Race track

Coming off debut appearances at both Sandown and Bathurst for the Holden Racing Team, Briscoe has been named the new driver for RuSPORT for both the Australian and final round at Mexico City.He replaces the badly injured Christiano da Matta, a teammate of Briscoe when the Brazilian raced for Toyota in Formula One and the Australian was the team's test driver.Briscoe, who tested for RuSPORT in Mexico 10 days ago, will join Team Australia's Will Power as the two Australians in the Lexmark Indy 300.RuSPORT has competed at the past three Champ Car rounds with just single-car entries after regular driver da Matta, a former winner at Surfers Paradise, was badly injured in a testing accident when a deer wandered on to the track at Road America. Briscoe is acknowledged as one of the world's quickest drivers, regardless of the machinery.He was a Formula One test driver for Toyota from 2002-2004, competed in the Indy Racing League as a member of Target Chip Ganassi Racing in 2005, and raced in the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona in 2005 and 2006, winning pole last year.He also finished 10th in the famous Indianapolis 500 race at his first attempt last year and recently scored a podium for Team Australia in the A1 series after little time in the car.At Sandown, in his first drive in a front-engined car and with no prior knowledge of the track, he won provisional pole position at last month's enduro ahead of the established Supercar stars.Briscoe has been angling for a permanent drive next season, with Champ Cars at the forefront of his mind, and said he was delighted to be making his debut on home soil."Because my official start will be at Surfers Paradise, it will be a very special race for me," Briscoe said."It's been my goal since the beginning of the year to race in Champ Car, and I'm with a top team, so it's a really exciting opportunity for me."I'm hoping we can get off to a quick start and get some good results right away."Briscoe had several months of recuperation last year after a horrific crash in an IRL car at the Chicagoland Motor Speedway in September.He suffered concussion, two broken collarbones, a bruised lung and contusions to his arms and legs.Just 45 days later he was back behind the wheel of a go-kart and had completed F1 and Champ Car tests within a week of each other in early December.This year, in addition to the Rolex Grand American event in Daytona in January, he has competed in four IRL events as a member of Dreyer & Reinbold Racing, scoring two top-10 finishes, including one third-place finish at Watkins Glen.RuSPORT president Jeremy Dale said he was pleased to have secured Briscoe to partner ex-Formula One driver Justin Wilson for the final two races of the season."Since Cristiano's accident in August, we have been spent a considerable amount of time and effort on finding the right driver for the No.10 car," Dale said."Although we interviewed and tested several talented and capable drivers, we believe Ryan is the ideal type of driver for RuSPORT."AAP

Helped by the exceptional driving of his Triple Eight Ford teammate Jamie Whincup, the pair won the first Bathurst following the death of nine-time winner Peter Brock early last month.Lowndes reached the pinnacle of his career 10 years after his previous victory with Greg Murphy in a Holden Racing Team Commodore.It was a win that Lowndes steeled himself to pull off to pay the ultimate tribute to Brock, who carefully guided and moulded the 32-year-old into one of the most accomplished drivers in the world.But minutes before the 1000km race blasted away, Lowndes was so choked up with emotion that Roland Dane, the team principal of the Brisbane-based Triple Eight squad, gave him the option of standing down from starting and letting Whincup take the helm for the opening stint.Lowndes rejected the offer and started the race which was marred by a succession of crashes and a record number of 10 safety cars.Thirty-seven of the 161 laps were run under yellow-caution conditions.Lowndes and Whincup were chased hard by the eventual runners-up, brothers Todd and Rick Kelly in the Toll/HSV Holden.Former Formula One test driver James Courtney pulled off an ironman performance in the Jeld-Wen Ford he shared with Glenn Seton, finishing third after doing a double stint.Courtney fought a cramping left hand over the final 10 laps to keep the Stone Brothers Ford ahead of his more accomplished teammate Russell Ingall, who was a fighting fourth with Luke Youlden.It was a day when $1 million-a-year driver Lowndes earned every cent of his pay packet, along with the much more conservatively paid Whincup."It was always going to be special to be the first one to have their name on that trophy," Lowndes said as he fought back tears in reference to the Peter Brock Perpetual trophy commissioned in the last few weeks following the legendary driver's death."It was always going to be emotional and we knew the press would focus on the Brock side of it so the best way I could pay my respect was to put my name on the trophy.""In many respects I think this weekend will hold as the No. 1 result for me."Whincup, who starts contract negotiations next week, may have just raised his value considerably, particularly as he blistered across the top of the mountain in the second sector consistently quicker than Lowndes.And it was Whincup who flung the Triple Eight Ford into the lead, sneaking underneath Todd Kelly on lap 110 just after a restart.The Triple Eight crew performed faultless pit stops in a race that lasted a few seconds short of a marathon seven hours.The worst of the string of crashes was by Team Kiwi Racing's Paul Radisich who was trapped in his mangled Commodore for 20 minutes before being freed. On lap 73, Radisich ran off the road and head-on into the wall near the GMC bridge.Rescue teams cut a whole in the roof of his car to extract Radisich from the wreck. He was lucky to escape serious injury.Pre-race favourite Mark Skaife, starting from pole, crashed out on the first lap.The Holden Racing Team driver was struggling for pace and was running off the racing line on the climb up the mountain when rookie Jack Perkins smashed into him from behind.

The Bathurst rookie was the driver who punted the red-hot favourite out of the great race just seconds after the start yesterday and he was as upset as anyone."I'm so, so sorry. I just didn't see you," Perkins said as he shook Skaife's hand in the Holden Racing Team's garage."Don't worry, it wasn't your fault," Skaife replied.And then he revealed that his race would probably have been over without the big hit on Mountain Straight."The clutch was slipping so badly that it probably wouldn't have made it to the top of the hill," Skaife said. "It was hardly driving at all. I was in fifth gear, but it wasn't making any speed."Skaife and Garth Tander were odds-on for the biggest race of the V8 Supercar season after dominating throughout the time-trials at Mt Panorama.The five-time winner cemented his spot on top when he claimed pole position, although hot weather on Saturday stopped him from undercutting Greg Murphy's all-time best lap at the track. But it all went wrong when the lights went out to start the race."As soon as I let the clutch up, it started slipping. And I didn't even warm up the tyres or anything because I wanted some wheelspin," Skaife said."I knew I was in trouble, so I moved to the left. I saw Steven Richards coming and let him through the gap. I was limping up Mountain Straight and just trying to stay out of trouble."That trouble arrived when Perkins, who was way back in the pack after starting 28th, arrived over the blind brow and ran into the tail of the red car.He got hard on to the brakes, and was able to swerve a bit to the right, but the impact fired Skaife's car into the concrete wall."The red car was just about stopped. Unfortunately, I just ran into the back of him," said Perkins, the 20-year-old son of former Bathurst winner Larry Perkins.Perkins originally thought he had hit the second HRT Commodore of Jim Richards, which started from position 12."I couldn't believe the guy off pole was that far back," Perkins said.He was able to drag the badly damaged Jack Daniel's Commodore back to the pits, but, like Skaife's car, it was too badly damaged to return to the race.Skaife was gutted after one of his best Bathurst preparations."I don't think I've ever wanted to win the race so badly. There is the whole Peter Brock thing," he said. "There was a lot of expectation, wasn't there? It was just unbelievable. I cannot remember being so psyched. I have never felt we've had such a complete preparation."The crash almost certainly ended Garth Tander's chances in the V8 Supercar championship, after he was switched from his regular ride with the Toll-HSV Dealer Team into Skaife's HRT Commodore to try to give him the best shot at the series crown. He and Toll teammate Rick Kelly were split to improve their chances of taking the title fight to Craig Lowndes."I'm gutted. Simple as that. To be over in less than 100 metres . . . I can't believe it," Tander said. "The car is stuffed."The disaster at HRT was completed when Jim Richards hit the wall on lap 24 in the team's second car."It's a shit of a game. Half-intelligent blokes wouldn't come here," Skaife said.Then he went to hitch a helicopter ride off the mountain with wife Toni so they could get home to Melbourne. "I don't think I want to hang around," he said.

Peter Brock's protege Craig Lowndes paid the ultimate tribute to his fallen idol when he claimed an emotional, emphatic win in the biggest event of the V8 Supercar season, the Bathurst 1000.It was a classic win in a battle which ran right down to the flag, as Rick Kelly came up just a little short in a winner-take-all six-lap shootout.Lowndes and talented young co-driver Jamie Whincup hit the front early, then resisted the challenge from Rick and Todd Kelly after the dramatic early exits of front-row starters Mark Skaife and Jason Bright.As always, Bathurst was filled with incidents and they included some huge crashes and the almost unbelievable first-lap retirement of Skaife, who had clutch problems on the line and was cleaned up by Jack Perkins on the first climb up Mountain Straight."What can you say? To be the first to have my name on the Peter Brock Trophy is obviously very special," Lowndes said."To do this today is pretty emotional. We never had a problem all day."The best way to show respect (to Brock) is to do this."Lowndes gave co-driver Whincup a huge boost and also said he provided motivation to overcome the pressure of performing on a day which began with a 30-minute tribute to Brock."I couldn't have done it without this little whiz kid alongside me. He's a gem," Lowndes said."We're the same height, the same weight and we share the same good looks."He admitted Rick Kelly had pressured him all the way to the flag. "I knew he was right behind me so I couldn't give an inch," Lowndes said.But both Kelly brothers, who were delayed with an early tyre problem, said they were beaten by a better combination."I couldn't give it any more. The old girl was scraping the wall in a couple of places, but I couldn't quite do it," Rick said.He added: "We cannot be too satisfied. It's extremely painful to leave this place knowing we came so close."Third place went to James Courtney and Glenn Seton, a combination of youth and experience that worked well through the day.And Courtney had the speed at the end — despite running back-to-back driving stints to the finish — to hold out Stone Brothers' teammate Russell Ingall.Courtney had cramps in his hand and said it was "like a claw" in the run to the flag."It's probably the hardest race I've ever done. We didn't quite have the pace . . . but it went quite well and we finished third," Courtney said."I just managed to beat my teammate, which makes it even better."The action was torrid, from the first-lap crash which took Skaife out of the contest, to Jason Richards' trip into the concrete in the final laps.The safety car was sent out 10 times and 37 of the 161 laps were run under caution.Jason Bright looked a contender in the early laps with his FPR Falcon, but had a tyre drama before he was sidelined by engine failure.The second FPR car also went out, after repairs to its engine, when suspension trouble put David Brabham into the sand trap at McPhillamy Park.The hits on the sharp end of the field continued when veteran Jim Richards crashed the second HRT Commodore and then Steven Johnson slapped the wall with his Falcon at Reid Park."I guess I buggered it up. The back end was really, really knife-edge and it got away from me," Johnson said.Cameron McConville also crashed in his SuperCheap Commodore, but the worst hit came when Paul Radisich touched Nathan Pretty's Commodore at The Chase and went head-on into the crash barrier.Safety crews cut the roof from the Team Kiwi Commodore to get him free and he was helicoptered to hospital for checks after complaining of chest pains.The middle laps of the race were filled with interruptions and silly mistakes by tailenders, including Dale Brede.He had brake failure at the top of Mountain Straight in the second of Brad Jones' BOC Falcons."The boys forgot to tell me to pump the brakes after a pad stop. I had no option," Brede said.The last major drama was an engine failure in Dean Canto's Valvoline Commodore, although he was able to limp around to take the flag.The finishing order at Bathurst reflects the battle for this year's V8 Supercar championship, as Lowndes now has a 101-point lead over Rick Kelly after drivers drop their worst-scoring round in the series.BATHURST BULLETSLEADING DRIVERS (161 laps)1. Lowndes/Whincup (F) 6hrs:59mins:53.5852secs2. R.Kelly/T.Kelly (H) 6:59:54.17203. Courtney/Seton (F) 7:00:03.12564. Ingall/Youlden (F) 7:00:03.13125. S.Richards/Dumbrell (H) 7:00:04.37596. Morris/Ellery (H) 7:00:07.97507. Owen/Longhurst (H) 7:00:11.32338. Weel /Pretty (H) 7:00:13.15409. A.Davison/Denyer (F) 7:00:13.629810. Bargwanna/Baird (F) 7:00:16.036711. B.Jones /Bowe (F) 7:00:18.452612. Simmonsen/Lyons (F) 7:00:23.583913. Ritter/McLean (H) 160 laps14. Besnard/Wilson (F) 160 laps15. Noske/O.Kelly (H) 159 laps V8 SUPERCARS CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES LEADERBOARDAfter 9 of 13 Rounds1. C Lowndes (Ford) 23782. R Kelly (Holden) 22773. M Winterbottom (Ford) 19834. R Ingall (Ford) 19525. J Whincup (Ford) 18806. G Tander (Holden) 18487. S Richards (Holden) 18128. J Bright (Ford) 17149. S Johnson (Ford) 169310. P Dumbrell (Holden) 1646

Skaife choked as soon as the starting flag dropped, with a slipped clutch that saw him drop to the back of the field before the first corner.

The 31-year-old New Zealander was directly hit by Ford driver David Clark at the top of the Mount Panaorama circuit during the Fujitsu series race."Porter clipped the wall, and Dave had nowhere to go and hit the drivers door at about 200km/h as Porter had come to rest in a blind spot," a witness at the scene said.Ambulance crews and paramedics worked with Porter at the scene before a helicopter flew both him and Clark to hospital.Both drivers are reported to be in a critical condition, suffering from serious head, neck and chest injuries.Confederation of Australian Motorsport president Colin Osborne said CAMS and V8 Supercars Australia have initiated support services for the families of both drivers.Porter spun sideways near Reid Park on the climb up the mountain, stalled and was left stranded in the middle of the track in an area blinded to oncoming traffic.Chris Alajajian put his car sideways and ripped the rear of both his and Porter's car.Clark, who also put his Falcon sideways in an attempt to escape collision, then crashed directly into the driver's side door of Porter on his driver's side.Police closed the circuit immediately after the accident, which happened on the 12th of the race's 14 laps.Racing resumed after an hour delay with the Bathurst 1000 qualifying session.Gemma Jones, a reporter for The Daily Telegraph who witnessed the accident on big screens at the event, said: "A third car had nowhere to go, lost control and slid sideways into one of the stricken cars."The impact was enormous due to their speeds. They were doing about 200km/h on that part of the course. It threw the cars in opposite directions."The first marshal to one of the cars appeared to check the driver's pulse. "He was unable to open the doors and motioned to other marshals nearby that he needed the 'jaws of life' to get the driver out."Porter is currently based with the Gold Coast Msport Racing team.He celebrated his 31st birthday only last Monday.He is married with a one-year-old son.Western Australia-born Clark, 26, lives in Adelaide and is married to Leah with three children - Kyle, Ashleigh and Reese.He is making his debut in the Fujistu series this year.Porter was scheduled to partner Dale Brede in Sunday's main race, diving for Team BOC Falcon.The Bathurst weekend was already set to be a sombre affair with memorials and tributes planned for late racing great Peter Brock, who died in a crash during the Targa West rally almost a month ago to the day on September 8.Brock won Bathurst a record nine times and was 61 when he lost control of his Daytona car and hit a tree at high speed.V8 Supercars chairman Tony Cochrane said the accident reiterated the dangers of the sport."Motor sport is an inherently dangerous sport," Cochrane said."It's a terrible accident and our thoughts are with the families and we just hope for a good outcome."We just have to wait and see."With FOXsports and AAP

Murphy, whose four Bathurst titles since 1996 makes him the most successful driver in the past decade, believes Ford's highest paid driver blew the Blue team's best chance of winning last year.Lowndes had the fastest car on the grid and was streaking the field until he clipped the wall in a rookie driving error before the halfway point of the race.Lowndes, whose only Bathurst win was in 1996 ironically partnering Murphy in a Commodore, finished well back in the field and had to complete the race without front and rear windscreens after a tyre smashed his window in a later incident.Holden veteran Mark Skaife and Todd Kelly eventually won the race extending Commodore's winning streak to seven years.Murphy says last year was Ford's best chance of winning the title since Jason Bright's win in 1998, and Lowndes should be stewing over the blown opportunity."(Ford) have blown a lot of opportunities in the last couple of years to win that race," said Murphy."Lowndesy blew it last year by smacking the wall when clearly he had the best car in the field."He should be very much ruing that little mistake. It was the one that really got away."He could have broken the drought last year and he didn't."With this year's Bathurst 1000 a tribute to the late Peter Brock, nine-times champion here, Murphy says it would be fitting for Holden to win the race and not Ford."Historically and sentimentally, you'd hope it was a Holden," said Murphy, with the winners to receive the inaugural and perpetual Peter Brock Trophy.Defending and five-times champion Mark Skaife agrees, saying it's only fitting that Commodore takes the checkered flag on Sunday."It'd be much better if it is Holden that win this year," he said."It would be a very appropriate tribute for us to win the race at Brock's favourite race track in a Holden."Murphy, however, has reservations over whether he can lift the trophy on Sunday.Although he has the best recent record here - with four victories (1996, 1999, 2003, 2004) and two podium finishes (third in 2000 and 2001) in the past decade - his Supercheap Auto Commodore has lacked reliability in 2006.He and co-driver Cameron McConville have struggled at every championship round but Murphy says everything has be done to ensure the car lasts the 1000km distance this weekend. "It doesn't matter what kind of year you've had you can always come here and have a different outlook on things," he said."Your guess is as good as mine (that the car will last) ... everything that can be physically done has been done."Skaife meanwhile is only focused on winning, he says victory is the best way to get teammate Garth Tander's championship campaign back on track after mechanical failure cost them victory in the Sandown 500 last month."Winning races wins championships," said Skaife."The best way to look after Garth's championship is to go and win the race."AAP

Bright is the last Falcon driver to win at Bathurst, his victory in 1998 the only success Ford fans have tasted in over a decade.A breakthrough win with Mark Winterbottom in the CAT Ford Performance Racing Falcon at Sandown last month has only intensified the hopes of Ford fans and bosses that 2006 could be the year of the Blue Oval."There is pressure, but no more pressure than what we put on ourselves to do the best job possible and try and win," said Bright."Heading into the biggest race there's nothing better than being the team that won the last round."It'd just be so good to win it for Ford because it has been such a long time and pretty frustrating time for them."Winterbottom too welcomes the pressure and hype surrounding the FPR drivers.He is running third in the championship, a remarkable result considering it is his first season at the factory-backed team.However, he realises winning the endurance double is a difficult task and a feat not achieved since 1996 when Greg Murphy and Craig Lowndes won both Sandown and Bathurst for Holden."It's been quite a while, winning Sandown never guarantees you'll win here but it does give you confidence and a big factor to have at Bathurst is confidence," said Winterbottom."We're running on a high at the moment which is good."It's good to go into this round as one of the favourites and to have a chance to win."Bookmakers have listed Holden's Mark Skaife/Garth Tander ($3.50) as favourites, followed by Ford's Craig Lowndes/Jamie Whincup ($4.00), Holden's Rick Kelly/Todd Kelly ($5.50) and Bright/Winterbottom ($6.00).Winterbottom says the FPR Falcon is the most reliable of those top four contenders."Our reliability all year has been pretty much 100 per cent," he said."The quicker cars like (Lowndes and Skaife) have had a few little problems so if you look at the favourites this year there's four of us and we are probably the most reliable of the lot."That's good to have that on your side going into this race because it is a long race."AAP

Two-times Bathurst winner Richards walked away from a high speed crash at the end of the 135 minute practice session when he lost control of his No.7 Commodore coming down Conrod Straight and hit the wall.The crash caused extensive structural damage estimated at over $100,000 and the pit crew must rebuild the vehicle overnight for Richards to have any chance of qualifying.Richards had put himself into fifth position on the time sheets, but was almost a second behind the Holden Racing Team pair of Mark Skaife and Garth Tander who posted the two fastest times of the day.Richards remained optimistic the car would be ready for qualifying tomorrow."With a bit of luck we might be saved and make qualifying," said Richards."I'm pretty sure the right rear tyre blew and it turned hard left in the middle of the straight."I just closed my eyes and waited for the big hit."Holden driver Lee Holdsworth had an almost identical accident during the first half of practice, but he was luckier than Richards as his car missed the wall.Richards and co-driver Paul Dumbrell could switch to the team's other No.11 Commodore, but team owner Larry Perkins ruled it out - partly because his son Jack and fellow rookie Shane Price are racing the other entry.All teams had until late today to confirm driver entries, and Richards-Dumbrell could have been given the undamaged No.11 vehicle, but six-times Bathurst winner Perkins believes other drivers should not suffer because of Richards's error."I'm not inclined to switch," said Perkins."If that's your car, you live with it."We'll put in an all nighter and see if we can't make it to qualifying tomorrow."The late crash overshadowed a dominant start to the event by pre-race favourites Skaife and Tander in the No.2 HRT Commodore.They set the pace for the majority of the session and just when Jason Bright (CAT Ford Performance Racing Falcon) closed the gap to within one hundredth of a second, Skaife jumped back behind the wheel to extend their lead.Skaife's two minutes 08.1727 seconds lap was clearly ahead of Bright (2:08.9665) while Rick Kelly (Toll HSV Dealer Commodore) was third best in 2:08.9803.Steven Johnson (FirstRock Home Loans Falcon) was fourth in 2:09.0053, ahead of Richards (2:09.0613) and Ford's Craig Lowndes (Betta Electrical Falcon) who finished slightly off the pace in sixth with a time of 2:09.3283.Skaife said it's too early to declare HRT the fastest car on the mountain - even though co-driver Tander posted a slick 2:08.9594 on old tyres."It's only Thursday, lets not get too carried away by the gap. I'm sure everyone will close that gap," said Skaife."You can easily make up big chunks of time here."Third-placed Kelly suggested there was still plenty left in his Commodore."Everything is going to plan ... we are not trying to break records today."The V8s resume tomorrow with two half-hour practice sessions in the morning followed by qualifying from 2pm.AAP

The Holden Racing Team No.2 Commodore led the time sheets for the majority of the 135 minute split session, holding an advantage greater than half a second until the final flurry of quick laps when most teams bolted on new tyres.Tander had posted the fastest time of two minutes 08.9594 seconds, with Sandown 500 winner Jason Bright (CAT Ford Performance Racing) closing to be within less than one hundredth of a second behind Tander with a time of 2:08.9665.However in the final minute of the session Skaife jumped back behind the wheel and posted a scorching 2:08.1727 to extend HRT's lead back to almost a second.Toll HSV Dealer Team driver Todd Kelly was third quickest in 2:08.9803.Steven Johnson (First Rock Home Loans Falcon) fired into fourth place in the dying seconds with his 2:09.0053 lap.Steven Richards in the Jack Daniels Commodore also found late speed to move into fifth position with a 2:09.0613 - but he then crashed coming down Conrod Straight after the checkered flag.Ford's Craig Lowndes in the Betta Electrical Falcon posted a 2:09.3283 time to be sixth fastest today.Last year's Bathurst runner up Jason Richards had a terrible start to his event when co-driver Andrew Jones crashed their No.3 Tasman Commodore at the top of the mountain on his first lap of the session forcing their car to have repairs throughout the entire session.Another Holden driver Lee Holdsworth also had a lucky escape when his right tyre blew at 260km/h down Conrod straight and he lost control of his Commodore."I was just a passenger but managed to keep it off the wall," said Holdsworth."I was probably doing 260 (km/h) at the time, I was not going full pelt."AAP