Updates from the Rest of the Racing World
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.
Elliott Sadler Edges It
Bobby Labonte and Bill Elliott, making one of his rare 2004 appearances, sat on the front row. At the start Elliott jumped straight into the lead, and was all by himself before the first caution of the day came out on lap 19 after minor contact between Casey Mears and Jeff Gordon dislodged part of Mears's rear bumper, leaving debris on the track. In came the field for stops, with Rusty Walllace emerging as the leader. The race restarted on lap 24, with Wallace being demoted later that lap by Sterling Marlin. Elliott was back on the march, and took the lead from Marlin on lap 42, only for Marlin to reatke it three laps later, before Elliott's teammate Kasey Kahne came along and sweep past both of them to lead by lap 49. The race settled down for quite a while at this point, with the field taking a round of green flag stops.
But it couldn't last, with debris bringing the next caution out on lap 119 of the 334 lap event. Kahne continued to lead as the race restarted on lap 125, though he was immediately passed by Elliott Sadler. Kahne hung around, and retook the lead from Sadler twenty laps later and stretched an advantage. Again a round of green flag stops were successfully taken just before Ryan Newman hit the turn three wall hard, bringing out the caution on lap 197. The field pitted, with several drivers taking fuel only or two tyres and fuel, shuffling the order. Polesitter Bobby Labonte was once again at the front thanks to his choice to take just fuel as the race restarted on lap 205.
As seemed tradition in the race, a green flag saw an immediate lead change as Joe Nemechek took the lead from Labonte before lap 205 was over. Kahne wasn't to be denied however, and quickly moved back up after restarting fifth as he retook the lead on lap 237, while Labonte faded before eventually pitting to replace a battery. The field was in the middle of green flag stops when Ward Burton hit the wall, shuffling the order. Those who stayed out now pitted under caution, with Jeff Gordon, who had run top ten all day, the new leader ahead of Sadler, Dale Earnhardt Jr, Wallace and Dave Blaney, with the leader before the stops Kasey Kahne receiving the free pass to get back on the lead lap!
Lap 302 and Jeff Gordon led the field away as the race went back to green flag racing. Kahne restarted seventh but was quickly on the move, taking Wallace for fourth on lap 306. Two laps later leader Gordon slowed, before getting back up to speed again, having dropped to fourth place, Gordon also suffering battery problems but able to switch to a backup battery unlike Labonte earlier in the race. Now the top three were Sadler, Earnhardt Jr and a flying Kasey Kahne. Kahne continued to move forward, taking second from Earnhardt Jr on lap 314, with Gordon passing Junior five laps later for third.
Still Kahne edged forward, closing in on leader Sadler. With ten to go he was almost there, five laps later and he was there. Then began five tense laps as Kahne looked high and low for a way past. Just when it looked safe for Sadler, they came up to lap Johnny Sauter on the last lap. Instead of moving out the way, Sauter continued to race, allowing Kahne to make one final challenge. Kahne tried but he couldn't quite do it, Sadler winning by 0.028 of a second from Kahne, Gordon getting his first top five of the season to finish third with Earnhardt Jr and Wallace completing the top five.
Result of NASCAR Nextel Cup, Round 7 of 36, Samsung/Radio Shack 500, Texas Motor Speedway, Texas, United States:
Standings: Kurt Busch 1032, Matt Kenseth 1013, Dale Earnhardt Jr 997, Tony Stewart 946, Elliott Sadler 942, Jimmie Johnson 923, Kasey Kahne 902, Kevin Harvick 897, Jeff Gordon 891, Ryan Newman 834 etc.
Rick Reigns In The Rain
Other big news at the weekend was the cancellation of this year's round at Shanghai in China. Despite being scheduled to visit the circuit two months after Formula One, the powers that be felt things wouldn't be ready and so the race will now take place next June with a five year deal in place. The Shanghai round will now be replaced by another event at a venue yet to be determined, though it is expected the replacement venue will be name in the next month.
The weekend's event at Eastern Creek was one of the 300 km races this season, with a compulsory stop for tyres and a compulsory stop for fuel. John Bowe was clearly fastest in qualifying but a mistake at turn two on his shootout lap saw him drop to tenth, with Marcos Ambrose taking pole just ahead of Mark Skaife. Meanwhile it should be mentioned that the appeal by Paul Dumbrell's team was successful, meaning he no longer has a 75 point penalty or a $10,000 fine, the second time in two events that a team has succesfully appealed a decision made by the stewards after the race...
Back to racing on lap 14 with Ambrose leading Steven Richards, Jason Bright, Skaife and Rick Kelly as the track dried out a little. Skaife grabbed third at turn eight later that lap while one turn later John Bowe spun, with Greg Murphy soon seen with smoke pouring off a damaged front left corner, pitting at the end of the next lap to fix the problem. Quite what exactly happened wasn't clear, which possibly explains why no action was taken. Ambrose began to open a small gap as Skaife and Kelly harassed Richards, Kelly taking third from Skaife on lap seventeen down the straight after the turn nine right hander after Corporate Hill. Two laps later and Kelly was second after passing Richards at the turn two hairpin.
Around ten laps after the restart the rain began falling again. Around lap 30 several of the leaders chose to pit for fuel, with Kelly moving ahead of Ambrose and Skaife ahead of Richards during these stops. Skaife was soon once again right behind Ambrose, as they came up to Paul Morris, who was yet to stop. Ambrose had a look down the inside but couldn't get through, allowing Skaife to get a run around the outside of Ambrose through the first part of the esses to take the place as Morris intentionally or not, once again helped a Holden pass a Ford, Morris then allowing Skaife past easily later in the lap...
Lap 48 and the field was unleashed again, Rick Kelly moving away again as Tander took third from brother Todd one lap later, the duo now giving Ambrose a hard time with Richards joining the party as well. Lap 51 and this all became too much as Ambrose went a little too deep into turn two and ran briefly off track, dropping to sixth. He lost another place on the following lap to Lowndes, who after restarting fifteenth was eleventh on lap 48, ninth on lap 49, seventh on lap 50 and sixth on lap 52 after passing Ambrose, the same lap seeing Richards demote Todd Kelly from third.
There was soon drama when Tony Longhurst was sent spinning after contact from David Besnard at the 'notorious' turn nine on lap 53. The contact seemed to be a case of Besnard assuming that the lapped Longhurst was going to let him through as Longhurst was on the very edge of the outside of the circuit in the middle of the corner, only to discover at the last minute he was not going to let him go. Besnard then backed off a little, which in the end probably made things worse as contact was made around the middle of the car instead of side-to-side, no action being taken by the stewards as a result of the collision. Regardless, damage suffered by Besnard forced him to pit and drop from seventh place to just inside the top twenty.
Back to racing on lap 61 as the rain continued to fall, Kelly clear of Tander who soon had Lowndes right behind him with Richards and Murphy completing the top five. Into the esses on lap 64 Lowndes was completely alongside through the right hander, but Tander took back control through the left hander. As Tander defended, Lowndes kept looking to the outside but couldn't make it work, though he came close a couple of times. The rain was coming down harder as Lowndes made the move into the esses again on lap 66, this time making the move stick to take second place from Tander, Tander getting alonside and making light contact later in the lap as he tried to fight back. The following lap the safety car returned to the circuit as the weather continued to get worse, the race being red flagged at the end of the lap.
And so Rick Kelly took his maiden solo win, following on from his win with Greg Murphy at Bathurst last year, with Lowndes storming through from fifteenth about 20 laps before the race ended to second at the finish, Tander completing the podium. A consistent performance from Steven Richards saw him finish fourth with Murphy completing the top five after an up and down day.
Result of V8 Supercar Championship Series, Round 2 of 13, Eastern Creek, Australia:
Standings: Steven Richards 360, Marcos Ambrose 348, Rick Kelly 336, Greg Murphy 327, Jason Bargwanna 270, Jason Bright 267, Paul Morris 264, Craig Baird 258, Garth Tander 222, John Bowe 216 etc.
Steady Piquet
Carroll dominated the first event of the year, clearing away from the grid and quickly gapping all bar Piquet. Even Piquet eventually lost touch with the P1 Racing driver, and the win was secured when Piquet spun late in the race. James Rossiter, Ernesto Viso and Alvaro Parente fought over second early on but a clash delayed Parente, forcing him off track while Viso too would be delayed late in the race allowing newcomer Danilo Durani into fourth. Parente would recover to eighth.
Rain began to affect the circuit for the second race with Piccione getting the better of polesitter Parente to slot in behind Piquet while Will Davison exploded from the sixth row of the grid to take up fifth at the end of the first lap. A clash between Carroll and Fairuz Fauzy brought out the Safety Car while Piquet spun elsewhere on the lap. Piccione raced away to win while Piquet charged back through the pack to take second on the final lap. Davison and fellow Australian Will Power were next ahead of Viso and Andrew Thompson.
Piquet sits on 31 points, ten ahead of Carroll, and eleven ahead of Piccione with Viso (16) and Rossiter (15) the others to take good points hauls. The grid regathers in two weeks at Brands Hatch.
Result of British Formula 3 Championship, Rounds 1 & 2 of 26, Donington Park, Great Britain:
Standings: Nelson Piquet Jr 31, Adam Carroll 21, Clivio Piccione 20, Ernesto Viso 16, James Rossiter 15, Will Davison and Andrew Thompson 12, Danilo Dirani and Will Power 10, Marko Asmer 6 etc.
Bold Bernoldi
Former Arrows Formula One driver Enrique Bernoldi got his Formula Nissan season off to the best start, winning both races in poor weather conditions at the Spanish circuit of Jarama.
Monteiro salvaged a second position after a late race clash between Bruce Jouanny and Juan Cruz Alvarez saw the KTR driver off the circuit and the new Gabord driver sufficiently delayed that Monteiro snuck through. Narain Karthikeyan took fifth from Formula Nippon graduate Ryo Fukuda and Heikki Kovalainen.
The second race saw brilliant starts from both Bernoldi (from pole) and Kovalainen (from seventh) and the pair moved away from the field with Bernoldi holding over a five second lead on Kovalainen after just one lap. With the battle for victory already over, the field settled down to chase Kovalainen, whose car faded as the race wore on. The podium position he deserved left him in the dying stages as first impressive debutant Alvarez, then Fukuda caught and passed the Finn. Tristan Gommendy just failed to push Kovalainen down another spot with Monteiro next ahead of the KTR duo.
Bernoldi takes a ten point lead into the next meeting, with Alvarez leading the pursuit. Monteiro is fifteen points adrift in third place, two ahead of Fukuda.
Result of World Series by Nissan, Rounds 1 & 2, Jarama, Spain:
Standings: Enrique Bernoldi 32, Juan Cruz Alvarez 22, Tiago Monteiro 17, Ryo Fukuda 15, Bruce Jouanny 14, Heikki Kovalainen 12, Narain Karthikeyan and Tristan Gommendy 6, Didier Andre 4, Jean-Christophe Ravier 3 etc.
Audi Trifecta
The lead Audi UK car was the only of the three R8s entered to race the whole 12 hours, completing 350 laps, with the other two cars had short stints behind the wall for repairs. Five laps down on the winners, Champion Racing's sole R8 claimed second place for JJ Lehto, Emanuele Pirro and Marco Werner. Their only drama was an incident with a slower car causing them to pit for surgery. A malfunctioning rear end kept the Audi Sport UK team from taking a 1-2 with Jamie Davies, Johnny Herbert and Guy Smith finishing 12 laps down on their stablemates.
A faultless run an excellent driving saw car #3 dominate the GTS class. Just 21 laps shy of the winners, Ron Fellows, Johnny O'Connell and supersub Max Papis brought home their Chevrolet Corvette in an excellent fourth outright, ahead of allcomers not wearing the four rings from Inglostadt. With each passing hour the yellow car moved further up the leader board, quickly eclipsing their only serious class opposition, the Ferrari 575 Maranellos of Barron Connor Racing.
Second in the GTS class, some 22 laps adrift of the Corvette was the surviving Ferrari 575 of John Bosch, Danny Sullivan and Thomas Biagi. Third would be awarded to the field's only Saleen S7-R driven by ALMS veterans David Brabham, Terry Borchellar and Johnny Mowlem, over 70 laps behind.
GT saw a couple of Porsches slip into the top ten, with Alex Job Racing claiming another ALMS class victory with Timo Bernhard and Sascha Maassen covering for their ill co-driver Jorg Bergmeister in the new RSR model 996. AJR's older 996 GT3-RS of Romain Dumas, Lucas Luhr and Marc Lieb finished on the same lap, with the Panoz between them. The Peterson/White Lightning Porsche finished third in class, six laps adrift driven by David Murry, Craig Stanton and Melanie Paterson.
With the MG-Lolas redefined away from the rest of the P2 (nee P675) class, the class was wide open. In a virtual Lola benefit, American Spirit Racing won the class, albeit 86 laps behind the winning P1 car. Mike Borkowski, John Macaluso and Ian James drove the Lola-Nissan to a 14 lap victory over the Rand Racing Lola-Nissan with the Intersport Racing Lola-Judd third in class.
Result of American Le Mans Series, Round 1 of 7, Sebring 12 Hour, Florida, United States:
Kogure Outlasts
After Kogure caught Hattori, the pair clashed, putting Hattori out of the race allowing the closely following Ide to attack for the lead, but again there was a clash, ending with Ide receiving a broken nosecone and a DNF. Kogure's car, now wounded, was vulnerable to attack from Takeshi Tsuchiya until the Team Le Mans driver spun off. A lucky Andre Lotterer, delayed for some time with electrical problems, followed his teammate home for a 1-2 finish for Satoru Nakajima's team with Ryo Michigami taking third place. Tsugio Matsuda was fourth ahead of defending series champion Satoshi Motoyama on his debut for 5zigen with teammate Toshihiro Kaneishi completing the points.
It was a miserable weekend for defending champion team, Team Impul. In addition to Ide's retirement, Beniot Treluyer spun his car off track in an attempt to bring the car to a safe halt with a sticking throttle. Richard Lyons's race suffered after his team was not ready when he pitted for fuel and tyres.
Result of All-Japan Formula Nippon Championship, Round 1, Suzuka, Japan:
Standings: Takashi Kogure 10, Andre Lotterer 6, Ryo Michigami 4, Tsugio Matsuda 3, Satoshi Motoyama 2, Toshihiro Kaneishi 1
Le Mans Approaches
The Automobile Club de l'Ouest, organisers of the Le Mans 24 Hours, have announced the list of 50 cars invited from the initial entry list of 77 cars to compete at this year's Le Sarthe classic.
With Bentley not defending their 2003 victory, the entry is head by Champion Racing's Audi R8. Three other R8s are entered, as Team Goh from Japan have entered their car while new Sebring 12 Hour champions Audi Sport UK have entered both their cars. The rest of the P1 class includes a Dome-Judd from Racing For Holland, a similar Honda powered Dome for Kondo Racing, a pair of Dallara-Judds for Rollcentre Racing and Spinnaker Clandesteam, Pescarolo Sport's pair of Courage-Judds, a factory Panoz, the Lister prototype, the ageing Reynard turbo from Noel del Bello and a collection of Lolas of varying ages and powerplants, including Ray Mallock Limited's entry of a potent Lola EX257 MG.
The re-classified P2 division features five Courages, two from the factory, two from Epsilon Sport and one from former Viper GTS outfit Paul Belmondo Racing. They will face off against an older but well prepared Lola-Judd from the American Intersport team and the WR turbo entered by Racel Welter.
A thin entry for GTS is headed by the factory Chevrolet Corvette squad while Ferrari is represented by a pair of 575s for Barron Connor Racing, plus five older 550s, two from Prodrive, two from Scuderia Italia (one entered by CARE Racing) and one for Labre Competition. The only other entry is the orphaned Pagani Zonda entered by Force One Racing.
Nine Porsches, six of them the new RSR model, are in the GT class with N-GT pacesetters Freisinger Motorsport the class favourites. The Racers Group, White Lightning, Choroq Racing Team and Team Orbit have entered the other RSRs while the older RS of Seikel Motorsport also deserves attention. JMB Racing, Risi Competition and former Porsche outfit Cirtek Racing have each entered a Ferrari 360 with a factory Morgan Aero and a TVR Tuscan completing the field.
The sports car classic will be held on the 12th and 13th of June, while testing and scruitineering will take place on April 25.
Ferrari At Home
Ferrari Maranellos took the first five places at the opening round of the FIA GT Championship, with the Scuderia Italia pairing of Luca Cappellari and Fabrizio Gollin taking the win from teammates Matteo Bobbi and Gabriele Gardel. Last year's champion team was simply too good, its car leading from lights to flag with only the Saleen of Uwe Alzen providing any resistance at all.
The race settled at that point with the two BMS cars leading their satellite teammates from Care Racing ahead of new team Giesse Squadra Corse's pair of Maranellos. Lilian Bryner spun her car off at Lesmo on lap 64 while Bobbi had an off at the same corner losing sufficient ground on Gollin to decide the race. Bryner's spin dropped her to fifth, and that was how the five Ferraris wound down the remaining laps.
The first non-Ferrari home was claimed not by a Saleen or a Lister, but by one of the Zwaans team's ageing Chysler Vipers, some three laps down on the winners. Next car home was unsurprisingly a Freisinger Porsche. The champions of N-GT brought their lead car home in the top spot, giving Stephane Ortelli and Emmanuel Collard maximum points first up. Eighth was the Giesse team's third car, a N-GT spec 360 Modena driven by Christian Pescatori and Emmanuel Collard. Veteran Porsche team, Proton Competition took third in class.
Result of FIA GT Championship, Round 1 of 11, Monza, Italy:
Standings: Luca Cappellari and Fabrizio Gollin 10, Matteo Bobbi and Gabriele Gardel 8, Philippe Peter and Fabio Babini 6, Emanuele Naspetti and Mike Hezemans 5, Stefano Livio, Enzo Calderari and Lilian Bryner 4 etc.
N-GT: Stephane Ortelli and Emmanuel Collard 10, Christian Pescatori and Fabrizio de Simone 8, Christian Reid, Gerold Reid and Marciej Marcinkiewicz 6 etc.
NASCAR
It was another close finish, and again a Ford was the victor. This time it was Elliott Sadler who edged out Kasey Kahne, Kahne scoring his second photo finish second and third second place in seven races. It was a race Kahne appeared to have in the bag until a caution at three-quarter distance saw him just stay on the lead lap. It then looked like Jeff Gordon was going to win but a battery problem dashed his hopes for just long enough to demote him a few places. A bad day for Matt Kenseth, finishing sixteenth, has seen his teammate Kurt Busch move past him into the points lead, though Kenseth remains in second with Dale Earnhardt Jr in third place.
Back to green on lap 273 but it was caution time again four laps later when a flat tyre put early leader Bill Elliott into the wall. Lap 284 saw another restart and another caution as Brian Vickers ran into the back of Scott Wimmer at the restart, spinning Wimmer into Jeremy Mayfield's way with Wimmer and Mayfield suffering major damage. Back to green on lap 292 but it was caution again on lap 296 when Jeff Green's day went up in a cloud of smoke. Most of the leaders stayed out as they already had enough fuel to make it to the end.
Pos Driver Car
1. Elliott Sadler Ford Taurus
2. Kasey Kahne Dodge Intrepid
3. Jeff Gordon Chevrolet Monte Carlo
4. Dale Earnhardt Jr Chevrolet Monte Carlo
5. Rusty Wallace Dodge Intrepid
6. Kurt Busch Ford Taurus
7. Casey Mears Dodge Intrepid
8. Tony Stewart Chevrolet Monte Carlo
9. Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet Monte Carlo
10. Jamie McMurray Dodge Intrepid
V8 Supercar
Before race day it would have been laughed at. But a wet track turned the form book somewhat upside down, as Rick Kelly showed he has no fear of rain, taking a stunning victory at Eastern Creek. After tearing through most of the field in the early laps, he grabbed his chance to take the lead in the middle of the race and didn't look back. Similar charges by Craig Lowndes later in the race and Garth Tander at the start of the race netted them the next two places on the podium. Next in the order was Steven Richards, whose consistent performances in the first two rounds has moved him into the points lead by twelve points over first round winner Marcos Ambrose, with Kelly and Greg Murphy close behind.
After a sunny weekend leading up to the race, Sunday was wet. In fact, the conditions saw a rare sight as the race began behind the safety car before being unleashed at the start of lap two. Ambrose led narrowly from Skaife as Rick Kelly charged up the order from his starting position of seventeenth to twelfth on lap two, seventh on lap three, sixth on lap four and fifth on lap five, Garth Tander making a similar charge from sixteenth to sixth by lap six. On lap five Skaife locked his rear brakes into turn two and spun off, nearly collecting Ambrose along the way, recovering in fifth before passing teammate Todd Kelly to be fourth by the end of the lap. The safety car made an appearance on lap seven after Steven Ellery spun off at the high speed turn one, moving a concrete barrier as he came to a stop.
Drivers were beginning to take their second stops when the safety car came out again after Skaife went off at turn eight, bunkering his car in the gravel and losing two laps as he was dragged out. This caused a stampede for the pit lane as everyone took their second stops that had yet to do so, with the order afterwards being Rick Kelly from Marcos Ambrose, Todd Kelly, who had pitted for tyres at the very first caution and now was getting some payback for it, Steven Richards with Garth Tander completing the top five. Steady improvement throughout the day had seen Craig Lowndes well inside the top ten just before the safety car, only for problems with a front wheel nut during the safety car period pit stop to drop him back to fifteenth.
More drama followed on lap 57 when Todd Kelly ran off at turn two, rejoining just as Ambrose came past, the two making contact which sent Kelly off on the entry to turn three. He then sat on the edge of the circuit waiting for a gap before he rejoined again, but chose to come back on as two cars came along. One managed to avoid him, while the other, Jason Richards, couldn't, running straight into the back of Kelly and putting Richards out on the spot, sending Kelly off spinning again, this time recovering without incident... However, the safety car was back on the track to clear things up, with Kelly receiving 'just' a drivethrough penalty for dangerous re-entry to the track considering his actions ended Richards's race. Meanwhile Lowndes had continued his charge and with all the other action taking place was up to third.
Pos Driver Car
1. Rick Kelly Holden Commodore VY
2. Craig Lowndes Ford Falcon BA
3. Garth Tander Holden Commodore VY
4. Steven Richards Holden Commodore VY
5. Greg Murphy Holden Commodore VY
6. Steven Johnson Ford Falcon BA
7. Marcos Ambrose Ford Falcon BA
8. Jason Bargwanna Ford Falcon BA
9. Craig Baird Holden Commodore VY
10. Max Wilson Ford Falcon BA
Formula 3
The proverbial chip off the old block, Nelson Angelo Piquet has stepped into the lead of the British Formula 3 Championship after the opening pair of races held at Donington Park. A pair of seconds for the Brazilian and a fastest lap has him ten points clear of the two race winners, Adam Carroll and Clivio Piccione, who were unable to score decent results in the race they didn't win.
Round One
Pos Driver Car
1. Adam Carroll P1 Racing Dallara F304 Mugen-Honda
2. Nelson Piquet Jr Piquet Sports Dallara F304 Mugen-Honda
3. James Rossiter Fortec Motorsport Dallara F304 Spiess Opel
4. Danilo Dirani Carlin Motorsport Dallara F304 Mugen-Honda
5. Ernesto Viso P1 Racing Dallara F304 Mugen-Honda
6. Andrew Thompson HiTech Racing Dallara F304 Sodemo Renault
7. Fairuz Fauzy Menu F3 Motorsport Dallara F304 Spiess Opel
8. Alvaro Parente Carlin Motorsport Dallara F304 Mugen-Honda
9. Marko Asmer HiTech Racing Dallara F304 Sodemo Renault
10. Lucas di Grassi HiTech Racing Dallara F304 Sodemo Renault
Round Two
Pos Driver Car
1. Clivio Piccione Carlin Motorsport Dallara F304 Mugen-Honda
2. Nelson Piquet Jr Piquet Sports Dallara F304 Mugen-Honda
3. Will Davison Menu F3 Motorsport Dallara F304 Spiess Opel
4. Will Power Alan Docking Racing Dallara F304 Mugen-Honda
5. Ernesto Viso P1 Racing Dallara F304 Mugen-Honda
6. Andrew Thompson HiTech Racing Dallara F304 Sodemo Renault
7. Marko Asmer HiTech Racing Dallara F304 Sodemo Renault
8. James Rossiter Fortec Motorsport Dallara F304 Spiess Opel
9. Lucas di Grassi HiTech Racing Dallara F304 Sodemo Renault
10. Alvaro Parente Carlin Motorsport Dallara F304 Mugen-Honda
Formula Nissan
The first race Bernoldi was lucky to win after Tiago Monteiro took the lead and raced away from Bernoldi as the conditions suited the Carlin driver perfectly. Monteiro had spun on the parade lap however and the grid had started forming in his absense. After belatedly taking up his second grid position when he should have started rear of field, Monteiro was adjudged a drivethrough penalty. That handed Bernoldi an unassailable lead.
Race One
Pos Driver Team
1. Enrique Bernoldi GD Racing
2. Tiago Monteiro Carlin Motorsport
3. Juan Cruz Alvarez Gabord Reyco
4. Bruce Jouanny Keerbergs Transport Racing
5. Narain Karthikeyan RC Motorsport
6. Ryo Fukuda Paul Belmondo Racing
7. Heikki Kovalainen Pons Racing
8. Jean-Christophe Ravier Epsilon Euskadi
9. Olivier Pla RC Motorsport
10. Didier Andre Keerbergs Transport Racing
Race Two
Pos Driver Team
1. Enrique Bernoldi GD Racing
2. Juan Cruz Alvarez Gabord Reyco
3. Ryo Fukuda Paul Belmondo Racing
4. Heikki Kovalainen Pons Racing
5. Tristan Gommendy Saulnier Racing
6. Tiago Monteiro Carlin Motorsport
7. Bruce Jouanny Keerbergs Transport Racing
8. Didier Andre Keerbergs Transport Racing
9. Ander Vilarino Epsilon Euskadi
10. Adrian Valles Pons Racing
ALMS
Four years after winning the series for Audi, Allan McNish returned to the American Le Mans Series for the season opening Sebring 12 Hour classic. Sharing the Audi Sport UK Team Veloqx R8 with veteran Frank Biela and Pierre Kaffer. For Biela this was familiar territory, his third Sebring victory, adding to his 2001 and 2003 triumphs, but for Kaffer this was the first major race for the young Porsche Supercup graduate.
The remainder of top ten was dominated by the P1 class. Fifth outright and fourth in class behind the Audis, British outfit Rollcentre Racing in their first run in their newly acquired Dallara-Judd finished three laps shy of the Corvette, and in turn three laps ahead of one of the Lola-MGs entered by Dyson Racing Team, the Weaver/Leitzinger/Wallace car finishing sixth while Dyson/Lammers/de Radigues retired short of half distance with driveline failure. The Autocon Riley & Scott was next on 321 laps with the veteran Panoz GTR-1 fielded by Larbre Competition coming home in ninth.
Pos Drivers Car
1. Allan McNish/Pierre Kaffer/Frank Biela Audi R8
2. JJ Lehto/Emanuele Pirro/Marco Werner Audi R8
3. Johnny Herbert/Jamie Davies/Guy Smith Audi R8
4. Ron Fellows/Johnny O'Connell/Max Papis Chevrolet Corvette C-5R
(1st GTS)
5. Joao Barbosa/Rob Barff/Martin Short Dallara LMP2001 Judd
6. James Weaver/Butch Leitzinger/ Lola EX257 MG
Andy Wallace
7. Tomy Drissi/Vic Rice/Michael Lewis Riley & Scott MkIIIC Elan
8. Timo Bernhard/Sascha Maassen Porsche 996 GT3-RSR
(1st GT)
9. Christophe Bouchut/Jean-Luc Blanchemain/ Panoz GTR1 Elan
Roland Berville
10. Romain Dumas/Lucas Luhr/Marc Lieb Porsche 996 GT3-RS
(2nd GT)
Formula Nippon
Takashi Kogure won the opening round of the Formula Nippon series after the race became a race nobody wanted to win. Polesitter Yuji Ide led the field away promptly, but a quick pitstop, only changing two tyres, put Kogure into second behind the yet to pit Hattori.
Pos Driver Team
1. Takashi Kogure PIAA Nakajima
2. Andre Lotterer PIAA Nakajima
3. Ryo Michigami Team Kondo
4. Tsugio Matsuda Team Cerumo
5. Satoshi Motoyama Team 5zigen
6. Toshihiro Kaneishi Team 5zigen
7. Naoki Hattori DoCoMo Dandelion
8. Richard Lyons DoCoMo Dandelion
9. Hideki Noda Team Mohn
10. Tatsuya Kataoka Team Le Mans
Le Mans
FIA GT
Bobbi took up the early running with Gollin and Alzen in pursuit. Alzen retired early on after damage underneath the car severed fluid lines, causing the car to expire. Alzen was the second Saleen to stop after Walter Lechner Jr retired with a broken wheel after a clash with Tom Coronel's Lister Storm. Karl Wendlinger had also retired his Ferrari Maranello in what was rapidly becoming a battle of attrition. Thomas Erdos took up third at this point with Stefano Livio and Coronel next in a close tussle. By lap 20 both Erdos and Coronel were out, after Erdos punctured and had a small fire, while a broken radiator hose cooked the Lister.
Pos Drivers Car
1. Luca Cappellari/Fabrizio Gollin Ferrari 550 Maranello
2. Matteo Bobbi/Gabriele Gardel Ferrari 550 Maranello
3. Philippe Peter/Fabio Babini Ferrari 575M Maranello
4. Emanuele Naspetti/Mike Hezemans Ferrari 575M Maranello
5. Stefano Livio/Enzo Calderari/Lilian Bryner Ferrari 550 Maranello
6. Arjan van der Zwaan/Christophe Bouchut/ Chrysler Viper GTS-R
Marc Goosens
7. Stephane Ortelli/Emmanuel Collard Porsche 996 GT3-RSR
(1st N-GT)
8. Christian Pescatori/Fabrizio de Simone Ferrari 360 Modena
(2nd N-GT)
9. Bert Longin/Ian Khan/Christophe Pillon Ferrari 575M Maranello
10. Chris Goodwin/Miguel Ramos Saleen S7-R
Briefs
Suzuki successfully defended their Le Mans 24 Hour Moto title last weekend as the SERT 72 team won their third consecutive race on the shorter Bugatti version of the French circuit. The first 14 hours of the race saw an intense battle between the #2 Suzuki GSXR of Stephane Chambon, Keiichi Kitagawa and Warwick Nowland, and the French factory Yamaha team, the #94 Yamaha R1 of Sebastien Gimbert, William Costes and David Checa. Clutch problems struck the Yamaha, losing the eleven laps it would never regain while effecting repairs. Chambon brought the GSXR home having completed 793 laps of the Bugatti circuit, eleven ahead of the Yamaha. Endurance Moto 38 team took third place on another Yamaha R1 for Gwen Giabbani, Stephane Duterne and Jean-Michel Louis having completed 769 laps.
Sebring was the venue of the traditional Champ Car pre-season test session - 'Spring Break' - with the fastest time set by Newman-Haas Racing drivers Bruno Junqueira and Sebastien Bourdais. Fastest on the first two days of testing, NHR scaled back on the final day of testing, leaving veteran Jimmy Vasser to top the time sheets on the final day. Herdez Competicion's two drivers Mario Dominguez and Ryan Hunter-Reay also slipped within a second of Junqueira's best.
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Volume 10, Issue 14
Atlas F1 Exclusive
Interview with Juan Pablo Montoya
All the King's Men
Bjorn Wirdheim: Going Places
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"Bloody Mess, Really..."
Same Same... But Different
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