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National Motor Racing Museum, right beside the track atMurraff No visit toInside Mountyou’ll Panorama complete without a stop Corner. find aisconstantly-changing arrayatof v©M^l^tiiM1»h^£2 made their mark on not only Mount Panorama, but Australian rtiotof^'i^S^gii^^^ - The main halhfs packed with not just touring cars, but opemwheeierS, mbtcfbf®^ of fascinating memorabilia - trophies, driving suite, leathers, helrhets, posters aM^hOtiiS^ph^ . Take a break in the 40-seat theatrette and watch the videos coverihg%e glorWihistO'i^ ^ racing on Mount Panorama since 1938, and the just-released version on the " 3 ' motorcycle racing at the track. ■f Enjoy a coffee and check out the museum shop. It’s packed with official team :a books, video and collectables. Naturally, any visit to Mount Panorama is not complete without; spin around the famous circuit itself - just remember to obey the 60 km/h speed limit! Batlturst ' is just two and a half hour’s drive from Sydney, so there’s no need to wait until the next race meeting - make it a memorable day trip any time. The whole family will love the experience. >1.
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CHARLES STURT UNIVERSITY
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I ● NATIONAL MOTOR RACING MUSEUM
'Murrayst:orKe^ \X*; -● Mount PanoramA^athurst NSW 2795 Phone (02) 6332 1872^i^ (02) 6332 3349 Web: www.nmrm.com/au
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Australian
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NEWS
Editorial Group Editor Steve Normoyle snormoyle@chevron.com.au At Large PhilBranagan
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THIS MONTH'S FEATURES
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Bathurst preview
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It's that time of the year again anci it feels just like old times as we head to Bathurst for the Great Race with a multitude of manufacturers, and a good old fashioned parity barney.
Photography
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Sutton Motorsport Images, Dirk Klynsmith, John Morris, Paul Cross, James Smith, Andrew Hall, Geoff Grade,Sportspics, Michael Vettas, Daniel Beard
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I PlpiiiehvJPprdliidthursI:
: If we atie witnessing!the end df the so-called traditional! Holden vs Ford rivalry at Bathurst,then who won/?
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Level 6,207 Pacific Highway, St Leonards, NSW 2065 Locked Bag 5555,St Leonards, NSW 1590 Chief Executive Officer, David Gardiner Commercial Director, Bruce Duncan Motorsport News is published by neximedia Pty Ud ACN: 128 805 970, Level 6, 207 PaciHc Highway, St Leonards NSW 2065 © 2013. All rights reserved. Motorsport News is printed by Webstar,Sydney, cJistributed by Network Distribution. No part of this magazine may be reproduced, in whole or in part, without the prior permission of the publisher. The publisher will not accept lesponsibility or any liability for.the correctness of information or opinions expressed in the publication. All material submitted is at the owner's risk and, while every care will be taken nextmedia does not accept liability for loss or damage. Privacy Policy We value the integrity of your personal information. If you provide personal Information through your participation in any competitions, surveys or offers featured in this issue of Motorsport News, this will be used to provide the products or services that you have requested and to improve the content of our magazines.Your details may be provided to third parties who assist us in this purpose. In the event of organisations providing prizes or offers to our readers, we may pass your details on to them. From time to time, we may use the information you provide us to inform you of other products, services and events our company has to offer. We may also give your information to other organisations which may use it to inform you about their products, services and events, unless you tell us not to do so. You are welcome to access the information that we hold about you by getting in touch with our privacy officer, who can be contacted at nextmedia, Locked Bag 5555,St Leonards, NSW 1590.
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Italian Superstar
Mount Panorama is a rather
different place from Queensland Raceway, Fabrizio Giovanardi discovered during his first trip down under. He may not be all that familiar in these parts, but it's hard to imagine a more storied professional touring car ace.
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FFdrn.LMPBto ¥85 iThat's nine umconweiHitiomaTraute
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Jatitiies Winsl'owis head:e:dl>d;®.wn 1®' his bidto finally landia;full! time V8 Superea r d tiLve.
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A motorsport news
Unusual Suspects
wm 6 LA FIGUER 22 CABACE 25 LA BISBAL
Give Atko a 90
When the GFC hit in 2008 and
Subaru abruptly upped stumps with its World Rally Championship effort, Chris Atkinson was left out ' of a drive. Five years on and he's , still trying to find his way back into the WRC
James Winslow Fie beat Bruno Senna in a Formula 3 race at Albert Park, and he's been dominant pretty much every time he's raced F3 in this country.The Briton who now calls Australia home is probably now our most accomplished young driver that doesn't have a V8 Supercar drive.
AMC Masters The ninth,running ofthe Australian Muscle Car Wlasters celebrated the 50th anniversary ofthe first Great Race with a special Bathurst grid spectacular.
Fabrizio Giovanardi You'd think a driver of Giovanardi's
Speedway Geoff Rounds chats with veteran Sprintcar star Robbie Farr as the Speedway season kicks into gear for 2013/14.
Vale Des West
Great Scott In the school of hard racing knocks,they don't come much tougher than 22-year-old Superbike ace Glenn Scott.
age, experience and ability would be a walk up start for an LMP1 Le Mans drive. Except that the Italian simply isn't interested,finding the 24 Flours'boring' and'dangerous', preferring instead the contact and adrenaline rush that comes from racing touring cars.
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REGULARS
uWllsonSecurlty
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Motor Mouth with Phil Branagan
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The Scoop with Steve Normoyle On The Limiter with Chris Lambden United States of Origin Box Seat Model Behaviour Trade Classifieds Retro Vision Parting Shot
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Chris Atkinson Remember him? Just when he looked set to consolidate himself on the World Rally Championship scene,the GFC hit and took Subaru out of the sport with it. But the Queenslander did not give up his dream of making it back into the WRC, and it looks like his persistence might be about to pay off. 5
Phil
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-‘1 HAT a mess. In the last month V8 Supercars has tested an alternative fuel blend, looked set to partially adopt it, then dropped it and introduced a mandatory pitstop rule that, in part, effectively negates what has been one of the fascinating parts of endurance racing. When I found out about the E70 fuel supplied to two of the Nissans and one of the Benzes at Winton, I thought it was an odd solution. I can't recall something like this - a different fuel being supplied to selected competitors in an otherwise 'controlled' environment - being done anywhere else in the past. But, the more I thought about it, the more I thought it was a potentially clever solution - elegant, even. Provided the fuel produced the results as planned, it was a way of evening up the playing field in a relatively simple and invisible-to-fans manner. Of course, it will not be used now. Lobbying has returned to V8 Supercars. After Nissan scored a 1-2 result in a single race at Winton, the conversation started. The result was, to paraphrase one of the more memorable characters from the TV series Seinfeld, "No E70forYou!" I am old enough to remember the Bad Old Days of the Australian Touring Car Championship, during which CAMS made technical adjustments to cars almost on the run. On one particularly memorable occasion, sweeping allowances were announced during a race. Winning and losing was, at least in part, determined by who had the most effective argument and the loudest voice. At one point in the V8 Supercar era, some performance adjustments were made 6
Winning and losing was,at least in part, determined by who had the most effective arguement and the loudest voice... I would doubt many want to return to that era. with such short notice that one could see modifications being made to splitters and the like while at a race meeting. While it produced great stories at the time for we in the media, I would doubt many want to return to that era. There is a big problem in play here. To this point, V8 Supercars has been a category in which there has been a high degree of Technical Parity, provided by a long list of control components. That list may have excluded the engine but such are the similarities in specification between the two motors -'small block', two-valve, pushrod, 90-degree V8s designed purely for racing that there has been no glaring performance inequity between the two brands in play. One of the prime objectives of the Car of The Future program was to attract new brands into the category and the three that have been attracted - Nissan and Volvo as works entries and Mercedes-Benz via a customer - have all brought with them four-valve DOHC V8 based on their road car engines. Yet, in spite of new brands being one of COTF's raison d'etres, it appears that no mechanism has been put in place to provide for Parity adjustments. The 'comparative aerodynamic testing' of the new cars is prominent in V8 Supercars' own website, but how reasonable is it that no
such prominence has been given to engine parity? Has there simply been an assumption made that five different makes of engine, of three different designs, would achieve nearas-dammit identical results for horsepower, torque and fuel consumption? Or, that those targets would be achieved in Year 1? We are getting back to rules on the run. In my opinion, that is not good for the sport. Perhaps it is time to consider whether the age of Technical Parity is in the past and what might be required now is Performance Parity and a recognised way of regulating it. Jamie Whincup's Commodore was In front of the Nissans at Winton at the time he suffered a single, rare mechanical DNF. The lead pack was close, but its order was Holden-Nissan-Nissan-Ford. The E70 was, at that point, doing precisely what it was meant to do, provide close comparative performance between the different cars. At that point, Holden had won 20 of 24 races and already wrapped up the Makes title. Had Whincup won Race 25, complaints from Holden over the use of E70 may have looked to some a lot less like lobbying and a lot more like whining. And this column might have been about what a good bloke Daniel Ricciardo is. He is. But something needs to be fixed in V8 Supercars, motorsport news
Research and development doesn'tjust happen in a lab. In supporting some of Australia's leading motorsport teams and racing categories, Fuchs Lubricants can test their products in the most competitive environment on earth - the racetrack.
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