Motorsport News Issue 409 - July 2011

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MOFFAT:Standing Tail in V8 Supercars Australian

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^ The Enforcer opens up on his future

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IND^ EXCLUSIVE: Inside the 500, wfith and Herta I

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Andrew Hall was oft the scene to capture the tension at the start ofqualifying for the Le Mans24 Hour race. Audi won the pole,and won the race, but both the R 18s pictured here were destroyed in the process.

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THIS MONTH’S FEATURES Unusual Suspects

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fh Mark'Higgo'Higgins has been hassled by his mate Dario for years about going to the Indy 500. In 2011, he made it happen - and documented the experience from the inside.

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INGALL THE FUTURE He's a V8 Supercar veteran, and while there are still a few tricks left in the old dog, he's gotsome plans for life post-V8 racing.

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If there's one thing that Russell Ingall can do, it's form an opinion. That's why it was so much fun to shine the spotlight on 'The Enforcer'in this issue ofMotorsport News. As usual, Russell makes for a great read.

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Peter Hackett is no stranger to fast, exotic racing cars but even he is an excited man when it comes to the Mercedes 5LS AMG GT3. Turn to page 64 and you'll see why...

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He's a former race winner, but now Heikki Kovalainen's job in FI is to help take Team Lotus to the mid-field.

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When you see a Dirk Klynsmith photo in this issue, think about the fact that it was edited and filed from a bus. Yep, Dirk and wife Wendy are now living in the 'DakAttack'van, traveling from race to race.

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In an MNews exclusive, we go behind the scenes at the Indy 500 with pre-race favourite Dario Franchitti and winning team owner Bryan Herta.

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NEWS

Editorial

Executive Editor Phil Branagan editor§mnews.cow.au ■ Assistant Editor Andrew van Leeuwen andrew@mnews.com.au Special Projects Editor Steve Normoyle snormoyle@chevron.com.au National Editor Mitchell Adam mitchell@mnews.com.au Pubiisher Chris Lambden

The Grid

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Motor Mouth with Phil Branagan

Chief Executive Officer, David Gardiner Commercial Director, Bruce Duncan

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On The Limiter with Chris Lambden

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Bits & Pieces

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Winding Back

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Box Seat

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Model Behaviour

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Trade

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Classifieds

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The Final Word with Paul Cruickshank

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THE FRONT ROW since we last met

FORMULA 1 It's been a month of highs and lows for Sebastian Vettel.

Well, that's not entirely true. It's more been a month of highs and slightly less highs. First, Seb took his first win on the streets of Monaco. It was a slightly fortunate win; he was fast running out of tyre life when a red flag, six laps from the end, allowed him to grab some better rubber for a Safety Car restart.

It proved to be crucial, the new tyres allowing Vettel to hold a charging Fernando Alonso and a stealthly quick Jenson Button at bay in the final laps.

A fortnight later in Canada,Vettel was slightly less lucky. In a difficult race, which included a two-hour break for a rain delay, Vettel didn't put a foot wrong - until the last lap when he ran wide while pushing to keep Button at bay, losing the lead. Button took the win from Button, while Mark Webber rounded out the podium after being turned around by Lewis Flamilton at the very start of the race. It was one place better than Webber managed in Monaco, fourth the best the reigning winner could muster after a relatively quiet day at the office.

As for Flamilton, he's had a tough month. Having hit almost everyone in Monaco, he first nudged Webber, and then crashed into his team-mate Button on the main straight, in Canada.

But still his month has been better than that of Sergio Perez.The Mexican made it through to Q3 in Monaco only to crash heavily and miss the race. He took part in Free Practice 1 in Canada, but was ill after the session, resulting in Pedro de la Rosa taking his place at Sauber.

WORLD RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP Sebastien Loeb is capable of winning rallies even when he is completely out paced .

Loeb took his sixth win in Argentina after his Citroen team-mate Sebastien Ogier dominated the rally. With a comfortable lead heading into the final day, Ogier rolled late in the Ascochinga

INDYCAR Will Power has finally - finally won an oval race in the IndyCar Series.

The Queenslander came from third on the grid to win the second leg of the Twin 275s Texas, a breakthrough win on an oval. Dario Franchitti won the second leg.

A fortnight earlier, Dan

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stage. He was able to keep going, but his lead had been slashed to just three seconds before the start of the final stage, and by the end, he was third behind Loeb and Ford's Mikko Hirvonen.

"For sure I didn't believe that I could be fighting for the victory at the end of the rally," said Loeb,"but I'm really happy with how it's gone."

"I tried to do what I could, but it was just impossible to drive the car now," added Ogier.

"It was stupid for sure."

Wheldon took an astonishing win at the 100th running of the Indy 500. Rookie JR Hildenbrand looked certain for a win, but crashed while lapping a car at the start of the last lap.

The mistake allowed Wheldon, who was driving for Bryan Herta's part-time team,to sneak through for a remarkable win, his second at the famous race.

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eNews of the Month 1

INTERNATIONAL GRID FIRMING UP The grid for the Gold Coast 600 is becoming clearer - almost by the day.

In the last four weeks there have been a number of high- l profile drivers linked to the event. Hispania Racing Team Formula 1 driver Tonio Liuzzi is set to join Tony D'Albertoat Wilson Security Racing, Will Power, Mika Salo and Christian Klien at Ford Performance Racing, Marc Lieb and Scott Dixon at Stone Brothers Racing, and Jan Magnussen at Paul Morris Motorsport.

motorsport dnews

POTENTIAL STARS SIGN ON

V8 SUPERCARS Jason Bright has emerged as a genuine - and perhaps the most potent - threat to Jamie Whincup's surge towards a third title.

Having taken Brad Jones Racing's first V8 Supercar win at Perth back in May, Bright proved it was no fluke by backing it up with a second win on Sunday at Winton. And it was a stunning win. Bright using vastly superior tyre grip late in the race to come from fifth place with a handful of laps to go to winning comfortably.

"We're still coming on strong and improving all the time,"said Bright.

"I think we can finish the year a lot stronger than we started, but Jamie Whincup has got a big head-start and doesn't finish outside the top two very often."

In keeping with Bright's quote, Whincup was inside the top two during both races at Winton. He won Saturday's first outing, giving himself more than a race worth of points up his sleeve, before finishing second on Sunday.

Expect to see British Touring Car Championship young gun Andrew Jordan on yourTV soon.

The Pirtek-backed Briton has been accepted as part of Channel Seven's'Supercar Showdown'reality TV show,and will compete for a spot on the grid for the Bathurst 1000.

V8 Supercar Safety Car driver Amber Anderson will also be a competitor on the show, which will be shown on 7mate.

SALE OF THE CENTURY The V8 Supercar show has officially been sold, with Archer Capital, via a newly-created entity called Australian Motor Racing Partners,taking a 60 percent stake in the sport.

The Sydney-based company has bought out the 25 percent from former stakeholders SEL, and reduced the team owner's stake in the sport to 40 percent(from 75 percent) via a huge payout - to the sum of nearly four million dollars per Racing Entitlement Contract.

Asa result, the sport will be run by two separate bodies.The current board will be reduced, with Tony Cochrane coming on as chairman, Andrew Grey and Brad Lancken representing AMRP,and Brad Jones and Roland Dane representing the teams.

There will also be a separate commission set up to manage the technical and sporting activities in the sport.

"To me,out of the ownership change,that restructuring is going to serve us well going into the future," FPR boss Tim Edwards told eNews.

KEY CHANGES AT HRT

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There has been some big changes at the Toll Holden Racing Team, with two key figures departing the embattled team.

First, Walkinshaw Racing managing director Craig Wilson left the team,a media release stating that it was"in order to spend more time with his family."

Days later, HRT team manager Rob Crawford also left the team, being replaced almost immediately by Mike Henry. However, Henry's position has carefully be labeled as 'operations manager', suggesting that further changes to the technical structure of HRT may still be made.

ATKO HOPING FOR OZ OUTING

MOTOGP Casey Stoner has well and truly become the favourite for the MotoGP title with a brilliant win, in the wet, in Britain.

Stoner was on a different planet to his competitors, leading home his Honda team-mate Andrea Dovizioso in comfortable style. The surprise of the race was Colin Edwards, who finished third after a stunning day out at Silverstone.

www.mnews.com.au

Chris Atkinson has admitted that he is planning to make a comeback to the World Rally Championship in 2011 - at Rally Australia.'Atko'is talking to both MINI and Stobart Ford about a WRC ride for the round at Coffs Harbour in September.

Motorsport eNewsavailable 8pm Mondays. www.mnews.com.au

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MUST be getting old, because I keep thinking about how things used to be.

Like, my house. As a kid, I lived in a house with an open fireplace and a combustion stove that provided heating, hot water and cooking, but which spewed burnt coal and coke into the atmosphere.The house had little or no insulation, I would shower as long as I liked (or as long as I could lay siege to the bathroom) and Life was Good.

Now, I live in a green house.

Not a greenhouse, nor is it green; it is brown on the outside and on the inside, the walls are Antique White USA, which sounds like a shade devised by the Ku Klux Klan. I have low-energy lighting, double glazing and in-wall insulation, which is completely different to what is in the roof In the backyard is a water tank the shape and almost the size of a Space Shuttle and I have grey water, reticulated water and just plain watered water. My family's carbon footprints are smaller than my son's actual footprints.

Motor racing has changed, and possibly not for the better.

To most people who are not engineering graduates, 201 Vs Grand Prix cars all look the same; we appear to be one madman with red spray paint away from

a grid full of Ferraris. NASCAR look the same as other NASC, so do V8 Supercars. Indycars are all the same; Dallara and Honda have done such a good job they drove off the opposition to leave 33 homogenised racers on the Brickyard grid. Even at Le Mans, the new Audi diesel racer looked just like... the new Peugeot diesel racer, except for the rings, the lions and the aerobatics.

There used to be a time when cars would come along with something different; engines in the rear, fans, movable wings, gas turbine engines,4WD,six wheels!

Then, in my email in-tray came images of Delta Wing's new Le Mans racer. Surely men such as Colin Chapman,Jim Hall and Gordon Murray would applaud this design, which first saw light as a concept for a future Indycar.

This is a Sportscar? It looks like someone mated a Land Speed Record car with a shark.

Where most racecars present a rectangular profile, Ben Bowiby's brainchild is triangular. It looks nuts, with no wings, and beneath the skin of the wacky

racer, there is more oddness.The engine will be a 1.6-litre with 300 horsepower, weighing less than SOkgs.This package is supposed to make a car competitive with the current conventional rocketships that have dominated the race in recent years - with less than half the power of a V8 Supercar.

But look at the names connected with the program Dan Gurney. Don Panoz. Duncan Dayton and his Highcroft Racing team. None of these guys are mugs and I bet none of them thinkthiscarwill make them look like mugs.

Will it work? Who can say?

But I am looking forward to seeing how it does, if it does, and why it didn't if it fails. This is a remarkable step in a new direction, and if Formula 1, with its live-or-die-in-the-windtunnel philosophy, is not going to provide the opportunity for brave innovation to flourish, Le Mans organisers AGO deserve a round of applause for seeing

the potential in this.

For the trip to the Winton V8 Supercar round, we at Team MN ran a new strategy. With van Leeuwen, Adam and myself needing transit, we arranged to get out mitts on a car for the weekend. Large the car was but its motor was a small turbo four.

We stayed away from freeways where we could, rocketed through some crappy weather and generally did not cruise much at all. With three fellas, bags full of iPhones,computers and manly weekend stuff on board, we averaged, in the old money, well over 40mpg - in absolute comfort and safety.

The car was superb and vastly exceeded our expectations. It was a game changer.

The Delta Wing could be a game changer. But even if it comes up short, the battle of wills between design orthodoxy and 21 st century thinking will be well worth watching.

IfFormula 1, with its //ve-or-d/e-/n-r/i€-w/nd-funne/ph//osop/7y,is not going to provide the opportunity for brave innovation to flourish, Le Mans organisers ACO deserve a round ofapplause for seeing the potential in this 10

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m -— CHRIS

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LAMBDEN j ON THE LIMITER

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F you are a Formula 1 fan, the past weeks have been a fair old roller-coaster of highs and lows.

On-track, it's continued to be pretty spectacular, despite the fact that Sebastian Vettel already looks like a runaway champion. Much of the credit for the spectacle goes to Pirelli which delivered what was asked for in terms of tyre performance and degradation - and the committee which came up with the DRS,the'adjustable'rear wing.

Ultra purists may find this 'controlled'adjustability of important elements a bit disconcerting, but there's no doubt it has, albeit artificially, re created some of the conditions that prevailed in FI back in the pre-aero days, and with it has comethe very thing FI has been criticised for the lack of - passing.

The most recent GP, Canada, with its long main straight, provided a perfect example of the DRS effect. And of course it was spiced up by that good-old natural ingredient - rain! Jenson Button's win from, at one point, the tail of the field, has been

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described as a classic, though he had a couple of Safety Cars and DRS to thank for his startling progress.

The other thing Button achieved, a first, was dragging a last-lap error out of the sofar faultless Vettel.That will at least provide a ray of hope for those looking for a chink in the German's armour. What did amuse me was the stunned look on Vettel's face on the podium -1 last saw that on Michael Schumacher's face when he, also, could not fathom that he'd actually made a mistake!

Canada was also the scene of one of the lows - the start.

Or rather, the parade known as 'Starting UnderThe Safety Car'.

Excuse me, but it hadn't rained for an hour,there was little or no standing water, and these are the best cars in the world driven by the top drivers in the world?

To a man, all the commentators were critical of the decision and, given that a few hours earlier the bike boys had thrown on wets and lined up for a grid start at a sodden Silverstone, it made FI look like a bunch of wimps. One of our

readers even emailed to say he'd switched off and gone to bed at this point! Shame, he missed a great race.

Low number two was the handling of the'will FI goto Bahrain'decision by both the FIA and FOM. As an Aussie, I was proud of the fact that it was our own Mark Webber who stood up first and suggested that"human rights and moral issues"should come first. The FIA's decision to re-instate the race, based largely on a brief, stage-managed 'fact-finding mission'by Spanish motorsport federation chief Carlos Gracia, was appalling. FOM chief Bernie Ecclestone managed a couple of solid u-turns along the way and,even as Bahrain itself was being persuaded to accept there'd be no race this year, was still evaluating options to slip it onto the schedule in December.

Not FI's finest hour. Let there be no doubt that,from the perspective of those in commerciai control, it is all, absolutely all, about the money.

Still, the right result was got in the end - though it should have been reached right from the start.

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his is issue 409 of Motorsport News, which first published in July 1993 as a fortnightly tabloid newspaper (we've also

racked up over 200 issues of our new-world digital weekly, Motorsport eNews). It is also my 409th, and last, issue as the captain of the MNews ship.

As many will know, Motorsport News was acquired by fast-growing publishers Nextmedia/Chevron Publishing just over a year ago, and my subsequent year's'handover' role now comes to its end. I will be hanging around for a bit in a supporting role, and still doing some writing, which is the fun part, but in terms of dayto-day management of both Motorsport News and eNews, that now falls to others.

Thanks to everyone who's been involved along the way, including you, our loyal readers.

Running a business and making a living out of your sporting passion is about as good as it gets. Generally, it's been a hoot and a terrific experience (I'm really not a fan of the trendy modern descriptor-'the Journey').

I've been in and around motorsport all my life, so that is unlikely to change. I'm looking to take on a couple of new projects, and am well into my motorsport mid-life crisis courtesy of a McRae F5000 car.

We've all got to be a bit mad sometimes, don't we?

So here's to what comes next...

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What our readers have been telling us on Twitter this month

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markwal ker Hey, great job @MotorsportENews for the Monaco party, how about one for Montreal?

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Haha, give the drivers a green light to smoke it up, they go nuts!

Don’t forget to tweet US your thoughts @motorsportnews!

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Great article about Team BOC in the latest mag! Very Interesting interview and I bet it was fun too.

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So where's the Indy 500 after party?

Having a bunch of us drunk singing 'back home again" in my office *will* get me fired.

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Thanks for the invitation to the Monaco party. Too bad Webber got stiffed

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QUICK QUIZ 1

Russell Ingall might have be born in the United Kingdom, but

where did he start racing karts?

2

Between his two stints in British Formula Ford, in which country did Ingall first race Formula 3 cars?

3

In which one-make series did James Moffat first race in?

4

Volkswagen is already involved in World Rallying through another e of its brands. Which brand and which series?

5

The GT3-spec version of the Mercedes SLS AMG was unveiled at which car show in 2010?

14

motorsport news

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MY FAVOURITiE RACEi

AUSTRALIA

CHRIS ATKINSON - MONTE CARLO/FINLAND WRC,‘08' M

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HAVE two favourite events;the third place finishes I had in Monte Carlo and Finland in 2008.

I had some second places in that season as well, but when you're on the podium on those two events, it's special, because they are the iconic World Rally Championship events. You don't realise how special it is until you're actually standing on the podium; you can't imagine the feeling ofjoy and satisfaction.

In Monte Carlo, there was a second between Francois Duval and I going into the last super special stage, around the Grand Prix track. There was a lot of pressure on, as you can imagine.There was a big crowd down there, and we fortunately did enough to grab that last podium place.

It was funny because we were fighting against my co-driver Stephane Prevot's old driver, so he wanted to beat him too! Duval is a real tarmac expert, so it was good to beat him in Monaco. Whether it's a Formula 1 podium or a rally podium, when you're on the podium in Monaco it's pretty cool!

It was different to most rally stages.

When there's one second between you, and only one or two kays to get through, you can't afford a single mistake. You have

to nail the start and get it exactly right from there.

As for Finland, that's a specialist event for the Finnish.The stages are the fastest and most difficult, and most incredibly amazing, in the world. You know that when you're setting fast times there that you must be a decent rally driver!

To be on the podium there was amazing.

There are so many fans there, I think there's half a million people there across the weekend,so the atmosphere is incredible.

When you're up on the podium with all of those people around, and a Finnish driver next to you, it's an amazing feeling.

The roads in Finland are in another league to what we have here in Australia, but it does help coming from the Australian Rally Championship. We grow up on fast, gravel roads, and I remember some of the stages in South Australia are a little bit similar. The roads are wide and hard-based, so it's all about driving as fast as you can.

It's not going to be a rock that takes you out; you either crash, or you do a good time.

Chris Atkinson spoke to Andrew van Leeuwen

k **★

We’re so f***ing s unbelievable.

it’s

An example of Kimi Raikkonen’s family friendly banter over the radio during his NASCAR Nationwide debut www.mnews.com.au

f-

TOURS

Juljf

NASCAR Coke Zero 400 Daytona International Speedway, FI. USA MotoGP July 3 Gran Premio d’ltalia Mugello, Tuscany, Italy July 8-10 V8 Supercars Sucrogen Townsville 400 Townsville , Qld July 8-10 FI Santander British Grand Prix Silverstone, England NASCAR July 9 Kentucky 400 Kentucky Speedway. Ky, USA July 10 Indycar Honda Indy Toronto Toronto, Canada July 13-15 ANDRA Pro Series 2011 Winternationals Ipswich, Qld. MotoGP July 17 eni Motorrad Grand Prix Deutschland Sachsenring, Chemnitz, Germany NASCAR July 17 Lenox Industrial Tools 301 New Hampshire Motor Speedway, NH, USA July 22-24 FI German Grand Prix Nurburgring, Germany MotoGP July 24 Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix, Laguna Seca, Calif, USA July 24 Indycar Edmonton Indycar Race Edmonton, Canada July 28-31 WRC Neste Oil Rally Finland Jyvaskyla, Finland July 29-31 FI Hungarian Grand Prix Hungaroring, Hungary NASCAR July 31 Brickyard 400 Indianapolis Motor Speedway, In, USA July 2

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WINDING BACK the year that was...

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When Team Joestheaded to Adelaidein 2000,to win jHie AsidU MansSeries,they really meantbusiness.By MITCHELL ADAM

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HE name'Audi' hasn't been seen too much in Australian motorsport in recent years.

Globally, the German marque has been at the forefront of sportscar racing, engaged in the battle for Prototype supremacy at Le Mans, which spills into other events in Europe and America.

But to find the last time Audi had a major presence in an Australian event prior to last February's Armor All Bathurst 12 Hour, you have to go back to 2000 and the one-off Race of a Thousand Years in Adelaide.

The New Year's Eve race was the final round of the American Le Mans Series and originally intended to be the start of an annual sportscar race in the City of Churches.

It attracted a strong contingent of ALMS competitors, with a pair of entries each for Audi Sport North America and Panoz among the Prototype entrants.

You need to fast forward 10 years to find Audi's next effort on Aussie soil, and when Audi Race Experience Team Joest hit Mount Panorama, Australian Chris Horvath was reunited with many of his former colleagues.

While now out of the sport, see breakout, Horvath worked in European sportscar racing for eight years, including a stint with 76

Joest, culminating with what was the first and last Race of a Thousand Years.

"It was huge," Horvath recalled at Bathurst.

"We were talking about it to the Audi people today, saying that when we raced in America with the American Le Mans Series, we'd have crowds of 5000 to 10,000 people. We get to Adelaide, a city that didn't know anything about ALMS,and we had 70,000 people.

"That was my last race, I finished in Adelaide and gave up motorsport. We had the INKS concert and then we went into town and there were all sorts of things going on.

"It was nice to be in Australia and racing in Adelaide, I'd worked for six years with all of these German guys and talked about home and for my last race they were able to come motorsport news

Silver, Red,Green and Gold

German know-how:Team Joest brought two ofits R8s down under and dominated the race. The 'Crocodile'car, above, was the winner, and there was still a huge crowd around at midnight to celebrate with the winners, bottom. here. It was such a big event and they still talk about it today."

To celebrate the race in Australia, the team's #77 R8 of Allan McNish and Rinaldo Capello wore a one-off 'Crocodile'livery, still regarded as one of the best special liveries ever made. Horvath was the lead mechanic on the team's other car, the'red'#78 of Frank Biela and Emanuele Pirro.

On the Crocodile side of the garage,there was drama.

McNish injured his back picking up his luggage at Adelaide Airport and then aggravated it taking off a kilt worn in a pre-event photo opportunity - oh,the glamour. Brad Jones, who led Audi's Australian Super Touring program, was called in on Saturday morning, flying in from Albury to play super-sub.

McNish needed to turn 25 laps in the race to seal the drivers title, and after Jones drove the car in qualifying, he wasn't required in the race itself; the Scot completed his requirements in the first stint, and then got back in to finish the race.

"There was a lot of things going on in the lead-up," Horvath said.

"The problem with Allan's back, that's when Brad got drafted in at the last minute, he'd never seen the car, never driven it and it's pretty daunting.They're highperformance cars, scaled down Formula 1 cars with carbon brakes and lots of power.

"So he had to rock up,jump in somebody else's car around a street circuit with no run-off and do a laptime."

In the end,the Crocodile team romped home to win by 21 laps, but it was a longer day for the crew on the red car, which eventually finished 16th,some 55 laps behind after Pirro found the wall in the third hour.

"Our lead-up wasn't too bad," Horvath said.

"But we ended up having a fairly large crash in the race, Pirro crashed into the wall somewhere at the top end of the circuit, parked the car, walked back and said 'the car's undriveable'. We walked up to the spot and through a bit of communication realised'hang on, you can drive this thing'.

"He got back into the car and drove it back to the pits, we fixed it, got it back out and, with hindsight, if he had've come straight back to the pits in it, we could've fixed it and gotten home in third. But he said 'no, it's a mess'.

"For me, being a home race, we'd won some races during the year, I was hoping we could go out with a bang but it wasn't to be. Allan in the other car won,so Audi won the event which, was great." www.mnews.com.au

JUST how does an Australian team," Horvath explained. builder end up living in Europe, "We had Cambodians, Americans, occupying a senior role in one an Australian, a guy from Guatemala, of the world's most-successful and people from all over Europe,so sportscar programs? it was very international."

"A lot of people ask that and it's Accompanied by his wife and son, a long and strange story!" Horvath Horvath's trip to Bathurst to catch admits. up with some of his old colleagues was a rare visit to a racetrack now "Essentially, I went over to England that he's back in builder-mode. and through contacts and people I knew, I ended up in Germany, "I'm well and truly out of just working for a race team over motorsport,"hesaid. there. At the time there were a lot "I'm back to building houses, of Australian guys working on the that's where I came from, I got into team. motorsport and had an eight year "I got there, I was doing whatever, stint in it, then went back to my old I was working on the boss's house job. and helping out in the workshop, "I've got fond memories and doing whatever I could. It eventually that's the reason we came up this weekend, we wanted to see the led to working on the racecars.

"From there, I got a job with Joest people we worked with. Part of the reason I finished after the Adelaide and then we did the Opel Touring Car program,the race at Le Mans event was that I was getting married in Adelaide a week later and it was with Porsche, and then Audi at the end." time for a new chapter.in life."

While German was used in the -MITCHELL ADAM Joest workshop, English was the primary language on race weekends, given the addition of international drivers and suppliers. Even within the team, it was a very multicultural affair.

"I'm not sure if it was Joest or the J team I worked with beforehand, but atone stage while I was over there, we counted it and had 11 nationalities working

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who is in the firing line.The ultimate OU never forget your first time. benchmark for this as far as I can tell Is As a motorsport Journalist, the exchange between cyclist Lance you spend a lot of time in press Armstrong and a Journalist named Paul conferences and briefings. Most Kimmage. It's on YouTube. are forgotten as soon as they have been transcribed, but there is the occasional Finding yourself being roasted by someone of influence within the sport one that sticks out. Greg Murphy in front of all of your colleagues can be getting stuck into Marcos Ambrose in the Surfers Paradise press room a couple slightl^ disconcerting.(Some Journafists of weeks after their clash at Bathurst escape this by simply never asking questions, which makes you wonder in 2005 was a good one;even better why they're there in the first place). It was the McLaren media briefing at the has happened to me a handful of times, Hungaroring in 2007 after Fernando but the first - in fact,the first two - were Alonso shafted Lewis Hamilton in delivered by Jean Todt. qualifying.

The first one was at Monaco in 2007.

Hamilton didn't even turn up to start I'd heard that Todt had told some Italian with. Ron Dennis excused him on the and Spanish Journalists earlier in the grounds that he needed to cool down, and then went on to talk at great length . day that Ferrari had offered Michael Schumacher a management position about the great harmony within the team while Alonso sat next to him within the team once he stopped driving, but that the German had turned proving that it was indeed possible to it down. I simply wanted him to say the eat a pear with contempt. Aside from same thing in English. the pear, I don't remember Alonso Sounds innocuous, but it was enough contributing much to proceedings aside to send the Frenchman straight to from a shrug when a smiling Dennis maximum sputter. patted him on the back during his'team "Fiis answer was no!"Todt barked."Do harmony'speech. you know this word no? N!0!Give me Things got even better when a dictionary; perhaps I need to show it Hamilton cruised in Just after Dennis to you!" had gone off to see the stewards and, unaware that the assembled media had He did a similar thing to a colleague from a sister magazine to the one I already been told that he'd been too was working on. On that occasion, he pissed off to turn up any earlier, tried apparently said,"The answer is no! Do to explain his lateness by saying that he'd lost track of time while watching you need me to write it down?"My colleague thought for a moment,then the GP2 race.This went down poorly replied,'OK,then'and handed his with the British newspaper press in notebook.The ripped page with'NO! particular, and Hamilton immediately [signed], Jean Todt'remained pinned to found himself taking a battering for the wall in the office for ages. lying. Without Dennis there to restore The other Todt encounter was either order, and with Norbert Haug seemingly that same year or the following season, preoccupied with something of extreme this time at Magny-Cours.Todt had importance that had suddenly appeared pulled off the frankly awesome feat on his Blackberry, things escalated into of getting Michael Schumacher and a full-scale siege until a horrified Martin recently-retired French soccer star Whitmarsh appeared and brought Zinadine Zidane into one room for a things to a close. press conference to promote a spinal But while the odd'lively'press conference is a welcome diversion charity that he was involved with.The from the dozens of identical ones, only catch was that we weren't allowed to ask either sportsman any questions occasionally the barrels are flipped that didn't relate directly to the charity. the other way and it is the Journalist

Given that we all worked in the sporting sphere and therefore had no chance of convincing our editors that we needed to allocate space to a spinal charity story, literally no-one had any questions.So we all sat there, watching Todt become increasingly irritated, and Schumacher and Zidane looking increasingly bemused.Todt tried berating the journalists for not asking any questions, but didn't want anything to do with the repeated attempts to explain that if we could ask the pair about something vaguely relevant to what we wrote about, we could then try to shoehorn a charity reference into the story somewhere.

The stand-off lasted for several minutes before the whole thing was called off, and having spent 15 minutes sharing a room with two of the biggest sporting names on the planet, we all left and wrote precisely nothing about it.

Sharing encounters such as these might help you to understand why so many members of the press found it slightly disconcerting when Todt emerged from a relatively quiet first year-and-a-half as FIA president to go on what seemed like a charm offensive last month. In the wake of recent developments relating to the Bahrain Grand Prix, more than one hack has pondered whether the last month or so was an exercise in softening us all up before Todt threw the first real hand grenade of a presidency that previously was conspicuous mostly for the number of photo opportunities it creates for Michelle Yeoh.

At time of writing, the whole Bahrain situation still had a lot of playing out to be done.The popular perception that it is simply a question of money is an understandable one considering FI's reputation, but the reality is far,far more complex. It's going to be interesting to see what kind if information comes to light over the next few weeks, i don't like our chances of getting a press conference at the end of it - but if we did, we'd be in for an absolute belter.

My colleague handed over his notebook. The ripped page with 'NO![signed],Jean Todt'remained pinned to the wallin the office for ages.

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for whatever reason, it is not working.

OTORSPORTNEWSHamgoing When a team is in this situation ... and to stick out my neck to start there have been plenty of teams that have with and guess that these were been there, let's face it. People forget that not the results that you were when Triple Eight was first involved, man, looking for in 2011. they were nowhere - seriously nowhere.

RUSSELL INGALL: Well, since I got a full-time They took a while to come good. drive with Larry [Perkins] in 1996, it has Obviously, we were expecting a lot; they been my worst season by a long way. So, I [T8 Commodores]are competitive, race suppose you could say, no,that is not good. winning cars. We have good back-up from I have tried to go through my career Triple Eight and that is what we thought that with the view that, whatever happens, you we needed,to go from being a consistent cannot drop outside the top 10. 1 did that top 10 runner to winning races. It hasn't once with SBR and i ended up the season in happened; I could sit here and give you 11 th. Not great, but not a bad innings. pages of stuff why not. We have pages of But this one... it is something that i never debriefs, going'What is it?' expected, i never thought that i would be We had Greg Murphy come to this team this low in this championship mid-way through the year, it is pretty disappointing; it last year. It was the worst time of his life. He is shattering, up to a point. Even last year, we couidn't get on with the car, or everything around him. So, he goes to another team were knocking on the door of podiums. We and he is going alright! were running well inside the top half-dozen So we get Steve Owen - a driver who at the end of the year. came from the endurance races, last year, It is a bit of a shock considering the less than 12 months ago, out-qualifying all equipment that we have. We are supposed three ofTriple Eight's drivers at Phillip Island to be on the edge. and being on the podium in the biggest There is a lot of soul searching going on. races of the year. He steps into the[PMM]car We have to do something. I don't believe and he is nowhere - with me! that i am a back-runner. Neither do i want to We are looking at each other and going,'i be a back-runner.Things will have to change. don't know'.

We have to fix it, though. How are we What do you need to change? This is the going to fix it? it starts with our first test day team's second year with Triple Eight Race [Ed: June 1] which, apart from the official Engineering equipment - people would test day at Eastern Creek, is our first test have expected more from you last year, day of the year. That is probably a bit long and more again this year. coming. Having shunts with both cars at I don't know. It is one of those things where.

Adelaide didn't help. Having a fireball at Perth didn't help. So far, the job has been repairing cars - we have not been busy enough developing cars, i would not say that it is a comedy of errors, but it is a long list of things that just haven't been happening Is it that i just don't get aiong with the car? People say,'Jesus, why not?'Well, look at [Jamie] Whincup. He drives the car well. He knows just how to drive it. [Craig] Lowndes drives the car a lot harder, but he does it. But at the moment, I just can't gel with the car. ff w I remember back to the SBR days. When i first went to SBR i could not get out of my previous contract until the last day in December. So I couldn't test the car. I think ^\/

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that the first drive that i had in an SBR car was at the Grand Prix - in that year, it was the first race of the season - and i went out and won one of the races.[Marcos] Ambrose was in there and I thought,'Man, how good is this?'

Straight away, i just clicked with the car.

But for whatever reason, I am just not clicking with this car.That happens. You see drivers who are in situations, in certain teams and in certain cars, that they just struggle.Then they switch teams and, ail of a sudden,they are at the front. I don't know whether this is one of those situations.

We have six months to sort it out and turn it around - if we can turn it around.

The other thing that I wanted to mention is that the formats this season might otherwise fall into your hands.There are longer races on Sunday and that has often been your strength.

True. But the only thing we can do is to gear up for the enduros.That is the only facesaver we can look at.

We have done a lot in the background to make this happen. I have Jack Perkins with me this year - i had Jack in the car at Indy last year and he did a great job. He has a program built around him, and that was between myself and SuperCheap. I made the call on that, because I wanted a driver who can jump straight in my seat. We don't have any problems with the seat.

That has been a major problem in the last two years; Paul [Morris] has been quick enough but trying to stick a giant and a dwarf together doesn't work. Our pitstops were super-long, and in that we lost 10 positions, it was never going to work. Jack fits perfectly.

We needed him to have iaps in the cars, so we put together a deal with Sonic Motorsport. He is in a Triple Eight car - okay, it's a Triple Eight Falcon, but it's stiil a Triple Eight car. He is very confident and he is driving wherever the co-drivers can drive.

Phillip Island, Bathurst, that is what we are looking at.

Let me throw a question down on the top of that.You have never been noted,even by yourself, as the world's best qualifier.

True. nil

BUT FX)R WHATEVER REASON, I AM JOS'? NOT CUCKING WITH THIS CAR. THAT HAPPENS

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... and Jack did an excellent job qualifying at Phillip Island last year [Ed: Perkins qualified the #47 SBR Ford sixth]. Would you consider vacating the seat and letting Jack qualify the car at PI and Bathurst?

If he is on the numbers, absolutely. I have no issue,with that, no egos involved. I would be happy to stand there and watch.

One of the best experiences I had in endurance races in my life is when I stood there and watched Ambrose qualify the car when we were driving together. I thought that was bloody fantastic. I don't mind taking that step whatsoever.That would be fine for me - whatever is best for the car.

There is no way that he is starting and no way that he is finishing. No disrespect, but when it comes down to a dogfight, I would rather be in the car.That is something that we will be looking at. nil

Let me play Devil's Advocate here for a minute. Paul Morris Motorsport has been in V8 Supercar racing for a long time. So has Brad Jones Racing. BJR underwent some major changes and is now winning races.

PMM has won one V8 Supercar race in 10 years. Will it take a major turnaround like the Joneses made to get PMM on-track?

We were on the right track. It was only a couple of years ago that we were getting fairly regular podiums with PMM.To be quite honest,through a couple of, probably, errors team-wise, we would have probably won a couple of races along the way. I am sure that Brad would say the same thing.

It is just that they have got their act together, whereas we are still floundering a little bit. Where they made the gain, I think, is that they went along a steady track of progression and development with the same cars. I think that pays off in the long run. We have been jumping around from chassis to chassis each year.

I think that is what has killed us.

It is a moving target in this game. If you don't move with it, sometimes you get left behind.

But consistency, continuity of machinery is a good thing. You get to know it and develop gradually. Brad has ex-HRT cars but I think that[the team] has developed them better

than what HRT has. I think he has a tighter group of people around him.

We get a lot of curve balls thrown at us. All of a sudden, we are on different tyres. We go from hard tyres,to hard and soft tyres, to just soft tyres. I personally think that is not good.

Why they keep screwing around with tyres...

Commit to one or the other.

This joke that they have in Darwin [Ed; this conversation happened before the Hidden Valley round], with one set of soft tyres?

Just commit to something. It is absolutely ludicrous.

If they are going to commit to the soft tyre, let's do it. That way,at least teams can half get their head around the tyre and try to get a bit of consistency with the set-ups. It is costing the team even more, with money spent on engineering programs,simulations programs and so on,to try to get your head around 10 different compounds of tyre.This goes for the enduros as well.

The soft tyre has proven that it does shake things up; we saw that with Brighty at Winton.

It was an exciting race; if that was on'hards' it would have been the most boring race on earth. A couple of guys came through the field and there was some strategy in play late in the race. Look at Formula 1; at least that is a bit exciting now because there is a bit of deterioration in the tyres.

Let's just commit to it and go with it. At least that way, we know where we are.

Speaking of Winton, you made some points at the Friday press conference that I have not heard from your lips before, Russell.

Things like what would happen when you were not driving any more.You have never talked about that before.

No, I have tended to avoid it.

You need to look at the reality of it. Being a race driver is a funny deal; when you are younger, you go through a stage where it is all you think about.You never think about when you are going to stop because it is too far over the horizon. It never even comes on your radar. You cruise along, you only think of your next race - maybe you think about who you are going to race for next year.That is six months down the road.

As things go on, you start to think about what is going to happen next year - have I

IT W,\S OINLY A COUPLE OF YEARS AGO THAT WE WERE GETTING FAIRLY REGULAR PODIUMS WITH PMM. THROUGH A COUPLE OF ERRORS TEAM WISE, WE SHOULD HAVE WON A COUPLE OF RACES ALONG THE WAY a

24

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>1

still got the passion for it? Do I still want to push it that extra bit? Sometimes, I go away from a meeting and think,'I don't know how much I am enjoying this'. Other times, I actually, really enjoy myself. I am running on that fine line at the minute.

But what I want to do is to make sure that I don't pull the pin too early. Look at someone like Skaifey, for instance. I am sure that if you look into his eyes, he wishes that he'd gone on for a little bit longer. I don't want to have that regret. I want to make sure that I am completely done.

People say,'You have won a couple of www.mnews.com.au

Bathursts and a championship, so you have achieved everything'. You always set yourself new goals and I just want to be sure that I have it absolutely clear in my head.The next year will confirm that.

On the other side of it, I do not want to go out on a year like I have had this year. I don't think I deserve that and I would be very disappointed if I went out this way. I would rather go out a winning way and that is what is in my head. I have a new drive - it is to make sure that if I do pull the pin at the end of next year, I go out on a high. Going out on a low would play on me for a long time

to come. I might be forced into that position but I am doing everything in my power to make sure that does not happen.

The world has changed and the landscape of motor racing has changed. Drivers like Mark Skaife and Cam McConville have shown that you can step out of a full-time seat and get a front-line endurance role.

Would taking on a program like that satisfy you?

Ummm ...[Long pause] Yes, I could probably do it. But I would not do it for the hell of it. I would do it like Skaife 25

■^.11

has done it - with a team that was

capable of winning. I would get plenty of satisfaction out of that, still, I think. No doubt,that is going to be a heavy option, when the full-time gig stops, of doing that for a couple more years.

One would think that as an endurance driver, you would be an attractive proposition to some front-running teams.

I would like to think so! They are run at a couple of my strongest places, especially Bathurst.

One thing; I rarely bring back a car scuffed.

And I am sure that you will point out Russell that you were born in England so, technically, you could be eligible for the Gold Coast 600.

That is true! I could be an overseas driver...

I have been adopted as a resident of Ipswich, so I am not sure that qualifies me.

I am sure that Ipswich has at least one sister city somewhere in the world.

True! But it depends on what opportunities come up in between.

If it was a year down the road, with what is happening at HRT at the moment, I might be down there putting my hand up for that.

I reckon that I could knock that joint into shape pretty quick.

Who knows? It depends on when things finally come to an end. I think that managing a team would be very fulfilling. But on the other side, I would very much like to be involved in the media side of it. I think that is a bit of fun as well.

As much as I don't like comparing myself to Skaifey, I am sure that he went through the same sort of process. He is trying to do a

bit of everything which, I tliink, can run you a

to tell you. But that was one of those deals

bit thin. But he has always done that...

where I wanted more involvement. I wanted more control in how I went racing and more

Looking back, what do you wish you hadn't done?

of a say in how I went racing. And Paul gave me that opportunity.

It probably changed a little bit, with the way that it is structured now.With the alliance with Triple Eight, that probably went out of it. Maybe that is where it has not worked so well. That's a tough one.

Geez ...That is a tough one. I sure don't want to sound disrespectful to people who have helped my career along the way. People make bad judgements in every part of motorsport.

When I was in Europe I made a couple of bad decisions, and they cost me a longer future there. That was a matter of picking the wrong team or the wrong country.

I think that I stayed with Larry too long. LP helped me out a lot - he gave me my start in V8 Supercars -1 should have tried harder, probably, to try to get into the top team then - and that was HRT.They had the best tyres, the best power, the best funding, the best of everything. Larry and his team did a great job with what they had but HRT had more money, and it was as simple as that.

I honestly believe I would have won more titles had I been there [at HRT]. I was four times the runner-up and three of those were against Lowndes in an HRT car. A couple of them came down to the last round and I honestly believe that, in an HRT car, I could have beaten him.

Going to SBR was a good decision. That got me a championship.

I won't say I have made bad decisions in V8s. On the flipside, I learned a lot more off Larry than 1 would have learned being with another team. I learned a lot more about life, the mechanics of how the sport works, and that has all helped me later in life. So, yes, it was a drawback in one way and on the other side, a positive, it balances out; that's life.

The PMM one was a longshot, I have got

You mentioned that you might like managing a team. Would you like owning one?There could be some changes on the ownership landscape coming up.

That could be an option.The thing is, coming from the background I do, running my own Formula Ford teams, racing for different teams in Europe and here, you pick up a lot.

Apart from the guys who have been around for years and who know the game the Brad Joneses, for instance - a few people who run the teams, and some pretty major ones, to me, have no idea. They come from a desk job, they have not come from the real world of motor racing, i think that very few people come from that world and you have got to see every different aspect of how a team works. You need to have a broad view on where to go and how to do it. I have seen plenty of ways of how not to do it but also plenty of ways of how to do it.

It is on the drawing board, for sure. I cannot discount anything because I think that I woulkd get a lot of enjoyment out of it, watching a car that I owned win a race. Don't cross that off the board.

The other question is this; it's an obvious comparison to make between you nil and Skaife. He has gone into what I

I HONESTLY BELIEVE I WOULD HAVE WON MORE TITLES H AD I BEEN AT HRT IK 0 Throw Out Bearings Pedal Assemblies

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27

might describe as the business and political side of motor racing. Any interest?

The thing is, with me... I think,there are a lot of things done in the sport, commercially, that are good. And then there are things, and I put my hand up on this, that I do not understand - how to deal with government officials, and councils, and to get street races up.Tony Cochrane and Shane Howard and their team do a bloody good job. I do not understand that area. I can talk to them, or talk to the Prime Minister of Australia. But to deal with them in a professional capacity, that takes someone who knows what they are doing That is not me.

But the racing side of it, where we go next, what we do for more entertaining racing, safer racing, how we entertain the fans, that is the top priority, what gives the fans bang for their buck.That is something that I am good at.

I am no good at kissing butts. I don't do that just to get a gig. I like someone to approach me on merit. Motorsport breeds a lot of butt-kissers but when it comes to racing, I know what I am talking about.

If the new investors into our sport are reading this, give me a call one day - so long as you don't want your butts kissed! nil

Your deal with PMM is this year, right?

Everything is up at the end of this yearPMM,SuperCheap and Holden. All parties.

It's all on the board. SuperCheap will be making their decision in the next eight weeks, Holden I haven't spoken to yet, but I expect to. It is their decision.

Anything you have wanted to done, like events, and haven't? What other events would you like to do?

I see Lowndesy is beavering his way overseas, trying to get a deal going.There are a couple.

Probably, America attracts me more than Europe. I have a big liking for it, and I want to talk to Marcos about that.

One thing that is on the radar ius probably to do a Nationwide race on a road course. I am going to beg, borrow or steal the funding to do a race over there.That is on the Bucket List, for sure. I don't know how it is going to happen but it is going to happen.There is no way I am going to tackle an oval - I am not that stupid.

In between that, I would probably go over and do a couple of ARCA races along the way. I would like to do a couple of races in American Sportscars, I am going to talk to [Jan] Magnussen to see what the story is over there. I think that America is more achievable, to do those things, than some other places.

Finally; if Rule number 2 is'Don't Cut Corners!', what is Rule number 1?

Oh yeah ... I did not think of that.

Maybe Rule number 1 is to keep me in a job!

28

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FUJITSU Series graduate's move up to the V8 Supercar Championship Series is a big one on many levels. It's a whole different level of competition,there's the pressure of doing enough to make sure you stay in the Main Game and additional off-track responsibilities. All on top of, in most cases, getting to know a new team and car.

But within it, there is an upside. When it comes to getting up to speed and comfortabie in your new surrounds in motorsport,there's no substitute for competitive miles. And in his maiden Main Game season, James Moffat is getting plenty of them...

"It's good racing every second or third weekend, as opposed to the Fujitsu Series, where you can have 10,11 or 12 week breaks between races," he said oftheVB schedule, over the seven rounds of the Fujitsu Series.

"I reckon I've already done probably more miles than I would've done in a full year of the Fujitsu Series. From that point of view. I'm enjoying being in the cars more regularly and I feel like that's helping my driving and development."

Even with its current schedule, the Fujitsu Series is a great training ground for youngsters looking to cut their teeth, but it's no match for actually running in the main show. After a two-year apprenticeship, finishing second in 2009 and third in 2010, Moffat is the latest driver to step up, scoring a Main Game ride with Dick Johnson Racing.

"The Fujitsu Series obviously serves a really good purpose in allowing young guys to get to know the cars, and especially last year when they went to the sequential gearbox and stuff like that," Moffat said.

"The cars can be very similar, if not identical, to the Main Series cars. From that point of view, it's good, because you can get to understand how to get the most out of the car, but for me the biggest shock, not so much shock, but the biggest difference is the amount of time you're spending in the cars.

"Obviously when you're racing every second or third week, you stay a lot sharper, but it's also the length of races. I think if the Fujitsu Series could somehow come up with a way where they had maybe two races over a weekend and maybe slightly longer, that's going to be better for the development of young guys rather than three 15-lappers.

"Because, let's face it, the shortest races we do [in the Main Game] are 120 kays, for instance that's 40 laps around Winton, whereas last year in DVS we might've had a 20-lapper in the third race [at Winton], But that's only just a stint, if you like.

"And the thing is there, in the Fujitsu Series, you can go as hard from the first lap motorsport news

the biggest difference in the racing itself." to the last lap, where you're still going hard Even without Sprint tyres, it's a giant leap in the Main Series, but you've got to look into the Main Game. It's one of the most after your tyres." controlled and competitive categories The tyre equation has become more in the world, even beyond the usual complicated of late with Dunlop's Sprint statistics of'a second covering the field tyre. It's now used most weekends in a in qualifying at Barbagallo'. On a bad day variety of formats, ranging from one set for one of the races, to weekends where all - and they don't even need to be that far off - experienced drivers with top teams qualifying and racing is done on the tyre. can still find themselves buried in the pack With the Fujitsu Series the sole domain in qualifying. Witness James Courtney of he original compound, Moffat's a qualifying six-tenths from pole at Winton, newcomer to the Sprint Tyre.

HRT's test track, and ending up 20th on the "Abu Dhabi was my first experience on the grid. And it doesn't get any easier in the Sprint Tyre," he said. races.

"For me,there, it was difficult to feel the "I guess the biggest thing has been that difference in the tyre grip, because all in the Eujitsu Series, you could be half a we ran on were the soft tyres; it probably wasn't until the Grand Prix where, obviously, second off pole and still qualify on the second row, comfortably," Moffat said. we had the hard tyre and the soft tyre "Erom that point on in the weekend, you through the races where you really notice can still race at the front, but, as you know, the difference in the tyre. if you're half a second off in the Main Series, "It's a tyre that gives you amazing grip for you're likely to be anywhere from 15th two or three laps, more if you're lucky, but to 20th.The competition's so close, and then the way it degrades is quite tricky to so competitive these days that it's.very manage. It's one of those things that when difficult to move forward in the races unless you come in during the race and put a fresh you have a lot more car speed than those set on, you feel mega for two or three laps around you. because you've got all of this grip, but then "Everybody's in good equipment, it's not it quickly goes away again. So it's almost a like four or so years ago where there were matter of holding yourself back a bit at the genuine privateers with lesser equipment, start of a stint to get the most out of a tyre over the course of a stint. That's probably you just have to walk up and down pitlane

and everybody's got top-line equipment.

"The intensity is a big step up, which it should be. Clearly this is the top level of motorsport in Australia. You've got to try and race hard and fair. I think there are probably guys out there who will try to push you around and beat you up if they can, when you come in, and sometimes you've got to try and stand your ground and say you're not going to cop that.

"I've sort of already found out that there are certain guys you can race hard and fair, and other guys that you can't. You just have to know who you're racing against. It seems a few of the older boys are pretty good at racing you hard but fair and that's just the way it is."

Life as a V8 Supercar rookie is a tough gig. Some drivers take to it better than others, namely David Reynolds in 2009 and Jonathon Webb in 2010, but it can often be a slog. Avoiding the last row of the grid is a task in itself, let alone making further progress towards the teens and Top 10.

But so far, Moffat has been doing just fine. He's already qualified inside the Top 10, with ninth at Barbagallo. Even when he's qualified in the 20s, he's generally made ground to finish inside the teens, as well as a pair of Top 10 finishes from the first 11 races of the season. One saw him keep his head and finish nil

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33

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ninth in dire conditions on Saturday at Hamilton, while he was ninth again in Winton's Sunday race, right behind team-mate Steven Johnson.

"It's been a bit up and down," he explains.

"Hamilton was really good for us, we made quite a bit of progress there,finished inside the Top 10 in the Saturday race there in the wet, which gave me a lot of confidence,to know that I can get through a race like that in arguably tricky conditions and get a result out of it. That was good for the confidence.

"Probably up until that point, the qualifying speed hadn't been good enough, but then at Perth it felt like we made a big step in terms of qualifying speed and getting the most out of the car, and I qualified inside the Top 10 on Saturday. Obviously I botched the start up and that killed me for the race and on the Sunday, we learnt a bit with the soft tyre, and we weren't very good in the races in terms of tyre life and things like that.

"AtWinton, we struggled with a bit of a braking issue early in the weekend,then had some dramas on Saturday, but on Sunday we had good speed and consistency and I was able to get into the Top 10."

The signs have been there, and it's progress Moffat wants to continue throughout the rest of the year. But he knows it's a long road for any rookie in the championship, regardless of their pedigree.

"I guess you're never satisfied unless you're winning, that's what we're all here to do, but realistically. Top 20 performances are

probably what we're aiming for, and Top 15, hopefully, later in the year a bit more consistently," he said, "'ibu always want more, but at the same time you've got to be realistic about what you can achieve.

"It's clearly a learning year for me in many ways. My engineer. Perry [Kapper], it's his first year engineering a car as well, so we're learning together, but I feel we're starting to work pretty well together. He's starting to understand more about what I want out of the car, how my feedback is and all of that sort of stuff.

"You always want more, but the championship's incredibly tough.There haven't been too many people over the last five or six years who have come in and been competitive straight away.

"Really, the last bloke to do that was [Marcos] Ambrose. I even look at someone like [James] Courtney, and it took him five or six years to win the championship, but I remember his first year... and he's obviously a highly credentialed driver."

Externally, expectations in some cases are higher than many other rookies would face, given that Moffat has slotted into the Jim Beam Racing Falcon used by Courtney to win the 2010 title. But DJR circa-2011 is a very different team, with the muchpublicised shake-up and departures over the second half of 2010 and the off-season.

A range of new faces have come in, including new team manager Malcolm

Swetnam.The Englishman brings a vast range of experience from racing in Europe,including the British Touring Car Championship, Formula 3, A1 Grand Prix and, most recently, Ferrarl's sportscar programs.

Team-mate Steven Johnson, in his 13th fulltime season,and has been a key resource for Moffat.

"Stevie J's a great team-mate, all I have to do is ask a question, and he's always happy to help me out with the answers or give me advice.That's making the learning curve a bit easier," Moffat says.

"In many ways, it's a rebuilding year for the team, and the team themselves have said that.They've been great in that not expecting too much of me,they're realistic as well, and know that you don't just come into this championship any more and blaze straight away. Dick's a fighter, he's proven that over 30 years, and we're probably not the biggest team in pitlane, but the group of guys we've got, are fantastic, I can't thank them enough for the support they've given me so far this year.

"Getting Malcolm on board has been a huge positive for the team. He'll probably be the first to admit that it's taken him a few rounds to sort of find his feet and understand the championship, but once he's fully comfortable with how the championship operates, he's going to be fantastic. He's already been fantastic for the team, but I can only see us going III! from strength to strength.'

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RORT .OOM.AU 35

Moffat made his Main Game debut last year in the enduros with Ford Performance Racing. A gig with the factory Ford squad,30 years after his famous father Allan grabbed his first Bathurst win was the stuff marketing dreams are made of. In what looked to be the start of a long-term relationship, Moffat was picked up by FPR in 2010, running in the Fujitsu Series and at Phillip Island and Bathurst with Steven Richards.The Fujitsu Series campaign itself had its difficulties, but that was nothing compared to Moffat's Main Game debut in the L&H Phillip Island 500.

Put simply, it was a nightmare. An off in his qualifying session was followed by an opening-lap incident in' his Sprint Race.

Richards'Sprint Race result meant they lined up 10th on the grid for the 500km race, but Moffat failed to get away when the lights went green,setting the tone for a long afternoon.They eventually finished 21 st.

"It was definitely not the debut in the Main Game that I was hoping for," he said.

"It was a difficult weekend for me. I let the team that I was driving for down and Richo at the same time, which I was disappointed with. Looking back at it, it was probably a combination of a few things that were going on at that time, I probably wasn't in the right situation.

"It didn't feel like I was getting the full support of the people around me that, perhaps, I needed,and at the end of the day I made some mistakes that weren't III!

acceptable and paid the price for it." .

The pair moved on and finished 11th in Moffat's Bathurst debut the foliowing month. While he describes it as far from an ideal race, as FPR's other car with Mark Winterbottom and LukeYoulden got the pick of the strategy, he's full of praise for Richards.

"We had a pretty compromised strategy, obviously the other car on the team qualified pretty well and was a good chance for the race but things didn't turn out their way," he explained.

"Our strategy, I feel, was compromised, which probably hurt us from getting a Top 10, which would've been nice considering it was my debut up there.

"But I know Richo and I drove as hard as we could all day. We didn't have a car that was good enough to contend for the win or a podium, but if the strategy had've been a little bit different, we could've been in the Top 10. Having said that, it doesn't really matter now.

"It was pretty special for me to get up there and finally race in the big race, but it was probably a bit more special to do it with Richo as well. He's obviously won the race a couple of times and it was a pretty tough Phillip Island for me,and it would've been pretty easy for him to not really help me out, but that's the complete opposite.

"He was really great and helped me through the weekend, really helped me look at it for what it was and try to enjoy the race

for what it is and not worry too much about ail of the pressure that is associated with it."

This October, Moffat will head to Bathurst as the lead driver in #18, partnered by Kiwi Matt Halliday, who'll make his seventh'1000 start. As a Moffat, and driving for DJR, he'll still be in the spotlight, but with a little bit less of the attention and pressure that accompanied his debut.

"Definitely, it is good in a way to have the 'first'out of the way," he admits.

"But having said that, this year, going up there driving for Dick is probably going to be a pretty big deal in itself. It was certainly a pretty big deal driving for the factory Ford team last year.

"I'm just glad that I've got them out of the way now,I've done my first Bathurst and I'm going there this year knowing a bit more what to expect. Clearly that's our grand final in terms of races, and I know that it meant a lot to Dad and it didn't take too long for me to realise why it meant so much to him. It's a race that I'd dearly love to win,and we'll obviously be putting everything into it.

"Probably this year it's going to be a pretty tall order to expect that sort of order, but I think if we get everything right and have a good day and things go our way,there's no reason why we can't finish in the Top 10.

"Matt's got plenty of experience up there.

I'm sure he'll do a good job and we'll just see.

It's one of those races that it's pretty hard to predict, but we'll be giving it our all and trying to make the most of it, anyway."

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Heikki Kovalainen has driven race-winning Formula 1 cars before, but these days, his focus is on helping Team Lotus go from Grand Prix minnows to a proper racing team.

MATT COCH spoke to the Finn

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E’S the latest Flying Finn,the most recent in a seemingly endless string of Finnish drivers to ply their craft at the pinnacle of world motorsport. His blonde hair, blue eyes and cropped English are typical of his countrymen; it could be Kimi Raikkonen, Mika Hakkinen or even Keke Rosberg (if he ever decided to grow a moustache) I'm speaking to.

But it's none of them. It's Heikki Kovalainen "Motorsport is very popular in Finiand/'expiains Heikki Kovalainen, as he tries to unravel the mystery as to why his country has continued to produce so many top line drivers.

"As a young kid you're always being influenced by motorsport, or by the drivers. In the press you always see them;they're always on TV or in the papers.

Drivers are like heroes."

But Formula 1 isn't king in Finland. While the country has three Formula 1 World Champions, who among them have notched up four FI titles, in World Rallying the country can boast a staggering seven World Champions totalling 14 titles.

Rally is big business in Scandinavia.The snowy roads are conducive to fast men in fast cars performing lurid acts behind the wheel. It naturally captures the attention of the adrenalin seeking Finnish youth, and Kovalainen was no exception.

"I was following rallying very, very closely, and following Juha Kankkunen andTommi Makkinen and all those guys very closely - probably initially more closely than any Formula 1 teams," he recalls.

Kovalainen's attention was turned from rallying to circuit racing thanks to the arrival of Hakkinen. Making his debut for Lotus in 1991, Hakkinen really hit the headlines in 1998 when he became the second Finnish driver to win a Grand Prix, before going on to win that year's title, the first of two championships for McLaren.

"When Hakkinen joined McLaren then he was the motorsport news

1

number one driver in Finland," Kovalainen remembers.

Yet while Hakkinen Inspired a nation, Kovalainen was busying himself with his own career.

"When I was growing up, and when I realised I had a chance in Formula 1, then I focussed on myself in order to make my own career. I tried to find the best way for me,and do it my own way.

His steely self-belief, perhaps bordering on arrogance, served him well as he progressed through the junior ranks.

Finishing second to Nico Rosberg during the inaugural GP2 season in 2005 resulted In the lead testing role at reigning World Champions Renault, after two years as the team's second tester. The following year he landed a race seat after Fernando Alonso, having won consecutive championships with the team, made his infamous move to McLaren.

A strong, if unspectacular, season followed, a string www.mnew/s.com.au

of points finishes helping to solidify his place on the grid, however, not within the team. At the end of the year he was dumped in favour of the returning Alonso, who'd fallen out with Lewis Flamilton and McLaren. Swapping seats with the Spaniard, Kovalainen moved to McLaren and enjoyed his most successful season in Formula 1 to date, winning the Flungarian Grand Prix.

A less competitive car the following season saw his performances suffer by comparison to team-mate Flamilton. Finishing a lowly 12th In the championship, and failing to make a podium appearance throughout the 2009 season, was not the result McLaren had expected. With Jenson Button available following his championship success with Brawn, Kovalainen never stood a chance of retaining his drive with the Woking-based team.

"To be honest it wasn't a surprise," he says of his

departure from McLaren."I was there but it didn't work out for me in terms of results."

After three years in the sport, a race win,fastest laps and pole positions, Kovalainen was unemployed and faced with a bleak driver market. With the top teams sporting a full complement of drivers, there simply wasn't a competitive seat available for 2010, the Finn left with a choice between signing for one of the brand new teams for the following season or being relegated to a test and reserve driver. He signed with the new Lotus Racing team, and while publicly he says the move was a positive change for his career, and perhaps to a degree it was, in truth he had little option if he was to remain in Formula 1. A readjusting of his expectations was therefore needed. Gone were the race winning opportunities he'd enjoyed, and he instead faced the uninspiring prospect of circulating at the rear of the field.

"1 felt that I needed a change," he says.

"In the middle of my career I decided to go back to the starting point and start again.

"When I made the switch I knew what to expect, and that the bar had to be reset. Of course everyone wants to fight for the victories and the pole positions. That's not a possibility but at the same time we continue to work towards those targets.

"We're a very professional team like McLaren, like Ferrari, like any of the teams," he continues.

"We go to the races and attack the race weekend as any other top team.That hasn't actually been a big change for me. I can work with the team pretty much the same way as I worked with McLaren, and use the experience that I learnt there.

In that sense, it's been an easy landing for me."

His experience, combined with that of team-mate Jarno Trulli, has largely been

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Where fellow newcomers Hispania and Virgin elected for relatively inexperienced driver line-ups, Lotus Racing opted for proven quantities as it looked to establish itself in Grand Prix racing.

The team was busy off the track too, trying to carve its own niche into the woodwork of Formula 1. At the Singapore Grand Prix last year, team boss Tony Fernandes held a press conference to announce plans to rebrand the outfit in the image ofTeam Lotus, the team once headed by the late Colin Chapman, which made World Champions of Jim Clark, Graham Flill, Emerson Fittipaldi, Jochen Rindt and Mario Andretti. In 2010 Fernandes' team had operated under a license from Lotus Group, however during the year it had purchased the remnants of the Lotus Formula 1 team, which had last raced in 1994.

42

Changing its name over the winter break, Kovalainen's team transformed itself from Lotus Racing to Team Lotus.

The move sparked fierce arguments between the team and Lotus Group over the use of the Lotus name, eventually ending up in front of the Fligh Court in London. To add fuel to the fire, Lotus Group inked a sponsorship deal with Renault, creating a confusing situation where two separate teams carry the Lotus banner.

Yet while his team tries to draw similarities with the Team Lotus of years gone by, Kovalainen believes his squad has to forge its own path in Formula 1, and not rely on the legacy the team name carries.

"The name is a very successful brand, and a lot of people associate us with a former champion team. It's been a long time since the name Lotus was present in Formula 1, so I think it's a totally new thing and we have a great opportunity to

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make our own mark here in Formula 1.

"I think people follow us more and more because of how we do things, rather than just because of the name. We're a passionate Formula 1 team, we are professional and our plan is to move forward with every Grand Prix. That's what's impressing our fans, rather than record books."

For now all has gone quiet on the naming arguments and the two teams - Team Lotus and Lotus Renault - go about the business of racing. But, just perhaps, the saga has inspired the team to chase Renault with more tenacity than some of its other rivals.

"Any other team is our rival," Kovalainen scoffs.

"Although the team has had an issue with [Renault] we're professional enough to put it behind us and move on. We're knocking on the door in to Qualifying 2, we're knocking on the door of the established

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teams, which is our target. At the moment Red Bull is the benchmark, and we need to target them.

"Everyone's motivated and believes that we're making a step forward. Clearly we've made a bigger step forward than the other new teams, clearly pulling away from them.

We want to get better, we just have to raise the bar as we go.

I think everyone in the team should be very pleased with our progress.

"It's very clear that Virgin and Hispania are no longer a big threat for us. We don't need to worry about who's behind us, we can clearly focus on whose ahead.

"There's not just the one team, or the one car, that is our target.

It's the middle of the group. It's three or four different teams.

Once you join that group you can suddenly, rather than being 16th or 17th, you can be 11 th or 12th in qualifying. It just shows and proves that the middle group is very, very tight." motorsport news

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The middle group, as Kovalainen calls it, consists of Williams, Force India, Toro Rosso and Sauber; eight cars in all, which can be the difference between a points paying result or finishing at the back of the field.

"We've been in to Qualifying 2 already this year in Barcelona, and we want to repeat that every weekend," he continues.

"It's very, very close up to the points. Even a small difference can make a big difference in starting position."

Grid position is critical for Lotus, the team not enjoying the advantage of KERS like those around them.

"Without KERS we need to start as high as possible to have the best chance of making up places. Our race pace is good and we can fight once we're into the race, but off the start line we are at a disadvantage to the cars ahead with KERS." Start line struggles aside much of the upturn in the teams www.mnews.com.au

performances this season can be tracked to the technical changes made towards the end of 2010.

Swapping Cosworth power for Renault this season, the team also signed a deal with Red Bull to use its gearbox technology, albeit technology from 2009.

Added to those changes is the presence of Mike Gascoyne, a hugely talented designer who's been responsible for cars at Sauber, Jordan, Benetton, Toyota and Eorce India.

"I didn't know him that well before I joined the team," says Kovalainen of his technical director.

"I'd heard a lot of rumours," he adds with a nervous laugh.

"He's a very straightforward kind of guy, and he works very well with me. Generally in Einland we prefer people who are very forward and straight to the point. I've enjoyed every race so far working with Mike, and I think we work very well together. I think we understand each other very well; I know

what I need to do, and what I can do, and vice versa. We have good respect for each other and 100 percent trust."

Now, it's time to turn all the trust, desire and bold claims into that elusive first points finish.

"It should be a big milestone for the team," he says.

"We should be very happy about it, however we're not going to be satisfied for very long. We have to lift the bar pretty quickly again and target other things. I'm not obsessed with the points. I'm more interested in how the team is evolving, and how the team is making progress.

"It's better than I could even imagine," he responds when asked if he's happy with where the team is right now.

"I'm very happy with my performance this year, with my own position, about the way that I work with the people and how the people work with me. I think it's been good. I feel that I'm doing a better job now

than I've ever done, and it's just frustrating that you don't see it as race wins or pole positions yet, but I'm very confident of the situation."

His choice or words is intriguing, suggesting that while the team isn't there just yet, he remains convinced that he can he lead it to where it needs to be, a bullish trait reminiscent of the attitude he'd adopted to get to Eormula 1 in the first place.

His attitude is underlined by his commitment to the team, dismissing the notion that he'd leave if a better offer arrived.

"I have no reason to think anything else, or give any thought to anything else. I'm very happy here. As long as the team keeps improving, keeps progressing the way that I think it should do, and realistically it can do, I think that's enough for the moment for me.

"Eor the moment I'm fully committed to Team Lotus."

43

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0 i_J Indoor activities: The weather-affected practice sessions gave drivers like Scott Dixon and Dario Franchitti plenty of time to rehearse their press patter, above. The Scot climbed into the Target car to qualify, below, but by the time he got to the flag, he was out offuel...

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NE thought is in my mind when 1 arrive at the motel; if I wanted rain, I could have stayed in Melbourne and saved myself the 30-hour plane trip.

But 1 am not in Melbourne;this is Indianapolis, home to almost a million people,some of the best universities in the United States, the Indiana Colts NFL team and next year's Superbowl. But in the month of May,the city is all about the biggest motor racing event in the world,the Indianapolis 500.

I have never been here before but I am lucky; I have a mate who knows the place fairly well. Somehow,since Dario Franchitti left his birthplace ofWest Lothian, Scotland, he has developed into one of the best oval track racers in the world. Eleven years ago, while he was with Team Kool Green, it looked for a bit like I might be the team's PR man. I wasn't but for five years, I helped on out that side when the team was down under, and we have developed a friendship.To the point that, after staying in the country after racing in last year's Gold Coast 600 V8 Supercar races, he laid down the gauntlet; I had to be at the 100th anniversary Indy 500, or else.

So, I am. And Dario has brought on damned Scottish weather.

Arriving at Indianapolis airport is like setting down in Franchittiville, Indiana.There are giant billboards of him everywhere; other drivers too, but it's clear who's the favorite.

Soon, my ride - a silver Honda CR-V, with Dario's dad, George, at the wheel - arrives at the motel.

I ask how the month's been so far.

"Well the weather's been shite and Dario's not had a lot of track time".

I ask about the fuel episode in qualifying, in which both Franchitti and Scott Dixon ran short of fuel at the end of their four-lap qualifying runs, and receive only a silent raised eyebrow in response.

"How's the golf game?" I counter.(George is a very keen, low handicap player.)

"No bad, but it's been raining most of the month,and too bloody wet to get many games in," he laughs.

And this is from a Scotsman!

It takes 20 minutes to arrive at the track.

The entrance is like every other part of the track; staggeringly impressive, particularly for a first-timer. Later, Dario gives his thoughts on driving into the Speedway.

"Driving under the tunnel for the first motorsport news

Red Red Ready: The Gansassi crew stands nervously around Franchitti's Dallara as the ceremonies for the centenary Indy 500 go on around them.

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time each year, I see the museum and the manicured lawns, and it always gives me a buzz," he says.

"To see the track and the silence of the empty grandstands for the first time is also a very special to me and I usually stop for a moment,get out of the car just to soak it all in. I look across atTurn 1 and think about race day."

Set up in two neat rows are the motorhomes of all the drivers and many team owners. It's the world's smallest and most exclusive suburb, with each plot of real estate occupied by a million-dollar plus motorhome. Dario's luxurious Newell motorhome sits in the middle of the right hand row, both its sides expanded outwards to double its width.There's not a sticker or logo In sight; privacy is the key.The only hint to who is inside is the Acura TL parked outside.

Dario soon emerges,in a fresh Target Ganassi racesuit, and comes over and hugs me.

"You made it then," he grins."Bloody good to see you mate. So glad you could make it."

"Mate, I wouldn't have missed this for the world. Where are your pooches?"

Out comes the cell phone. As proud as any dad, Franchitti shows me pics of the family dogs. Buttermilk and Shaggy, curled up on the back seat. But that's not a Honda back seat, or even one in an Acura; it's the private jet he uses from time to time. Yes, you could say that racing has been good to Dario Franchitti ...

We all pile into his golf cart and head to the Ganassi team garage. We briefly stop on the www.mnews.com.au

way and he is inundated by fans. He happily signs autographs and smiles for photos. One shows him series of photos from a previous race and immediately a friendly discussion ensues with Dario recounting the race. Dario thanks them, adds his signature to them and we continue on our way.

What was meant to be a two-minute stop took 10 and I couldn't help but think the way Dario interacts with the fans is very much like the late Peter Brock.The people just love him.

We head into the garage where Dario goes straight to his boys, greeting every one of them with a smile, a pat on the back or a high five. He then spends time with his crewchief Kevin, before wandering to the front of the garage to sign some more autographs.

Shortly after,'Dixie', Dixon, arrives and they share a laugh together. Dario introduces me to some of his Ganassi boys, and I leave him there so he can get on with business.

The next time I see Dario, he is tightly strapped into his #10 Team Ganassi Target Racing Dallara Honda, sitting on pitlane waiting for the green light to flick on, signaling the start of the one hour Garb day session; the last before Sunday's race. Every lap is vital; Indiana's fickle autumn weather, featuring torrential rain and unseasonably cold temperatures, interspersed with nearby tornados, have cost the teams precious set up time. Most are left with little meaningful data to analyse, so this one-hour session is very intense and critical to Sunday's race.

At each stop the crew go to work, making minute adjustments while Dario confers with them via radio and the international language of hand gestures race drivers use

to describe a car's behavior.The session ends with Franchitti third fastest.

"We need to find more speed mate," he says to me after debriefing with his engineers.

"But Sunday's weather will be warmer with higher grip levels," I helpfully suggest.

"Speed is still speed," he says."Let's go."

We golf cart; him driving, me sledging. I ask if he can handle the power, and the reply is something along the lines of"Foxtrot Oscar"...

From where I stood in pit lane for the first time,two things struck me about the Speedway, other than the blinding speed of the cars. One, how low the pitwall is, {just above knee height) and two, how narrow the track is. After seven 500 starts, two of which have ended in Victory Lane, Dario has his insights.

"It's a two and a half mile rectangle with four turns, which doesn't sound difficult," he explains,"but when the wind blows across the track or along the straights, it totally changes. It's so bloody hard to nail it."

Next comes the Pitstop Challenge.

Franchitti's crew makes the final, but loses to ... Penske's'Briscoe'crew. We retreat to the motorhome but he is called back to the garage for an engineering meeting, which drags on well into the evening.

The next time we catch up is when he is sitting on the back of a convertible Chevy Camaro in the drivers' parade the following day.

Indianapolis sure knows how to throw a street parade, with over 100,000 people attending. Like everything 47

Full House: Alex Tagliani leads n the field away from ~ pole position on the formation lap.

5 Dixon is next to him; Franchitti is onthe outside ofRow 3.

The red cars dominated much ofthe race. Below, Franchitti gets sticker tyres while Dixon pits around him. Later in the race, the team put ^ its two drivers on different strategies.

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larger than life. After the marching bands, baton twirlers,jugglers and police motorcycle precision riding teams, city dignitaries and Brickyard legends from bygone eras, the 33 starters for this year's race are slowly driven through the streets in starting order in rows of three from row 11 forwards. He spends time with his fans, many of them Scots who have flown in for the race. and then attends an'open house'with the team's sponsors.To get an impression of the size of that function, count the decals on the side of the two red Dallaras...

Before that is over, Dario is keen to get back to the motorhome as his wife Ashley Judd is at the track after taking time out from filming her latest movie on the other side of the world. He is aching to see her and share a quiet night together before the madness of the next day.

Raceday dawns bright and sunny, with temperatures about eight degrees higher than Carb day.

I wander over to a couple of the souvenir stores to purchase some Franchitti gear.

'Sorry hon, we're sold out", says the pleasant assistant,"we just can't keep up with the demand, but we might have some more in an hour or so."

Motorhome alley is eerily quiet as everyone tiptoes about trying not to disturb the drivers on the biggest day of their year.

Dario enjoys a quiet morning before the build up gets into full swing.

At around 10:30am,33 cars roll out onto the grid. What must be thousands of VIPs and corporate guests descend on the grid to wander among the 230mph racecars being nervously guarded by their crews. I 48

bump into Pink Floyd drummer,car nut and accomplished racer Nick Mason and his charming wife Annette; we look at each other and both comment how surreal this is.

As each driver is introduced, 250,000 people erupt. Well-wishers pass by Dario and give him a pat on the back as a couple of the senior HPD(Honda Performance Development)guys have a quick chat and shake his hand. He lies down on the track, resting his back against the front left tyre. He does a few aerobic stretches and just chills out. Nobody disturbs him. George speaks quietly to him,so does Ashley and he climbs into the #10 racer. Back Home in Indiana and the Star Spangled Banner are sung; a Stealth Bomber flies eerily overhead. Stealth?

Everyone notices - except Dario Franchitti

and 32 other drivers.

At precisely midday,the most famous words in motorsport are heard around the circuit and around the world;"Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines."

Ashley puts on a set of headphones to listen as Dario talks with his crew throughout the race.

At each pitstop she and George move away from the frantic, chaotic scene leaving the crew to go to work. As the number 10 climbs to the top of the leader board,they smile at each other and closely follow the information on the monitors, observing lap times and discussing the unfolding events.

As the race wears on Franchitti Sr becomes quieter as he senses a victory in the offing, motorsport news

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Dominating Performance:Franchitti,left, leads the field away from a mid-race restart. On a day on which the Ganassi cars looks to be the class ofthe field, the team's strategy proved to come upjust short ofgiving the Scot his third Indy 500 victory. and starts to nervously prowl up and down pitlane. Ashley offers me a smile and then talks to some of Dario's crew as they wait for his next pitstop.

On lap 163 and with a commanding lead, Franchitti pits. Everyone nearby seems a little surprised until we are reminded that every year for the past five, a yellow flag caution period has intervened in the last 30 laps of the race.

So we all stand, chewing our fingers to the bone, hoping for the caution period to put Franchitti back on the top of the leader board. It never comes;the gamble has failed.

To add insult to injury, Franchitti had to pit on the last lap just as the chequered flag came out, to get across the line 12th and gain a handful of points. After he leaves the pits to rejoin the track, a lot of heads are shaking. Everyone is silent.

In contrast, next door, Dan Wheldon's crew erupts into fits ofjoy and begins dancing in pit lane, as the realisation that they had just won the Centennial Indy 500 sinks in. Such is the contrast of racing. It is no comfort at all that Ganassi's biggest Indycar rival,Team Penske, has had an even worse day than Dario did, including Will Power leaving the pitlane with only three wheels attached to his car. So much for winning the Pitstop Challenge.

The car arrives back in the Ganassi pit box.

Dario emerges slowly from the cockpit, and hands his helmet and gloves to his Dad once again.They do not speak; eye contact says it all. It's the same with Ashley; their eyes, not their words,share the pain.

Franchitti looks around to find a sea of media types all wanting a comment, TV cameras in his face, about a dozen www.mnews.com.au

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FRANCHUnWASAFRUSMIEO WAN AFIEK THE CHEQOEliEO FLAG microphones under his nose. For a man whose world had just been shattered, when a victory was seemingly his for the taking, he does a remarkable job, answering all the questions when I am sure all he wanted to do was curl up in a ball in his motorhome, hoping to wake up and find that the preceding hour was just a bad dream.

A few minutes later, the media pack moves on.

This one stings a hell of a lot, pal," he tells me.

I pat him on the back as he walks off. Fie starts a discussion with Chip Ganassi and the engineers, trying to fathom how he could go from a race winning lead to 12th.

Behind him,the rest of the team get to work disassembling equipment and moving it back to their garage in Gasoline Alley. Eew words are spoken.

"I drove that car the absolute best I could today, no mistakes," he tells me later."I honestly don't think I could have driven it any better."

I wander back to the motorhome feeling

like I had been robbed of victory - and I was merely a spectator.

An hour or so pass by before Dario and Ashley, arms around each other, arrive at their motorhome, which is surrounded by a huge clutch of well-wishers. Even the Scottish crew is here but, I must say, the circumstances are clearly uppermost in everyone's mind.This is the quietest bunch of Scotsmen I have seen in my life.

Magnanimous in defeat, Dario and Ashley thank everyone so much for their support and even in this darkest hour, he is somehow able to raise a smile or two. Dixie arrives and the two drivers embrace before sharing the feast with their friends.

Eranchitti is as gracious a host as he has been a gracious winner in Victory Lane.There is no milk this year, but he has been here before, sharing disappointment with his friends just as he has his wins.

Dario Eranchitti will be back at Indianapolis for another 500 next year. If I get my way, I will be back too.

I just hope the bloody rain stays away.

49

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ITH 100 years of history hanging heavy in the Indianapolis air, it is perhaps fitting to put the achievement of the winning team of this year's race in perspective.

In the last 50 years, only two teams that were not engaged full-time in the USA's premier open-wheel series whether it was labeled IndyCar, Champ Car, CART or USAC - have come to the Speedway and won the 500.This year, it was Bryan Herta Autosport and driver Dan Wheldon.The last time that happened was in 1965 - when Colin Chapman brought Team Lotus and Jimmy Clark to the track and beat the Americans at their own game.

Welcome to history, Mr Herta.

The former driver, now a full-time team owner in the Indy Lights Series,showed up at Indy as an underdog but with a considerable number of assets. He knew that he had a good driver in Dan Wheldon, l the 2005 race winner,a solid co-owner in Steve Newey,good race engineering and mechanics and sound hardware.

But,surely,to even dream of taking on the three cars of Team Penske,or the four of Chip Ganassi Racing, and beating them?

Was he dreaming, mad or did he have a secret?

I would like to say that we have a secret. but we don't have any secrets," Herta said

after the celebrations had oied down.

We put together the best team we could have and we could have put a pay driver in the car, but we chose not to. We chose to go out and hire the best driver we could put in the car, and one of the best drivers around that place.

"We were just fortunate that Dan did not have a full-time ride for the season,so he could come and drive for us at Indy. But that put a lot of pressure on me because I knew that I had to give him a good car, one worthy of his talents at that place. I think that him coming to the team was really the impetus that took us to the next level. We knew that he could get it done at that place and that we had to build a team around

him.

It was a Perfect Storm for Dan, really.

He is one of the best oval drivers in the series, particularly at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.There was a big shuffle going on with a number of really good guys, like Tony Kanaan,suddenly available. Somehow Dan was the odd man out in all that. It was kind of bizarre; I could not believe that Dan did not have a ride. He really wanted to be sure to be in a car that he thought was capable of winning,and short of that, he was prepared to wait - even if it meant a limited schedule or a one-off.'

To sign up for what was an unknown took a lot of faith. On 1..^

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achieved as a driver- drink the traditional winner's milk.

paper, BHA was no world-beater; the team's only previous indycar start came in last year's 500, with rookie Sebastien Saavedra at the wheel.The Colombian scraped into the race on the last of the 11 rows of three, and ended his day classified 23rd after crashing out by himself But, there is history between Wheldon and Herta. When Wheldon joined Andretti Green Racing in 2003, Herta was the team's senior driver. [In fact, they were involved in from what we can tell is an unprecedented result at St Petersburg in 2005, Wheldon leading an AGR 1 -2-3-4 from Tony Kanaan, Dario Franchitti and Herta.]

Six years on,that relationship counted for a lot.

"I think it had to [help]," says Herta."I didn't have a lot to show him on paper; he had to put a lot of trust in what I was telling him about how the team was going to be.

"I knew that we had a good opportunity 52

here - we had a strong group of people. Our relationship is probably what gave him the confidence to trust in what I was telling him and to take a chance - and it was a chance for him. I think that is what people love about the story and for it to come off... we were saying that we were going to Indy to win the race but I don't think that anyone actually believed us!"

And,there was a secret that was not so... secretive. BHA was not really a one-car team, because it had formed an alliance with Sam Schmidt Motorsport. In that context, and given the team's qualifying performance, what happened in the race was not really shocking.

"That was one of the key components, after we got Dan," Herta says.

"I was very close with Allen McDonald, who was a race engineer with Sam Schmidt, and Rob Edwards, who is the team manager there. We knew Sam very well from the Indy

Light Series, and we felt like it was a natural fit for us.They had good experience with the Indycar, they had two experienced drivers in AlexTagliani andTownsend Bell, and we were bringing something else into the puzzle - our own engineer in Todd Molloy, and Dan Wheldon and all his experience."

Tagliani was on pole; Bell was on the inside of the second row, Wheldon on the outside. In that context,the three-car team took half of the top six spots on the grid.

It was once the teams assembled in Gasoline Alley, with the BHA squad being sure to get the same garage as they had in 2010 for the sake of familiarity, that things started to happen and the relationship with Schmidt's team gelled.

"It was satisfying that they were able to help us putting the car together but it was once we got to the track that it really turned into a collaboration," Herta explains.

"It was then they we were able to motorsport news

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contribute as much back to them as they were to us.

"We had team-mates. We debriefed together,the engineers talked,the drivers talked. That helped us all tremendously.

"I have a great partner in Steve Newey in Indianapolis. Our crew chief Don Lambert was crewchief of theyear last year. Pretty much all the mechanics worked with us last year. But it is still amazing."

The buildup to the race was marked by lost practice time, as bad weather afflicted a number of sessions in what has become, compared to the Old Days, a truncated race month. But strangely, that lack of running seemed to assist some of the smaller teams.

"We had a strong week of practice and great qualifying, especially considering that so much of the track time was rained out.

We were never that focused on qualifying, we were always looking to work on the race package.To qualify on the second row was really satisfying and I think that Is when the other teams started to take notice. People thought that we could pull off an upset."

For a 500-mller, the Indy 500 can feel like it goes by awfully fast, with this year's race lasting just short of three hours. As the race ended its final laps. It was obvious that Franchitti and Dixon were going to have the cars to beat, and that there could be a wildcard or two thrown In for good measure.

Bertrand Baguette and JR Fllldebrand were filling those roles this year...

At the end of the race, like many racers do, Flerta and his team rolled the dice - but they had a good reason to do so.

"Dario had been going two or so laps longer than we had,so we knew we could not beat him on that strategy," he explains.

"Dixon and Dario were the two guys that we thought we were racing for the win, so for that yellow flag, with about 36 [laps] to go, we set out our tyres and feigned that we were going to make a pitstop. We knew that Chip would split his two cars, which is what he did; put Dixon on one strategy and Dario on the other.That is what he did, and it was a great call by us, but I am keenly aware that racing Is what it is and that we were betting on the track not going yellow in the final 30 laps. The odds were that we would get a yellow - but It went our way."

So,the scenario was, Franchitti leading and doing what he has been, without doubt,the best in pitlane at - running fast while saving fuel - and Wheldon, gassed up, maxxed out and running him down like a freight train, praying the track stayed green.

"Every driver would tell you that you would much rather be the guys with no restrictions, no one on the radio telling you to manage your fuel,"says Flerta.

"You would much rather be the guy going for It. A win is a win, no matter how you achieve it, but to do it the way Dan did ...

"A lot of it was lost on TV. When we made our last pitstop, with a little www.mnews.com.au

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In Position: Herta felt that it was important that Wheldon stayed close to the lead during the race. Opposite, he leads Dario Franchitti in the first 50 laps. Herta, right above, celebrates in Victory Lane with partner Steve Newey, in grey shirt, and Wheldon. The other guy is Colin Dyne, CEO of sponsor William Rast. The first driver to congratulate Wheldon was his 'team-mate' and poleman Alex Tagliani, above.

53

iiiB^ l over 20 laps to go, we came on the radio to Dan.'Okay, you are PI 0, or it might have been PI 1 at the time. Some of the cars in front of you are going to have to stop but some of them, you are going to have to pass. For the most part, they are going to be saving fuel. Go get 'em!'

"He did. He went after those guys and he got them.Some of them peeled off[into pitlane], but I don't think that TV did justice to how fast he was. He was passing really good racecars, like Tony Kanaan's, Graham Rahal's and cars that had featured. He drove by them and drove away.That even snuck up on the TV folks, because they didn't really say anything until, next thing you know, he was second. It was the pressure that he was applying to Hildebrand that forced the Panther guys to keep pushing JR, and forced him to make a decision to push in that final corner. He felt like he had to go around him [Charles Kimball] in that final corner."

The final five laps will be viewed and reviewed for years to come. It is now history that Hildebrand chose to lap Kimball in the middle of Turn 4 rather than wait for the straight and, in doing so, he walled Panther's car. Wheldon, who had not led a single lap of the race, screamed past to take his second Indy 500 win.

Down at Herta's pits, they just went nuts.

"The reaction after the race, when we realised that we had won, we were screaming and jumping around," he says, excited even explaining it.

"Some of the bigger teams have become so corporate, so buttoned down, but I think that people have connected with what we did. Everything was genuine, before and after the race.

"I finished third and fourth at Indy as a driver but I don't think that anything compares to winning the Indy 500, no matter what your role is in that. I felt like that okay, I was not the guy pushing the pedals and turning the wheel but I felt like a lot of my effort, what I could put my hands on, went into winning the race - the driver, the team,the sponsor package, everything.

I am over the moon. I cannot imagine that I could be any happier as a driver than I feel right now, having won it as an owner. It is an amazing experience to have won the Indy 500; the centennial year? It is almost too much to take in.

"Think about it; in the entire history of our team, we have run in two Indycar races and they were both Indy 500s. And we won one of them! It's crazy! And that is not lost on me, how momentous this is."

Now, Bryan Herta has a problem; how on earth is he going to top this? He has few doubts; "We come back next year, with a full program and try to win the Championship and the Indy 500 again!"

If that sounds like a longshot, remember; that is what some folks were saying about the team's chances of a this 500 victory...

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Well, it never really went away. But, on the evidence of the 2011 Indianapolis 500, Indycar racing is getting back to where it should be. Okay, it may never get back to where American open-wheeler racing was 15 years ago before the sport was split in two, but there is every sign that it is heading in the right direction.

Dan Wheldon's win was reported on TMZ.The American TV show and website is usually more concerned with celebrities in rehab than it is in oval track racing, and the reason they took and interest was somewhat tenuous. Wheldon's sponsor, William Hast, is a clothing, shoe and accessory brand co-owned by singer and actor Justin Timberlake, and 'Pop star wins Indy 500'is a bit of a reach. But that qualifies the races for a mention and spreading the word is spreading the word, regardless of the reasons why.

The word is worth spreading. This was a cracking race, full of great stories.

Where else in the motor racing world would a driver of Wheldon's calibre be walking around without a full-time seat, allowing Herta to pick him up? And where else would a team like Herta's do such a brilliant job taking on, and defeating, Indycar's big boys?

This is the Indycar equivalent of Sonic Motor Racing going to the Bathurst 1000 as a wildcard, duelling with TeamVodafone for the win and taking home the trophy.

Also, it is rare that Indycar's big teams should perform so badly throughout May as they did. Chip Ganassi's words were unreported after his drivers Scott Dixon and Dario Franchitti both ran out of fuel in qualifying, but we would be willing to bet that they are unprintable in a family magazine. In the race, the team did the www.mnews.com.au

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smart thing late in the race and split strategies, but neither driver prevailed in the end.

At Penske, the news was not much better.

Ryan Briscoe's accident looked ... accidental, one of any number of such clashes seen at Indy over the decades. Will Power was never really in a position to challenge for the win once he lost a wheel in the pits, while Helio Castroneves looked uncharacteristically uncompetitive all month.

The next team in the usual pecking order, Andretti Autosport, appeared lost.Two of the team's regular drivers, Danica Patrick and Marco Andretti, only made the field on Bump Day; the other, Ryan Hunter-Reay, only made the race when the team bought Bruno Junqueira's spot on the grid out from under him. Yet, one Andretti driver made the field easily, and started 17th; even at 48, John Andretti never looked uncomfortable in his one Indycar outing of the year.

And, as for JR Hildebrand ... It is a tragedy that his last-lap drama will be talked about, and replayed, for years to come. But that incident overrides the recognition he should receive for a polished rookie performance. His breezed through his rookie test, lined up 12th on the grid and finished the race in second - by any other measure, an outstanding Indy debut.

Problem is, he should have won the race.

The crash also masks one other aspect of what is a great story. As already noted by Herta, beating Franchitti and Ganassi on a fuel-saving strategy was a big ask and they, for one, picked the alternative strategy, of keeping Wheldon on the track during that last Pace Car period, pitting under green and running flat-out to the flag. But look at a replay of Franchitti's final pitstop and note the car behind Franchitti in pitlane. It's #4; Hildebrand followed Dario, the old master

of saving fuel, out on the track and then beat him at his own game, taking the lead when the red car coughed and then ran out of fuel. At 23, and driving for Panther Racing a team that has won 15 races and two championships - but nothing recently - JR almost not just won the biggest race of the year but did it by slaying the biggest dragon in the pitlane, with its own sword.

You can add to the story list that Hildebrand Panther's entry in the colours of the National Guard - which was previously filled by Wheldon. Many never understood why the US military would sponsor a driver from Britain - against which the country fought the War of Independence - and even if Hildebrand is a better fit. Panther will have to settle, for now at least, for its third second-place finish in a row, and America has to keep waiting for its first US winner since Sam Hornish five years ago.

Even the television broadcast was worth watching. Herta points out that ABC Television may not have picked up on his driver's run for the chequer until relatively late, but they got it right when it counted.

And, if you missed the broadcast, do yourself a favour and do an internet search for the broadcast's introduction, which was hosted by US actor William Fichtner. it is a stunning blend of hokey tradition and CGI effects and sets a pretty high bar for whoever fancies doing something similar.

Over to you, V8 Supercars Television.

No doubt the Indy 500's second century will, as did the first, feature pomp, ceremony and tradition. But now, they are not the only things that the Greatest Spectacle in Racing has going for it. While the Indy 500 may not quite live up to the inevitable and tearful hype, the race is getting back to where it belongs, and that is not something that we could say a decade ago.

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OLKSWAGEN's motorsport boss Kris Nissen has all the ingredients he needs to build a force to be reckoned with in the World Rally Championship.

Okay, it won't happen in five minutes.

Citroen Sport and M-Sport have been around long enough to have all the dots and crosses in the right places when It comes to successful rallying. But, with a man ofNissen's obvious intelligence at the helm, and the might of one of the world's biggest car company's behind him, you have to think that VW's entry into the WRC will be causing the odd furrowed brow for the English and the French.

Just to offer some background on Nissen himself, the Dane has a very successful history as an open-wheeler and sportcar driver. He was the German Formula 3 Champion back in 1986, before switching to the Japanese Prototype Championship the year after. It was during his stint in Japan that he was seriously injured in a crash, which resulted in burns to his face and body.

Once recovered, Nissen moved to the DTM with BMW, winning the Nurburgring 24 Hours with Schnitzer in i 99 J. After that he floated around various Touring Car series in Europe, before ending up back in Germany, where he is now based as VWs motorsport boss.

MOTORSPORT NEWS: Using Formula 3 and Dakar as an example, it seems that Volkswagen likes to come in and win straight away. Will this be the same? Is the plan to win rallies in 2013?

KRIS NISSEN; (Laughs) We are realistic and we have a lot of respect for Citroen and Ford. They are established teams with fantastic drivers.

To win a World Championship - to win races in a World Championship - the full package must be perfect and competitive.

It's not only about building a good engine or building a good car, it's about having the car running at the maximum, and nil having the right drivers, and having

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the right strategy across a weekend.

We have seen with the Dakar how difficult it was.

We know we have to stay realistic. Our Job now is to build the best possible car and get the best possible drivers on board, and at the same time to look for new talents, so we can have our own'Junior'drivers. Then we will get on with it.

I beiieve it is unrealistic to see us fighting for the title before 2015.

On the subject of drivers, you've mentioned young talent, but will you also look for an established driver to help set things up?

We need that. There are four or five drivers around at the moment, who are improving race-by-race.They are front-runners, and it must be our goal to have one of these drivers in our car.

At the same time, we need to have a young talent that can one day be the future of rallying.

I'm sure you know the names of the guys in rallying as well as I do, and every time I mention a name we are linked to that name - so I don't want to do that. But we are aware that we need, minimum, one of the Top 5 drivers [intheWRC].

Attiyah,two guys who are very capable when it comes to special stage rallying. Will they be involved in this new project?

We keep Carlos in the team, but not only as someone with a Volkswagen Jacket who does interviews and presents cars. Carlos is fully involved in the strategy to build this team. He might even get in the car for a test, but he is not going to do the full test program or do rallies.

He knows a lot of people in rallying, and he knows what is important to be competitive in rallying. When Carlos came to us, he needed to learn about the Dakar, but he still helped the team in so many ways.

I have a lot of respect for Carlos, not only because of his results, but because of his personality and the way he works. I am very, very happy to have him on board. He's here at the company today.

As for Nasser, he's one of the Top 3 Dakar drivers; he proved that last year by being second, very close to Carlos, and proved it this year by doing a perfect race. Looking at his results in rallying, I have a feeling that he is quite good on gravel,so he deserves to have a fair chance. We are talking to Nasser and trying to find a way to continue to work with him. Our wish is to see Nasser driving for us in one of our cars.

Through the Dakar program you have been involved with Carios Sainz and Nasser Al-

Why the Polo not the Golf? Is it to do with the marketing of new road ear models.

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or the dimensions of the car? Or is it something entirely different?

There are a lot of reasons. We'll start on the technical side.

The Polo is more or less the same size as our other competitors, the [Ford] Fiesta, the [Citroen] DS3 and the MINI. With the new regulations, it's very difficult to get the car down to the minimum weight, so it would be a big Job to do that with the Golf or the Sirocco. So on the technical side, we believe that we can make a very competitive car out of the Polo.

On top of that, which is maybe even more important, the Polo car is very big in terms of production for Volkswagen. There are a lot of countries where the Polo is produced, and we are selling it in big volumes in a lot of different markets. It's growing and growing.

Don't forget, the Polo today is the same size as a Golf from a few years ago. The Polo is not a small car anymore. But it's a fantastic car.

Audi is part of the Volkswagen Group, and has a proud rallying history; was there ever a pian by the VW Group to use the Audi brand for this WRC return?

It's difficult for me to answer that question because 1 am in charge of the Volkswagen brand.

I don't know if there have ever been plans to put Audi into rallying. My feeling is that m.'lW'yfWi*' i-'vv

from the beginning the plan has been to use Volkswagen, but I don't want to lie to you.

Volkswagen,in the last few years, has had a very successful motorsport program.The marketing potential exists in motorsport,and that started for us some years ago with our first Dakar victory.Then, we looked at what we were doing,and we looked at whether the future was in Dakar, or whether there was any alternatives.

When we looked at those alternatives. we quickly realised that it had to be a choice between Dakar and the World Rally Championship. In the end we found a better argument for the World Rally Championship, for many reason. Firstly, the cars look more like the cars on the road. Also, the technology in the 1.6 litre turbo engine can be transferred directly to our customers. and it's 13 events a year, so we have a lot of possibilities for coverage, not only on the worldwide television, but we can work at a particular race.

It all depends on the country and the market. We can have events with dealers and customers. It gives us more potential than we have with Dakar, which is once a year,for two weeks.

Our plan is still to be there in 2013, but we haven't even nominated if we will be at the first rally, or the sixth rally, or somewhere in between. We want to leave it open, because we do not believe that it makes sense to nominate a goal,and then struggle to reach it.Then we will be stuck with a package that is perhaps not as good as it could be.

On one side, we appreciate the FIA homologation regulations and how strict they are. We think that's fantastic. On the other side, once you have finished and homologated a lot of parts on the car, you can't change them.

That means that we have to be sure that when we submit the homologation papers to FIA, we have to be sure that it's how we want to run.

If you look at the Dakar, or Formula 1, or Sportcars, it's a different situation. Dr [Wolfgang] Ullrich (Audi's motorsport boss) has built a very successful Le Mans car, he can continue to develop his car all year. In rallying, you have a lot of parts which are FIA homologated,and they can't be changed.

So we need to see how the testing is going. how fast we are, do we have any problems, and if we do it too early, it could hurt us for years.

Will there be any WRC rounds contested with the Polo in 2012,a rollout period like MINi has gone for? Or will it be an all-out,full championship assault in 2013?

Looking well into the future, would Volkswagen like to get to a point where you aren'tjust running a factory team, but supplying customer cars as well?

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The Man in Charge: Kris Nissen is the man charged with the responsibiiity of turning VW into a World Rally Championship powerhouse.

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No,not really. We have seen in the last few years that the rhost successful team in rally sport is Citroen.

Of course,they have a fantastic driver in Sebastien Loeb, but also the other Citroen drivers are winning rallies.

We believe that the right way to go is to focus on having the best cars, and a real factory team.We might run with four cars, or five cars, or six cars, but we are not planning to sell our cars or have other cars running.

This will always affect the attention on the main team,and the main target, which is to be successful.

When the Volkswagen program is up and running, what will happen to Skoda's rally program? Can the Volkswagen Group support two rally teams?

Well, I am not a spokesperson for Skoda,that is my colleague Mr [Michal] Hrabanek.

Skoda Is a fantastic brand, and they have done a fantastic job. There is room for both of us. Volkswagen Is a group, and inside the group we have brands like

Skoda, Audi, Volkswagen, Lamborghini, Bentley, and very soon Porsche. At the top of the group, that's where its decided which motorsport program will be done by which brand.

Of course, I have been involved in the planning of that will happen with Skoda, and what are our plans, and I think what will come out will be good for everybody. If you need more details, call Mr Hrabanek. I'll just look after Volkswagen.

Personally,as a man with a circuit racing background, how are you enjoying being involved with rallying,first with Dakar and now with theWRC? I am enjoying the challenge of working with a good team. I think each category has it's own difficulties and challenges, and | am not more of a fan of one thing over another, i firmly believe that the Dakar is one of the most difficult races you can ever win, because there are so many unknown factors. If you have one bad day,the whole race is gone.

I also believe that winning a 24 Hour race, whether it be Le Mans or Nurburgring,is also a big challenge - different, but still a big challenge.

To go for a full championship, It's always easier when you have some good results, but at the end ©f the year they count the points and someone is the champion - and it's usually the drivers and the teams who do the best job.

So I'm not in favour of circuit racing or rallying. I'm just lucky that I had a lot of good years driving myself on race tracks, and now I've had the chance to win the Dakar with a fantastic team,and now we have a new challenge, and I'm very pleased with that too.

We actually have a challenge beyond making a competitive package, and that is the challenge to. In some countries, raise the awareness of rallying. If you look at Formula 1,the races are transmitted worldwide. If you look at Dakar, it's a similar situation - everyone knows what the Dakar is. Le Mans is the same. rnniiaiTg

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When you look at rallying, the awareness needs to be improved in some countries.

That's the job for Stefan (Moser, VW Motorsport's head of marketing and communications), and his colleagues at Citroen, MiNI and Ford, but i'm sure he's happy to get into that. If we can get your help too, by writing more about the sport, that's great, i think a iot of peopie would like rallying if we could get it back to where it was a few years ago, because a few years ago.

Number 1 in motorsport was Formuia 1, and Number 2 in motorsport was the World Rally Championship.

This is where we need to get back to. i can't judge Australia, but I know that Germany is not very good when it comes to understanding the sport. I'm not judging the country, just how weil they understand the sport.

I think this is the same in many countries. I think there are a lot of rally fans out there, they are just missing the information. rnrnavReSBMH)

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61

THE SECOND ROW national racing since we last met

FORMULA FORD After contesting the full Australian Formula Ford Championship last year, Matt Brabham will only make three starts in the 2011 championship. But he made the first of them, at Winton, count.

The third-generation racer collected his maiden race and round victories, as Sonic Motor Racing dominated the weekend. After leading a Sonic 1-2-3-4 in qualifying, Brabham took out the opening race ahead of team-mates Garry Jacobson, Cameron Waters and Nick Foster. Waters claimed Race 2 from Foster, with Brabham crossing the line in fifth after copping a touch from Jacobson on the final lap as they contested third place.

Brabham bounced back in the wet final, though, winning comfortably ahead of Waters, who now leads the championship after Tom Williamson had a quiet weekend,and CAMS Rising StarsTrent Flarrison and Jack LeBrocq.

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AUSTRALIAN GT The debut of Peter Flackett's Mercedes may have stolen the limelight, but a variety of other drivers did the winning as the VodkaO Australian GT Championship completed a May double-header.

Mark Eddy claimed Audi's first AusGT win,taking out Race 1 of Round 2 at Winton, and he was in position to make it a double before a late Safety Car in Race 2.That handed Klark Quinn (Mosler)the lead initially, before Daniel Gaunt stormed home to take the win in the Porsche GTS Cup S he shared with Dean Grant.

At Eastern Creek a week later, Greg Crick(Dodge Viper) and David Wall (Porsche) split the wins, with 2009 and 2010 Champ Wall grabbing the round honours in a one-off appearance. Klark Quinn, pictured, continues to lead the series.

62

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FORMULA 3 James Winslow made a winning return to the Formula 3 Australian Drivers Championship,as the 2011 season kicked off at Winton.

The 2008 Champion won the first two races before Race 3 was called off due to heavy rain and fading light late on Sunday afternoon.

John Magro and Bryce Moore were Winslow's closest challengers,finishing second and third in the opener, before Magro made contact with the rear of Moore's Dallara in Race 2. It ended Magro's weekend, while Moore finished third behind Chris Gilmour. Steel Guiliana and Ben Gersekowski split the National Class wins.

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AUSSIE RACING CARS A pairof race wins saw Adrian Cottrell take out Round 3 of the Aussie Racing Car Super Series at Winton.

After finishing second and fourth in Races 1 and 2, won by Peter Carr, Cottrell took over the weekend. He claimed victory in Races 3 and 4 to seal the round honours over Carr, who dropped to sixth in the treacherous final race.

Carr continues to lead the series over Tyler Owen, who had a consistent Winton weekend, Cottrell and 2010 Champion Kyle Clews, who failed to finish Race 4.

Karting star David Sera made his circuit racing debut, with fifth place his best result.

PRODUCTION CARS Stuart Kostera and Inky Tulloch teamed up to win the first long distance race of the 2011 Australian Manufacturers Championship.

In an Evo X Lancer, the pair were the class of the field at Phillip Island, taking out the six-hour race even after Kostera picked up a drive-through penalty for leaving pitlane while it was closed, amid confusion in a Safety Car period.

Jake Camilleri and Scott Nicholas(Mazda 3 MPS) were second, only going down a lap in the final hour, while Jim Pollicina, Steve Cramp and Dean Kelland took third in an Evo IX Lander.

AUSSIES OVERSEAS Daniel Ricciardo continued his fine form around the streets of Monaco,to win his second-straight Formula Renault 3.5 race at the circuit. The win moves him up to fifth in the points, despite having missed a round on Toro Rossi FI duties.

John Martin also flew the green and gold, literally, putting his 'Australia'entry atop the points in the Superleague Formula season opener at Assen.

In British Formula Ford, Nick McBride is the best of the Aussies, in third, with Geoff Uhrhane sixth and Spike Goddard seventh, while last year's champ,Scott Pye, is 13th after his first three British F3 events.

Across the Atlantic, Luke Ellery almost won his first-ever race on an oval at the Lucas Oil Raceway in Indianapolis, leading before getting caught up in a lapped car's accident. In F2000, Nathan Morcom sits third in the rookie points despite a weekend riddled with engine problems at Watkins Glen.

NASCAR aspirant George Miedecke is fourth in the UARA Stars Series after a consistent month, he also finished second in his debut in the higher-level ARCA Series.

www.mnews.com.au

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MERCANO

IN A FIELD ALREADY FEATURING PLENTY OF EYE CANDY, PETER HACKETT’S NEW MERCEDES-BENZ SLS AMG GTS STANDS OUT FROM THE CROWD. MITCHELL ADAM GOT THE DETAILS

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When Hackett's 2010 ride, a Lamborghini Galiardo, was damaged by a hit from behind by Max Twigg in the season finaie at Sandown, a window of opportunity opened...

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FTER the Lambo was damaged at the end of last year, the car was insured, the insurance assessors were trying to find out the best way to repair the car, because it was a composite aluminium tub, they weren't exactly sure of the damage to the car.

So, basically, the insurance company took ownership of the car and paid out the insurance. For that reason, we had an opportunity to get a new car. There's a lot that are available, with new Lambos and things like that, but I didn't think the new Lambo was actually the car that would be able to win the championship. I wanted to get something that was new and exciting for Australian GT, as a show of support, if you like. www.mnews.com.au

Obviously I have a strong connection with Mercedes-Benz, so from my point of view, it was the right car to try and get, and we spoke at length with HWA in Germany to try and get a car out of Europe. AMG wanted to keep the first year of the SLS racing in-house, in Europe, but they could see a market for the SLS in Asia-Pacific.

They've allowed me to race it in Australian GT and any other Asian GT Championship We've got a very close connection to AMG Germany, so the customer support program was excited about expanding outside Europe and they thought I was probably the driver to give it a chance.

I'd driven for AMG in the Medical Car before, and I also run all of the AMG driving events in Australia and South-East Asia as well. Because I do a lot of work with AMG through my drive days, I think they could see the benefit.

We are just a customer, Erebus Racing isn't supported by MercedesBenz Australia in any way, we had to pay full retail for the car and import it by ourselves. It was Just something I wanted to do for my situation, as opposed to calling in any favours.

65

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IT WAS A PLUG AND PLAY CAR, I THINK THAT’S THE ITALIAN CAR AND A GERMAN CAR, IT JUST WORKED

66

motorsport news

THE CAR Over the years, Peter Hackett has been a regular in Australian GT racing. He had a briefrun in an Aston Martin DBR9in 2008, but most of his racing has been aboard Lamborghinis, most recently a Gallardo.

But Eastern Creek's round ofthe VodkaO Australian GT Championship in May saw him add another toy to his list- a MercedesBenzSLS AMG GTS, the FIA GTS-spec version ofMerc's flagship. The car wasjrnly launched in April last year, making its racing debut in Octobef, and Hackett's is the first in the Asia-Pacific region.

Hackett had the car air-freighted to Australia from Germany,driving it for the first time on May 9in a briefshakedown at Eastern Creek.

Just under three weeks later, his SLS GTS raced for the first time, with Hackett finishing second in Race 2. Here's what he thinks about it...

OIFFERENCE BEEN AN STRAIGHT AWAY

T'S fantastic.The major difference that I felt from the Lambo was the horsepower,the torque in the motor is just like nothing else I've ever felt before.

We've been so used to having screamers; a VI0 that would rev to 8200rpm that didn't really have much torque, but once it got motoring it relied on aero. Whereas this car, the acceleration out of the second-gear corners at Eastern Creek was just remarkable.

It's the first time in a long time that I've sat behind a Mosler,for example, and it hasn't run away from me.

You definitely don't have the sharpness in the front end that the Lambo had, it definitely feels like a bigger, heavier car. It takes a slightly different way to drive it, but the horsepower's been fantastic.

The efficiency in the car is also another thing that really impressed me. It was a plug and play car, I think that's the difference between an Italian car and a German car, it just worked straight away.

And it used its tyres incredibly efficiently. We didn't experience anything like the tyre wear we've experienced from the Lambo in the past, which is really quite comforting. Even though we didn't have one-lap pace, we showed over a race distance that we could handle a whole heap of consistency with conditions.

The final thing that really separates this car,for me, is the technology in the engine management. Having multi-stage traction control and multi-stage ABS, really did make changing track conditions much easier to drive. When you're driving the car, you can make the car exactly how you want it to be, as opposed to having to drive around anything that's wrong with it.

We're still playing with things like brake temperatures, cambers and casters, we haven't done much testing. That was just plug it in, put the HWA AMG settings in it for all of the cambers, casters and ride heights, that was out of the textbook, and drive it like that. It was a pretty remarkable thing.

I think it's going to like somewhere like Bathurst, with its long, fast, mostly open corners.The FIA homologated it with two-way Koni shock absorbers, whereas everybody else is running four-way.

Because we don't have the ability to change high and low speed settings, we're limited with the ride control we can achieve with the car.

It's not going to be suited to places like Clipsal, if we were at Homebush or Wakefield Park, any of those tracks that are really bumpy, because we won't be able to tune the suspension to ride the bumps properly. Anywhere where we have to monster kerbs as well, I think we'll be at a disadvantage.

But the fast, flowing, European-style circuits, I think the car will be very strong. And that will just be a case of getting used to it.

Phillip Island it should be very good,at Eastern Creek we showed some strengths, and Bathurst,for sure, is somewhere we want to do well at.

www.mnews.com.au

67

THE FUTURE With GTcars now eligible for the Bathurst 12 Hour, that r^e has become the obvious centrepiece for sportcars in Australia. But the Australian GT Championship has itself been moving towards longer races, with most rounds on the 2011 calendar featuring one or two one-hour races.

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E'RE looking at the Bathurst 12 Hour,so we're talking to the European teams already about trying to combine resources and running multi-car teams at those events. PersorVally, I'd like to do it, and we have a car, so over the next few morrths we'll

definitely be trying to raise the funds to have a proper assault at Bathurst and bring the SLS to the top step.

I think the fujure for GT in Australia's going to be the enduro races, I think rTTbst of the events next year will end up being onehour events, like the twilight race at Clipsal. Ideally, if we can get into early Saturday evening or dusk races at V8 rounds,that would be fantastic.

To be able to do a 12-hour race or a three-hour race with a driverchange, it's what the cars are built for, to be honest.They're not built for 20-minute sprint races around Homebush,they're built for 24 hours around the Nurburgring!

We just want to put on a good show and I think the SLS is the right car forjt.

motorsport news

IL THEY’RE NOT BUILT FOR 20-MINUTE SPRINT RACES AROUND HOMEBUSH, THEY’RE BUILT FOR 24 HOURS AROUND THE NURBURGRING!

Mercedes-Benz Financiai

www.mnews.com.au

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il AT BATHURST IN 2008, IT LOOKED AS IF THE CHRIS PITHER’S CAREER WAS OVER. BUT THEN ICE BREAK RACING GAVE HIM A CHANCE TO GET BACK ON HIS FEET, AND THE YOUNG KIWI HAS GRABBED IT WITH BOTH HANDS. HE SPOKE TO ANDREW VAN LEEUWEN

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HAD A BAD RUN THERE ¥1 OTHER THINGS.I HAD AYE# ME A DRIVE IN HIS UTE FOR AUSTRALIA,AND THAT*S GC OTORSPORTNEWS:lsitan oversimplification to say that this stint back in V8 Utes has saved your career? Or at least put it back on track?

CHRIS PITHER: I think it has saved my career.

It's been a big change from about a year and a halfago,when I wasjust working for an engineering company,that's for sure.

I had a bad run there with the accident at Bathurst and a few other things. I had a year off, before a mate in New Zealand offered me a drive in his Ute [in the NZ]series for a while.That led to me getting the ride back here, and that's got everything back on track.

It's going well.

That year off, did you need that to clear your mind a bit after everything that happened at Bathurst?

I think it made me hungrier for it. I certainly wasn't having as much fun as this when I was standing behind a lathe or a mill, working in a machine shop. It made me hungrier to make it work,so I was better off for it, I guess. But in saying that, had I had the chance to be back into racing earlier, I would have grabbed it. I was just waiting for the right opportunity.

When you were having that hiatus, could 72

you have imagined that by now you'd be in a competitive team, running right at the front of a competitive category?

I really didn't know where I was going to end up at that point. I honestly thought there was a chance I wouldn't be able to get back into the motorsport scene here [in Australia] at all.

When I went racing again at the end of 2009,that was just messing around with a mate from back home - but it's led to bigger and better things! It's not what I'd foreseen, so I'm very excited about it. It's amazing how things come along.

supporter of you as well. Is it nice to have real support from your boss?

It's a big change to what I've been used to in some cases in the past. When I first started, any drive was better than no drive.Then I had a good few years with Kanga Loaders, before the Team Kiwi thing.

I thought it was great to be able to race in the main game,and I always dreamed of racing at Bathurst, which I did for Paul Morris Motorsport and Team Kiwi Racing - this is definitely different to those experiences.

Ice Break are very supportive of what I'm doing, and they basically let me control the team and my destiny. It's really cool.

It's funny because, in pure motorsport terms,V8 Utes is a step backwards for you.

But in reality it's been such a huge step forwards.

That's exactly right. All of my motorsport has been dependant on representing someone's brand, and funding my racing, so while this is a step back in motorsport terms,the chance to represent a brand like Ice Break is a huge step forward. It's exciting stuff.

So does that mean you're having a iot of fun at the moment?

It's definitely fun, mate! I've always enjoyed motorsport, but the situation I'm in at the moment is even more fun than I've had in the past.There is an awesome group of guys in the team,and I've been able to bring some guys into the team that I think should be around, and we're going from strength to strength.

I met Darren Park,the guy behind Ice Break Racing, at the Homebush round last year - he's a man who is full-on about his motorsport. He seems to be a big

You were very fast in Utes when you first drove one here in Australia years and years ago, and you're a title winner in Utes in New Zealand - what is it about those cars motorsport news

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^ Game Changer:A huge crash at Bathurst in 2008 ■. put Chris Pither's career in jeopardy, above.

ITH THE ACCIDENT AT BATHURST AND A SEW R OFF, BEFORE A HATE IN NEW ZEAU%ND OFFERED R WHILE. THAT LED TO HE CETTINC THE RIDE IN T EVERYTHINC BACK ON TRACK.** that you suits you so well?

It was while ago now when I first came over here to drive one! It would have been about this time back in 2005, and I think the first round was at Wakefield Park. That was only meant to be a one-off event, but I ended up with a ride out of it.

I like Production Car-style categories.

It's not like a V8 Supercar, of course, but it teaches you some very good driving skills, like how to get the most out of a car when you can't change too much on it. I think they reward drivers who can think outside the square a little bit.

I think that's why the guys that are at the front in Utes have been doing it for quite some time, guys like Grant Johnson. I don't knovy how long he's been doing it for, but it's been a while. That makes a difference.

Fair enough. Is the plan to get back into V8 Supercar racing full-time?

Yeah, for sure. If I had my way I'd be back in a V8 Supercar as soon as possible. But at this stage I don't have any concrete plans.

But I definitely want to get back into it. In this part of the world it's the only way to make a career as a driver, and that's all I want to do. So if I'm lucky, in the next year or so. I'll get my chance.

To add to your point, there are some good drivers in V8 Utes at the moment. It's not V8 Supercars, but the guys at the front aren't easybeats either...

It's hard work, and it's getting more competitive every year. At the moment, probably half of the field are actually capable of winning races, so it's very competitive. There are a lot of guys that have V8 Supercar experience. It's a tough championship to win.

You've done the Fujitsu Series, you've done the main game; are you ready to go when the chance comes to you?

I'm pretty confident I could step into a Supercar and get on the pace, in the right situation. I'm looking at options at the moment, trying to work out what the best way to approach it is. I'll be looking for testing options soon, with the aim of trying to get into a Supercar next year some time.

www.mnews.com.au

That crash at Bathurst in 2008, is that something that you can put out of your mind when you jump in a racecar these days?

Yes it is. It's behind me now. It was a while ago and I've moved on. I don't think about it. It was an unfortunate situation at the time, but I'm over it.

Back to this year, is the V8 Ute title a realistic prospect this year? It's close between you and Grant at the moment...

We're one point ahead!

That's very close! Can you go on and beat him to the title?

That's definitely the aim! It's going to be a challenge, and there's a long way to go yet, and there are a few tracks to come that I haven't raced on for a long time. Perth was one that I'd never been to, but that didn't seem to be an issue.

At the moment it's about being consistent and not taking risks, so we can be in a position at Homebush to challenge for the title.

So you'd never been to Barbagallo Raceway, yet you finished hot on the heels of Grant Johnson, at his home track. You must have been happy with that!

Yeah, I really enjoyed that round. It's only a short track, but there's plenty going on. We were happy with the way the round went there.

We're making steps forward. There's no reason why we can't keep going that way. Grant still seems to have a bit more consistency than me, so that's our main focus from here on in.

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ATISTICAL nuance Western Australia's Dtorsport history is K W the state's success in Australian Formula 3.

Of the 12 champions crowned since the category was formed in Australia in 1999,four have come from the United Kingdom.

Victoria leads the Australian states, with four from three drivers, while two drivers each from WA - for Karl Reindler in 2004 and Aaron Caratti in 2005 and New South Wales complete the score.

In 2008, Garth Tander almost won a title as a team owner, with wife Leanne just missing out on the title after a fight that also included Caratti's younger, brother Nathan.

While Western Australia is far from a minnow state, in terms of pure population data and the number of West Aussies contesting national championships,they're punching above their weight in Australian Formula 3.

The state's latest Formula 3 Australian Drivers Championship hopeful is Bryce Moore, who will contest the 2011 championship with R-Tek Motorsport, in an ex-TanderSport F307 Dallara, purchased by the South Australian squad in late 2010.

Having contested one start in National Class in both 2009 and 2010, it's a step up on two fronts for the 19-year-old; into a full program and a newer-model car.

In the season opener at Winton, he was among the pace-setters, topping a practice session and qualifying a scant 0.0679s from pole position.

The races were a little bit more complicated, with a steering issue 75

drive, and you can do a full season plus testing for a quarter of the price of going to Europe to do the same thing - but the experience is exactly the same. ((There’s no doubt the best drivers come through Formula 3, and I’m back to race them.”

James Winslow, 2008 Champion and Round 1 Winner, 2011 Formula 3 Australian Drivers Championship

www.forrruila3.com.au

motorsport news

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in Race 1 and a touch

from rival John Magro in Race 2 delaying his progress, before the final race was washed out. Still, he left with a pair ofthird-place finishes and second in the standings to 2008 Champion James Winslow.

"Moving from the '04 to the '07, the biggest thing is the brake pressure and carrying more speed through the corner," Moore explains.

"Driving the car, I don't really find a huge difference. It just shows in the lap time.

"At Winton, we had the speed to win, but not the luck. We got turned around in Race 2 and had a steering issue in Race 1 that caught me out and sent me off the track. Without those issues I'm sure I would have been right at the front, which is really positive."

Other than the two F3 starts, Moore's racing life has been pretty quiet in the last 18 months or so. After karting, he developed a link with WA Formula Ford squad Fastlane Racing, which led to a state campaign.That almost led to a crack at the Australian Formula Ford Championship in 2010 with TanderSport, which ultimately didn't eventuate.

"I did karting for a number of years," he said.

"Then towards the end of 2008, I approached Brett Lupton from Fastlane Racing, did the Island Magic at Phillip Island, and then did the WA State Series and gained a bit of a relationship with Garth Tander.

"From there, we went and did the F3 stuff at the end of 2009.

I was meant to be driving the Stealth with TanderSport in Formula Ford in 2010 but the car wasn't quite ready. It's a pity, I would've liked to have done that, but we've moved on and this is where I've ended up.

"Then all I did last year was the Sandown race meeting with RTek and after not driving for a while, it proved to be really hard."

While Moore isanF3 rookie, he does have some experienced brains to pick.

R-Tek boss Ian Richards won the 1983 Australian Formula 2 Championship in a car he designed and built himself, and engineered several drivers to Australian Formula 3 titles with Team BRM before setting up his own squad in 2007.

Another renowned F3 engineer, Bruce Jenkins the former owner of British squad FliTech Racing, has also become one of Moore's confidants since moving to Australia.

"Ricko's great, he knows so much about these cars and he's got so much experience in openwheel racing in general,"Moore said.

"I became very close personal friends with Bruce through Tander and Brett Lupton. Fle's left Fastlane Racing, he's working with a V8 team, but he used to own FliTech Motorsportand work for McLaren, so naturally I wanted to go to F3 knowing that I had him as my back-up.

"He's been very helpful and he's been a really, really big influence on my racing in the last six months. I've got a lot to thank for.'

Then, when Moore arrived at Winton, 2008 Australian F3

Champion Winslow was on the other side of the garage.

Flis presence was two-fold; benchmark and mentor.

"The way James describes things as a driver is so handy," Moore explains.

"Fie can feel the car and know where to dial in what, and it is a really big help. I hope he can hang around for the whole series, because he is a fantastic benchmark and a very wellrespected driver.

"Fle's a good person to chase down. It's the same as Mitch Evans last year, clearly a natural talent and a lot of people wanted to race in the category because he was there, and they wanted to know how they could go against him. James is the same sort of thing."

Young Kiwi Evans, now impressing in GP3 after narrowly missing the 2010 Australian F3 title, played an indirect role in Moore's decision to move to F3.

Moore cites the progression of drivers like Evans among the appeal of the category.

"It's pretty strong," he said. "You look at where Ben Barker's gone (Ed: Carrera Cup), where Mitch Evans has gone, Tom Tweedie (Fujitsu Series), they've all gone places. That's why we chose to run with the category.

"Almost all of the championship winners have gone somewhere. Formula Ford does it as well, but a lot of it's about the direction you want to go."

In 2011, Australian Formula 3 has upped its presence on the V8 Supercar support card. The championship has struggled in

END OF SEASON STOCK CLEARANCE! TYRES FOR CIRCUIT - SUPERSPRINT - TRACKDAYS - TARMAC RALLY ^ DIRT RALLY

recent years to attract young local drivers, who would rather race in categories at V8 weekends, as opposed to F3 with the bulk of its season held with the Shannons Nationals.

In a deliberate move to attract drivers like Moore, three of this year's seven rounds will be run as a V8 support, with the remainder on the Nationals card.

'The V8 rounds make a massive difference," Moore says.

You're in front of all of the right people, aren't you? This is where I want to go, and we're running in front of them. The Shannons Nationals is still great for F3, but V8s is definitely attractive.

'It makes it so much easier to raise the money to be able to go racing. Even though it's only three rounds, they're three rounds you can focus on when talking to sponsors and it makes it a lot, lot easier.'

Moore is aiming for the 2011 F3 title, with the lure of a full test day in Team BRM's Carrera Cup car up for grabs as a prize.

Influencing his decision to have a crack in an outright car rather than chase the $50,000 Forpark Scholarship for National Class drivers, it'd be the ideal stepping stone into tin-tops in 2012, as he looks to craft a career on home

soil.

I want to stay in Australia," he

said.

1 don't want to go overseas at all, and the prize of a test day in a Carrera Cup car is perfect for what I want. Naturally, I'd like to make a transition to tin-tops after this, whether that's Carrera Cup, Fujitsu Series or something like that and go from there."

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VISIT wwwisportcom.au/spedal_offers FOR DISCOUNTS www.mnews.com.au

77

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TONY RICCIARDELLO RE""URNED TO SPORTS SE FIRST-TIME WINNER SCOTT BUTLER STOLE THE r'!

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3ANS AT MALLALA’S 2011 SEASON OPENER,BUT >HOW. MITCHELL ADAM SPOKE TO HIM I

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HEN six-time Sports Sedan Champion Tony Ricciardello rejoined the Kerrick Series after a year in V8 Supercars, it looked like his rivals would have a tough time beating him. Especially with recent champions Kerry Baily, Darren Hossack, James Sera and Dean Randle all on the sidelines for Mallala's season opener.

And while Ricciardello did leave the South Australian circuit as the round winner and series leader, he didn't have it all his own way, with Scott Butler snatching a race win.

Ricciardello's Alfa was the clear pace setter, but Butler's Camaro was the best of the rest. As the weekend progressed, Ricciardello - running on a different brand of rubber to the last time he raced - started to experience tyre wear, and by the final race of the weekend, he was no match for Butler, who came through to take his first win at national level.

"We've had third a few times, but never a win,so we're pretty happy with that,"the Sydneysider said.

"Tony did the whole weekend on one set of tyres, practice and all, so he killed his tyres a lot more than he had to. It was different to be actually dicing with him, normally we're lucky to see him during a race.

"I didn't want to get too close there, I gave him a bit of room because I didn't want to be

80

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the guy who took him out."

It was quite a way to kick off what's Butler's second full crack at the National Series, the first coming last year when he finished sixth. Before that, he'd made selected starts around his New South Wales State Series commitments.

"We were pretty unreliable," he said of 2010.

"We switched to Michelins, most of the tracks we hadn't been to before, and we had a pretty inconsistent year, which isn't like us. We've changed a few things on the car to make it a bit more stable and predictable, with bigger brakes this year, so it seems to be going pretty well."

Butler himself is a relative newcomer to Sports Sedans. Where Ricciardello has six titles to his name, Butler has just four seasons in the cars, making his debut in 2007. But it didn't take him long to get up to speed, winning the NSW title in his first year.

The following year, he stepped into another new car - his current Camaro - and finished second, learning about the importance of reliability in the class.

"I raced HQs from about 2000 to 2004, did nothing for a few years, then got a drive in a Sports Sedan," he said.

"It was a pretty big step up. And lefthand drive was a bit different; the first race was a bit dodgy!(Laughs) We were pretty consistent, which kept us going in the points

until we picked up the pace a bit more.

"The 2007 and 2008 cars were both new cars,the only difference was that the'08 car had an independent rear end,as opposed to the live axle. So there weren't too many differences between the cars, they looked pretty much identical.

"But I broke two throttle cables in 2008, and the points weren't that far away. If one of those throttle cables hadn't have broken.

I'd have won the championship.

"It comes down to reliability in these cars.

When something goes wrong in them, it goes wrong pretty quickly."

Both of Butler's Sports Sedans, and his entry into the series, have come through family ties. His father-in-law, Steve Vigors is a prolific Sports Sedan builder, under the Steve's Toyshop banner.

"It's been his whole life, really," Butler explains.

"Steve's built 28-odd cars now. Each one's an improvement on the last one,so with 28 or so, he's getting the hang of it now.

"Quite a few of them are still out there racing, he built Bob McLaughlin's Commodore in the Nationals originally as well, there'd be at least eight of them. A few of them get sold and go interstate and that sort of thing.

"After all of his hard work I'm just glad I'm able to show how it goes and get him some motorsport news

IT VMIVS DIFFERENT TO BE ACTUALLY RACING WITH HIM NORMALLY WE’RE LUCKY TO SEE HIM DURING A RACE! BUTLER,BELOW WITH RICCIARDELLO AND MALLALA OWNER CLEM SMITH,ON RACING THE SIX-TIME CHAMP IN THE SEASON OPENER sort of result, rather than just throwing it away or doing something silly."

As with any Sports Sedan, Vigors can explore the category's technical freedoms to continually develop Butler's Camaro and close the gap to the current pace-setters.

Ricciardello is an obvious target, while Hossack's Audi is set to return for the next round, at Winton, a circuit where Butler has only ever raced an HQ "Steve's basically retired from engineering and what he was doing and he's full-time on the racecar now," Butler said.

"So he's always coming up with new ideas of things to change.The bigger brakes made a huge difference, I kept pulling up early everywhere the other week. Once I start getting used to that and getting into the corners a bit quicker. I'll be quicker again.

"Last year it was a bit bouncy in the rear and I kept losing the back of it every now and then, so the suspension's all different this year. And we're doing a few different things to the engine, different manifolds and things all of the time. www.mnews.com.au

HICCIABDc

"We run a carburetor, where the other cars in-front of us are fuel-injected, so they get out of the corner a little bit better, but we've got a little bit better top-end horsepower.

"Last year we showed some pace here and there, but a few shockers put us to the back of the grid and then we were working flat-out from the back without getting the

results we could've had if we stayed up at the front all weekend.

"Once Darren's back, we'll have a much better idea of how far we are off the top guys' pace, because we've still got a couple of seconds to find, I think. But we're still pulling away from the rest of the field at Mallala.

"Hopefully we can do the same again and get closer to Tony."

87

DARWINIAN EVOLl

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In 2012, the Kaiting Nationals will head to Danvin for the first time. And to add the ieing to the eake, it will be the event’s 50th anniversaiy. MOTORSPORT NEWS reports

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ITH the 49th running of the prestigious Australian Karting Association National Sprint Karting Championships recently run and won in Perth, it's now time to focus on the

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upcoming 50th Anniversary event.

While the Nationals, as it is known, has always been an important race, the 50th running is expected to be more than just another Nationals race meeting.This one will be an event to help celebrate the sport's past.

Karting has come a long way since Norm Chipperfield of Cronulla(NSW) won the very first Nationals back in 1961, in the days where the Victa and McCulloch engines were the powerplant of choice.

The inaugural Championship was a two-day event held over the Queens Birthday weekend in wet conditions, at the ASL Go Kart Raceway at Carlingford, approximately 20 kilometres north-east of Sydney.

Over the years, there have been many famous names to win one or more National Karting Titles - but at the top of the list with 15 victories sits John Pizarro.

After winning his first coveted title at Sunnybank in Queensland at the 1968 event, Pizarro had his last serious race in 1986, where he added his final two National Championships to his already impressive resume.

Second on the all-time winner's list is Peter Ward, with 12 victories, while arguably the current era's best karter David Sera sits third with 11 wins, followed by V8 Supercar driver Mark Winterbottom and Matthew Wall rounding out theTop 5 on 10 triumphs each.

Qf the current drivers still racing. Sera leads Wall, with William Yarwood next on nine, Remo Luciani on seven and Troy Hunt with six wins.

The Darwin Karting Association has been granted the right to host the timehonoured event, creating what will be a year of firsts. It will be the first time that the National Championships have ever been held in the'Top End', and it will also be conducted on a different date - for the first time in many years the event will not be held on its traditional Easter weekend, instead being run in early July, in order to avoid the wet season.

The club is currently getting set to host their 2011 Northern Territory State Championships, however, if the past State Title events are anything to go by, the 50th Nationals should be the biggest and

www.mnews.com.au

best in the sport's history.The Darwin Kart Club is well known for having the most fun and the friendliest atmosphere of any event on the annual calendar, and the local people couldn't be any more welcoming if they tried. Qn the racing side, the track is right up there among the most challenging in the country, and even has some undulation.

Darwin president Greg Meyer is extremely excited about hosting the Territory's first ever Nationals, and believes the club will do the event proud and provide all those in attendance with a race meeting worth remembering for all the right reasons.

"It has been great already,"says Meyer.

"We really are looking forward to it, and it has been a very proud time for the club, as I'm sure there are plenty of other clubs out there that would like to be hosting the 50th Nationals.

"I believe the club had the opportunity to host the event a number of years ago, but at the time I think the committee put it in the'too hard basket'. However,this time we are grasping the opportunity with both hands."

The karting facility, which is located at the Hidden Valley Motorsports complex, has received significant support from the NT Government,and also Motorsports NT. The result is a complete resurface of the full track, a new 45m by 15m covered outgrid, and a new in-grid -just to name a few of the upgrades. All up the improvements are to the tune of approximately $600,000, making it one of the highest standard facilities in the country.

"The NT Government, in particular, and Motorsports NT have been instrumental in helping us out, we really couldn't ask for more and there aren't too many other clubs that can say they receive support like we do,"adds Meyer.

"The improvements we have done already are fantastic, and the track itself is up to a full second faster now than what it was at last year's state title - and it is only going to get faster.

"This is going to be a great chance to prove that we can run the Nationals and run it successfully, and I can almost guarantee you won't need wet tyres!"

Meyer also promised that it will be more than just another Nationals, stating that Darwin really plan to turn it on for the rest of the country to see just how it can be done.

"We plan on really turning it on and doing things bigger and better," says Meyer.

IIIH^ 83

'We will have the usual fireworks and things that we have at our State Titles, but we have several other tricks up our sleeve that we intend on using but can't say too much about at this stage.

"We also really plan to focus on the closing ceremony of the event, and to also make sure the winning drivers are given a great presentation that they deserve; after all, they just won the National Championships."

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While there are plenty of local drivers that will be looking to use their home track knowledge to their full advantage to pick up the coveted green #1 plate at their local event, Royce Nott, pictured below, would have to be one of the NT's greatest hopes.

The 19-year-old has recently signed up as a Fujitsu Cool Driver, and has two NT Titles to his name already. Now, he is keen to add the green #1 plate to his collection.

"It's great to have the Nationals coming

to my home track, this time hopefuily i can have that iittle advantage as i've done a miilion laps there although the track has recently been resurfaced,so we will keep up our practice,"says Nott.

"It is a really big deal for Darwin to host the 50th Nationals, especially when they only come around every seven or so years[on Nationals state rotation], so I'm looking forward to it and will be giving it everything."

Countdown to the

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motorsport news

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A WORD FROM THE PRESIDENT the competitors, and the Darwin Kart Club, it is also a big occasion for the sport itself - and AKA WHILE the 50th Nationals be a bigexcited event for President Simon Whitingwill is equally about this milestone event.

"This really is a very important milestone and it will give us the opportunity to not only celebrate some new champions, but also the champions of today and the heroes of the past,"says Whiting.

"It will also be a good chance to reflect and look back at all the changes that have been made over the last 50 years, so it is definitely going to be an iconic event on the 2012 calendar."

The AKA also hope to raise the bar a little on the past National Championships, and feel that the prestige really needs to shine at the sports biggest event.

"Absolutely, we want to raise the bar for the 50-year celebration, but also for future years,"adds Whiting.

"We will be looking at ways the format can be revised, but we also want to include some other activities to celebrate the history of karting, and the first Nationals up in the NT,just to spice things up a bit.

"Darwin will be a great place to host this event. What the Territorians lack in numbers they sure make up for in enthusiasm.

I mean,the support that they get from the Territory government is unsurpassed, and their effort pound for pound means the end result should be nothing short of magnificent." www.mnews.com.au

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HOW’S SHAUN DOBSON FINDING UFE AS ONE OF AUSTRi RAONG'S RISING STARS! GEOFF ROUNDS SPOKE TO HIM

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OTORSPORT NEWS: Shaun, you're 18 years of age and the new kid on the block, ' how did all this happen so

quickly?

SHAUN DOBSON: My Dad, Andrew, started to sponsor a local guy down home and then we brought a junior sedan to race.

I started to share driving duties with another guy, but that just became too difficult.

We got another one and I raced that for two years, and then Dad offered to buy a Sprintcar and then it ail just went from there and my first year was 2008 in a Sprintcar.

The whole quarantine and washing of cars is very strict and everything has to be so clean be fore you can travel.

Juniors to Sprintcars, what's the main difference and how have you found it all?

It's a really big difference, I'll tell you that. I went back and raced the junior sedan just recently for a friend and it was so different.

It is good racing an 850 horsepower Sprintcar, some people don't realise I'm 18, they think I'm older. It's good to be doing this at my age and it's probably a lot of people's dream to race a Sprintcar, and me being this age is even better.

What's the attraction to Sprintcar racing for you, Shaun?

I think it's just the people you meet on the road. It's all exciting and I'm a competitive person and like the tough side of racing hard also. It's a real rollercoaster of a sport but it's so good when you do win.

What are the logistics in getting from Tasmania to the Australian mainland to race?

It is a real pain in the arse.

It's at least half a day off work, then we

On that, you won a round of the Easter Sprintcar Trail at Mount Gambler, it must have been special?

I didn't expect to win that. Just getting the front row start was enough for me. For us

MJAN SPRINTCAR rO FIND OUT Do you have a favourite venue to race at?

I'd have to say Mount Gambier, now that I've won there. I don't mind Warrnambool either.

What's your daytime trade when not flinging a Sprintcar around a dirt track?

I work for Dad as stonemason. We do headstones for graves and stuff like that and also do granite kitchen-bench-tops.

Really?

Yes, it's a good trade and there's always business around.

You like the social media such as Facebook and Twitter, what's the attraction for you?

Sometimes I do if I've got something to say. It's good to see people putting stuff on there as it gives me a lot of confidence. There were a lot of messages on Facebook after I won at

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th Mount Gambier and I find that's really encouraging.

What's the win you'd like?

For sure it'd be an Australian title or a Grand Annual Sprintcar Classic. I just want to finish races and to win would be real special.

Things for you Shaun are about to change in a big way,can you just let us in on what's changing.

I got a dream-come-true-drive with Reeve Kruckand hisTitan Garages Racing Team for the next couple of years and it's really all coming together pretty much for me at the moment.

They're a very experienced team with good solid backing I just hope I can get some results for them, but it is very exciting.

So when does all this kick-off for you Shaun?

It sort of has, as I competed in the last two events at Brisbane's Archerfield Speedway and that was good to work with Reeve and his Titan crew chief'Bingo'Jenkins.

From there I'll have to wait until September to again race with Reeve and the boys in Mackay at the Mackay Sprintcar Classic. It will then be onto World Series Sprintcars and then all the other big shows in the season.

1 guess I'll just go to the gym and work on my fitness for the busy season ahead, I can't wait.

What are you up to for the rest of the day, after we finish this chat?

It'll be back to chiselling headstones with

Dad.

MODEL BEHAVIOUR

Mountain miniatures The enduros are fast approaching and that,ofcourse, means Bathurst To get us in the mood as thoughts turn to the annual 1000km around the Mountain,our model makers are issuing forth a series ofBathurst-related models

I

F you're only going to release one model in a threemonth period, and you're one of the big players in the model making game, you'd better be sure that one model is a good one.

So Classic Carlectables, which has had a bit of a break of late, has just released the Kevin Bartlett/Colin Bond Bathurst 1982 Camaro.The big Chev looks a million bucks, a result of Classics no doubt having crawled all over, 88

around, under and inside the car which now resides in Queensland, part of the Bowden Collection.

While the Camaro never achieved the ultimate success of a Bathurst win, a handful of ATCC top results and a pair of Bathurst poles make the car iconic. And besides, it looked horny, sounded brilliant, and was built and driven by a legend of Aussie motor racing. Kevin is still best-known for his exploits in the Camaro which is selling the man short.

to say the least. His open-wheel career was almost without peer and he picked up a gritty win in awful conditions at Bathurst in 1974, despite not being able to walk without crutches!

Take a look at the photos of this superb Camaro model. As they say, if you're only going to buy one model this month ...

But if you're looking for a car that did win Bathurst,then Classics'Brock/Richards 1980 VC Commodore might be for you.

This long-awaited model will be popular, of course, and for a whole heap of reasons. It's both a Bathurst winner and a Brock racer - and right there are two ingredients that make for sales success - but it's also the first Commodore Bathurst winner in what was the first season in racing for the model. In red-andwhite livery, it was also a great looking car.

But if you want a 1181 matched pair with a motorsport news

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www.mnews.com.au

earn Joest R8s gged the 1-2 in hurst 12 Hour this year are aiiablein 1:43 8 from Apex rs, abo\re. Classic ables has ed with a superb ndition ofKevin t's early'80s Chev 0, top, insets.

89

Bathurst theme,take a look at the 1/18 scale Audi R8s, as finished first and second in this year's Bathurst 12-hour.The Team Joest Audis were head and shoulders above everything else and they put on a display the likes of which we last saw in 2003, at the last of the Bathurst 24 Flour races, when the 7-litre'Sports Sedan'Flolden Monaros crushed its opposition.

The Spark Audis look brilliant. but one has to wonder which will be the more popular;the race winner or the second-placed 'Aussie'car of Craig Lowndes, Warren Luff and Mark Eddy.

Wouldn't mind both, myself!

Lowndes and Luff went to the Nurburgring and qualified for the four-hour race there, before Craig was hit in qualifying and the car was too badly damaged to start.

A shame, but hopefully they'll still get a run in some other major international events for the Joest powerhouse.

Those six-wheelerTyrrell P34s keep popping up! Now there's a great-looking 1 /18 scale one from True Scale Miniatures. It's the 1976 Japan Grand Prix car, as I

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Eighties revivai: Ciassic Carlectabies is revisiting the early '80s, not only with the Bartlett Camaro but also with its new Peter Brock '81 Bathurst Commodore model,above. driven by Frenchman Patrick Depailler. You can order it from Biante or your local retailer.

Biante has got a couple of exciting new models on the horizon.There's the 2010 V8 Supercar Championship winner,the James Courtney Jim Beam Racing Falcon.This car will be available soon, with commemorative packaging, in 1/18,1/43 and hopefully also 1/64.

But the Biante model that's got me ail hot under the collar is the 1/43 triple set of the podium cars from the 1981 Bathurst 1000.

There has been plenty of Dick Johnson Falcons models done in the past, including this one, but the Bob Morris/John Fitzpatrick Falcon and the Allan Moffat/ Derek Bell Mazda RX7 are new to this scale, and I can't wait!

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Austin Powers:Models56 is about to release a model of the original Peter Brock race car, the Holdenpowered Austin A30Sports Sedan, below. Biante's expanding V8 Supercar range now includes the Coulthard/Baird Bundy Red Commodore from Bathurst last yearin pre-lap one

92

Your

ng for earn Bathurst model liEnil ig Baird Bundaberg Red Racing Commodore from last year's Bathurst has just become available. We mentioned it last month, but now here it is in pictures - and as you can see, it's impressively detailed for such a small scale.

And Models56 has sent me photos of the final Peter Brock Austin ABO model. Check it out; it looks great, ■like the other Sports Sedans from Models56.This is a must for the serious collector. And if you ever get c at a real ABO, try to etergot that Holden

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to Holden,or Mark Skaife a many have criticised them for V, Triple Eight driver? As they say. it.The growing pains must be unbearable at titnes and I anything's possible.

L If the teafn was to be sold am sure some days the Kelly OST of the brothers must have thought - and this ifnbt me saying I or team manner having the ' U 'what have we done here?' know something - you would questions going full support ofthe board"- it around at the But they have an old master r can really mean anything! ^ want to have some stability moment are in the background, with in the driver lirie-up. With a \ Therg'have been rumours John Crennan - the drive change inthemariagem'enf* directed to Clayton, more about the sale of HRT behind previous HRT success team,not many p@^l@^6iiil& specifically the Holden Racing^l^fldatlng around as well. So, want to invest in HRT With - providing good corporate Team. iftheteemist|besold,the advice. owners wiirwapt if in the best : NwThe lastfew weeks have so miicK'lhahge.'flt wdtifd n : Seen a hiasSive restructure^ ' shape p6ssibl#so as fb start f?, Thefe is a very inipressive behiucirchelipe’r"0jiist’Buy'^ Imdre comnibniy knbwl^as the ,; negotiations aithe tdp level. another teanffur1:her dpWf!»pit ^ !r| factcify being built at Braeside lane. I . p ,., = the outer siibufBs'of . 'broom'-going through the There a're alsb murmurs of There are other factors Melbourne,to house KR as offices at Walkinshaw Racing, ’fi. Chris Dyer returning to his old it mounts its attack over this ‘li Clayton has to worry about Craig Wilson and Rob Crawford ' workplace after a decorated career in Formula 1.

Chris in the short term.

The first future years. KR will become have been long-time servants would be a welcome addition is, clearly.Team Vodafone. a strong force,and it may of the WR group, both locally get there sooner than some to Clayton and,indeed,to the and internationally.Their Everyone knows how strong T8 is - it's been well documented combined time would almost people think.

Championship as a whole.

So,all in all, WR will have to With their best performing and we get a reminder every equal a complete person's three weeks when there is a driver(Garth Tander)off work extra-hard to get back working life. race on.They have a presence! to the old glory days again. I contract at the end of the year.

Personally, I am not a big fan The second'problem'on am not saying it won't happen. the WR group will want to of mid-year changes to upper but it's harder now than ever; HRT's horizon is the emergence ensure they have everything management,particularly ask Ross Stone how much in place for him so he stays of Kelly Racing.The KR boys when the team is performing effort they have had to put in put. GT would be welcomed have been making small steps well below its capabilities. It along the way to becoming the to get back to the front. is clear that there are changes by almost any team in the This business will always next powerhouse in V8 land. pitlane. He is considered to in the wind in progress at be a'Holden driver', but we have teams dominating with They now have four top-line present.The Walkinshaw drivers and they have won a a passionate (different from have seen stranger things ' family has said the team emotional)leader - and is notfor sale and they are happen in the recent years. race this year.

Who would have ever thought It was always going to.be running a team by remote vcommitted to coiptinuing a massive undertaking to control doesn't always work in Craig Lowndes would be a actively in the biisiness.These start with a four-car team and like a coach motor racing.

Ford driver and return again jtstatements can THE FINAL WORD

1.7

98

motorsport news

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