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INSIDE Noske gets HRT drive Mark Noske has won the drive of his life, having been chosen by HRT as its fourth driver in the Sandown and Bathurst endures later this year - P3
Quotes of the Year FLAIR PEDAL TO THE Craig Lowndes gets to gj^ return Mobil-HRT Commodore in W5ever a$sembl0d: season of V8 racing against thej^^
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By DAVID HASSALL THE off-season is finally over and the big boys hit the track again this weekend for what promises to be the toughest year ever.
The biggest and bestquality field ever assem bled is ready to take on the Shell Australian Touring Car Champion ship, starting at Sandown this weekend. And the big weekend gets a kick-start'With the
fourth annual Australian those not running on con MotorSport Awards on trol tyres. Much interest will sur Friday night, where the round the return of Craig sport’s top achievers will howndes to HRT and be honoured. A bumper field will how he will fare against assemble at Sandown, new teammate Mark including 19 we might Skaife, not to mention describe as ‘Pro’ cars - the likes of Ingall,
Perkins, Bowe, Johnson, Longhurst Seton, Richards, Faulkner and a raft of young guns trying to upset the status quo. For all the inside info, see our big sea son preview starting on Page 18.
Oh, the things they said. Here they all are, warts and all, in our light-hearted farewell to 1997-P16
Besnard wins in US Young Aussie ace David Besnard has returned to American racing in brilliant fashion, winning the opening the opening round of the US Formula 20000 Championship - P5 03
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Five new FI cars launched The new Grand Prix cars have been coming thick andfast in recent weeks, including the stunning Frost AP91 (left)See insidefor more photos and details.
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HRT splits winning pair to sign Noske HRT has announced its fourth driver for the end-of-year long distance races - and in doing so split the Lowndes/Murphy part
Noske will also be a leading contender in the Formula Holden Gold Star series driving Arthur Abrahams’ Reynard.
nership.
For Murphy, the news is another disappointment.
FormeriYoung Lion Marke Noske has been confirmed as the remaining HRT driver for the year and he will partner Greg Murphy. 1998 full-time drivers Mark Skaife and Craig Lowndes will share what must be considered the lead car. HRT Team Manager Jeff Grech wanted the team’s dri vers finalised before the start of the season to avoid the specula tion that nonnally accompanies the decision: “It can be a bit of a distrac tion,” said Grech. “And with so many new young drivers joining the V8 Supercar ranks this season, we wanted to ensure we had con tracted the best possible dri vers, to give ourselves every
It was generally assumed that in re-signing for the long races, he would continue his histori cally successful partnership with Lowndes. When contacted this week, all Miu*phy would offer was a terse “no comment”.
Mark Noske opportunity in the Primus 1000.”
It is understood that part of the the for logic Lowndes/Skaife pairing is team officials’ desire to deflate any contest between the two for the dominant role in the sprint races which make up the Shell ATCC and other events.
For Noske, the opportunity follows a Young Lions berth last year, a good Sandown 500 and, of cotirse, a Bathurst DNS following Jason Bargwanna’s warm-up crash.
As our season preview (see page 18) notes, neither has occupied a “number two” role in touring car racing for some time...
Apart from his HRT duties.
- CHRIS LAMBDEN
France bids to regain Grand Prix THE French National Assembly in Paris last week passed a new bill to overcome the problems related to the television cover age of the French GP. The new bill states that the rights of a sporting event can be sold to a broadcaster but other broadcasters must be allowed to film at the venue, although only the exclusive broadcaster is allowed to film the event itself The new law should be accept able to both the French government and to the FI authorities. “The door is now open for the French Grand Prix to be put back on the FI calendar,” said France’s Minister of Youth and Sport MarieGeorge Buffet. If everything goes to plan the French GP will now regain its June 28 slot, which could mean that there will be 17 races in the 1998 season. This will largely depend on whether the Portuguese GP is replaced and whether the problems over the Belgian GP can be resolved. - JOE SAWARD
Moonlight robbery ,000 stolen from under eedway promoter’s nose
By GEOFF ROUNDS
WARRNAMBOOL’s Premier Speedway has been rocked by the rob bery of around $100,000 during last weekend’s running of the 26th Grand Annual Sprintcar Classic race. It is the biggest cash theft in south-west Victoria’s history. The money was stolen from a locked, unsupervised secretary’s room at about lam on Sunday. Police and club officials declined to confirm or deny the amount, but an undis closed source said the amount would have been in excess of $100,000. The secretary was in the middle of counting out $84,000 in prizemoney and other costs to be paid to the drivers when she left the office for 10 minutes to carry out another duty. She locked up on her way out and on her return dis covered the gatetakings were missing. Premier Speedway Club president Graeme Hose, who was still tiying to come to terms with the loss, said .there was more cash than normal on the premises because of Saturday’s washout.
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He said the amount of money stolen was “substan tial” but an exact figure would not be known until an audit was completed. Racing director Jamie Nicolson said: “The club is going into its 40th year of operation and this is proba bly the worst thing that has happened in that time. The biggest devastation.”
Police investigators and club members were at a loss as to how the money was smuggled out of the office. ‘You wouldn’t! carry it in your hand no matter how bundled up'it was,” Hose said. “We don’t know how they got it out. It would have been much too obvious if I
you had very large fistfuls of money. “I don’t know whether we were'cased out or observed over a period of time.” Hose said insurance would only cover part of the stolen amount, but it would be years before the club could recover from the theft. He said the club would
have to dip into reserves, putting in jeopardy the future of planned improve ments such as new toilets, canteen and corporate boxes. “The Premier Speedway will still forge ahead,” Hose declared. “The thing that went through my mind was all that work that had been done for 36-odd hours by about 120 volunteers of our club. It amounted to nothmg. “I am just so disappoint ed for those people.” For the committee mem bers, who were exhausted from a marathon day of rac ing, the robbery was a bit ter end. ‘You get a good race over and then get a kick in the guts,” Nicolson said. In the wake of the theft. Premier Speedway is already planning to step up security for future events. “We thought we were rea sonably safe; we are not stupid,” Hose said. CIB Warrnambool Detective Senior Sergeant Brian Curley said a crime prevention officer would make recommendations on security upgi'ades. He said the tens of thou sands of dollars stolen was in large notes.
■ Wayne Gardner has entered his remaining Coke Commodore for the Grand Prix meeting. The car will, the latest rumour sug gests, be prepared by veteran Sydney race engineer Harry Galloway. ■ Sprintcar ace Melinda Dumesny is following husband Max’s lead and heading for the Thunderdome - at least for a test. Melinda was due to drive Bruce Williams’ AUSCAR Commodore yesterday (Wednesday)at Calder Park and sources suggest she wall be a def inite starter at the next meeting there on Febmary 14. ■ Calder Park was due to be a very busy place as most of the leading Queensland-based teams got in some last-minute testing before Sandown. Usually teams are restricted to their nominated circuits but, since the new sur face at Lakeside broke up recently, TEGA allowed this oneoff session. ■ Rodney Forbes had his first laps in Glenn Seton’s Falcon at Phillip Island on Tuesday. Seton’s new teammate, whose race debut will be at the Australian GP meeting, settled in well, running in the lm36s bracket. ■ As part of TEGA’s cost-cutting measures, its Technical Committee has set diff ratios for this season. Competitors will be restricted to 3.25:1, 3.5:1 and 3.7:1. ■ Keith Flint was at Phillip Island’s IRTA test last week. The lead singer of The Prodigy, who counts a Honda Fiteblade 900 and Ducati 916 among his toys, was the guest of World Champion Mick Doohan. After resuming the band’s Australian tour the singer intends to race at club level back in England. ■ Damien Digby has signed property development company Pacific Merchant as sponsor of his Formula Holden campaign. He races his Reynard for the first time this weekend at Sandown. ■ Not only is CAMPS support ing Ryan McLeod and Christian Jones this season, but the insur ance company’s Chief Executive Rob Porter is taking to the tracks. Porter has bought the exToll Express Porsche 911RSR and will drive in Porsche Cup this season. The car is heading south to Sandown this week but Porter won’t drive it until Symmons Plains nexd week. ■ Procar Australia, which runs GT Production racing, is mortng fi'om the Gold Coast to a new office in Brisbane. From March 1, Bill West and the crew can be contacted at Suite 2,42 Moitow St, Taringa. Phone(07)3371 7400 and fax (07)3371 9933. ■ Michael Schumacher is not only having trouble with his new car (see next page), but also the new regulations. “The car isn’t bad,” he said last week,“but the tyi'es slide around like a rally car. ■ Jacques Villeneuve is main taining his verbal assault on Schumacher in the wake of their controversial season-ending crash. The World Champion told a Gennan magazine:“In stress situations he (Schumacher) stops thinking and is only capa ble of reacting. He shows his unfiltered personality.”
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