that I can stay in the sweet spot for a period of time and really continue on. But I haven’t thought

much about it because I keep blowing by the stuff that I’ve set for goals.

You were talking about how you can’t pass people back then, how you’ve done what nobody else has done. Petty didn’t do it, Earnhardt didn’t it do it, Allison didn’t do it, on and on, Yarborough didn’t do it. Be honest; where do you stack up?

I think it’s up there. You know, the fact that nobody has done this, I think it puts me near the top. I certainly look at the seven championships by both [Dale] Earnhardt and [Richard] Petty, their race wins, their being in the sport for the number of years and all that they’ve done ... those two guys are kind of at a draw at the top.

Hopefully my stats and win totals and championship totals can rival theirs. But it puts us up there, it really does. And the cool thing is we’re not done yet. We’ve got a lot of racing left ahead of us. So hopefully we can improve on that.

Can Mark Martin help you keep up your productivity as you grow older since he’s one of the few people who ever has?

Yes. I think Mark Martin this year has raised the bar at Hendrick Motorsports. What he and Alan have done together has brought a lot to the group. And then as you break off into what Mark is about, what he thinks about, ... he’s the first guy in line for practice when we call for our team debriefs. He’s already on the phone. The guy, this is what he does.

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The wheel (and tyre) turns

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WASN’T surprised with how long the sprint tyre lasted at Barbagallo Raceway. I thought it would last very well there.

If you actually look at the circuit map itself, a fair bit of it is in a straight line, and it’s quite low grip in general. So longevity wasn’t a surprise, but I was surprised that the sprint tyre was two seconds a lap quicker. I was expecting somewhere around a second, or a second and quarter. It was actually really good to see.

In general, we’re very happy with the tyre. Now it’s just up to the category to decide which way it wants to go.

We’ve got production ordered for January next year, and the production order includes the sprint tyres all being made in one hit, to

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avoid the chance of cross contamination with chemicals.

So it’s just up to V8s to decide whether they leave the format the same. But in my opinion, it’s been a success.

I’m not sure where it will go, format-wise. We could go to two sets of the softs, so everyone can use a set Saturday and Sunday, or a team could have do a whole race on the softs as a possibility.

It always comes down to what I call ‘The Bathurst Scenario.’

We could build a specific tyre for Bathurst, but it would be a dog at every other track we go to, because of the different loading on the tyre. The control tyre is a compromise; it’s built to be raced on 16 different

circuits, with 16 different track temperatures, and you end up with a product that isn’t perfectly suited anywhere.

You could almost sit back and say ‘right, this tyre does Phillip Island and Bathurst, and this tyre does here, here, and here’. That would mean maybe having three tyres, which is a logistical nightmare, but you can do it.

The problem I see with the control tyre at the moment is that if you have a brake lockup coming into a corner and miss the apex, you miss it by a mile. You can’t gather the thing up, and you’re off in the

sand or wherever.

From a racing point of view that’s not good, and from a spectator point of view it’s not good either, because if your favourite driver has a bit of a dive, he’s going to be out of the race.

With a soft tyre – or a softer tyre at least – you can have a go, and still gather it up.

Plus, a softer tyre would cover a bit of the technical disadvantage from one end of pit-lane to the other. At the moment, a V8 Supercar is one shock absorber click away from being a jet or a dog.

You’ve got guys fighting to

opinion

opinion Kevin Fitzsimons Dunlop Motorsport keep a car on the track, and a soft tyre would help that.

Would the team owners like it? Probably not, because there will be more panel damage, because rubbing is racing.

As for drivers, if you asked everyone in pit-lane what they want, you’ll get 15 different answers. Some want a ‘steer’ tyre, some want a ‘drive’ tyre.

If you give them a tyre with better drive, the turn in won’t be as good. If you them a tyre with good turn, the drive is terrible. That’s the issue with a control tyre.

It is, however, time to consider some development.

McLAREN: THE ALLENGLAND CLUB

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NE suspects that the real reason for Jenson Button leaving BrawnGP and joining McLaren will never be known – at least, until everyone retires and the book is written.

The scenario appears to be; JB and his management want X pounds, Brawn offers X minus a fair bit, Jenson visits McLaren and agrees a deal, Brawn claims breach of contract and withdraws what it claims was a significant offer.

Both parties come out of that scenario looking like they have been slighted, if not actually insulted, by the other.

I believe that process is known in parts of Asia as saving face.

I really suspect that there is a fair bit being unsaid. Maybe Kimi Raikkonen knows the real story. If that is the case, we will never get to hear it.

Of course, the upside of all this is that the Poms get their long-awaited Dream Team of Lewis Hamilton and Button. In the reckoning of the experts, the thinking seems to be that the 2008 World Champ, who came out on top of an intrateam battle with no less than Fernando Alonso, is Da Man in the silver dream racers, and that he will look Button up and down and then take him to the cleaners.

The reckoning behind this theory is that Hamilton starred in what had been a bad 2009 car, scoring huge points in the back end of the season just completed.

I am not so sure about that.

In the front half of the season, it was definitely Jenson who starred. The form book on his career is, in a half-decent car, he is a half-decent driver but in a race winner, he is near unbeatable.

opinion Phil Branagan Executive Editor As that noted F1 philosopher Mark Webber has pointed out, McLaren hardly ever produces a bad car two years running (okay, Webber used the word ‘shitbox’) so using that logic, the Wokings are due to wheel out a world beater.

And no refuelling next season means that smooth driving will be at a premium.

Button is very good at that, Hamilton less so.

There is a lot to which we are looking forward in 2010.

Ferrari fighting back, Alonso in red, who knows whom at Brawn, Vettel, Webber and lots more.

Button v Hamilton a onesided contest? I think not – and I’m counting the sleeps.

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John Morris

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V8 SUPERCARS CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES RACES 23-24, BARBAGALLO RACEWAY

It’s a

WHIN/WIN Situation

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James Smith

If TeamVodafone had a bogey track problem in the west, they destroyed that at the weekend, with two poles and two wins. Only a catastrophe can stop Jamie Whincup from taking a second title in Sydney.

ANDREW VAN LEEUWEN reports

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ARBAGALLO Raceway Mark Winterbottom was is the kind of circuit third, but got to the podium that makes tyres a slightly different way to the tremble in their tread. top two. The FPR pilot started The harsh, abrasive surface, the race on the control tyre, usually served with a healthy and upon seeing how long side order of sand, chews Whincup and co’s sprints were through rubber like you lasting, took on the stickier wouldn’t believe. That’s why rubber when he pitted on lap nobody gave the sprint tyre 21. It was an inspired move, much of a chance in Western and had a late Safety Car came Australia. And that’s why Jamie out, Winterbottom might Whincup took a few people have won. Instead the race by surprise when the yellowwent the whole way green, banded Dunlops just kept and third place was as far as going, and going, and going.

Winterbottom could go ... not As has been their style this that he was complaining. season, Triple Eight split the “The race car was much strategies between the two better than the qualifying car,” cars; an obvious choice, given he admitted. a Craig Lowndes pole had David Reynolds did locked out the front row for everything to deserve second the ‘Fones. Both cars started place. If Whincup took a on sprints, but Lowndes pitted gamble by staying on the just seven laps into the race, sprint tyres for 20 laps, then taking on the control tyre. JReynolds bet the house by Dub stayed out on the sprints, trying to stay on them for the the team seemingly content to whole race. run them until they were dead.

It almost paid off. He worked Thing is, that took longer than his way quickly from just most would have expected. outside the top 10 to the lead And when Whincup did pit group early in the race with on lap 20, he was actually still fresh sprints, and looked as faster than most of the guys on good as anyone in the race. standard rubber ...

When he pitted on lap 27, But he took on the controls, the Walkinshaw Racing crew emerged from the pits with elected to leave the sprints a massive lead, and, with no on, simply swapping the right Safety Cars to muddy the front with the left rear. He waters with late chargers on returned to the track, and yellows, took a straightforward was still fast. With 10 laps to win. go, second place looked like a “The Gold Coast does feel certainty. like a long time ago,” said But then, with a handful Whincup, referring to the of laps to go, his right front round that almost derailed his – the second most loaded championship campaign. tyre on the car – let go. The “We used the best tyres we dream result slipped through could; we put our best foot Reynolds’ fingers. forward. For the position we’re in, championship-wise, we’ve got to bolt, and that’s what we Red Dust: did. I felt like we had to sprint Jamie Whincup was in control today and get that lead over and took a strong win on 150 points, and we achieved Saturday. David Reynolds, top that.” right, looked to have second The same strategy worked until a tyre went down. Mark a charm for Todd Kelly as well, Winterbottom, far right, showed the man in black backing speed, but it was Todd Kelly, far up his brother Rick’s pair of right, who took second. Shane podiums at Phillip Island with Van Gisbergen, right, got more second place. air than most during qualifying.

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Marshall Cass

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Dirk Klynsmith

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URPRISE, surprise, it 32 laps on the sprint tyre, so was the longevity we had to keep it sensible. I of the sprint tyre drove it slightly quicker than a that made all the control tyre, and they lasted – difference during the 200km they lasted 42 laps. We played race at Barbagallo Raceway. it straight and got a good Even less surprising was the result.” fact that the race was won by Garth Tander was third, a TeamVodafone car, although having started the race as this time it was Craig Lowndes favourite, because, while he that made his rubber last long was only third in qualifying, enough to steal the win. the two blokes in front of him The drive was a wily one – Jamie Whincup and Mark from Lowndes. While various Winterbottom – had both used drivers were getting 30 to 40 their sprint tyres on Saturday. laps out of their sprint tyres, Tander didn’t, and having Lowndes spent a collective 50 started the race on softs, laps on the yellow Dunlops bolted into the lead. over the two races ... and was But the Safety Car didn’t fall still pulling away from second his way. He took on the control placed Steven Johnson (who tyre at that second stop, so was on six-lap younger sprints) although he was at the front at the end of the race. And of the queue for the restart, it those 50 laps weren’t all in one didn’t take long for the sprinthit – the tyres went through a shod cars to shoot past. It heat cycle with a six-lap stint wasn’t until right at the end during Saturday’s race. that that he worked his way “You’ve really got to drive the back to the podium when the car straight and smooth,” said likes of Russell Ingall started to Lowndes. struggle on well-worn sprints.

“As soon as you lean on [the Whincup wound up sprint tyres], they drop off the fourth, and in the context of planet. We were lucky we had the championship, it was a the gap. We just drove to the dream result. His title rival conditions we had.

Will Davison had an absolute “It probably helped them to shocker, running into the pit have a heat cycle [on Saturday]. exit while making his second They were much more stop, after slipping on fluid consistent than I expected.” leaking out of Kelly’s wrecked Johnson took on the sprint Commodore. The damage tyres during the second round was sufficient enough to take of stops (which was spurred by him out of the race, leaving a Todd Kelly/Lee Holdsworth Whincup’s points tally healthy inspired Safety Car), and enough that only disaster – charged through to the end. complete and utter disaster – He might have been banking will stop him taking a second on a late Safety Car to try and title in Sydney in a fortnight. haul in Lowndes on slightly newer tyres but, to be honest, Two from Two: he still might have struggled, Lowndes made sure it was an such was the Triple Eight all-Vodafone weekend with a driver’s form. tyre-hobbled win on Sunday.

Still, it was a great drive, Russell INgall mounted another and a good recovery from Sprint tyre charge and finished a disastrous second stop, fifth, top right. Will Davison saw when the #17 Falcon was his weekend, and probably title momentarily dropped onto hopes, expire with damaged three wheels. steering, far right. Both Sprint “It would have been better Gas cars looked swift, far right, if [the Safety Car] was 10 laps while Stevie Johnson emerged later,” he said. from the heat haze to claim “We banked on doing 30 to second place, right.

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Dirk Klynsmith

John Morris

Marshall Cass

Dirk Klynsmith

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JUST WHEN IT ALL LOOKED SO GOOD ...

John Morris

LEE Holdsworth can thank lady luck for ruining a good chance of a podium finish in Race 24 at Barbagallo Raceway.

The Garry Rogers Motorsport driver was looking racy at the start of the 200-kayer but, at almost exactly the half-way mark, it all turned pear-shaped. Holdsworth arrived at the track’s final corner to find Todd Kelly parked across the track and, despite his best efforts, he couldn’t avoid T-boning the Jack Daniel’s car.

“I thought I had it under control, to be honest,” Holdsworth said.

“I saw Todd creep forward, and I thought that he was going to keep going. So I committed myself to going right. Then he just stopped, and I had nowhere to go.”

Having made pretty effective use of the sprint tyre in the early part of the race, Holdsworth is sure a podium was on the cards before the crash.

“We would have been on for second place at least.

Who knows? We might have even been in a position to win that race. But as Garry always tells me, if your auntie had balls she would be your uncle.”

We can only assume that GR means that ‘ifs’ and ‘mights’ don’t count for much in this game …

– ANDREW VAN LEEUWEN

UnBearable!

Dirk Klynsmith

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IT was a weekend of ups and downs in the west.

I approached the weekend the same as I normally do. If I had to identify anything that was different, I think I was a bit more focussed about going into each session, as I have had a few rounds to get used to the idea that I am not driving the Bundaberg Red car next year. That does not feel good, but I put it out of my mind; I only think about it to use it for a bit of motivation.

I went out in practice and it was giving it 100 percent – and I was 26th. That didn’t feel great, the only good thing was that I only used one set of tyres, but even so, my confidence was pretty low.

But the next day, I woke up and thought, ‘Bugger this, it’s a different day’.

I qualified 12th and it was a last-minute call to put the softy tyres on at the start of Saturday’s race. I pressed on carefully, and once I got in front of Steve Johnson – he was the last of the ‘hard tyre people’ – I thought that I had a good chance. I concentrated on driving it very straight and I stayed in touch with the drivers in front until lap 27, when I pitted.

We had been humming and haa-ing about

PERSONAL DAVID REYNOLDS

Bundaberg Red Racing

what to do, but when I pitted, my engineer Jason Bush made the call and we crossed the soft tyres.

I got going again until there was massive vibration in the front end. I thought that it was a tyre delaminating, because it was worn out, but when I got on the kerb at Turn 5, it went flat, and speared me off.

It turned out that a wheel nut was loose, and it let the wheel shake around until the brake disc cut the rim in half ...

Up until that point, I was second, and I had been laughing inside my helmet – now I was crying.

Sunday went to plan but the car did not have any grip, and for the race, we planned to run a long stint. We went a lap down, then we got it back under Safety Car. I pitted late to put the decent tyres on, and charged through the field with good grip up to 15th.

Sydney next up. I am looking forward to a new track, a different aspect to it all. It will be a big crowd, with a different buzz to the west, I guess. A new track is a new challenge, and I have driven the track on a Hyper Simulator and it is quite a track, with some elevation changes and a fast chicane. I am looking forward to all of it.

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Split but Together WHEN the sprint tyre debuted at Winton earlier this year, TeamVodafone split its strategy between the two cars, and still ended up first and second for the weekend.

It was proof that Triple Eight are well and truly ahead of the game.

At Barbagallo last weekend, it was more of the same. The team split the strategy between the two drivers and, in both races, ended up one car at the front, and another close to it. Under the old ‘round’ points system, Jamie Whincup would have won from Craig.

With a variable as volatile as the sprint tyre in play, that is an awesome effort. The team clearly has an understanding about how to get the best out of those tyres across a weekend. Match that with a couple of drivers who know how to nurse a sprint (Lowndes was sublime in Race 2) and drive the proverbial out of the control (ditto for Whincup in R2), and the best hardware in pit-lane, and you have an unbeatable combination.

That’s why the team will still be the pacesetter when they throw away the pig badges and attach Lions to the grill next season.

Even if there are some teething problems with the first batch of T8 Commodores (and that’s a big ‘if’, because the FG was a winner straight out of the box), Roland Dane and co have a knack of just creating a win, even when it seems unlikely.

Whincup has been continually critical of the sprint tyre concept this year, but he should thank his lucky stars that he drives for the best team in the business when it comes to predicting strategy.

– ANDREW VAN LEEUWEN

WA was fine – but what’s FROM THE in store for COUCH Homebush?

PHIL BRANAGAN

WATCHING the telecast of the Barbagallo round at the weekend, I could not stop myself forward thinking, and wondering what we might see in Sydney in two weeks.

Not that the WA broadcast was boring.

The racing was a bit straightforward, and the commentary was up to the usual standard.

Otherwise, it was all a bit of what we have seen at Wanneroo since it was called Wanneroo; up and down hill, skating off into the sand, pit for cleanup. The crew did a decent job of not making that sound repetitive and interesting.

Also, with the news of a circuit

extension coming soon, I could not stop wondering what we might see in the future – providing that the V8 Show continues to go West.

But if the TV itself was fine, it's just that, well, we saw some digital trickery at Abu Dhabi’s maiden Grand Prix last month – did you see the free-frame and angle change replay of the first corner? – and I can only wonder whether or not we might have that in play for the all-singing, alldancing Hyperbowl of V8 Supercars that will be Homebush.

There is a huge effort being put into the rest of the weekend, so isn’t it logical to expect something flash on the telly?

V8 Supercar | RACEs 23-24, BIG POND 300, BARBAGALLO RACEWAY Pos No Driver 1 1 Jamie Whincup 2 888 Craig Lowndes 3 17 Steven Johnson 4 2 Garth Tander 5 18 James Courtney 6 39 Russell Ingall 7 5 Mark Winterbottom 8 15 Rick Kelly 9 3 Jason Bargwanna 10 111 Fabian Coulthard 11 51 Greg Murphy 12 7 Todd Kelly 13 25 Jason Bright 14 6 Steven Richards 15 9 Shane Van Gisbergen 16 10 Paul Dumbrell 17 34 Michael Caruso 18 14 Cameron McConville 19 22 Will Davison 20 8 Jason Richards 21 4 Alex Davison 22 67 Tim Slade 23 24 David Reynolds 24 55 Tony D’Alberto 25 16 Mark McNally 26 33 Lee Holdsworth 27 11 Jack Perkins 28 12 Dean Fiore 29 333 Michael Patrizi

Team/Car Q1 TeamVodafone Falcon FG 2 TeamVodafone Falcon FG 1 Jim Beam Racing Falcon FG 3 Toll Holden Racing Team Commodore VE 8 Jim Beam Racing Falcon FG 10 Supercheap Auto Commodore VE 9 Ford Performance Racing Falcon FG 6 Jack Daniels Racing Commodore VE 11 Sprint Gas Racing Commodore VE 20 Wilson Security Racing Falcon FG 18 Sprint Gas Racing Commodore VE 22 Jack Daniel’s Racing Commodore VE 5 Fujitsu Racing Falcon FG 13 Ford Performance Racing Falcon FG 16 SP Tools Racing Falcon FG 19 Team Autobarn Commodore VE 15 Valvoline GRM Commodore VE 14 WOW Racing Commodore VE 23 Toll Holden Racing Team Commodore VE 4 Team BOC Commodore VE 27 Irwin Racing Falcon FG 21 Supercheap Auto Commodore VE 17 Bundaberg Red Racing Commodore VE 12 The Bottle-O Commodore VE 25 Hi-Tec Oils Racing Commodore VE 29 Valvoline GRM Commodore VE 7 Dodo Racing Team Commodore VE 26 Kitten Car Care Commodore VE 24 Wilson Security Racing Falcon BF 28

R23 1 6 10 11 4 9 3 7 18 13 8 2 24 23 15 16 14 25 5 20 17 19 28 22 27 12 26 29 21

Q2 1 7 9 3 8 14 2 5 20 6 11 13 10 12 22 16 27 21 4 28 17 19 24 25 29 15 18 26 23

R24 4 1 2 3 10 5 17 16 7 11 19 DNF 6 8 13 12 18 9 DNF 14 21 22 15 23 25 DNF 24 20 DNF

Pts 270 252 216 199 198 195 183 153 147 138 138 138 135 126 126 126 114 114 111 108 96 87 81 75 75 69 60 45 42

Dirk Klynsmith

Points: Whincup 3175, W.Davison 2894, Tander 2766, Lowndes 2544, Johnson 2177, Winterbottom 2147, R.Kelly 2078, Courtney 1988, Holdsworth 1886, Ingall 1871, Van Gisbergen 1790, Caruso 1737, Dumbrell 1711, J.Richards 1687, S.Richards 1630, McConville 1565, T.Kelly 1561, A.Davison 1519, Coulthard 1488, Bright 1478, Murphy 1459, Reynolds 1305, Bargwanna 1196, Slade 1164, D’Alberto 1124, Perkins 993, Patrizi 851, Fiore 668, Wood 578.

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MINI CHALLENGE ROUND 7 – BARBAGALLO RACEWAY

Same family, different results Nathan Caratti was the hero of MINI Challenge at his home race in WA, but his brother Aaron ended up being the villian MINI CHALLENGE THE Caratti family had differing fortunes at the penultimate MINI Challenge round at Barbagallo Raceway last weekend.

For Nathan – the younger of the Caratti brothers – it was a fantastic weekend. He dominated the first race, leading home a West Aussie one-two from Karl Reindler.

Having finished third in the second race, which was won by Paul Stokell, Caratti stormed to the Race 3 win to seal the round.

The win was a welcome one, with Caratti having twice won rounds this year only to have them later stripped from him for technical infringements.

But for his older brother Aaron, the

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weekend was a disaster. Caratti Sr first struck drama in the second race, when he was attacked by an ambitious Chris Alajajian while fighting for second place.

He ended up off the track, and had to fight back to ninth position.

But that was nothing compared to the dramas he would face in Race 3. In an effort to block Leanne Tander’s run onto the front straight, Caratti ran the fast femme off the road, sending her into the barriers and leaving himself stranded in the middle of the start/finish straight.

Tander was taken to hospital for precautionary checks, but was later released with no serious injuries.

“I didn’t realise that [Leanne] was there,”

explained Caratti. “When we made contact it was too late to do anything but hang on.

I’m glad Leanne’s okay.”

That wasn’t the only Race 3 shunt; soon after the race was re-started, John Modystach, Paul Fiore and Wayne Miles got together, spelling the immediate end of the race for Fiore and Miles.

In terms of the championship, second for the round was significant for Paul Stokell.

With team-mate, and title challenger, Grant Denyer down in fourth, Stokell will head to Homebush with one hand on the trophy.

“Things just haven’t gone our way this weekend,” said Denyer, “and Paul is really fast. I have to admit the championship is probably over for us.”

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James Smith

This has to get worse before it gets better: Aaron Caratti and Leanne Tander got tangled up at Barbagallo Raceway.

Dirk Klynsmith

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FORMULA FORD 1600 WA DASH FOR CASH

The drinks are on Todd ...

FORMULA FORD

TODD Fiore is $10,000 richer, after taking out the WA Dash For Cash Formula Ford 1600 event at Barbagallo Raceway last weekend.

The three-heat contest became a state of origin-style battle, with West Aussie Fiore and his local team Fastlane Racing copping a big challenge from New South Welshman Ryan Simpson, who was driving for Sydneybased team Anglo Australian Motorsport.

And in the early part of the weekend, it was Simpson who looked the goods, the national series regular going fastest in both practice sessions and qualifying on pole position.

But Simpson’s attack took a big blow in

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the first race. He, Fiore and fellow Fastlane regular Bryce Moore spent most of the race trading places at the front, before Simpson and Moore found themselves tangled up with a backmarker, leaving Fiore way out in front. Moore held on to second, but Simpson finished down in fourth. And from there it was always going to be tough to come back ...

Fiore practically sealed the deal in the second race, when he held out Simpson to take the narrowest of wins. With two wins under his belt, and Simpson’s copy book blotted with a fourth place, Fiore needed to finish just seventh in the final.

As it turned out, he finished second to Simpson, despite looking far less aggressive than he had in the first two races. It was all

he needed to do to bank the cash.

“It’s the perfect end to the perfect season,” said Fiore, who also won this year’s WA Formula Ford title, a feat achieved twice by older brother Dean (2002 and 2003).

“The first two race wins were so important.

I was especially relieved to see the chequered flag at the end of Race 2. It meant I could work out what I needed to do this afternoon in the final, and be sensible about it. I couldn’t be happier with how it all went.”

An off in the final race ruined Moore’s weekend, handing third for the meeting to Jason Youd, the 2008 WA FFord champ making a return to the series for the big race.

– ANDREW VAN LEEUWEN

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John Morris/Mpix

35

NASCAR SPRINT CUP ROUND 36 – FORD 400, HOMESTEAD-MIAMI, FL

The Pied Piper of Hamlin Denny Hamlin was untouchable at Homestead but all eyes were on Jimmie Johnson, whose fifth place sealed a fourth title.

By MARTIN D CLARK

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Toyota Motorsport

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NASCAR Media

J

IMMIE Johnson made NASCAR history on Sunday by taking a record fourth consecutive Sprint Cup championship with a fifth place finish while Denny Hamlin took his fourth win of the year for Joe Gibbs Racing giving Toyota its first win at the HomesteadMiami Speedway.

“It’s been a great year,” said Hamlin, who started 38th. “To get four wins and to win on a track that you’re not expected to win on is a great deal. We hope to be where Jimmie’s at in a couple of years and we’re showing that we do have some strength.”

Mark Martin came home in a disappointing 12th place to finish runner up to Johnson in the championship, for the fifth time in his 27-year career.

“I probably picked the hardest one ever to try to win,” said Martin.

“My race team was so awesome, the fans and competitors support means more than that trophy I swear. I almost get emotional thinking about it.”

“I’m just amazed,” said Johnson, who has now won championships in half of his eight

years in Sprint Cup. “I’ve been trying to chase this out of my head what this might mean to be after the disappointment in Texas. I’m so proud of the effort by this team and how much I love and respect this sport the greats before me and the way they’ve carried this sport on their backs and made it what it is. To do something that none of them have done it’s unbelievable, I grew up on two wheels in the dirt I had no clue I was going to end up racing stock cars and doing something that had never bee done before!”

For the second week in a row, Jeff Burton took his Richard Childress Racing Chevy to second with his team-mate Kevin Harvick third, some compenation for the fact that the four-car RCR effort was unable to claim a victory in 2009. By finishing sixth in the race Jeff Gordon secured third in the title race, giving Hendrick Motorsports a 1-2-3 in the championship – another first in NASCAR. The race had plenty of incidents. Juan Pablo Montoya got into the rear of early race leader Tony Stewart, Stewart didn’t take kindly to the bump and side swiped

Montoya, cutting his right front tyre, which put Montoya in the wall with brake and front end damage. Montoya returned to the track 28 laps down and retaliated by spinning Stewart, sliding ‘Smoke’ into the inside wall with minimal damage and NASCAR holding Montoya for a two lap penalty.

“I could see it coming,” quipped Johnson, “I could see them looking for each other.”

After qualifying third, Marcos Ambrose moved around the outside of polesitter Johnson for the lead on lap 11 and stretched out a good lead for four laps until a cut right rear tyre saw him pit for two tyres and go down a lap.

To add insult to injury, Ambrose’s JTG Daugherty Racing Toyota suffered issues, his crew first changing a battery then the carburetor, which dropped him 14 laps off the pace. From there Ambrose aired two cautions when he spun and then side slapped the wall hard to finish 35th. After an awesome start to the final race of the year he finished his year 18th in points, no mean feat for the sophomore driver!

Toyota Motorsport

NATIONWIDE

Toyota Motorsport

Blue leads Blue: Johnson led away, was soon passed for the lead by Ambrose, above, but it was Hamlin who received the winning hugs.

SPRINT CUP | FORD 400, HOMESTEAD 1 11 2 31 3 2 4 29 5 48 6 18 7 24 8 99 9 1 10 44

Like a Champion

Denny Hamlin Toyota Joe Gibbs/FedEx Q38 Jeff Burton Chevy Childress/Caterpillar 26 Kurt Busch Dodge Penske/Miller Lite 12 Kevin Harvick Chevy Childress/Shell Pennzoil 6 Jimmie Johnson Chevy Hendrick/Lowe’s 1 Kyle Busch Toyota Joe Gibbs/M&Ms 30 Jeff Gordon Chevy Hendrick/DuPont 20 Carl Edwards Ford Roush Fenway/Aflac 24 Martin Truex Chevy Earnhardt Ganassi/Bass Pro 14 AJ Allmendinger Ford Petty/Ford 13

NASCAR | FINAL DRIVER’S points Johnson 6652, Martin 6511, J Gordon 6473, Kurt Busch 6446, Hamlin 6335, Stewart 6309, Biffle 6292, Montoya 6252, Newman 6175, Kahne 6128, Edwards 6118, Vickers 5929.

KYLE Busch just had to start the season finale at Homestead Miami Speedway on Saturday, but just starting wasn’t good enough for Busch in his Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota who won the event and fittingly holding off his title rival Carl Edwards for the win.

“This was the icing on the cake for our year and our championship,” said Busch.

He became the first champion to win the final race since Sam Ard in 1983 he ended his year with nine wins, 25 top five and 30 top 10 results in the 35 races and lead the most laps in 17 of those races.

Edwards, who took new tyres on his Roush Fenway Ford on the final caution with 15 laps to run, charged through the pack, but was unable to catch Busch and aborted a possible slide job into the read of him exiting the final turn, Jeff Burton came home third with Joey Logano fourth.

Busch’s win was overshadowed by the ongoing battle between Brad Keselowski and Denny Hamlin, with Hamlin stating the previous week he was going to pay back Keselowski for spinning him out. It looked like Hamlin wouldn’t need to, when Kes spun himself exiting turn four on lap 11 without contact.

He worked his way back up through the field, but on lap 36 he received the bump from Hamlin and he spun again without contact on the frontstretch, much to crowd’s pleasure. Hamlin was parked for a lap on pit road by NASCAR, rallying back to finish fifth while Keselowski finished 12th.

“When he gets up in the morning he’s not going to feel any better about himself,” said Keselowski of Hamlin, “he’s got a lot of problems on and off the track.”

“I feel great right now,” countered Hamlin, “it was well worth it. The sun was in my eyes,” he said, laughing.

– MARTIN D CLARK

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sutton-images.com

Mortara masters Macau MACAU GRAND PRIX

sutton-images.com John Morris /Mpix

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sutton-images.com

ITALIAN Edoardo Mortara took out the 56th Macau Grand Prix last weekend, as F3 Euroseries outfit Signature ended TOM’S dominance on the streets of Macau.

The Japanese team had won Formula 3’s marquee event for the last two years, but 2009 belonged to Signature, who scored a 1-2 result. Mortara started from third, but moved into the lead on the opening lap, during which Australian Daniel Ricciardo, right, crashed at Solitude Esses and was collected by a number of other cars.

Ricciardo’s Macau debut had started strongly, though, setting the second-fastest time in provisional qualifying and fifth in the main session, before finishing sixth in the qualification race.

At the restart, Jean-Karl Vernay moved past his team-mate Mortara and into the lead. The pair settled into a race-long battle.

Vernay eventually made a mistake exiting the Melco Hairpin on Lap 11, allowing Mortara to close and take the lead into Lisboa on the following lap, before going on to take victory.

“It feels fantastic,” Mortara, who spent

2009 in GP2, said. “So many things are going through my head I don’t know where to start. I feel so emotional. After such a difficult season this year, it is unbelievable. I am proud of this victory.”

Behind the Signature pair, Brit Sam Bird was third with qualification race winner Marcus Ericsson fourth, while Valtteri Bottas dropped from third to fifth late in the race with a wheel problem.

Making it a good day for Italy, Gabriele Tarquini, below right, wrapped up the FIA World Touring Car Championship, despite a troubled weekend.

While Robert Huff and Augusto Farfus took the race wins, all eyes were on the battle between SEAT team-mates Tarquni and Yvan Muller, who entered the weekend split by just two points.

The pair both crashed in qualifying, but second in Race 1 and fifth in Race 2 despite a misfire was enough for Tarquini to get home, with Muller grabbing a fifth and a third.

“It is fantastic,” Tarquini said. “I had some crashes in practice and qualifying, which isn’t the best way to approach the weekend in Macau, but the team did a fantastic job to rebuild the car.”

race RALLY

Weeks wins black Classic Adelaide

Phil Williams

KEVIN Weeks took his third straight Classic Adelaide win last weekend – but it was hardly a happy victory.

The 2009 version of the event was a tragic one, with Victorian driver Gary Tierney and his codriver David Carra killed in a crash on the first day. The pair’s Porsche left the road on SS6, striking a tree.

Despite the tragedy, Weeks and co-driver Bec Crunkhorn carried on to take their 1974 Porsche 911 to victory, after an early challenge from Steve Glenney’s V8 Holden ended with a mechanical failure on the first day.

“We had a very nervous final day,” said the winner.

“It was very slippery on the first stage but we were able to lift the pace later as we needed.

“We were behind Steve Glenney’s Holden for the first day, but the heat was hard on his tyres, while our Porsche is

very easy on its tyres.

“We’re really, really pleased to win. Bec and I discussed whether we wanted to continue after Thursday (when Porsche crew Glen Tierney and David Carra were killed in a crash), but we knew they would want that.

“They were really good guys and we’d done a lot of racing with them and they were friends. It was very difficult.”

For the first time, modern cars were allowed in the Classic Adelaide, and versatile Dane Allan Simonsen took a controlled win in a Mitsubishi Evo IX, holding out Steve Jones’ Nissan GT-R. “It’s been a very good event and I’d love to come back next year if the opportunity arises,” Simonsen said.

“I haven’t minded the hot weather, and [I] have been soaking up as much as I can because tomorrow I’m going back to Denmark where it’s minus-three degrees.”

Johnson’s tops

Marshall Cass

GRANT Johnson claimed a clean sweep of Aussie Super 6 race wins at Barbagallo Raceway.

Johnson was the class of the big field of WA Saloon Cars, winning all four races. Craig Tremeer and Nathan Callaghan completed the weekend podium, while Kerry Wade worked his way back through the field in each race after a

Race 1 penalty to eventually finish second in Race 4.

Paul Stubber picked up three of the four Historic Touring Car wins in his Camaro. Ron Moller pipped Stubber in Race 4 to secure second overall.

Michael Henderson dominated the four Formula Classic races, taking victory each time. Tim Davies was second for the weekend.

41

Breaking through the Wall

Rob Lang

Feel the Milburn

SPEEDWAY

Geoff Gracie

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MELBOURNE driver Brett Milburn has staked his claim in the chase for overall honours by winning the second round of the Eureka Garages and Sheds Series at Borderline Raceway, Mount Gambier last Saturday night.

Milburn led from start to finish and won ahead of Mike Van Bremen and John Vogels in a close finish.

NSW driver Eddie Lumbar qualified highest on points and elected to start the final

from second, alongside Milburn on pole, and it was Milburn who got the jump at the start and won the race into the first turn.

Lumbar quickly drifted back in the field, while Van Bremen and three-time SRA Champ Vogels joined Milburn at the front.

It stayed that way for the entire 30-lap race, with the trio vying for the win, but it was Milburn who kept his cool to grab victory.

Milburn’s win was a far cry from the start of the SRA

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DES Wall broke through to claim his maiden Kerrick Sports Sedan National Series title in the 2009 season finale at Phillip Island.

Wall entered the weekend with a 15-point lead over Darren Hossack, with Tony Ricciardello a further four in arrears. Using slicks in a damp qualifying session gave Wall pole and an extra two points over the chasers, who both opted for wets.

The track dried completely before the opening race on Saturday afternoon, which was won by Hossack from Wall and Ricciardello. Hossack’s title hopes were dashed in the wet Race 2, though, when he was forced out with a jammed clutch.

Ricciardello won the race, but second for Wall meant he’d only need to finish and score a single point in Race 3 to wrap

up the series.

Fifth was more than enough, with Wall winning his first national title after over 25 years in the class.

Ricciardello won the 50k plate ahead of the recovering Hossack, with Shane Bradford third and Scott Butler fourth.

Dean Randle’s new state-ofthe-art Saab had a promising debut weekend, with seventh in Race 1 and third in Race 2, before it was damaged in a Lap 1 clash with Daniel Tamasi in the final.

Also at Phillip Island, James Atkinson won the 2009 Improved Production Nationals ahead of Kane Vereker and Justin Keys. Chaz Mostert dominated Formula Ford, over Geoff Urhane and Matthew Brabham, while John Martin was the best of the Kentengined cars in fourth. Formula Vee honours went to Daniel Reinhardt and Darren Collins took out Historic Touring.

season where he had wrecked his car.

“I’m rapt to be standing here,” he said said. “The boys have done a great job all night and all week.

“We’ve had a rough start to the season and tore up a bit of gear, but I tell you what it makes it all worth it when you can come here and win.

“We got the job done and that’s all that matters.”

Finishing in fourth place was Jamie Veal, while fellow youngster Nick Lacey drove superbly to come

from Position 12 to finish fifth. Local SA driver Steven Lines ran home sixth in a tough night at the office, while Charles Hunter was outstanding, coming from the B-Main and making up nine positions to finish seventh in the A-Main, followed Lumbar, Rod Matthews and Glen Sutherland.

Premier Speedway at Warrnambool hosts the third SRA round this Saturday night, with Round 4 at Geelong’s Avalon Raceway a week later.

– GEOFF ROUNDS

SPORTS SEDANS

Lawes and Atkinson share TPCR spoils SPEEDWAY TYREPOWER Parramatta City Raceway changed its format on Saturday night, with the running of two Sprintcar features, as Sydney’s Martin Lawes and NT star Ben Atkinson shared the wins.

Lawes, racing the Tyrepowersupported Maxim, was impressive all night, taking out the opening 20-lap AMain from the front row.

Despite many stoppages and an intensive attack from Ian Loudoun’s Blackshaws Motor Body J&J, Lawes held on to take his maiden Parramatta victory, with Loudoun second and Atkinson third. Rounding out the Top 6 was Damien Abbott, James Thomson and Warren Ferguson. The only major incident of the night saw Craig Brady flip over in Turn 1 on the opening lap, and while his car was a wreck Brady was unhurt.

After a 10-minute break, with all cars staying on the track for refueling, Lawes drew a starting position of 12th for the second A-Main. Unfortunately his machine overheated in the

interval, forcing Lawes into retirement on Lap 4.

Pole sitter Glen Saville jumped into the lead at the green but a hard-charging Atkinson came from 10th and was behind Saville by Lap 2.

Atkinson pressured the former kart star before taking control mid-race and going on to also score his maiden TPCR feature win, from Saville and a fast-finishing Kelly Linigen.

They were followed home by Mitchell Dumesny, Loudoun and Clayton Hart. The only race stoppage was caused by Ian Madsen, when he destroyed his power plant early in the race.

With another quality 46 Sprintcars on hand, Sydney local Marty Perovich set quick time in qualifying followed by Roddy BellBowen and Stuart Williams. The heats wins went to Hart, Madsen, Gary Rooke and Dumesny while Daniel Needham took out a good win in the C-Main. The Top 3 in timetrails also occupied the Top 3 spots in the B Main, with Perovich defeating BellBowen and Williams.

– GREG BOSCATO

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rear of grid

PD has cake, eats it too

PAUL Dumbrell looks pretty good for a bloke that’s just turned 100 ...

Of course, PD isn’t actually 100 years old. He’s only 27 years old. And that in itself makes the fact that he has now started 100 V8 Supercar

rounds a pretty impressive statistic.

Since debuting as a freshfaced 16-year-old back in 1999, PD has driven for John Faulkner Racing, Rod Nash Racing, Garry Rogers Motorsport, Perkins

Motorsport (in both Castrol and Jack Daniel’s colours), Supercheap Auto Racing, Walkinshaw Racing, and Holden Racing Team. Phew.

And next season, he will add Ford Performance Racing to the list, meaning he would

have driven for both Ford and Holden factory teams.

At the end of all that, he plans on retiring; at the ripe old age of 30!

Well done PD. And as the fitness concious bloke you are, we’re sure that is carrot cake.

Dirk Klynsmith

Odd Spot

Speaking of Paul Dumbrell, he and eNews ed Andrew van Leeuwen caught up at Barbagallo Raceway to compare ‘mo’ notes, as the pair do their bit for men’s health during the month of ‘Movember’.

Who has the better mo? That’s up to eNews readers. With Movember almost finished feel free to email us at mnews@ mnews.com.au to tell us who wins out of PD and AVL!

CLICK HERE

To donate to AVL’s ‘Movember’ 45