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U RIDE& RACE WEEKEND WITH LOWND^I THE IX1EW5 BEHKIMU THE OVEWS
No. 307 April 20 - May 3 2005 Australia $5.95 NZ $7.50 inci GST
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motorspoit news
lssna307
20 April-3 May 2005.
www.mnews.com.au
news and opinion 4
Dust, not Gorey, Settles WPS boss on the limiter
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Will Dick get the Wili? As opposed to the opposite? Wurz Case Scenario Who drives for McLaren at Imola?
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12 Dickson in Korea Aussie backs Champ Car bid 12 Touring Car Frenzy WTCC, BTCC, DTM and NZVSs(Phew) 25 Motor Mouth Some Good ideas from across the Pond 4 W
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26 Box Seat How-to-FixFormula-One-for-Dummies 82 Taik Converter Just for a change, red ink, please?
28 Five Minutes With Paui Dumbreil Crash on Sunday, fly home on Monday 30 Five Minutes With Scott Speed An American in GP2 and close to Formula 1 32 When number 2 is Number 3 Paui Weel speaks on all the changes at PWR 34 Dandenong Happenings Is Mark Roworth happy with Holden Motor Sport? 36 Jarno Laughs Last Toyota's Trulli looks back on the first three FI races 40 FC Speaks Fabian Coulthard, the latest youngster to take the Jum Challenge 42 FI? McGuire? Who? A great yarn about the little-known Brian McGuire 46 Dallara-free Zone Why, and How, Lola is attacking international Formula 3
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race coverage
-ii«r 50 The Readers’ Digest NZ Report Murf! Murf! Murf! Murf! CRASH!!! Murf! 58 Windy, Wild and Fun Trimble and Alajajian on top of Formula 3 after Mallala ra eo Usual Rally Stuff Loeb goes back to winning ways while Atko scares the bejeezus out of WRC’s ‘stars’
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Photos; Cover: Geoff Ridder and John Morris/ Mpix Contents: Ridder. Mpix. Dirk Kiynsmilh and Ford Racing
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Gore Comes Oi FLAMBOYANT WPS Racing boss Craig Gore has set the V8 fraternity alight with an explosive outburst following the huge shunt at Pukekohe, which virtually destroyed Craig Baird's WPS Falcon and the Commodore of Paul Dumbrell.
Gore has put the blame for the incident squarely at the feet of the other driver involved,Paul Dumbrell,and threatened legal action, despite the fact that the motorsport judiciary has yet to finalise its view of tlie shunt. A WPS press release carried Gore's
frank opinion,saying in part, that: The incident enraged team Principal Craig Gore who planned to seek legal redressfor a situation he described as stupid. "It was madness. Baird was taking evasive action to avoid another incident and Dumbrell tried to sneak down his inside. It was opportunistic, and I understand that, but it was a stupid move," said Gore. "I will apply to have his licence removed as he seems to be there in all of these high-speed major accidents." The series IPO (Investigating and
Prosecuting Officer, Peter Wollerman) looked at the incident and, according to the official CAMS incident report: "Paul Dumbrell, was charged with a breach of the rules, reckless driving (B6.7.3),involving an incident with car #8, Craig Baird. Paul Dumbrell entered a plea of not guilty and requested a Steward's Hearing. The hearing was opened. Mr Dumbrell sought an adjournment to obtain a witness and collate evidence. "The hearing has been adjourned to a date yet to be set, but not before 26 April 2005. The hearing will
conclude prior to the next V8 Supercar Championship Series roimd in Western Austraha." That is where the whole thing should and could have ended,for now. By the time MNews hits the streets, senior AVESCO officials are hkely to have reminded Gore that its licence
agreement doesn't encourage teams to sue other teams/drivers. To aid that philosophy, any team doing so is obUged to stand aside from racing whUe the legal process takes place. That is most unlikely to happen. Indeed, MNews understands that
kekohe Lifeline? Back for
DESPITE last weekend's event there being promoted as'The Final Rumble', Pukekohe may live for one more year if a deal cannot be finalised with the Wellington City Council by May 12 for a street race in NZ's capital city. Despite AVESCO boss Tony Cochrane upping the pressure on Wellington by suggesting that "the reality is we might not succeed in Wellington and we might have to miss a year or two," there is a growing groundswell of opinion that there's absolutely nothing wrong with staying at Pukekohe for another year while the alternates are sorted properly. Public submissions regarding the Wellington race close today and, by all reports, the Wellington Council has received a huge pile. Somewhere in that pile could well be trouble, and the current view is that the Council's decision could go either way. Pukekohe put on a great event last weekend and, 4
WPS Racing is working to repair Craig Baird’s Faicon after the Race 3 incident at Pukekohe iast weekend. The number 8 Ford has received special dispensation to be air freighted back to Queensland on Wednesday evening where it will immediately be taken to Logan Village Smash Repairs to receive a full assessment. Team manager Keith Evers said the team should know on Thursday exactly what condition the car is in. “When we initially saw the incident, I thought the car was gone,” he told MNews. “But on closer Inspection, I think it can be fixed. The floor is
although its contract has now expired, is in a position to take on at least one more event although its future beyond that is complicated by a proposed expansion of the horse racing side of the facility. AVESCO CEO Wayne Cattach acknowledged the 'pro
Pukekohe' swing at the weekend, but cautioned that any new one-off deal with the Pukekohe promoters would, by necessity, involve an upgrade to air, rather than sea, freight for the teams - adding a further costs element. - CHRIS LAMBDEN
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It Swinging Gore has already indicated tliat he will step back from his legal threat. CAMS Motorsport Manager and series Race Director Tim Schenken also threw his weight behind the parties averse to a legal threat: "The sport has its own judicial system," he said on Monday."We've seen this sort of threat before - from
Don’t Hang This On Dumbrell Opinion — by CHRIS LAMBDEN
I GUESS I’d be pretty agitated to see one of my race cars smashed up as badly as Craig Baird’s WPS Faicon was on Sunday, but Craig Gore’s shot from the hip in the aftermath does little except create a brief media flurry and some publicity. Gore has had some thought-provoking things to say about this sport since he arrived, some interesting, some outrageous, but this time he needed to calm down first. I’m carrying no particular torch for either Paul Dumbrell or Craig Baird, but on this occasion, the most intelligent response seems to have come from the two drivers concerned. Baird is an intelligent, experienced, driver and is among the bestplaced to know just how difficult conditions were in the gloomy halflight, in the wet, and coming out of one of the trickiest corners around at warp speed. In the aftermath he quietly admitted he’d seen the potential drama (with Jamie Whincup’s car sliding wildly out on the grass) and had moved right to avoid getting involved. He hadn't seen Dumbrell, tight on the inside, and why would he - he was pretty busy at the time! MNews understands he may even have apologised - needlessly - to Dumbrell. For his part, Dumbrell (also, I hear, coping with power-steering problems) had few other realistic options either and little time to do much about it (as evidenced by the late involvement of Cameron McConville, some cars back at the time). It happens. Cars get torn up in racing. This was noone’s fault. End of story. Look at the positives between Oz and NZ, horse racing has buried four jockeys in the past month. We’ve just damaged some sheet-metal ... Dirk Klymmilh
other people, not Craig Gore - and it has never achieved anything. If you go outside the sport's judiciary, it opens up a potential pandora's box of problems... - CHRIS LAMBDEN
{arbagallo creased and everything from the back seat is destroyed. The thing that did most of the damage was the light post on the horse racing track.” WPS don’t have a space car, which is a fact that Evers has always been wary of. "We’ve got a new chassis waiting to be completed at Beehag, but It was going to be too much of a rush to get that ready for Barbagallo. There is also the option of leasing a car, although that is not ideal. We really have no option but to hope the car is repairable and that it can be fixed in time. I’m sure, though, the car won’t be a write-off’ - GRANT ROWLEY
CATASTROPHE hit John Bowe in the days leading up to last weekend's V8 round in NZ when the boot of his car was burgled. Missing was couple of bottles of a rather good Pinot Noir - "over $40 each, mate - that's dear for me!". Also missing were JB's race suit, helmet and, importantly, HANS device. After borrowing stuff for Friday, and a radio appeal, the race-gear was returned after being found alongside one of Auckland's main roads. The thieves, however, kept the pinot. JB was crushed... e n Missing from pit lane was PR heavyweight Brett 'Crusher' Murray after nasty complications followed a recent gall-bladder op. However, the latest reports from the big man of PR were positive, including a comment to a visiting media mate that "at least I outlasted the Pope!"... n Tasman Motorsport had an expensive practice day. Apart from being excluded from the session because the left-wheel parted company with Jason Richards's car, the team copped a pair of $2000 fines (yup, four grand) for failing to have its garage doors fully open during the race fans' pit walk. Paul Morris, meantime, escaped with a warning for "failing to park at 45 degrees in pit bay", in other fine-related news, both John Bowe and Paul Dumbrell were fined $2000 each for unsafe exits from their respective pit bays. n While the spotlight was on Murph, Super Cheap team-mate Paul Weel recovered from an average qualifying run to snag 11th, 9th and 10th in the races, enough to snare third in the championship points table, two points ahead of Craig Lowndes, who was devastatingly unlucky to have his car fail to fire up after the race three stoppage. n Jean-Paul Messenger has taken up a managerial role at Astuti Competition in the Australian Formula 3 Championship. JPM,formerly of Carlin Motorsport in the British F3 Championship, will assist David Bord and Sam Astuti in co-ordinating the team's race weekend activities. n The British Racing Drivers' Club (BRDC) has announced that it will be holding an Extraordinary General Meeting at Silverstone on May 12 to discuss the role of Sir Jackie Stewart. A number of club members have demanded that Stewart stand down from his position as president. -STAFF/ JOE SAWARD 5
20 April 2005 !