Motorsports

AUSTRALIAN Will Power slammed his Penske car into the wall at Homestead, Florida, in the final IndyCar race of the season at the weekend handing a record-tying third championship to Scotsman Dario Franchitti.  Power held a 12-point lead before the race, but limped into 25th with broken rear suspension allowing the defending champion to claim the crown with an eighth place finish and a five-point title margin.  "We definitely weren't quick enough," a disappointed Power said. "The championship's won over 17 races not in one.  Power won five races in the season and with four races to go was 59 points in front of Franchitti.  "This has been the best season of my career in motorsport, and I've learned so much. We'll be coming back to win this thing next year," he said.  In the final race, the Queenslander dropped down the order, but clawed back to fourth before hitting the wall in a passing move with less than 70 laps to go.  Franchitti started his Ganassi car on pole and led for most of the 200-lap race but was shuffled down the order late in the event by New Zealand teammate Scott Dixon who won from Danica Patrick and Brazilian Tony Kanaan.TOP V8 Supercar teams have started revealing their driver pairing strategies for the Gold Coast, 600 on October 22-24. TeamVodafone, Jim Beam Racing and Orrcon Steel FPR will have the same strategy of pairing their highest points driver with their regular partner and pairing the guest international driver with the other driver. That means World Touring Car Champion Andy Priaulx will drive with Craig Lowndes, IndyCar Series leader Will Power will pair with Steve Richards and current IndyCar champion Dario Franchitti with Steve Johnson. Jamie Whincup stays with Steve Owen, Mark Winterbottom with Luke Youlden and championship leader James Courtney will share with regular co-driver Warren Luff.ELECTRICAL problems played havoc with Marcos Ambrose's NASCAR Camry at Kansas Speedway at the weekend, dropping him down 10 laps and into 34th place. He started the race from the rear of the field, after an engine change in Friday's practice. Despite the setbacks, Ambrose is confident of a strong finish to the year. "It's been a tough year, but the races on the run to the end of the season are ones that I like," he said. Greg Biffle drove his Ford to victory at Kansas ahead of title leader Jimmie Johnson in his Chevrolet. Johnson is hoping for his fifth straight title but leads by just eight points from Den ny Hamlin in a Toyota.PRODUCTION car endurance racing will return to Australian circuits next year. The new Australian Endurance Championship will run under AASA regulations and will include cars not previously eligible under CAMS rules. Each race is a day/night six-hour enduro starting at Calder in April. The 4.216km road/oval circuit was last used for the 1987 500km World Touring Car Championship. Organisers say there are five manufacturers interested in competing in the low-cost series. Other rounds are at Winton in June, Queensland Raceway in August and Wakefield in October. All rounds will be conducted over three days, with qualifying and a top 10 shoot-out on the Saturday.FOUR-time Australian Rally Champion Neal Bates will drive a Chevrolet Corvette in the Bathurst 12 Hour in February. He is the first competitor to officially enter. Australian GT Championship driver Paul Freestone will partner Bates in the Hayden Pullen team. Bates is no stranger to the mountain while Pullen has driven there in the Fujitsu V8 Supercar Series. The 7000cc Corvette will be entered in Class C for cars in Australian GT Production class potentially tackling vehicles such as the R35 Nissan GT-R, Aston Martin V8 Vantage and Porsche's 996 GT3.AFTER protests from groups of Tweed Valley residents and greenies, Rally Australia, Australia's round of the FIA World Rally Championship, has been shifted to Coffs Harbour from next year. Coffs Coast has hosted stages of the International Southern Cross Rally in the 1960s and 1970s and a round of the Australian Rally Championship. The date of the event is yet to be finalised, but it was originally planned for September.FRENCHMAN Sebastien Loeb clinched a record-extending seventh consecutive World Rally Championship title with his 60th career win and his sixth for Citroen this season in France at the weekend. Loeb established a 40-second lead in the first half of the rally before easing his pace and driving carefully to protect his advantage. The rally ended in Loeb's home town of Haguenau. "To win the title here is the best thing that could happen this year," he said.AUSTRALIAN David Brabham has claimed his second second consecutive American Le Mans Series title at the weekend with a class win and fourth overall in the annual Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta in the US. He shared the drive with Frenchman Simon Pagenaud and Scotsman Marino Franchitti. Brabham will race in this weekend's Bathurst 1000 with Alex Davison in an Irwin Racing Ford Falcon. The Petit Le Mans was won by the Peugeot 908 of Stephane Sarrazin/Franck Montagny/Pedro Lamy ahead of the Peugeot 908 of Anthony Davidson/Marc Gene/Alex Wurz with the Audi R15 of Allan McNish/Dindo Capello/Tom Kristensen in third. the Audi was leading until Capello's balaclava slipped over his eyes, briefly blinding him.VICTORIAN Luke Ellery had mixed fortunes in his first USF2000 race at Road Atlanta, Georgia, at the weekend. The 21-year-old qualified second in the first race and passed pole sitter and current Championship leader Sage Karam only to be forced out on the first lap with an overheating engine. He started in seventh for the second race and stormed to an unexpected third in the 19-lap season finale, winning the Hard Charger award. Karam won the final race and the title with nine wins from 12 races. The series is part of the Road to Indy and MazdaSpeed Motorsports driver development program. Ellery hopes to return next  year.QUEENSLANDER Tony Quinn is hoping for better luck than last year when he heads to Bathurst this weekend for the penultimate round of the Australian GT Championship which is one of the support categories for the V8 Supercar Bathurst 1000 endurance race. Quinn will again campaign his Aston Martin DBRS9 in which he set a GT lap record of 2:10.0277 last year, finishing 11th and second. His main competition will come from current champion and points leader David Wall in a Porsche GT3 Cup S. Other exotic sports cars competing include Peter Hackett's Lamborghini Gallardo, Dean Grant's Mosler MT900 and Greg Crick's Dodge Viper. The all-Porsche GT Challenge division is being led by Shane Smollen with a one-point gap from Michael Loccisano.NINE Australian Champions were decided at the Australian Junior Motocross Championship at Lake Macquarie last weekend. Victorian Dylan Long won the 100-150cc two-stroke 15 years class; Luke Clout, of NSW won every race in the 150cc 14-16 years class; Queenslander Hunter Lawrence took out the 9-12 years 150cc; Scott Mann, Queensdland, the 85cc two-stroke 14-16 years; Wilson Todd, Queensland, 65cc 11-13 years; and Rhys Budd, NSW, 65cc 7-9 years winner. Female class winners were Meghan Rutledge, NSW, and Courtney Duncan of New Zealand.

The three brands are all gearing-up for a major attack on next year's new-age world championship, which will be open to smaller cars with smaller 1.6-litre turbocharged engines.Downsizing in the series means Citroen is switching to its C3, Ford is moving from the Focus to the Fiesta, and Mini is coming back to rallying for the first time since the 1960s with its Countryman.Ford already knows it has a winner in the Fiesta, which claimed the Monte Carlo Rally this year without a turbocharged engine. It is shown in Paris just a week before Ford begins testing for next year's championship, when it will try to snap Sebastian Loeb's six-year run as world championship with Citroen."Countless hours have gone into the Fiesta RS WRC to reach this point, and for the car to be unveiled in public for the first time is a proud moment for us.  We are right on track with our development and the team is delighted with testing to date," says Ford's rally boss, Malcolm Wilson.Its Citroen rival is already testing and picks up the basic mechanical package from the successful C4, with aero tweaking to the DS3 body including wider guards, a giant rear wing and cooling vents in the body.  But the rally star in Paris is the Mini, which is unveiled by FIA president and former rally co-driver Jean Todt.“The response to our announcement that Mini will return to the world of rallying next year was very positive. The FIA World Rally Championship is the pinnacle of rallying, making it the ideal platform for demonstrating the competitive spirit of our brand," says Mini's global marketing boss, Ian Robertson.The Countryman is massively tweaked for rallying and is displayed in Paris with giant front and rear wings, a bank of bonnet-mounted spotlights and a stripped-out cabin.The car is developed by Prodrive, the British motorsport operation that also runs Ford Performance Racing in the V8 Supercar championship, and has already run well in testing.  But Mini is unlikely to challenge Citroen and Ford in the early events of the 2011 WRC, which begins in Sweden in February.

VICTORIAN Brendan Reeves, 22, will represent the Asia Pacific region at the Pirelli Star Driver shootout at Rally Spain from October 21 to 24. He is one of 17 vying for up to six places in the Rally Academy in 2011 and and contest selected World Rally Championship events. Reeves began racing at age 7 and in the past five years has! competed in more than 50 rallies including seven international rallies, winning his first international title this year, the FIA Pacific Cup. He is the only representative from the Asia Pacific region to be nominated for the shootout.TV coverage of the Bathurst 1000 will feature a record 168 cameras. There will be 65 in-car cameras in 13 V8 Supercars, including a "rail" camera that can track beside the driver's seat in the Supercheap car of Russell Ingall and Paul Morris, an under-car camera for the Craig Lowndes/Mark Skaife car, a mirror camera for the Mark Winterbottom FPR car and a return of Rick Kelly's helmet camera. There will also be 52 cameras in other cars competing in support races over the October 8-10 event. Seven's coverage is on Friday 1-4pm, Saturday, 12-5pm and Sunday 7am-6pm. The Battle of Bathurst one-hour special will be broadcast on Friday at 11.20pm, Saturday at 5pm and Sunday at 6am. (NOTE: ALL TIMES AUSTRALIAN EASTERN DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME) ITEM WHILE Craig Lowndes won his maiden Australasian Safari last Sunday, Bathurst rider Ben Grabham claimed his third safari bike victory. He led a trifecta of KTMs home followed by Todd Smith of Condobolin, NSW, and Matthew Fish of Kyneton, Victoria. Paul Smith of Mepunta, Victoria, won the quads section despite stopping to help tow fellow quad competitor Colin Lawson who was bogged in heavy beach sand.AN engine failure ended the three-time Speedway Grand Prix world champion Jason Crump's season with his worst result of the year, scoring only seven points in the Italian speedway GP at the weekend. Meanwhile, Tomasz Gollob, 39, became Poland's first world champion since Jerzy Szczakiel in 1973. Crump confirmed he will contest the final event in Poland on October 9, he will undergo surgery to repair nerve damage to his left arm the following week. He had been as high as third in the series, but has slipped to ninth.FOXTEL will launch Australia's first dedicated motorsport TV channel next month. (NOVEMBER 1) Speed (Channel 505) and SPEED HD (Channel 206) will provide all-day coverage of local and international motorsport including V8 Supercars, all three NASCAR series, World Superbike Championships, the GT1 World Championship, Super X, Dakar Rally, Formula 2 and World Series Sprintcars.MARCOS Ambrose survived a gruelling 400-lap, 644km race at the Dover International Speedway at the weekend to finish 20th. The event featured long periods of uninterrupted racing with only four caution flags. Ambrose ran as high as ninth and was lapping as fast as the race leader, but the handling of his Toyota Camry degraded toward the end of the race. Jimmie Johnson won the event and leads the title chase for his fifth straight NASCAR Sprint Cup title.AUSTRALIANS have scored five wildcard spots in two classes for the Australian Moto Grand Prix at Phillip Island on October 17. Competing in the 125cc class will be Queenslander Jordan Zamora, Josh Hook of NSW, Levi Day, of South Australia and Victorian Nicholas Diles, while Alex Cudlin of NSW will compete in the Moto2 category.STEVEN Johnson will remain with Jim Beam Racing next year, his fourth year with the team. The V8 Supercars driver and son of legendary racer Dick Johnson re-signed at the start of this year under a one-year contract with an option for 2011.  "While we haven't caught too many breaks on the track this season, the team is working really well and I'm still enjoying driving," he said. "Junior" Johnson is currently in 12th in the championship. He first drove for DJR in 1994, finished fifth in the series in 2001 and was sixth last year.AUSTRALIA scored more awards than any other nation in the sixth annual "F1 in Schools" world finals in Singapore last week. Victorian team Basiliisk Performance won best portfolio, best engineered car and the "Ashes" urn for the fastest Australian or British car. Brisbane team Zer0.9 was second in the outright championship behind America. F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone and McLaren driver Jenson Button attended the awards ceremony. F1 in Schools is a multi-disciplinary engineering challenge for students aged nine to 19.INSTEAD of a one-lap qualifying dash, entrants in the Bathurst 12 Hour in February will combine their team times for their best three drivers. So pole position could go to a time of more than six minutes, rather than the usual low-two-minute category. The qualifying format has been copied from the Sepang 12-hour race. The Bathurst race is also set to have a broader field with 31 manufacturers eligible after the inclusion of vehicles from the Australian GT championship.INDYCAR driver Ryan Briscoe will drive a Bundy Red Racing Commodore at Bathurst with Andrew Thompson, unseating Nick Percat who drove for the team at Phillip Island. Briscoe will move to sister team HRT for the Gold Cost 600 in late October. He last drove a V8 Supercar in 2006 for HRT in the Sandown 500 and Bathurst 1000.AUSTRALIA has snatched the British Formula Ford Championship. Scott Pye of South Australia took the title in a dramatic finale at Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit at the weekend with a win on the Saturday and second on the Sunday. The 20-year-old racer from Mt Gambier scored 581 points, with 12 race victories, 18 podiums and 16 pole positions to finish 19 points ahead of Scott Malvern.FOUR Targa Tasmania winners will contest the annual Mt Buller tarmac rally on November 5-7. They are led by eight-time Targa champion Jim Richards driving a Porsche, plus Steve Glenney (Mazda RX8), Tony Quinn (Nissan GTR), Greg Garwood (Porsche) and 2010 Targa champion Jason White (Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera). The 849km rally, which is the first round of the inaugural Australian Targa Championship, has attracted a capacity field of 225 cars.

And his main driver, Jason Richards, has scored three seconds in the past five Bathursts, including last year.  The teams drivers at Bathurst are Richards and Jones's nephew, Andrew Jones, with Jason Bright and Matthew Halliday in the other car. "Both Jasons had good speed at Phillip Island and even though we had a wheel problem we came back and got on the podium,'' Jones said.  "We're definitely the dark horse in this race.  There's not a lot of fanfare around us.  The two-time touring car champion said his driver combinations had enough experience to win.  "We just need a little bit of luck,'' he said. "I used to think you make your own luck but thats not true. We've had the fastest car there (Bathurst) but that doesn't always win.'' Jones said that despite the team "flying under the radar'' among race tipsters, it didn't take the pressure off.  "You put the pressure on from within,'' he said. "And we put pressure on ourselves because we believe we can win.  "I'd be surprised if we're in any one's top five, but we're in my top three.'' Jones retired from racing last year, but has ruled out a return despite Mark Skaife coming back from retirement to win at Phillip Island with Craig Lowndes this month. "Look, you're never happy when you are a race car driver and you are out of a race car but I can see I add more value to the team now in this role. I have 38 full-time staff to look after. "I think Id still go well but you need to be in a car all the time to have the pace.  Last year I hit the wall at Bathurst for first time since 1990 and I dont want to do that again.'' Jones said his friend and a previous Bathurst partner, John Bowe, had ``tried for ages'' to get him to drive historic race cars.  "It doesn't appeal to me. The Bathurst 12-hour would be good, but not historics.'' Apart from his race team, Jones these days lends his expertise to his kart-racing son, Macauley, 15, who has scored three podiums in three years at national level. "He may move up to Formula Ford next year and Ill help him,'' he said.  "He wants to eventually drive V8s and I think hell do well.'' He may even one day break the Jones Bathurst drought.  

The only time I've ever had to come back for a race meeting again was at Lakeside in 1996 when it got flooded.  While a photo-finish after 161 laps of Mt Panorama is a possibility, I can't see it happening. Anyway, I'm sure the digital cameras can separate the slimmest of margins. I usually sit down and watch the AFL final, but of course at the time I was behind the wheel of the Holden Colorado on the last couple of stages of the Australasian Safari. However, I managed to catch the last couple of exciting minutes of the game. I believe it's only the third tie in AFL history. Maybe they did it just so I could watch the full game this weekend! I normally support Essendon, but I'll back St Kilda as the underdogs and in the NRL I go for the Broncos, so I'll back St George on the Wayne Bennett factor.  As for the safari, what a great way to kick off my off-road career than with a win. It was a long week, but it was quite relaxing.  There is none of the tension of a V8 race where you race side by side with other competitors. You are just racing yourself and the clock. I feel great and have no physical or mental tiredness. In fact, I would have loved for the safari to continue. It was a great experience travelling through some pretty interesting country. I said I'd like to do other rallies, maybe even the Dakar, but whether I come back here again next year depends on a couple of things such as whether it fits into the V8 calendar again. The calendar is usually released at Phillip Island, but it's been held back until Bathurst this year.  If the timing is right and my co-driver Kees (Weel) invites me again, I'd be happy to re-run the safari. After all, they change the route every year so it will be different scenery. It was one of the great wins in my career, like my first kart race or Formula Ford victory.  I dedicated the win to my mentor, Peter Brock, as he was passionate about this race and he was my inspiration to compete. Unfortunately, he never had the opportunity to win it, so I dedicate my win to him. My wife Nat was delighted with the result, but probably more happy that I finished in one piece.  After several weeks on the road, it's been great to be back home and spend some time with Nat and the kids in the last week of the school holidays. However, there's no rest for the wicked as they say, so we still had to do a test day at Queensland Raceway on Wednesday.  We're still not 100 per cent sure of our strategy for Bathurst, so Mark (Skaife) put in some practice starts just in case he's called on to start the race again like at Phillip Island. While I was in Western Australia our team was busy reworking the oil cooler on both cars to make them a bit more bullet-proof after Jamie's (Whincup) problems at the Island.  Test day was basically about running in the race gear for Bathurst and checking the oil coolers. We ran about 100km then changed everything from the engine back: bellhousing, gearboxes, tailshafts, complete rear ends. Also front uprights, brakes etc so we know it all works when we bolt all that stuff into the car on Saturday night for the big race. It's very time consuming, but something we've always done to make sure we have no hiccups at Bathurst.  Other than that, there was just the usual pitstop practice for a couple of hours. We needed to get the driver change a bit quicker so we aren't compromised on our strategy if we want to short fill. We didn't test anything major, it was just more about getting Skaifey more laps and getting our fuel consumption versus lap times closer to each other. Skaifey has been close in terms of lap times, but we just need to get him to do it more efficiently so we don't have to sit in pit lane for as long filling up.  I fly out on Monday for Sydney and the long PR haul to Bathurst. Unfortunately, I won't be caravanning with the family down to Bathurst like I have been in recent years because Nat needs rest for her spleen condition.

HALF a day of driving through sand dunes stands between Craig Lowndes and victory in his first off-road race.  The V8 Supercars driver extended his lead to about an hour in the penultimate leg of the Australasian Safari in Western Australia yesterday."We had a great day," he said.  "That is how I expected to the Safari to be; open and fast roads through forestry."Today, Lowndes and co-driver Kees Weel of the Gold Coast tackle two tough stages in the coastal sand dunes near Esperance with their Holden Colorado.  "There's only one more day to go, but apart from the first bit which is rocky, it's all sand," Lowndes said."There are three small stints and we have to navigate right and keep our momentum.  The bikes set off first and will set a rough course and I think we will be the first car off, so navigation will be the ultimate component tomorrow."We've been lost and found our way back before. Kees is pretty experienced at this; it's his 13th Safari."  Lowndes said he wasn't thinking about how they would celebrate if they won tomorrow."We'll celebrate by getting back on the plane and thinking about Bathurst," he said.  Lowndes and Weel were followed by Victorians Darren Green and Wayne Smith in their Nissan Patrol and Bruce Garland and Harry Suzuki in their Isuzu D-Max, the first diesel-powered vehicle.The order changed in the bike section yesterday when third-placed rider Rod Faggotter of Longreach pulled out after the first leg suffering with a broken thumb from a fall the previous day.That leaves a trifecta of KTM riders at the front lead by Bathurst rider Ben Grabham heading for his third victory.  He is followed by Todd Smith of Condobolin, NSW, and Matthew Fish of Kyneton, Victoria.RESULTSPos Veh Crew Vehicle Cat/ SS15 SS16 SS17 SS18 Pen Total No Class1 100 LOWNDES - WEEL 2003 Holden Colorado A5.2 25:00 03:06 02:57 24:38 30:54:592 122 GREEN - SMITH 1999 nissan Patrol A2.2 30:12 03:31 03:18 27:47 32:11:383 102 GARLAND - SUZUKI 2010 Isuzu DMAX A5.4 23:36 02:55 02:58 23:33 32:42:424 105 TURLEY - TILLETT 1996 Nissan Patrol A5.3 25:16 04:48 02:58 25:46 33:41:135 101 FLOOD - VAN KANN 1992 Mitsubishi Pajero A5.1 27:07 05:35 03:53 30:24 34:35:466 177 DI LALLO - MASI 1999 Mitsubishi Pajero Evolution A1.1 30:11 03:43 03:18 31:48 38:18:387 106 MULDREW - EARLE 2004 Mitsubishi Pajero A1.2 31:47 03:40 03:32 36:31 39:02:378 112 MUIR - WALKER 1998 Mitsubishi Pajero EVO A1.1 39:44 03:42 03:17 31:26 41:52:179 110 KNOWLES - VILLANOVA 2008 Hummer H2 SUT A5.2 25:11 03:55 03:01 29:30 43:30:59 10 109 WALKDEN - LONG 1998 Mitsubishi Pajero EVO A2.1 28:13 03:18 03:17 27:21 43:35:3111 137 YUAN DE - TAIGUANG 2005 Quang Qi Chang Feng CFA2 T2.1 47:15 03:42 03:39 34:37 45:09:3912 103 TWADDLE - TWADDLE 2000 Mitsubishi Pajero A0.2 01:01:44 05:00 04:54 MCf 01:30:00 45:44:5113 115 OWEN - CAIRNS 2004 NISSAN GU PATROL A5.3 27:39 03:03 03:03 26:05 47:35:0214 127 YOUNG - MCBEAN 2002 Mitsubishi Pajero A1.5 52:14 03:48 03:31 32:41 47:41:3315 136 WEI YU - MIN 2005 Guang Qi Chang Feng CFA2 T1.2 44:46 03:25 03:19 25:54 47:59:11104 HARRINGTON - HARRINGTON 2007 Nissan Patrol A5.3 24:45 03:01 03:03 DNF DNF107 DENHAM - DENHAM 2003 Mitsubishi Triton A5.2 DNF DNF DNF DNF DNF108 OLHOLM - DOBLE 2004 Mitsubishi NM Pajero A5.2 DNF DNF DNF DNF DNF111 DUNN - DUNN 1998 Nissan GU A5.3 DNF DNF DNF DNF DNF113 WATMAN - WATMAN 1998 Mitsubishi Pajero EVO A1.1 DNF DNF DNF DNF DNF129 QUINN - FEAVER 1995 Mitsubishi Pajero A5.2 DNF DNF DNF DNF DNF142 HOFFMANN, Glenn 2010 Dirt-Buggies Superlite A4.4 DNF DNF DNF DNF DNF 150 PINSON - DENBRINKER 2002 Ford ba rtv A3.4 DNF DNF DNF DNF DNF155 MONKHOUSE - MONKHOUSE 2006 suzuki vitara A5.1 DNF DNF DNF DNF DNFMCx2 - Missed Start and Finish Controls, MCf - Missed Finish Control, - Time recorded but Out of Late Time Date 9/25/2010 22:10:50.145 Form No:205 Page 1 

Red Bull Racing driver Sebastian Vettel claimed the record in a shakedown of a virtual car that features in the next generation of Gran Turismo 5.  The X1 Prototype car is a joint venture between the producers of the popular computer game and Aussie Mark Webber's Formula One team. The project threw out the F1 rule book to produce the fastest race car possible for its Gran Turismo 5 game which will be released in Australia on November 4.  The X1 features aerodynamics by Red Bull Racing chief technical officer Adrian Newey. "We all have a dream about pushing the boundaries, where the performance of the car and the experience of the driver take precedence over the rules," he says.  "This is the inspiration that brought Red Bull Racing and Polyphony together. And as a result the X1 Prototype is dynamite to drive." Kazunori Yamauchi, president of Gran Turismo producers Polyphony Digital, says the X1 is a "what-if" dream.  "We want to inspire racing fans and the industry alike by exploring the realm of possibilities for the future of motorsports," he says.  Gran Turismo has been used to launch the BMW 1 Series and it debuted the Nissan GT-R before the real version was made public.

It's physically and mentally challenging and there have been times when I've asked my co-driver, Kees Weel, when will it all end.  But I've also enjoyed it and would like to do more of this sort of driving in the future. You're in the vehicle a lot longer and racing for a lot longer, but it's exciting.  I'm writing this a few days before you are reading this because the areas we are in are quite remote and this is a rare opportunity to communicate with the outside world. At this stage, I don't know where we'll finish, but we're up at the pointy end and not pushing too hard as anything can happen.  I've seen people like Tony Quinn, an accomplished circuit racer, sidelined by something as simple as a ruptured fuel tank. You can't go hard all the time; you have to pace yourself and drive wisely and hope the luck falls your way.  It's like nothing I've ever done before. It's like fronting up for a Bathurst race every day.  Speaking of Bathurst, even though I'm out in the bush of Western Australia focussing on the dirt road ahead, I'm also focussing on Mt Panorama in a couple of weeks. People have been asking me if Skaifey will start like he did at Phillip Island.  That's yet to be decided. Skaifey bravely took on the starting duties at the Island even though he wasn't used to our clutch set-up and had a bad start in his sprint race.  But most teams ran with their B driver first so they could be assured of getting their minimum laps completed and because there was only one driver change. That won't be the case at Bathurst. We'll have several driver changes, so Skaifey won't necessarily start the race.  At the moment the plan is for me to start, but who knows what the situation will be on the day? There are a lot of things to consider. If Mark is comfortable and doing better lap times than me, then I'm happy to give him the responsibility. He did a fantastic job at Phillip Island, attacking right from the start. In fact, Skaifey has been dead serious all year about these endurance races and is 110 per cent focussed on Bathurst.  He'd love to get his sixth victory and I'd love my fifth. He's really pumped and he's been working extremely hard on his fitness.  As he's become more familiar with the car, the team and our mentality he has really fitted in. His hunger and keenness to do well has also really grown. Next year our team gets a boost with Williams Formula 1 engineer John Russell joining us as the director of engineering and production.  His role will be to improve the reliability of our race cars.  I've worked with him before with FPR and he's a fantastic man with great strength and talent. A lot of people might criticise him from his FPR days, but the position he was in was not the correct one. Our team principal, Roland Dane, is an astute person who will make sure John's new role brings a great deal of depth and strength to our team. Before I started on the safari, I became involved with Suncorp Insurance to promote road safety over the school holidays.  It's something that I'm really interested and enthusiastic about, just like Brocky was. The idea is to tell people holiday road safety is about more than just not speeding and having plenty of rest.  It's also about things like packing your car correctly and knowing how to tow. We tow our caravan around the country to race events and we're really into camping, but you have to know what you are doing or it can be a dangerous recipe for disaster. I'm hoping that my wife, Nat, will be well enough for us to again take the caravan to Bathurst. It helps me relax if I know I can go back to the caravan and the family at the end of each day's racing.    

LOTUS is rumoured to be returning to Renault power for next year's Formula One after an agreement to terminate its three-year arrangement with Cosworth for Ford engines. The British racing team is believed to be negotiating with Renault for an engine supply starting next year. Lotus is one of three new teams on the grid this season, none of which has scored any points.FORMULA 1 technology is coming to V8 Supercars with TeamVodafone appointing Williams Formula 1 engineer John Russell as director of engineering and production for next year. His role will be to improve car reliability and make the Commodores of Jamie Whincup and Craig Lowndes easier and quicker to service and set up between race events. Team principal Roland Dane said the appointment would also allow Russell and chief engineer Ludo Lacroix to pursue other revenue opportunities for Brisbane-based Triple Eight Race Engineering, the company behind TeamVodafone. "A V8 Supercar and a Formula 1 car are o bviously two very different beasts but the principles and ideas that drive their performance and efficiency are similar," he said.AUSTRALIAN Marcos Ambrose racked up his fifth top 10 NASCAR finish of the season with a fifth at Richmond International Raceway. The race was marred by a record three yellow flag caution periods. Ambrose started in 13th and it was the the first time he has finished two-consecutive NASCAR Sprint Cup races in the top 10 after his tenth the previous weekend in Atlanta. The series now moves into the "Chase" for the title among the top 12 who have their points reset. Ambrose finished the pre-Chase season in 24th position and can continue to race, but not for the title.JIM Richards has been voted Australia's best touring car driver ahead of the late Peter Brock in an online poll by Speedcafe.com.au. The 63-year-old secured about a third of the votes, Brock 26 per cent, Dick Johnson 17 per cent, Mark Skaife and Craig Lowndes 5 per cent, Allan Moffat 4.8 per cent and Ian Geoghegan 2.8 per cent. Richards has seven Bathurst 1000 wins including three with Brock, four Australian Touring Car Championships and eight Targa Tasmania victories. "It's very flattering, but it's very hard to compare drivers through all the eras," he said of the poll result.JAPANESE driver Kamui Kobayashi will stay with the Sauber F1 team next year. The 24-year-old who last year drove for Toyota is 12th in the championship with 21 points a best result of sixth at Silverstone and has been in the top 10 qualifying three times. "We enjoy having our rookie as part of the team both as a driver and a person," says team principal Peter Sauber. The team's second driver for 2011 is yet to be announced.AUSTRALIAN Daniel Erickson has taken another step towards achieving his Formula 1 ambition by winning the final round of the American F2000 Championship Series and the Rookie of the Year title. The young Sydney driver was never headed in the 20-lap, 77km race after he took the lead at the first corner from pole position holder and newly confirmed champion Victor Carbone. It was his third win in the series. The Australian Motor Sport Foundation International Rising Star also scored four second places, four pole positions, two qualifying lap records and two fastest race laps. His Rookie title is his third in four racing seasons in two categories at different levels.SEVEN times US world series sprintcar champion Brooke Tatnell has signed up for two more seasons with Krikke MotorSport to race the Australian summer series. The 37-year-old from the south coast of NSW has been racing since the age of 13 and won back-to-back Australian titles from 2005-07. Team boss Shane Krikke admits that the team's 30th year could be its last.CRAIG Lowndes backs up from a gruelling 500km V8 Supercars race at Phillip Island last weekend with his first off-road rally starting today. (FRIDAY SEPT 17) The four-time Bathurst winner will compete in the eight-day, 3600km Australasian Safari in Western Australia with co-driver Kees Weel of the Gold Coast.VETERAN Paul Stokell pulled off a miraculous last-to-first performance in the final race of the Mini Challenge at Phillip Island last weekend. However, it wasn't enough to stop Chris Alajajian from coming away with his fourth round of the year with a slim margin over Josh Hunt. Alajajian is now in the box seat to clinch the title with a 60-point lead over Stokell with two rounds remaining.HOLDEN driver Grant Johnson extended his championship lead in the V8 Ute series over Falcon driver Jack Eslegood with a solid round win at Phillip Island last weekend. He scored a lap record on his way to a race one victory on the Saturday then backed up on the Sunday with a 12th in race two and another victory in race 3. Holden rival Chris Pither won the second race and the holeshot award for the best start.SUPERBIKE action joined the card at the V8 Supercars round at Phillip Island last weekend with Honda riders Wayne Maxwell and series leader Bryan Staring sharing the spoils. Staring scored with his fifth victory on the Saturday, but Maxwell ended the winning streak on the Sunday. They came away with 45 points each. The Superbikes join the V8s again at the Symmons Plains round in Tasmania in November.THE Australian women's team placed a credible seventh place at the 2010 Trial des Nations in Poland last weekend. The team consists of Brooke Lonie of Ballarat, and NSW riders Ailsa Anderson of Kyogle and Kristie McKinnon of Oberon. Spain, Great Britain, and Germany took out the podium places. The Australian men's team of Tim Coleman of Glenmaggie, Victoria, Colin Zarczynski of Penrith, and Neil Price and Lewis Nolan of Perth, will compete this weekend.DEFENDING world speedway champion Jason Crump has come back from injury into title contention by leapfrogging Jaroslaw Hampel into second after his third place in a soggy Denmark GP last weekend. The Australian is now only 19 points behind Polish rider Tomsz Gollob with two rounds to go.ASTON Martin is returning to the top category in next year's Le Mans 24 Hour race. The British marque will enter a new race car in the custom-built Le Mans Prototypes (LMP1) category featuring an open cockpit monocoque chassis and a new petrol engine. The race has been won since 2006 by Audi and Peugeot with diesel-powered cars. Aston Martin chairman David Richards believes new regulations will make petrol-engined cars more competitive. Aston won the GT category in 2007 and 2008 and the Le Mans series last year. Aston's first and only outright Le Mans victory was in 1959 with the DBR1 of Roy Salvadori and Carroll Shelby.AUSTRALIA will continue to have two separate road motorcycle series next year with the release of the 2011 Australian Formula Xtreme Championship calendar. More than 150 riders competed at the last round in July at Eastern Creek Raceway in Sydney, up from 100 at the first round in March. It will again be a winter and summer series format with national free-to-air and pay TV support. The remaining event for this year is the final at Eastern Creek Raceway on October 29-31. Next year's calendar is Eastern Creek, December 3-4; Wakefield Park, NSW, Dec 3-4; Winton, Vic, Dec 17-18; Eastern Ck, March 11-13; Wakefield, April 29 - May 1; Eastern Ck, July 1-3; Winton, September 2-4; Wakefield, November 4-6.THE biggest cash prize in pro street drag racing has attracted a star field of drivers from various categories to compete in the 10.5 Outlaw Pro Street Shootout at Willowbank Raceway in Ipswich this weekend. (SEPTEMBER 18) Organisers have put up $10,500 for the outright winner. In a first for the sport, the shootout includes drag cars from any category with 10.5-inch W tyres.DRIVING a self-built car on old tyres, Brisbane's Alan McConnell blasted to outright victory in the ninth annual South Coast Automotive Speed on Tweed at Murwillumbah in northern New South Wales at the weekend. McConnell's time of 39.48 seconds on the one-kilometre temporary street course, set in his 1987 Van Diemen with a Suzuki motorcycle engine, was fastest by just 0.4 seconds. More than 180 cars ranging in vintage from pre-1930 to 2010 contested the time trials.KIRK Hutton has clinched a record-breaking 10th Queensland Enduro Championship. The 37-year-old completed a clean sweep of the 2010 series in the third and final round at Cherrabah Resort, Warwick, on his Yamaha, beating a field of 105. "To be able to win by nearly three-minutes at my age feels really good and proves to me I still have the speed to beat everyone in the state," he said. The most Queensland Enduro Championships won by another rider has been two. Hutton won his first state title in 1998 and has also won four Australian enduro championships and seven International Six Days Enduro individual gold medals.SCOTT Pruett has claimed the Grand-AM Sport Car Series Championship with a record-extending ninth victory in Utah at the weekend. The Californian is one of a line-up of international stars who will race at the Gold Coast V8 Supercars round in October. It is the third Daytona Protoype championship title for Pruett who will team up with Lucas Dumbrell Racing in the Gold Coast 600. JIM Richards has been invited to attend this weekend's Goodwood Revival. (17-19 sEPTEMBER) The seven-time Bathurst winner and eight-time Targa Tasmania victor will compete in a trophy event in a 1956 Morris Minor, sharing the driving with the car's owner. "I haven't been to Goodwood before and I'm very flattered to be invited," he said. "I got a letter in the mail from Lord March to invite me to drive and then I got another letter from him inviting me to play cricket."

... , the increasingly popular motorsport in which cars skid sideways."I didn't get my licence first time around because I didn't see the 40km/h zone," he said.  Now, with just one round to go and 15 points on offer, Coulson, 17, holds a substantial 12-point lead in the top amateur class of the national Stadium Drift titles.The youngest competitor yet in the series started drifting when he was 15. His father, Martin, a used car dealer, had to drive the car in and out of the pits for him.  "I'd driven about three times around dad's car yard before I had my first drift," he said."It felt just like the Playstation game LFS (Live for Speed). The steering wheel felt exactly the same just the feeling of the G forces was different."In just his second season in the sideways motorsport, Coulson has blitzed the much more mature and experienced field with two firsts, a third and a fourth.  In drifting, competitors are marked on proximity to the car they are "racing", their speed, the angle of the car and the amount of smoke they generate from drifting the car on its tyres at speeds up to 160km/h."I like racing against other people, especially the pros because you can trust that they won't spin out and hit you," he said.  "I don't have any fear. It's just fun."The Forest Lake College senior student hopes to go professional next year or venture into other motorsport disciplines such as V8 Supercars. Meanwhile, he will help out at his father's Moorooka used car yard."We're not concerned about him hooning on the streets," his father said.  "You'll find most people will do it only on the track if they have the opportunity. Unfortunately the opportunities are so limited."Coulson has spent about $50,000 developing his son's 1989 Nissan Skyline with its RB25 2.5-litre turbocharged engine pumping out 258kW of power, which is about 100kW more than a Holden Commodore.  While the young Coulson can unleash the full potential of his Skyline's blown engine on a race track, as a P plate driver he is not allowed to drive the turbocharged car on a public road.For the road, he drives a non-turbo Skyline.  "Drifting should only be done on a track," he said."And if any competitor is seen leaving the venue spinning their wheels or doing anything they shouldn't do on the street, they are not allowed back."