R13 PREV (Part 1) - Ford confident of saving face at Bathurst
14/11/2000 20:56 (V8 Wire - Jason Whittaker) - With none of Henry’s brigade in title contention, the game plan for all Ford-powered campaigners at Bathurst this year is simple – that is, simply to win, and in the process rescue Ford’s pitiful 2000 season.
It is that which unites the wounded Ford camp in their pursuit of Bathurst glory this week, and with the slate wiped clean, all are keen to put their dismal seasons behind them and finish with a bang.
All of Ford’s respected chargers believe they have the power to do just that.
Most punters believe the smart money must be heaped on the Dick Johnson Racing operation – a team in-form and hungry to make amends.
Paul Radisich was the man that threw the monkey of the back of all Falcon racers at Sandown Raceway, before winning two of the three sprints held in support of the Gold Coast Indy event.
As he was comforted by a four-legged spectator following his tragic race retirement late in last year’s race, Radisich was the picture of composure. But as ‘the Rat’ prepares to mount another attack on heartbreak hill, it’s clear last year’s result was devastating – and now he wants revenge.
“The outcome of last year’s race was absolutely gut-wrenching, not just for me but for the entire team and I know that I’m not alone in wanting to make amends for that this year,” a resolute Radisich said.
“We’ve had some great results heading into Bathurst with the round win at Sandown and the two wins at Indycar last month, and that just helps boost everyone’s confidence,” he said.
Radisich is joined in the dynamic Shell Falcon by the young man that carried the hopes of a nation on the Gold Coast recently, Jason Bright.
Fresh from a full season of Indy Lights in the US, Bright, 27, returns to his homeland to reclaim his 1998 1000km crown. The Bathurst package he is fortunate enough to be a part of is certainly a formidable unit, a fact not lost on Bright.
“Paul’s performances in the last couple of races have been fantastic, the car looks good and from the couple of test days I’ve had it feels great as well,” Bright said.
“Last year the Shell Falcons were passing cars down the straight like they were standing still, I can’t wait to actually be in one this year,” he said.
In-form, super-quick, and two gifted, compatible pilots – an embarrassment of riches you would think. But despite bookies quoting the number 18 pair as firm favourites at 4/1, don’t try telling Radisich he’s the punter’s pick.
“I don’t like the word ‘favourites’, I think it puts too much pressure on the drivers and the team,” Radisich said.
“Obviously we think we have a chance of winning the race, if we didn’t we wouldn’t even bother turning up, but you don’t want to start reading too much into that sort of thing or believing it for that matter. There’s a fine line between confidence and arrogance,” he said.
While much of the attention centres around the lead Shell Helix Falcon, Steven Johnson and Cameron McLean, the men who will steer the famous number 18 DJR machine, insist they are as favoured as their more-fancied team-mates.
“It’s been a tough old year there’s no doubt about that, but I feel like I’m actually starting to get somewhere now and with Bathurst coming up that can only be good,” Steven, lone driver for the Johnson clan this year, said.
“This race is all about tactics, pit stops and team work, and if we get that right on Sunday we’ve got just as much chance as anyone else out there,” Johnson Jnr. insists.
Ford-Tickford Racing bring together two of the most experienced campaigners in Glenn Seton and Neil Crompton, yet neither has ever tasted victory at Mt Panorama. After a lacklustre season to date, the team hopes to finish on a Mountain high.
"Winning Bathurst is the ideal way to end the season and if we can challenge early then I don’t see any reason why we can’t finish well," Team leader Seton argued.
Seton’s Bathurst preparations were interrupted following a horrific high-speed testing crash at Phillip Island last month. The shunt kept him off the grid at both Sandown and the Gold Coast, and while damage to the car has not affected the team’s Bathurst campaign (Seton and Crompton will debut a brand-new FTR AU Falcon at Bathurst), Seton’s fitness is of concern.
“Preparation for Bathurst as in fitness wise is going to be my biggest problem,” Seton told us at Indy. “It hasn't stopped preparations, as in the team, at all for Bathurst, we're still going down the same road, and we'll be very well prepared. But as in my own fitness, only time will tell.”
Neil Crompton will race for the final time in FTR colours at Bathurst after announcing his resignation from the team to take affect at season’s end. After two result-less years with the Ford-backed operation, Crompton will be fuelled by the desire to finish on a high note, and to stake his claim for next season.
World 500cc Motorcycle Champion Wayne Gardner will partner Rally ace Neal Bates in the second Ford-Tickford Falcon.
The mix of experience and youth served the Queensland-based Stone Brothers operation well at the OzEmail 500 in September, after Tony Longhurst and David Besnard came agonisingly-close to snatching victory. Only a botched driver-change strategy prevented the pair from taking the win, a mistake the Brothers Stone vow won’t happen again.
The aging Longhurst, now in the veteran class with over 4000 Mt Panorama laps under his belt, and V8 Supercars’ new whiz-kid David Besnard, will reunite to form a formidable Bathurst partnership.
"Every time I head to Bathurst it's a career highlight, there is nothing else like it. This year is no exception,” Longhurst, ‘88 Bathurst champ, said. “The car is in great shape and Dave (Besnard) and I are ready to get on with the job.”
23-year-old Besnard is one of many Bathurst rookies, but the former open-wheeler champ is not fazed by the challenge.
"I can only imagine the big V8s are going to be a handful around Mount Panorama," he said.
"Screaming over the top of the mountain at about 240km/hr, over Skyline and into the Esses and Dipper is going to be exhilarating. The other challenge is going to be negotiating Caltex Chase at 290km/hr and then pulling up to 90km/hr in 140 metres!" an apprehensive Besnard explained.
The Stone Brothers relish the challenge of the last-man-standing endurance format, ensuring the Pirtek-backed combo of Craig Baird and young Formula Holden racer Simon Wills are also in contention to be standing at the end.
With an amazing eight Bathurst crowns weighing down the old-heads of CAT duo John Bowe and Jim Richards, few match the John Biggs-owned operation in the experience stakes.
According to JB that, plus the marathon 1000km distance, is all in CAT Racing’s favour this year.
"I really enjoy the longer races and our team works very hard on ensuring our tactics are sound for endurance racing," 46-year-old Bowe said. "Obviously Jim and I have a lot of experience in these events and our team manager Alan Heaphy and the team are very good at planning the tactics.”
Bowe, a vocal advocate for greater parity between Ford and Holden, says the sport’s administrators have made Ford’s Bathurst campaign that much more difficult.
"I don't believe the new Falcon undertray is aerodynamically as good as the old one. The Commodore also get 100mm back on their undertray at Bathurst so it won't be an easy day at the office," Bowe explained.
Nonetheless, being the first Ford home at the Queensland Raceway enduro, and a fourth-place finish in the Adelaide 500 for Bowe earlier in the year, has the team aiming for the podium.
"The team has worked very hard over the past few weeks and John and I should have a strong car to do a good job," Richards said.
Last year’s surprise pole-sitter, Mitre 10’s Mark Larkham, is hoping for a better Sunday this year rather than Saturday.
"There’s no point getting carried away but we have been working really hard in preparation for Bathurst, so we are quietly confident," Larkham said.
The 36-year-old Queenslander secured the services of highly-rated British Touring Car star Alain Menu who Larkham says, after recent testing with the team, gels well. Menu’s first and last V8 Bathurst experience occurred in 1998, driving with Thomas Mezera. They failed to finish.
They may be at long odds but Steven Ellery’s Super Cheep Auto outfit, buoyed by prominent displays at Sandown and Surfers Paradise (early in the weekend at least), contend they’re not without hope.
"The race win at Sandown has given the team tremendous confidence and knowing we can match it with guys like Radisich in a sprint round is an important step to knowing we can match it on the Mountain," Ellery, who will share the SCAR Falcon with Paul Stokell, said.
"Winning Bathurst is certainly not beyond us but there is an awful lot of opposition to knock off first," an optimistic Ellery said.
Like Radisich, Ellery is still scarred by the untimely retirement of the Shell Falcon he shared with ‘the Rat’ in last year’s race, but says the incident only made him stronger.
"I have never forgotten what happened last year,” 26-year-old Ellery recalls. “It has made me a bit smarter and a bit wiser and I've learnt that you have to take it as it comes at Bathurst and roll with the punches on the day.”
The young Queenslander has been plagued by Glandular Fever throughout the season, and hopes the advice of a naturopath will ensure a trouble-free Bathurst race.
Other Fords to keep an eye on include the Brad Jones-Thomas Mezera OzEmail Falcon (Jones finished second in the Bathurst classic of 1997), and the ever-improving K & J Thermal Products Ford piloted by Paul Weel and Greg Crick.
A determined Weel says the team’s newly-completed AU Falcon has the potential to upset. "The new Falcon will help and without making headline comments we are expecting a top five finish," he said.
They may all be quietly-confident of their abilities, but as Paul Radisich encapsulates, it means little at Mt Panorama.
“Bathurst is a funny place, a bit like the Bermuda Triangle I think. Strange things happen up there, we’ll just have to wait and see what unfolds,” he said.
It will begin to unfold at Motorsport’s answer to the Bermuda Triangle, Mt Panorama Bathurst, when the V8s hit the track for practice on Thursday.
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