Motorsport eNews Issue 198 - March 29-April 4, 2011

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Issue No. 198 Mar 29 - Apr 4 2011

ERAGE V O C H T P E -D AND IN N IO IN P O , S W D PRIX NE N F A O R G S E N G IA A L P A 3 7 STR FROM THE AU

EX-FORMULA 1 STAR SHOWS INTEREST IN GOLD COAST V8 RACE. AND HE’S NOT THE ONLY ONE ...

WURZ CASE SCENARIO EXCLUSIVE:

WE GO INSIDE DANIEL RICCIARDO’S GRAND PRIX WEEKEND DEBUT!

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Issue No. 198 | Mar 29 - Apr 4 2011

news 4

A Brazilian, an Austrian, and a Brit walk into a series ...

6 Fisi fizzes out Fisichella’s V8 deal falls over 8 Bullish Insight Behind the scenes with STR 13 Webber’s Tyred Eyes Rubber grain costs Aussie 18 Ogier makes amends Portugal win after Mexico crash

chat 30 Five Minutes With ...

Sebastian Vettel

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31 Adam: HRT v Minardi

race 34 Australian Grand Prix 42 V8 Supercars 52 Carrera Cup 56 AGP Supports 58 ANDRA 62 IndyCar 66 NASCAR 70 World Superbikes

trade 72 Classifieds 3

WURZ, HERBERT AND SE INTEREST IN THE GC 600 ALEX WURZ – AUT

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ALEX Wurz wants to put his different coloured boots in a V8 Supercar.

The former Formula 1 driver and dual Le Mans 24 Hour winner has expressed an interest in racing as an international import in October’s Gold Coast 600. Wurz told eNews that he knew about the event and V8 Supercars, and was keen to be one of the 28 internationals.

Between 1997 and 2007, Wurz made 69 Grand Prix starts with Benneton, McLaren and Williams, collecting three podium finishes.

Since his last start in China in 2007, Wurz has joined Peugeot’s Le Mans program, winning the race in 2009 with David Brabham and Marc Gene.

Off track, he is involved in road safety programs and the FIA Institute’s Young Driver Excellence Academy.

While the Austrian is best known for his stint in Formula 1, he’s no stranger to tin-tops, having raced in the International Touring Car Championship and the FIA GT Championship before his Grand Prix debut.

“It’s a very cool race, I think,” Wurz said of Surfers.

“If it doesn’t clash with any of my Peugeot commitments, I would be interested, yeah.

“I think the Aussie Supercars are very cool; the fans like it and it’s a good show. I know they are not easy to drive, but I did some Touring Cars at the beginning of my career, so maybe I’d get on with them.

JOHNNY HERBERT –

“I looked at the circuit last year, Mick Doohan invited me to his house for a few days. He has a beach house and said ‘I’ll show you where the circuit is!’”

The Gold Coast 600 falls between the final two rounds of the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup; Petit Le Mans in America on October 1 and a to-be-confirmed race in China on November 12.

– MITCHELL ADAM

THREE-time grand prix winner Johnny Herbert has joined the queue for a race place at the Gold Coast.

Herbert was in Melbourne as the driver steward on the FIA panel for the AGP and made a special trip to the V8 Supercar pitlane to talk to team bosses in the hope of doing a deal for the Queensland street race.

His first focus is Garry Rogers Motorsport, where last year’s rookie stand-out Patrick Long – a factory Porsche sports car racer – has been poached by HRT. Herbert was shown the ropes by Roland Dane and said he is super-keen to come downunder.

“It would be good. It looks like a good event,” Herbert said. “I’m keen. Big-time.”

He revealed he had wanted to come for the first event last year but was too slow off the mark.

“I tried last year but I was a bit late sorta getting on the list,” he said. “So I missed out. I was late.”

Herbert, who has done a variety of racing since he finished his time in F1, said he has recent touring car experience to make an easier transition to V8 Supercars.

“I did Speedcar in Bahrain, and I did the Superstars thing, that [Gianni] Morbidelli did last year. So the last two things I’ve done are like these cars,” he said.

“They are about the same weight, but the tyres are a bit bigger. So they are quite similar.”

Herbert joked about the popularity of the Gold Coast concept, and the rush to fill the 28 driver slots.

“I did bring my cash with me,” he laughed.

Herbert, now 46, has an impressive record that includes F1 two wins with Benetton and one with Stewart, as well as victory at Le Mans in 1991. His grand prix career spanned 161 starts from 1989-2000 with Lotus, Tyrrell, Benetton, Ligier, Sauber, Stewart and Jaguar.

“I always said that if I enjoyed my racing I’d carry on doing it, and I’m still enjoying it. And it will be another challenge. With all the other guys that will turn up, with 28 drivers, it should be fun,” Herbert said.

– PAUL WARD

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ENNA REGISTER 0

As V8 Supercar teams scramble to sign international superstars for the second running of the Gold Coast 600, three big names have stepped into the frame

– GBR

BRUNO SENNA – BRA

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BRUNO Senna has thrown his name into the ring as a possible V8 Supercar Surfers Paradise international.

The Brazilian said he’s interested in running at the Gold Coast 600, having seen V8 Supercars in recent visits to the Australian Grand Prix. Senna made 18 starts in the 2010 Formula 1 World Championship with the Hispania Racing Team, and this year is one Renault’s test and reserve drivers.

Before his Formula 1 debut, Senna finished second in the 2008 GP2 Series, third in British Formula 3 in 2006 and made a start in the Le Mans 24 Hour in 2009.

One sticking point could be Senna’s promotional duties with Renault, which

conducts numerous roadshow-style events with an older-model Formula 1 car outside of Grand Prix weekends. The Surfers Paradise V8 Supercar round falls on the weekend between the Korean and Indian GPs in October.

“It’s a cool idea,” Senna said of the international concept.

“It depends on my schedule with the team, because they use us for plenty of PR and those kind of things.

“But I’m quite a big fan of the V8 Supercars.

I’ve seen some pretty interesting races, the long races and the normal short races, and it’s something to think about.”

– MITCHELL ADAM

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KELLY LO sutton-images.com

Fisi V8 deal falls over V8 SUPERCARS

GIANCARLO Fisichella will not be available to race at the Gold Coast 600 later this year.

The ex-Formula 1 driver was widely tipped to join the field of international drivers at Surfers Paradise this year, with

the weekend not clashing with a round of the Formula 1 World Championship. But while there is no F1 clash, we won’t be seeing Ferrari’s third driver on the GC600 grid. eNews has learned that Fisichella was in serious talks with a team, to the point of almost having a deal, however

one of Fisichella’s sponsors has since scheduled an appearance on one of the days leading into the GC event, ruling him out.

Fisichella would have been a coup for the event. The Italian started 229 Grands Prix, winning three.

– ANDREW VAN LEEUWEN

NO V8s FOR RICCIARDO V8 SUPERCARS DANIEL Ricciardo has ruled himself out of racing at the Gold Coast 600 this year, despite being free on the weekend of the race.

Australia’s next Formula 1 hopeful hasn’t been approached by any of the V8 Supercar teams, despite the GC600 falling after the Formula Renault 3.5 Series has finished, and in between the Korean and Indian Grands Prix. However, even if Ricciardo was approached, he told eNews that Red Bull would be unlikely to green light the trip to Surfers Paradise.

“I haven’t been approached; I think it clashed with our racing last year,” Ricciardo told eNews.

“It would be fun to do, but my season is pretty chokkas. I need to put my priorities in order. There could be an issue with Red Bull as well, it would need to go through them. I’ve got two championships going on this year, effectively, so I think if I asked them about that it they’d think it was too much. I am already very busy this year.”

Along with racing in Formula Renault 3.5, Ricciardo is Scuderia Toro Rosso’s reserve driver, and will drive in all Friday Practice 1 sessions this season.

– ANDREW VAN LEEUWEN For more with Daniel Ricciardo, turn to page 8 for our exclusive news feature on his Australian Grand Prix debut 6

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LODGES LOWNDES PROTEST V8 SUPERCARS

John Morris/Mpix

RICK Kelly has protested the driving of Craig Lowndes in the third V8 Supercar event at Albert Park.

The Jack Daniel’s driver has taken the action after an investigation by the Investigating Officer into the incident, which happened at Turn 9 and Turn 10, resulted in no matters being referred to the Stewards.

“The protest speaks for itself,” Kelly said on Monday.

“The IPO says that the damage [to Lowndes’s car] is punishment enough for his driving. But I think that he is deserving of a penalty. Because it is the Grand Prix and not a Championship round, all they do is hand out drive-through penalties.”

Because of the fact that the next round of the V8 Supercar Championship is off-shore in New Zealand, the protest will not be heard until the round at Barbagallo Raceway, at the end of April.

Kelly was keen to point out that this is not a case of sour grapes.

“Things happen in motor racing, and we accept that,” he said. “But we think that this deserves to be looked into.”

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INSIDE RICCIARDO’S GRAND PRIX DEBUT

Western Australia’s Daniel Ricciardo has driven Formula 1 cars before, but never on a Grand Prix weekend. In Melbourne, he debuted as Toro Rosso’s official test driver – and ANDREW VAN LEEUWEN was right there with him

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OTORSPORT NEWS: So you’re sitting in the car on Friday, strapped in, about to hit the track for an official practice session at your home Grand Prix. Can you describe that moment?

DANIEL RICCIARDO: I was actually alright.

In the lead-up to this weekend I was much more nervous, but once I got strapped into the car I was pretty relaxed. I felt more comfortable in the car than I did out of it.

What was making you nervous outside of the car?

I guess I was more excited than nervous.

There were a lot of interviews to do on Wednesday and Thursday, and then a few official FIA things, some tests, to make sure I was getting into the car at legal height.

Those things make it seem a lot more real.

Coming out onto the track, pulling out onto the pit-lane, that was pretty good. It was special. I was a little bit loose, but after I got up through the gears I was alright.

Did it feel different to testing at a deserted test track in Europe somewhere?

Definitely! Driving the car is the same, but there are more cars on track, so you have to manage your track position more.

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It shouldn’t be different, but it is. You’re still driving the car, but … maybe because it was back home it made it a little more full on.

Would it have been easier if the first race had been in Bahrain, as was planned?

It would have been a little bit easier, but at the same time I was stoked to hear that Australia would be first. It is nice to now have this one under the belt.

Have you got to a point now where when you hop into a Formula 1 car, you feel comfortable? Do you feel like you belong yet?

Yeah, I do. Like I said, once I got into the car on Friday, I felt more relaxed than I had for weeks! Getting used to all the surroundings, like the buttons on the steering wheel and all the people working around the car, takes time. But I feel like I’m on top of that now.

It doesn’t feel like such a big deal anymore.

It always is a big deal to be in a Formula 1 car, but it’s important to focus on the job, and not worry about what it is that you’re driving.

The other difference during Friday practice is that it wasn’t a familiarisation session

for you to get used to driving an F1 car, it was valuable track time on a Grand Prix weekend. Toro Rosso are taking a big risk when they take one of the regular drivers out and put you in the car, and you need to deliver with useful data …

Yeah, there’s always pressure to give good feedback – particularly at this level. You can’t afford to lead the team in the wrong direction. motorsport news

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EXCLUSIVE NEWS FEATURE

Coming back into the pits, and being asked ‘how’s the car?’ ‘What do you think about this?’ What do you think about that?’ I had to be very conscious that I was taking everything in while I was on-track, so I could give the right feedback.

It was a little difficult this weekend, because I was learning the track, and experiencing so many new things – and then trying to come back to the garage www.mnews.com.au

and give feedback! It was a little difficult to do it all. But I think I managed alright, and Sebastien Buemi put it in the Top 10 in qualifying, so that’s a good indication that we went the right way.

Do you feel you’ve contributed to that result?

I’d like to think so (laughs). I don’t know, really; Jaime [Alguersuari] and Seb did a lot

more laps than me in pre-season testing, I just sort of jumped in and did a few laps. But if you want to give me some credit I’ll take it!

Were you happy to be so close to Seb in the practice session? Or even surprised?

In the first session, you’ll always feel like you should have got more out of yourself – particularly when it’s a new circuit.

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EXCLUSIVE NEWS FEATURE When they pushed me back into the garage at the end of the session, I expected to see Seb’s time a lot further ahead than mine, so when I saw where we both were, I was pleasantly surprised.

The team seemed pretty happy with how I went, so when I get to circuits that I know, I’ll be on it.

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From my limited experience of driving racing cars, I know that there can be big gains from going out, doing a session, stopping, having a think about it, and going back out. How frustrating was it not having the chance to do a second session on Friday? Were you sitting there thinking ‘if I could just get back in the car I could go so much quicker’?

That’s exactly right! When I found out about my role for Fridays this year, I told myself that I’d have to get used to that feeling, because it will always be the case.

It really helps to hop out of the car, look at data, hop back in, and then go. But we don’t have the time; it’s just how it is. I think it will teach me to get there quicker, and to learn tracks quicker, so I’m hoping these things are for the right reasons.

Will you only drive Jaime’s car this year?

No, I’ll be swapping between the two cars.

This F1 gig will be tough Monaco, with a Formula Renault 3.5 round there as well.

Absolutely. On Thursday I’ll do the F1 session, and an hour later I’ll be in the Renault. That will be a proper test! But at least I’ve been there before …

And won there before!

Yeah. I’m hanging out to get there in the Formula 1 car.

Did you do much simulator work on Albert Park before this weekend?

I didn’t do much, no. I did about 15 or 20 laps, but I know the track from PlayStation games. I was just hanging out to get here and do a track walk, because you can pick up a lot on a track walk.

There’s not many people whose home Grand Prix is 4000 kilometres away from their home.

(Laughs) I know! And the weather has been average. Maybe they should have the race in Perth.

Z

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WEBBER’S TYR

McLaren tech in NASCAR FORMULA 1 FORMULA 1 technology provided by McLaren will drag NASCAR out of the neanderthal days of carburettors.

The switch is set for the start of the 2012 season, when fuel injection and electronic engine management systems will be installed in Sprint Cup cars for the first time.

The upgrade package is being provided by McLaren Electronic Systems, using a similar plug-and-play ECU to the control unit the company already supplies for Formula 1.

It promises tamper-proof security with adjustment parameters strictly controlled

by NASCAR, with a side benefit of slight performance gains at anything below full power and marginally better economy as the American stock cars also switch to E15 ethanol fuel.

“It’s a big contract. I would say that, in terms of value and profile, it’s similar to Formula 1,” the managing director of MES, Peter van Manen, told a small group of journalists during a briefing at the Australian Grand Prix.

The fuel injection is relatively low-tech, neither director injection or a high-pressure 12

system, and will be used in much the same way as the current carburettors.

“The basic manifold will be the same as it is now. There will be an individual injector for each cylinder with the position set by NASCAR,” van Manen said.

On the ECU front, he said the current deal is only for the Sprint Cup and teams will get their first units around the middle of the year to begin dyno work. Each will be supplied with software allowing teams to do individual tuning and mapping work.

“The teams will be able to tune their engines, within the authority provided. But, like Former 1, there will be no driver aids and no ability to tamper with the hardware or software,” he said.

“You can’t change the software, just your individual mapping.”

Individual mapping will also include tuning for what are currently called the ‘restrictor plate’ races.

“The restrictor plate, as the name suggests, restricts the amount of air you can put into an engine. There will be restrictor mapping and it will be a software change rather than a mechanical change,” van Manen said.

– PAUL WARD

SAUBER F

Great debut from Perez so

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RING RACE

FORMULA 1

T

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FAILS TECH TEST

oured by rear wing technicality

YRE degradation seems to be the cause of Mark Webber’s mediocre performance at the weekend’s Australian Grand Prix.

After topping the first practice session, Webber’s weekend took a turn for the worst. He could only manage third on the grid, while his team-mate Sebastian Vettel stormed to pole with a lap that was 0.866s faster than Webber. In the race, Webber was forced to take a three-stop strategy, and dropped to fifth while Vettel cleared out and two-stopped his way to a clear victory.

The margin between the two Red Bull Racing cars was 38.1s at the end of the 58-lap race.

“I made a good start,” said Webber, “but it soon became apparent that I was in for a difficult afternoon. The tyre degradation on my RB7 was way too high in relation to Seb’s car, and we’re still trying to work out the reasons for that.

“The guys in Milton Keynes have done a phenomenal job and I’m 100 percent focussed on finding out why I’ve struggled for pace all weekend.

“The telemetry after the race gave us a few pointers, but we really need to strip the car down to see if there was something seriously wrong. I won’t be lining myself up for races like the one I’ve just had every weekend.

“I’m pretty self critical, and at Albert Park I was a long way off getting the result the car was capable of. I’m expecting the tyre situation to be very different in Malaysia and I expect to take a step forward.”

Webber was also forced to spend the weekend without a KERS system in Melbourne, after a trail run on Vettel’s car during practice indicated that the system wasn’t ready to be debuted in a race.

“I didn’t have KERS on my car all weekend,” added Webber.

“Seb ran it during Friday practice, but the team took the decision not to race it on either car. We’ll hone the system over the next couple of weeks and hope to use it in Malaysia.”

FORMULA 1

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SAUBER’S stunning doublepoints finish at the Australian Grand Prix has been snatched away, after the cars failed scrutineering after the race.

The C30’s rear wing was found to breach Articles 3.10.1 and 3.10.2. The regulations read as follows: 3.10.1 – “Any bodywork more than 150mm behind the rear wheel centre line which is between 150mm and 730mm above the reference plane, and between 75mm and 355mm from the car centre line, must lie in an area when viewed from the side of the car that is situated between 150mm and 350mm behind the rear wheel centre line and between 300mm and 400mm above the reference plane. When viewed

from the side of the car no longitudinal cross section may have more than one section in this area.

“Furthermore, no part of this section in contact with the external air stream may have a local concave radius of curvature smaller than 100mm.

“Once this section is denined, ‘gurney’ type trim tabs may be fitted to the trailing edge.

When measured in any longitudinal cross section no dimension of any such trim tab may exceed 20mm.”

3.10.2 – “Other than the bodywork defined in Article 3.10.9, any bodywork behind a point lying 50mm forward of the rear wheel centre line which is more than 730mm above the reference plane, and less than 355mm from the car centre line, must lie in an

area when viewed from the side of the car that is situated between the rear wheel centre line and a point 350mm behind it.”

Sauber’s technical director James Key was understandably disappointed with the outcome.

“This is a very surprising and disappointing result,” said Key. “It appears that there is a question over the top surface of the uppermost rear wing element, this area is not the working surface of the component and therefore relatively unimportant to its function.

“Certainly this has not lead to any performance advantage.

We are checking the design of the parts now to better understand the situation and we intend to appeal the decision made by the stewards.”

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INDYCAR TONY Kanaan has landed a full-season ride in the third seat with KV Racing Technology-Lotus, the team owned

by Adelaide’s Kevin Kalkhoven and retired open wheel champion, Jimmy Vasser.

Kanaan, who has gone through a roller coaster of an off-season, had been paid out of the three remaining seasons on his contract with Andretti Autosport.

Subsequent to that, Gil de Ferran signed

him to be de Ferran Dragon Racing’s driver – only for that team to close its doors two months later due to a lack of funds.

GEICO, the insurance company that supported Paul Tracy’s Indy 500 entry at KV last May, will be Kanaan’s title sponsor, the first time GEICO has sponsored a team for the entire IndyCar season. The experienced Kanaan is expected to assist IndyCar sophomore and former F1 driver, Takuma Sato, and the much less experienced EJ Viso.

Tracy seals Indy 500 entry INDYCAR PAUL Tracy is a relieved man, to have finally secured a deal to race in this year’s Indianapolis 500.

The Canadian has signed with Dreyer & Reinbold as the team’s fourth entry in the event.

The 2003 Champ Car World Series champion is the winningest active driver in the IndyCar series, with 31 victories (tied for seventh in alltime victories) and 25 poles.

“Obviously, it feels great to be back with Dreyer & Reinbold Racing,” said Tracy, who had also been in talks with KV and Conquest Racing in the hope of snaring a full 14

season ride.

“It’s been a chaotic winter, but it’s good to have the deal stowed away with a competitive programme lined up with WIX Filters and DRR for the Indianapolis 500. I’m really happy to have signed a deal with Dennis (Reinbold) and Robbie (Buhl, co-owners).

“It’s great to be with a team like DRR; they have quality equipment and a solid engineering group with Larry Curry. It’s a relief to have this deal done from that standpoint. I’m super excited, and want to thank WIX Filters for placing confidence in me as their brand ambassador at the Indy 500.”

– MARY MENDEZ

HONDA Racing Me dia

HONDA Racing Media

Kanaan at KV

“Tony will be an asset both on and off the track,” said KVRT-Lotus co-owner Kevin Kalkhoven.

“His addition, in combination with Takuma Sato and EJ Viso, will provide us with the opportunity to be consistently competitive. I also want to acknowledge GEICO for their support in making Tony’s addition to KVRT-Lotus possible.”

The new combination got off to a handy start, with Kaanan finishing third in the season opener at St Petersburg.

– MARY MENDEZ

D&R signs Ham INDYCAR DAVEY Hamilton will join Dreyer & Reinbold Racing as its third driver in the #21 IndyCar entry.

The American will compete at the Indy 500, Texas Motor Speedway, and the season finale in Las Vegas with primary sponsorship from HP. In addition, HP becomes an associate sponsor on Justin Wilson’s #22 entry for the 2011 season.

“It’s good to be back with Dreyer & Reinbold Racing,” Hamilton said.

“We had a great relationship in the past and after a brief

absence, it’s nice to be back with the team and to have HP with us as well. I have high hopes for the three races and I’m very excited about the possibilities.

“I look forward to being teammates with Justin. We’re hoping to be able to give each other a lot of information to further the team’s growth and to get a victory.”

The IndyCar title runner-up in both 1996 and ‘97, Hamilton’s driving career nearly ended after a devastating crash at the Texas Speedway in 2001 that required 23 operations and two years of rehabilitation.

– MARY MENDEZ motorsport news

IZOD INDYCAR Media

Servia returns to Newman/Haas INDYCAR ORIOL Servia was back at Newman/ Haas as the team’s only entry for the St Petersburg season opener.

Telemundo Communications Group is the title sponsor for the driver from Catalonia, Spain. Servia has made 15 prior starts with Newman/Haas and was the 2005 championship runner-up to teammate Sebastien Bourdais driving a partial

season for the team, including a win in Montreal.

“I am very happy to be back in the Indycar Series with Newman/Haas Racing, which has always been my best recipe for success,” said Servia.

“We have been working really hard to put a programme together with Telemundo and have had a genuine connection with them since the beginning.”

The renewed partnership didn’t get off

to the best of starts in St Petersburg when Servia was delayed by the start shunt and then was unable to find the NewmanHass pit box when he made his pitstop.

Despite the hiccups, he finished ninth.

Meanwhile James Hinchcliffe is working on sponsorship deals in the hope of becoming Servia’s full-time team-mate.

The Canadian indicated he could be on the grid at the next event.

– MARY MENDEZ

milton IZOD INDYCAR Media

INDYCAR rescinds grid limit INDYCAR

IZOD INDYCAR Me dia

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JUST two weeks after INDYCAR announced a maximum field size of 26 cars, with the first 24 cars lined up according to their qualifying results and leaving the last two positions available for certain criteria (i.e. past champion, race winner), it

revised its policy.

Any driver meeting the minimum speed requirement can compete.

“It’s one thing to lose the money, said Randy Bernard, INDYCAR’s CEO, after team owners expressed their concern.

“It’s another thing to embarrass a sponsor or upset a

sponsor. If we have 27 cars, the 27th will run. I don’t want to take away the value they get by being in the race.”

The Indianapolis 500 will remain as a 33-car field and the Las Vegas season finale may see five non-IndyCar drivers competing for a $5 M bonus should they win.

– MARY MENDEZ 15

A HOME OF THEIR OWN V8 Supercar Teams applaud their new Albert Park pitlane

Phil Williams

V8 SUPERCARS ALBERT Park’s new V8 Supercar pit complex has been given the thumbs up.

For the first time, V8 Supercars had their own pit building at the Australian

Grand Prix, having previously operated out of marquees within the circuit perimeter.

Built as part of V8 Supercars’ new deal with Grand Prix organisers, the new facility – and the opportunity it created to include pitstops in the races

– received praise from V8 teams.

“I think it’s really good,” BJR boss Brad Jones said.

“I think it’s a vast improvement on where we used to be. It’s a little bit tight, but we didn’t have any problems with it.

“Working out of a garage, rather than a tent in the middle of a paddock, it just makes it look more professional. It’s got a better feel to it, we’re doing pitstops, and I think the racing was pretty exciting this weekend.”

JBR plans backup car for Hamilton V8 SUPERCARS JIM Beam Racing looks likely to race its 2010 car in Hamilton next month.

Steve Johnson’s crash at Albert Park has caused significant damage to the Falcon he raced in Melbourne and while there team is yet to absolutely rule out repairing the car and taking it to NZ, Plan A appears

to be taking its older car.

“The initial assessment is that it needs to go onto a chassis jig,” DJR spokesman Glenn Turnor said on Monday.

“The car Steven ran in 2010 will be rebuilt, and we will determine what goes where once we assess what can be salvaged from the wreck. We have to err on the side of caution.

“This is not something that we are that happy with, but it is a part of racing at this level. We will be ready to go at the IT400, and looking for strong results.”

The team has two weeks to complete preparations before the cars need to be flown across the Tasman. Johnson scored his best qualifying result, pole, at the track two years ago.

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motorsport news

news

The Chris wants The CupCar CARRERA CUP

Phil Williams

Skaife CCup car may race again CARRERA CUP PORSCHE Cars Australia will evaluate the possible ongoing use of the reborn series’ 23rd car.

A total of 22 of Porsches’ MY11 GT3 Cup Cars were imported to Australia to race, with an additional car sourced to originally act as a display and promotional car. It got its first racing start at Albert Park with V8 Supercar legend (but Porsche rookie) Mark Skaife behind the wheel as a special guest, but its fate for the rest of the year is unclear.

Porsche Motorsport Director Jamie Blaikie told eNews that several options will be assessed, with a number of drivers – namely New

Zealander Ant Pedersen, who hopes to run with XXX Motorsport – looking to join the series in Round 2 at Barbagallo Raceway next month.

Saving the car for limited use by guests, similar to Skaife’s drive, is another possibility.

“We’ll evaluate the purpose of that car going from here,” he said.

“We brought it into the country as a display car and I’d like to keep it as a display car, but if there are opportunities to do something else with it, we’ll certainly look at it.

“There is some talk about a New Zealand competitor leasing it for the rest of the year, and we’ll certainly look at that, but I’m certainly happy to keep it.”

– MITCHELL ADAM

Driver’s Series lease

from $35,000 www.mnews.com.au

CHRIS Alajajian hasn’t given up on racing in Carrera Cup this year, despite missing the opening round.

Last year’s MINI Challenge Champ worked over the summer to put together a move into a Porsche, but was unable to secure a program before the season opener at Albert Park. All of the series’ cars have been sold, but Alajajian will continue to investigate opportunities to enter the series at some stage.

“The turf is a bit dry for the moment, but we’re looking to water it,” Alajajian said at Albert Park.

“We’ve come down to see what opportunities could arise, and see if there’s any potential way to get into the series.

We’re talking to a few teams, trying to get ideas and their experience and understanding of the category.

“There are some top drivers in the series, so there’s going to be some great competition and great to watch and, hopefully be a part of if we can get out nose in there. It’s been a tough one and frustrating, not being able to run at the first round, but we’ll keep chipping away at it.”

– MITCHELL ADAM

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OGIER LEADS DS3 1-2 WORLD RALLY

SEBASTIEN Ogier has made it three winners from three events in the 2011 World Rally Championship, taking out Rally Portugal on the weekend.

The young Frenchman emerged from a four-way scrap for the lead on the final day, with Sebastien Loeb, Mikko Hirvonen and Jari-Matti Latvala all in contention for the win along the way.

But a Hirvonen puncture on Saturday morning helped Ogier into the box seat.

Having lost time changing the wheel,

Hirvonen then held up Loeb, who had to follow in the Ford’s dust. Having lost a lot of time to the leaders, Loeb expressed his displeasure to Hirvonen by driving into the back of his car when the pair returned to the service park. He later apologised the outburst.

All the while, Ogier and Latvala were out front – but late on Saturday, Latvala’s Fiesta broke a drive shaft, leaving Ogier well out in front, and able to make amends for crashing out of the lead in Mexico.

“It’s been a perfect weekend,” he said.

“We controlled our first day well and then we pushed at the right moment. It’s a telling result for the whole team with the double and the points in the Power Stage.

“After six months without a win I was starting to get a bit edgy. I hope it’s the start of a good series. The points we’ve bagged today will help us re-launch our championship challenge after our disappointment in Rally Mexico.”

Loeb recovered to finish second, while Latvala and Hirvonen were third and fourth respectively.

WORLD RALLY

18

sutton-images.com

BRENDAN Reeves was denied any chance of victory in the opening round of the WRC Academy in Portugal on the weekend, when he suffered a puncture on the third stage of the event.

The young Victorian kicked things off in fine form on the Thursday night, finishing third in the Super Special Stage. But a puncture just two kilometres into SS3 the following day cost Reeves and co-driver Rhianon Smyth more than four minutes, dropping them to the back of the field.

But Reeves fought back to finish fourth, just 4:43.4s from the lead.

“I’m very happy with our result considering where we were on stage three on Friday,” Reeves said.

“We kept working hard all rally and steadily improved our stage times. It was a very rough rally but we managed to get through without any major problems.”

Molly Taylor finished eighth out of the 10 finishers.

Reeves unlucky on WRC debut

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Vermeulen Returns WORLD SUPERBIKES CHRIS Vermeulen made a comeback, of sorts, to Superbike racing at Donington Park on the weekend, but he did not compete in the races.

The Aussie, who is recovering from a

knee reconstruction, pulled out of the two WSBK races in England after riding his Kawasaki in practice and qualifying.

He also tested the bike during the week prior to the races, at Cadwell Park.

“It was great to get the chance to ride here and we made the most of it on the

first day,” he said. “My knee is just too sore to ride any more this weekend but I hope to get some more track time in on my Ninja ZX-10R before the Assen round and do a complete weekend there.”

The next WSBK round, at Assen, is on April 17.

SECOND SURGERY FOR BAUTISTA MOTOGP

20

Suzuki Racing

ALVARO Bautista has undergone a second surgery on his broken leg.

The Spaniard broke his femur last week in Qatar, and underwent surgery to relieve the symptom of compartmental syndrome, which was causing internal bleeding. Bautista is expected to make a full recovery from the injury, but his place on the solo Suzuki in MotoGP will be filled by John Hopkins in the next round of the Championship in Spain.

motorsport news

It’s been a roller-coaster 12 months for Dick Johnson Racing. Behind the team’s amazing championship triumph was a tumultuous and ultimately destructive inteam time bomb, which took a serious toll on the key individuals in the team. In an exclusive and frank interview in the April issue of Motorsport News, Steven Johnson lays it all bare, and outlines the effect the dramas had on his famous father and his mother – and how the team has regrouped for 2011. It is a compelling, revealing chat, which should not be missed.

If it matters in motorsport, the chances are it’s in Motorsport News.

ALSO:

21 Years to Celebrate – the 21 moments that have made HRT history; Battle Lines Drawn – our exclusive F1 preview; Paul di Resta – from DTM to F1; Jean Todt – our exclusive one-on-one with the former Ferrari boss who now heads the FIA. Plus, Porsche Cup reborn, Allan Simonsen, Trevor Bayne, David Russell, Robbie Farr ...

1

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Pye’s Hot at Oulton FORMULA 3 SCOTT Pye has marked himself as the man to beat in the Cooper Tires British Formula 3 International Series.

The 21-year-old topped the times in the most recent test for his first season in the category. Pye’s Double R Dallara-Mercedes

was more than a second under the pole time for Oulton Park’s 2010 round. He set the time, a 1m 27.621s, in the first of three sessions at the track and no one got near it for the rest of the day.

“I am really pleased with the way things have gone today,” said Pye, who won at the track twice on the way to last year’s British

Formula Ford championship.

“I love Oulton Park; it’s my favourite circuit, and I was on top here the first time I drove it in testing in a Formula Ford. ” Menasheh Idafar set the day’s secondfastest time, the T-Sport driver within three-tenths on old rubber.

The season opens on April 16 at Monza.

MASSIVE V8TC FIELD AT WP V8 TOURING CARS

22

ROB LANG

THE Kumho V8 Touring Car Series looks set to have its biggest-ever field in Wakefield Park’s season opener this weekend.

A total of 19 ex-Supercars have been entered for the start of the fourth series’ fourth season, with established drivers like Tony Evangelou, Chris Smerdon and Terry Wyhoon joined by six debutants. Brothers Nathan and Justin Garioch and Michael Hector will debut in Falcons, while Jim Pollicina, Sean Fardell and Derek Hocking are set to drive Commodores.

The Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge

will also feature a range of newcomers among its 24-car field, with Steven McFadden, Tony Jennings and Francis Chin making their maiden starts. Wakefield Park is the first of three rounds with a 60-minute race to end the weekend, and will combine with rounds at Mallala and Morgan Park to award the Jim Richards Endurance Trophy.

The five-round Radical Australia Cup will appear with the Shannons Nationals for the first time, with 15 entries. Fujitsu Series drivers Marcus Zukanovic, Geoff Emery and Tony Bates are set to appear as part of the 12-car Commodore Cup field, while 14 Saloon Cars have entered.

motorsport news

Hollywood to get 2010 Lambo back PETER Hackett hopes to be back in his regular Lamborghini Gallardo for the next round of the Vodka O Australian GT Championship at Winton in May. The car has been on the sidelines since an incident at Sandown’s 2010 season finale last November, where Max Twigg’s Porsche made contact with the rear of the Gallardo and ended up on top of it. After a long summer of waiting, an insurance payment to fund the repair of the car is expected in the coming weeks, which will allow work to commence.

“I met with the insurance company at the Australian Grand Prix on Saturday, and we expect to have a payout on the repairs for that car in the next two weeks,” Hackett said.

“The plan is to have the black one fixed for Winton. It’s still exactly as it was after Sandown.

The insurance company are apologetic about it, they just wanted to be absolutely certain that the insurance claim was a genuine one.”

Hackett raced an older Gallardo leased from Ross Zampatti at the Clipsal 500, and is looking forward to the prospect of getting back in his repaired and upgraded car.

“It was an ’07-spec car and obviously my car is a completely up-to-date ’08 car, so it’s a little bit different to my black car, but it did the job,” he said of the white Gallardo he raced in Adelaide.

“We should be quite strong at Winton. We tested well there last year in the black one and it’ll be pretty much a brand-new car. We’ll strip it back to the chassis, straighten everything up that was bent and we’ll give the engine a birthday as well.

“Hopefully we’ll have a rocketship for Winton and obviously Eastern Creek the week after.”

– MITCHELL ADAM

V8 SUPERCARS GREG Crick looks like filling the role of V8 Supercars Driving Standards Observer at Hamilton next month.

Tomas Mezera, the regular DSO in the V8 Supercars Championship, will not be available for the New Zealand event because of a golf commitment. Mezera, who has held a low handicap in the game for more than two decades, qualified for the PGA Legends Tour in January, and it due to play in the Bendigo Bank PGA SA Senior Championship at Adelaide Shores.

Crick filled in as DSO at Symmons Plains last year, when Mezera was unavailable.

Rob Lang

AUSTRALIAN GT

Crick in line for DSO role at Hamilton

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news John Morris / Mpix

Commodore Cup’s next gen coming soon COMMODORE CUP THE Commodore Cup car of the future may well break cover before V8 Supercars’ COTF. As previously reported by eNews, the series will introduce its next generation car in 2012, a VE Commodore with a sixlitre V8 engine. A prototype is being built by competitor and board member Ross McGregor, which will be unveiled in the coming months before hitting the track for development.

“That car will hopefully be on display later this season, more than likely June, so people who are thinking about coming into Commodore Cup and building VEs can see the car,” Commodore Cup Group’s Glen Holdsworth told eNews.

Along with the VE platform, a number of basics of the new car have been put in

place, while finer details will be finalised during the development program. The current generation of Commodore Cup Cars are based on Holden’s VS, with a fourspeed gearbox and 4.2-litre V8.

“We’ve had quite a bit of advice already and we’re confident in the direction it’s going,” Holdsworth said.

“The fundamentals will be a six-litre motor, which will be limited in revs so that it will require limited work. It will be the six-speed standard gearbox but fitted with dog gears, the differential will essentially be made up out the diff from the existing car and we will retain the independent rear suspension.

“At this point in time, we’re a little undecided on the wheel size, but we’ll probably to go a 19 inch rim. It’ll be a fantastic car.”

The cars are expected to cost the same

to construct as the existing VSs, with big savings to come on the engine front. A crate motor will be fitted with a camshaft and ECU, which Holdsworth anticipates will be well down on current engine costs.

“The price to buy a brand new motor will be less than the price to freshen up the current 4.2 litre motor,” he said.

“With a cam and ECU, we’re looking at it costing about six or seven thousand dollars, some people are spending 18 or 20 [thousand] building their 4.2 litre engines.

“Because we’ll limit the revs, most likely down to around 6,000 revs, we’ve been advised that some people will be able to get two seasons out of one motor, which will reduce the running costs considerably.

“We’re going to bigger brakes and everything will be far more robust, reliable and much more longer lasting.”

– MITCHELL ADAM

And two drivers at Bathurst COMMODORE CUP COMMODORE Cup will run a two-driver format at Bathurst this Easter.

One of five racing categories at the revived Bathurst Motor Festival, the second round of the 2011 Commodore Cup National Series will be one of the category’s two longer-distance rounds, along with Winton’s annual Endurance Challenge. www.mnews.com.au

After practice, there will be a 20-minute qualifying session for each driver on Friday, with times combined to set the grid for the first of two 45-minute races. Each race will have a mandatory driver change.

“In order to go to Bathurst, we had to extract ourselves from the Mallala round, which has traditionally been one of the two ‘enduros’ we run each year,” Commodore Cup’s Glen Holdsworth said.

“So it made sense that if we were going to have to cancel out of Mallala that we ran an enduro at Bathurst.

“The ability was to run it for a longer period of time and because of Bathurst and the time it takes to do a lap, we didn’t want to have both driver changes and wheel changes, we wanted to limit it to a driver change.”

– MITCHELL ADAM 25

VOTE 1 AMBROSE!

JUNIORS ARE IN THE MOOD FOR A CHALLENGE

Aussie NASCAR ace appeals for All Star votes

NASCAR SPRINT CUP MARCOS Ambrose is aiming for NASCAR’s All-Star race but he needs help to get in.

Ambrose can make it into the race, which is at Charlotte Motor Speedway on May 21, via the Fan Vote, which is being conducted on NASCAR.com.

The task is simple; which driver gets the most votes for the race will join the field of drivers who have already qualified for the event. That mans that the winners of all Sprint Cup race from last season and this one, any former series champion, any All-Star Race winner from the past 10 years, one of the top-two finishers in the

Sprint Shootout are into the race.

“It’s the only race where you can get in purely through fan votes, hopefully all of my Australian fans log onto nascar.com and help me into the Race,” Ambrose said.

“I closely follow all of the comments left on my Facebook and Twitter pages, and I’m very humbled by all of the support I receive from back home.

“The All-Star Race is a great event, there are only a

couple of races that you ever do where points don’t mean anything, and it’s all about winning.”

One other way Ambrose can get in is to win one of the next few races – or hope that Dale Earnhardt Jr does.

The Hendrick Motorsports driver is in the midst of the worst dry spell of his career but remains, by a huge margin, the sport’s most popular driver.

AUSTRALIAN RALLY THE Rallyschool.com.au Junior Australian Rally Challenge has attracted a big field of crews for the opening season of the Bosch Australian Rally Championship, the Quit Forest Rally.

To date, 17 entries have been lodged for the category, which pits drivers under 28 against each other, in a bid to win a fully paid drive in the final round of this year’s ARC in Victoria.

Both two-wheel drive and four-wheel drive cars are being catered for in the Challenge, Mick Ryan, proprietor of Rallyschool.com.au, says the Junior Australian Rally Challenge is a chance for his company to showcase up and coming talent and to encourage more people to get involved in rallying.

“Our business is teaching people how to drive a rally car and if we can help the next young champion to come to prominence it will lift the entire sport’s profile,” said Ryan.

Ford Racing

TV in Timbuktu? TV in TimbukUte! V8 UTES

26

JEREMY ROGERS

THERE will be more V8 Utes on TV this season.

At least one live race telecast from every round of the 2011 Auto One V8 Ute Racing Series protected by Armor All (phew!) will be shown.

Two live races will also be featured from Darwin,

the Townsville and Bathurst 1000.

All races will also be featured in a one-hour post-produced program, telecast after each round on the Seven Network, through TV3 New Zealand, Foxtel’s new SPEED Channel, SPEED Channel 2 in America and to over 40 countries and 80 territories through Motors TV Europe.

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27

Ken Ferguson

Phillips gets Westernationals nod DRAG RACING TWO 40-year old Australian drag racing legacies collided recently as Gary Phillips celebrated 40 years in the sport at the Westernationals, in its 40th year.

Phillips’ Lucas Oils Studebaker sustained a

cracked chassis as a result of violent tyre shake in the first round of qualifying, but despite the abrupt end to the team’s racing, the weekend wasn’t over. Phillips was honoured by the West Australian drag racing community prior to the Sunday night eliminations

show with a commemorative 40th anniversary framed photo collage, thanking him for all the wonderful memories he’d given to the fans in the west.

“To see my career packaged onto a photo collage like that just made me realise how far we’ve come,” he said.

“The bug for racing bit me so bad back at the start that I ended up having dozens of jobs because I wouldn’t have worked up enough annual leave to get time-off to go racing, so I had to quit, then go racing and then find a new job after I got home.”

– LUKE NIEUWHOF

You may remember him from such events as ...

DRAG RACING BREAKING through for some well deserved success in Western Australia recently was Top Comp driver Al McClure, his Formula Tech/ Ozzy Tyres Funny Car achieving a runner-up spot.

McClure’s BB/FCA-classed machine has been on the back foot all season after some engine damage at

28

the Grand Opening event.

McClure took the opportunity to upgrade his combo to a bigger 480 cubic inch model and he has been slowly been progressing with the tune up.

With a new camshaft and valve train components installed for the last event, McClure finally found the performance he had been looking for as he ran a 6.58s at almost 340kmh.

“We decided to take some timing out of the engine in an attempt to tame it down for the elimination round and the result was an eight kilometre per hour increase on our previous best speed,” McClure said.

The run put McClure into the A Final against Rob Pilkington but some problems with tyre shake put a halt to his winning intentions.

“Unfortunately the shake returned and a broken input shaft in the transmission put an end to the night,” McLure said.

“Nevertheless it was great progress for the team and with the introduction of a 44 amp magneto and adjustable timing controller in coming months, we are gunning for big improvements.”

– LUKE NIEUWHOF

motorsport news

news

Lamattina signs Hambridge DRAG RACING AARON Hambridge has been given some good news at last, as he was recently announced as the new crew chief for Phil Lamattina’s Top Fuel operation.

Hambridge’s Advanced Parts Machining business was struck by a devastating burglary recently, which has seen him have to put his own Top Alcohol team on the market.

“I am delighted that Aaron has decided to join our team

for next season,” said team principal Phil Lamattina “We were planning on looking overseas for a replacement crew chief and in fact I was planning on heading to the United States in the next couple of weeks.

“We were bouncing around ideas when Aaron’s name came up out of left field. We thought about it and I contacted Aaron who flew to the farm for a meeting with myself, Angelo and John.

“We came away from the

meeting really impressed with Aaron’s enthusiasm and passion to advance his career in the sport and the energy that he would bring to the team.”

The off-season plan is to move the team’s operations to Hambridge’s workshop in Sydney.

“The offer from Phil comes out of the blue and I am thrilled to be given the opportunity to move into the Top Fuel Ranks,” said Hambridge.

“The Lamattina outfit is a class act. You can see in their

operation the professionalism they bring to the sport. From the time I got involved in drag racing I always wanted the opportunity to go Top Fuel racing and this is a dream come true.

“I can’t wait to get the car in the workshop and start working for next season.

Phil also offered me the opportunity to come on board for the remainder of this season and I jumped at the chance.”

– LUKE NIEUWHOF

Ken Ferguson

Next ANDRA Pro Series Round: Nitro Champs, Sydney Dragway April 29 - May 1 ANDRA Pro Series on TV: Friday April 1, Top Fuel, Willowbank www.mnews.com.au

29

FIVE MINUTES WITH ...

SEBASTIAN VETTEL

The World Champion opened his defence with a devastating win in Melbourne – just don’t call him ‘dominant’ ...

QUESTION: Sebastian, can we call that a dominant performance. It seemed to be?

SEBASTIAN VETTEL: I don’t really like the word ‘dominant’ at this stage, to be honest. It is a long, long way to go.

First of all, I am very happy because I think all of us, the whole team and myself, we had a lot of fun today and we won the Australian Grand Prix. It is really always very nice to come here. The atmosphere is something special. You do the drivers’ parade and see the people going crazy.

Obviously, Mark is the local hero and I was slipstreaming him on the drivers’ parade. It is nice to see so many people coming and cheering for our sport. That is something we don’t get everywhere.

We really enjoy that and we have to keep coming here. The sun came out today. I was missing it all week and it was really great.

The car was perfect. The first stint we have seen there is a lot of things that we need to learn and understand with the tyres. Lewis was a bit better in control of his tyres in the first stint, so he was catching up, right up to the point that we pitted. Then it was crucial for myself to get past Jenson, which worked. He was on used tyres, so it was quite a big difference at that stage plus, because of the wing, I could get really close after turn one and then into turn three/four pass him around the outside. It was crucial to stay ahead of Lewis.

After that the car was getting a bit better. We made some small tweaks at the pit-stop, which seemed to help a lot, also for tyre life, tyre wear and from then onwards, I think, second part of the race, I didn’t know what was going on behind Lewis. If he was under pressure or not but he took it a bit easier, wasn’t pushing that hard anymore, So, I could do the same and just control the gap to him.

The last part of the race was a bit

more quiet. At some stage it was quite entertaining when I had Sergio Perez behind me. We can see how big a difference it can make being on different tyres even though you are on the same fuel load. I think he behaved well. I was hoping not to do something silly at that stage so all in all very happy.

We worked a lot of hours, it is not an easy car to work on, so compliments to the mechanics. I was joking with them yesterday. They have been working all week long now to prepare for this weekend and now they can have pizza and beer tonight so it was a nice reward.

We didn’t seem to see the massive drop off in times that perhaps we had seen in testing?

Well, naturally that is our job to avoid that.

Job from the teams and job from us inside the car to make our own judgements, so before it really starts to happen make sure you find a gap and you can change tyres.

We had a lot of laps at the test, a lot of experience. Barcelona was very different in terms of tyre wear compared to here.

Coming here, first of all big compliments to Pirelli. They did a great job. Not that easy to prepare a tyre that quickly.

Including myself, we were giving them a hard time over the winter as it looked quite frightening to be honest with a lot of stops but I think we saw way less stops today and even a one-stop strategy, so, all in all, I think they did the right job.

Regarding the wing: I can only judge it for myself. It helped me to get close to Jenson and ultimately to pass him. It is pretty straightforward if you are on really different tyres, different wear life, So, as far as I can judge, it all worked very good.

We won the race so I am very happy.

And KERS? Yeah. I mean, what do you want to know?

Did you use it?

I don’t know which source you have, so it could be quite a challenge for you to find out. I don’t know, so maybe I keep it for myself.

Okay, that is your privilege.

I was pressing some buttons, yes.

Sebastian, if you started the race knowing you didn’t have KERS, were you worried about the first lap, given that the cars near you did? Were you particularly determined to pull out that 2.4s gap? We don’t often see a gap that big after one lap.

Well, I think I had a good start. Obviously starting from the clean side here is a bigger advantage than other years.

As Lewis said, he struggled with some wheelspin. We have seen throughout the winter that the tyre behaviour is different to what we were used to with the Bridgestones, so starting on Pirellis is different to starting on Bridgestones, in terms of the actual race start.

I was happy with my start. I don’t think it was 100 percent perfect but obviously better than the cars behind me, at least the ones I could see. Obviously I can’t see Lewis in the mirror straightway but then I saw that I was pulling away ... I felt I was pulling away well. Then I saw him in the mirror fighting with Mark which was a bit of a relief, just as all the other races you start and if the guy next to you has a worse start or you catch the guy in front of you it gives you a good feeling. So after that, obviously I used the first lap – not stupid – but obviously tried to pull out a gap as much as I could.

Sebastian, is there a kangaroo on your trophy?

No. I’m not disappointed. In my mind there is a kangaroo on the trophy!

COMPLIMENTS TO THE MECHANICS. THEY HAVE BEEN WORKING ALL WEEK LONG NOW TO PREPARE FOR THIS WEEKEND AND NOW THEY CAN HAVE PIZZA AND BEER TONIGHT 30

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JASON RICHARDS: HERO EVERY SENSE OF THE W OPINION

Andrew van Leeuwen – eNews Editor

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N this line of work, during the long hours spent at race circuits, there are moments that come and go, and moments that you know, instantly, will stay with you forever. Last Saturday night, at Albert Park, there was a moment that very few people gathered in the media centre will ever forget.

Having just finished second – a super human result on its own – Jason Richards sat in the press conference and poured

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his heart out. It wasn’t attention seeking or self serving, it was an understated reminder that, while he might seem back to his old self when he is climbing in and out of racing cars, the man we all know as JR is well and truly entrenched in a huge fight – one that can make almost any other problem you might have in your life seem so insignificant.

There was a particularly haunting line; “My cancer is not getting any better. I’m off

chemotherapy, so shortly I’ll have my hair back.” The blow was softened by the fact that it came from JR’s typical beaming face, and was followed by a quick joke about his involuntary baldness, but the message was clear. And if anyone in that tiny Media Centre wasn’t fighting back tears, then they are a stronger man than I. The sound bite answered a question that every journalist was going to ask – first in a Fujitsu Series race, second in Race 2 at Albert Park, is this going to turn into a comeback?

No, this was a weekend off from being sick.

“This really is my couple of little weekends in a row where I’m having a normal life,” he

added. “This is definitely not my comeback. This is purely me having fun, me being able to have fun.”

JR went on to explain how he’d been eating ice cubes for a week during his last batch of chemotherapy, another example of just how ill he is, and another reason why his Albert Park performance was so amazing. But again, he wasn’t looking for sympathy – he’d just made a joke about being a better driver with cancer in his body – and then went on to talk about someone even less fortunate than him; “Before the race, I had a fouryear-old in my transporter who has neuroblastoma. It’s a similar cancer to what I’ve got.

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O, IN WORD

WHY MINARDI WAS BETTER THAN HISPANIA

“I find myself lucky when I’m looking at this young boy – I’ve got a three and a half your old and a 17 month old myself. I’d rather take on this battle myself, rather than them, but this young boy has given me a lot of inspiration because they don’t fully understand how sick they really are. They just get on with they’re life, and that’s what I’m trying to do myself.”

By this point, any chance of keeping the eyes dry was well and truly gone. But again, typical of JR, he found a positive spin.

“When you’re just doing some skids in the car, and you pop up second, it’s not too bad, is it?”

It’s not too bad at all, JR. And you can take your inspiration from a young boy with neuroblastoma, but I’m taking mine from you. Hero.

Mitchell Adam – National Editor THERE was a nice little moment at 5:58pm last Friday at Albert Park.

Having spent the first 298 minutes of Formula 1 practice eagerly anticipating the maiden metres of Hispania Racing Team’s 2011 car, Tonio Liuzzi trundled down pitlane with two minutes to go in the second practice session and a hearty round of applause broke out in the media centre.

He turned an installation lap and that was the extent of the team’s running on the first day of the season, Narain Karthikeyan didn’t get close to turning a wheel.

In Saturday’s practice session, Liuzzi only got as far as Turn 4 on his outlap, while Karthikeyan went out at the end of the session and did five laps. They went further and faster in qualifying, but fell short of the reintroduced 107 percent cut-off and didn’t race.

It was no surprise and, to be blunt, they didn’t deserve to race. While most other teams were testing their 2011 cars two months ago, Hispania were still putting theirs together on

Friday and Saturday in the Albert Park pitlane.

What happened since the final Barcelona test the other week ago, where they rolled out their new car and told the world it was ready to run, except for the fact the dampers were stuck in customs? They were clearly as unprepared as Pedro De La Rosa is suave.

Being a Formula 1 team, not even a successful one, requires lots of money, expertise and sufficient preparation. Technical director Geoff Willis is no mug and I’m sure there are some other adequate people working for Hispania, but they don’t resemble a Grand Prix team in any way shape or form.

They scraped through their first season and have clearly regressed to basketcase status.

What would’ve happened if Bahrain went ahead, as scheduled, a fortnight ago?

People used to hang shit on Minardi, but they always rocked up with two cars ready to go from the start of the opening practice session. It was a little sad when Minardi was sold, but I’m pretty sure no-one would miss Hispania.

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Peter Bury

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OPINION

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FORMULA 1 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND 1 – AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX

Sebastian Vettel sent a shockwave through the rest of the Formula 1 grid with a dominant performance in Melbourne.

PHIL BRANAGAN reports on ...

The Bull Market

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LBERT Park showed that if you are a Grand Prix driver and do not drive a Red Bull Renault – and maybe even if you do – 2011 could be a long, long season.

Sebastian Vettel turned back the clock and in a performance reminiscent of countryman Michael Schumacher at his peak, crushed anyone who had any ideas that they were opposition. He took pole by a massive margin, led by 2.4s after a single lap and streaked away from what was supposed to be a competitive field.

He did all that with, it seems, one hand tied behind his back, as the other drivers in the field used KERS, DRS and possibly positive thinking and voodoo to haul in the World Champion. It all proved useless and Vettel sped to his 11th win, and first in Melbourne, by more than 20 seconds.

“I don't really like the word ‘dominant’ at this stage, to be honest,” he said after the race. “It is a long, long way to go.

“The sun came out today. I was missing it all week and it was really great. The car was perfect. It was crucial to stay ahead of Lewis.

After that the car was getting a bit better.

We made some small tweaks at the pit-stop, which seemed to help a lot, also for tyre life, tyre wear and from then onwards, I think, second part of the race, I didn't know what was going on behind Lewis.”

It was a work of perfection, and must have sent a shiver through his rivals, if that is the right word. It is clear that unless there

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is a dramatic upgrade in performance in a number of teams, Vettel stands on the first rung of a season that could see him, easily, hit double figures in the Win column.

Second was Lewis Hamilton, whose McLaren looked like it had been on the losing end of a war. In spite of concerns that the 2008 champion would come to Melbourne in a car more than second slower than the Bulls, the silver beast took a front row slot and held that position throughout the race. Finishing the race with a damaged plank, Hamilton was the best of the rest.

“I think today our pace was very, very good,” he said.

“Everyone always says that I have a very aggressive driving style but today I proved that is not the case. I looked after my tyres even better than the guy next to me (Vettel) and I think I was able to attack.”

The rather pedantic Lotus v Lotus battle was set aside for a day, with Vitaly Petrov delivering a polished podium finish to the black-and-gold version of the divide.

Starting sixth, the Russian never looked flustered despite spending some time behind, and in front of, his Abu Dhabi adversary Fernando Alonso, and his maiden podium finish was richly deserved.

For Mark Webber, his 10th Australian Grand Prix saw him score the same result as his first – fifth. Once again, the start proved his undoing, and he never really got going.

"I wasn't quick today and it was the same in qualifying yesterday, so we need to 35

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understand the reason why,” he admitted. “There wasn't much else I could do today. I lost the last position to Fernando (Alonso) during the pit stops and that was it really. It was very frustrating.”

The team said after the race that they would examine the car closely, to try to identify the reason for such a disparity in speed.

A bad start was also the Achilles’ Heel of Alonso, who was ninth half-way around the first lap after running wide at the first corner allowing, for one, the fast starting Petrov through.

Of the rest, Jenson Button’s hopes were dashed by a drive-through penalty after short-cutting the course in a scrap with a particularly vigorously defensive 36

Felipe Massa. The alternative looked to be a potential crash, but in the end, the Bathurst-loving McLaren driver copped the penalty and his hopes of a third successive Melbourne win were dashed.

“Red Bull’s pace is very good, but it was nice to see that [Lewis] could hold on.

“At the next race we’ll see,” he said post-race.

“We’ll have some more upgrades, and I’m sure [Red Bull] will too. For us, this is all new. The exhaust system is new, and there are a lot of upgrades and changes we can make to really hone the exhausts, so I’m happy with what we’ve done here.”

Sergio Perez was the best of the rookies (see breakout) but perhaps special mention should also be fired towards Paul di Resta. He looked at ease all weekend

and ran in the wheeltracks of his vastly more experienced team-mate Adrian Sutil all weekend. Both Little Indians were outside the points, but not far.

The race was nothing less than a disaster for MercedesGP. It was not so much that both cars retired after contact, Nico Rosberg from Rubens Barrichello and Michael Schumacher from someone he did not see. It was that the silver cars, which showed such promising speed in the latter stages of testing, were nowhere near the pace of the frontrunners at Albert Park.

At least they are not alone. If Vettel stays at this level, he will have his second title before the end of the northern summer.

In a season that was supposed to be one of the most competitive in years, that is a scary prospect. motorsport news

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Out of reach: Sebastian Vettel won the start and by Turn 2, the race for the lead was as good as over.

Vitaly Petrov scored a brilliant third for the black version of Lotus, above.

Mark Webber walked in, below, after crossing the line behind Fernando Alonso, right. It was a terrible weekend for Mercedes GP, with neither Nico Rosberg, bottom, nor Michael Schumacher showing much speed.

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KERS? Huh! What is it Good For?

John Morris

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ONE of the more talked about moments in the Formula 1 weekend at Albert Park came after qualifying.

A 1-3 result was, perhaps, less than Red Bull Racing management might have hoped for, but the manner in which Sebastian Vettel took pole – by nearly 0.8s – suggested that the cars had been, after all, bagging some sand in pre-season testing.

Then came the question, from James Allen, among whose tasks is to ask the questions at the Unilateral conference right after qualifying and the races.

“Half-a-second faster than last year's pole position,” said Allen, “and you didn't even use the KERS button.”

He was right; Vettel hadn’t. Neither had Mark Webber.

Both men avoided giving reasons why but it was clear that, during the session, one of the features of the 2011 season was not in play for RBR. There are a few theories why. One is that the car does not have KERS installed. Some drivers report brake shudder when the system is harvesting energy, to be stored and later discharged into bursts of horsepower.

The balance of Red Bull’s RB7 may well so fine that there is more to be gained by not running the system, at least for now, than with it. It may also be that having tested the system, it is not yet reliable enough to risk using it at the flyaway opening races of the season.

The second theory is that RBR has developed a smaller, less obtrusive version of KERS. A ‘single-use’ system could be fully charged before the start of the race, and used for a defensive burst on the blast to the first corner, during which every other driver in the race will have a finger jammed on the KERS button. Such a unit could utilise smaller batteries, which could be tricklecharged and therefore not require the cooling devices in place in other, ‘full-KERS’ cars. Such a version would be consistent with Technical Director Adrian Newey’s philosophy of placing a premium on packaging his cars.

Then there is the third, most simple theory; RBR has KERS in its cars, but it failed to work in qualifying.

Christian Horner confirmed the reason to the BBC on Sunday; the system was tried on Friday, but there continue to be questions over its reliability.

The result was that both Vettel and Webber had their cars hit 308.3kmh in qualifying. The best of the session was Kamui Kobayashi’s 314.2kmh. Lewis Hamilton, who split the Red Bulls, was timed at 312.7kmh.

The truth is out there, or rather in there, somewhere.

RBR’s engineers know what is going on but, in the murky world of F1, no one is saying. It may well be that we will see the KERS light burning brightly in a Bull on the TV telecasts in latter races, maybe the ‘home’ events that start in Spain in May. But for now, KERS remains a bit of a mystery, so far as the World Champions are concerned. motorsport news

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Changes? What Changes?

THERE have been a lot of changes in Grand Prix racing this season.

Double diffusers have gone. KERS is back. There are no more Fducts but now, the drivers can move the rear wings. Bridgestone has departed but Pirelli has arrived. There are new drivers, new paint, new lots of things.

Well, almost. What was noticeable after all the ins and outs of the off-season is that the cars are, for all intents and purposes, exactly as fast as they were in 2010.

Well, almost exactly; in fact, about as close as you can get. If you don’t believe me, let the numbers talk for themselves; Practice 1 2010 P1 Robert Kubica Renault 1m26.927s 2011 P1 Mark Webber Red Bull Renault 1m26.831s Practice 2 2010 P1 Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1m25.801s 2011 P1 Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1m25.854s Practice 3 2010 P1 Mark Webber Red Bull Renault 1m24.719s 2011 P1 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Renault 1m24.507s www.mnews.com.au

Qualifying 2010 Q1 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Renault 1m24.774s 2011 Q1 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Renault 1m25.296s 2010 Q2 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Renault 1m24.096s 2011 Q2 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Renault 1m24.090s 2010 Q3 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Renault 1m23.919s 2011 Q3 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Renault 1m23.529s Race 2010 Fastest Lap Mark Webber Red Bull Renault 1:28.358s 2011 Fastest Lap Felipe Massa Ferrari 1:28.947s As you can see, it was close – until Vettel pulled on the Superman cape in Q3. According to some talk in the F1 Paddock, the Bulls were quicker than Hamilton’s car through one of the fifth gear corners at the back of the circuit by 17kmh.

Some engineers made comments after the end of the ‘testing season’ that the cars were going to be just as quick as they were a year ago. Once again, after thousands of man hours and millions of dollars, the engineers have ruled the day, and the efforts to slow the cars down have come, so far as the stopwatch can tell, to nothing.

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WINNERS SEBASTIAN VETTEL: The German was in a class of his own for most of the weekend. Who needs KERS? LEWIS HAMILTON: For a man who was worried about getting blown away in the early races, and about a damaged floor during this one, second place was a great reward.

VITALY PETROV: A Russian on an F1 podium – what is the world coming to?

He did a brilliant job and that black Lotus is a rocketship.

Pirelli Returns PIRELLI made a polished return to Formula 1 at Albert Park, and its tyres were notable because of a lack of comments from the teams and drivers.

After 100,000km of testing, the Italian tyres had remarkably few problems over the course of the weekend. Sebastian Vettel lost a chunk of one of his tyres during Friday’s opening practice session, and there were a number of careful checks performed after that. All cars used the harder tyre in P1, and most moved to the soft in P2.

The company did identify cracks in about 20 tyres, the likely reason being the cold environment in which the hoops were transported down under. The tyres were

replaced – an extra 34 were allocated, just in case – and no further such instances were detected.

The harder of the two compounds bought to Albert Park was reported to be around 145 percent harder than the soft, and that unseasonally cool conditions meant that pre-season talk of a four-stop race was quickly discarded, with most teams adopting a two-stop plan even before the end of Friday’s opening session.

LOSERS MARK WEBBER: It just didn’t look right, that Bull. Something not-sofunny happened.

MERCEDES GP: Early days, so we can’t write them off. But are they the real deal? At the moment, the only answer is, no.

HISPANIA RACING TEAM: Some may call them heroes, but building a car, in the pits, during the first weekend of the season shows they are way out of their depth. Must. Do. Better.

F1 RULE MAKERS: KERS. DRS. New tyres. Lots of expensive changes. Did you see much that was different to 2010? No, me neither.

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FERNANDO ALONSO: It could have been a terrible race after that start but he kept his head down and showed why he won those two titles. But will Ferrari be satisfied? Noooo ...

Results : 2011 Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix 1 1 Sebastian Vettel D 2 3 Lewis Hamilton GB 3 10 Vitaly Petrov Rus 4 5 Fernando Alonso Sp 5 2 Mark Webber Aus 6 4 Jenson Button GB DQ 17 Sergio Perez Mex DQ 16 Kamui Kobayashi J 7 6 Felipe Massa Br 8 18 Sebastien Buemi Sui 9 14 Adrian Sutil D 10 15 Paul di Resta GB 11 19 Jaime Alguersuari Sp 12 9 Nick Heidfeld D 13 21 Jarno Trulli Ita 14 25 Jerome D’Ambrosio B DNF 24 Timo Glock D DNF 11 Rubens Barrichello Br DNF 8 Nico Rosberg D DNF 20 Heikki Kovalainen Fin DNF 7 Michael Schumacher D DNF 12 Pastor Maldonado Ven DNQ 23 Tonio Liuzzi Ita DNQ 22 Narain Karthikeyan Ind Fastest lap: Massa on lap 50,1:28.947s

Red Bull-Renault RB7 McLaren-Mercedes MP4/26 Lotus Renault R31 Ferrari 150° Italia Red Bull-Renault RB7 McLaren-Mercedes MP4/26 Sauber-Ferrari C30 Sauber-Ferrari C30 Ferrari 150° Italia Toro Rosso Ferrari STR5 Force India-Mercedes VJM03 Force India-Mercedes VJM03 Toro Rosso Ferrari STR5 Lotus Renault R31 Lotus-Renault T128 Virgin-Cosworth VR02 Virgin-Cosworth VR02 Williams-Cosworth FW32 Mercedes W02 Lotus-Renault T128 Mercedes W02 Williams-Cosworth FW32 Hispania Cosworth F111 Hispania Cosworth F111

1h29m36.259s +22.297s +30.560s +31.772s +38.171 +54.304s +1m05.845s +1m16.872s +1m25.186 +1 lap +1 lap +1 lap +1 lap +1 lap +2 laps +3 laps 50 laps 49 laps 22 laps 19 laps 19 laps 10 laps

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Inside the HRT Locker

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“That will be very difficult, but we’ve done a great first race, we have some points, so we’ll see what happens.”

Of course, it all came to nothing when the Saubers were disqualified after the race after their rear wings were found to fail a template test, but that does not actually take anything away from the drivers’ performances.

But while Perez looks every bit the superstar, his celebration plans were anything but glamorous …

“My family is around so I will have a nice dinner with them. I don’t see them very often, so it will be very nice.”

– ANDREW VAN LEEUWEN

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NEVER, in the field of Formula 1, has so little achievement been met with such a positive response.

Hispania Racing Team failed to complete a single lap in Friday practice. This would be a drama but, given that the team failed to complete any laps in pre-season testing either, it takes on mountainous status. There were, reportedly, reasons for the winter no-show; the car that was shown to the media in Spain was damper-less, courtesy, apparently, of a Customs SNAFU. After working all night to prepare the cars in Melbourne, a feat only possible because the team used one of the four ‘waivers’ teams have to sidestep the garage curfew this season, there appeared little hope of an appearance on the track on Friday. As the 90-minute session unwound, the cars appeared less and less like a pile of bits, and more like a car.

Then, the sound of a Cosworth V8 being fired, following by movement by Tonio Liuzzi towards a helmet. Then, he stepped aboard, the car was lowered and the unmistakable click of a racing transmission selecting a gear. With 2m09s remaining in the session, to a ripple of applause in the media room, Liuzzi drove onto a damp track.

He did not complete a lap. This was an installation lap and quickly (well, not too quickly) he was back in pitlane. If the longest journey starts with a single step, it was hardly the start of something big. But, it was a start.

Except, it wasn’t. While the unsponsored team ran two cars in qualifying, neither driver snuck inside the target time, which is 107 percent of the time set in Q1. While it was slightly encouraging to see Liuzzi drag the untested car to within 1.7s of the required 1m31.266s lap, the stewards were unbending, and both HRTs were out. Some called the team heroic but our view is the opposite; at its worst, not even Minardi was quite as bad at HRT was in Melbourne.

THERE were times during testing where you wondered if maybe Peter Sauber was on to something when he signed Sergio Perez. He looked quick, particularly on qualifying simulations.

In Melbourne, it became obvious that the Mexican is in Formula 1 for reasons well beyond his links to a very wealthy telco and an ability to string the odd fast lap together.

Perez ran a risky one-stop strategy, stretching his rubber to last in a race where others needed three or four sets of Pirellis to the get to the end, and ended up seventh for his efforts. He was even the fastest driver on the track at one point – well into his second stint in the option tyre. And even more importantly, he was a place ahead of his highly-rated teammate Kamui Kobayashi.

“I’m very happy,” he said after the race.

“Its great for the team, for me, [and] for my country. It was a great debut, and now I’m looking forward to the future.”

The best part of the whole story is that the one-stop strategy was basically an accident.

“It suddenly happened. We did a very long stint on the prime, and when we went for the option we thought it would be good for 10 to 15 laps. But then we saw that my pace was good, and I was not pushing to the maximum. We could manage the tyres.”

An element of luck, maybe.

But the fact is, Perez had to make those tyres last a heck of a long-time – and that’s impressive. The next question is, can the team keep it going in Malaysia?

“I hope we can keep this rhythm,” he said.

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V8 SUPERCARS ALBERT PARK 400

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Red Hot

Sprint tyres and pitstops gave V8 Supercars a new lease of life at the Australian Grand Prix, but a usual suspect still came out on top ...

MITCHELL ADAM reviews a winning Whincup weekend

Dirk Klynsmith

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HE front end of the field saw a mixture of Sprint and regular tyres to kick off the weekend, including the two TeamVodafone Commodores on the front row.

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Phil Williams

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8 SUPERCAR racing at the Australian Grand Prix always throws up a mix of the predictable and the unpredictable, and this year was no different.

Jamie Whincup won two of the three races to take out the Albert Park weekend and it’s never a surprise when he does that these days. Garth Tander grabbed the other race win and second for the weekend in a strong showing, particularly on the regular tyre, after qualifying mid-pack. The podium was rounded out by Shane van Gisbergen, while Jason Richards made a fine cameo.

The introduction of Sprint Tyres and pitstops made the races both more meaningful and interesting, with two contrasting strategy options – starting on Sprints or finishing on them – which both had their moments across the three races. Oh, and, as usual, some teams left with bent cars.

Pole-sitter Craig Lowndes was on the regular tyres, Jamie Whincup had Sprints and after a slow start, passed Lowndes and bolted. After three laps, he led by seven seconds, after seven the margin was 12 seconds.

Other than the expected progress of those on softs, Garth Tander was on the move. Tander started 14th but manage to make inroads on the hard tyre before switching to the Sprints on Lap 10.

When Whincup pitted several laps later, he rejoined with Tander second, 17 seconds in arrears.

The gap came down in the early laps before stabilising, Whincup’s early pace and clean air was enough and he cruised home with an eight-second margin for his maiden Albert Park victory.

“Lowndsey had strategy choice and chose to start on the hard and I was left with the soft tyre to start with,” he said.

“As it panned out, It was probably a high risk strategy, but we didn’t get a Safety Car which massively helped me out.”

After his mid-pack qualifying, Tander’s run on the hard tyre in the opening stint set up his entire weekend.

“The car was exceptional on the hard tyre at the start of the race, I couldn’t believe that we were on the hard tyre and catching the guys on the soft tyre in-front of us,” he admitted.

“Initially we were going to go on softs early, for the start of the motorsport news

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race, but at the last minute we changed our minds and went the other way, it was definitely the right way to go.”

Third place initially went to Shane van Gisbergen, but he was later penalised 40 seconds for an early race incident with Lowndes at Turn 15, which effectively ended Lowndes’ race. The penalty handed third to his SBR team-mate Alex Davison, while the team’s other driver, Tim Slade, was in the mix as well after qualifying fourth before encountering a sticky wheel nut in his pitstop.

Lowndes got the jump in the opener, top left, while Tander, above, laid the foundation for his weekend with a strong opening stint on the hard rubber.

James Moffat’s first V8 start at the GP ended when he collided with Todd Kelly, below.

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John Morris / Mpix

ODAY’S story really is Jason [Richards] and his effort. I thought that was absolutely awesome. We complain about understeer and oversteer and think we’ve got a battle on our hands, but it’s nothing, really,” Garth Tander said post race.

It really was. Most of the field, including Whincup, went with the ‘Tander strategy’ and started on hards, but Alex Davison and Richards went for the Sprints and broke away from the pack early.

The other big mover was Greg Murphy, who leapt from 15th to third in the opening laps.

All the while, Tander lurked on the hard tyre, knowing

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he’d again be on a charge in the second half of the race.

While Richards couldn’t pass Davison on track, he was able to jump him in the pitstops, staying out a lap longer.

Ultimately, though, the pair didn’t have a big enough buffer to see off Tander. The HRT driver pitted on Lap 10 for Sprints, and quickly passed Davison after he pitted on Lap 14. Richards lasted a little longer before Tander made the move on Lap 17.

The top three remained the same to the flag, with Tander winning from Richards and Davison.

“I think I used a bit of my tyre up in the fight with Alex, just getting to him, and then I had a few lunges at him and I was on the gas too hard,” Richards said.

“Then he came in and I put in a good lap in on the in-lap which I think was the difference in the pitstop, maybe our pitstop was a bit better, I’m not too sure.

“I started getting into it, and obviously Garth was on some new softs and reeled me in.”

Whincup had opted for hard tyres at the start of the race, and managed to make a start that was both sluggish and deemed illegal by the stewards. He had 10 seconds added to his stop, but charged back to snatch fourth from Rick Kelly on the run to the flag. Right behind them was Lowndes, who came from 27th after his Friday clash with van Gisbergen.

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ICHARDS and Davison went all-in again for Sunday’s third and final race, starting on the Sprints. But their chances were crushed when Rick Kelly and Craig Lowndes tangled exiting Turn 10 on the opening lap. The pair ended up in the wall, with Steven Johnson, David Reynolds and Warren Luff

46

also caught up as the field tried to sneak past their stranded Commodores.

That brought out the Safety Car, ruining the Sprint tyre strategy, while Richards had already lost places after over-shooting Turn 1. Whincup was among those to pit immediately, which was the decisive and race-winning move. Tander pitted a lap later, while Davison was the only driver not to take his mandatory stop, remaining out in the lead.

When racing got underway, Davison and Whincup led, both on Sprints, but Davison still had a stop to make. They built a buffer over the head of the field, with Whincup eventually getting past on Lap 14, but when Davison made his inevitable stop, he rejoined well down the order in 20th.

“I knew when I saw the safety car come out that I was going to struggle, especially when I saw that everyone had pitted for softs,” Davison said.

“There was nothing I could do, so I put my head down and drove as hard as I could.”

That left Whincup at the front on his own, and he went on to take a dominant win and secure the honours for the weekend.

“We generally categorise our wins, driver wins, team wins and then there’s just pure arse,” Whincup said.

“Today was definitely a team win, we played the strategy perfectly and that was that.”

Second for the race went to Murphy, who again made impressive inroads, while Tander got back up to third from the base of the Top 10 after his stop.

Van Gisbergen finally got a race result to match his pace, with fourth, ahead of Todd Kelly, Michael Caruso, Slade, Fabian Coulthard and James Courtney, who came from the rear of grid after a Race 2 clash with former team-mate Johnson.After his Saturday heroics, Richards’ a sheared drive peg ended Richards’ race. motorsport news

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When you’re just doing some skids in the car and you pop up second, it’s not too bad is it?”

Other than the fact he last raced in the series at Symmons Plains last November, to say Richards isn’t at the peak of his physical fitness would be an extreme understatement.

“Maybe this thought process of having a fit driver’s not so correct. My lungs aren’t at full capacity, so it’s been a bit tougher than it used to be for me,” Richards said on Saturday.

“I’m not as racefit as all of these lads, I’ve been out of the chair for six or so race meetings. I’ve been pushing on all weekend, I was eating icecubes there for a week back there, it’s not really good pre fitness for the season and obviously with all of my operations and that kind of thing.

“I’m on a break in treatment,

Dirk Klynsmith

FOR the second V8 Supercar weekend in a row, Jason Richards was the feel-good story.

Fresh from his win in the Fujitsu Series in Adelaide, Richards jumped back aboard his Team BOC Commodore, with Jason Bargwanna stepping aside for the weekend. He qualified fifth and finished sixth in the opener, but Race 2 was all about the popular Kiwi. With second to Garth Tander, he was the remarkable and undeniable star of the day.

“The emotional support and positive support I’ve had this weekend from fans, this is exactly why I’m going it,” Richards, inset with wife Charlotte, beamed.

“I’m doing it for fun. I’m very grateful to BJR, Team BOC, from Jason Bargwanna, to Brad and Kim Jones for allowing this all to happen.

Phil Williams

JR stars again

I’ve just started on my new trial drug. Chemo definitely knocks you around, and I still managed to do a few test days after chemo and keep active, and I think a big part of this treatment is the mental part, and that’s why I’m doing this today.

“I have to say, at stages of particularly yesterday’s

race, I was digging in pretty hard, but today, up at the front, l chasing for the lead, adrenaline works its wonders and it wasn’t so hard for me.

“This really is my little couple of weekends in a row where I’m living a normal life and then the heavy stuff will come back later on.”

– MITCHELL ADAM 47

WINNERS JASON RICHARDS: For the second weekend in a row, JR made people feel good about motorsport.

JAMIE WHINCUP: Last year, bragging rights were on offer at Albert Park.

This year, they were playing for $500k ...

GARTH TANDER: Had seriously impressive pace on the hard tyre in the opening race.

STONE BROTHERS RACING: All three of Ross and Jim’s cars had plenty of speed over the weekend.

SPRINT TYRES: There have been plenty of dour V8 Supercar races around Albert Park, but not this year, thanks to the introduction of Sprint Tyres and pitstops.

LOSERS DICK JOHNSON RACING: Involved in incidents in all three races and headed back north with a very badly bent #17.

QUALIFYING LOTTO: It was tough to explain, confused a hell of a lot of people and ultimately had no impact on the weekend.

Let’s not do it again.

PAUL DUMBRELL: It was a quiet weekend for all three FPR Falcons, but PD probably could’ve just stayed at home.

CRAIG LOWNDES: It was all downhill after taking pole in the Top 10 shootout ...

48

SBR’s strong show THIRD and fourth for the weekend with two of your cars would generally be a result to be happy about, but it could’ve been even better for Stone Brothers Racing.

After a tough weekend in Adelaide, the SBR Falcons were back on song. All three qualified inside the Top 10, with Shane van Gisbergen taking provisional pole before grabbing third in the shootout alongside Tim Slade.

SvG’s weekend copped a blow after Race 1, when he was penalised for a clash with Craig Lowndes, dropping him to 12th, but he got back up to fourth in the final to grab third for the weekend ahead of Davison.

After making the most of clean air and Sprint tyres in the first sprint, Davison grabbed a strong third in Race 2. The team tried the same strategy for the final, but it was negated by the Safety Car. Slade was delayed by a

faulty wheel clip in the first race and a penalty in Race 2, but grabbed seventh in Race 3.

“I guess to be on the podium with a drive-through penalty it wasn’t bad at the end of the day,” Ross Stone told eNews.

“Adelaide was probably a little bit disappointing for us as a team. I think if we went back there now we’d be OK, but probably a lot of teams

are like that. We’ve just got to keep doing what we’re doing and we’ve come up alright.

“Out of three races, the first two never had a pacecar, so we rolled the dice again with Alex in Race 3. It would’ve been interesting if it didn’t go that way, he had pretty good speed running on his own. And Slade, when you do average laps and all of that sort of stuff, he comes out

motorsport news

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Peter Bury

wing pretty good too.”

As an added bonus, the cars head back home straight, and Stone already has his sights set on New Zealand.

“Fortunately we don’t have much damage, we’ll just go back and regroup for Hamilton, because we really want to do well there. We’re desperate for a good result there,” he said.

– MITCHELL ADAM

THERE’VE been plenty of initiatives and unique formats tried in V8 Supercars over the years and Albert Park presented another.

Following qualifying, the provisional polesitter would draw a number between eight and 20 out of a hat, which would determine the number of cars which were reversed before the shootout.

If, for instance, the number was 16, the drivers between positions 11 and 16 would get a shootout start, with the first five bumped out and the former pole-sitter starting mid grid.

That kind of makes sense, right?

As it was, Shane van Gisbergen took provisional pole by over half a second from Craig Lowndes on Thursday afternoon, and

then drew 8 from the hat. So there were no inclusions or exclusions from the shootout, and SvG swapped shootout slots with team-mate Tim Slade.

With the confusion out of the way, the shootout itself was fairly uneventful, with Craig Lowndes taking pole ahead of team-mate Jamie Whincup, van Gisbergen and Slade. It also saw Jonathon Webb, pictured, contest his maiden shootout, and he finished up in 10th position.

A higher number drawn by SvG could’ve elevated the HRT drivers into the shootout, but James Courtney and Garth Tander were left to start 11th and 14th.

– MITCHELL ADAM

WHEN you’re running four cars, as Kelly Racing do, chances are they aren’t all going to have the same fortunes on any given day.

Two very bent cars were loaded into the transporter after Sunday’s last race, while the other two had just finished inside the top five.

The damaged ones belonged to Rick Kelly and David Reynolds, after Craig Lowndes and Kelly came together exiting Turn 10 and Reynolds copped a big hit in the ensuing mayhem. It ended a strong weekend for Rick, who finished fourth in the opening two races, fresh from his second in Adelaide last weekend.

But the team had something to smile about, with Greg Murphy, right, grabbing a strong second – having looked particularly happy on the Sprint tyre all weekend – with Todd Kelly fifth.

It was a bittersweet afternoon.

“The result Murph got today was awesome, the speed he had,” Todd said.

“Unfortunately there are a lot of clowns out there who have caused a lot of damage today.

The biggest drama is that there are four or five

guys who need a bit of a tune-up with their ego, there’s a lot of unnecessary equipment being wrecked.

“It’s a shame it’s ended like that with Rick because he was really on the money all weekend.

We’ve had alright pace now for two rounds, so we’re looking forward to getting to Hamilton and giving these guys a bit back.”

– MITCHELL ADAM

UPS AND DOWNS

Dirk Klynsmith

Phil Williams

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Dirk Klynsmith

Powerball

49

AFTER what can only be described as a tough 2010, Fabian Coulthard’s 2011 is already looking much brighter.

Coming off a pair of Top 10s in Adelaide last weekend, Coulthard added another two to his 2011 tally – albeit in a non-championship round – at Albert Park for the downscaled Bundaberg Racing.

After qualifying 17th, Coulthard was delayed by a communication issue in his pitstop in Race 1, finishing 13th, but he made inroads to 50

finish seventh on Saturday and eighth on Sunday.

“That was a little bit disappointing, but it wasn’t so much the boys didn’t do a good job, it was just a communication issue,” he said of the first race.

“We had a procedure in place, but it just didn’t quite go to plan. We worked on that, and got it all sweet for the rest of the weekend.

“To come away with two Top 10s and one just outside the Top 10 it’s probably not a bad weekend.

“This time last year, we were

on struggle street, it’s all promising to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

“It’s restoring everyone’s confidence and it’s probably restored a bit of my confidence as well, because after a year like last year, things were pretty bad. To convert it and have a bit of a break over Christmas and the last three outings we’ve had have been pretty strong, we’re looking forward to keeping the ball rolling.”

Sitting fifth in the championship standings, the next stop is Coulthard’s home

Dirk Klynsmith

Better Bundy run

race in New Zealand. He said there was no one thing the turnaround could be credited to.

“It’s probably a few small things, really,” he said.

“Obviously being with the team a year now helps me, I understand my engineer, my engineer understands me, and I’ve learnt the car. I’ve always given myself two years with any program and with last year being my first year, this year it’s starting to fall into place.

“It’s actually enjoyable again.”

– MITCHELL ADAM motorsport news

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Dirk Klynsmith

Results :: Albert Park 400 Pos

#

Driver

Team/Car

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

88 2 9 4 6 15 5 14 8 11 61 34 33 47 888 19 39 7 1 21 12 3 16 49 18 55 17 30

Jamie Whincup Garth Tander Shane van Gisbergen Alex Davison Will Davison Rick Kelly Mark Winterbottom Jason Richards Jason Bright Greg Murphy Fabian Coulthard Michael Caruso Lee Holdsworth Tim Slade Craig Lowndes Jonathon Webb Russell Ingall Todd Kelly James Courtney Karl Reindler Dean Fiore Tony D’Alberto David Reynolds Steve Owen James Moffat Paul Dumbrell Steven Johnson Warren Luff

TeamVodafone Holden Commodore VE2 Toll Holden Racing Team Holden Commodore VE2 SP Tools Racing Ford Falcon FG Irwin Racing Ford Falcon FG Trading Post FPR Ford Falcon FG Jack Daniel’s Racing Holden Commodore VE2 Orrcon Steel FPR Ford Falcon FG Team BOC Holden Commodore VE2 Team BOC Holden Commodore VE2 Pepsi Max Crew Holden Commodore VE2 Bundaberg Racing Holden Commodore VE2 Fujitsu Racing GRM Holden Commodore VE2 Fujitsu Racing GRM Holden Commodore VE2 Lucky 7 Racing Ford Falcon FG TeamVodafone Holden Commodore VE2 Mother Energy Racing Team Ford Falcon FG Supercheap Auto Racing Holden Commodore VE2 Jack Daniel’s Racing Holden Commodore VE2 Toll Holden Racing Team Holden Commodore VE2 Fair Dinkum Sheds Racing Holden Commodore VE2 Triple F Racing Ford Falcon FG Wilson Security Racing Ford Falcon FG Stratco Racing Holden Commodore VE2 VIP Petfoods Holden Commodore VE2 Jim Beam Racing Ford Falcon FG The Bottle-O Racing Team Ford Falcon FG Jim Beam Racing Ford Falcon FG Gulf Western Oil Racing Holden Commodore VE2

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Qual

R1

R2

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

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

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

1 3 4 20 13 DNF 11 DNF 10 2 8 6 14 7 DNF DNF 12 5 9 15 16 17 DNF 19 18 DNF DNF DNF 51

PORSCHE CARRERA CUP ROUND 1 – ALBERT PARK

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STILL THE #1

Craig Baird was the man to beat when Carrera Cup wound up in 2008, and as CALLUM BRANAGAN reports, he’s still the man to beat now

Phil Williams

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N

OT since 2008 has the Porsche Carrera Cup blessed Australian circuits with their Stuttgart magic, but for the 2011 Australian Grand Prix, they were back in action – albeit in slightly different machinery.

But one aspect that wasn’t different was Craig Baird’s complete dominance, with two race wins on the weekend, making him the world’s most successful Carrera Cup driver ... and the round winner.

Any doubts about the series’ return to Australia were immediately dispelled as soon as the cars hit the track, with the mean sounding, more ferocious looking Cup Cars making a good first impression. And with this year marking the German giant’s 60th year in production, it seemed a fitting weekend for the records to tumble, and the favourites to emerge.

The man of the weekend was undoubtedly Craig Baird, who after finishing second in the opening race, came back to dominate Races 2 and 3. What made his weekend achievement even more impressive was that his main focus was on his One HD telecast commitments – and trying to avoid sledging from his colleagues by winning.

“I took that much stick from all the blokes in the commentary box for the last two days with not qualifying pole and not winning a race,” said Baird.

“I thought I better pull my finger out and hold my head up high because I don’t want another night of stick.

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“It’s always nice to be on top. It’s good to finish the round in the lead and not have to be chasing the rest of the guys in the coming rounds.”

Daniel Gaunt was a man on a mission at the Albert Park circuit. Sporting a Seek-backed pink hat, Gaunt showed he had the speed to give his rivals a real headache this year, with his solid second place in Race 3 enough to hand him second for the weekend.

V8 Supercar refugee Steven Richards had his debut weekend in the Carrera Cup series, but he couldn’t quite emulate his father’s success on debut. Never far outside of the top three, Richards battled with Gaunt during final race. In the end, both Richards and Gaunt were drawn on points, but a more favourable placing rendered Gaunt the victor.

Race 1 saw New Zealand talent Jonny Reid hold off Mark Skaife, who was making a oneoff appearance in the L’Oreal Porsche, Steve Richards and Baird for a well deserved win.

Although his place on the grid was organised at the last second, his speed was impressive, and if it weren’t for mechanical gremlins in Race 2, his weekend result would potentially have been on the podium. Reid, however, has stamped his potential in the series, and looks to mirror the success he enjoyed in the New Zealand Carrera Cup series.

Meanwhile, Max Twigg easily won the secondary Elite class for the weekend, winning all three races after jumping the void from the Australian GT Championship to the re-born Carrera Cup Championship. motorsport news

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Dirk Klynsmith

Triumphant Return: Craig Baird was way too goo across the weekend, left, but there were some standout performances from the likes of Daniel Gaunt, above, and Steve Richards, below left. Ray Angus spent most of the weekend spinning and crashing, bottom left, while Jonny Reid streeted the field in Race 1, below.

John Morris/Mpix Dirk Klynsmith John Morris/Mpix

Dirk Klynsmith

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55

AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX SUPPORTS ALBERT PARK

DWYER STRAIGHTS

It was Mark Dwyer first, daylight second in the Formula 5000 races at Albert Park.

CALLUM BRANAGAN reports

FORMULA 5000

T

HROUGH the looming grey clouds, Mark Dwyer lit up Albert Park as he and his Lola T400 made it two from two in the Formula 5000 races at the 2011 Australian Grand Prix.

Dwyer made it look easy at the front of the field, as his consistent starts and outstanding lap pace meant he escaped the thunderous, and at times chaotic, battle pack 56

behind him. Dwyer set the fastest lap en-route to winning Race 1, but missed out on the fastest lap in Race 2 to a hard charging Greg Thorton, finishing the weekend 12-points clear of second placed Aaron Lewis.

In a race where most of the odds-on favourites were left on the sidelines with mechanical gremlins, Lewis came through to convert his Top 10 pace into a second in Race 1, handing him a handy buffer for Race 2.

Although he wasn’t spectacular,

he managed a solid fifth, which was enough to clear David Abbott by a meagre three-points.

Abbott was another man to benefit from his rivals’ mistakes to obtain the final step of the podium. Abbott’s lap speed wasn’t making the headlines during the weekend, but he was smart, and more importantly, out of the walls, to bring home a straight Lola T430.

Australian IndyCar hopeful James Davison was in action at

the Albert Park circuit, driving the ex-Alan Jones Lola T332 to a solid fifth for the weekend.

Davison’s pace was undeniable, and his weekend would have been considerably better if it weren’t for a spectacular engine failure, which saw his Race 1 chances go up in flames – literally. Race 2, however, was a much better affair, as he drove like a man possessed to finish in third, ahead of an equally fast Thorton.

Davison was fast, but Thorton motorsport news

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Phil Williams

BIKER TOP OF THE BULLS RED BULL RACE OFF

THE concept of the Red Bull Race Off had all the ingredients to be a great spectacle for the fans, and in reality, it worked.

With four Renault Meganes being driven by Red Bullbacked stars Rick Kelly, David Coulthard, Daniel Ricciardo and Robbie Maddison, the ‘light hearted’ event saw extremely close racing throughout the five-lap dash, with plenty of hand brake

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of Kelly heading into Turn 3 left him bogged in the sand, and the other three circulating closely.

The three remaining Meganes made the most of the track time, sharing paint and the lead for the remaining four laps, and to everyone’s surprise Coulthard rejoined the fun, albeit two laps down.

At the end of the race, Maddison was victorious ahead of Kelly in second and Ricciardo third.

– CALLUM BRANAGAN

TAKE A PUNT ON SAV CELEBRITIES

AFTER a one year sabbatical, the Celebrity Challenge was back at the 2011 AGP, with exAFL player and Philadelphia Eagle’s star punter Saverio Rocca taking home the silverware.

In a world first, the entire field consisted of hybrid-powered vehicles, with a 28 strong grid of Lexus CT 200Hs. And as always with the Celebrity Challenge, the racing was

rough and the bumper panels were disappearing quickly.

‘Sav’ absolutely dominated the weekend’s program.

Starting Race 1 from the front row, Rocca enjoyed an enthralling battle with extreme sports star Corbin Harris to easily win the race.

From there, it got even easier as he crossed the line in Race 2 as a clear winner.

Former Olympic Swimmer Giaan Rooney impressed as she made the podium

Phil Williams

John Morris/Mpix

behind him too was extremely fast as he followed Davison though the field. Thorton set the fastest lap of the race on his way to finishing in fourth place in Race 2, but his tires left him struggling for grip as his attempted to snatch third from Davison.

The beginning of Race 2 looked good for D’Arcy Russell, as he was running as high as third, but he ran wide under braking into Turn 3, making contact against the wall and leaving his Lola T330 limping into the gravel trap.

pulling and panel rubbing.

The grid for the race was decided by chance, with Australian Olympic pole vaulting champion Steve Hooker drawing the positions from a helmet, which would eventually be awarded to the victorious Bull.

Robbie Maddison found himself on pole and made a good start, holding off Rick Kelly heading into Turn 1. Coulthard, however, had other ideas, as an awfully overambitious move up the inside

in the final Race 2 with a brilliant final-corner passing manoeuvre. Another mover and shaker was singer Brian McFadden, who channeled Sauber’s Kamui Kobayashi to pass almost anyone he wanted.

Shannon Eckstein was a man on a mission in Race 1, as he moved up and down the standings like a yo-yo. But like the true Iron Man he is, he persevered in Race 2 to finish a solid fourth place.

– CALLUM BRANAGAN 57

TOP FUEL CHAMPIONSHIPS WILLOWBANK RACEWAY

Ken Ferguson

Razzle Dazzle

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Darren Morgan did his Top Fuel title hopes no harm at all, taking out the Top Fuel Championships at Willowbank Raceway. KEN FERGUSON was there www.mnews.com.au

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Dirk Klynsmith

D

ARREN Morgan took a stranglehold on the 2010-2011 ANDRA Pro Series, Top Fuel Championship, following a great win at Willowbank Raceway’s 2011 Top Fuel Championship round on Friday and Saturday night.

This event, the first Pro Series round completed this year, also hosted rounds of the Top Bike and Pro Stock Motorcycle championships, with a large percentage of local racers making their way to final rounds. A testing category also provided the opportunity for a number of newer fans to witness the awesome potential of a nitro-fuelled Altered for the first time, as well as some high revving action from the Pro Stock class.

An 11th hour withdrawal from the event by the Graeme Cowin and the Rocket Industries team, saw the Top Fuel entry list reduced to five, and Phil Lamattina’s early form in his Fuchs dragster suggested he would be the man to attack the points lead of Championship leader,

Darren Morgan in his AEG Powertools dragster. Lamattina dominated qualifying on Friday night, going into the 4.60s zone twice, and recording the fastest speed at the track with 26.71mph on his 4.65s final qualifier.

While Terry Sainty posed a huge threat, at the wheel of Santo Rapisarda’s car following their recent US experience, Morgan accounted for him in the first round before facing the red-hot Lamattina in the second. Morgan produced his best numbers of the weekend with a 4.73s at 323mph to edge out the quicker reacting Lamattina’s time of 4.82s at 311mph, in what was easily the best race of the event.

Morgan won a dour final; with Pommie Steve Read not going much further than the 60ft mark under power, while Morgan blew the manifold off the engine, pictured, and coasted to a mid seven-second pass for the win.

“The dragster just ran flawlessly all weekend right up to the final, where we shattered a fuel line and blew off the manifold,” Morgan said.

“My crew, who are all volunteers, did an absolutely outstanding job all weekend, and I am so happy to have won the meeting, be leading the championship with a good margin and to be getting some exposure for our sponsors, for our crew, for Mildura, and for everyone else that has put faith in us.

“The track was outstanding, the best I have raced on in a long time and the conditions we ran in this weekend I think were the best we have had in over 12 months, it was a pleasure all weekend, and it’s a nice birthday present for my wife Nat, who celebrates her birthday on Tuesday!”

Current Top Bike championship leader, Chris Matheson, extended his championship lead over his nearest rival with another display of raw horsepower on the Nitro Voodoo bike. Troy Mclean came in a distant runner-up to Matheson in the final, failing by more than 1.1s over the quarter mile distance, making no impact on Matheson’s 6.33s at 180mph.

Matheson never recorded

a pass over the weekend where he crossed the finish line under power, but still managed to record nothing but 6s passes.

The Pro Stock Motorcycle class saw current champion Andrew Badcock bag a heap of points and narrow the gap to championship leader, Maurice Allen. Badcock took all the glory in the category with the win in the final over number four in the points, Lachlan Ireland, as well as recording low ET and top speed for the event, with his 7.27s at 184mph in the early rounds.

In other classes, winners included Craig Geddes (Competition), Tim Sizmur (Super Stock), Craig Dyson (Super Compact), Rowan Lind (Competition Bike), Matty Watts (Supercharged Outlaws), Andrew Loy (Modified), Paul Doeblien (Super Sedan), Rob Harrington (Super Street), Denis Ryan (Modified Bike), Mathew Loy (Junior Dragster) and Roy Romeo (Super Gas).

The next major event at Willowbank will be the season-ending Castrol EDGE Winternationals on June 10-13. motorsport news

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Dirk Klynsmith Dirk Klynsmith

Pommie Steve Read, top, made the Top Fuel final but was unable to make an impression.

Chris Matheson, above, extended his Top Bike points lead with victory, while Andrew Badcock, left, took out Pro Stock Motorcycle.

Dirk Klynsmith

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61

IZOD INDYCAR SERIES ROUND 1 – ST PETERSBURG, FL

Double Trou The introduction of double-file restarts meant double trouble at St Petersburg.

But through the carnage, Dario Franchitti emerged to make it the perfect start to his title defence. By MARY BIGNOTTI MENDEZ

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uble T

HE buzz in St Petersburg for the IndyCar season opener was about how the double-file restart rules would affect the race. Turns out the start created the biggest melee.

Polesitter Will Power controlled the pace, bringing the 24-car field down at about 120kmh as they awaited the starter to wave the green flag within 60 metres. It was a frustrated Helio Castroneves who attempted a banzai move from row five down the inside 200m from the first turn, causing Mike Conway to hit team-mate Marco Andretti’s car, spinning it upside down in a shunt reminiscent of the start at last March’s Sao Paulo event. Also involved were Scott Dixon and Ryan Briscoe, both

returning a number of laps down after repairs in the pits.

Power was ahead of the carnage, followed by Dario Franchitt., There were four caution periods for nine laps in the first 15 laps. All four early double file restarts were clean.

When the green flag fell on lap four, Franchitti pounced on Power in a daring move into Turn 3. Franchitti had struggled in practice, hitting the wall, and hadn’t been able to match Power’s qualifying speed. But he managed to lead 94 of 100 laps on the 2km, 14-turn Great Scot: Dario Franchitti got his Indycar title defence campaign off to a great start with victory in St Petersburg, left.

HONDA Racing Media

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temporary airport circuit. His 27th victory ties him with Johnny Rutherford for the 10th most all time wins.

“The Target team kept fighting,” Franchitti said. ”What a brilliant time. It was a hard to win today. I focused on making a move on Power early. You won’t win this championship sitting back. Once I got a gap, I could control the pace and save my tyres. I wanted to save something for the end.”

In the early laps, Power was passed

by Tony Kanaan and, battling brake bias issues, slipped to seventh place. But the Australian fought back later in the race with his car better suited to the red (softer) tyres to finish second ahead of Kanaan.

“It was a very interesting start today,” said Power.

“Dario Franchitti got me fair and square at the beginning. When we had all the restarts after the caution period we got hit hard (by Simona De Silvestro) and went into neutral. We dropped to seventh. I couldn’t adjust my brake bias. And, my car’s balance was off on the black tyres.

I’m very glad to get the points for the championship.

“I enjoy racing Dario. He races me clean and hard. We have a good rivalry on the track and are friends off the track.”

The battle of the race in the final laps for third place was between Kanaan and Simona De Silvestro. After starting 17th, the Swiss Miss managed a jump to ninth by the end of the first lap and then worked her way to second by lap 14, having to hold off Kanaan.

De Silvestro was happy to finish fourth, especially since she only met her new engineer, Brent Harvey, at the track on Friday.

“I never thought on Friday we would do so well in the race,” said De Silvestro.

“We were scrambling this past week to find a new engineer. Fortunately, my engineer and I clicked this morning in the morning warm-up. It took a little while for us to understand each other but he understands me now.

“I found a hole at the start. The doublefile restarts are fun. This race was pretty cool because I got to pass a lot of cars. At the end I was pretty close to Kanaan. I tried to pass him but I was on the dirty side of the track so it was difficult. Being the first race after a long off season, I didn’t use all my tools, like the push to pass. It would be hard to use it coming out of the last corner.”

Power on: Will Power leads the double-file start away from pole, main, and was clear of the first-corner carnage, top right, inset. Simona de Silvestro was an impressive fourth, centre right, but Sebastien Bourdais didn’t even start after crashing in the warmup session, above. Franchitti overcame a lacklustre qualifying to get the better of Power, left. motorsport news

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IZOD INDYCAR Media

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Results :: Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, FL

IZOD INDYCAR Media

Pos. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Driver Dario Franchitti Will Power Tony Kanaan Simona de Silvestro Takuma Sato Alex Tagliani Raphael Matos Vitor Meira Oriol Servia Justin Wilson

Team Ganassi Penske KV HVM KV Schmidt AFS Foyt Newman/Haas Dreyer &Reinbold

Qual.

2 1 8 17 11 10 16 13 15 6

Top 10 Points:

Franchitt 52, Power, 41, Kanaan 35, de Silvestro 32, Sato 30, Tagliani 28, Matos 26, Meira 24, Servia 22, Wilson 20.

IZOD INDYCAR Me dia

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65

NASCAR ROUND 5 - FONTANA, CA

dia NASCAR Me

Last gasp: Kevin Har vick waited till the last possible moment to make his move on Jimmie Johnson to score the win in Fontana, above.

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motorsport news

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Harvick Heads’em Home Jimmie Johnson beat him at Fontana last year, but in 2011 Kevin Harvick got his revenge – taking the lead on the final lap.

I

NASCAR Media

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T matters little who leads the most laps. What matters is who leads the last lap, and crucially for Kevin Har vick in Fontana, that was the only one of the 200 laps that he led.

It was the Childress Chevy driver ’s first Sprint Cup win in his home state track, and with fellow Californian Jimmie Johnson in second, it was a kind of reverse déjà vu, in that the pair had finished this race last year first and second, only with Johnson in front.

“ We had them all beat last year here, and then we gave it away,” he said of his second-place finish to Johnson in 2010.

Not so in 2011, as Har vick achieved a dramatic last-minute victor y. At the final restar t, it was Kyle Busch and Johnson fighting for the lead. Johnson was ahead with four laps to go, but two laps later Har vick swept passed for second place.

Quickly catching Johnson, he waited till the final few hundred metres to make his move on the Hendrick Chevy.

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TOYOTA Media

Third-placed Kyle Busch was disappointed after a strong run all day from the Joe Gibbs Toyota. “ We gave the race away today, unfor tunately,” Busch said. “I didn’t have what it took there at the end.”

Matt Kenseth used his fresher tyres (he pitted at the final caution) to vault into four th place at the end.

“I t is a good day for us,” Kenseth said. “ You are always greedy and want more. I was the first guy on tires, and I didn’t do probably as good a job as I needed to on the restar t. It just took a while to get there.”

While Har vick, Johnson and Busch fought it out for the topthree spots, Stewar t slid back through the race field to wind up finishing 13th.

TOYOTA Media

“ Today we had a fast car, and the circumstances played in our favour,” Har vick said.

Johnson said the race reminded him of last year ’s battle with Har vick.

“Just didn’t hold him off that time,” he shrugged. “ Those tyres made the difference. I k new he was coming, they said he was coming. If I could have got by the No 18 maybe a lap sooner that might have been enough to give him the margin I needed. Just way loose. I was driving my butt off just tr ying to keep this Lowe’s Chevrolet up front but it didn’t pan out.

I hate losing it coming off of (turn) four like that but we did ever ything we could today. We had a great race. Made our car a lot better all day long so I’m really proud about that.”

High and wide: Typical Fontana multi-line racing as David Reutimann heads Kasey Kahne, top left. Kahne demonstrates an extreme high line, centre. Kur t Busch heads one of the restar ts, top. Marcos Ambrose struggled into 28th with poor handling, right.

OUTSTANDING PIT DISPLAYS BY OCTANORM MANY OTHER DISPLAY OPTIONS AVAILABLE PLEASE CALL US TO DISCUSS REQUIREMENTS

SYDNEY (02) 9556 6012 MELBOURNE (03) 9394 3150

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motorsport news

race

TOYOTA Media

Results :: Auto Club 400, Fontana, CA Pos. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 FORD Media

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No. 29 48 18 17 39 99 33 83 4 42

Driver Make Kevin Har vick Chevrolet Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet Kyle Busch Toyota Matt Kenseth Ford Ryan Newman Chevrolet Carl Edwards Ford Clint Bowyer Chevrolet Brian Vickers Toyota Kasey Kahne Toyota Juan Montoya Chevrolet

Team Sponsor Qual.

Childress Jimmy John’s Gourmet Sandwiches 24 Hendrick Lowe’s 16 Joe Gibbs Interstate Batteries 8 Roush Fenway Crown Royal 11 Stewar t Haas US Army 9 Fenway Roush Aflac 18 Childress Childress Inst. for Pediatric Trauma 17 Red Bull Red Bull 19 Red Bull Red Bull 22 Earnhardt Ganassi Target 1

Top 10 Points:

Edwards 187, Newman 178, Kur t Busch 177, Kyle Busch 176, Johnson 173, Stewar t 170, Menard 164, Montoya 161, Har vick/Kenseth/Kahne 157, Ambrose 121 (18th).

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SUPERBIKE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND 2 – DONINGTON PARK, GB

Making his

Marco

Carlos Checa is off to a great start but it has taken Marco Melandri only three races to record his first SBK win

Marco 1: Marco Melandri, here leading Max Biaggi’s Aprilia, scored his first World SBK race win.

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C

YAMAHA Racing Media

World Superbike Points: Checa 91, Melandri 72, Haslam 53, Biaggi 49, Smrz 42, Rea 38, Camier 37, Fabrizio 27, Haga 26, Sykes 19.

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ARLOS Checa may have dominated the opening round at Phillip Island but he did not have things all his own way in Round 2.

The Ducati rider left Donington with his World SBK Championship lead intact, but it was Marco Melandri who ended up with the highest points haul on the day.

Melandri was impressive in both races, the Yamaha rider recovering from his third-row star t to win race one before finishing runner up in the second race.

“It has been an awesome race for me,” Melandri said of his Race 1 victor y, “ver y tough and at the star t many guys were ver y aggressive. I kept my rhythm and when I got on my own I caught Camier and some others then it took some time to get to Haslam.

“I just kept the best pace I could and in the end Smrz ’s pace was gone and I passed him. We missed a little bit of top speed but the pack age was ver y balanced, we won and I had a lot of fun.”

Jakub Smrz was unlucky not to prevail in Race 1 after leading most of the way. In the end the Ducati rider trailed Melandri across the line by 2.5s.

“Of course I am disappointed to not win the race but it was really nice and I am back on

the podium, which is impor tant,” Smrz said.

“In the end my rear tyre was gone and I could not push any more. Marco passed me and I did not want to risk anything in the end.”

Checa bagged third with a move on BMW rider Leon Haslam just two corners from home.

Race 2 was better for Checa, the Spaniard’s experience coming to the fore with his canny rear tyre selection. He was in charge from early on, tak ing the flag almost four seconds clear of Melandri and Leon Camier ’s Aprilia.

“It is a fantastic beginning to the season,” Checa said, “especially this victor y in Donington, which is something special. Basically we decided to put on a different tyre with better grip at the beginning, so now I was stable and had good grip. At the end the tyre dropped down a little but it was good enough. Ever ybody k nows what happened here to me many years ago, when I lost something so now I’m quite satisfied to win at Donington!”

Defending Champ Max Biaggi had a shocker, the Aprilia rider finishing seventh in Race 1 before being excluded in Race 2 due to his failure to obser ve a ride through penalty incurred for jumping the star t.

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motorsport news

rear of grid

t o p S Odd

Two Series, One Message

sutton-images.com

the IndyCar drivers did likewise, with a message of support to their Japanese fans. Takuma Sato was, literally, front and centre for the group photo, and perhaps did his best not to notice Simona de Silvestro’s sponsor.

The Swiss, front right, who finished a career-best fourth, is backed by Entergy Nuclear, to promote Nuclear Clean Air Energy ...

sutton-images.com

WE thought it timely to mention the tributes paid during the season-opening events in two major racing series over the weekend.

At Albert Park, all the Formula 1 cars, and some of the drivers, carried messages of support to the trouble country. Jarno Trulli even went the extra yard, running a special helmet design for the event, inset.

In far far away St Petersburg Florida,

IndyCar Media

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