REYNOLDS RACES WITH BUNDY RED: TEAM LAUNCH

USF1 PETER WINDSOR INTERVIEW PART 2

PETE WINDSOR TALKS USF1 WITH SPEED TV

HISTORIC CLASSIC SUPPORTS VIC BUSHFIRE TRAGEDY

  Competitors and enthusiasts attending the 2009 Phillip Island Classic Festival of Motorsport from March 13-15 will support the Victorian Bushfire Appeal through a range of on and off-track activities. • Part proceeds from programme sales at the meeting will be donated towards the appeal • Motor racing legends including three-time World Champion Sir Jack Brabham, four-time Australian Touring Car Champion Bob Jane, seven-time Bathurst winner Jim Richards, two-time Australian Touring Car Champion Glenn Seton, Australian Sports Car Champion and Bathurst winner John Bowe and former driver and team owner Fred Gibson will all autograph posters at the Shannons Super Rig in the paddock for a gold coin donation • Richards, Seton and Bowe will additionally donate ‘hot laps’ to the highest bidders at a special auction held at the meeting’s Saturday night gala dinner • Laps of the Grand Prix circuit alongside Seton or Bowe in the new Nissan R35 GT-R that will be used as the ‘pace car’ on the warm-up laps for the combined Group C and Group A touring car races will also be sold • All gold coin entrance fees to view the Shannons Showroom collection of more than 100 classic sporting and muscle cars to be held in the new circuit’s new Expo Centre will go to the appeal. Combined, these initiatives are expected to represent a substantial donation by historic racing enthusiasts towards the Bushfire Relief Fund. More than 560 historic racing, sports and touring cars spanning six decades – including 18 overseas drivers from six nations – have entered the meeting, which is supported by Shannons, CoolDrive and the VACC. Practice and qualifying for all categories will take place on Friday March 13, with racing from 9.00am until 4.40pm on the Saturday and Sunday, March 14 and 15. 

COME ON WITHOUT, COME ON WITHIN

Tony Quinn and Shawn Jamieson were among the winners in the opening round of the 2009 Shannons Nationals, held at Bathurst's famed Mount Panorama last weekend, 20-22 February. Running in conjunction with the WPS Bathurst 12 Hour, over 260 competitors tackled 'The Mountain' in action-packed Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge, Saloon Car, Formula Vee, HQ Holden and Improved Production races on Friday and Saturday.   On debut in the growing all-Porsche series, the versatile Quinn won all three races of the GT3 Cup Challenge season opener to take the round win ahead of Bill Pye and 2008 champion Sven Burchartz. Quinn battled with 997 Trophy Class competitor Nathan Caratti at the head of the field all weekend, with Caratti taking a dominant class win and beating Quinn to the chequered flag in Race Two. “It was good to have Nathan to race against,“ Quinn said.  “A couple of the other drivers had problems and I think guys like Max Twigg probably didn't have the kind of weekend they are capable of. But the series is really great and growing - and I hope it continues to do so.“ Series debutant Matt Kingsley's first race back from injury after a heavy crash at the 2008 Clipsal 500 was brief, retiring from the Race One after he was left stranded on the grid by a clutch failure and collected by Max Twigg.

MITSUBISHI DOMINATES BATHURST SHOWROOM SHOWDOWN

Mitsubishi Lancers have dominated the annual Bathurst 12 hour production car race at the famous Mount Panorama. Defending race champions Damien White & Rod Salmon were joined in their win by two time  Bathurst 1000 winner Tony Longhurst. Second place went to the Western Australian team of Sports Sedan star Tony Ricciardello and his fellow Western Australian team-mates Stuart Kostera and Glyn Crimp. “After four 1000km races, this was my first 12 Hour race and it was a great experience. Reliability wasn’t an issue all weekend and everything ran like clockwork,” said Ricciardello who normally pilots a 700 BHP V8 powered Alfa Romeo in the Australian Sports Sedan Championship. The final spot on the podium went to a late charging Jason Bargwanna for his ProDuct Motorsport team-mate Brad Jones with only a fuel issue in his final pit stop robbing him of what could have been a last minute attempt at second place after he fought to regain a lead lap position. The pair completed 19 pit stops throughout the race due to a fuel issue with their Mitsubishi Lancer, however, using all of their strategic experience to ensure they stayed in contention for the event.  “We just continued to circulate all day, stayed out of trouble, had 19 pit stops due to a fuel pick up problem, also had some boost and electrical dramas, so all in all it is very busy race but it was pleasing to get up here on the podium at Bathurst,” said Bargwanna. Race pole-sitter Steve Owen leading the field away as the 47-car field headed up the Mountain for the 6.30 am start, but his race came to a premature end when his Mitsubishi Lancer endured gearbox problems in the second hour of the race.

LIGHTS OUT IN MALAYSIA

  Bernie Ecclestone's plans for more Asian based night races has taken another step backwards as organisers of the Malaysian Grand Prix announced that there will be no night race at their circuit, at least until 2015. Like Melbourne, Australia, the promoters and the Malaysian Government were encouraged to considered a night race to better fit in with peak TV viewing times in Europe. Sepang Circuit Spokesperson Irwan Rahman said that installing a lighting system to illuminate the circuit, at a cost estimated of around USD$5.77 million, was too expensive, and there was no guarantee that it would increase the revenue. Like Melbourne, Malaysia has agreed to move the start time of the race to later in the day putting the race into an early morning time-slot in Europe.  

WILD COROLLA TAKES ON SUPER GT

The 2009 Super GT series in Japan will continue the tradition of having some of the wildest looking cars in all motorsport. Making its debut at the recent Tokyo Auto Salon was this wild Corolla Axio from top Japanese race preparation house APR. At the presentation held at the Toyota booth, Team manager/chief engineer Hiroto Kaneso explained the reason for picking the popular Japanese road car as their based vehicle. "My team has been using Corolla on the street, and, in spite of having a manual transmission, I often have taken the wheel also. I always thought that the car has everything in a pack: good balance, manoeuvrability, drivability, etc.. From there, I thought 'Would we be able to make a racing car out of it?'" He described the key points of the development as, "Utilise its characteristics and not to spoil them. Only a few people notice it, but the angle of Axio's windshield is ideal for a racing car. The size of the car also fits right in the numeric that I consider ideal. The windshield is about the only thing on the car that may have any resemblance to the original. The car is clothed in a full carbon fibre body with the front engine, front wheel drive configuration replaced by a mid mounted normally aspirated 3.5 litre V6 driving through the rear wheels. All up weight of the beast will be 1100kgs. The car has been designed for the GT300 class which believe it or not is the milder of the two categories. Cars in the GT 500 category include the Nissan GTR, Honda NSX and the Lexus SC430, the 2009 series kicks off at the Okayama International Circuit on March 21-22. The series will also visit Malaysia again with a race at Sepang on June 20 - 21, with airfare to Malaysia now cheaper than ever I'm thinking a visit for that weekend might be a pretty good plan. inpitlane.com will keep you up to date with all the news from Super GT and viewers in Melbourne can get the latest on In Pit Lane on C31 Tuesday nights 9.30 p.m.

WANT HIGH PERFORMANCE ? DON’T ASK GM

General Motors USA have disbanded their high performance arm as the company fights for survival. GM's High Performance Vehicle Operations, based in Detroit has been wound up effective immediately with staff redeployed to other areas of the company. Spokesman Vince Muniga told reporters that "All high-performance projects are on indefinite hold," The unit, similar to Australia' HSV created low-volume vehicles for GM's divisions designed to appeal to enthusiasts and bolster the company's image. Products effected included V-series Cadillacs and the Chevrolet Cobalt SS, HHR SS and a V-8 version of the Colorado. Muniga said that there are no plans for high-performance versions of upcoming cars. The move is a part of GM's viability plan which was presented to the U.S. Treasury Department on Tuesday. In the plan, GM said its future-product focus would be on fuel-efficient cars and crossovers. What this might mean for cars like the Corvette, and the new Camaro is anybody's guess. Whether there are any local implications for brands like HSV or the companies racing plans is not known at this stage. A spokesperson from GMH said that the operation of the successful HSV operation in Australia was not affected and it was business as usual.. If you want to read the updated viability plan in full click (and it's depressing reading) click here.

BLACK BEAR RACES NASCAR SHOCK

SLOTCAR Episode 01 - animaxent.com/slotcar2009