Motorsport News Issue 411 - September 2011

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MARCOS AMBROSE SOUVENIR EDITION i

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REYN MAN HOW DAVID REYNOLDS IS PUSHING HIMSELF TO THE FRONT OF V8 SUPERCARS

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He may have had to wait an extra day to do it but Marcos Ambrose knew how to celebrate his maiden I NASCAR Sprint.Cup win at Watkins Glen. The '^rqd kiseiowskfih the finallapi to take a brilliant if Tasmanian was unstappable, passing Kyle Busch and victory for legendary team owner,Richard Petty.

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Congratulations to Marcos Ambrose on his maiden Sprint Cup ^/ictory

THIS MONTH’S FEATURES Unusual Suspects

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\Ne wanted to give our David Reynolds feature a fresh look, so we decided to enlist gun photographer Simon Bonny to stand in the rain and take the portaitshots.

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Corey Sleap is another member ofour gun photography team,and havingjust been to South Africa and Indonesia for shoots, he made the long trek out to HRTHQ at Clayton in Melbourne to see a truck.

David Reynolds offers MNews an in-depth look at the training regime that makes him the fittest man in V8 Supercar racing.

Ti Sebastien Ogier has ended Sebastien Loeb's reign as the king pin at Citroen - in a spectacular way. 1/1/e spoke to both ofCitroen's Sebs for this issue of MNews.

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There's nothing like a lightning fast trip to Europe for a Grand Prix ...just ask Matt Coch. He snuck across to Hungary for the GP, and even though it was a rush, he still managed to grab Martin Whitmarsh for a chat.

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BULL HUNTERS I

McLaren has been chasing The Bulls all year -and finally its making up the ground. MNews spoke to McLaren boss Martin Whitmarsh about 2011

motorsport news

E DO ALL THE WORK,YOU HAVE ALL THE FUN! Ever wanted to do a motoring tour but not sure where to start? Let Elite Special Event tours take all the hassle out of your 'once in a lifetime'experience.

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NATIONAL FEATURES A.

Editorial Executive Editor Phil Branagan editor@mnews.com.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

The Grid

Editorial Enquiries

357 Nepean Highway, Brighton East, VIC, 3187 (PO Box 7072, Brighton, VIC, 3186) P 03 9596 5555 F 03 9596 5030 admin@mnews.com.au

Citrpen wentfrom having one SuperSeb to having two, with Sebastien OgierJoining Loeb.

MNewsspoke to both the Frenchman.

Contributing Writers

Mark Glendenning, Mat Coch, Richard Craill, Luke Nieuwhof, Geoff Rounds, Bruce Moxon

Photography

Sutton Motorsport Images, Dirk Klynsmith, John Morris, Andrew Hall, James Smith, Geoff Grade, Phil Williams, Rob Lang, Luke Nieuwhof,Simon Bonny,Corey E Sleap Cover Design: Chris Currie

Advertising National Sales Manager Oriana Ruffini oriana@mnews.com.au P 03 9596 5555 F 03 9596 5030 Advertising Sales(Sydney) Luke Finn lfinn@chevron.com.au Director, Advertising Sales Jon Van Daal jvandaal@chevron.com.au P 02 9901 6100 Chairman, Chevron: Ray Berghouse Circulation Director: Carole Jones

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Irish Invasion ... of the Fujitsu Series Robert Cregan has become the first Irishman racing V8s full-time. We spoke to him

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On The Rise Trent Harrison and Jack LeBroq open up about being Rising Stars in FFord

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The Ballad of Jeffy Bobik JeffBobik isn't quite a Hollywood movie star, but he is a GT3 Cup Challenge regular

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The Stars of Tomorrow ... Today!

MNews looks at the upcoming OK Stars ofKarting final

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Long Time Coming Maurice Allen has waited a long time to win a Pro Stock Bike title - but he's finally done it

Subscriptions: www.mnews.com.au

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The Front Row

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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

WORLD RALLY CHAMP. Sebastien Loeb keeps finding new records to break in the World Rally Championship.

His latest conquest is becoming the first non-Scandinavian driver to win Rally Finland twice, after taking a stunning win on the old 1000 Lakes recently. He had to fight it out with Sebastien Ogier, but even though Ogier managed to leave Loeb first on the road for Day 3, Loeb was way too good.

"It feels very good,"said Loeb.

"We cleaned the road for three days and finally we were still the fastest in the end. It may be the greatest win."

Jari-Matti Latvala finished second after Ogier suffered a late puncture and had to settle for third. Mikko Hirvonen was fourth after crashing on Day 1 and setting fastest stage times throughout the rest of the event.

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INDYCAR

MOTOGP Casey Stoner has been in brilliant form in MotoGP. A Sunday morning tweak helped the Aussie find form at just the right time during the US round at Laguna Seca, Stoner running down Jorge Lorenzo to take the win.

Then, Stoner comfortably led a Honda clean sweep in Brno from Andrea Dovizioso and Marco Simoncelli. He now leads the championship by 34 points.

Dario Franchitti remains in control of the 2011 IndyCar Series, despite not finishing in New Hampshire recently.

The Scot failed to finish a bizarre race, which was re-started in wet conditions, then stopped, and then counted back. Ryan Hunter-Reay was eventually classified as the winner, while Will Power was fifth.

But a week before, Franchitti finished second behind Scott Dixon at Mid-Ohio, while Power was only 14th after a strategic blunder, giving Franchitti a healthy lead in the title.

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eNews of the Month DUMBRELL CALLS TIME Paul Dumbrell has finally confirmed that he will not race V8 Supercars full-time in 2012.

Just days after eNews exclusively revealed that Dumbrell would quit, Ford Performance Racing issued a statement confirming that the team is looking for a new driver, with Dumbrell to step down. He is likely to stay on with the team as an endurance driver.

Meanwhile, Lee Holdsworth, Dean Canto and LukeYoulden have all been touted as possible replacements in the Bottle-0backed Falcon.

NO DARIO ON THE COAST Dario Franchitti is a surprising non-starter for the 2011 Gold Coast 600.

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FORMULA 1

The Scot is unable to make the trip down under to drive with the Holden Racing Team, where he was initially meant to share with close friend James Courtney. But eNews believes that commercial considerations put paid to the plan.

Instead,'11 Indy 500 winner Dan Wheldon will drive the #1 Toll Holden Racing Team Commodore with Courtney.

In other GC600 news,Tony Kanaan has been confirmed as Jason Bargwanna's co-driver for the event.

F3 READY FOR EASTER BATHURST TRIP

McLaren-Mercedes has turned its 2011 season around with two wins on the trot.

First it was Lewis Hamilton in Germany.The '08 world champion was all class at the Nurburgring,surprising everyone himself included - by qualifying second and taking a sensational win. He finished ahead of Fernando Alonso and Mark Webber, who was in contention until a strategic roll of the dice left him behind the top two.

As for title leader Sebastian Vettel, he had a relative shocker at his home race. He qualified third, dropped to fourth at the start and even spun at one point.

A week later in Hungary, it was Jenson Button's turn to win. it was his 200th race start, and he won in conditions very similar to those that he took his maiden win in at Budapest back in 2006 (which was his 115th race start).

Vettel finished second after starting from pole, while Alonso took third. Webber was fourth, an unnecessary stop for inters in the slippery conditions costing him any chance of a podium.

Meanwhile, Daniel Ricciardo finished 19th in Germany and 18th in Hungary, ahead ofTonio Liuzzi both times.

The Mount Panorama could well have a new race lap record soon, with Formula 3's trek to Bathurst now confirmed.

It has now been announced that the category will race at the Bathurst Motor Festival, across the'12 Easter weekend.

While F3 has been struggling for grid numbers of great, it is expected that a solid field will tackle The Mountain next year, with Team BRM stating that it already has enough interest to fill its four cars.

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

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homers show up with pretty accorhplished hardware, blink once and you are done.

The win apart,the back story is fascinating. Ambrose is from a place that most Americans have heard of only in Bugs Bunny cartoons,and Just about as far from NASCAR's heartland as it is possible to be. Despite the impressive Stateside TV audience claims made by V8 Supercars,some of his fellow drivers knew so little about his

OW many men have walked on the moon?

The answer is 12.

It was supposed to be more than that, but NASA's missions ended somewhat earlier than originally planned with Apollo 17.Then there was a problem with Apollo 13 (the mission, not the movie) that prevented two of its three occupants from landing on the lunar surface as planned,and which led to a dramatic rescue.

Stars and Stripes and Apollo 13 (the movie, not the mission).

I feature this information in this column by way of illustration; more men have walked on the moon than nonAmericans have won a NASCAR Cup race. In fact, three times more,and now,of course,one

of that select quartet is Marcos Ambrose.

It is not a shock that Ambrose won,and won at Watkins Glen.

Three consecutive Nationwide wins at the track in upper New York state marked Ambrose as NASCAR's premier road course racer, and it was only a matter of time before he and his teams ran out of bad luck, screw-ups and bad strategy calls and scraped a win together.

Which,of course, is a massive over-simplification of what constitutes NASCAR racing. It is a tough,tough business, with no easy way to Victory Lane.

It may have been possible to snatch a lucky win in previous eras, but in the 21 st century version of the Sprint Cup, where even the go-or-go-

past that a few first thought their new and somewhat exotic rival had learned the ropes of racing off-road, in some kind of V8 rally car.

Add to that the somewhat difficult circumstances of his shift late last year from JTG Daugherty Racing to Richard Petty Motorsport,and that team's transformation from a four-car team to two,and the yarn gets even better.

Then throw in the fact that he ran down and passed two of NASCAR hardest hard-men.

Brad Keselowski and Kyle Busch, in the final laps. Busch is not a man to be trifled with, and made his feelings over being beaten by the Aussie in the Glen NW race two years ago known with a somewhat

petulant hip-and-shoulder on the slow-down lap.

It is easy to say that Ambrose's NASCAR career has not reached the heights many may have expected - a comparison made easier by the fact that his V8 Supercar highs were stratospheric. It is also easy to downplay the commitment he has shown to six years of establishing himself in the USA with the notion that he could have pulled the plug at any time, returned to racing in V8 Supercars and, probably, winning in V8 Supercars and rebuilt his career at home.

But he didn't. Ambrose stuck with it. He has accomplished something that very, very few have. NASCAR is the most American of American sports, with a greater percentage of US-born stars than there are in any professional US sport, including NFL football. Major League baseball,the NBA or ice hockey.There have been 182 winners at Cup ievel,so you would have to be crazy to think, looking from half a world away, you would be able to Join that elite company.

Marcos Ambrose is not crazy. He has overcome much, achieved much,and written his name,deservedly, alongside some of the greats in the sport.

His maiden Sprint Cup win is not a big deal because we are making a big deal out of it; it is a big deal because it's A Big Deal.

And,those 12 moonwalkers?

They are all Americans,and from nine different US states.

And, not one of them is a Tasmanian...

Ambrose's maiden Sprint Cup win is not a big deai because we are making a big deal ofit It is a big deal because it is A Big Deai

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'M not particularly a'bike person', but I have to confess I was among the SBS-watchers late at night over the final days of the Tour de France, willing Cadel Evans to get it over the line.

It was one of those great sporting moments,from several perspectives - the gritty Aussie, taking on the Schleck boys (not to mention past winner Alberto Contador) singlehandedly over the last couple of days, overcoming a potential mechanical disaster, and then the crunch moment,the final time trial - and all without the sniff of the drug scandals which affected recent Tour front runners. It was compelling stuff.

Sound familiar? You could almost substitute the name Webber in there couldn't you!

That's how we like our heroes - gritty,'clean'and battling the odds. Interesting then that Cadel, in one of the myriad of interviews that followed, nominated Casey Stoner, Mick Doohan and Webber as his sporting heroes.

There is an affinity between motorsport and road bikes.

There's probably not a keen

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young racer here in Australia who doesn't pound the streets on his bike as a key part of his fitness regime. And a great 'holiday break'for Webber, apparently, is zipping off to France to ride a few Tour de France stages - which he did during the recent FI mid-season break, with none other than Alain Frost for company.

(I wonder if they discussed the Senna movie as they pedalled along - Frost is painted as something of an anti-hero in the doco! Regardless, it is, as everyone says, the best motorsport movie of all time.

If you haven't yet seen it, you must).

The reaction to Cadel's win, pushed along by the media, in the two weeks that followed was astounding. Well-deserved, but astounding - culminating in a street ride in Melbourne, 30,000 enthusiastic fans, pretty much all in yellow, and pollies descending from all sides!

Cadel's arrival in Melbourne,

courtesy of Qantas, caused some Media Watch mirth he actually arrived some 90 minutes before the'staged'walk down the stairs of a Qantas jet conveniently parked outside a hangar-full of media...

Don't get me wrong, I'm not knocking it. Far from it - those great'Australian sporting moments'don't come along too often, but when they do they can really act as a pick-me-up when the rest of the national news is a bit on the glum side!

By comparison,the media reaction to Marcos Ambrose's breakthrough Sprint Cup win has, to date, been ... modest.

It goes to the same old 'attitude', particular among the daily papers,to motorsport.

Compared to the UK and US, motorsport continues to struggle in Australia to inspire sports editors on newspapers.

It's something that the sport in general, including V8 Supercars, has wrestled with for many years - and for which there is no obvious solution.

Melbourne's Age had a couple of pars and a tiny pic; the HeraldSun ran with a standard 'agency' story and a pic. Yawn.To be fair, I have to exclude The Australian

- it did at least personalise its story with some pertinent facts.

Call It trumpet-blowing on their behalf, but the issue of Motorsport News you're reading is a great example of Just what the MN team brings to genuine motorsport fans, and how edgy a day in the life of MN can sometimes be! Faced with that great news, and a (cover) print deadline just over 12 hours away,the MN team junked a major feature,junked the front cover and started over.Through long-standing contacts, editor Branagan was able to queuejump to the top and - at 6am the following day (his wife was thrilled)- talked at length to Marcos about what it all meant.

The result is what you will read elsewhere in the magazine.

Marcos'milestone is a significant one and, notwithstanding the usually frantic and chaotic ending to Sprint Cup races, illustrates that he has well and truly got his head around the sort of strategy mentality to ensure this isn't the last. As his former boss Ross Stone would say, the first one is the hardest.

Next, an oval win - and, if that ends up being this year, it might just sneak him into The Chase.The newspapers may not rank it anywhere up in the 'Cadelasphere', but I reckon that's just terrific.

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Coming Attraction Who’s the next big thing?

Joey Mawson - Castrol EDGE Stars of Karting

What is he currently doing?

As arguably one of the best young karters going around at the moment Mawson is being rated in the same sentence as some of the great karting junior proteges such as Ryan Briscoe and James Courtney.

Known to one and all as'Joey', Mawson is of Australian and Peruvian decent, and is one who is also strongly focused on educational background along with his passion for motorsport. Although he was born some five years after his

untimely death, Mawson's hero is Ayrton Senna.

Mawson, 15, has already racked up a pair of National Championships, 14 State Championships and in excess of 230 podium finishes throughout his career.

With one round remaining in the 2011 Castrol EDGE Stars of Karting Series, Mawson is also within striking distance of securing the prestigious Jon Targett trophy awarded to the Pro Junior (KF3) Champion.

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drive on the Formula 1 grid. Flowever, at this time he is simply aiming to make every post a winner and take advantage of every opportunity that comes his way.

QUICK QUIZ 1

For which current or former IndyCar teams has Aussie Ryan Briscoe competed since he made his debut in the category?

2

Marcos Ambrose won the Watkins Glen NASCAR Cup race in a Ford. Who was the last driver to do that?

3

True or False: Sebastien Loeb’s co-driver is Daniel Elena and Sebastian Ogier’s co-driver is Daniel Ingrassia.

4

Which V8 Supercar boss used to work with Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost at McLaren - TeamVodafone principal Adrian

5

Burgess or Tekno Autosport team manager Bruce Jenkins?

Which Australian former GP driver has a middle name that matches that of a now-extinct Grand Prix team?

14

motorsport news

MOTORSPORTS CALENRAR AUSTJ¥UJA

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Sept 3&4

Sept 4

Sept 4

Sept 4

Sept 10

Sept 8-11 Sept 9-11

I WOULD have to say that the final round of the World Touring Car Championship at Macau in 2006 was a highlight.

It was a hard weekend. N/ne drivers went to the final races at Macau with a mathematical chance of winning the title. I was under constant pressure all weekend; you are in Macau for five days, and with the walls so close, one mistake puts you out of contention.

I won the first race, and I had Fabrizio Giovanardi right behind me all through the final race. He was in a Honda in a oneoff race so he had nothing to lose, and he was nudging me all through the race. Jorg Muller won the race, so I had to finish the race in fifth place to take the title. I was 10tenths all through the race -just

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thinking about it makes me sweat!

It was one of my most enjoyable championships. We had to fight all through the year because we were getting success ballast, so I was not always competitive. But over the whole year, we were the strongest; that'06 car was strong but not mega-strong, and with the ballast nobody could dominate.

Motor racing is funny. Before Macau we had two races in Valencia. I retired in the first one - I was carrying ballast and I was not competitive. I got wiped out early in the second race but I got going again, and I managed to get up to eighth place, to score one point.

I won the championship by one point!

Sometimes it is the races where you fi nish eighth and nobody is patting you on the back, but where you have driven your backside off, that count as much as the victories.

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He’s the most unprofessional little scaredy cat I’ve ever seen in my life. He needs a whipping, and I’m going to give it to him Does Boris Said have a thing about Greg Biffle after the Watkins Glen Sprint Cup race? You decide

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SEPTEMBER

Australian Muscle Car Masters

Eastern Creek Raceway, Eastern Creek, NSW Moto GP Grand Prix San Marino & Riviera Di Rimini, San Marino, Italy Indycar Baltimore Grand Prix Baltimore Maryland, USA NASCAR Labour Day Classic, Atlanta Motor Speedway, Atlanta, Georgia, USA NASCAR Wonderful Pistachios 400 Richmond, Virginia, USA WRC Rally Australia, Coffs Harbour, NSW ANDRA Australian Nationals, Sydney Dragway, Eastern Creek, NSW Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix Monza Ciruit, Monza, Italy Indycar Indy Japan 300 Twin Ring Motegi Road Course, Motegi, Tochigi, Japan NASCAR Geico 400 Chicagoland Speedway Joliet. Illinois, USA V8 Supercars L&H 500, Phillip Island Raceway, Phillip Island, Vic. Moto GP Grand Premio de Aragon Motorland, Aragon, Spain NASCAR Sylvania 300, New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Louden, New Hampshire, USA Formula 1

Singapore Grand Prix Marina Bay, Singapore Sept29-Oct2 WRC Raily France, Strasbourg, France

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WINDING BACK the year that was...

Ryan Briscoe's debutin an Hoiden Racing Team Commodore could hardly have been more impressive.ByPHiL BRAhfAGAN f

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EPTEMBER in Australian motor racing equals 500 kilometres.

Since the dawn of time - okay, it was 1964 - when Spring arrives, the local motorsport world has turned its attention to endurance racing, first with the Sandown 6-Hour,then the 3-Hour,then the Sandown 250 which evolved into the 400,then in 1984,the 500. In 1999,the Queensland 500 became the lead-in race for Bathurst, setting new records for the length of traffic jams, before the race moved to Phillip Island in 2008.

There is always something to talk about in the 500. Five years ago, a fair bit of it had to do with a blonde-haired V8 Supercar 'virgin'.

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It was no surprise to see the Holden Racing Team getting more than its share of the headlines before, during and after the event.The'before' news was largely dominated by the team's decision to mix and match the drivers within HRT and its sister team,the HSV DealerTeam. Under one early version of the plan, Anthony Tratt was going to slot into a red car(he didn't; he co-drove the second HSVVZ with Tony D'Alberto).

In the end,the driver pairings were chosen, leading to an unusual occurrence in theV8 Supercar pitlane;just about everyone else was ticked off with what Clayton had done. Soon, what was then TEGA closed the motorsport news

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Rookie of the Year:Ryan Briscoe set the cat among the pigeons at Sandown in 2006. The time he set in the first quaiifying session remained unchaiienged in the second, but the race was iess ofa success for him.

The Keiiy brothers, above, matched up perfectiy in the HSV entry, taking second at Sandown and Bathurst.

loophole through which the teams had driven and it never happened again.

So,the weekend rolled around. Predictably, despite Melbourne's ongoing drought, it was cold and wet. Equally predictably, Mark Skaife and co driver Garth Tander featured at the front, second in PI and topping P2, with the second HRT car fourth.The driver was the virgin - Ryan Briscoe. His role as a test driver for the Toyota Formula 1 team had ended the previous year, which he spent driving Indycars for Target Ganassi. After a huge crash at Chicagoland, he was replaced [by this year's Indy 500 winner, Dan Wheldon] and spent much of the season in www.mnews.com.au

part-time roles. Without any V8 Supercar experience to call on, it looked like a fairly optimistic co driver choice by HRT. It soon became clear that he learned fosf.The red Commodore went out in the first group for the slower half of the field, and quickly laid down a time to top the session. Out came the cars in the second group and, at the end of the session, #22 still topped the times.

Just to be clear; Briscoe had never raced a V8 Supercar before.

He had never raced a frontengined car before. It had been some time since he had driven a racecar with an H-pattern gear shift. He had scant tin-top experience of any kind; in fact, he first drive with a roof over his head came at Albert Park in 2002, in a Ferrari 360 Michelotto, Toyota's management funding the drive so that he could learn the Grand Prix track.

At a press conference after one of those races, he was watching a V8 session on a TV monitor, and I suggested that I could probably introduce him to a few team owners if he wanted a V8 Supercar career.

"To be honest, i would rather

do the Formula 1 thing first," he grinned.

OK,the'Formula 1 thing'did not quite work out, but the'V8 Supercar thing'could hardly have had a better start.

"It was very surprising," Briscoe said prior to the Shoot-out. "i knew I'd done a good lap, but I still felt that the car was slightly better than myself. I thought that after a couple of laps [in the faster session] i'd see myself running down the order, but it hung on there, and it was just a great feeling to stay on top for a while."

In the Shoot-out, Briscoe was circumspect, setting the seventhbest time. But the car started the race ninth; he was docked two spots because the car did 53 laps of practice on the Friday, more than the maximum 52 laid down in the rules. Tender took pole in the other HRT car.

The race was nothing short of a disaster for the team.Tender missed the start and had to fight his way through to the front - which he did, building up an 11 s lead before a Safety Car took it away. When Skaife took over, the car bent a steering plate, prompting a long pitstop.

Briscoe clashed with the #88

Falcon and also bent his steering, leaving he and Jim Richards to come home back in 21 st place.

Unless you were an HRT fan, the race was a cracker. Jason Bright edged his Falcon inside Rick Kelly with about 15 laps to run, and held him off by a length to give Ford Performance Racing its second win,three years after a lucky victory for Craig Lowndes at Phillip Island.

The big story from September/ October 2006 was that HRT's master plan blew up in their faces. While their team had a bad Sandown and an absolutely disastrous Bathurst, the man they elbowed aside to make way for Tander,Todd Kelly, added second at Bathurst to the Sandown result. It is not reaching too far to say that his efforts went a long way to setting up brother Rick's 2006 title - which led to a second HSV title, for Tander, the following year, and subsequently wholesale changes inside HRT. The link between Briscoe and HRT remains in place. With the 2011 Gold Coast 600 not far away, one of the'foreign'drivers to keep an eye on as the cars roll out at Surfers may not be much of a foreigner at all.

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HE clues lie in Twitter.

Mark Webber posting a photo of a mountain view,looking across the verdant ranges towards Italy from a vantage point that you suspect he spent a disconcerting amount of time pedalling up a steep incline to reach;Jenson Button sharing photos of his girlfriend Jessica splashing around among the waves in Hawaii;the almost complete silence from the battery of PR-controlled official team accounts that ordinarily rattle on like the news ticker on the bottom ofthe CNN screen.

It's summer in Europe,and Formula 1 is on holiday.

It's the time when the majority of the ' folk in FI putthe world of championship . ● ’’ battles, overblown intrigue and beeping electronic swipe gates to one side for a , couple ofweeks and engage in whatever '' extracurricular activities take their fancy.

Usually, these are fairly benign-for most team personnel,this time ofthe year is predominantly treated as a chance to get reacquainted with partners and children.

But sometimes,the things that racing people do to amuse themselves takes you by surprise; not just in FI, but in motorsport

generally.The tabloid revelations about Max Mosley a few years ago probably represented one of the more extreme examples, but there are many others. Bernie Ecclestone and Flavio Briatore appear to be shedding themselves of one of theirs; the duo having entered into talks to sell their share of newly-promoted English Premier League soccer club Queens Park Rangers to Team Lotus's Tony Fernandes.(You'd think that if Bernie and Flavio both want to sell that they might know something you don't, but Fernandes'business credentials are infinitely better than mine,so let's trust his judgement).

Over in the States, Juan Pablo Montoya has his jet-powered remote-control planes, and a handful NASCAR drivers like to spend their downtime shooting various-sized animals. IndyCar drivers forego weaponry in favour of smart phones,and are mostly occupied with Tweeting each other.(Except for James Hinchcliffe, who tends to his cigarette lighter collection and then gets onto Twitter).

But the most bewildering seems to be the journalists - the combination of endless airports and hotel rooms,combined with

the lack of a means to own a beach condo or take helicopter flying lessons, appears to drive us towards all sorts of obsessions when they - we - get a few days off.

One of my favourite such conversations was with a journalist who spent the long shuttle ride from the Shanghai circuit back to the hotel explaining how he taught himself to ride a unicycle.(It involved at least one illicit substance,and several doomed attempts to stop himself with a closed garage door).

My former colleague at Motorsport News, Aaron Noonan, was fixated with logging details of every V8 Supercar chassis - a hobby that virtually nobody else on the planet could be bothered with, and yet one that has probably resulted in a genuinely useful resource.

In England,things become slightly more terrifying, which you'd expect from the country that invented the trainspotter.

Long-time MN correspondent David Addison has more enthusiasm for two motorised vehicles going into a corner sideby-side than anyone else on the planet, and this is matched by his passion for Alfa Romeos.Whatever. lunMi-mri*!’'* Hr

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Where Addison gets weird is with his'nerd boxes'(my term), which seem to be a mostly English phenomenon.These are blank boxes in race programs that serve as space to fill in results, qualifying times,fastest laps, and various other scraps of detail that require you to spend hours entering them with meticulous care,only to end up with a bunch of information that you could have found online in five seconds.

He takes things even further though.

Faced with a foreign program that doesn't include the boxes? That's no obstacle Addison wiil simply draw his own boxes in, and then fill them in. If there iS a race that he attended when he was seven and the nerd box obsession was yet to take hold, he'll source a copy of the program second-hand and then fill the boxes in retrospectively.

It's a wonder that he's married.

Most worrying of all is that i'm detecting signs that some of this English eccentricity is starting to catch. Nerd boxes are not a prominent part of life in the Autosport offices where I work.There,the craze is the track list.

It sounds simple enough. As the name suggests, it is a list of every track you

have been to. I was first made aware of it when a few of us were driving to a race in Germany or Belgium or somewhere,and the news that I didn't know how many tracks I had been to was met with genuine consternation.

In fact, it was so unacceptable that I was instructed to dig out my laptop right there in the car and work it out. It was only when I tried to comply that I learned that the track list is governed by a set of rules that makes the FI sporting regulations seem like a pamphlet for the local Indian takeaway.

For example, you're not allowed to add a track unless you've'experienced'it - either seen something going around it at race speed,or been around it yourself. Looking over the fence doesn't count.

The track must be active when you see it, which immediately struck Brooklands and Rheims from my list. Not only that, but you must also'experience'the track in its full and current configuration. This is the one that really annoyed me, because it forced me to eliminate the Nordschleife.

I've been around it, but when it is used for racing now,it also incorporates the current

FI track. I had to skip that bit when i was going around it, and even though i've been to the modern Nurburgring a few times, I'm not allowed to mentally glue them together. Every time I see'Nurburgring'on my list, I get annoyed that'Nordschleife'is not alongside it.

Rally stages don't count, nor drag strips or dirt tracks or karting circuits. Wembley Arena, which I attended to cover Race of Champions, was arbitrarily disallowed as well.Tarmac ovals are OK though. Oh, and multiple configurations of the same circuit are banned, unless no part of one configuration overlaps with any part of another. So you can't have Brands Hatch Grand Prix and Brands Hatch Indy - both of which I've seen in action - but you can have Calder Park and theThunderdome.

With so many restrictions it's amazing that anything gets through, but by the time you read this I'll be tickihg off tracks 47 and 48 when I go the States to cover the IndyCar races at Sears Point and Baltimore, The scary thing is that I'm not supposed to care about this stuff - and yet I find myself genuinely looking forward to hitting number 50.

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I

T was all so well planned, so neat and so tidy.

In mid-August each year, America's Elementary school system {Primary school to you and me) prepares to accept the latest intake of youngsters who start their education experience. With her sixth birthday approaching,Tabitha Ambrose had prepared all summer to face what is a big day in any child's life.

It was all sorted. Complex matters had been overcome and with her mother, Sonja, away, her Daddy was going to deliver her to the first day of a new adventure.

"The whole plan was that Sonja would bring her up on Sunday to watch the race and we were all going to fly home,"said Marcos Ambrose.

"Sonja has her brother in town with his wife and they were all going to New York, to spend some time there for a few days. I was going to bring Tabitha and Adelaide back to Charlotte on the plane, take her to school 22

on Monday and do the whole thing. We had been prepping for it for months. Everything was ready.

"Of course, you get rained out and the whole plan goes up in the air! She couldn't work out what was going on - she was pretty mad about the whole situation. She is okay now."

It is hoped that, even at the age of five, young Tabitha understands that sometimes, dads need to be away working. When the heavens opened on Sunday 14 August in upper New York state, Watkins Glen glistened.The race was postponed until 10am on Monday. Marcos and the other 42 Sprint Cup drivers punched on for overtime, and the Ambroses had to make other arrangements.

"She was cranky," her father explained."She was talking about it and she was not happy.

"She has been asking questions like,'Why can't you win?'Now I have won a race and I can actually set the record straight. She

thinks I am a winner again! I think that it is a win all round!"

It turns out it was worth it. In a little over three hours, Ambrose secured his first Sprint Cup win,the culmination of six years of work, challenges and risks. In doing so, he wrote his name into the list of Sprint Cup winners, one of the very few-three, in fact-to talk with a foreign accent.

In 62 seasons of competition in NASCAR'S premier category - whether it has been called Grand National, Winston Cup, Nextel Cup or Sprint Cup - there have been 2303 races. Ambrose became the 182nd man to hoist a winner's trophy.

"I've tried for two and a half years now to get to Victory Lane, and I just have to thank [crew chief]Todd [Parrott] for giving me the chance," he said after the win.

"We're getting on great as a team. We're all blending well. We understand each other.

We're good friends and have respect for each other, and it's very important when you motorsport news

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get days like this where you can rely on -1 can rely on Todd to make good judgment calls on the box, and he can rely on me to go out there and do my job."

With three consecutive Nationwide wins at The Glen, Ambrose went to the track with some favourtism among the fans. But this year there was a significant change; he skipped the Nationwide race and focused solely on the Cup event.

"It would have been good to do that race on Saturday," he says. "It would have given me a good feel on the tyres and how they were going to wear during the race. There was no silver lining, if you like, and it was just disappointing not to be able to keep going with the Nationwide streak.

"But, it doesn't really matter. The race doesn't pay what it needed to, to win and we could not do it on the sponsorship that we had. It was not right for everybody and we shouldn't have been doing it. I had an opportunity to do it, but the right thing to www.rtinews.com.au

do was to do it with RPM and Ford, and we just couldn't put it together.

"Next year, though, I want to do the Nationwide race. Whoever is listening out there, I want to do it and win two on the weekend."

But those three races, and near-misses in Cup at The Glen and Infineon in California, made Ambrose a marked man. Even with a lack of Ws in the stats column, he was expected to do well.

"I have come close before to winning races on road courses, and it is always tough," he says.

“There is the weight of expectation. I have done well on the road courses and I

Including Carl Edwards'. The man who has led the Sprint Cup points for most of the 2011 season said prior to the Glen event that in his opinion, Ambrose would have been capable of winning in Formula 1.

"For Carl to say that, I appreciate it," Ambrose admits.

"I tried to get to Formula 1 and didn't make it. If I have a chance to do it again, you know, I might be too old.

"But I love racing. I'm a hobby racer. I do it because I love it, and I'm lucky enough to get paid, and I'm a historian. I love old school racing, I love knowing about the old style racecars and the drivers from back in the

have not finished worse than third there [at Watkins Glen] in my previous three starts.

So naturally, people were looking at it as a race that I could win. With that comes added

day. I have a passion for the sport, and I think it helps me on the racetrack. I'm a good student. I watch others around me and try to do better.

"We now need to win on the ovals. I've won

pressure and it was not very helpful, to be honest. You have to deal with not only your own expectations, but everyone else's."

on a road course In Sprint Cup Series, it's awesome, but for me now the next nil big chalienge is Michigan coming 23

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up next week and Bristol the week after that, because I want to win badly on those, and I'm trying hard to work out the missing link between myself and guys like Carl who can win on those ovals consistently," So, it came to the race. Ambrose qualified third, behind Kyle Busch and his own team-mate,,AJ Allmendinger. As the race unfolded, as is often the case with NASCAR road races, there were plenty of incidents and it came down to a fight between Busch and Ambrose, with the added fixture of Brad Keselowski, who had made his way through in the Penske Miller Lite Dodge.

And that was some effort. Keselowski's form leading into The Glen race could not have been more remarkable, having won at Pocono in spite of a broken ankle.That fracture was sustained while he was practicing for the road course event at Road Atlanta.

Keselwoski does not particularly rate himself as a road racer; "You know, we only do this two times a year,"he said after the race."I counted on my fingers the amount of times I've raced at road courses in my life; you know,fingers and toes. I guess it was 12 career road course starts between Nationwide and Cup,and he's [Ambrose] got to have 10 times that at least, maybe more.

"So he's got experience. He's a good driver with experience with a competitive car, where the rest of us are probably OK drivers, and he just... he's a cut above right now,and I would expect him to stay that way with his experience level for quite some while."

But Ambrose does not quite see it that way; "No way! He is an awesome road racer! The whole field is pretty stout; look at Andrew Ranger, he was in the pack all day. Michael McDowell has got speed. Juan Montoya and Jimmie Johnson; these guys have got skills, they are excellent drivers. They could stand up and be a contender in any road race in the world.

"And these cars are as hard as any cars there are on a road course.They are way overpowered, with 860-odd horsepower these days, on a skinny

tyre with not enough brake. You have got your hands full the whole day."

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n what he thinks is the same car he raced at Infineon - with up lo 10 ears in llie team's

workshop, it is hard to tell sometimes - Ambrose ran with the leaders all day.

Clearly Busch, who set a qualifying record to take the pole and who counts the 2008 Glen race as one of his 22 Cup victories, was the man to beat.The two men were fast, evenly matched and seemed to have a slight edge over everyone else.

It was a matter of who made the least mistakes.

"I had a run at him,and I had a couple chances," said Ambrose after the race,"and he locked up a tyre and I missed a shift and locked up my tyres and got all frazzled. So [I] was cooling everything back down to have one more shot at him. I knew the laps were winding down, but he was struggling. He was fighting his car. I could see that he was really loose up over the esses. I was going to have another shot at him if I was within three or four lengths coming into the last brake because I knew I was going to go through him to try to win!

"We were great on fuel. We had enough for five laps; we could have run green-white-checker overtime if we needed. We had no issues but everyone else on was on a two-stop strategy, and would have been in trouble. We had no problems but a couple of our'team-mates', other drivers in the Roush fleet, ran out before their pitstops.That strategy did not work for us."

Then the yellow flag flew.

"When the caution came out, I actually was pretty happy about it, letting everything cool down and have another shot at him," he said.

So,the race came down to a green-whitechecker finish. Ambrose was in second and leader Busch, predictably, picked the inside line.

Ambrose lost the restart, spinning the rears and allowing Keselowski to get inside him.

"I was just trying to get it down [to the inside of the track]," Ambrose explained.

"I tried to actually blend in behind him

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because I knew I was never going to out-brake the #18 - he was just kind of sidled off in there trying to win the race, and that's exactly what he did. But I couldn't find a hole, so I kind of got stuck in Turn 1."

Busch was wide on the exit and with Keselowski down his inside, Ambrose was in a sandwich but had a gap. As the Toyota dropped back, he gunned the Ford and took off after Keselowski's Dodge. Suddenly, the guy who needed road racing homework, who was in pain every time he used the clutch, was in front and the man Ambrose had to beat.

And he got him; one shot, clean as a whistle.

"I just got through the Bus Stop [chicane] really good and just forced the issue on him, and I never touched him i don't think, but I got him error-free and was able to slide past."

It was as clean a move as Ambrose ever made in V8 Supercar races. He took the white flag, with a lap to go, and half-way around the final lap all hell broke loose further back, with a melee involving Boris Said, David Ragan and David Reutimann.

With cars in the fences, upside down and spun on the track, and the rules freezing the 26

field at the moment the yellow is unfurled, an Aussie had a win in the Sprint Cup for the first time.

It was a massive win for the team, which was rebuilt over the off-season - an off season during which,for the first time since he moved to the USA, Ambrose did not come home for a break.

"This time last year I didn't know what I was going to be doing," he says.

"1 didn't know I was going to be in the Cup Series. [I] took some chances, was on the roller coaster with the whole Petty team when it went through the changes the end of last year, and to get into Victory Lane is just a dream come true for Ford and Stanley and DeWalt and all the other partners that make this #9 team run."

Of course, he has had almost a season to gauge the worth of the change from JTG Daugherty Racing, and having to exit his 2011 commitment there, to join RPM. What made the difference, and what was the attraction?

"It is the extra knowledge that the team has," he says.

"There is a will to win. We have a fullyfunded car, good people and good

resources are we are rebuilding the team.

That takes time. When Jimmie Johnson went to Hendrick, he did not win in his first year with the team.That takes time.

"We are not panicking. We have already won a race. We have had seven top-1 Os and that is already pretty good. But we have no had the consistency; that is what we need to fix to be a contender moving forward.

"Todd Parrott is going to be an All-Star crew chief. He has won two Daytona 500s, two Brickyard 400s, he has won a championship. He has made an Australian make it into Victory Lane!There is a lot of good stuff that he has done and it is good to have that depth."

Parrott, who at 47 is one of the most experienced crew chiefs in pitlane, leaves no doubts as to what he thinks of his driver.

"Well, when they first started talking about it last year," he says,"when Elliott [Sadler], I think, made his decision that he was going to leave and where they were going to put me and what was going to happen and they had Marcos coming aboard, we started talking and developed a relationship toward the end of last year, and then over nil the winter, doing some road course motorsport news

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MBROSE'S Watkins Glen win puts him in pretty exalted company.

The first foreign-born winner in NASCAR'S premier division was, ironically, Mario Andretti, a man as proud of his Italian roots as he is of his American citizenship. After making four starts in 1966 for three different owners in what was then called the NASCAR Grand National Series, Andretti dominated the 1967 Daytona 500, driving a Ford for Holman Moody,leading 112 of the 200 laps to win. Only team-mate Fred Lorenzen was on the same lap as The Fonz.

The last'foreigner'to win before Ambrose was Juan Pablo Montoya, who won at Sonoma during his second year in the Sprint Cup Series in 2007. JPM scored a second win last year at, predictably, Watkins Glen. Between them, Andretti and Montoya have won practically everything these is to win in motorsport; a World Drivers'title, two Indy 500s, the Monaco GP and Champ Car and CART titles.

But there is one more driver in this elite group. His name is Earl Ross - and I bet you never heard of him.The Canadian came into what was called the Winston Cup Series in 1973 and, with the backing of brewing giant Carling, ran a full season the following year. Ross started to get some good results, fifth at Charlotte and second and Michigan, by the time the NASCAR circus stopped at Martinsville in September for the Old Dominion 500.

And he won. Starting 11 th, Ross guided his Junior Johnsonbuilt Chevrolet to second place, a lap behind team-mate Cale Yarborough. When his engine expired, Ross took over the lead and won by a lap,from Buddy Baker and Donnie Allison.

The following year, Carling withdrew its backing from NASCAR, leaving Ross to pursue domestic racing north of the border. He made only two more starts at Cup level in 1975 and '76, finishing nowhere. Ross remained an asterisk on the statistics list for 33 years, until Montoya's victory.

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testing and stuff. We got to spend a lot of time together. I kind of gave him my background, where I came from, and I knew what his background was and I knew the talent that he was and just to be patient, "That's the thing about this sport is Just - if you're patient and you keep working hard, sooner or later you'll be able to celebrate with all the fruits and the excitement and all the good things that happen in it.

"He's kept his head down, he's worked hard just like our whole team has, and it's just a pleasure to work with a guy like this. Like you said, we get along great, and I think each week the communication gets better, and I'm just really looking forward to the end of the season and hopefully we can go out and win a couple races.

"We've been good on the ovals. We've had some great runs this year, chances to win at a couple racetracks. I think, like you said, Marcos said, getting this win and getting the load off his shoulders is going to help him.

I think mentally, and it'll help us as a team knowing that we can win,that we can go out here with the Kyle Busches and the Juan Pablo Montoyas and the Jimmie Johnsons and all the great drivers that are out here in this sport and we can win.

"To me a guy that can run like he does on a road course with the finesse that it takes is the type of driver that it takes to run everywhere,short tracks, intermediate [tracks]. He's got a feel for a racecar like no other, and he can do this everywhere he goes: So I have total faith in him,and I hope he feels the same way about me."

Ambrose is confident that he can continue to win, and win on ovals.

"We are really close," he says."We have not been quite there with our car set-up. People have been talking about us winning a race and we are an outside bet for The Chase, but 1 am not focused on that at all. We have to keep going and so the best we can. We want to finish this year off strong."

With all the doubts that were raised about

the team's future during the off-season, there were suggestions that he might have ended up back in Australia, He has also said in the past that he wanted his family educated in Australia, but that is possibly more aimed at High School years, giving him a few years to go in America ...

"Eventually I'm going to get spat out of the sport, right?" he says."You can't drive forever unless you're Mark Martin, and I'm happy.

I'm happy with what I've done. I've got to Victory Lane. I can go home knowing that I've won in the Sprint Cup Series, and it's a proud day for myself and my family."

When Marcos Ambrose arrived in NASCAR,the other drivers called him 'Kangaroo Meat', a tag he embraced as part of the process of getting himself established in the world's most competitive racing landscape. Six years later, the nickname brings a smile to his face.

"They can call me whatever they want," he grins."I am a Sprint Cup winner and they can call me what they want."

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AMBROSE: QUOTE, UNQUOTE...

ROSS STONE TEAM OWNER,STONE BROTHERS RACING

7 thought that Marcos could win a Cup race, and would always win his first race on a road course, and now he has.

Winning the first race is always the hardest, and I think now that he can win the next one on an oval."

DICK JOHNSON OWNER,JIM BEAM RACING, AND FORMER NASCAR COMPETITOR 7 think that it is a very, very tough business over there. It is obvious that Marcos has the right equipment with his team,and he has the ability to win,even on ovals. That is a special talent. He has come out in front ofsome ofthe best, and that is where he deserves to be."

THE HON LARA GIDDINGS TASMANIAN PREMIER "NASCAR is one ofthe most watched sports, notjust in the USA, but around the world and this is a significant victory for a Launceston boy who started out racing go-karts at the Archerville track.

"Marcos reached the top ofAustralian motorsport before taking the risk to pursue his dream ofracing in the United States. He has always strived to reach the highest levels ofachievement in his chosen sport and this win is a fitting reward for many years ofeffort.

"I know I speak for all Tasmanians in congratulating Marcos for this win, which we hope will be the first of many more to come."

30

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THERE ARE PEOPLE WHO TAKE 1J FITNESS SERIOUSLY, THEN I THERE’S DAVID REYNOLDS. I ● ♦ MITCHELL ADAM SPOKE TO THE KELIY RACINtG DRIVER ABOUT GETTING OUT THERE

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AVID Reynolds isn't your average V8 Supercar driver.

When MNews arrives at his Melbourne apartment for a chat, it's the week after Townsville, he's on laundry duty and washing house-mate Daniel Gaunt's underwear.

So, it comes as no surprise to learn the 26-year-old does his own thing on the fitness front. As races have become longer and the series itself more competitive,fitness has become more and more important, to the point where every V8 Supercar driver - and those aiming to get into the show - must take it incredibly seriously. But you get the feeling Reynolds might just take the healthy cake in his dedication to the cause. Last year, out of a fulltime ride, fitness was his focus. Speaking to him before the 2010 enduros, he told me he hated"things like "birthdays, Christmas and Easter and that sort of stuff, because it takes away from what I want to do"on the fitness front.

Back in the game with Kelly Racing as a full-timer, he's got more interruptions in 2011, but he's still passionate and genuinely enthusiastically about a side of the sport some drivers would consider a chore. Part of that enthusiasm comes from his work with Melbourne-based medical professional Trevor Chetcuti, who has overhauled Reynolds'training and fitness regime in recent years.

"My mate recommended him to me in 2008, so I went along," Reynolds recalls.

"At the time, I was doing a lot of high-intensity, high heart rate stuff.

I was always sick, I was always sore, I never recovered properly and I never slept well.

"I was never eating the proper food - I was eating pastas, breads, potatoes, which is all out of my diet now. I didn't like what he told me at all at the start, but I knew I was onto something good. He said it'd probably take a good six months to a year to reverse all of the damage that had been done, and it was probably a year."

Primarily a chiropractor, Chetcuti has expanded his range over the last 10 years into clinical science, and has worked with various athletes and sporting bodies in that time. Reynolds'arrival was the first time he'd worked with a V8 Supercar driver. www.mnews.com.au

"One of the big things when I first started working with David about three or four years ago was that his system was almost in an over stressed state, like he'd been working way too hard," he says.

"Part of the reason for that was that he'd actually been training almost like a power athlete, with a lot of strength-orientated work, a lot of high-intensity work. When we started getting through his system and looking at the requirements he had for racing, what it came down to was that he needed to train more like an endurance athlete as opposed to a power athlete.

"So we basically came up with a program which was designed to improve the way his body metabolises fat. By metabolising fat better, it significantly improves his endurance."

The focal point of the program is Reynolds'aerobic fitness, essentially working on carrying out a physical activity - driving a V8 Supercar in this case - at a lower heart rate, therefore requiring less effort. Rather than,for instance, getting smashed by a personal trainer to improve fitness by hitting your limit. Reynolds'aerobic fitness is monitored through regular Maximum Aerobic Function tests, conducted every three weeks on average.

A five-kilometre run at is completed at a set heart rate, with the time for each kilometre recorded. As aerobic fitness improves between tests, the time for each kilometre improves, and vice versa when fitness has regresses.

"When we're looking at aerobic capacity, most people use what we call V02 max, which is basically the conversion rate of oxygen in the lungs,"Chetcuti explains.

"That's fantastic, but we also know that there are a lot of athletes whose V02 max drops over the years, but their performance actually improves as they get older. When you look at it in more detail, what you get to is that it's probably more to do with the way they metabolise fat.

"The aerobic system is really about how effectively you burn fat and how well you convert oxygen in the lungs, together, that allow you to have that performance.

"We've calculated through a whole heap of different tests.

IIBI 35

motorsport news

YOU END UP HATING YOUR IPOD BECAUSE YOU END UP LISTENING TO THE SAME SONGS SO MANY TIMES the exact heart-rate where Dave's fat metabolism is at a very low level and we get him to train at or around that level.

"During the off-season we actually have a whole base program that we put him through to get his aerobic capacity up to the highest level possible, then through the season it's more about managing that, trying to make sure he doesn't go backwards, rather than trying to build It through the season.

"We do the Aerobic Function test to monitor that. By doing that every three weeks,the changes that we see in performance from test to test to test give us a very good idea of exactly where his system's at at the moment."

Another finding early while working with Reynolds was the unique nature of his heart rate during activity, which his program has also been built around in order to maximise his performance in the car.

"One of the big things we've worked out more than anything else with David was that his heart rate was very reactive,"Chetcuti says.

"When you're in a car, with all of the tests we've done, what happens, generally speaking, is as speed increases - irrespective of the g-forces on your system - you need to have an increase in alertness to maintain that. As a result, the heart rate naturally increases Just with speed.

"One of the things we found with Dave,though, is that he didn't have a natural rise in heart rate, his heart rate was very, very erratic.

It kind of shot up way quicker than it should and way higher than it should.

"So the program we put in place, to an extent, was trying to control that. We know that, based on the data that we've seen compared to data we've got from other drivers, his heart- rate is anywhere between 20 to 30 beats lower than most ofthe other drivers we've got data from. Having a lower heart rate in the car basically means better hand-eye co-ordination, less fatigue, better alertness.

"He can think a lot more clearly in the car. In a race like Townsville, it's like he's in the car having a nice casual Jog for two hours, as opposed to someone trying to sprint their guts out for two hours.

Having that lower heart rate in the car basically means that it's not such a big stress on the system." nil

he bulk of Reynolds'training regime is running and riding, with a Tlittle bit of weights and the odd swim thrown in. And it's lots of

running and lots of riding. Plus, being based in Melbourne, he gets to train in some ofthe world's most-pleasant weather. Several weeks after the primary interview and photoshoot - which itself was a cold, wet and bleak afternoon - I touch base with Reynolds, who's Just

finished a ride up to the Dandenong Ranges in Melbourne's east. He says, at 2pm,that it's two degrees, and a picture message of fog soon follows.

"You end up hating your iPod because you end up listening to the same songs so many times," Reynolds says of the grind.

"I can't train with anyone else because your ego comes into it and your plan and strategy goes out of the window and you don't really benefit from it.

"Before the season, I was doing a lot of miles, a lot of running, a lot of riding, a good week would be 300-400 kays on the bike and 40 to 50 kays running. I might do two or three runs a week or 10, 15,20,25 kays, depending on where I was and what I did the previous day.

"Then I'd have three rides a week. I'd do anywhere from a recovery ride, which is 50 kays, to a longer ride, which is 120-plus kays.Trev sets my program and expects me to follow It." Once the season starts, though, it's all about recovery and making sure Reynolds is in prime condition when he next hops into the Stratco Commodore.

"The hardest part of it, really, is monitoring the workload that he can cope with,"Chetcuti says.

"If he's had,for instance, races within a fortnight of each other,the amount of stress that is placed on the system -just from the high intensity stuff over the weekend, given that they're not Just racing on one day, it's three or four days in the car - is quite significant.

"So the recovery time takes a few days. With a recovery time of a few days, and a few days to prepare for the next race, if races are two weeks apart, you really don't have much time do to much fitness stuff.

"If we do an Aerobic Function test today, and he races this weekend and races next weekend, and then we do another Aerobic Function test and find that there's been a massive decrease in that, we adjust his workload and adjust exactly what he does and the type of training he does, almost week by week,to make sure he doesn't go backwards at all during the season."

That means gradually reducing his workload in the week before each race meeting, and building back up following each race meeting once his body has recovered. After Townsville, where his coolsuit failed in Saturday's race, Reynolds was spent and,fortunately, on a pre-planned, mid-year week off training.

"Before a race meeting, you bring down your miles," Reynolds says.

"To taper down, you reduce a block by around 50 percent on the Saturday a week before the race, then another 50 percent on the Monday,and by, say, the Wednesday, you're Just doing

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YOU SPEND THREE OR FOUR DAYS RECOVERING - Reynolds on race meetings a warm-up and cool-down, you're not actually doing any training.

"The weekend takes a lot out of you, you're dehydrated.

On Saturday my coolsuit failed and Trev said it would probably take three days to recover. Now (Ed: on the Wednesday after Townsville) I'm rundown completely, I'd lost 2.5 kilos by the time I got home on Monday, most of it's Just water.

"So you spend three or four days recovering before you taper back up into your normal routine."

Even the'normal routine'varies throughout a season, with the MAE test used to monitor how Reynolds' body is holding up. All races are treated the same, with no extra training before the more physically demanding races, although they are a factor in the aftermath.

"Exactly how much training I'm doing depends on how I'm coping with everything, it all factors in the stress as well," he says.

"There's a lot of stress involved in racing a car for a weekend, because it's so out of your comfort zone. It all depends on the MAE test. If the time's going down, you're getting faster in the same aerobic zone, obviously your body is coping with the amount of stress that's going on.

"But if it's getting slower, you're going to have to start winding back your training and doing more recovery stuff."

Much of Chetcuti's work with athletes has been with endurance athletes, such as triathletes and adventure racers, who are focusing on several key events in a calendar year. In Reynolds'case,though, he has 15 events to focus on - plus five test days - between February and December. It poses a unique challenge.

"One of the biggest problems that we have with is that the series itself is, off the top of my head,the longest-running sports event in the world, in terms of the length of the season," Chetcuti says.

"It's a ridiculously long season. They're pretty much racing all of the 38

time, it's not like they have one race and take six weeks off, and then another race; it's pretty consistent.

"Normally what we do with guys who are doing major endurance events is run them through cycles. We have these six months cycles we go through where we have a base-building phase, where we're basically looking at endurance, a phase where we build strength and speed on top of that,followed by a taper down for their main event.

"We kind of run cycles based on that, based on what events they have, any lead-up events, all of those kind of things.The issue we've got with the V8 series is, more or less, there's no peak or trough, you've basically got to be at that same level the whole way through.

"We need to make sure we don't have him stressed out at all, keeping him calm throughout the entire season. Which also means trying to sort out times that best suit him when we can give him a break away from no training at all, and allow his system to recover, because it's a 10-month season, it's a ridiculously long season."

A

wide range of factors influence fat metabolism and, ultimately, fitness. Some can't be controlled, but others, like diet, can.

As such, Reynolds has been given a strict set of guidelines to eat within, outlining the percentages of carbohydrates,fat and protein in his diet. It's accompanied by a list of what he can and can't eat. With potatoes, pumpkin and white bread among the items in the latter category, the emphasis is on consuming low Gl foods.

"I'm always watching what I eat and I've got this computer program where I type in what I eat as well, and it shows up the data so you can get the proper ratios going. I have to have a certain percentage of carbs,fats and proteins, and Trev's pretty strict on it," Reynolds says.

"Whenever I eat bad, or eat high Gl foods, I wake up sore the next day, my throat's really, really dry and I don't feel very good at all. My MAE tests are severely slower as well. Then Trevor gets motorsport news

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me to eat better and my time comes back. It takes three or four days for it to reverse itself."

Reynolds even has his own race meeting rituals. He sends a bike to each event in the Kelly Racing transporter, and jumps on it before getting in the car, to warm up and get his heart rate into its required range. He can feel the benefits, and some of his standout performances so far this season have come in 20-minute qualifying sessions, where there's no time to waste.

"I'll do 15 to 20 minutes on the pushbike, starting off very, very slowly and slowly ramping it up to the aerobic zone," he says.

"I still get paid out about it, but I know it works. I feel good when I get into the car, and I'm focused straight away and I'm always up there on the first set of tyres.

"The warm-up's basically to start telling your body to start burning fat better, when you start burning fat more effectively, your concentration is better, your hand-eye coordination is better and your endurance is better."

With a racing weight of 65kg, Reynolds is among the very lightest in the field, making fluid intake even more vital. Reynolds makes his own fluid mixture and endeavours to get through a 3.5 litre bottle during a race to stay hydrated.

"Because I'm skinny, I heat up quicker and I cool down a lot quicker,' he says.

"Last year, when I was doing heaps of training and not racing as much, I had to weigh myself before every training session and weigh myself after every training session, calculate the water loss per hour and factor in the degrees centigrade and the humidity and that sort of stuff.

"And I've got this graph of how much water I need to drink every hour based on water loss from physical activity. It comes in handy knowing that when it's 30 degrees, you've got to drink a litre an hour, minimum, probably more.

"Now, I weigh myself before every race and after every race, dry, so I can see how much water I've lost and how much I need to drink before the next day. For every one percent of body fat you lose, you 40

lose 10 percent of brain function. For 2.5 kilos, that s 20 percent, and I may as well not be out there.

"I make my own solution to drink in the car, with sugar, water, sea salt and other stuff as well. I measure and make it up before every race. It's easy to drink, doesn't bloat you - it just tastes like sugar and water. I try to get through most of it, sometimes I forget to and I have to drink after the race."

Highly rated throughout the paddock, it's hard to see Reynolds having to spend another year on the sidelines, as he did in 2010.

Now 27, he's looking to build a successful career in V8 Supercars, and feels well prepared, physically, to do so through his work with Chetcuti.

"I think what's what it's mainly done for me, is give me a plan of training," he says.

"It's given me a proper theory to work on, and I know it's the right way to go. What I was doing before, I was getting a bit fitter here and there, but I was always sick and run down,and this has turned my life around, 180 degrees.

"It all changed for me halfway through 2009 when I had a huge migraine for like eight weeks straight,for a full two months when I was racing the Bundaberg Red car. Trev said 'you've got to do this otherwise you're not going to get any better'. I thought I had some serious problems, but it turned out it was nothing like that at all.

Ever since then, I haven't done any different training.

"And I know it works. Just doing different things, what he told me to do and I did it, and it felt really, really slow. I thought'what's this actually doing for me?'but over time it gets really fast and you're not working any harder, and that's the whole point of it.

"I wore my heart rate monitor at a test day, saw what it was.Then I did it six months later, saw what it was, it's a lot less and I feel a lot better, a lot more relaxed in the car and that's what it comes down to at the end of the day.

"It's not about how many minutes per kay, how far you run, how long you ride for, it's nothing like that. It's about your fitness In the car and performance in the car." motorsport news

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IZE might not be important, but it sure is impressive. $ Standing outside the Toll Holden RacIngTeam's \workshop in Clayton, near Melbourne, it's hard not to be impressed by the team's transporter as it glistens in the w/inter sun. It's only in semi trailer form today, with the BDouble trailer disconnected after post-Townsville unpacking, but the UD GW470 still cuts an imposing figure.

While I feel completely dwarfed by the massive UD tractor, HRT driver Garth Tander looks right at home. His 6"2' frame seems suited to the rig as he clambers inside the cabin; in fact, he looks more comfortable in the truck than he ever did crammed in a Formula Ford.

Tander is no stranger to trucks. As a self-made V8 Supercar driver, Tander spent his formative years in the sport singing for his supper. He drove trucks when he worked for Fastlane Racing while competing in Formula Ford, he drove trucks while working on the workshop floor at Garry Rogers Motorsport in his early V8 Supercar days, and he drove trucks when he and wife Leanne started their own race team, TanderSport, several years ago.

These days Tander doesn't have to drive trucks. HRT has its own truck driver, Joe Sullivan, and TanderSport's truck driving duties were eventually shifted to Leanne, and then to one of the crew members. But it doesn't take much convincing to get Tander behind the wheel of the GW470,and once there he recalls that there is something strangely relaxing about piloting a 70-ton monster on the open road.

"Truck drivers are strange creatures; they seem to like going places on their own,"says Tander.

"I remember when I used to drive the truck it was the same thing; you can quite happily drive up the road, do your own thing, solve the world's problems... it's very therapeutic.

It's very unlike driving a V8 Supercar."

Today we're confined to the Clayton Business Park due to licensing restrictions, so there's motorsport news

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no open road driving, but it is a great opportunity forTander to get up close and personal with the GW470.The tractor is one of three on loan from UD to Walkinshaw Racing, with two GW470S(one for the HRT transporter and one for the Bundaberg Racing transporter), and a smaller Mk6 used to tow Cameron McConville's Ute, carry spares, and run errands around Melbourne between race meetings.

It's a pretty typical set-up; most V8 Supercar teams own their own trailers, and then do lease, loan or sponsorship deals for the prime movers. It makes sense, because a V8 Supercar transporter only covers about 40-50,000 kilometres a year, which is pittance in the world of interstate transport. So, at the end of the season,the movers www.mriews.com.au

can be re-sold as low-kilometre units, with fresh trucks brought in for the new year.

The concept of driving the GW470 with its 18-speed gearbox sounds daunting, but asTander points out, the days of crude roadranger manual gearboxes and double clutching are long gone.

"These trucks aren't necessarily complicated to drive, especially now with the automatic gearboxes, and the power that the engines are producing,"says Tander.

"It's pretty much stick it in drive, take the park brake off, and drive it away.The tractor has a clutch, because it's like a semi-automated gearbox. For launching, you use the clutch and then it essentially changes gears by itself. It's not quite that simple, because when the

truck is in B-Double form, it's a big unit. But actually physically driving these trucks is actually quite comfortable.

"I learnt to drive with a roadranger gearbox, and it was much harder. Now it's like with cars; you can get a roadranger license or an automatic license, and if you have a roadranger license then you can drive anything. Nowadays,the fatigue level when you're driving trucks like this are much lower at the end of a journey, because the trucks are much easier to drive.

"Sure, you still need to be vigilant and alert when you're driving, but physically its easier, so drivers are more refreshed throughout a trip - especially on the long-haul trips, like Perth, Darwin and Townsville."

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figure on the GW470's spec sheet. Strangely impressive is that this massive tractor, capable of pulling huge loads around the country, only makes 360kW (460hp)- well down on the power figure of a V8 Supercar, which is closer to 635hp. But, the 13-litre turbocharged six-cylinder diesel engine makes that power at IBOOrpm, and produces a whopping 2255Nm of torque at just 1200rpm. Now compare that to a V8 Supercar, which makes around 616Nm of torque at its peak.

"It's all about torque," says Tander from the driver's seat.

"Diesel engines are all about torque, not power.That's how these trucks maintain their speed at the 1 OOkmh speed

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limit. Maintaining a speed up hills out in the country is critical, and you have to get these things off the line, too.The more torque they have the better they get going, particularly on B-Double weight. You can have as much as horsepower as you want, but if a prime mover has no torque, you're not going anywhere.

"If you look here (Tander points to the dials), we're red-lining at 2200 rpm,and the operating range is 1100 to 1700. A V8 Supercar operating range is 7100 to 7400,so we're ta I king about a 6,000 rev difference.

It's a vastly different engine characteristic."

Of course, producing huge levels of torque from a diesel engine comes at a cost -

emissions. In the modern world of carbon taxes and melting ice caps, trucks blazing around in a trail of black smoke is a big no-no, with a worldwide emphasis on low emissions in road transport. UD trucks has been a world leader in lowering emissions, and the GW470 sets international standards thanks to its ECO Fleet technology.

"With the move to Euro 5 Emissions Standards, the entire industry is becoming more aware that we have to be more environmentally responsible," says John Bushell, President of UD Trucks Region Oceania.

"Fortunately for us here at UD Trucks, we have been at the forefront of emissions control for many years. While some people believe that it was

the European manufacturers who first introduced Selective Catalytic Reduction technology for road transport, it was actually UDTrucks in Japan, and we are proud to still be further developing the system to this day.

"The system easily copes with the demands of modern distribution work, while effortlessly meeting the Euro 5 emissions levels without sacrificing engine durability or oil change intervals."

In more simple terms,the ECO Fleet technology surpasses Euro 5 standards by complying with the stricter Japanese JPLT 05 emissions standards.The SCR system adds a fluid called AdBlue to the truck's specially-designed

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TENDER TALKS THE TORQUE 47

III catalytic chamber in the exhaust system, where Nitrous Oxides are converted into harmless Nitrogen (N2)and water(H20). So not only does HRT's tractor make all the torque necessary to haul a V8 Supercar team around the country, but it does so without destroying the earth.

The other hugely efficient part of a tractor like the GW470 is the brakes. With air brakes on the mover and the trailer, coupled with the exhaust brake, the set up is actually too efficient for how it is configured today, with just an unloaded semi-trailer on-board.

"When you're driving on the highway, and you know you have to slow up, you very rarely use the brakes, you just tend to use the engine brake," says Tander."It's an effective system, but the cost is the noise, so it can't be used in residential areas.

"The air brakes are very, very effective too. You're carrying a lot of weight, so pulling that weight up inside a reasonable distance is important.The brakes are effective to the point where if you're not carrying enough weight, it's easy to lock the tyres up.You often see that with trucks that aren't carrying any load. It's just because the brakes work best when they're stopping a heavy load. Air brakes are completely different to hydraulic brakes, but can create massive amounts of stopping power."

Due to the sheer size of a B-Double truck, safety is very important. Along with the surprisingly effective braking system, the GW470 also has FURS, otherwise known as Front Underrun Protection System.

It's essentially a bar set low on 48

the front of the truck that will ensure that a regular car's airbag system will deploy in the event of contact. Without FURS,trucks often strike passenger cars too high to deploy the airbags, worsening the outcome.

But as great as the mod-cons are,Tander adds that driver vigilance is the most important safety aspect.

"Vision is the hardest part," he says.

"You're up higher and you can see plenty happening in front of you, but it's a big thing.

This truck actually has great vision; you can see almost everywhere.The mirror layouts are so important, particularly being able to see down into this blind spot (Tander points almost straight down through the driver's side door)."There's also external cameras that run through the entertainment system,so as you can see it's essentially a 360-degree view.

It's no so much about knowing what's ahead of you, but knowing what's around you especially when you're driving around town.

"You also need to keep a good eye on what might be carving in front of you. Everyone is guilty of it - pulling in front of a truck.

It's not until you drive trucks that you realise'hey, that isn't a cool thing to be doing,'because trucks take longer to stop. You need to be aware that it's going to happen even before it does, and that's just being aware of what's around you and what cars are coming up underneath the doors.That's critical.

"You have to keep your wits about yourself. You're carrying $10 million worth of cargo, so you can't doze off. A truck driver's role is massively underrated."

GARTH Tander doesn't drive trucks these days.

At the Holden Racing Team,that role goes to Joe Sullivan. He's responsible for making sure that the HRT B-Double, which houses both Commodores and all of the gear required to run them,arrives to each race meeting on time and safely.

But Sullivan's weekend role doesn't end upon arriving at the race track.

"He also works on the tyres,"says Tander.

"The majority of truck drivers on pit-lane have a second role in their team,and for the majority of the truck drivers it is tyres, so looking after pressures and depths and getting tyres on and off rims.

"That's the same role Joe plays back at the factory. He maintains the trucks,and makes sure they're clean and operating, and loaded and unloaded in the right order,and then in between that he looks after tyres."

As forTanderSport, up until late last year the truck driving role belonged to LeanneTander.She is still licensed to drive big rigs, although the thought of the petit fastfemme behind the wheel of a B-Double seems a little strange.

"She hasn't driven the truck for a while, but she was driving up until about Bathurst last year,"says Garth.

"I remember Greg Murphy rang me after a Winton round, because he was driving back to Melbourne and he went past the TanderSport truck. He looked in the window,saw who was driving, and then rang me and abused me! I said'hey. I'm not licensed to drive and she is!'

"That proves that these modern trucks are not impossible to drive.

Leanne is obviously a very capable driver when it comes to racing cars, but this is totally different. However,if you go and get your license, do the training, modern day trucks are something anyone can drive.

"You don't need to be wearing a singlet and stubby shorts to drive a truck these days.The trucks have come a long way."

- ANDREW VAN LEEUWEN

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Whitinarsh is two World C^Hampion successful on al fronts.

FTER more than two decades in the sport, Martin Whitmarsh has risen to become one of the most influentiai and respected men in the paddock. He sits at the head of the i Formula 1 table as the teams' representative, alongside its I commercial boss Bernie Ecclestone and FIA President Jean » Todt, helping shape the future of the Grand Prix racing. : Previous McLaren chief Ron Dennis served the team admirably after taking it over in the early 1980s, transforming the then struggling team into a Formula 1 powerhouse. He was feared and respected in equal measure, his track record proof beyond doubt that his methods worked. However by the end of his tenure, he seemed both exhausted and exasperated, in need of a new challenge away from motorsport and the media barrage he so frequently battled with.

A burgeoning business empire beckoned, Dennis looking to diversify the McLaren brand he had worked so hard to build, leaving Whitmarsh to head up the racing team that became just one part of the larger company.

That has led to a warmer relationship with the media.

Whitmarsh doesn't seem to share his predecessor's discomfort with the press, apparently as comfortable in a room full of Journalists as he is surrounded by engineers.

It's Just as well, since McLaren is under constant demand by the British media, keen to hearfroni its country's two most recent world champions.

With Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button, the team boasts arguably the strongest driver line-up on the grid, and it's been that pairing which has been the foundation for the success both the team, and Whitmarsh, have enjoyed over the last season and a half. After Fernando Alonso's time with the outfit ended in a brutally public slanging match, many pundits suggested the only way to ensure harmony was with a clearly defined team leader, as has been the Custom at Ferrari. Yet somehow the McLaren pairing works, blossoming In a way the Alonso/Hamilton combination never did, without even a hint of animosity or tension.

"There's a good spirit in the team, a good relationship between the drivers and a good relationship between the drivers and the team,"Whitmarsh enthuses.

Sitting in the McLaren Brand Centre he's relaxed, chewing over my questions in between bites of an apple as we chat.

For a moment he ponders, as though running his response through an internal filter to ensure what he's about to say can't be misconstrued. For all the team's new-found openness towards the press, some habits die hard.

The team has learnt to be careful what it says in regards to Hamilton, for fear it'll become yet another headline as the hungry press grab whatever slithers of a story are on offer.

"We've known Lewis since he was 11> He's been brought up in the team, and is very well known in the team," he eventually says with a deliberate and thoughtful tone to his voice.

"He had a most extraordinary start to his Formula 1 career and had a lot of expectation placed on him, a lot of pressure.

He had this dream start; the first nine races he had nine podiums and was quickly winning races and competing for the championship in his first season.

McLaren is coping wel with two World Champs in one team ^111

Not in the history of Formula 1 has that ever happened to anyone. I think that took a bit of getting used to.

"He's grown and developed,"he adds,"but Lewis is still only 25 years old. He's still learning and developing. He is watching Jenson because he can learn from him.

Everyone can learn from Jenson."

Whitmarsh firmly believes signing Button is one of the finest moments of his managerial career, partly because he's now got two world champions at the team,but also because nobody saw it coming.

Joining the team at the start of 2010,on the back of his championship winning season with Brawn, Button's arrival was a masterstroke, bringing the sort of balance to the team not experienced since the days of Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard, almost a decade earlier.

"I don't think anyone thought that he was going to move from the team he'd been in for some time,the team he'd just won a world championship with,a team that was being invested in by Daimler. It had a lot of things going for it," he reasons.

"Not many people in the sport considered that he was about to jump to McLaren.

"It was opportunistic and I think he's brought a lot to the team in terms of his manner and his capability. I was absolutely

delighted," he continues with barely contained enthusiasm for the topic.

"He's a remarkable character,so comfortable in himself,so relaxed with it all. But don't let that kid anyone - he desperately wants to win. He wants to be out ofthe first corner in first place,there's no doubt about that."

With two highly charged,competitive drivers it seemed only a matter of time before things came to a head.It happened with Alonso,after all. However,after a season and a half together the relationship between the two drivers seems stronger than ever, proving the sceptics wrong.

"I think we've got two guys who want to win, who are very competitive,and are great world champions.They're very different in personality in some ways and similar in others, but I think they genuinely like each other and trust one another," Whitmarsh explains, playing down any hint of rivalry between the pair.

"They race hard and they want to beat each other. If either of them stopped wanting to beat the other I'd be worried."

In his day Dennis did his upmost to ensure his drivers had equal opportunities - even Ayrton Senna didn't enjoy preferential treatment. He encouraged his drivers to race, but under the strict

instruction that they were not to tangle with one another.In Canada Hamilton and Button did just that.

A touch between the pair ended Hamilton's race, while Button pressed on to seal a dramatic final lap win. If tensions were ever going to boil over,it was then - yet instead,the clash has somehow strengthened their bond,emphasising the type of camaraderie almost totally absent from modern professional sport,especially Formula I.The reaction - or to be more accurate,the lack of reaction - surprised the team as much as the media, who were waiting like hyenas to pounce on the first cracks in the pair's relationship.

What happened next impressed Whitmarsh more than anything his drivers could have done on track.

"The real testament to their relationship was, hot out of the car having had an accident,and before he got to the team to be moderated, before he had time to be calmedi the media were on Lewis' case about Jenson as he walked back.

Immediately he said 'it was one of those things, j know he didn't do it deliberately'.

I think it was a quite extraordinary testament to Lewis,and his trust in Jenson."

While Hamilton's calm may have impressed Whitmarsh, what was to follow

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FK452 Englishmen at work: Only a few years ago, Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso clashed at McLaren but now, it seems that Whitmarsh has struck gold. He rates signing Jenson Button as his greatest achievement, and the two English drivers appear to get along fine. left him stunned. During the rain delay, something more often attributed to cricket than FI, both drivers discussed the incident.

"It was unusual that the two drivers got together, and I happened to be there when it happened. Jenson said 'sorry mate, I didn't think that was going to happen'. Lewis accepted it. They were both so natural and relaxed about it which is, in my experience having worked with a number of drivers, fairly extraordinary."

While the drivers enjoy a good relationship, that same weekend Hamilton fired a shot across McLaren's bow. A less than subtle meeting with Red Bull boss Christian Horner sparked speculation the 2008 world champion could move on when his current deal runs out at the end of 20l 2. It was the first example of McLaren's protege looking elsewhere, and to do it in public was no doubt designed to send a very clear message to the team.

Despite his history with McLaren, and the investment it's made in him, Hamilton is not irreplaceable. There's perhaps no better example than the man sat opposite me, Whitmarsh having replaced the man who, for so many years, was the heart and soul of McLaren. Yet when Dennis did stand aside the team continued almost without noticing.

highlighting the fact that the this team is bigger than any individual.

Inevitably the time will come when Hamilton, or perhaps Button, will decide they've had enough with either the team . or FI. It's a something McLaren is ready for, even if Whitmarsh hopes it's still some way away, "i think because the team is honest and straightforward with them, because we run a team whereby we're giving both an equal opportunity, which I think is why we have them here ^ it wouldn't happen in some of the other top teams - it's given us the opportunity to have two great drivers," he says. "We hope we'll have the same line up for a few years to come."

Like many of its rivals McLaren has a young driver programme aimed at preparing prospective talents for the rigours of FI. While others advertise their systems the Woking outfit prefers a lowkey approach. The only real indication of its interest in driver development is the McLaren Young Drivers Award, given to one British driver each year.

"We are very proud of the Young Driver Award," says Whitmarsh. "David Coulthard was the first winner of it and just about every British driver who's gone on to notable success in motorsport - with the exception of Lewis because we kept him out of it - has won that award nil along the way.'

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'Jenson won the McLaren Young ‘ Driver ofthe Year,so his first ever drive in a Formula 1 car was a McLaren, many years ago ^ more years than he'd like to remember."

Yet while the Young Driver Award is limited to British drivers it doesn't mean the team is focussing exclusively on 'home grown'talent."We're not interested in nationality, we're just interested the best talent we can develop,"Whitmarsh contends.

"There are a number of young drivers we're working with,from Kevin Mackelson in British Formula 3to people like Nick Doris, who's leading the KF1 championship in karting. We're working with a number of drivers.

"We still do the Young Driver of the Year Award as well," he continued."We've probably done more than any other team.

It doesn't mean we've done enough but we've done more in that regard" Ensuring McLaren’s continued success is only one facet of Whitmarsh's job.Since

2010 the McLaren chief has been Chairrhan ofthe^rmula One Teams Association,i body sfecifically designed to look afte^he future interests ofthe teams themselves.

It's while performing his role at FOTA that Whitmarsh has achieved remarkable success,though he's too modest to say so.

At a time when the sport looked as thoughjit could rip itself apart at the j seams(wer future engine regulation^ Whitm^sh has been credited with ending the tehfon. Debate had escalated to'the point some engine suppliers threatened to pull out of Formula 1 if they didn'f get their Way, yet in little more than 24 hours Whitmarsh was able to convince some of the world's leading car manufacturers to change their publicly stated positions and agree to a set of regulations. His diplomacy and negotiation skills effectively ended the stand-off. In modern FI, with so many veste,d interests and political agendas,it was a remarkable feat.

However it didn't make the headlines, Whitmarsh almost embarrassed that it

became public knowledge as he deflects praise for his-effort back on to FOTA as a whole.This is the man who stood quietly by after the British Grand Prix when some corners ofthe press were calling for his head on a platter. He had reason to boast about the accomplishment and his role in it> and yet he remained silent, allowing the sport to take centre stage, "it means time and distraction,"he laughs when asked what his position within FOTA means.After another bite of his apple he's serious once more: "I've had 23 years of great opportunity in Formula 1. I've had a great time, but we've got to pay a little bit back.

"For 30 years we've fought on the track, off the track,in the paddock,and in court.

What we've tried to do is say'actually, it's time we start to get sensible here and work together'. FOTA is about working together as teams,and working together for Formula 1."

A prime example of FOTA's impact was last season's championship,Whitmarsh

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claims. While four drivers and three teams headed in to the Abu Dhabi finale with a mathematical Shot at the championship, there was a distinct lack of bickering between them.

"It didn't quite go our way,but we were there trying to keep winning until the last race.It was a fantastic championship and there was a complete lack of politics and polemics in the paddock,"Whitmarsh recalls.

"That's how the sport should be.It's aboutthe best racing drivers in the world, extraordinarily brave young men in the very best, most technically-advanced vehicles.

That's what we should be focussing on,not what goes on off the track."

What FOTA has done though is,for the first time in the sport's history, given the teams a united front,transforming them from bickering like school children to a position of power whereby they've finally got a voice as to where FI is headed.

"With the teams together we've got phenomenal power,"Whitmarsh tells."If FOTA's unified,it's the most powerful force in Formula T; Now that sounds threatening, and I don't try and emphasise it, because we try and use that power to bring about consensus and bring about the right direction.

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"It isn't easy because ofthe egos, because of t^ie media attention.We're not doing it' in ^quietroom together,there's p^ple wh% want to see it pulled apart forentertainment reasons,or political reasons or some other perverse reason.

-"Formula 1 can only be successful if the teams come together and work together properly. FOTA has to work with t|;ie commercial rights holder and with the go>^rning body.If we're fighting^ach other then we're hurting the sport, we're hur|lng what we love. We've gotjo work together." : For all its success so far there is still plenty of work to be done.Suddenly the relaxed persona with which Whitmarsh begun the interview is gone,replaced with a focussed determination and resolve tinged with a hint of frustration.

"We haven't done a good enough job in my opinion," he admits. *"I think we've got to aim to be bigger and better than we are.

"There's a lot of challenge and threat to our sport. It's an extraordinary package and we've done some things, Bernie's done some great things, but we can'tjust sit back in this ever changing world of media complexity,of challenge in entertainment.

We've got to attack every opportunity.

we've got to continually be critical of Ourselves and make the sport better."

In'full flight Whitmarsh is an impressive sight. His mind clearly a blur with ambition, the future ofthe sport and the direction he feels it should take is clearly a topic close to his heart.

"After soccer,there's only one other world sport and that's Formula 1,"he argues, perhaps with himself more than anyone else."It's a phenomenal business but I know it could be so much stronger.

"It should be the number one sport in the world,"he adds with some exasperation creeping in to his voice."It's difficult to displace socCer at that, but if we're not trying to do that what are we trying to do?"

In one swift movement the apple he's been chewing over in much the same way as my questions is discarded,thrown across his immaculate Brand Centre office and in to a waste bin,signalling an end to our interview. A friendly handshake and we head downstairs where,in the corner, I spot Jenson and Lewis laughing with one another.Whitmarsh's words suddenly ring true as the pair look up,smirking like schoolboys trying to look innocent.

He might not be Ron Dennis, but Martin Whitmarsh is still most definitely the boss around here,and don't you forget it.

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EBASTIEN Loeb is no stranger to having good team-mates.

Back in 2003, when Citroen finally entered the full World Rally Championship after two years of limited campaigns with the Xsara WRC,the proof that the French were taking this rallying caper seriously was in the signings. Carlos Sainz and Colin McCrae,two of the biggest names to ever grace the sport, were lured across from Ford, to lead the Citroen charge and show the world that the Xsara was capable of mixing it with the dominant Subarus and Focuses.

Heading into that'03 season, Loeb was seen as the third driver. Citroen knew he was good - that's why it had supported his junior career, along with watching him win Rally Deutschland in 2002 as part of its parttime WRC scheduie. But the idea was that the two veterans would lead the way,and the development, while Loeb kept finding his feet.

But it didn't quite work out that way. It was Loeb who set the pace for Citroen throughout 2003,finishing the year second in the points,just behind Fetter Solberg's Subaru. Sainz and McRae were third and seventh respectively at the end of the year, and McRae was let go, never finding another full-time drive in the WRC. In '04, Loeb was World Champion after winning six rallies. Sainz's only win came in Argentina and he finished the year fourth.

He too was then moved aside for'05, with Francois Duval taking his seat - only for Citroen to reverse that decision mid-season when Duval couldn't keep up with Loeb, putting Sainz back in the car.

Now, between McRae,Sainz and even Duval,there is a heck of a lot of talent. But with Loeb dominating raliies and titles in the other car, they were all made to look a little average - that's how good the now seven time World Champion is. "[It] was nothing special,"says Loeb, reflecting on his lightening fast transition from Citroen's Junior to Team Leader.

"It was just satisfying for me to beat [Carlos and Colin] as they were the reference.The team didn't say much about it, but I think the boss was happy that I was abie to fight with them!"

Even if they weren't happy then, the Citroen bosses would be now. Loeb hasn't been beaten to a title since winning that first one in 2004, but while he hasn't faced huge challenges internally, he hasn't had everything his own way.The 2006 and 2007 seasons were tough ones for Loeb, with Ford hiring flying Finn Marcus Gronholm, a two-time World Champion in his own right, to stop tire French. Gronholm never quite got tlie joir done in terms of the title, but Loeb admits that he was one awesome competitor. In fact, he admits that Gronholm is the toughest competitor he's had to face. nil 58

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'Yes I think so,"says Loeb.

'We have had great fights and I enjoyed the battles with him a lot, as they were very straight. I also liked the way he was."

Things have changed a little forhasn't Loeb.been Since Gronholm's departure, there's much pressure from other teams. Okay, Ford's Mikko Hirvonen gave Loeb a little scare in 2009, but when Loeb needed to turn up the pressure at the season-ending Rally GB in Wales to secure the title, he did. There was a sense of inevitability about it.

But suddenly, Loeb is facing some pressure from within.There's a new Sebastien on the Citroen block - Sebastien

Ogier - and he's come into a team with the same 'I don't care who you are, I'm going to beat you'mentality that Loeb arrived with a decade ago. And, in a few short months as a front-line factory driver, Ogier has shaken things up for his namesake.

"I think Ogier is fast and has proven he can win most of the events,"says Loeb."He is a very serious contender."

It's a soft, PR-driven response from Loeb - exactly what you'd expect. But in the heat of the moment,or more accurately the heat of the Acropolis Rally earlier this year, Loeb was a little less guarded about his thoughts on Ogier's speed. In Greece the Citroen team actually let Ogier pull the wool over Loeb's eyes, putting the elder Frenchman first on

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World Rally Championship was headed for a technical I revolution, HIEN it became clear there wasthat onethe very vocal detractor- Sebastien Loeb.

Several years ago,the multiple World Champion didn't like the sound ofthe regulations that were being touted for the 2011 season,and made those thoughts very well known.In fact, back in 2008, he threatened to quit World Rallying if the FI A adopted the new rules.

"I have heard different things about the latest decisions from the FIA," he told Autosport magazine at the time.

"If we have Super 2000 or Group N,then that is not interesting to drive."

Those comments were followed up by Loeb saying that he wouid stick around if the FIA went down the'Super 2000 Plus'

the road for the final day and allowing Ogier to steal the win. It all came down to the fact that the team chose to give Loeb's split times to Ogier and not the other way around.

Loeb responded by exploding to the media, telling journos that "I wasn't angry with Ogier but I was angry that I didn't have the split times because I felt that the team was giving him an advantage."

However, it does make sense that Ogier would be given, essentially, free reign to try and beat Loeb. Why? Because of Ford.

In the middle of last year. Ford tried very hard to get Ogier to switch sides for 2011 and jump in a Fiesta WRC.Citroen responded by promoting Ogier from the JuniorTeam to the main team (at the expense of Dani

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in the revs. And the size ofthe cars make road, which is essentially what happened. them quite agile. \ enjoy the D53."

The new generation WRC cars make more While Loeb is now back to being fully power and more grip than standard Super 2000 cars, and have less torque and less entrenched in his rallying,there was plenty of talk around that he would pull the pin weight than the old WRC cars. According to Loeb, his'08 comments came more with or without the new regulations. Back from a lack of available information than a in 2009, having tested a Formula 1 car for Red Bull Racing,the Austrian drinks giant desire to not compete in the WRC,and he says the new WRC cars have hit the mark tried to give Loeb a start at the Abu Dhabi . Grand Prix after Sebastien Bourdais had perfectly. been kicked out ofthe Toro Rosso team.

"At the time there were a lot of It was only a glitch in the Super License discussions as the regulations were not process that stopped Loeb from becoming very clear," he says. a proper Grand Prix driver.

"But now the way they have been finally But,for whatever reason, it's not designed,jfind they are pretty good. Also it has worked as we have new manufacturers something he likes to talk about now: "[It was]close, but that's an old story. We in the discipline, and the cars seem very don't need to come back to that. I am a competitive and the fight is interesting. "[The new cars] are a bit more nervous; rally driver."

-ANDREWVAN LEEUWEN with that engine you have to drive them

motorsport news

Sordo) and managed to secure a contract extension. But you wouldn't imagine that the new contract would have said anything about being a Number 2 driver, especially with Ford promising the world if he moved across to Cumbria.

"When I've received the proposal of Ford and when I'd weighed up the pros and cons, the response was clear,"says Ogier.

"I wanted to have a good car to put all the chances on my side. Without any hesitation I've decided to choose Citroen, because it's a very good team and because I am here also thanks to his support."

Without any hesitation? That's a big call when you decide to drive for a team that already has a seven-time World Champion

driver that has never driven for another manufacturer. Surely, surely, Ogier was concerned about playing second fiddle.

"No,for me it was much more of a chance than a concern to have Sebastien Loeb as a team-mate," he adds.

"At the beginning I did not believe that I could beat him, but my results and my progression show me that it is possible. But he's a very good driver, as you know,and he is able to be fast In all types of profiles and all road conditions. Fle's... the best rally driver of the world."

0

gier's speed this year has been somewhat surprising, but in reality, we shouldn't be surprised. In the years leading up to 2011,

the pieces were put in place for life as a title winning factory rally driver.

Like Loeb, Ogier is a product of Citroen's rallying program. In 2008, he won the Junior World Rally Championship in a Citroen C2 SI 600. His reward was a drive in a C4 WRC at the season-ending Rally GB, and Ogier shocked the rallying world by leading the event, before crashing out on SS8 ("First it was a surprise and then a nice sensation and a big motivation,"says Ogier of those magnificent first seven stages).

Clearly, there was some genuine promise in the kid, so he was shuffled across to Citroen's sister company, Peugeot,to drive a Super 2000-spec 207 at the 2009 Monte Carlo Rally - a round of <lli^

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Citroen's Civil War will be fought out right here in Australia soon,at the 2011 Rally Australia in Coffs Harbour,running from 8-11 September.

TAU BLIIH §

i 62

Intercontinental Rally Challenge.

Ogier had never driven a Super 2000 car in his life, but he still dominated the rally in atrocious conditions.

That was a great moment for me," he recalls.

Monte Carlo Rally is a mythical and very special race, with hard conditions. Winning this rally has something special, and for sure I will try to win again in 2012."

Ogier spent the remainder of'09 driving for the newly-formed Citroen Junior Team in the WRC,in a non-works C4WRC. He remained with the second team until Rally de Portugal In 2010, where he took his first ever WRC win. He was immediately subbed Into the main squad, replacing the winless Sordo, whose Inability to beat Loeb and Hirvonen finally took Its toll.

By this point, Ogier's speed was undeniable - but so was his ability to throw a car off the road. A crash in Catalunya back in '08 almost cost him the JWRC title, a crash at Rally GB the same year might have cost him a fairytale debut In a WRC car, and a spin on the final stage in New Zealand in 2010 cost him his first win. Even this year. wins in Mexico and Argentina have been lost due to unforced errors, something Ogier admits is an issue, and admits he must learn from:6 'In effect, I've done mistakes in Mexico and Argentina this year and I've lost precious points with those mistakes," he says,"but I think that this makes part of my progression and I have learn a lot of things in my errors.

They make me stronger.'

And that brings us, essentially, to the here and now. Citroen has future-proofed itself by partnering Loeb with, well, the next Sebastlen Loeb. And both drivers have just one aim in the immediate future - winning rallies and World Championships.

I simply love what I do," says Loeb."I enjoy driving and fighting with the other guys. I keep my motivation because I hate losing!

'I would like to win all the rallies," adds Ogier,"even if I know that I still have lot of things to learn in some of them.'

Cue the fireworks at Citroen, and a lot of

t

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AUSTRALIAN RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP Justin Dowel's trip to Adelaide for the Scouts Rally South Australia treated him pretty well. Very well, in fact. He left with his maiden Bosch Australian Rally Championship win and the lead of the championship.

Dowel signaled his intentions early, winning Saturday's opening stage by 17s, eventually finishing the day 40s clear to wrap up Heat 1.

There was some close competition early in Heat 2 with Mark Redder and Lee Tierney, but when Pedder's engine expired. Dowel and Matt Lee were in the clear for their breakthrough weekend. Michael Bowden and Helen Cheers were second for the round,ahead of Eli Evans and Glen Weston.

A broken differential on the final stage cost Ryan Smart and John Allen a podium finish in Heat 1, and although he recovered to finish third in Heat 2, he's now second in the points.

AUSTRALIAN MANUFACTURERS CHAMPIONSHIP Team Mitsubishi Ralliart's domination of Australian Production Car racing continued at Queensland's Morgan Park Raceway, in the third round of the 2011 season.

Stuart Kostera and InkyTulloch teamed up to win thetwoone-hour races, and extend Kostera's unbeaten run in 2011.The pair led home an all-Evo Lancer poodium, with Dylan Thomas second in each race ahead of Jim Pollicina. In a strange quirk,the top seven finishers were the same in each race, with Jake Camilleri the best of the non-Evos in fourth, ahead of Peter O'Donnell, Colin Osborne and Hadrian Morrall.

64

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Mid Year Motorsport StocMake Sale Save upto 50% ^A/hile stocks last

SHANNONS NATIONALS Seven years after his last win, Chris Gilmour returned to the winner's circle in the Formula 3 Australian Drivers Championship with a clean sweep at Morgan Park.

The victories were Gilmour's first since 2004, when he narrowly lost out in the title fight with Karl Reindler, and moves him to the top of the standings ahead of John Magro and James Winslow, who missed the round.

Peter Opie may have cleaned up in the final round of the Radical Australia Cup, but a pair of thirds and a seventh were enough for Ed Singleton to wrap up the 2011 title.

After missing the Eastern Creek round. Matt Kingsley returned to the Porsche GTS Cup Challenge with a bang, winning all three races with Jeff Bobik and Jon Trende his closest challengers. Series leader Roger Lago wrapped up an early piece of silverware, winning the three-round Jim Richards EnduranceTrophy.

Two race wins and the round honours have moved Matt Lovell into the lead of the Australian Saloon Car Series, while Allan Jarvis and Steve Robinson split the wins in the Australian Swift Racing Series.

AUSSIES OVERSEAS Nick McBride continues to lead the Australian contingent in the British formula Eord Championship.

With three rounds remaining,the Jamun Racing driver is second in the points, 75 behind team-mate Scott Malvern, after grabbing a pair of sixths and a fourth in the most recent round at Zandvoort in the Netherlands.

The other two Australians, Geoff Uhrhane and Spike Goddard, are fifth and 11th respectively in the standings.

Also in the UK, Mitchell Gilbert missed the Formula Renault 2.0 round at Snetterton due to illness and dropped to sixth in the points, while Scott Pye Is 13th in the British Formula 3 Championship with three rounds to go.

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65

X.

A WORLD AWAY FRO!\^ HIS HOMELAND, ROBERT CREGAN ISTHi FUJITSU SERIES' FIRST IRISH DRIVER.HE SPOKE TO MITCHELL ADAM ABOUT PURSUiNG HiS m Ba

1 motorsport news

j

Ijk ^ dfORSPORT NEWS:The first question is probably one ■m #■ you're sick of hearing, but how did yOu end up out here ■ i driving in the Fujitsu Series?

■ W ■ ROBERT CREGAN: I've been watching VSSupercars pretty much since I was 12, and then I moved to Abu Dhabifo work and I was doing a bit of racing Over there.

When the guys came over for the first race in 2010-1 got out to the track, went up and down the pitlane just talking to some of the tearhs to see who would be the best team to come over and do a test with.

The same name came up a few times, so we did a test with Matthew White, so that was really how we got into it. We did a test at Winton, and that went pretty well ... s I

That would've been about 12 months ago now, ye|h?

Yeah. The test went well. We did some pretty good I^J times. We were using some pretty old tyres that guys had been using during the year, but we made some good progress and he was quite happy with the times we did.

From there, we wanted to see if we would be competitive if we came over and got into the Fujitsus, so with the test we did, Matthew was really happy, and wanted us to come back over and see if we could get a race deal together.

We worked on the deal for four or five months, and then finally signed with Matt Stone, because he was starting up a team, which we thought would work quite well. He was looking for a new driver, someone who could keep it on the road, not crash a lot, and do a respectable job.

Priorto the V8 round atYas Marina in 2010, had you been looking at trying to crack into V8s at all?

Before that, we always looked at it, but we never really had the opportunity to get involved.

So when they came over, we grabbed it with both hands and found out what we could do. Everyone recommended doing the Fujitsus before you even try and get into the Main Series, because it's so competitive, and I'd never been on any of the tracks before or even the car.

There was a lot to learn. The car's really different from anything I'd done before. This year we're looking at finishing inside the Top 10 in the championship and then hopefuliy going back into the Fujitsus next year and the goal for the second year would be to finish inside the top three and take it from there, see if we can get some endurance races or something iike that in the Main Series.

Speaking of the goal of finishing 10th, you're already (Ed: before Queensland Raceway's r6und).oh track for that sitting 10th. Was that a goal you bad from the outset?

Yeah. Before,the year started,i knew it would take a little bit of time to get used^o everything; the track, the cars, the tyres are very different as%ell.

When 1‘set the goal for myself to get into the Top 10,1 thought it'd be a pretty good goal, lllsually, the average grid size is about 28 cars, so .finishing inside the Top 10 would be good. We're always racing with the guys that were in it last year and are doing the endurance races this year for the Main Series, so I think we've been pretty cc|npetitive so far.

If anyt|ing,T think we can maybe finish ninth in the championship, which would be a bonus. I think TOth would be pretty g|>od.

Exactly, and if you look aj the guys who are ^p there ahead of you* there are guys who have done Main Garhe seasons before, namely Andrew Thompson and Jack Perkins, and a few guys in their second or third seasons in the Fujitsu Series.

Definitely this year, I think it's the most competitive the Fujitsus has ever been. A few of the guys from Stone Brothers who I've talked to said that if we came over and did this last year, we might be knocking on the door of the top five in the championship.

We did pick the hardest year we could've done it (laughs), but I think that's good for the long run. You do learn a lot more when you're racing against better guys.

How much running had you done in these cars, with the test last year with Matthew White and some pre-season stuff with Matt Stone Racing, before Glipsal?

We did one fuil day with Matthew White, we probably did about 80 laps, which was pretty good. We didn't have any problems or anything like that.

Then I went back to Abu Dhabi to work and did the deai, came back over and I think we had one test before Adelaide, which was at Queensiand Raceway. So we just got used to the car, the tyres and they were the only two test days we've done, and we've maybe done two or three more.

We haven't done a lot of running in the car, but I think every time we do go out in the car, we're getting a little bit quicker and closer to the front. So I think, as the season goes on, we should be getting quicker and quicker.

I

And!imagine it BEING TMBIll would've been a different prospect FIRST YEAR IN heading over to Ciipsal after THE FUJITSUS, testing at Queensiand Raceway Winton,there's a fair bit on IT WAS REALLY and around Adeiaide...

I'd never been to a street THE PERFECT Yeah, track before,either.

TEAM TO GO It was really being thrown in the deep end.We didn't have the WITH best first race, I bent the front nil

- CREGAN ON MSR

, !

shock on,I think,the third lap,so we finished 18th or something like that,then in the second race we raced back to finish ninth.

So even at the first race we had good speed. Everyone's pretty happy with how the year's going so far,there haven't been any complaints.

After Adelaide you went over to Barbagallo,qualified 11th and finished both races inside the Top 10,to be seventh for the weekend.Is it fair to say that's been a highlight so far?

I think that was definitely our most competitive race.

Qualifying didn't exactly go our way, we wanted to be inside the Top 10.

Then in the first race,the first lap I got pushed out onto the dirt and went off, at the end of the first lap 1 was last, but then raced back up through.We were pretty fortunate with a couple of Safety Cars that helped us,then we raced back up through and finished ninth, I think, which was a good race, we had really good speed.

In the second race, we finished

eighth,those two races were pretty good,we were really strong:The best thing about that weekend was,later on in the race, maybe three-quarters of the way through,our car was still performing as it was at the start.

I've gotten used to the rollbars and how to keep the tyres fresh, and we were catching guys pretty weH. We did the same thing in Townsville. I think that's one of our strengths.

How long were the races you'd been doing in the Middle East and back over in Europe before you moved there?

Usually in Europe,in the Porsche, the races 1 was doing were two hours.That was in a Carrera Cup Car.The Porsche looks after its tyres pretty well, it's a good racecar.

Then when 1 was based in the Middle East, I was in a Maserati and that wasn't the best thing on tyres. It was quite a heavy car,so that definitely did help learning how to control your tyre wear and keep your tyres fresh, keeping the car as straight as possible, which always helps.

And another little ace in your learning has been teaming up with Matt Stone.Obviously his team itself is new,but he's got a lot of experience with these cars . (Ed:Jim's son and previously Shane van Gisbergen's #1 mechanic)and it's a Stone Brothers Car - Russell Ingall's title-winner. So there's plenty

of data and reference points as you learn the ropes.

It definitely helps. Matt's got a lot of experience.

He's still quite young to be a V8 team owner, but he's got so much experience and has been, doing it pretty much his whole life. And the guys who we've got working with us are doing a brilliant job, it's really their first year running a V8 Supercar as well.The car's pretty much been bulletproof since the start of the year,touch wood,nothing's gone wrong.

We've got good data from Stone Brothers, which helps.They kind of help us before a weekend with set-up and that sort of stuff as well,so we have a good base to work off. But the whole team, being their first year in the Fujitsus, it was really the perfect team to go to with.

Everybody's learning at the same time. Nobody has expectations too high,or getting disappointed at all.

Are you based near them,up on the Gold Coast?

Yeah,I'm on the Gold Coast full-time.

How's that working out?

Not too bad; it's not the hardest place to live... I've definitely lived in worse places.

It's a very nice 22 degrees today. I'm in t-shirts and shorts, everyone else is in jeans and woolly hats,they think it's winter - you guys don't know what winter is!

4*

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ND INE

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AS THIS YEAR’S AUSTRALIAN FORMULA FORD SEASON HAS PROGRESSED, CAMS RISING STARS TRENT HARRISON AND JACK LEBROCQ HAVE BEEN AMONG THOSE MAKING INROADS. MITCHELL ADAM SPOKE TO THEM

s

O far, the 2011 Australian Formula Ford Championship has been pretty kind to drivers from Sonic Motor

Racing.

In the opening three rounds of the series, Sonic drivers won seven of the eight races, between Cameron Waters, Matthew Brabham and Nick Foster. With four of those victories, Waters headed to Queensland Raceway with a handy championship lead. But there have been increasingly positive signs for their challengers - including 2011 CAMS Rising Stars Trent Harrison and Jack LeBrocq.

The Minda Motorsport-run squad underwent a major upheaval over the off season after a tough 2010, in which rookies LeBrocq and Brabham finished 13th and 14th in the championship. Gone are Spectrums and in are Mygale chassis, and the relatively experienced Harrison - who has made

sporadic national starts since 2007 -joining the program alongside LeBrocq.

Adelaide provided a tough start to the season, with Harrison's fourth in the chaotic second race their best result. Since then, though, things have been starting to come together.

In a weekend dominated by Sonic drivers, LeBrocq grabbed third for the round at Winton, while Harrison recovered from a tough start to the weekend to finish third in Race 3. Then, at Eastern Creek, they closed the gap again. LeBrocq qualified a career-best www.mnews.com.au

second and stayed there for the opening two races as Waters'closest challenger, setting a new Formula Ford lap record in the opener. A broken fuel pump ended his run in the final, though, with Harrison finishing third to grab his first round podium of the year and move into fourth in the points.

"It's been good, not great," Harrison says of his season after a pause.

"I would've liked to have won a race already, but I can't ask for too much at the moment.

We're getting there; Eastern Creek's obviously the best round I've had so far, we've had a couple of dramas with my car throughout testing and racing which hasn't done me a lot of good, but we certainly proved at Eastern Creek that we're capable of it, capable of being up there.

"If I had a bit better first lap in all three races I would've been further up, by the end of the race I'd have the leaders in sight and I'd be reeling back in, but by that time it's too late.

The car's as fast as ever, it's going to get better and better from here.

"I haven't lost sight of the championship yet.

I know Cameron's a bit further up the road than us, but it only takes him a couple of bad races and we'll be back in line again."

With the final race setback, LeBrocq, pictured, left Eastern Creek sixth in the championship. But he's pleased with the progress being made over his rookie campaign in 2010.

IIB

77

run a full national campaign. After making his national debut in the 2007 season finale, he's contested selected rounds in each year since where budget permitted, most recently the final three rounds of 2010 with Evans Motorsport Group,finishing third for the weekend at Symmons Plains.

That running has been in Mygales, which has come in handy with the CAMS squad's off-season chassis switch.

It's the first time that I've ever been able to commit to a whole year. I've been given an opportunity to do it, and I think I'm making the most of it," Harrison, left, says.

The Mygale experience has helped, you're always learning. We're in our seventh month here and we're still trying geometry changes because we're not sure what everything does to it.

'We're still behind a team like Sonic, who have had the cars for four years, but we're getting there. Even with my experience. we still run different shocks,so the way a geometry change affects the car might be slightly different to what I'm used to.'

On the other side of the garage, LeBrocq had only ever driven Spectrums before the start of the year.

I think it just accepts everything quite nicely,"the 19-year-old says.

We've got the car in the window and so far it's been a nice car to drive. It accepts what you do is a lot better, so you can give a lot more feedback on the car and make changes.'

The Australian Motor Sport Foundation's Rising Star program was introduced in 2004, and has seen a number of drivers pass through its ranks through state, national and international competition. As the latest national Rising Stars, Harrison and LeBrocq receive a number of off-track services during

don't think last year was the best season, I would've hoped to have gone a little bit better, but it's all part of it," LeBrocq admits.

"I learnt a lot from the results that we had and it's definitely helped me as a driver this year, which I think is going pretty well.

"We've got the new chassis, we've made a lot of steps forward compared to last year, and I think I've come a long way as a driver as well. So it's all falling into place quite nicely, we've just got to keep getting the results and try to get to the top step of the podium."

For both drivers, there's an element of 'new'about 2011. In Harrison's case, it's his first year with Minda, and the first time he's

the year, including fitness camps and access to sports professionals.

Their objective is to give young guys the best of everything," Harrison explains."Like what, say, a Formula 1 driver would have. through training programs, a psychologist and all of those sorts of things; and that's helping.

"We've got a psychologist and I see him between rounds, we also went to the Australian Institute of Sport to get a training program there; we did a lot of physical training and again spent some time with a psychologist.

"We did some media training, as well, they evaluated us on everything and gave us an evaluation on where they think we're at and how we can improve. And obviously we'll get more and more of those sorts of things as the year goes on."

In the fortnight after Eastern Creek's round, Harrison and LeBrocq both spent time with a roof over their heads aboard V8 Supercars, through their links with Main Game teams.

Having known Tony D'Alberto since 2007, Harrison stood in for a honeymooning D'Alberto in a Wilson Security Racing sponsor ride day at Eastern Creek. At 22, Harrison's sights are on cracking into Supercars, and he hopes his relationship with the team could see him move into the Eujitsu Series next year.

When I was racing in the Victorian state championship in 2007, we ran my car out of Tony's workshop,that was the year he won the Development Series," Harrison said.

We've been mates since then, I do all of my physical training with him and spend a bit of time with him away from the track. I get along with him well.This year's been the first year they've supported me,so hopefully something can come of it.

Tm pushing pretty hard to get into the Development Series. I want to do that next year, I don't really want to do Formula Ford again. I did a ride day with Tony's team at Eastern Creek recently, and moving forward from there. I'll hopefully drive the car a few more times during the year and who knows?'

LeBrocq's miles came through Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport, which recently enlisted Minda boss Bruin Beasley as its team manager. At the same Eastern Creek ride day.

LeBrocq turned his first Supercar laps taking sponsors for rides in the Gulf Western Oils Commodore, before completing 20 laps at a rookie test at Winton Motor Raceway the following week.

He's keen to explore international opportunities, particularly with the possibility of ongoing AMSF backing, but is open to continuing his racing domestically in 2012.

Td definitely like to look overseas, but I haven't ruled out anything in Australia yet.

LeBrocq said.

"We'll just wait and see what the end of the year brings and where we end up, I suppose.

Definitely, Europe is looking like the place to go, I think and having all of the guys there from CAMS, it'd definitely make the step over there a lot easier, having the advice and everything there when you need it.

"Bruin gave me a call a couple of days after Eastern Creek and said there was a spot there if I was interested in coming along to do some laps in the V8. It was awesome. I had heaps of fun, it's a totally different car to a Formula Ford, though, you can definitely see why it takes such a long time to get your head around it.

WE RE STILL BEHIND A TEAM LIKE SONIC, WHO HAVE HAD THE CARS FOR FOUR YEARS, BUT WE’RE GETTING THERE HARRISON ON PROGRESS 72

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REAL RACERS DRIVE FORMULA FORD No fuss. Just race.

If you have the passion but lack the time then consider racing Formula Ford.

The cars are ready to run with little to no development required and maintenance is a breeze thanks to their open design.

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With great support networks in all states and teams that can provide arrive and drive services, getting your racing fix is as easy as making the decision to race.

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For further information on racing a Formula Ford at your local state racing event contact the Formula Ford Association on 02 4773 9494.

24-25 Sept WA

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FormulaFord www.formulaford.org.au www.mnews.com.au

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N early December 2009,a plume of thick, black smoke could be seen piercing the bright blue summer skies of Melbourne as Coliingwood business Creative Colour burnt to the ground.

Elsewhere, Porsche GTS Cup Challenge driver Jeff Bobik had been having a banner season; having bought a new car from Porsche icon Jim Richards, winning 74

the season-closing round at Sandown in November and finishing third in the championship.

However,that widely reported-on fire in Coliingwood was the last thing Bobik needed.

As co-owner of the business, Bobik and his workforce would spend the next 18 months getting back on their feet and that, coupled with a long and tiresome divorce, set his

racing program backwards. Sure, the speed was still there but his consistency - a source of pride for this rapid driver - was lacking and errors were creeping in.

But not anymore. Now,with business flourishing and the lawyers well and truly dealt with, Bobik enters the second half of this year's GTS Cup Challenge a new man.

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myself to rock up these last two years," he says, matter-of-factly.

"The process of the divorce and then the business burning down has left me mentally exhausted so I haven't been able to commit to doing this (the racing) the way I'd like. For instance I got this new car in 2009 and tested it just the once, and you just can't expect to be consistent and competitive without www.mnews.com.au

having that time to go and practice.

"Now that's all behind us I can attack it with a bit more vigour and start doing the things I want to do like testing the car. I think it's going to be a massive help."

Bobik has been a fixture at the front of the field since his debut in 2008. Second that year was followed by third in 2009 and fourth - after a zero-points round at Bathurst - in

2010 showed he could mix it with the best in the series, names like Matt Kingsley, Roger Lago and Sven Burchartz.

But how did Bobik get to this level? And how did he emerge from relative obscurity to be a regular front runner in a competitive series renowned for tough and close racing?

When we asked, the answers nil surprised.

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'There were two things, mainly," Bobik remembers.

"The first was that I was always a massive GT Falcon Fan. I remember watching Bathurst in 1977 and thinking 'I want one of those', so I ended up buying one in 79 and going Drag Racing for the next four or five years.

"That all grew into having my own engine building business, JB Performance, which came from me teaching myself how to build engines from a book so i could get the most horsepower out of them."

But when the Falcon was stolen from the front of his workshop whilst undergoing upgrades,the Drag Racing stopped and another competitive pursuit emerged from, it's fair to say, left field.

"I became heavily involved in Jet Ski racing which was a bit of a sideways step but actually has a lot of relevance. I drove for the works SeaDoo team for several years and won three Australian Championships at a time when the sport was booming,"Bobik enthuses.

"There was a lot of money in it and we had a race at Darling Flarbour where 10,000 people turned up. It was incredible. Pretty dangerous stuff, but at the time it was just monstrous."

From there the pathway became something more like most that end up racing Porsches are accustomed to. Bobik joined the Victorian Porsche Club, winning the club #111

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titles on debut in a 968 Club Sport before purchasing his first Cup Car and joining the GTS Cup Challenge in its formative >ear.

The rest, as they say, is history. Immediately competitive, Bobik has raced at the front of the series each year since its inception and continues to be a regular threat for race wins and podium finishes. So with a rocky few years behind him and a new focus on getting results and putting in the time his racing, and obvious talent, deserve, what's next for Jeff Bobik?

"I've always looked at Carrera Cup," he answers."It's hugely competitive and if you go well in that you have to be pretty capable.

It's something I'm looking at as an option but if I don't go there I'll continue doing GTS Cup Challenge and keep racing the really good guys in it.

"I've done Targa Tasmania twice as well, actually, and that's just about the most fun you can have so I'd look at giving that another go as well ...

"I'm a competitive guy; I hate even losing at Monopoly," Bobik smiles wryly as we shake hands and conclude our chat."We've been rebuilding and now I'm on top of things. It's time to press on and do this properly."

So be warned, Bobik rivals; these comments come from a guy who says he's not been racing at his best for the last two years and even then has been pretty good.

Jeff Bobik at his best may be even better.

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INCE returning to the karting ds-il 5 years ago,the factory tearijs are sfeene 18 months ago as a standgoing head-to-head for the bragging alone elite series, and setting rights, and battling for the Trans-West a solid base in 2010,the CIK Manufacturers Challenge, where CRC Stars of Karting Series has set a new currently lead Kosmic(by a mere 11 points),Tony Kart,Top Kart and Exprit. jjjnchmark for the sport in Australia 2011 has also seen a bigger and better this year.

The re-branded CIK series has not only series,expanding from foujfounds to five starting in Ipswich (Qid), before provided an easier understanding ofthe sport, but also provided a platform that . moving onto Bolivar (SA),Todd Road (Vic), Newcastle(NSW),with the final recently competjtors and teams seem to like. Not being rescheduled to October 15-16 due only have the numbers grown, but the coTnpetition has increased immensely, to ongoing track resurfacing work at with all three Pro Championships set to Sydney's Eastern Creek circuit.

This year a naming rights sponsor in go down to the wire.This is highlighted Castrol EDGE was also secured,and a by the fact that seven drivers are within 10 points of the leader in Pro Gearbox, recent announcement of a TV package on SPEED for the final round is an added with just one round remaining. bonus.

With the industry currently being the The CIK Stars of Karting Series is the most competitive for many years, chassis brands are now using the CIK Stars of series that helped groom the likes of Mark Winterbottom,Jamie Karting Series as a powerful marketing Whincup, Ryan Briscoe, Michael tool for their product.Just like it was 10

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III! Caruso,Tim Slade and Andrew Thompson during their formative years. With one round remaining, Motorsport News looks at the stats and has assessed the chances of those drivers who are in with a shot ofjoining the list of champions and becoming a star of the future.

PRO GEARBOXKZ2 In 2011,the Pro Gearbox KZ2 category has been the best-supported category, with a total of 45 drivers lining up in the four rounds held so far. And it has also been the most competitive, with seven drivers ail within striking distance of claiming the John Pizzarro Trophy, awarded to the series winner.

CRG pilot Kel Treseder from Bundaberg in Queensland currently leads the way, however there is an exceptionally talented bunch right on his heels, with the most recent round winner in Tyler Greenbury (Intrepid)just four points adrift.

Treseder was in a similar position entering last year's final round, holding a 14-point 80

lead going into the event only to have Matthew Wall overhaul him to secure the title by six points Interestingly, not one driver has made the Top 5 Shootout at every round this year, with Matthew Wall and Scott Taylor making three out of the four Shootouts held so far, while Treseder has qualified outside the Top 5 at every round. Of the Championship contenders, only David Sera and Macauley Jones have won a heat race, and despite missing the opening round due to commitments in the USA, Sera has led more laps and also has more victories than any other driver.

Treseder's CRG team-mate Jason Pringle is tied for third a further three points back, with Top Kart racer Jones, after an impressive debut year in the senior ranks that included a final win at Round 3 of the series.

Reigning Champion Wall(BRM) is fifth. Just nine points adrift from the lead, while Scott Taylor(DR Kart) and Arrow racer Sera are tied just one more point back to round out those drivers in serious contention.

Of the Championship contenders,Taylor

and Pringle haven't led a lap in any finals this year, whileTreseder has only led one lap and Pringle hasn't finished on the podium in any final.

After missing Round 1, Sera was quick to gain the most points possible and claimed the state title at both Rounds 2 and 3(SA and VIC), while Wall won the blue plate in Queensland and Greenbury in New South Wales.

Championship Contenders i Kel Treseder 229 2 Tyler Greenbury 225 3Jason Pringle 222 4 Macauley Jones 222 5 Matthew Wall 220 6 Scott Taylor 219 7David Sera 219 PRO LIGHT KF1 Two Kosmic kart drivers are set to go headto-head in the Pro Light KFl category final in Sydney, with current points leader Jake Spencer just six points ahead of the reigning Champion Clan Fothergill. motorsport news

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Fothergill has been the pace-setter throughout the year, and if it wasn't for him being 300 grams underweight and aiso missing a heat race in Round 2, he would hold a comfortable lead in the series.

However, instead he is in second place, and will need to defeat Spencer if he is going to retain the James Courtney Trophy and become only the second driver ever to retain back-to-back titles in the category.

Keeping it amongst themselves, Spencer and Fothergill both share four finals victories a piece, however Spencer has six podium finishes and Fothergill only five.

Spencer has only made oneTop 5 Shootout, with his best qualifying position being third, while he also hasn't won a heat race. But on the upside, he has led more final laps than any other driver, and has also got one more podium finish over Fothergill.

On the other hand, Fothergill's pace is highlighted by theTracksa-backed racer qualifying fastest in three out of the four rounds.The defending Champion, along with Matthew Waters, is the only driver to have qualified for every Top 5 Shootout.

The battle for third place in the championship, which was a tie last year between brothers Grant and Joel Smith, is also tight, with Tony Kart pilot Grant Smith just six points ahead of theTesa Tape backed Exprit entry of Waters.

The state titles in the Pro Light KFl category are also shared two each with Fothergill claiming Round 1 and 4 (QLD and NSW), and Spencer taking out South Australia and his home event in Victoria.

Championship Contenders 1 Jake Spencer 266 2 Cian Fothergill 260 3 Grant Smith 219 4 Matthew Waters 213 5 Adam Hughes 203 PRO JUNIOR KF3 Reigning Pro Junior KF3 Champion Pierce Lehane is keen to defend his title at the final round, and has the biggest points advantage of all three pro classes.

The Sydney driver leads his arch rival Joseph Mawson by 27 points with West Aussie Lenzo Kart driver Jake Klarich just one point further back in third.

Lehane will be pushing his CRG to its limits at Eastern Creek in order to retain the Jon

www.mnews.com.au

Targett Trophy, as he too looks to become only the second driver ever to claim back-toback Pro JuniorTitles.The only other driver to have achieved this feat was Ryan Briscoe (1995/1996) Lehane is the only KF3 driver to have been in every Shootout this year, and has two pole positions to his name. Mawson, in his Top Kart, also topped the qualifying time sheets on two occasions, but he has missed one Shootout when his transponder failed to record a time in qualifying.

Lehane and Mawson have both won five heats each, while Klarich hasn't won a heat but has showed speed when it matters, by securing two victories in the main events.

Lehane has taken four final wins, Mawson one, while Brock Plumb is the only other driver, apart from the three championship contenders, to have led a lap of a final en route to his one triumph.

Final 2 at Newcastle was the first time this year that Lehane missed out on finishing on the podium, however his domination is highlighted by the fact that he has led more laps than any other pro driver, with 105.

Along the way Lehane has also secured two state titles along the way with Queensland and Victoria while Mawson won the blue plate in South Australia and Klarich secured the most recent in New South Wales.

Championship Contenders I Pierce Lehane 297 2 Joseph Mawson 270 3 Jake Klarich 269 4 Brock Plumb 245 5 Jake Coleman 241 Yamaha Challenge The East Coast Yamaha Challenge support classes have also proved popular in 2011, and wili both go down to the wire at the Eastern Creek final.

Fifty drivers have tackied the Ciubman class this year, with series leader Lydon Dodge leading the way in his CRG. However, his iead was severely diminished at Round 4 when he was taken out of the final. Dodge now leads Top Kart racer Aaron Borg by just eight points.

Stefan Stankovic is the driver to beat in the Junior Nationai class, with a 20-point iead. He will be looking to secure the title by heading his closest rival in James Abela when it counts.

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IT'S BEEN MANY YEARS IN THE MAKING,BUT MAURICE ALLEN NOW HAS A PRO STOCK MOTORCYCLE TITLE TO CALL HIS OWN. LUKE NIEUWHOF SPOKE TO THE NEW ANDRA PRO SERIES CHAMP

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LL good things come to those who wait. For Pro Stock Motorcycle racer Maurice Allen, it was a case of waiting for his first ANDRA Pro Series Championship.

The ANDRA Pro Series experienced a season ravaged by weather over 2010 and 2011 and it left a final impact when the Winternationals had to be abandoned before the finals. In the Pro Stock Motorcycle category, this left the championship somewhat in limbo as Andrew Badcock made the final, giving him a chance at overcoming Allen's points lead.

But with the final going by the wayside and minimum points awarded,the championship went Allen's way,the first time the Victorian rider has taken the title.

"For us, going back to the Golden States when it rained in Perth just before our final,(ANDRA chief steward) Greg Schultz told us exactly what happens if it doesn't run, so the precedent had already been set as far as I was concerned," Allen said.

"Nobody believed it was going to rain 10 minutes before the final; we went into the Winters with a pretty good lead and we figured we had to see what happened. We were pretty confident but anything could have happened in the final as well."

The Winternationals was an event that struggled from its first passes in June to the final abandonment in July. The weather created a difficult situation where the Pro Stock Motorcycle riders were unable to get even a test run in before needing to race in their first round.

"I was disappointed we had to go into a championship run without any look at the track. I would have thought at the level we race at we should have had a chance to see the track, you can't put a bike down the track like that," Allen said."We both ran 40s and 50s when we should have been in the 30s, that's what happens when you try to guess the track."

Despite all the drama, Allen has been left with a smile on his face as the championship trophy sits on his mantle.

"It's a great feeling and a sense of achievement. I would be lying if I said I wasn't ecstatic. My first event win was in 1991 in terms of Pro Stock Motorcycle, it has been a while coming," he said.

Recently, racing has been more of a family affair for Allen. He has ridden for other teams before but now races with his father Peter, himself an accomplished rider, who Maurice says has a real knack for the mechanical side of the sport.

"My father and I teamed up together, he took care of all the maintenance and I just had to worry about the riding duties," he said."Dad's knowledge and expertise in building engines has shown through.

"I said to Dad 'let's do this together'and we have had a great season and a lot of fun."

Pro Stock Motorcycles are temperamental animals.There is a narrow tuning window between spinning the tyre and bogging down,so Allen said finding consistency has been vital to winning the championship.

"We figured that we have a big engine we know makes the power, but there is no use going out to rotate the world," he said."It has been a funny season as we haven't always had all the qualifying sessions available to us, we just have to put in a number that is respectable at the start.

"We figure'let's get it down the track and then we will tune it from there'. It's paid off for us, as long as you are going down the track in the same fashion you have a chance at having a crack."

Allen said the teams were feeling the impact of losing so many qualifying sessions to rain, making it difficult to gather data on race-quality track surfaces.

"We've had so may weather affected events this year that is hard to get the full bank of runs in," he said."Given our limited time on the drag strip it has always been hard to go out there and throw the full tune up in it."

The pace in Pro Stock Motorcycle has settled into the mid sevensecond zone, with 7.3s and 7.4s times giving anyone a shot. Allen wants to step up the pace in the new season.

84

"We're still trying to go as quick as we can," he said."Realistically, next season with some clutch adjustments and a few incremental adjustments there is no reason we should not be down in the [7] 20s pretty easily. From the data we collected we can pick up a tenth or two."

The chances of Allen's performances increasing in isolation however are low. He thinks a few riders in the field have the equipment needed to boost their own times.The naturally aspirated Kawasakis and Suzukis in the field are in a constant state of development.

"I think Bluey (Phil Howard) has the potential to run quicker on his Kawasaki and Bob Shaw has certainly got the package there," he said."I also think Michael Gilbertson has the potential to step up given the hardware he has."

Allen's team has been supported by Milwaukee Tools this season and the company has been impressed by what they've seen. A new engine is now on the way for the Suzuki in order to step up the arsenal.

"We have a new engine coming from Vance and Hines, it will be a 2010 engine that is capable of producing 6s times," he said."I think those times are a season away or two, it's just track time.

The rules are set the same, but there is a weight break difference, different tune ups, different fuel, we are thrown quite a few curveballs; the US can't solve our problems."

Over the past season, the Pro Stock Motorcycle teams have banded together for their travel in order to help lower the costs to get around the country. Allen says the communication between racers has been positive for the category, which is now in its 25th year.

"The racers communicate a lot more in an open forum, we are a class who can communicate among ourselves quite easily and we have been able to become more involved in the direction of our

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bracket," he said."We're stronger and better than ever as a group, it shows the cycles a bracket can go through.

"We are seeing a real positive resurgence in the class and that has come about from everyone communicating a lot more."

On a wider level, Allen said the drag racing TV package on One HD has been of benefit to his team.

"The lynch pin for Milwaukee coming back on board was the One HD coverage and the perfection of Pro Stock Motorcycle drag racing," he said."It is professional, exciting to watch and we utilise their products on our bike. That is just as important as the TV and advertising; they've taken everything on board they have seen and probably didn't quite realise how technologically advanced a Pro Stock Motorcycle is."

MY FIRST EVENT WIN WAS IN 1991, IN TERMS OF PRO STOCK MOTORCYCLE, IT HAS BEEN A WHILE COMING ALLEN ON HIS HAIDIN TITLE

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URING the winter of 1987, a group of speedway enthusiasts decided that a burgeoning form of motorsport in Australia needed a permanent national Sprintcar competition. It was a pivotal move.

The popular class had grown so much during the late 1970s and mid-1980s that more Australian states wanted a piece of the action, so the Winfield Australian Championship Series(ASC) was formed and quickly was re-branded to the World Series Sprintcars (WSS).

On 26 November 2011, the 25th season of WSS kicks off at Brisbane International Speedway and snakes its way across Australia igniting another season in the next chapter of the sought-after championship.

Former Speedway Park (Adelaide) promoter John Hughes is the man mainly credited with the idea to create Australia's version of the American World of Outlaws series in 1987 - managing it until the end of the 2000/2001 season - and it has since attracted thousands of fans and attracted the biggest names in world sprintcar racing.

Way back in that inaugural year, Claremont Raceway hosted the series opener on November 20, and it was a very impressive line up of racers including Garry Rush, George Tatnell, Brooke Tatnell, Bob Kelly, Max Dumesny, Phil March, Stephen Gall, Harry Delamont, Des Nash, David Anderson, David Hetherington, Rob Richardson and the reigning national champ of that year, Brett Lacey. But, it was a local Perth driver, Alf Barbagallo, who claimed the first round win from Rush and Dumesny, while speedway legend GeorgeTatnell was crowned as the first series champion after nine rounds.

Since then,Tatnell's son Brooke has won a record eight titles since 86

first contesting that first season. He will again be a major player in the upcoming 2011-12 series, and he remains part of the only father and son combination to ever win the series.

"World Series has been a huge part of the Tatnell family and something that not only my Dad and I hold dear to our hearts, but also my Uncle Joe who has been a fixture with World Series since day one, along with Max (Dumesny)," Brooke said.

"To be in the record books along with Dad is a huge honor already, and if we can manage to put our name in the record books again in 2012 it will be an unbelievable honour."

Another driver who also featured in WSS since its first season is another multiple winner, Dumesny. He finished fourth in the overall standings during the 1987/1988 season and, 25 years and seven series championships later, Dumesny, like Tatnell, will return for the silver anniversary festivities.

Dumesny has, remarkably, never finished outside the Top 10 in WSS and will again be one of the main dangers in this season's field.

"It's(WSS)the pinnacle of our sport, so it's exactly where we want to be as a team - competing against the best of the best," Dumesny said.

"It all comes down to enjoying the competition, and getting back up to do it year after year."

Dumesny, now 52, is confident he still has the hunger to win and is looking to bounce back.

"I think there are still a lot of years left in the tank," he said.

"We'd love to win four or five races this year and get back up into the top three. We'll go into the year with the same car and set-up as motorsport news

last year, with fresh motors and try to capitalise on our late-season form.

"It would be amazing to put the results on the board and come away with an eighth series championship in the 25th season."

Over the 24 years of WSS since 1987, New South Wales drivers have dominated, with 16 drivers winning titles, while Dumsney is the sole Victorian. After steering the Reeve Kruck-owned machine to win the 2002/2003 season, Darryn Pitman is the lone American to grab a championship win.

When Robbie Farr finally broke through for his maiden World Series Sprintcars crown earlier this year, it added to his decorated decade of WSS, in which he contested 317 A Main races, winning as many as 83 features and finishing on the podium an incredible 173 times.

During his 11 seasons of WSS, Farr has finished in second place five times and has never been outside of the Top 10. With the monkey off his back, he wants another title this summer.

"It was a huge load off and a massive relief finally getting the win last year," Farr said.

"It gives us the opportunity to just go out and race without any added pressure. We can't wait to get into the season. We weren't totally happy with the car last season but we've had a great off season. We're going to be faster than ever this year."

This season, 15 rounds will be hosted in most states of Australia with 15 contracted drivers at all venues joined by the best of local and international drivers. It again looms as the most anticipated and watched season of World Series Sprintcars in its 25-year history. www.mnews.com.au

Reigning Champion Robbie Farr, above left, and Brooke Tatnell, above, will be among the men to beat in WSS 11/12.

Between them. Max Dumsney(foreground)and Tatnell have won 15 of the 24 l/l/SS titles.

MODEL BEHAVIOUR

Movie Cars

Moviestar carsfeature this month as Haiimark's annuaiChristmas tree decorations hitthestores.But thereis aiotmore besides,inciuding a couple ofexciting old Holden touring cars-and an F3car that was driven by thesubjectofanother motion picture that'splaying in cinemasrightnow,Ayrton Senna.

ByBRUCEMOXON

I

F it's still winter, it must be time for Hallmark to release its Christmas decorations.

No, really. Go to Target to grab one of its collectors

series of model cars. It's done an American (naturally) muscle car every year for the last 20 or so and this year it's a 1968 Mustang fastback, in that nice

dark green with silver stripes.

They're about 1/43 scale maybe a bit smaller (there's no scale shown on the packaging) and make a nice tree decoration.

There's a hook on the roof to

Speaking of Batmobiles, Hot Wheels has been churning out a few variations on this theme in recent times.There was the 2007 TV car and there have been three movie versions in the

hang them and there's always a gift or two on the back seat.

This year,there are a couple of movie-related decorations that are cars. There's Mater,from the Cars movies (the country hick tow truck) and a Batmobile. It was the latter that grabbed Mrs Model Behaviour's attention

past year or so. I'm no expert on the Batman franchise, but the models looked cool and only cost a couple of bucks - so I grabbed them.

Also movie-related nil from Hot Wheels is

and she brought one home for me.This is a pretty darned nice model. OK, unlike the Corgi or Dinky from days of Yore, the thing doesn't shoot missiles (which instantly get lost) or have anything else in the way of working parts, it's a nice model of a cool car. Install a couple of batteries (supplied with the model, wonder of wonders) and push a button and the TV show theme music plays!

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Little Sennas:Senninha is Brazilian for 'Little Senna' which was the name ofa cartoon conceived in Brazil not long before Senna's death. It lives on as a fund raiser for underprivileged children and appears on Minichamp's range ofSenna models, which include his 1983 Bait RTS F3 car, above, top right, left. Hot Wheels'Back to the Future movie DeLorean, right.

motorsport news

THE MOST COMPREHENSIVE ACCESSIBLE PHOTOGRAPHIC HISTORY OF AUSTRALIAN MOTORSPORT Autopics.com.au is a photograhic history of Australian motor racing from the early 1950’s to the current day. Log on and explore!

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its BackToThe Future Time Machine, which you'll remember (to Marty McFly's horror) was based on a DeLorean. Hot Wheels had already modelled the DeLorean and to Its credit, the BTTF version is very different.

The model has different body, interior and base, when they could possibly have fudged and done half the job with plastic add-ons.

Biante has announced another use of its excellent 1 /18 scale Mazda RX7 Group C mould.

This time it's the Tony Kavich/ Phil Alexander Yellow Pages car from the 1984 Bathurst 1000.This car was never going to challenge the Moffat car for pace, but Kavich and Alexander were no doubt hoping to pick up a good finish based on sensible preparation and driving.

Alas, the car's gearbox failed and they lost a lot of time fitting a spare (which had come from Phil's wrecking yard, was from an RX5 and had lots of wrong ratios.) Gearboxes were often a worry in Mazdas, it seems.

Never mind,the striking yellow, white and black livery still looks great.The car is still in production but you can pre order at www.biante.com.au or

at your local retailer.

As we mentioned last month, Biante will also be making the 2011 Paul Dumbrell Bottle-0 Fords in all three scales.This is a good-looking car and as the future driving line-up is uncertain, it might be a good one to get Mr Dumbrell to sign this year as a keepsake.

Meanwhile,from Classic Carlectables, a couple of very interesting releases. Let's start with another version of Classics' popular Norm Beechey Monaro.

This time it's as the car was reaching the end of its career, in 1972. Norm had pushed the car a long way in its development in an effort to stay in touch with the Bob Jane Camaro and the Allan Moffat and Pete Geoghegan Fords. Reliability suffered as a result.

Beechey's car failed 1..^ Generic packaging:Just as we're not allowed to show the fag packet logos in stores any more, it's not permissible to display them on model racing cars. Still, some might say the one-off Allan Moffat 1980 Hang Ten 400 HDT Commodore, right,looks better as a clean skin. From the same era, Biante has a model of the 1984 Tony Kavich/Phil Alexander Mazda RX7on the way, left. Trax's neat 1/43 EK Holden, centre, while Hallmark's annual model car tree decorations are already on sale, top.

.HOLDEN

motorsport news

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The battle for pole position for the 1977 Australian Grand Prix at Oran Park was held

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over three qualifying sessions, with the top 8 places separated by only 2 seconds. Pole position would be set by Warwick Brown in a Lola T430 with the time of 65.7s.

The cars were set to race, with the starter flag lifted to its highest point Jones’ Lola took off seconds before the flag had dropped.

Knowing his mistake Jones pressed hard to try and limit the damage from his inevitable I min stop-go penalty. With Jones seemingly out of contention the race was between Brown in his Lola, Peter Gethin in a Chevron and John Goss in a Matich.

Jones charged from the back ofthe field, on his way setting the fastest lap of 66.4s. He was able to catch up to Goss who sat in 3rd place but his climb through the field was halted when he ran out of laps. Jones finished forth only 2s behind Goss, Brown won the race with Gethin finishing 15s behind in 2nd.

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For more details contact Classic Cartectables on Freecall 1800 088 564 With the engine cover removed the fine craftsmanship of the V8 can be appreciated.

The race cockpit dash features detailed instrumentation with chrome trim.

or visit

classiccarlectables.com.au AI002AMN

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Beechey's car failed to finish the first three rounds ofthe ATCC before retiring from racing at year's end and selling the car. nil

to finish the first three rounds of the ATCC and his third at Sandown was his only finish all year, before retiring from racing at year's end and selling the car.

Another interesting one-off from Classics is its 1/18 model of Allan Moffat's only drive on an MHDT Commodore,again at Sandown, in 1980.Taking over John Harvey's car for the one race only, Moffat distinguished himself with a third-place finish, while at the same time (and unbeknown to Peter Brock, who thought Moffat had nothing in place for Bathurst) building an XD Falcon for The Great Race.

The VC Commodore raced up until Bathurst with no rear spoiler - giving the original 1980 model Commodore Group C racer a look that is quite distinctive compared to all those that followed - and this is how the car is shown. As is usual (and the same applies to the above 1/18 cars) there's an impressive level of detail and accuracy, enough to have non-collectors goggling at the intricacies.

The name Ayrton Senna is much on everyone's lips of late. The late World Champion's

92

impact on the sport has lasted down the years and the new movie of his life has been received extremely well. So now is a good time to be looking at models of his cars.There are (and always have been) plenty of models of his Formula One cars, but what about the cars that got him there? Really, there were only two, a Formula Ford and a Formula 3.

It's the F3 that concerns us today, in particular the Ralt RT3-Toyota as modelled by Minichamps. Apex Replicas (www.apexreplicas.com.au) has stock coming of Senna's British F3 Championship car, in 1/43 scale. It's a pity more junior formula cars aren't modelled, but it's hard to know who'll make it and who won't, isn't it?

Lastly this month, another Australian sedan from Trax, this time it's an EK Holden.This was the last of the'old'shaped cars, before the 1962 EJ and Its more modern appearance.The EK looks lovely,finished in a fine-grained metallic gold with white roof. Check it out at www. topgear.com.au

motorsport news

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fH H J Classic Ausirlain Touring Car Races vol 9 "^<>1 Vol .9 revisits the 1981 Australian K> H Endurance Championship races at

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21 Years of Holden Racing Team 2 disc set

Disc One This DVD was orginial released in 2004, and examines the origins of the HRT with ! Adelaide International Raceway V / Tom Walkinshaw Racing. You will meet <> > < I and Surfers Paradise International , Raceway. This was the time when the the drivers who brought the team so much r >Q ] legendary Peter Brock faced renewed success, recapture the great moments in / \/ > competition from old rival Allan Moffat the Championship and at Bathurst, along /\ J in his Mazda RX7, new Ford force with the people behind the team.

V ■{] Dick Johnson and Kevin Bartlett’s Disc Two , / \ } i ] Chev Camaro. Also from the vaults of This DVD is a very special tribute to : ● ABC are television three classic races, the founder of HRT, Tom Walkinshaw, i’ once again from Warwick Farm with who passed away in December 2010. / Sports Sedans action in 1969 followed On this DVD hosted by Will Hagon, we

by Improved Production touring cars, look at Tom’s first visit to Bathurst in along with Series Production both 1984, and then his triumphant return from 1970. the following year.

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Ford boasts a rich heritage both in Australain motor racing and in the performance road car and muscle car scene. This single DVD contains three classic documentaries that showcase this Australian automotive icon, the Falcon GT. The Racing History ol the Australian Falcon GT-HO. 30 years of the Falcon GT The Legend.

Ford Australia 75 Years, These three landmark documentaries are a must for all Ford fans - three great Ford documentaries for the price of one!

Twelve hours around the punishing 6.2km Mount Panorama - that’s aboul as tough as it gets in world motor racing. But this year the Armor All Bathurst 12 Hour took things up a notch higher, with the switch to full FIA GTS Sports Cars. So it was that the 2011 race featured iconic sports car names such as Ferrari, Porsche, Lotus, Corvette - and Audi, with the German manufacturer taking on the race with a two-car factory effort. Another classic Bathurst 12 Hour, this time featuring some of the most expensive, most glamorous and fastest supercars in the world.

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i PAUL

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( g THE FINAL WORD

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'M not too sure of what the rest of the industry thinks of the reality TV show that rewards the winner with a

Bathurst 1000 entry.

Don't get me wrong; I think the concept is great. We now live in the reality TV show world where instant stars'pop up', basically overnight. Having never worked in the film or music industry, I am sure that there are many specialist areas in which years of training and studying come into play and will, ultimately, provide you with the skills you need to become a good artist, be it acting or music.Then all you need is the big break.

Personally, I think that the pressure of bringing someone into the biggest event on our calendar Is a great risk, and I certainly think that not doing the event running into Bathurst, at Phillip Island, is a

greater mistake. By doing Phillip Island, It would give the whole program a chance to settle and find a rhythm in the hardest domestic race series in the world. Even Grant Denyer will take some time to get back in the groove,and he has been to Bathurst a few times in DVS and as a co-driver in the 1000.

The winners doing Phillip Island may be viewed as taking some of the dazzle from the whole show, but come October, I think it would give the program a lot more industry credibility and even avoid major embarrassment.

There is only one wildcard entry, plus the reality TV winner plus the 28 regulars, so at best, the car will probably qualify second last or last, which to me is not a great look. It would look far more of a spectacle to be in the middle of the pack in the Fujitsu race.

Surely it would be more educational to an aspiring young professional to get a year in the DVS and you could make a great TV series from this and it would also increase the profile of the DVS series, something the competitors having been screaming out for years.

I really do wish the program well and it is in good hands at Kelly Racing. Let's just hope that is does not interfere with any of the regular cars and drivers who have their eyes on a race win or championship series, otherwise this would almost certainly be the first and last time we have a program like this. So if the car can practice, qualify and get to the end of the race without too many issues, it would be viewed as a complete success.

M

arcos Ambrose has given the Supercar series even more credibility with the great win at Watkins Glen.

Marcos is the epitome of never giving up.To leave a secure drive at JTG and hang in there with Richard Petty

Personally,I think that the pressure ofbringing someone into the biggest event on our calendar is a great risk

Motorsport as the team went through the uncertainty of even being around in 2011 and making the grid is amazing.

To win at Sprint Cup level is one of Australian motorsport's great achievements.This is a hard school to get into, let alone succeed. Marcos and Juan Pablo Montoya are about the only two drivers who have not only been able to stay in NASCAR, but also be accepted.

There have been many bigger names than them spat out the side of Cup;Steve Kinser, Dario Franchitti, Jacques Villeneuve, Paul Tracy, even Sam Hornish, the all-American guy is unable to get a regular ride at Cup level.

Money doesn't seem to get you right Into this series and it would seem that it's probably a harder path to get in to the top level of NASCAR than Formula 1. There is a natural path into FI via all the junior categories, but the junior championships all have crack teams that can heavily assist in getting a championship. NASCAR however seems harder to crack into and you don't see too many paying drivers in the big Nascar teams.

Marcos should be very proud of what he has achieved to date, not just for an Aussie but as a major international driver.

QUICK QUIZ

Answers 1. Briscoe has driven for Target Chip Ganassi Racing, Dreyer& Reinboid Racing, Luczo-Dragon Racing and Team Penske.

2. The iast Ford driver to win the Watkins Glen Cup race was GeoffBodine,in 1996.

3. False.Sebastien Ogier's co driver is Julien Ingrassia.

4. Trick question. They both

did.

5. The Aussie FI driver with the'team'middle name is Timothy Theodore Schenken.

98

motorsport news

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