ATLAS F1 - THE JOURNAL OF FORMULA ONE MOTORSPORT
Elsewhere in Racing
Updates from the Rest of the Racing World

By Mark Alan Jones and David Wright, Australia
Atlas F1 Magazine Writers



Advice: The points tables for most series covered by Elsewhere In Racing are available here. Individual series are linked to their corresponding points table after each report.


  Rally Raid

Bruno Cauvy, 1954-2002

Bruno Cauvy, co-driver on the Dakar Rally, was killed in an accident on Special Stage 10 in central Libya on Saturday January 11.

The 48-year-old Frenchman was co-driving for Daniel Nebot. Nebot was not hurt in the accident. The pair was driving a privately entered Toyota MDJ80 Land Cruiser. The pair were on their first Dakar Rally and were placed 63rd amongst the cars after Special Stage 9.


Rallying the Desert and Deserting the Rally

The never-ending seas of dunes and rocks that make up central Libya have taken its toll on the Dakar Rally. While multiple motorcycle champion Stephane Peterhansel continues to lead the event in his Pajero, there have been numerous retirements. The rally has now reached Siwa in Egypt, but as ever, the Dakar provides drama like no other event in world motorsport.

Of the most concern was the leading Nissan Pickup driver, Japanese veteran Kenjiro Shinozuka and his co-driver Thierry Delli Zotti. The Nissan pair had been flying in the open desert stages, moving up to third overall, when the Nissan launched off the top of a dune in Special Stage 8, which had previously worried the two Pajeros ahead of him. The Nissan flew some 80 meters before impact, nose first at around 180 kph.

Current leader (car) Stephane Peterhansel, third place (bike) Fabrizio Meoni and second place (car) Hiroshi Masuoka pose before the start of the DakarBoth Shinozuka and Delli Zotti were thrown forward with Shinozuka striking the steering wheel. Almost all competitors in the Car and Truck classifications wear open-faced helmets, which in this case provided insufficient protection for Shinozuka, causing serious facial injuries. Shinozuka was evacuated to Tunis and once stabilised was flown on to Paris a few days later. Delli Zotti's injuries were less severe and is recovering in Tunis.

The following day on Special Stage 9, KTM rider Jean Roma fell over his handlebars at over 100 kph suffering back trauma. Roma was third at the time when he fell, and has been flown to Cairo for further treatment. Also in the motorcycle division, the then fifth placed KTM rider Alfie Cox fell and broke his shoulder a day earlier on Special Stage 8.

Most recently on Special Stage 11 Honda 650XR rider Patsy Quick fell and ruptured her spleen. Surgery was successful and she is recovering. As is KTM rider Jaap van der Kooy who suffered a basin fracture.

Mitsubishi now hold complete dominance of the Dakar with their five factory prepared prototypes filling the first five places. At the front of the field Stephane Peterhansel continues to extend his lead over teammate Hiroshi Masuoka. Masuoka was plagued with punctures on Special Stage 9, to the point where he had to borrow a tyre from fellow Mitsubishi pilot Jean-Pierre Fontenay on two separate occasions after using up his own spares. Masuoka has dropped 24 minutes behind Peterhansel.

Kenjiro Shinozuka, before the start of the Dakar, wearing an open face helmetWith the retirement of Shinozuka, Gregoire de Mevius initially regained third place in what looked to be a historic best ever performance for a diesel, however on the Egyptian Stage 12 mechanical problems struck the BMW X5, ending all opposition to Mitsubishi. Jean-Pierre Fontenay has moved up to third place overall, passing teammate Miki Biasion in the more standard looking Pajeros. Carlos Sousa in the L200 sits in fifth place.

Giniel de Villiers in the Nissan Pickup is sixth ahead of Jose Maria Servia in the Schlesser-Ford buggy. Stephane Henrard is next in the first of the Volkswagens ahead of Ari Vatanen in the Nissan.

Jutta Kleinschmidt has progressed well on the open stages and climbed rapidly back into the top order, the 2001 winner regretting only the lack of a taller final gear ratio with the Volkswagen Nardo buggy giving away about 30 kph in open running to the faster prototypes and buggies. A broken turbo on Special Stage 11 saw the Volkswagen drop to eleventh, as she had to be towed into the bivouac. Kleinschmidt is now ninth, with the Pajero of Jose Luis Monterde completing the top ten. The first of the production-based vehicles is Jean-Pierre Strugo, driving a Mercedes-Benz ML430.

Stage 10 was supposed to be the stage where defending champion Fabrizio Meoni would resurrect his rally. His big 950cc V-Twin KTM would travel the simple straight navigational stage better than the ubiquitous 660cc KTM of most of the major runners. Meoni though struck engine problems dropping onto one cylinder and dropping from second position while within a couple of minutes from the leader Richard Sainct. Meoni continued onwards with the rest day in sight. On Stage 11 Meoni started to recover the ground lost in Stage 10, but there was still the original lost ground to Sainct and Cyril Despres was between them now. The first non-KTM is still Jun Mitsuhashi. The Honda rider now sits in 16th, up seven places since a week ago.

Kenjiro Shinozuka gives a thumbs up while recovering in hospital after his horrific accidentDrama was not limited to the cars and bikes. One of KTM's service trucks was significantly damaged after running over a land mine on a Liaison Stage after the completion of Special Stage 11, just after crossing into Egypt. The truck, a MAN L 90 driven by Gunter Pichlbauer was also seventh overall in the Truck classification, but is now out of the rally. The incident split the rally with no more vehicles allowed past the site of the incident until sun-up, thus forcing two separate bivouacs.

Another of the leading contenders, Karel Loprais (Tatra T815) rolled into retirement on Special Stage 7 while in sixth place. Egypt did not provide any relief as rally leader Gerardus de Rooy crashed his DAF CF85 on Special Stage 12. Vladimir Tchaguine now leads the truck classification in his Kamaz by 66 minutes over Andre de Azevedo's Tatra. Gerardus de Rooy's father Johannes is now third two and a half hours behind Tchaguine and just under half an hour ahead of Firdaus Kabirov. The gap to the next truck is over four hours.

Result of Dakar Rally (after Stage 12 of 19):

Pos  Driver                 Car
 1.  Stephane Peterhansel   Mitsubishi Pajero
 2.  Hiroshi Masuoka        Mitsubishi Pajero
 3.  Jean-Pierre Fontenay   Mitsubishi Pajero
 4.  Miki Biasion           Mitsubishi Pajero
 5.  Carlos Sousa           Mitsubishi L200 Strakar

Pos  Rider                  Bike
 1.  Richard Sainct         KTM 660 LC4
 2.  Cyril Despres          KTM 660 LC4
 3.  Fabrizio Meoni         KTM 950 LC8
 4.  Jean Brucy             KTM 660 LC4
 5.  Jean de Azevedo        KTM 660

Pos  Driver                 Truck
 1.  Vladimir Tchaguine     Kamaz 4911
 2.  Andre de Azevedo       Tatra T-815
 3.  Johannes de Rooy       DAF CF 85 4x4
 4.  Firdaus Kabirov        Kamaz 4911
 5.  Yoshimasa Sugawara     Hino Ranger


Everyone Master of his Own Fate, Says Dakar Race Director

Dakar Rally director Hubert Auriol said he was saddened by the death of French co-driver Bruno Cauvy in a crash on Saturday, but added that everyone was responsible for his own fate. The 48-year-old Cauvy and his Toyota team driver Daniel Nebot hit a sand dune during the 10th stage, Cauvy dying instantly and Nebot escaping unharmed.

"I did not really know Bruno Cauvy, who was on his first Dakar Rally," Auriol was quoted as saying in French newspaper Le Parisien on Sunday. "Organisers and friends of the Dakar Rally offered their condolences to his family.

"But people live an adventure, they are passionate. We cannot put everything into question after this accident. The competitors are adults. Everyone is master of his own fate."

A friend of Cauvy's said the co-driver had been feeling tired.

"Bruno was angry on Friday at the harshness of the Dakar and this morning (Saturday) he did not want to go out because he was very tired," he told Le Parisien.

Race director report provided by Reuters


  CART

CART to Race at Brands Hatch in May

By Alan Baldwin

The U.S.-based CART championship will return to Europe this year with races at Brands Hatch in England and in Germany. CART boss Chris Pook told reporters at the Autosport International show on Thursday that the Brands Hatch race will be held on May 5, a public holiday in Britain, to replace the cancelled Rockingham 500.

Talks continued with Belgium's Spa-Francorchamps circuit and Portugal's Estoril, both dropped as current Formula One venues, but Pook said they were unlikely to be on the 2003 CART calendar.

Chris Pook announces the Brands Hatch event"They are clearly in the talking process, and we will announce a race in Germany tomorrow," he said. "You can't ignore Estoril or Spa but I don't think we will be in either place this year."

An old friend of Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone, Pook said CART had a constructive relationship with that championship and intended to fill a gap in the market. "CART is committed to expanding in Europe and Brands Hatch is a strategic move forward in our development plans," he said.

The open-wheel series had two rounds in Europe in 2001 but had faced none this year after Germany's Lausitzring oval failed in 2002 and Rockingham declined to host this season's race after commercial losses.

Brands Hatch, formerly also a Formula One venue, last hosted CART in 1978 when Rick Mears won in a Penske Cosworth at an average speed of 95.37 mph.

"Obviously we were very disappointed that we could not go back to Rockingham because one of our heritages is racing on the ovals," said Pook. "But we need to be in England and if we are going to be in England it needs to be close to London. And if you are going to be close to London, you need to be at Brands Hatch."

While not an oval, Brands Hatch is a natural amphitheatre that allows spectators to see most of the track and high-speed corners. "I think it's the best possible place for us," said Pook. "There will be some great racing in a venue of huge tradition."

He said the CART cars, which can reach top speeds of around 230 mph, were likely to enter the Paddock Hill bend at around 175 and exit at 150. The race, on a 1.2 mile track, will be the fourth round of the 19 race calendar. The series also visits Mexico, Canada, Australia and the United States.


CART Returns To Lausitz

Germany's Lausitz Eurospeedway oval will host Europe's second CART race of the season on May 10-11, organisers said on Friday. The confirmation followed the announcement on Thursday that Brands Hatch in England will host a round of the U.S.-based series on May 5.

"The German 500 will be the only major open-wheel oval-track racing event in Europe in 2003," CART said in a statement. The Brands Hatch race will be on a 1.2-mile road circuit.

Lausitz hosted a round of the championship in 2001, attracting some 150,000 fans to a race that brushed with tragedy when Italian Alex Zanardi suffered a near-fatal crash and lost both his legs. Last year's race was then cancelled due to the circuit operators' financial problems.

"Those concerns have been addressed and CART will enter into a strategic partnership with Eurospeedway, reassuring the fans, participants and sponsors of the stability of the event," said the CART statement.

CART said all tickets sold for last year's cancelled race would be honoured for this year's as well. "With its two mile superspeedway, Eurospeedway Lausitz is one of the most impressive and modern motor-racing circuits in the world," said CART president Chris Pook.

"When we did not return in 2002, the drivers and teams lamented the fact that we did not go back to such a spectacular facility."

Reports provided by Reuters


  Sports Cars

Speedweek Approaches With Daytona 24 Hours

The first major circuit-racing event of the year is now only three weeks away. The entry list for the Rolex 24 at Daytona however is a slim 29 cars. The new Daytona Prototype class designed for the future of the Grand Am sports car series will debut. The former Sports Racing Prototype Class has been overhauled with prohibitive weight penalties added to the class to make them competitive against the new Daytona Prototype class. Also the Trans-Am class or American GT that ran last year has also been removed from eligibility.

Only five Daytona Prototypes and no Sports Racing Prototypes have been entered. Only two SRPII class cars have entered, one of the front running SR2 class cars from the FIA Sportscar series, a Lucchini, the reigning FIA champions in the class, driven by Piergiuseppe Peroni and Mirko Savoldi along with Filippo Francioni, this year powered by Nissan rather than the Alfa Romeo engines the team ran last year.

Of the Daytona Prototypes, the best staffed are the G&W Motorsports Picchio-BMW driven by Australian-American Darren Law, veteran German Dieter Quester, Trans-Am veteran Boris Said and Italian SR2 racer Luca Riccitelli; and the Bell Motorsports Doran-Chevrolet of CART refugee Christian Fittipaldi, sportscar veterans Didier Theys and Terry Borchellar, and Forest Barber.

The majority of entries come from the production based GTS and GT categories, lead by Konrad Motorsports Saleen S7R (driven by Franz Konrad, Toni Seilar and IRL racer Airton Dare), and the recent Bathurst 24 Hour runners-up Rollcentre Racing have a pair of Mosler MT900Rs, along with some Chevy Corvettes, with the best being driven by the father and son combination of Derek and Justin Bell. The GT class is the usual collection of Porsche 996s with a Ferrari and a Marcos for variety.


  Briefs

  • The Corvette Racing Team have announced its driver line-up for the 2003 season. Andy Pilgrim moves into semi-retirement with an ambassadorial role within the team for promotional purposes. Olivier Gavin replaces Pilgrim in the team and will co-drive with Kelly Collins. Ron Fellows will continue alongside Johnny O'Connell in defence of his ALMS GTS crown.


  Upcoming Events Calendar

  • January 19 - Dakar Rally Finish, Egypt
  • January 22 - World Rally Championship, Round 1 of 14; Monte Carlo Rally, Monaco
  • February 1 - Daytona 24 Hours, Daytona, Florida, United States


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Volume 9, Issue 3
January 15th 2003

Atlas F1 Exclusive

Interview with Justin Wilson
by Mark Glendenning

Giancarlo Fisichella: Through the Visor
by Giancarlo Fisichella

Columns

Off-Season Strokes
by Bruce Thomson

The Verstappen Trivia Quiz
by Marcel Borsboom

Elsewhere in Racing
by David Wright & Mark Alan Jones

The Grapevine
by Tom Keeble



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