Racing - V8’s, etc
Just sent this to the Big Pond Pannelbeaters team. Wonder if it’ll be answered on the program. I’m more than a little pissed off about Channel Seven pushing the V8 telecast into the middle of the night then shortening it to an hour and a half rather than the (usual) much longer slot it normally receives. Anyway my note follows, if you happen to work for Channel Seven and know why, or just want to reassure me that I’m not the only Adelaidian that doesn’t care about AFL, feel free to leave a comment.
Hi Guys,
I don’t want to raise what seems to be a perpetual subject on PannelBeaters, but I’d like your thoughts on the Winton TV coverage… I understand from the Winton preview show that there’s issues with Seven affiliates putting V8’s on late at night whgich are out of Seven’s control. I’m in Adelaide, and frankly don’t care that we get the telecast half an hour behind the eastern states (also mentioned in the Winton preview show). I do care though, when as happened with Sunday’s telecast, the eastern states get their traditional Sunday arvo timeslot, and Adelaide gets V8’s at 10:30 at night! There’s no Seven affiliate here, so why did it get put back to late Sunday night? And if it is going to be shown so late, why on earth did it get shortened to 90 minutes instead of the usual 2.5 to 3 hours? Surely if the V8’s are going to be on so late the least Seven could do is give us the full telecast!
So, two questions… Why so late, and will this happen again?
Jim.
PS: I may be the only person in Adelaide who doesn’t care about AFL, but I’m passionate about my V8’s!
I want to work for this company! Why? Check this out. Surely thats got to be any V8 loving Linux geek’s ideal job? I mean who wouldn’t want to play with cool wireless gear, Linux boxes and racing cars?
I’d heard that AVESCO was looking at putting cameras into every car to assist the stewards when reviewing incidents from the race, and its a good idea (just ask Greg Murphy). The idea of using a linux box and a wireless network is just damn cool though. Pictures of the Lansvale Racing team car complete with wireless antenna can be found here and here.
Our only Adelaide based V8 Supercar team, Team Dynamik help an open day at their workshop in Regency Park today. I went along to get a bit of a look behind the scenes of a V8 team, and was fascinated to see what goes on.
While I wasn’t allowed to take photos inside the workshop, I was ablt to get some pictures of the display car featuring their new paint sceme, and their B-Double transporter.
If you’re interested in V8’s and a team near you has an event like this, go and check it out, its quite interesting.
Well, you can’t say that the V8’s have been boring lately. Following on from Craig Lowndes’ win at Phillip Island, Marcos Ambrose has chalked up two more wins for Ford, first at Eastern Creek, then following it up at Winton with another.
Of course the big discussion point after that race was the drive through penalty handed out to Greg Murphy, but even qualifying at Winton wasn’t without its dramas. I think the vast majority of race fans would have to feel sorry for Greg though. When you look at the reply from inside his car, Craig Lowndes had his car up on the ripple strip on the inside of the sweeper. When the back end started to slide Craig caught it and began drifting to the outside the the curcuit. At that point he jumped on the brakes to try and settle the car and arrest the drift, and left Greg with no where to go. The way the officials saw it was that Greg Murphy punted Craig Lowndes from behind, and gained advantage from doing so, which requires a penalty. However, it wasn’t a passing move, and even Craig said later that it wasn’t Greg’s fault. Of course, the funniest part of the whole incident was listening to Niel Crompton go off at the officials while he was commentating the race.
I really don’t think the points system for this season is working terribly well… Marcos Ambrose has won 3 of the 5 races held so far this year, but is only 4th on the championship? Go figure. People were arguing for change after last season because Mark Scaife was able to run away in the points after the first few rounds. But people forget that Mark was uncatchable on the track. When a driver is totally dominant on the track, why shouldn’t he be dominating in the points as well? The new system makes it harder to have a “run away leader”, but its not rewarding those who deserve it in my opinion.
In the ongoing Holden ownership soap opera, Holden have announced that Mark Scaife will buy HRT.
Holden has announced plans for five-time touring car titleholder and reigning V8 Supercar champion Mark Skaife to become the sole owner of Holden Racing Team.
Of course TEGA still need to approve that, but I’d say its as good as done… The new BA looks like a much better car than the old AU, especially in the hands of Stone Brothers Racing. I can’t wait for Barbagallo this weekend!
At around 1am this morning Australian Rallying lost one of its greatest drivers. Following an accident in the leadup to an event in NZ on Good Friday, Possum Bourne passed away this morning. He was 47 years old.
Possum has been competing for over 20 years, and would rank as one of the greatest drivers ever to compete in the ARC, winning it 7 straight times. He’s also won numerous NZ and Asia/Pacific titles. This year was to be his first shot at the world Group N title.
He was a very likable character, and will be sorely missed. May he Rest in Peace.
Round 2 of the V8 Supercar championship has been run and won by Craig Lowndes. Although the FPR Ford lacked speed on the day, a good strategy and a bit of assistance from the weather saw him ake the win on the day.
Strategy played a great part in our victory today, and we had the right strategy whether it was dry or wet. We have done a lot just to get the team up and running, we didn’t have the car speed today that was obvious. For us, we had to take a gamble, and we did and it worked - it is a dream come true.
The weekend didn’t go quite so well for the Stone Brothers team though. After HRT’s Mark Scaife copped a drive through penalty for speeding in pit lane, Marcos Ambrose was looking good until he was tangled up with Jason Bright on the entrance to pit lane.
“I guess it was the one that got away,” said Ambrose.
“The way the race fell, we were certainly in a position to win the race.
“If the rain had held off for another two or three laps we would have been way out in front when the safety car came.
“I don’t know what he (Bright) was thinking.
“I was coming in for wets and he just hit me on the inside.
“The crash went for about 400m because he just wanted to keep going and eventually he just turned me around.”
Coming from the back of the grid though, Russell Ingall had a much better race, eventually finishing 10th…
Ingall was pleased to get through the scheduled 300km race without any damage and pick up 138 valuable championship points to keep him eighth in the overall standings and the leading Ford driver.
“The car was a jet and a credit to the Caltex Havoline team who put it back together overnight,” said Ingall.
HRT’s Mark Scaife seemed to have plenty of car speed, and looked set to pull out a gap on the rest of the field until he was awarded a drive through penalty for speeding in pit lane. HRT took a conservative approach to strategy, and Craig’s srategy ultimately paid off, the results could have been very different had it not been for Scaife’s drive through. However, at the end of the race, Mark admitted coming in to pit lane a bit hot, so all’s fair I guess. Good to see a ford win one anyway!
The Adeaide 500 was run on the weekend, and while I haven’t seen all of it yet (I’ve seen about half of Saturday’s race, and all of Sunday’s), I was very happy with what I saw. Marcos Ambrose picked up the win from Mark Skaife on Saturday, while Scaife won the Sunday race from Steven Richards and Russell Ingall in third.
Sunday’s race was very exciting with a lot of big overtaking moves at turn 4 (Wakefield St onto East Tce), and the Hairpin, and a good close run to the finish. Unfortunately Marcos Ambrose had some sort of equipment failure in the closing stages of Sunday’s race and couldn’t hold onto third, but it was good to see the other Stone Brothers car pick up the placing anyway.
Lets hope the Stone Brothers can keep it up, and give HRT a run for their money this season.
Well, the AGP has been run and won, but who cares really. Aside from the fact that I had to go into work and therefore missed the entire race, I watched most of the F1 practice and qualifying sessions and thought they were boring as hell. Of course, this is the pinnacle of motor sport, where the cars are faster, high downforce, fast lap times, the whole shooting match. But these things have traction control, launch control, and fully automatic transmissions. All they need is ABS brakes and pretty much any monkey could drive one.
I did however see a couple of races of the Porsche Carerra cup, and liked what I saw. Real racing, evenly matched cars, overtaking, and a bit of slip and slide action.
Then of course there was the V8’s. I saw race 2, and the end of race 3 (what there was of that). Big supprise of the weekend was Russell Ingall’s performance. He could be one to watch this year, and lets face it, if you want to win a championship, and you can’t score a drive in a TWR vehicle, then Stone Brothers’ would be the next best bet.
Caltex Havoline Racing’s Russell Ingall has led all the way to score the first win for the BA model Ford Falcon in race #two of the non-championship V8 support event at the Australian Formula One Grand Prix at Albert Park.
Looking forward to the Adelaide 500 in two weeks time!
In an interesting move Team Kiwi is announcing a strategic alliance with Garry Rodgers Motorsport…
Team Kiwi Racing have today announced a strategic alliance with one of Australia’s top V8 Supercar Team’s, Garry Rogers Motorsport. The strategic alliance with the 2000 Bathurst winners will allow TKR’s crew to compare testing data, suspension set up information and various technological developments.
… I’ve suspected for a while that Holden teams were doing this sort of thing, I guess that formalises the relationship between the teams. This is something the Ford teams need to get into in a huge way too. Perhaps with the 2003 Project Blueprint cars being a bit more standard they’ll be able to share more info.
Holden announced today that it has purchased TWR Australia…
The decision secures the future of Holden racing operations following the appointment of administrative receivers to five TWR companies in the UK.
… which was a supprise. However…
TEGA rules state that a manufacturer (both Holden and Ford) cannot own a team, so special approval must be granted to allow the HRT to race under its new ownership structure.
… so theye’re not out of the woods yet.
Stone Brothers has unveiled its Pirtek BA for next season. Looks good.
The last pieces were bolted on to the car as it sat in pit lane. SBR were desperate to get a day’s testing under its belt with the new BA with only one other day available before the AGP next month.
Team owner Ross Stone had nothing but praise for his crew who have been working in double shifts to meet today’s deadline.
“I actually considered calling today¹s test off, but the boys refused to listen to me,” said Ross Stone.
After a shocking season last year, DJR has begun to rebuild itself for the comming season.
Shell Helix Racing also revealed the existence of an aggressive investment program in technical and commercial resources, aimed at returning the team to its historic position as one of the country’s two most successful teams.
“Today is all about launching a new beginning for Shell Helix Racing,” Johnson said.
“2002 was by far our toughest year ever and, for a team used to winning, it was very demoralising. V8 Supercar racing has moved at an incredible pace over the past two seasons and it’s a fact that we fell behind.”
However, they’ve announced the signing of that Brazillian idiot Max Wilson, so its not all good news.
Shell Helix Racing today ended months of speculation by announcing the appointment of Brazilian international Max Wilson to its 2003 driver line-up.
The guy can qualify well, but seems to loose his cool during a race and get in the way.
KMart Racing has confirmed that Rick Kelly will replace brother Todd at KMart. Greg Murphy stays at KMart.
HSV on the other hand have picked up Todd Kelly, and retained Mark Skaife. Which clears the way for Jason Bright to go to Team Brock (which joins the TWR empire this season) as rumored earlier.
The Holden Racing Team’s 2003 livery came out of Holden’s Design Studio and sees HRT’s famous and long-standing Lion-and-Helmet logo take on a sharper, more aggressive stance, according to Senior Holden Designer Max Wolff.
“The road-going VY Commodore’s design cues are sharper and both the logo and the livery of the race car enhance those influences. The base livery is cleaner while leaving people in no doubt it’s the HRT Commodores.” Wolff said.
