Calder Preview

CENTURY BATTERIES AUSTRALIAN GT PRODUCTION CAR CHAMPIONSHIP

CALDER PREVIEW 19th JULY 1999

WAYNE WANTS TO PARK FERRARI IN VICTORY LANE

Ferrari driver Wayne Park is looking forward to a strong run in the Ferrari F355 Challenge in pursuit of victory when the Century Batteries Australian GT Production Car Championship continues at Calder Park on 25 July.

Park,who took a sabbatical from driving the Ferrari at the last round of the championship at Queensland Raceway, is now looking forward to renewing the racing development on the Ferrari to claim the elusive race win he feels the car is capable of.

Domenic Beninca slipped into the car during the last round in order to keep his Championship chances alive after comprehensively damaging his own Porsche 911 RSCS at the Sandown round.

With a strong track record at Calder Park, Wayne Park is hoping his ongoing development will make the difference between adding another second position to his resume or claiming the win that he hopes is just around the corner.

"I feel a win coming on for the team. We have a lot of ideas of ways we can further develop the Ferrari and get the most from the car. If I wasn’t able to claim at least a second place at Calder I’d be pretty disappointed," Park said.

"I’ll be able to slot back into the car and continue the plan of giving the Ferrari the edge to knock off the opposition on the weekend."

Victorian Domenic Beninca will reappear in the fierce black Porsche at the Calder Park after the Sandown Raceway incident that virtually destroyed the car and potentially his chances of a Championship win.

Beninca was fortunately offered a position in the Ross Palmer Motorsport Meguiar’s Class A Ferrari for the Queensland round with the view of allowing Beninca to keep his championship chances alive.

While the Porsche driver was honoured by the opportunity he is pleased to being hopping back into his familiar car and is confident the team will have the Porsche in fine order for this weekend’s round.

"We’re slowly getting the car back together and assuming we have no major hiccups before the weekend it should all come together as planned," Beninca said.

"We’ve completely reworked the Porsche but it will be no different on track. We will just need to spend a bit of time on Friday making it feel right for Calder."

Autobarn Class B Subaru Impreza WRX driver Peter Boylan is another man who will be working against time to ensure he can join the GTP ranks when they hit the track at Calder Park Raceway.

Boylan made a spectacular exit from race two at Queensland Raceway when he rolled his Subaru Impreza WRX. He now has a huge task ahead of putting it all back together prior to Calder.

Boylan acknowledges the support to get him back on track has been overwhelming and he is encouraged by the well wishes his fellow competitors have given him in having it all together for the next round.

"We had a couple of choices about which car put together for the weekend. Ross Almond offered me his Mitsubishi which was nice, but it depends upon whether my new car arrives from the dock as to which car I’d race at Calder," Boylan said.

"Either way it was a big week of preparation and I am sure the package will be ready for next week.

"Everyone has been really great in offering me help to get it all back together and in a lot of ways its embarrassing that so many people want to help me out so I can be at Calder."

With Paula Elstrek continuing aboard the Class A Maserati Ghibli, Pirelli tyre man Rod Wilson will race her usual Class B Mazda RX7. Rick Hing will also make his GTP debut aboard a Nissan Pulsar GTi-R Turbo 4WD.

The Class C family car division has dramatically swelled with Auscar driver Daryl Coon (Ford Falcon AU XR6), Warren Millett (Holden Commodore VT SS) and Brian Carr (Ford Falcon AU XR8) all making their debuts.

Sam Newman will be gunning for victory in Class D on home soil after recent incident free races at Sandown and Queensland Raceway.

Darren Best returns in Class E aboard his Hyundai Excel Sprint Twin Cam while Nathan Thomas will be desperate to get his championship chase back on track aboard his Suzuki Swift GTi after being helped into the sandtrap at Queensland Raceway.

After a troubled weekend in Queensland, Ric Shaw will also be keen to fight his way back into the winner’s circle in Class S aboard his Toyota MR2 Bathurst. BMW 323i driver Wayne Russell is also out to overcome diff problems which blunted his attack at the last round.

ENTRIES CLASS A 1 - Domenic Beninca - PORSCHE 911 RSCS 3 - Peter Fitzgerald - PORSCHE 911 RSCS 5 - Jim Richards - PORSCHE 911 RSCS 8 - Ed Aitken - PORSCHE 911 RSCS 12 - Geoff Morgan - PORSCHE 911 RSCS 18 - Murray Carter - CHEVROLET Corvette C5 V8 Coupe 23 - Beric Lynton - BMW M3-R Coupe 27 - Wayne Park - FERRARI F355 Challenge 30 - Paula Elstrek - MASERATI Ghibli Cup Twin-Turbo 38 - Roderick Salmon - MITSUBISHI Lancer RS Turbo EVO V 41 - Terry Bosnjak - MAZDA RX-7 SP Twin-Turbo 45 - John Teulan - NISSAN Skyline GT-R Turbo 4WD 48 - Paul Freestone - LOTUS Esprit Sport 300 57 - Graham Alexander - MITSUBISHI Lancer RS Turbo EVO V 65 - Craig Dean - FORD Mustang Saleen 84 - Peter Boylan - MITSUBISHI Lancer RS Turbo EVO V

CLASS B 6 - Geoffery Full - SUBARU Impreza WRX Turbo 7 - Peter Boylan - SUBARU Impreza WRX Turbo 15 - Bob Hughes - MAZDA RX-7 Twin-Turbo 25 - Richard Davis - HSV VS GTS-R 215i 34 - Mark King - MITSUBISHI Lancer RS Turbo EVO III 66 - Rod Wilson - MAZDA RX-7 Twin-Turbo 76 - Wayne Vinckx - NISSAN 200SX Sport Coupe Turbo 81 - Rick Hing - NISSAN Pulsar GTi-R Turbo 4WD

CLASS C 16 - Peter Phelan - HOLDEN Commodore VT SS V8 20 - Robert Chadwick - MITSUBISHI Magna TH Sports V6 3.5 33 - Denis Cribbin - HOLDEN Commodore VS Exec V8 46 - Ryan Mc Leod - FORD Falcon EL XR8 55 - Mark Cohen - HOLDEN Commodore VS SS V8 64 - Brian Carr - FORD Falcon AU XR8 68 - Warren Millett - HOLDEN Commodore VT SS V8 70 - Daryl Coon - FORD Falcon AU XR6 HP live-axle 4.0 88 - David Ratcliff - TOYOTA Camry CSi V6

CLASS D 17 - Sam Newman - HOLDEN Vectra GL 2.2 Sedan 28 - Melinda Price - HOLDEN Vectra GL 2.2 Sedan 71 - Phil Kirkham - MAZDA 626 V6 Sedan

CLASS E 21 - Kosi Kalaitzidis - PROTON M21 Coupe 37 - Nathan Thomas - SUZUKI Swift GTi 74 - Sue Hughes - SUZUKI Swift GTi 75 - Craig Dontas - SUZUKI Swift GTi 78 - Darren Best - HYUNDAI Excel Sprint Twin Cam

CLASS S 13 - Colin Osborne - TOYOTA MR2 Bathurst 26 - Wayne Russell - BMW 323i 35 - Ric Shaw - TOYOTA MR2 Bathurst 54 - Megan Kirkham - MAZDA MX-5 Sports

OUTRIGHT Richards, Jim - 116.5 Beninca, Domenic - 99 Fitzgerald, Peter - 90 Aitken, Ed - 56 Morgan, Geoff - 53 Park, Wayne - 34 Cartwright, Jamie - 32 Bosnjak, Terry - 27 Spiridis, Perry - 22 Waldon, Garry - 17 Full, Geoff - 17 Carter, Murray - 12.5 Dean, Craig - 12 Salmon, Rod - 11 Lynton, Beric - 8 Lintott, Ray - 5 King, Mark - 5 Palmer, Darren - 4 Alexander, Graham - 3.5 Boylan, Peter - 3 White, Damien - 3 Elstrek, Paula - 2 Cowley, John - 1 Shaw, Ric - 1 Teulan, John - 1 Hughes, Bob - 1 Simpson, Michael - 1 Vinckx, Wayne - 0.5

CLASS A Richards, Jim - 112.5 Beninca, Domenic - 98 Fitzgerald, Peter - 87 Aitken, Ed - 57 Morgan, Geoff - 54 Park, Wayne - 34 Cartwright, Jamie - 32 Bosnjak, Terry - 27 Spiridis, Perry - 22 Dean, Craig - 16 Waldon, Garry - 15 Carter, Murray - 13.5 Salmon, Rod - 11 Lynton, Beric - 8 Lintott, Ray - 5 Alexander, Graham - 4.5 Palmer, Darren - 4 White, Damien - 3 Teulan, John - 1

CLASS B Full, Geoff - 142.5 King, Mark - 84 Elstrek, Paula - 48 Boylan, Peter - 43 Vinckx, Wayne - 40 Hughes, Bob - 33 Jacob, Scott - 32 Cowley, John - 27 Bewley, Dwayne - 14 Davis, Richard - 10 Mcknoulty, Jim - 5 Deane, Gary - 4

CLASS C Phelan, Peter - 103 Cohen, Mark - 96.5 Ratcliff, David - 89 Chadwick, Robert - 62 Mcleod, Ryan - 52 Cribbin, Denis - 18 Hill, Roland - 11

CLASS D Kirkham, Phil - 90 Newman, Sam - 48 Price, Melinda - 46 Kirkham, Megan - 30 Jackson, Carol - 22

CLASS E Kalaitzidis, Kosi - 100 Hughes, Sue - 82 Thomas, Nathan - 59 Dontas, Craig - 50 Mckay, Peter - 30 Luff, Warren - 22.5 Best, Darren - 22

CLASS S Shaw, Ric - 124 Russell, Wayne - 104.5 Osborne, Colin - 71 Simpson, Michael - 30 Kirkham, Megan - 24 Haynes, Clayton - 20 Wanless, Dean - 16 Kirkham, Phil - 12 Lehmann, Matt - 10 Lucas, Nicolas - 10

MANUFACTURERS Porsche - 396.5 Holden - 359.5 Toyota - 346.0 Mazda - 290.0 Subaru - 240.5 Suzuki - 191.0 Mitsubishi - 164.5 BMW - 142.5 Proton - 100.0 Ford - 68.0 Peugeot - 52.5 Ferrari - 50.0 Nissan - 41.0 Hyundai - 22.0 Maserati - 22.0 Honda - 22.0 Dodge - 20.0 Chevrolet - 13.5

PROUDLY SPONSORED BY: http://www.poolrite.com.au http://www.autobarn.com.au http://www.meguiars.com http://www.toyota.com.au http://www.hippies.com.au

Paul Ryan paulryan@camtech.net.au