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THIS MONTH'S FEATURES Editorial Group Editor Steve Normoyle snormoyle@chevron.com.au At Large Phil Branagan
Editorial Enquiries
The Grid
Chevron Publishing Level 6,207 Pacific Highway, St Leonards, NSW 2065 Locked Bag 5555,St Leonards, NSW 1590 editorial@chevron.com.au
Contributing Writers Danny Gardner, Mark Glendenning, Edward Krause, Chris Lambden, Andrew van Leeuwen,John Morris, Bruce Moxon, Geoff Rounds,Jim Scaysbrook
Graphic Design and Production Art Director Chris Currie Junior Designer Melissa Karatzas
HRT Starter After the dark times he's experienced in recent years, James Courtney reckons it'll be a whole new start for the Holden Racing Team in 2014.
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Photography Sutton Motorsport Images, Dirk Klynsmith, John Morris, Paul Cross, James Smith, Andrew Hall, Geoff Grade,Sportspics, Michael Vettas, Daniel Beard Cover photo: Dirk Klynsmith
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Merc makeover
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It went from SBR and Ford to Erebus and Mercedes-Benz in a shortfew months at the end of last year. Danny Gardner takes stock of V8 Supercar's threepointed star effort as season one of the newVB COTF platform draws to a close.
Chairman, Chevron: Ray Berghouse Circulation Director: Carole Jones
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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 nextmedia Pty Ltd ACN:128 805 970, Level 6,207 Pacific Highway.St Leonards NSW 2065 © 2013. Ail rights reserved. Motorsport News is printed by Webstar, Sydney, distributed 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 responsibility or any liability for the correctness of information or opinions expressed in the publication. Ail 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 persona! 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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motorsport news
Unusual Suspects
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James Courtney A little over 10 years ago it seemed not a case of if James Courtney would be a Formula 1 star, but when. Likewise when he joined the Hoiden Racing Team in 2011 as the reigning V8 Supercar champion, sustained success seemed assured - but
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simply didn't happen.Just goes to show that in motorsport things don't aiways go according to expectation - something that will make the next chapter in the newiy re-signed HRT driver's career fascinating to watch.
Jim Clark hoaouredi The Goodwood Revival is alI;about honouring the past, and there ■could be few rnpre worthy themes for this year's event than the occasion of the SOth anniversary of the Scottish great's first worild ichampionship win,
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Titles decided One of the most gruelling seasons in the history of drag racing in Austraiia has been completed, with all the new champions crowned.
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Sprintcar spectacular It's all systems go for this season's World Series Sprintcars spectacular.
Leo Hindery Leo Hindery is the man behind the planned New Jersey Formula 1 race, but his day job is chief of a private equity firm. The New York businessman's net worth has been estimated by various business publications at more than US$100 million. He's also a motorsport nut, and an amateur racer - and he has a 15-year agreement in place with Bernie Ecclestone to run the race.
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REGULARS je-t ■
Motor Mouth with Phil Branagan The Scoop with Steve Normoyle On The Limiter with Chris Lambden Box Seat 82 86
United States of Origin Model Behaviour
88
My Favourite Race Trade
94
Classifieds
96
Retro Vision
98
Parting Shot
K Jim Scaysbrook Jim Scaysbrook has been racing, selling, restoring and writing about motorcycles for more than 40 years. But he's also no novice when it comes to racing of the four-wheeled variety. He counts himself as a Jim Clark fan, and earlier this year he made the trip to the UK for the annual Goodwood Revival, which played host to a feast of old racing cars and motorcycles, and this year celebrated the occasion of the SOth anniversary of Jim Clark's first ^world championship victory.
v,/ww. mnews.com.au
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Motor Mouth
UNNY things, eras. They come, they go and marking their passing is, I reckon, a good thing. We are about to end an era. It was in 2009 that the current generation of Formula 1 cars came along. With the same 2.4-litre V8s that had been used previously, they featured lower, flatter and wider wings on the front and narrower and higher wings on the back. There were also less add-on flutes and gee-gaws, which was a good thing after a few years of ugly, fiddly cars. Five years later, the V8 era is over, and the incoming power units will be much different. The new-for-2014 1.6-litre V6s will feature compound turbocharging and multiple Energy Recovery Systems, and use much less fuel than the current cars. Expect bigger engine bays behind smaller fuel tanks. One man dominated the previous generation. No, I am not talking about Sebastian Vettel. I refer to Adrian Newey, master engineer and designer and the man behind Red Bull's title-winning cars. And McLaren's. And Williams's. Add Vettel's four titles to Mika Hakkinen's two, singles for Jacques Villeneuve, Damon Hill and Nigel Mansell and Alain Frost’s fourth and you could reasonably describe Newey as a 10-time World Champion. Brawn GP and Jenson Button won the first Constructors and Drivers titles of the era in 2009 but since then, it has been a Red Bull tide. Vettel may have cantered away with this year's and 2011's crowns but his '10 and '12 crowns only came after dogfights. If that provides some glimmer of hope to the
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Add Vettel's four titles to Mika Hakkinen's two, singles for Jacques Villeneuve, Damon Hill and Nigel Mansell and Alain Prost's fourth and you could reasonably describe Newey as a 10-time World Champion. opposition, think of 2009; Jenson Button won six of the first seven races, and Rubens Barrichello added two of his own. But once Newey sorted out the Red Bull, which started the season without a double diffuser, Vettel and Mark Webber went on to win six GPs between them. Newey is a game-changer. Ask Villeneuve; in Newey-designed cars, he won 11 of his first 31 Grands Prix, and in spite of the fact that by the time the Canadian prevailed in the 1997 title, Newey had left Williams to join McLaren. But after his title year Jacques never again won a CP; Newey's McLarens became, mostly, FI's dominant cars - and look at where Williams is now. One of my favourite Newey stories relates to the Amon AF101. The 1970s FI car was so evil that even Chris Amon hated it, telling its new owner Ron Maydon it had tried to kill him three times. Once the car was restored and Maydon was behind the wheel himself he quickly found out that Amon had not been exaggerating. His team diagnosed a problem In the rear suspension but had little idea how to overcome its shortcomings. One day at an FI
Masters event, a passing stranger looked at the car for less than a minute and diagnosed not a rear suspension problem but one with the front suspension. He suggested a brace be inserted in the front wishbones and once that was done, the car was transformed. The stranger was, of course, Newey, who is also a noted histories racing competitor. Just as the rest of us are recovering from a busy Christmas, Newey will turn 55. He has recently recommitted himself to Red Bull Racing, and there is no reason to assume that his future cars will not be as competitive of those that he has overseen so far. Newey recently mentioned that developing a title winning car for this season has forced him to compromise what effort would normally be allocated to 2014's RB10. But once those 55 candles have been extinguished (surely in a fashion aerodynamically superior to any method that has come before) the new Red Bull will have his full attention. Even if Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo are not dominant out of the box, you can safely bet that there will be RBR victories long before Newey starts considering the best way to deal with 56 candles. motorsport news
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