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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.
Vale Barry Sheene, 1950-2003
Sheene, who was known as much for his playboy lifestyle and two horrendous accidents as for his on track achievements, started his career in the lower ranks of British motorcycle racing, rising to win the European 750cc championship by 1973.
He then joined the factory Suzuki 500cc team for the 1974 season and won his first Grand Prix that year. Sheene won the 1976 World Championship with five wins and a second with six races counting for the championship. He continued his dominance in 1977, taking a second championship. Sheene would win 19 championship Grands Prix.
>[?
Sheene continued to ride despite a horrific accident in 1982 at Silverstone for the British Grand Prix, which left him with a legacy of metal bolts and supports for his shattered legs. After retiring from motorcycle racing he dabbled briefly in the British Touring Car Championship before retiring from racing and emigrated to Australia.
Sheene stayed involved in the Grand Prix scene and helped shape the career of a new generation of riders, including Mick Doohan and Valentino Rossi. Sheene also moved into television as an expert commentator for Australian feeds of Grands Prix and Superbike telecasts, initially for Channel Nine, then Network Ten, as well as becoming a regular figure in the Australian V8 Supercar scene. Sheene was also a member of the Australian Formula One Grand Prix board.
Sheene flew his own helicopter to the Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix last October despite his condition and was to have waved the chequered flag at the Australian Formula One Grand Prix at Albert Park.
Labonte Outpaces Gordon At Atlanta
After a strong run in Las Vegas, Bobby Labonte took his first win of 2003 in Atlanta. The high speed oval saw a battle between a handful of cars all day, with Labonte and Jeff Gordon featuring at the front of the field almost all day, the duo finishing the race 1-2 ahead of fellow Chevrolet runner Dale Earnhardt Jr. The race featured two long green runs which saw most of the field one or more laps off the pace, and this combined with the high speeds saw several engines fail during the event. Despite teammates Kurt Busch, Jeff Burton and Mark Martin being among those to suffer engine problems, Matt Kenseth's car was reliable and fast, his fourth place moving him into the points lead, 49 points ahead of 2002 champ Tony Stewart.
The leaders began pitting around lap 55, with the stops over by lap 60, with Gordon taking over the lead with Labonte in second, Nemechek dropping to tenth. Labonte was soon back on Gordon's tail, retaking the lead soon after on lap 69. The duo stayed at the front, as Earnhardt Jr moved up to third and Stewart fourth. Lap 115 saw the second round of stops begin, continuing for the next five to ten laps, with the order after the stops basically the same, Labonte leading Gordon and Earnhardt Jr. Over 100 green laps had been bad news for most of the field, with only 12 cars left on the lead lap when Mark Martin blew an engine, bringing out the first caution of the day on lap 136. The field pitted, with the lead positions remaining unchanged.
Lap 141 saw the race return to green, but it was only a handful of laps before the caution was out again on lap 146 when Kurt Busch joined Roush teammate Mark Martin with a blown motor. The smoke trail left by Busch's blown engine saw Brett Bodine and Kenny Wallace collide, badly damaging Bodine's car. A few cars at the end of the lead lap pitted, the rest of the leaders staying out on the track. The race restarted on lap 155, Earnhardt Jr taking second place from Gordon on the restart lap as they ran down the backstretch, while Labonte pulled away at the front. Lap 166 saw Elliott join the car park of cars with dead engines.
The race restarted on lap 190, while on lap 192 Labonte moved into fourth past Gordon. Lap 193 saw third placed Nemechek make a short pit stop to tighten some loose lugs on his right front tyre, resuming just ahead of Labonte as he stayed on the tail end of the lead lap. By lap 202, Labonte and Gordon had caught Newman and began squabbling for second place, the trio completing the lap side by side, as Gordon moved alongside Newman before dropping back to be alongside Labonte, before Gordon and Labonte won the battle with Newman and moved into second and third. Lap 209 saw the caution lights on again, after Jamie McMurray's flat tyre left such a trail of smoke it looked like an engine failure. After the pit stops Stewart led Gordon and Labonte off pit road. During these stops Newman topped up his power steering fluid after it had stopped working.
Lap 213 and it was green, green, green again, with Stewart initialling edging away before being caught and passed by Gordon on lap 223. With just under 100 laps remaining in the 325 lap event Labonte passed teammate Stewart for second, Jimmie Johnson following past soon after, Labonte closing on leader Gordon, as the race began to stabilise. With 60 laps remaining the leaders began to pit. After the stops, not too much had changed except Kenseth's steady march up through the top ten had seen him move all the way up to third place. 45 to go Labonte was right on Gordon's tail, Labonte taking the lead on the following lap, though unable to break away from Gordon initially before opening up a safe gap.
At the restart on lap 307 Gordon got a better restart than Labonte, diving inside him going into turn one but was unable to complete the pass, while the start of lap 308 saw Earnhardt Jr pass Kenseth for third. It was back to yellow on lap 309 when fifth placed Jimmie Johnson and a third Roush car in Jeff Burton blew engines, bringing the number of engine failures to almost double figures. With only 3 green laps on the tyres, the leaders stayed out.
The race restarted on lap 313, with Gordon getting an even better restart than the last time, driving around the outside of Labonte at the restart and almost taking the lead as they headed into turn one, but Labonte stayed alongside and the two ran side-by-side through one and two before Gordon cleared Labonte at the end of the backstretch, Earnhardt Jr joining in the battle. With 12 laps to go, Labonte tried to make a run around the outside of Gordon off turn four, but Gordon moved up to block him. Undeterred, Labonte gave Gordon a little nudge before switching to the outside taking the lead into turn one.
It was a lead he kept to the end, Labonte taking the win ahead of Gordon and Earnhardt, with Matt Kenseth and 2002 champ Tony Stewart next. Jimmy Spencer was the first Dodge home, just ahead of Dave Blaney, both showing that you didn't necessarily need to be in one of the very top teams to finish well. By the completion of the event, only nine cars were left on the lead lap.
Result of NASCAR Winston Cup Round 4 of 36, MBNA Bass Pro Shops 500, Atlanta Motor Speedway, Georgia, United States:
Standings: Matt Kenseth 618, Tony Stewart 569, Michael Waltrip 543, Jimmie Johnson 519, Bobby Labonte 510, Johnny Benson 487, Kevin Harvick 478, Jeff Gordon 477, Jeff Burton 476, Dale Earnhardt Jr 474 etc.
Road America Removed From 2003 Champ Car Series
The Grand Prix of Road America has been removed from this year's Champ Car World Series due to non-payment of fee instalments, Champ Car said in a statement on Monday.
The series, which has competed on the 4.048-mile course in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin since 1982, said it would consider returning to the circuit if "a satisfactory and professionally responsible business arrangement can be reached with an appropriate race promoter."
CART, which runs the series, filed a lawsuit against Road America in February for failing to pay the final instalment of an agreed fee for last season's event and the first instalment for this season's race at the Wisconsin track. The race organisers also rejected a reduced financial arrangement offered as settlement.
Champ Car racing is to compete in Europe this year with two races at Brands Hatch in England on May 5 and at Germany's Lausitz Eurospeedway Oval on the weekend of May 10-11.
Last year's champion Cristiano da Matta competed in his first Formula One race for Toyota at last weekend's Australian Grand Prix, crashing out on the eighth lap.
Report provided by Reuters
Without The Factories
In the recent past the ALMS has seen factory-supported battles between Audi, Panoz, Cadillac, MG and Chrysler. This year the cars are carrying on, but the factories are gone. Only Bentley is represented directly as a car maker.
Familiar hands are running the three Audis. Joest Racing retained Frank Biela and will be joined by two of their '02 Le Mans drivers, Marco Werner and Philipp Peter. Mika Salo, Perry McCarthy and Jonny Kane will drive AudiSport UK's car, while the familiar Champion Racing entry has triple Le Mans victor Emanuele Pirro and Scandinavian Formula One drivers JJ Lehto and Stefan Johansson.
JML Panoz are also running a pair of their four year-old LMP01 cars with drivers like Olivier Beretta and Max Papis in the six driver squad. Three Lola-MGs are also in the entry from Intersport Racing, as well as a pair of cars from Dyson Racing. Lister makes its prototype debut with regular GT driver Jamie Campbell-Walter leading the team. Doran Lista Racing now has an MG motor in place of the Judd V10 in the back of their Dallara. Cars from DBA, Norma, Lola, Pilbeam, Reynard, Riley & Scott and WR complete the two prototype classes.
GTS has the usual balance of Saleen, Chevrolet, Ferrari and Dodge. The Vipers are getting very long in the tooth while the Saleens have been strangled. The still reasonably new Ferraris have been showing pace in the class. Prodrive have two Maranellos along with one from Team Olive Garden to fight against the all too familiar yellow cars from Corvette Racing. Konrad Motorsport has entered its pair of Saleens but the class wildcard is Carsport America. While Carsport has a Viper, the main interest will be in the new Italian sportscar, the Pagani Zonda.
In other ALMS news, the series is now two events shorter than it was originally. The Washington D.C. street race held around the RFK Stadium has been cancelled, along with the much publicised Mexican event scheduled to be held at the refurbished Hermanos Rodriguez circuit in Mexico City.
Both events have been cancelled citing 'organisational difficulties' and the ALMS is working toward creating replacement events, but in the same week that CART have cancelled a previously popular event at Road America, it seems to be getting harder to hold a non-NASCAR event in North America.
Leading entries:
Race three was an action packed affair thanks to the weather, a wet track greeting the drivers. Before the race could even start, Dean Canto wrecked his car on the formation lap, reducing the race from ten to six laps. More drama was to come when the race did run, when on lap three Paul Dumbrell went off at turn one. As he was rejoining the track Paul Morris was coming through turn two and cut things just a bit too fine, breaking Dumbrell's front right suspension and sending Morris hard into the wall, ripping several wheels off the car, and the race was stopped. With less than 75% of the scheduled distance covered, it was declared a 'no race', otherwise Ingall seemed to be on his way to another win.
Motorcycling
On Monday afternoon, motor racing lost one of its most colourful and popular figures when dual 500cc World Motorcycle Champion Barry Sheene lost his battle his cancer of the oesophagus and stomach. He was 52 years old.
NASCAR
Polesitter Ryan Newman grabbed the lead at the start and left the field behind in the early laps. while several cars diced for other places in the top ten. Eventually Bobby Labonte worked his way through to second, before taking the lead a few laps later. 25 laps down saw Joe Nemechek take third from Newman, 8 laps later taking second from teammate Johnson before taking the lead from Labonte on lap 37. A little further back in the top ten were Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Jr, both tearing through the field after starting 30th and 37th respectively.
Before too much else happened Rusty Wallace brought out a caution on lap 175 after hitting the wall. More pit stops, with Labonte leading Gordon, Nemechek and Earnhardt Jr first off pit road. The race resumed on lap 179, with Nemechek taking second place from Gordon four laps later, Stewart pushing Gordon back to fourth on the following lap. Another blown engine, this time for Ken Schrader, brought out the fourth caution of the day on lap 186. Despite having pitted only about 10 laps earlier, the field hit the pits again, Newman first off pit road by taking two tyres, ahead of Nemechek, Labonte and Gordon. The leader of the race was Earnhardt Jr however, who didn't pit.
Casey Mears had an engine fail but without any on-track drama. Not long after Ricky Rudd had his engine fail in a spectacular enough way to bring out the caution on lap 303, 10 cars remaining on the lead lap. The field pitted, the leading trio in the same order after the stops as they were before. Steve Park, John Andretti and Jerry Nadeau were involved in an incident in pit lane when Park tried to exit between the other two, causing minor damage to all three cars.
Pos Driver Car
1. Bobby Labonte Chevrolet Monte Carlo
2. Jeff Gordon Chevrolet Monte Carlo
3. Dale Earnhardt Jr Chevrolet Monte Carlo
4. Matt Kenseth Ford Taurus
5. Tony Stewart Chevrolet Monte Carlo
6. Elliott Sadler Ford Taurus
7. Jimmy Spencer Dodge Intrepid
8. Dave Blaney Ford Taurus
9. Joe Nemechek Chevrolet Monte Carlo
10. Ryan Newman Dodge Intrepid
CART
"Regrettably the decision to remove the Grand Prix of America, round 12 of the 2003 Champ Car World Series scheduled for August 1-3 was brought about by the continued refusal of the track to comply with its sanctioning agreement," Champ Car said.
ALMS
A field of 22 prototypes head the list of entries for the 12 Hours of Sebring. There are three Audis in addition to the big Bentley operation. Bentley, as the event's biggest team, exudes strength. The #7 car has multiple Le Mans champion Tom Kristensen along with Audi regulars Dindo Capello and Guy Smith while the #8 car is manned by Formula One and sportscar veterans Johnny Herbert, David Brabham and Mark Blundell. They are hard to fault.
As usual GT is wall to wall Porsches, but more than ever options are creeping in with five Ferrari Modenas, a BMW M3, a TVR Chimaera, a Spyker C8, a Morgan and a Lamborghini to fight the 19 Porsche GT3s. For winners, the best are those that run most often. The Racers Group are fresh from an outright win at Daytona, but Alex Job are the class Porsche team. Orbit and Seikel are the other Porsche regulars while Risi and JMB Ferrari squads lead the rest.
LMP900
No. Drivers Car
1 Frank Biela/Marco Werner/Philipp Peter Audi R8
6 Jamie Campbell-Walter/Ian McKellar Jr Lister Storm LMP
7 Tom Kristensen/Rinaldo Capello/ Bentley Speed 8
Guy Smith
8 Johnny Herbert/David Brabham/ Bentley Speed 8
Mark Blundell
9 Jonny Kane/Perry McCarthy/Mika Salo Audi R8
10 Olivier Beretta/Gunnar Jeannette/ Panoz LMP01 Elan
Max Papis
11 Benjamin Leuenberger/John Graham/ Panoz LMP01 Elan
Scott Maxwell
27 Didier Theys/Fredy Lienhard/ Dallara LMP2001 MG
Eric van de Poele
38 Emanuele Pirro/JJ Lehto/ Audi R8
Stefan Johansson
LMP675
No. Drivers Car
16 James Weaver/Butch Leitzinger/ Lola EX257 MG
Andy Wallace
20 Chad Block/Christopher Dyson/ Lola EX257 MG
Didier de Radigues
37 Jon Field/Duncan Dayton/Michael Durand Lola EX257 MG
56 Jeff Bucknum/Bryan Willman/ Pilbeam MP91 Willman
Chris McMurry
LMGTS
No. Drivers Car
0 Emanuele Naspetti/Mimmo Schiattarella/ Ferrari 550 Maranello
Johnny Cecotto
2 Franz Konrad/Toni Seilar/Robert Nearn Saleen S7R
3 Ron Fellows/Johnny O'Connell/ Chevrolet Corvette C5-R
Franck Freon
4 Oliver Gavin/Kelly Collins/ Chevrolet Corvette C5-R
Andy Pilgrim
17 Mike Hezemans/Anthony Kumpen Pagani Zonda GR
80 Anthony Davidson/Darren Turner/ Ferrari 550 Maranello
Kelvin Burt
83 Thomas Erdos/Pedro Chaves Saleen S7R
88 Tomas Enge/Peter Kox/Jamie Davies Ferrari 550 Maranello
LMGT
No. Drivers Car
23 Lucas Luhr/Sascha Maassen Porsche 996 GT3-RS
24 Timo Bernhard/Jorg Bergmeister Porsche 996 GT3-RS
34 Phillip Bennett/Marino Franchitti/ Ferrari 360 Modena
Kevin McGarrity
35 Terry Borcheller/Anthony Lazzaro/ Ferrari 360 Modena
Ralf Kelleners
53 Gabrio Rosa/Alex Caffi/Andrea Chiesa Porsche 996 GT3-RS
66 Kevin Buckler/Jim Pace/Eliseo Salazar Porsche 996 GT3-RS
Briefs
The first race saw a deal of action, with a first corner incident between Todd Kelly and Russell Ingall eventually seeing the retirement of Todd Kelly, Paul Weel and Paul Radisich, with Garth Tander retiring further around the first lap. After the early action, Team Brock's Jason Bright, who had beaten fellow front row starter Mark Skaife into turn one at the start, went on to take a comfortable win, made even more so when Skaife spun out into the gravel on lap five, with second going to Russell Ingall in his first race in the Stone Brothers BA Falcon after a titanic struggle with Steven Richards. Race two was a much more comfortable affair for Ingall, leading from start to finish after winning the start.
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