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No. 313 July 6-19 2005 Australia $5.95 NZ $7.50 inci GST

Double win makes HRT future “far more likely

Is this Holden's ‘Plan B'for Richo? z K

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GARTH TANDER BROCK ON GOODWOOD AND THE VKa

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www.mnews.com.au

Issue 313 6-19 July 2005

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30 Five Minutes With Nick Fry Finally, some reward for a tough season at BAR 32 A Siice of Paradise The Editor loses his balls with Bargs and The Simonator 36 When 160mph is barely enough 20 years later, Keke downplays that lap 38 But wait! There’s Mawer Bart’s views on his season so far in British F3 40 Jordan Rates ’em Eddie J has a word about how the FI drivers are going 42 My other 200 cars are priceless A peek inside Bonington’s cave of treasure 46 My Brilliant Carrera Porsche s latest one-make weapon of mass destruction

race coverage

48 HeaRT of Darwin After 5 different V8 winners, Todd repeats at Hidden Valley. Garth and Rick make progress, SBR has its dramas. All the news from Darwin cyir-'h'i '■ 56 Le Team du Home Kimi stars but Fernando Alonso and IHOtOfSPOft the Renault make it five wins at the Frenchest GP of the year

Todd 'in red'

Photos; Cover: Dirk Klynsmith Contents: sutton-images.com. Dirk Klynsmith, Phil Branagan

Is this ●Plan B’for Richo?{P' —

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Gore Plan to Keep Richo Red? 'r-

WHILE Steven Richards remains the 'people's choice' for the vacant 2006 seat at Stone Brothers Racing, we hear of an intriguing plan to keep the experienced Holden campaigner on the red side of the fence. Other than keeping a wary eye on the obvious potential candidates, SBR boss Ross Stone tells us the team hasn't yet gone too far down the path of Am b rosereplacement 'job interviews' - but he would say that, wouldn't he? For his patfRtehards is contracted to Larry Perkins for next year. If, however, LP's situation changes(and there has been much recent discussion about whether he'll continue to run a team in 2006),'then Richo Jnr could be a prime SBR target. And so the interesting pitlane rumour that came our way over the weekend starts to make sense. The story remains totally unconfirmed (but from a reasonable source) as MNews closes for press, but the suggestion is that ebullient WPS boss Craig Gore may have made Richo the mother and father of all offers to drive for him - in one of a pair of Paul Morris Motorsport-built Commodores. While Holden does not, officially anyway, get into driver contracts in the same way Ford has - Messrs Lowndes, Ambrose, Bright and Ingall are all contracted directly to Ford as well as their individual teams - the powerbrokers at Fishermans 4

TODD Kelly has indicated that his recent run of success with HRT may act as an incentive to remain with the team beyond the end of his current contract. Kelly is due to sit down with the team in the next couple of weeks to discuss extending his current deal beyond this year, and said that his back-to-back wins at Shanghai and Darwin will play a part in his decision."It helps, for sure," said Kelly, right. "That chat's not too far away now. It's not what I want to concentrate on now, 1 want to concentrate on doing the same thing at the next round. But certainly, the success that we've had over the last two rounds is what it's all about, and I think it will make a big difference." Kelly also confessed that there had been times when he had felt unsure about his prospects with the team, but said that the recent run of luck demonstrated that HRT had turned the corner. "It was a little bit tougher

earlier on, and you know what it's like when you have a bit of a bad run for a few races," he explained. "But the way we've gone the past two races, the cars are good and we've definitely had everyone's measure at the past two rounds. The engines are good. "All 1 want to do is be with the most competitive team, that's the number one priority, and from the last few races, HRT is that team. So I am pretty keen on being with the best team, and we'll see how the rest of the year goes. "I think the year before 1 moved to HRT, they were still one of the most dominant teams around, and the three or four years before that were just awesome for the team. It all turned around when I went there unfortunately, for one reason or another - a lot of things. So to finally get back on top, we've worked really hard since then and I think it's well

Don Bend might well find the concept of an offer like Gore's an attractive way of ensuring they retain one of their star performers. An added bonus is the enticement of a blue team across the great divide. For his part. Gore has struggled to get meaningful support from Ford for his fledgling team. In a lot of ways, then, the idea makes sense. As the 'Who's going to get the SBR gig' story starts to hot up, it certainly provides an eyebrow-raising option ...

THERE is no panic at Super Cheap Autos Racing,in spite of a tough weekend at Darwin. In his first meeting with the Holden Motor Sport engine, Greg Murphy was shocked to find that the balance of his PWR Racing Commodore VZ had vanished and could not be quickly restored. The four-time Bathurst wirmer had been looking forward to getting his hands on an HMS engine after being the last man on the grid with a Chevrolet 18-degree engine at Eastern Creek and Shanghai. But Murph was disappointed with the set-up of the SCAR VZ at Hidden Valley and he, and the team, appear to be at a loss to understand why. "We never saw this coming,that is for sure," admitted Murphy,right, on Monday. "There is a lot to do to try and work this out. We have forced this upon ourselves, which is not ideal. We need to sit down in the workshop and figure out what to do." One thing that sits in the team's favour is the fact that is has four of its six test days available for the second half of the year. Murphy and team-mate Paul Weel are due to test their cars at Phillip Island next week, prior to the QR round of the series. Murphy had been looking forward to having an HMS engine, which the team sources from Perkins Engineering, at his disposal, citing its superior horsepower numbers when compared to the older Chev. Both PWR cars suffered set-up dramas in Darwin, though Murphy says that "only one thing is induced because of the fact that I left-foot brake." In the meantime Murphy, his engineer Steve Henderson and PWR technical boss Dave Ward can be expected to have some long hours at the team's Dandenong HQ before the next round in two weeks' time. -PHIL BRAN AG AN

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Place Like Home deserved for all the guys there. They've put in, and they've kept their chins up." Kelly also suggested that the option of switching to Ford, which he flagged as a last resort option in our last issue {MN#312), was now effectively off the cards. "It would be one of the hardest things to ever do, to swap manufacturer," he said. "I've been with Holden since the Young Lions programme, so that would be a pretty serious decision to make after all that time. And Rick has sort of come through the same process. "So it would be pretty hard, and there would have to be something fairly wrong to swap. A few of the other drivers have done it, but I don't reckon you'd want to do it more than once. You're either one or the other." - MARK GLENDEIMNING

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WPS to confirm Tag and M&M EXPECT an announcement from V8 Supercar team WPS Racing within the next two weeks, confirming that two international open-wheel drivers are to be the team's endurance drivers. Both have close links with WPS's owner Craig Gore, both love the colours green and gold and one is even married to an Australian woman ... Yes, yes, sorry - Alex Tagliani and Marcus Marshall are the men in question. n Paul Radisich has raised concerns about the scheduling of the two races last Sunday at Hidden Valley, suggesting that the 110 minutes between the end of race two and the start of race three did not offer teams or drivers enough recovery time. "I don't know whether it is TVrelated, but the races are very close together and there is not much time to recuperate," he said. "Between the long, hot races and any problems that you might have with the car, there is not a lot of time to get ready for the last race. You need more time to rehydrate properly in those kinds of conditions - it's not just a matter of drinking a lot of water; it takes time for your system to absorb it properly." Sunday's races were held in ambient temperatures of 31 deg C, with cabin temperatures inside the car climbing into the high-50deg range. n Marcos Ambrose's wallet is $5000 lighter after he was fined by the Stewards for a breach of Rules B6.5.10, B6.8.2 and E2.1.5. at Shanghai. Ambrose was found guilty of failing to obey the directions of an Official, and failing to attend media and promotional activities away from the track. n One for the stat-heads: last weekend's round of the V8 Supercar series was the 350th round of the Australian Touring Car Championship since it commenced in 1960.

6 July 2005

n If you think of Australia's great wine regions, Queensland is not usually the first place that springs to mind. The Morris clan are doing their bit to change that though, with Sirromet's 2002 Seven Scenes Cabernet Sauvignon winning a gold medal in the Red Table Wine class at the recent San Francisco International Wine Competition. Sirromet took a total of three medals home from San Francisco, with their 2002 Seven Scenes Merlot picking up a silver and the 2002 Seven Scenes Chardonnay taking a bronze. 5