Grid Lines....
22/2/2001 21:32 (V8 Wire - Jason Whittaker) -
As V8 Supercar fans around the country cross off the days until D-Day 2001, the proverbial V8 paddock is swarming with pre-season news and gossip. Lowndes, Seton, Brock and Bowe all make news in this edition of Grid Lines.
>> The most famous piece of bitumen in Australia, Bathurst’s Mt
Panorama, has received its first resurfacing in well over a decade.
At a cost of $1.2 million to the Bathurst City Council, the 6.2km circuit, pit entry road and run-off areas have all been levelled and resurfaced over the past three weeks. Two new over-track footbridges are also under construction.
It is believed the V8 Supercars could lap the circuit two seconds quicker than last year at the FAI 1000 in October.
>> Craig Lowndes revealed he’s been a Ford fan most of his life on national television last week, when he opened his home garage and proudly displayed his first road car to the cameras – a Ford Cortina!
It has been reported General Motors’ supremos were livid with the Channel Ten-aired story, which is sure to throw fuel on the already raging inferno surrounding Lowndes’ disputed TWR management contract.
>> Lowndes will get down to business in his new Gibson Motorsport colours at the team’s unofficial launch at Winton Raceway tomorrow afternoon.
The media has been invited to Lowndes’ first and last testing session at the rural Victorian circuit before next week’s Australian Grand Prix. Lowndes will put to work the car on which his early season hopes rest, the ex-Craig Baird SBR Falcon.
Gibson Motorsport Konica campaigner Paul Dumbrell will also test his Commodore with the GMS outfit.
>> Mark Skaife, Jason Bright, Glenn Seton, Steven Richards, Greg Murphy, Todd Kelly, Larry Perkins, Russell Ingall, Dugal McDougall, John Faulkner and Anthony Tratt all wearily eyed their opposition at a star-studded test day at Phillip Island Raceway last Monday.
While foxing was the order of the day, it is believed Glenn Seton was lapping the picturesque circuit quicker than his rivals.
>> Touring Car immortal Peter Brock will emerge from retirement to partner his son in two of Australia’s most prestigious rallying events.
Brock, together with navigator son James, will run his own personal SS Commodore in Victoria’s Trading Post Grand Prix Rally starting on Saturday, and in the renowned Targa Tasmania aboard a V8 Holden Ute later in April.
Brock, who will compete against the likes of Jim Richards, Neal Bates and Mick Doohan in the Targa event, said; "It's a hot field (Targa), but we have a seriously fast vehicle that is sensational to drive and does everything it needs to do to for us to be competitive.”
>> The death of American NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt has the world motorsport community grappling for answers.
Supercar stalwart John Bowe, for one, has this week made the call to continue striving for greater V8 Supercar safety.
“Perhaps we need to look at crash testing like they do in Formula One, or moving the driver further away from the door – these may not be direct answers but we must keep making improvements,” Bowe wrote in his Queensland newspaper column yesterday.
>> This year’s Clipsal 500 carnival will include some X-treame off-track entertainment.
Dubbed “Xcelerator,” the youth initiative will incorporate rock concerts and X-treame sport demonstrations in an entertainment extravaganza to run concurrent to the on-track action on Clipsal 500 Saturday in Victoria Park. Entry to the day/night event is included in the price of track admission.
>> Meanwhile, Television beauty Tania Zaetta and silver-clad Olympian Tatiana Grigorieva are the first to be named in the Clipsal 500’s all-women celebrity race. 20 famed females will do battle in the supporting event, a first for Adelaide’s V8 Supercar carnival.
>> Speaking of celebrity racers, Super Cheap ace Steven Ellery has been recruited to teach some ahead of the Australian Grand Prix celebrity race next weekend.
Ellery will spend the Grand Prix lead-up week at Melbourne’s Sandown Raceway teaching the likes of Kieren Perkins the finer points of motor racing.
“It’ll probably be a fantastic couple of days for me and the celebrity drivers who might have a chance to kick back, be themselves and work up to the weekend’s racing. I’m looking forward to it,” Ellery said.
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