Bathurst 1000

[Daz27]

That may have something to do with the greasy nature of the track at that point, and I would be quite happy to suggest that they were at 10/10ths or more, being that a Bathurst win was on the offering, and knowing that the slightest slip would see a car or two (or more) out of contention. I really feel bad for Brighty, he could have had it if only they hadnt have changed the tyres in his last stop, or, put wets on it. He had track position, on wets he would have carved them up, built a margin and held it maybe till the end. Instead, well, poor call I think on someones part. But as they say in the classics, there is always next year.

[motorsportnerd]

Personally, for me I think the two experienced Kiwis in the the No 16 Toll HSV Commodore - Paul Radisich and Craig Baird - were the drivers of the race.
Both Toll cars suffered badly for brake fluid problems, which eventually resulted in both been withdrawn (as the rain closed in) so that the team didn't end up with a hefty damage bill. Basically, both cars had no brakes for most of the race.
The two younger guns in the No 1 Toll car - Rick Kelly and Garth Tander - seemed to have more difficulty driving around the problem than the two older drivers in the No 16 car.
Radisich and Baird managed to keep the car on the lead lap - they even lead the race for a while - and lapping within a second of the ultimate race pace, despite the brake problems. Which I have to say I found very impressive. I hope team managers have taken note - both drivers are far from spent forces as drivers. I half expect to see Radisich back full time next year in a Brad Jones Racing Commodore prepared by Walkinshaw Performance and running out of the same stable as the HRT/Toll HSV cars (yes...there are some rumours that Brad Jones Racing will swap to factory spec Commodores next year).

[fpv_gtho]

Craig Baird might be having too much fun in Careera Cup and NZ V8's, away from all the politics of the championship series...

[Daz27]

Where did you get that little snippet of info from MSN? The BJR thing I mean. I hadnt heard that and to be honest its a surprise, but then, not all together surprising at the same time???

[motorsportnerd]

Two sources. First, its strongly rumoured on ten-tenths.com. Second, there is now an article in the week's enews about it. See: http://enews.mnews.com.au/

The enews article doesn't mention who the second driver will be. One is nearly certain to be Andrew Jones. However, when Radisich split with Team Kiwi Racing earlier in the year, there were rumours that he and BJR might get together then. Apparently Brad did make an offer to Paul for the second seat for the balance of the season from Winton onwards. However, Radisich was also offered an endurance drive in a potentially race winning seat - in the championship leading Toll HSV Commodore. Radisich, wisely, chose the option of a strong attempt at winning Bathurst, rather than a season long seat in a the, lets be honest, rear of field Ford.
However, since the Walkinshaw Performance - Brad Jones Racing link appears to be near certain, Radisich would seem to be the strongest candidate to drive for the team full time next year. In fact, there's a good chance he would be reunited with the car he drove at Bathurst. I suspect that BJR will receive two of the current chassis from the Toll HSV/TWR stable and that these two teams will upgrade to new chassis.
Also, seems that there may be seven Walkinshaw Performance built VEs on the grid next year. There are rumours that the Autobarn team will swap its ancient VZ (which finished a very respectable sixth at Bathurst) for a Walkinshaw Performance VE with Tony D'Alberto steering. Where Steve Owen goes I have no idea. I guess he'd be the other candidate for the BJR seat along with Radisich.

[Daz27]

The BJR Falcons arent exactly slow cars though, having seen what Brighty did with their 'spare' chassis. I think possibly BJR havent been able to get a handle on the BA - BF, shame they havent done a deal with Britek. Be sad to see them go over to the dark side though, but then, they wont be alone, Seto did it, Ingal's doing it, now a whole team.

[motorsportnerd]

In this case though, Brad Jones is as much associated with Holden as he is with Ford. Sure his team has run Fords since the 2000 season, but Jones was a co-driver in Holden teams pretty much every year from 1990 to 1996 - usually with HRT or with Wayne Gardner Racing. He scored two podiums finishes with HRT - in 1993 he was third with Wayne Gardner and in 1994 he was second with Craig Lowndes. Also, when BJR was first set up it ran Holden Commodores in Bob Jane's early 1990 AUSCAR series. So, in a sense, Brad is returning to Holden.
Ford is apparantly spending less money now on its teams and drivers, so its no surprise to see some drivers and teams go to Holden.
Never mind, its not all one way traffic - it is rumoured strongly that Paul Dumbrell will replace Ingall at SBR in the "Autobarn" Falcon. His father is an owner of Autobarn if I remember correctly.
Finally, it seems that to win in V8 Supercars these days you need to have either a Walkinshaw Performance built Commodore VE or a Falcon with Triple 888 chassis/Stone Brothers engines. Perhaps all teams will end up with one of these combinations within a few years.

[fpv_gtho]

Well they'd probably get rid of alot of engine cost by going to a control Ford and Holden engine, run out of Walkinshaw Performance and SBRE respectively.

[Daz27]

Well, as far as I recall, they essentially are a control engine, minimum weights for components, maximum revs, materials etc all mandated. There is only so much horsepower/torque that can be extracted from a 5 litre V8 engine with natural aspiration. Sure, one might have 635hp and another 634hp, essentially it means bugger all in reality if they cannot transmit it to the ground. A lot of teams might suggest that the SBR or HMS engine has more grunt, but possibly in reality the difference is minimal, it may come down to chassis dynamics?

[fpv_gtho]

So then why have so many engine programs running? FPR, DJR and SBRE all do their own engines and supply a handful of teams with those. Likewise on the Holden side theres the Walkinshaw motors, Perkins and i think PMM does their own engines.

[Daz27]

Maybe because they all think they can find some little edge that noone else has, and the last team that did that was BJR with the long stroke motor and, if I recall correctly, that was the catalyst to the minimum piston weight and maximum conrod length and weight mandate. I may be wrong with the conrod thing though, but I am sure I read it somewhere. Another reason for them to continue their own individual program is purely because investment in infrastructure. They have the gear to do it, so why not. You kinda have to realise that they are not chasing 5hp gains here anymore, they are after .1 - .5 hp at a time, and probably the same increments in torque (this is all in regard to the law of diminishing returns), and constantly working on drivability. Listen to Crompo a bit more when he's talking on TV.

[fpv_gtho]

I'm not questioning why the teams chose to continue on their own programs, but why VESA havent closed the window where theyre wasting money going down the same road. If they had a control Ford and Holden engine, there'd be millions saved per year by the teams.

[Daz27]

I reckon they should go the other way actually and make the engines open to development by lifting ALL the restrictions on materials and specifications, but keeping the 5 litre V8 production based block, and not allowing forced induction. Just for fun you know

[clutch-monkey]

i'd rather they actually used the V8's from the road cars.

[charged]

The boss engine would be no match for the ls2,
ls2 lightweight+revs =win
Boss heavy+cant rev = lose