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No. 439 Jan/Feb 2014
Australia $8.95 NZ $10.99 inc GST
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S Future Shocks
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Where the sport is headed next year and heyond
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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
MarkGlendenning, David Greenhalgh. Edward Krause, Chris Lambden, Andrew van Leeuwen,John Morris, Bruce Moxon,Geoff Rounds
Graphic Design and Production Art Director Chris Currie
Junior Designer Melissa Karatzas
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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:John Morris/Mpix Andrew Hall
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Where ofthe top levels of the sport are at right now and looking forward to where they're going in the future.
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What's the Diff?
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Leigh Diffey, that is, and the difference is that the man who once headed up Ten's V8 commentary team is now NBC America's new FI TV calier.
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 Paciffc Highway, St Leonards NSW 2065 © 2013. All 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 wiil not accept responsibiiity or any iiability 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 iiability 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 iri 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 bo contacted at nextmedia. Locked Bag 5555, St Leonards, NSW 1590,
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' I Theedgeofreality II
That's where any good race simulator aims to take its drivers, and this innovative Australian developed system was instrumental in Mattias Ekstrom amazing Great Race debut.
motorsport news
Unusual Suspects
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i Ken Douglas He was a top production car racer in the late'80s and early'90s and even had a run at Bathurst in Allan Moffat's V8 Supercar Falcon.These days Douglas is a leading motorsport strategist the electronics whiz, and he's just developed a computer race simulator like no other.
The reructdnt ratecar The only GT3 McLaren MP4-12C in the sourthern hemisphere has finally found its way into the environment for which it was designed.
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Desert duel The FIA World Endurance Championship concluded at Bahrain at the end of November and Toyota took the consolation prize.
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Tight Rentch
Shannon and Ian Rentch were the dominant force In Off-Road racing in the latter half of the noughties and into the new decade the father and so are back to their winning best.
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American invasion
David Greenhaigh Motorsport historian David Greenhaigh has been tackling the big issues facing the sport and provides some illuminating analysis of the current state of our top categories and where they might be headed into the future.
The Americans are either here or on their way. Be ready to receive them at your local speedway this summer.
REGULARS 6
Motor Mouth with Phil Branagan
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The Scoop with Steve Normoyle On The Limiter with Chris Lambden
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United States of Origin Box Seat
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Model Behaviour
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Classifieds
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My Favourite Race
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Geelong
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Parting Shot
Leigh Diffey If you haven't got pay TV, you might have forgotten all about the guy who used to front Ten's V8 Supercar coverage. But when the V8s went to Seven, Diffey went to the States - and has been there ever since. Now he's heading NBC's FI coverage. 5
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s this year comes to an end, I can't help looking around at motorsport's television landscape. Part of the reason for doing that is, probably, because of my recent visit to NBC Sports' campus just outside of New York City. As detailed elsewhere in this issue, the Americans get a different view of Formula 1 from we do, and NBC's commitment to both IndyCar and, from 2015, NASCAR places it at the epicentre of the sport in the USA. In Australia, we get FI, MotoGP and NASCAR on free-to-air Network 10/ONE FID; V8 Supercars is on Seven/7Mate/7Two; SBS has Speedweek, with road racing, some bikes and drag racing. Nine and the ABC are not notable players in the sport, while FoxSports offers World Superbikes, IndyCar and a plethora of lower-level racing. The current arrangements have been put in place under the Broadcasting Services Act 1992, as Amended in 2012 [2013], This act of the Federal Government defines that an 'Anti Siphoning' list of sporting events like football grand finals. Open tennis, Australiavs-England test match cricket and so on, remain on Free-to-Air TV and not in the 'open' and, therefore, protected from bids by PayTV broadcasters. The Bathurst 1000 and both Australian Grands Prix (Formula 1 and MotoGP) are on the current list, the tenure of which is until 31 December, 2015. It may not be in effect for that long. News Limited scion Rupert Murdoch was recently in Australia to inspect the new government that his publications so enthusiastically cheered to the ballot boxes in September. It is probably not a rash assumption that, among the list 6
Some V8 Supercar stakeholders will fancy the idea that a bid from a PayTV provider will up the financial ante and, potentially, boost the commercial share that teams receive. of items that Murdoch and his management would have sought to discuss with the Goalition would have been loosening the restrictions of the Anti Siphoning list. Timing-wise, this could well be crucial. V8 Supercars' current TV deal runs to the end of 2014 and it will be keen to attract more viewers to its events in the next year - hence, its plans for twilight races. This will take some effort; quite how to place the V8s on the 'main' channel, and accommodate Seven's sacrosanct 6pm news bulletin will take some juggling which may require viewers to 'chase' telecasts onto secondary channels. That sounds tricky, as does programming a hard disk recorder to do the same thing... Of course, some V8 stakeholders will fancy the idea that a bid from a PayTV provider will up the financial ante and, potentially, boost the commercial share that teams receive. If -IF - the reins come off the Anti Siphoning list this year, that may be good for the teams. But rival sports like soccer and basketball have recently made considerable (and successful) efforts to get at least part of their content off Pay TV, and on to Free to Air. That prompts one to wonder whether PayTV is really the best format to place what viewers have
become accustomed to watching on free-toair TV. There may be a degree of inevitably that PayTV will, some day soon, take a bigger share of motor racing content. But before one signs up to hand over your dollars, there are alternatives. V8 Supercars' own webcast service, V8 Superview, is comprehensive and user friendly. Likewise, you can view FI on Tenplay, Ten's webcasting service. MotoGP, IndyCar and WSBK and a host of other have their own subscription services. On several occasions last year I drove my wife nuts by watching the introduction to FI GPs at the same time as keeping an eye on a DTM race on my laptop - because the German series is streamed live on YouTube, With media players, you access that content on your TV, computer or tablet or even your mobile phone. For a greyhair like me, it is pretty amazing what a device that fits in your pocket can do these days. In fact, with the aid of a wireless iMac keyboard, I am writing this column on my new mobile phone. It turns out the latest version of Android comes with a snazzy Word Processor built-in, and so far, it seems to work just fine. It hasn't even made that many spelking mistapes. motorsport news
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