A tale of two frogs

Today was race day at the Gold Coast Indy 300 and it was an early start with a briefing for all us photographers at 7.30am. There were some very bleery eyes. It was just after this when I was wandering the Indy pit lane that I saw my friend Ryan, who was shooting the event for Jack Daniels Racing, making his modelling debut. Ryan’s the one on the left by the way.

Anyway things on track soon got underway with the Champ Cars out on track for an early practice session. Some drivers were still pushing very hard as you can see by this picture of Paul Tracy with his front wheels off the ground. Crowd favourite Will Power in the Team Australia car was one of the quickest raising expectations for the race.

Next up was a Porsche Carrera cup race and then we had the first V8 Supercar race of the day. It was tight tussle between Garth Tander and Todd Kelly for the lead and it certainly kept us entertained with Garth clinching the win.

After the traditional air show, dancing girls and national anthems we finally came to the main event, the Lexmark Indy 300. Who would have thought it would become a tale of two frogs? Will Power lead from pole and was certainly looking good for his first Champ Car win leading until the first round of pit stops when he collided with Paul Tracy but with only minor damage managed to continue. It was not long after that Sebastien Bourdais suffered a severe attack of Gaelic brain fade when he came in far to hot into a corner and crashed into Will Power effectively ending his race. Bourdais was able to continue and despite being given a drive through penalty for initiating avoidable contact still managed to finish in eight place, enough to clinch his 3rd consecutive Champ car title.

In the end and coming through to clinch his maiden victory was 20 year old Frenchman, Nelson Phillipe. A great effort from the youngest driver in the field and boy was he and the CTE racing team excited. Will managed to bring his severely damaged car home but well down the field although Team Australia did get some compensation with his teamate Alex Tagiani finishing on the podium in 3rd place. And so we come to end of a great 4 days and I head back to chilly old Tasmania but this will not be the last Indy I attend I guarantee you that. Who knows, I might even move up here!

Another superb chassis

Will Power created Champ Car history today by becoming the first Australian to win pole position for the Gold Coast Indy 300. It was a brilliant effort in front of a huge and vocal Aussie crowd. We all wish him luck in the race tomorrow and I'm sure the partying will carry on for days more if he wins.

You see some very funny things at events like this but one of the most amusing was during rally star Marcus Gronholm's visit to the Newman Haas team pit today. Sebastian Bourdais is not a short man but Marcus would be at least 6ft 6in and watching him getting into Sebastians car even without a seat was hilarious.


The V8 Supercars finally hit the track in anger with the first of three scheduled races. Todd Kelly in his Holden Commodore VZ lead from start to finsh and with the deteriorating weather conditions did a great job. It really is quite something when the field of V8's comes roaring past only inches away from you.

Next year Champ Car are ending their association with Lola and all the teams will be running a new chassis built by Panoz that looks absolutely superb. Here's a picture of the new car and another superb chassis Miss Indy 2006.

SUN, SURF AND SUPERCARS

SUN, SURF AND SUPERCARS. Did I mention that I was going to the Indy 300 on the Gold Coast, in Queensland, OZ ? Well, here I am and just so you all know it was 28C today and there was not a cloud in the sky, beautiful !
I had the very enjoyable experience of being able to photograph the new Miss Indy and her 2 runners up today. I must say that when it comes to the glamour stakes the Indy 300 definately has more than it's fair share.

Perhaps we need to introduce a Miss Tas Rally Series to boost interest although the young ladies of Maydena might not be quite in the same league as these ladies.
Even the assistant tyre fitters are glamorous up here on the Gold Coast.

There were some spectacular air displays too from the Australian Navy helicopters and Air Force jets. While on the circuit Army tanks zoomed past ( who knew they were that quick? ) and mad buggers did huge wheelies and burnouts on stunt bikes.

Oh and some blokes drove some cars around extremely fast.

Does anyone know the german for bugger ?

Does anyone know the german for bugger ? Because I suspect that or another fine anglo-saxon expression was the first word going through Michael's mind when he saw the huge plume of white smoke in his wing mirrors. Yes, the Japanese GP has been run and won by Fernando Alonso after Schumi suffered his first engine failure since 2001 while he was leading the race. Fernando leads the championship by 10 points so he only needs one more point at the Brazilian GP to clinch back to back F1 drivers titles.
One interesting statistic to come out of the race is that if Micheal does win in Brazil he will have won more grand prix's than Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost combined. It would have been nice to see Michael win the title again in his final year but I can't see Fernando letting it slip now particularly as he gets a fresh engine for Brazil. We are witnessing the end of an era that has been dominated by Michael's brilliant F1 career but if McLaren can get their act together once again and give him a car that can win then maybe we are seeing the start of a new one with Fernando Alonso.

The width of his front bumper

After 1000km’s, 5 pit stops, 2 driver changes, a new set of brake pads and over 161 laps of Mount Panorama, it was decided by ½ a second. The 2006 running of the Bathurst 1000 was an emotional affair that celebrated the life of Peter Brock. Before the race there was a parade of Brocky’s 9 Bathurst winning cars and a minutes silence to honour the king of the mountain. However the race did not go as planned for the Holden Racing Team with race favourite Mark Skaife struggling to get off the start line and then being forced out of the race after being hit from behind by a back marker. An incident packed race was punctuated with 10 safety car interventions and the luckiest man must be Jason Richards who went off the road at 300kmh and got seriously airborne but still managed to get back into the race.

At the end it was a classic Aussie V8 supercar race finish with the Ford of Craig Lowndes and Jamie Whincup crossing the finish line just ½ a second ahead of the Holden of the Kelly brothers. The fight for 3rd place was even closer with James Courtney beating SBR teammate Russell Ingall by 1/ 500th of a second or about the width of his front bumper. It was an emotional scene on the podium as Brocky’s protégé Craig Lowndes and Jamie Whincup were presented with the new Peter Brock trophy as the latest Bathurst 1000 winners. As I write this my young son, Jensen and I still have the Scalectrix slot car track all over the loungeroom floor and I can tell you the competition has been just as intense. I took the pictures you see here of Skaife and Lowndes at the Ferodo triple challenge.

All decided by a sticky nut

What a great weekend for the sportaholic. Traditionally held on the last Saturday in September is the AFL grand final. This year it was held between the West Coast Eagles and Sydney Swans in front of nearly 100,000 people at the magnificent MCG. As a West Coast fan it was a perfect result with the Eagles winning by just 1 point. West Coast captain Chris Judd was inspirational particularly after he dislocated his shoulder! Apparently he just popped it back in and just carried on running and tackling as hard as possible. The picture you see here is one I took of Chris taking a great mark in the goal square during an Eagles – Hawthorn game at York Park last season with just a little pocket camera.

After the saturation TV coverage of this event we come to the absolute debacle that is the television coverage of Formula 1 in Australia. We finally get a Grand Prix that is on during a similar time zone as us and for some bizarre reason it gets delayed until nearly 1.00am. Obviously Australian Idol gets higher ratings and more advertising dollars because of it’s demographic of teenage girls and grandmothers but I did not realise that there were so many affluent gay men with a sailor fetish out there. I say this because why else would Southern Cross follow up Idol with an episode of NCIS and then JAG. How many US Navy detective shows are there on TV and just how many criminal investigation departments does a Navy really need in real life anyway?? I had given up way before this and decided to tape the race and get up at 5.00am and watch it. The Chinese Grand Prix at Shanghai lived up to all expectations, apart from the Tasmanian TV schedulers obviously, and we had yet another titanic battle between Michael & Fernando as well as tyre manufacturers Michelin & Bridgestone.

The race was all decided by a sticky nut during a pit stop, with Alonso losing vital seconds that cost him the race. Schumacher came home first followed by a very close Alonso. So with 2 races to go they share the lead of the world championship with identical points. Next Sunday is the Japanese Grand Prix and I have no doubt that despite the similar timezone it will be on at some ridiculous hour again. However we will have the ultimate in taxi racing all day to entertain us because it’s Bathurst time. A 1000kms up, around and back down Mount Panorama in fire breathing V8 supercars makes for a great TV spectacle. Aaaahhh I love my new HD plasma !