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00:00:00The stage is set. A classic Falcon vs. Commodore confrontation. 500km flat out. A torture test
00:00:11in the grand tradition of endurance competition. Drivers, cars, pit crews, equipment pushed
00:00:17to breaking point. A crucial final test as we commence the countdown to Australia's greatest
00:00:23motor race. The FAI 1000 Classic at Mt. Panorama, Bathurst. Today, Network 10 welcomes V8 fans
00:00:31to Melbourne's high-speed Sandown International Raceway. A record field primed for battle.
00:00:37Holden's attack outnumbers Ford by more than 2-1. Led by new sprint champ, Greg Lowndes
00:00:43and teammate Skate. Reigning Bathurst champs Perkins and Ingle, young gun Jason Barguana
00:00:48and dual 500 winner, Greg Murphy. Ford, starved of success in season 98, are out for revenge.
00:00:59Top guns, John Bow, Glenn Seaton, Jason Bright, Longhurst and Larcombe will lead the Blue
00:01:04Oval Brigade. It's time the flame-spitting, earth-shattering 600hp V8 supercars are back
00:01:13and ready to attack in the 1998 Tinkerbine 500. Live and exclusive on your home of motorsport,
00:01:20Network 10. This is war.
00:01:33Oh! Big accident.
00:01:35Hooray!
00:01:53Overcast weather at Sandown for the 1998 Tinkerbine 500. And if it's anything like last year,
00:01:58there will be as many changes in the weather as there are lead changes on the track. But
00:02:02a good crowd building up, and this is always, no matter what the weather is, an awesome
00:02:07event. Hello, I'm Bill Woods. Welcome as we kick off an amazing couple of months of motorsport
00:02:11here on Network 10. This is the first of the big V8 supercar enduros. A record field of
00:02:1633 cars in the 33rd year of this event. That's just one coincidence. There's also an awesome
00:02:22array of talent, both young and old, and some very, very interesting driver combinations.
00:02:26But as I said, the weather will play a part. There's no doubt about that. It's almost traditional
00:02:30here at Sandown. Barry Sheen's in pit lane, where I guess the crews are going to be very
00:02:33busy. And one of those aspects will be tyre choice.
00:02:37Yeah, sure. Well, it's all about making the right choice of the right tyre. Well, this
00:02:41is basically the choice. This is the slick tyre. This is what everybody wants to be on,
00:02:45because if they're on this, it shows it's not raining. And this is the deep grooved
00:02:49wet tyre, which kicks up a lot of spray. And I'm with Jason Barguile. Jason, what's it
00:02:53like starting a race in really heavy conditions going into the first corner?
00:02:57Well, Baz, it's really difficult, especially going down from last year. I obviously know
00:03:00that it's hard to see, and the spray is one of the things you've got to overcome. But
00:03:04if it's wet, it's not really going to be much of a drama. I don't mind the wet, and I've
00:03:08got a bit of a secret weapon. I've got Jimmy Richards in the car. Although he's not too
00:03:11secret. Everyone knows about it. Who's starting the race? Yeah, I'll be starting. All right.
00:03:15Well, best of luck, mate. Thanks a lot, mate. Thanks.
00:03:17Barry Sheen there talking to Jason Barguile, one of the many new faces on the Australian
00:03:22touring car scene. Very talented driver, mixing it with some legendary names this afternoon.
00:03:26On the subject of legendary talents, Lee Diffie, welcome to you. And qualifying, as
00:03:31usual, saw the weather plants partly. We had some varied times in varied conditions.
00:03:36Yeah, it was pretty tough going for all the competitors, and the weather certainly did
00:03:39them no favours. Of course, staying with the tradition of the top ten shootout, we went
00:03:43from tenth fastest from the previous qualifying session right through to first. Tony Longhurst
00:03:47was the first out, and the weather was just shocking. It was raining quite hard. The track
00:03:51was very wet and very slippery. As we worked our way towards the two Mobile One HRT cars
00:03:56in the top two positions, the skies cleared and sort of dried up, and the track certainly
00:04:00dried up, making conditions pretty good for those guys. And it makes you wonder if they've
00:04:03got some very strong contacts upstairs, because it really played into their hands. But nonetheless,
00:04:08it was a very exciting top ten shootout. Let's have a look at some highlights now.
00:04:12Deja vu for drivers competing in the Tickford 500 top ten shootout. Steady rainfall turning
00:04:25the sand down track into an ice rink. Tony Longhurst, the first out of the blocks, his
00:04:34Falcon squirming under brakes. His time of 1 minute 24.13, withstanding challenges from
00:05:00the next three drivers. Nick Johnson, a little under the weather himself. Most careful lap
00:05:05I've ever done in my life. You know, I'm big into self-preservation these days, and 161
00:05:11laps round here is a long way, but I don't think we're going to be any further down than
00:05:15tenth. Jason Barguana kept it together to qualify ninth, while Larry Perkins sent his
00:05:21VT Commodore AWOL. Well, Larry Perkins with a little bit of an excursion off the circuit
00:05:28already, that's it. I went out on shiny new tyres, which was actually quite wrong, and
00:05:33I just could not get the grip I wanted and overdrove it and paid the penalty. Glenn Seton
00:05:40ended Longhurst's top time reign, resulting in earlier tyre trouble to qualify fifth,
00:05:45while John Bower made up for a slip-sliding qualifying session. He touched the fence,
00:05:52and he's really bunkered that car. Shell Helix driver without DJ as his usual enduro
00:06:01partner, enjoying his first taste of hot lap pressure. Oh boy, oh boy, he's on a flyer
00:06:07too. He's faster than anyone. I wouldn't reckon it's going to stay like that, Barry. I think
00:06:12the track's probably drying as it goes on. I mean, it's very hard to get temperature
00:06:17tyres with one warm-up lap, so I guess it's the same for everybody, but it's fairly dicey.
00:06:23Mark Larkin put in a solid lap to start from sixth as the track began to dry up. Impressive
00:06:311998 rookie Jason Bright ensured Ford had the top six positions until the appearance
00:06:37of the mobile HRT. Ninety-seven champ Greg Murphy took to the track like a man possessed,
00:06:42his time of 1 minute 22.38 giving Holden the edge. Well, I think he probably should
00:06:49go quicker. He's the master at the one-lap. And going faster. Yeah, so I hope he doesn't.
00:06:56All right, Murph. Whoa! Oh, he's not! You're on the pole position. Oh, that's his warm-up
00:07:01lap. Oh, is that all right, Murph? Maybe. That'll be baby. Maybe. But he's still got
00:07:05to run from there. He does, yeah. Escaped losing it on the warm-up lap, but in typical
00:07:10style managed to power on to finish a mere two hundredths of a second slower than Murphy.
00:07:15Can't quite do it, but a great effort nonetheless. Escape, are you angry with yourself? Well,
00:07:20I certainly am, I mean, I buggered up the warm-up lap, can you believe it? The rest
00:07:23of the lap was nice and clean and really, Barry, it's not worth trying to knock the
00:07:26front off of it on Saturday when you're potentially trying to win it tomorrow, so that's what
00:07:30it is. Greg Murphy putting the mobile one Holden racing on the front row for the fifth time
00:07:35in as many years. The next challenge, one hundred and sixty-one laps. With Ford breathing
00:07:40down their necks, it's not going to be an easy feat. Well, Ford were so close to picking
00:07:47up their first pole position here in six years, but they just couldn't stop the mobile one
00:07:51HRT outfit. Murphy and Dosky, their first pole here. Lowndes and Scaife starting right
00:07:56alongside them. You go all the way back. Keep your eyes out for Longhurst and the very experienced
00:08:00Jeff Brabham. They'll start from seventh, then we go back to Larry Perkins and Russell
00:08:04Ingle rounding out the top ten. First time we've had teammates sharing the front row
00:08:08here for this race since back in 1980 when Brock and Moffat were side-by-side. Incidents
00:08:14already in the warm-up here. You saw the cars going past us a moment ago, and here is the
00:08:19first spin thanks to the weather at Sandown. The McDougall-Wiley Commodore collecting another
00:08:25car as they went down the straight, just losing traction there. The first of many spins and
00:08:30incidents I'm sure you'll see here today in the Tickford 500. We'll go to a break and
00:08:33come back with the GTP cars on track for the O-Amps Insurance Endurance Classic. Hang about.
00:09:04How good is it going to be as the cars come out on the circuit? Well, if you saw the three-hour
00:09:09enduro last year at the Australian 1000 Classic at Mount Panorama, this is going to be nothing
00:09:14short of exciting. Alfie Costanzo and Dean Canto, they start from pole alongside John
00:09:19Bauer and Neil Crompton in the Ferrari. Out of position three, Ed Aitken and Peter Fitzgerald
00:09:24in the Porsche, Paula Elstrick and Perry Spadidis out of four. Ross Halliday, Dave Wallace,
00:09:29Matt Cartwright and Christian Degosten. Out of seven, Dominic Beninca and Gary Walden
00:09:34in another Porsche, Max Warwick and his son Luke in another Porsche. Go back to position
00:09:38nine, Mark Kingrod-Wilson, Craig Dean and Rob Porter out of ten. Out of eleven, Richard
00:09:43Davis and Gary Baxter in the big Commodore, Sam Newman and Tony Longhurst link up in the
00:09:47new Falcon XR6. That'll be an interesting combination, Robert Chadwick and Jimmy Myhill,
00:09:51Graham Hunt and Andrew Medicki makes his GTP debut. Mark Cohen and Martin Miller in another
00:09:56four, David Ratcliffe and Jeff Full, they team up in the Toyota Camry. Back to Peter
00:10:00Phelan and Trevor Talbot, John Trimble and Damian White. Great mix of classes here too,
00:10:05Calvin Gardner and Tom Watkinson in the Mazda, Matt Lehman and Megan Curtin in another Mazda.
00:10:09There's a multitude of classes and we'll explain about that later. Grant Kenny, the Ironman
00:10:13champ, joins up with Scott Jacob, Alan Letcher and Cameron Edwards. Aaron McGill and Don
00:10:18Pulver in the Suzuki Swift, Cosi Casalides. We go all the way back, we are set to go.
00:10:25This is the OAMS Insurance Endurance Classic. One hour, that is the asking and once that
00:10:31is up, we are finished. It is a sprint but there is a compulsory pit stop and driver
00:10:36change and we'll talk more about that later as we get set for a start. Away we go and
00:10:40getting away to a tremendous start. In the Ferrari was John Bow, Neil Crompton, that
00:10:45is the combination. Fantastic effort there. Down the main straight they come, we'll explain
00:10:51all about it. Look at the Maserati of Alfie Costanzo sitting in second spot. He's got
00:10:55the inside run on the Ferrari and the Maserati takes the lead in the first corner. Good and
00:11:00impressive move by Alfie and John Bow gets a little bit high and dry on the kerb on the
00:11:04outside. They've got an hour of racing ahead of them so you don't want to get too pushy.
00:11:08We welcome Craig Denyon to the commentary and Craig, great start from the Ferrari but
00:11:12even better from the Maserati. And an even better one still, Mark, from Dominic Maninca,
00:11:16of course, the current Australian GT production car champion who started seventh on the grid
00:11:19now up to third outright. Well, we have five different categories, Class A right through
00:11:24to E, A, B, C, D and E. As time goes on we'll talk more about that. There is the Chadwick
00:11:29Myhill entry and a very dramatic race at Mount Panorama last year but we get back up the
00:11:36front and it is Alfie Costanzo who's been quick all the time but he's being hotly pursued
00:11:40by Bow as he looks for an inside run. Bow and the Ferrari's got him. So, we've still
00:11:45got a long way to go and Dominic Maninca has got up there. Ed Aitken and the Fitzgerald
00:11:48entry sneaking up the outside as well so the Maserati is just being swamped. Interesting
00:11:52to watch the power of the Maserati here though, guys, because it's got a twin-turbo V6 two-litre
00:11:57engine, got an enormous amount of horsepower, particularly around sand down, so let's watch
00:12:01him particularly up the back straight. Yeah, I've been really impressed with the Italian
00:12:04car throughout qualifying. Craig, very, very fast in wet conditions. Now Alfie's doing
00:12:08a tremendous job here as he closes up behind the Porsche and now we'll see the power of
00:12:12those twin-turbos kicking on this two-litre V6. Look at that! Well, as we said it, you
00:12:16know, that's where the strength of the Maserati is, the Porsche very good under brakes, the
00:12:20Ferrari goes through. Of course, Alfie Costanzo, 55 years of age, he's co-driving with Dean
00:12:24Cano who's only 17 years of age, so you're going to have the oldest and the youngest
00:12:28in the field in this one car. And this just does go to prove the value of a strong power
00:12:33to weight ratio, that is how much the car weighs relative to the amount of power the
00:12:37engine has. The Maserati, even though it's got a smaller engine than the Porsche, its
00:12:41actual race package is very, very competitive. Look at him leading away here. We hear from
00:12:45race control there may be a stop-go penalty for John Bauer for jumping the start. We'll
00:12:49keep you up to date on that, but that'll be a huge disappointment for the Ferrari team.
00:12:53Power of that Maserati up the back straight, just streaking away from Dominic Beninca.
00:12:57It is Bauer out in front, but as we've just heard, the stop-go penalty for him. So we'll
00:13:02wait and see as he comes around. If he does in fact pull into the pits this time around
00:13:05we go back in. Aitken has started in the Porsche, in the Aitken-Fitzgerald entry, then Paula
00:13:10Elstrech doing very well in the second Ferrari. She's up to fifth at the moment. This will
00:13:15be interesting to watch John Bauer on the Shell Helix onboard camera as he peels off
00:13:19into pit lane for a stop-go. He's going to do it too. So, Ferrari go virtually to the
00:13:25back of the field as he pulls up here. A compulsory speed limit in pit lane of 60kmh. He'll go
00:13:32up to this little box painted on the ground where he has to stop the car. He comes under
00:13:37our pit lane camera, right up to the end of pit lane. See that little red box there?
00:13:41He's given the sign, out he goes again. So he'll have dropped quite a number of positions.
00:13:45Well, an interesting charge back through the field now for John Bauer of course. I wonder
00:13:49what he's saying to Neil Bowie's team manager over the two-way at the moment. One can only
00:13:53imagine. Yes, I reckon he's giving him a fair old serve, but never mind. This man is sensational
00:13:57to watch in his car with a bagging of Ferrari fragrance this year. Certainly the sweetest
00:14:01willing GTB driver in the field anyhow. Here he comes, he's already on a charge. Picking
00:14:05his way through some of the smaller capacity classes. Well, as they come up toward Repco
00:14:10Corner, the run of the back straight, there's the new Toyota Soarer. Bit of oil surge, I
00:14:14think. Plenty of smoke pumping from the exhaust there as John Bauer really starts his charge
00:14:20to get back toward the front of the pack. Well, he should be almost inside the top ten
00:14:23now because he's just taken over two. He was 12th before, so already making his way forward
00:14:28well. The highest class B car at the moment, it looks like the Trimble white entry. So
00:14:34we're John Trimble going very well at the moment. That is the bottle magic entry just
00:14:37gone through on screen. So doing well, just was overtaken by John Bauer. But out in front
00:14:42it is Alfie Costanzo who inherited the lead, courtesy of that stop-go penalty from John
00:14:47Bauer in the Ferrari. B car still sitting in second and in eighth and third. Fastest
00:14:51man on the track too, Alfie Costanzo. One minute, 19.76 seconds for the Maserati. No
00:14:57other car is in the 1.19 second bracket at the moment. That was his first flying lap.
00:15:02He was quicker than his qualifying time yesterday, of course. Greasy track, a 1.20.29. But Alfie
00:15:06got down to the 18s, a high 18 in practice here on Friday. So all weekend he's shown
00:15:11plenty of speed in this superbly turned out Maserati Ghibli Cup car. J.B. Cartwright going
00:15:16through in the Toyota Supra RZ twin turbo that he's sharing this weekend with Christian
00:15:20D'Agosta who's driving the car at the moment. Bauer coming through in this great class B
00:15:25battle being led by Trimble in the Daily Planet Evo III. Just behind him, I think it's Mark
00:15:29King in the second of the Evo IIIs in that category. Robbie Porter, the executive chairman
00:15:36of OAMS, leading this battle in the sports and luxury cars Toyota Sura. Plenty of weight
00:15:41in the rear of the car too, throwing it around. You heard him saying yesterday, yeah, it's
00:15:44crazy. We got the air conditioning, the CD on in there. They're worried about the smoke
00:15:48that's pumping out particularly on the corners. Not sure she's having a bit of oil surge there,
00:15:52Craig. It is actually an oil surge problem. It was also evident in the car yesterday,
00:15:56but no real problems. It's been there all weekend. They're quite happy with the car.
00:15:59Fascinating car, that. It's sold, I think, in America as a Lexus. Indeed they are. In
00:16:05fact, they're not sold in Australia, but a lot of people do bring them in on what they
00:16:09call a low volume import situation. They're certainly sold as a Lexus SC400 in America.
00:16:14You can get the V8 Lexus engine, the turbocharged six cylinder, either a twin turbo or a single
00:16:19turbo six cylinder, which this car has here. It's a 2.5 litre, five speed gearbox, but
00:16:24it really is a luxury car. Quite a heavy car, too, at over 1600 kilos. Good work by John
00:16:29Trimble in the daily Planet Entry. He's doing a really good job. He's teamed up with a young
00:16:33New South Wales driver in Damien White, who's done some time in GTP before in Class E, and
00:16:39of course, he's done some time in Formula Ford as well. So Trimble making a nice inside
00:16:42move on the Zora. Can't quite get it down the straight, though. Has he? Starting to
00:16:47level peg now a little bit. Well, the old Zora should not lack if you punch in a straight
00:16:51line. The inline six cylinder engine enhanced by a turbocharger makes a big difference in
00:16:55a straight line, and Trimble has to give way to the big Toyota on the straight, or any
00:17:00monstrum on the turns. Mark King driving the black Evo III. He's from a company on the
00:17:05Gold Coast called King Springs. Does a lot of all the springs mainly for all the V8 supercar
00:17:09teams. Most racing teams in Australia now. Got a very successful business, and his car,
00:17:13absolutely stock standard. Bought it at option in Japan a few weeks ago, but they've worked
00:17:17on the tyres and the suspension, and you can see how well the car handles. He's really
00:17:20got it set up well. That's the beauty of GT production, isn't it, Craig? The fact that
00:17:24you can buy these cars virtually off the showroom floor and go racing. Robert Chadwick and Jimmy
00:17:30Byhill have actually taken the start of this car, the Mitsubishi Magna. They qualified
00:17:34well, second fastest. In fact, they're running second in their class now to Mark Cohen, who's
00:17:38leading the Commodore. Tony Longhurst and Sam Newman running third in the new AU Falcon
00:17:43XR8, or XR6, I should say. But this Magna's done a tremendous job. Only, I think, two,
00:17:47was maybe eight one-hundredths of a second off pole position in that class, considering
00:17:51Tony Longhurst at the time. Yeah, it's been a very impressive package. It came on the
00:17:56market to the Australian public. Very aggressive styling. It surprised a lot of people. People
00:18:01would think of Mitsubishi, apart from their World Rally cars, as being quite a conservative
00:18:05company. But the styling of their, I guess you could say their bread and butter car,
00:18:09the Magna, has been quite aggressive. And certainly a great-looking car. Three-litre
00:18:12V6 engine, front-wheel drive. Meanwhile, another battle going here. Watching John Bower's
00:18:19progress. He's 19 seconds behind the leader the last time we looked. He's back in sixth
00:18:23position, so he is absolutely flying through the field. Lap time of 1.19.55 for Bower,
00:18:28so he's still half a second off Alfie's fastest lap. So Bower and Bruce Perini's Ferrari
00:18:35with Paula Elstrick at the wheel. And Elstrick's doing a great job too. She's up to fourth
00:18:39position. And look at John Bower. He is just ripping through the field at the moment after
00:18:45that stop-go penalty. If you've just joined us, Bower was our early race leader. This
00:18:50is the one-hour OAMS Insurance Endurance Classic for the GT production cars. Bower
00:18:55had to go into the pits for a stop-go penalty. Paula Elstrick trying an inside move on the
00:18:59Warwick Porsche. Couldn't quite get through. Now Bower has come from twelfth, and he has
00:19:04come right up to sixth position at the moment, so he is on a blitz. Pretty busy man today,
00:19:08isn't he? In fact, it's fourth now that he's crossed the line. He's gone past those two
00:19:11cars. So the order at the moment, Alfie Costanzo in the Maserati still continues to lead this
00:19:16race. Five point seconds to lead over Dominic Meninca in the Porsche. Ed Aitken in third
00:19:20and another Porsche. John Bower now moves up to fourth position. Here's the Warwick Porsche
00:19:26in fifth. And Paula Elstrick's here, so he's back to sixth. Well, the GTP cars are cranking
00:19:31it up. It is the Costanzo-Cando entry who leads the way. Dominic Meninca, hot in pursuit.
00:19:36Now, also, we have a look six back through ten. Paula Elstrick is doing well. We go back
00:19:41to the car drive. Dagestan entry. Trimble is having a great battle for Class B. King,
00:19:47Cohen, Chadwick, Newman and Lawrence rounding out fifteen. More after this.
00:20:01Welcome back as we bring you GT production car action from Sandown, the IM's Insurance
00:20:05Endurance Classic. And you're watching the first of the new AU Falcons to race officially
00:20:10in Australia. And this is the Tony Longhurst-Sam Newman combination. Tony Longhurst behind
00:20:14the wheel. But that's not the only celebrity race team, you might say, that is contesting
00:20:19this event. Of course, Scotty Jacobs out there. His co-driver is Grant Kenny. And there's
00:20:24a shot of Sam back in the pits. I'm sure feeling very nervous about his time at the wheel.
00:20:28We'll have a chat with Grant Kenny pretty soon. But this is going to be one heck of
00:20:31a race with John Bauer on the charge and about to attack the top three.
00:20:34Well, speaking of this car, the Longhurst-Newman combination. Tony has just worked his way
00:20:39up into second as he gets passed by the Crompton-Bauer Ferrari with John Bauer behind the wheel.
00:20:44So Longhurst has come back. He was something like fourth before in Class C. He has worked
00:20:48the new AU Falcon, the XR6, right up into second position. He only has Jim Myhill to
00:20:54overtake, which he already has. Sorry, Mark Cohen he has to overtake now, who is our present
00:20:59Class C leader. And he's doing a good job now. Somebody who is about to take over the
00:21:04wheel from Scott Jacob, or the Subaru Impreza. It's Grant Kenny. Grant, welcome along. And
00:21:09how are the nerves?
00:21:10Thank you. Actually, it's funny because I got a bit more nervous watching Scotty do
00:21:14the start than I've had out there myself before.
00:21:16Well, he's doing well. He's in 21st position outright. He's running about fourth in Class
00:21:20B at the moment. So are you happy with that?
00:21:22Yeah, we're happy just to be circulating at the moment because the car is brand new.
00:21:27The guys only finished it last week, so we've had one go on the lakeside before we came
00:21:32down here, and then it's really been a game of catch-up. Qualifying, we've been through
00:21:37the process here this weekend. We've been down on power, but we've got a lot of that
00:21:41back today. Just noticed that this morning. It was a little bit hard to manage on the
00:21:44slippery conditions, but the car is coming along fine now. We're just thankful that it's
00:21:49dry because we're happy with the way it's set up and everything. So the guys have done
00:21:53a great job.
00:21:54Now, Sam Newman's had quite a... I mean, besides being a high-profile character, he's had a
00:21:58high-profile build-up to his racing exploits. You've been a little bit more undercover.
00:22:03Yeah, I just try and go out there and do the job when I'm in the car and worry about the
00:22:07rest of the stuff later on. But Scotty's had... It's been good. The car, as I said, has been
00:22:12running really well. He has had some problems in the race so far with the gearbox, so that's
00:22:16why he got a great start and passed about four or five cars in the first couple of laps,
00:22:20but then there was a couple of little problems here with the gearbox where he missed some
00:22:23gears and couldn't get gears up. So just talking to the guys in the pits there before, he's
00:22:31crawled his way back, so we're pretty happy with that.
00:22:33Well, he's done very well. We were saying just a couple of moments ago, 21st outright.
00:22:36He's now 18th outright and fourth in your class. How much time have you done in the Subaru?
00:22:41Well, I've been here this weekend where I've had a total of about 35 minutes and about
00:22:47a half an hour at rakeside, so my total driving experience in this car is a little over an
00:22:50hour now.
00:22:51Now, we've just had word through that the safety car is out on the circuit, and this
00:22:55is perhaps why.
00:22:56In fact, it's a touch between... Oh, it's Phil Kirkham in the rebound car and Myhill
00:23:01and Chadwick's Magner have come together. In fact, I think you'll find it's Matt Lehman
00:23:04is driving the Kirkham car. He was the driver nominated to start, so obviously some kind
00:23:08of incident there, which is what happened to the safety car.
00:23:11That's actually good for us. I'm pretty happy to see that at the moment. Gives him a chance
00:23:14to make up some of that lost ground.
00:23:15Well, here is Scott Jacob, your teammate at the back of this pack. I don't think these
00:23:19guys are aware that the safety car is out as yet. So, on a very eventful start, the
00:23:25OAMS Insurance Endurance Classic with a safety car comes out. Here's your teammate, Grant,
00:23:29splitting him up the middle.
00:23:30He's doing a great job. Yeah, he's not too worried about them all, as long as he gets
00:23:33around the corner at the end, but as I said, it has been handling well, and I'm pretty
00:23:37happy to see him moving up there.
00:23:38Grant, I believe it was your run at the Celebrity Races at the Grand Prix that first whet your
00:23:43appetite for motor racing.
00:23:44Yeah, actually, I had the opportunity to drive at the very first Celebrity Race at the Adelaide
00:23:48Grand Prix in 1985, and I've done a few since then. In fact, that's when I met Scott. He
00:23:52was an instructor at the BMW Driver Training Centre on the Gold Coast, and that's where
00:23:58I ran into Scott, and he just called me out of the blue and said, do you want to come
00:24:01racing?
00:24:03There's our Falcon safety car, out on the circuit, lights ablaze. He's picked up our
00:24:07race leader, Alfredo Costanzo, in the Maserati, I should say. So, a queue of cars will form
00:24:13up behind him while they remove whatever the damage is, and that is really going to help
00:24:18John Bell make up even more time.
00:24:20Now, keep in mind, these laps behind the safety car do count to the total, and this, of course,
00:24:29is a one-hour race.
00:24:31Which would mean, guys, it's probably too early for a pit stop, because all these guys,
00:24:35of course, no one can do more than a 40-minute stint or two-thirds of the race, so it's a
00:24:39little bit too early for a pit stop at this stage. So, they'll all have to follow the
00:24:42safety car around as we follow Robbie Porter and the Toyota Soarer.
00:24:45It's quite funny, this is a slow-down lap. The Soarer's sliding all over the road, now
00:24:50he's just sort of driving along there, chugging along hardly.
00:24:53Now, we can't keep you up here too long, but it's great to have you up here. When are you
00:24:56expected to jump in? What's the strategy with you and Scott?
00:24:59Well, we're going to run to about 35 minutes, depending on how congested the pit area is.
00:25:04Obviously, it is a little busy down there, so we really don't want to get caught up.
00:25:08If we lose a minute or so through pit congestion, even by driving a couple of seconds faster
00:25:14a lap, that's going to take 50-odd laps, which we don't have.
00:25:17So, I've actually just noticed too that Scott's best time there now of a 1.35.3 is the fastest
00:25:23we've gone by nearly a second and a half this weekend. So, really, the car is coming good
00:25:27for us, so that's good news.
00:25:28Oh, they improve.
00:25:32So, time for the drivers just to regroup. Here is the newly crowned GT Production Car
00:25:38champ, Dominic Beninca, the Porsche. He's had a terrific year, a real dogfight with
00:25:47Peter Fitzgerald. It's been an exciting year, Craig, for the GT Production category.
00:25:52And what a great year for Dominic too, I mean, he came into the series last year underfunded
00:25:56and he did very, very well. Went on to win this year's championship, running second outright
00:26:00today on the road.
00:26:01Well, it's been an exciting start to this one, Greg Rust.
00:26:03It certainly has been, and Neil Crompton, this safety car incident is going to play
00:26:06right into your hands, given the stop-go penalty.
00:26:09Yeah, it's good news for us. Unfortunately, John copped the stop-go early in the piece
00:26:13and I think we're about 20 seconds off the lead prior to the safety car coming out, so
00:26:16this bunch is more back up again and hopefully the grey stuff stays away and we can be competitive
00:26:21through to the end.
00:26:22Now, you're getting ready now with the helmet you're going to go out now?
00:26:24I just want to be on standby because I've been caught here a few times before doing
00:26:28the Keystone Cop's impression when a car arrives and looks at me, so I don't want to do that
00:26:31today if I can avoid it, but probably go around about half distance, I'd say, theoretically.
00:26:37Well, Neil Crompton has got a big day along with his teammate, John Bower, both in different
00:26:42teams, of course, in the V8 Supercar category. John Bower teaming up with Cameron McConville,
00:26:46a former GT production car champ back in 1996 and, in fact, that car is running here
00:26:52today behind, with the combination of Max and Luke Warwick, father and son combination.
00:26:58There's John Bower just sitting back in the queue and he'll be waiting for those lights
00:27:03to go out on the safety car to get back to racing conditions. He will floor the throttle
00:27:07in that Ferrari and try and make up as much as he can on that Maserati, but it's absolutely
00:27:11flying, isn't it, Alfie's car?
00:27:12Well, and great lap times too, but, of course, at 55 years of age, Alfie's still very, very
00:27:17competitive. He loves his motorsport. A lot of damage to the front of the Matt Lehman
00:27:21Mazda, unfortunately. This car has been only built in the past 10 days. They rode a car
00:27:26off at the final round of the championship at Oran Park, but they still had a chance
00:27:29of winning Class D. They bought a body shell from a wrecker only 10 days ago. They've worked
00:27:33non-stop to get this car in this race and Matt was behind the wheels, so I don't know
00:27:38whether he lost brakes or dived down the inside, but hit the back of Myhill's Magnus,
00:27:41spun it around and obviously quite a bit of damage.
00:27:44And there's still a couple of minutes left before they can stop for these pit stops.
00:27:50Things are getting busy down in pit lane. Well, Phil Kirkham, tell us exactly what's
00:27:54gone wrong here. This is your car. You're not competing in it this weekend, but it's
00:27:57got some damage.
00:27:58Yes, it appears that it is a new car and it appears we seem to have had a brake problem.
00:28:02So we're working on it at the moment. Hopefully we can get a good enough pedal to get it back
00:28:05out. If not, we'll just have to stop it because we can't go over any brakes, unfortunately.
00:28:09Have you taken care of your driver change while they're in?
00:28:11Yes, we have. If it goes, I'll give my wife a good driving.
00:28:16Well, there you go. The boy's hard at work. Nothing a bit of hammering won't fix.
00:28:22Also my local pedal beating shop.
00:28:24Thank you.
00:28:25So that's hard. They didn't want this early stage in the race. Grant, a quick question.
00:28:30I imagine there's a few folks at home just saying, Grant, Kenny in a race car? How the
00:28:33hell's that come about?
00:28:35Yeah, well, I guess I've been asking myself the same question for a little while too.
00:28:39But out of the blue one day, Scott rang me up and just said, do you want to come race
00:28:43a car? I've just bought a Subaru and I'm going to start building it. I need another driver
00:28:47for this Endurance Series. And so, you know, it just came like that.
00:28:53Safety car is off the circuit. We are back under full race conditions in Alpica Stanzo.
00:28:58Got the early jump in the Maserati. Have a look at the speed of it down the main straight.
00:29:01Beninka is sitting in that second spot, but keep your eyes out for John Bough on the Ferrari.
00:29:05Here he comes.
00:29:06Oh, look at this. Under brakes down the inside of John Trimble's daily planted car. He's
00:29:11really on a charge now. Stopped go penalty for jumping the start for John Bough. He went
00:29:16into pit lane, came back out, found himself something like 20 seconds behind the leader
00:29:20at one stage. And now he's fought his way right up, taking advantage of that safety
00:29:24car situation. Shell Helix onboard camera riding with John Bough on the Palmer Motorsport
00:29:29Ferrari F355.
00:29:31Well, we say thank you to Grant Kenny as he runs out of the commentary box. He's got to
00:29:35get downstairs, get his helmet on and get kitted up. He's very excited about his debut
00:29:39here in the OAMS Insurance Endurance Classic.
00:29:43Absolutely superb sound of that three and a half litre Ferrari V8. John Bough giving
00:29:49it everything to close up to the Maserati.
00:29:51Isn't he pushing it hard too? Look all over the place in his Ferrari Fragrance 355. He
00:29:56just drives harder than anybody on the track, doesn't he? Superb to watch in this car. He's
00:30:00really in a class of his own. And not that far behind Beninka. In fact, Constanza last
00:30:04time around, just over 220km's on the main straight. The Porsche about 10km's an hour
00:30:09slower. The Ferrari about 210km's. So in terms of top speed, no one's near the Maserati.
00:30:14Craig, jumping in after Alfie gets out of this car is going to be the 17-year-old Dean
00:30:20Canto who's been running around in Class B this year. Is that right? What can we expect
00:30:23from him?
00:30:24Well, interestingly, this is actually his first year in car racing at all. He's raced
00:30:28cars in his career, but he's never ever raced cars before. He jumped into the Defenders
00:30:32race to Class B, Subaru Impreza WRX in the championship. He actually went into the final
00:30:36round at Oran Park with a chance of taking the title. He didn't, he finished third, or
00:30:40did finish third in the series. And out of that got this superb offer from Tony Graziani
00:30:44and the Maserati team to jump in with Alfie. Two young Italians, the oldest and the youngest
00:30:48in the Italian Maserati. And he's been sensational around here. Second fastest in driver qualifying
00:30:54yesterday. Only a shade off Alfie's time. So as a driver combination, they'll both be
00:30:58very, very fast.
00:31:00So John Bauer continues to attack as he tries to close the gap to Alfredo Costanzo in the
00:31:06Maserati. The battle of the Italian stallions. And he's trying to close the gap to Dominic
00:31:11Beninco just up ahead of him. Alfie just trying to pump it out again. 1.6 seconds the gap
00:31:17over the Porsche. It's a tremendous battle for second position.
00:31:21It's interesting that the pit window is now open, guys, too, because we're over a third
00:31:24through race distance. I noticed a number of cars peeled off, including Ed Aitken's
00:31:28Porsche. He'll hand the car over to Peter Fitzgerald. They were running in the top five.
00:31:33Fitzgerald now back on the track in eighth spot now. Keep your eyes on that one.
00:31:37Well, Alfie Costanzo, no stranger to the sand down circuit. Of course, he's a very experienced
00:31:41driver and has been around for many years. It's funny, ironic almost, we see this guy
00:31:45on screen because those two, John Bauer and Alfie Costanzo, shared a Volvo in the endurance
00:31:50race here back in 1986. Now they're doing battles in very different makes of cars, a
00:31:55Ferrari and a Maserati. Well, Alfie's doing it again. A 1.18.68. Fastest man on the circuit
00:32:02by far. He's opened it out 3.2 seconds. The lead over our second place man, Dominic Beninco.
00:32:07You can see John Bauer closing on him for second. But Alfie once again is sprinting
00:32:11away. Here you'll see the power of the Maserati. Here's a good example, too, between the Ferrari,
00:32:15the 3.5 litre V8, versus the 3.8 litre Porsche. You can see the Ferrari just starting to pull
00:32:21him in. Bauer moves to the outside. Beninco will probably hold the inside line. See how
00:32:26good the Porsche's under brakes. No, in fact, Bauer's got through. Got him. Oh, look, he's
00:32:30wide though. Oh, he's way off line there. He was right out on the marbles. He managed
00:32:35to hold it straight. That's allowed Beninco to take advantage and get back into second
00:32:39position. Tremendous battle. No one likes a fight better than John Bauer, but I think
00:32:43someone equally who doesn't mind a fight is Dominic Beninco. He's always on the edge,
00:32:46Dominic. He gives us great television. He always drives to the absolute max in this
00:32:50Porsche, and now Bauer's got to do it all over again. I remember watching Dominic many
00:32:54years ago, Craig, in an Alfa Romeo sports sedan. Unbelievably exciting stuff to watch.
00:33:00The guy was just off the planet. And they run a very professional organisation, too,
00:33:04Beninco Racing. They've got a great workshop here in Melbourne, and they do some tremendous
00:33:08engineering stuff between all the brothers. Well, we are on the, this is the calm before
00:33:12the storm, if you could say that, because pit lane is about to become very frantic,
00:33:15Greg. Frantic already, Lee, and in fact, Rob Porter is joining us at the moment, running
00:33:19in 12th place, not from OAMS Insurance, of course, in the Toyota Soarer. How are things
00:33:22going? Fantastic. Hiya, Lee. Everything's good. We've got plenty of brakes, plenty of
00:33:26petrol, plenty of tyres, and we should pick up a few places. The fast driver's in there
00:33:31now. Tell me, you expedited a fairly quick stop there. Yeah, a great pit stop. Everything's
00:33:36going nicely. We've held the car together. It's a long-distance race. OAMS is delighted.
00:33:40No crashes. Everything's going well. Best of luck. Well, there he is, Rob Porter. He's
00:33:45a very colourful character, putting it as simply how it is. He obviously hasn't seen
00:33:50the replay of, of course, the Kirkham by an incident, because we should mention that OAMS
00:33:54is the sponsor of this race. We're actually insuring every car in the field, which is
00:33:58quite a unique first. I take the edge off his name. I tell you what, someone who's doing
00:34:02a terrific job while we watch this Class A battle continue between the Porsche of Dominic
00:34:06Beninca and the Ferrari of John Bow. The former V8 supercar driver, John Trimble, in
00:34:12the Daily Planet entry is going exceptionally well. He leads Class B. We have a look at
00:34:17the overall placings of the Shell Helix Race Tour. Casanzo, Beninca, Bow, the two Warwicks,
00:34:23and Paula Elstrick has come up into the top five. She's doing a great job. We go back
00:34:27to Halliday, Cartwright, Aitken, Trimble and Cohen. Eleven back through fifteen, it is
00:34:32Lawrence, Newman along Hurst, Jacob and Kenny, and Grant's about to take over the wheel.
00:34:36We'll see how he goes in just a moment.
00:34:47Just a few seconds past the halfway stage in this GTP one-hour race here at Sandown.
00:34:53A marvellous battle here between John Bow and Dominic Beninca for second place behind
00:34:57Alfie Costanzo, your race leader. That's the top three yet to make a driver change
00:35:01in this event. A lot of action happening both in pit lane and on the track. And rain, as
00:35:05you can see from that windscreen, is starting to fall. So, Robbie Porter, the boss of OAMS
00:35:10Insurance, who insured all these cars here today, is going to start to have a few palpitations,
00:35:14I think, in the coming minutes. Well, not only rain causing a bit of interest, but we've
00:35:18just crossed the halfway mark, so we are into the second half. Thirty minutes gone now,
00:35:23so we are into the second half of the OAMS Insurance Endurance Classic. Look at Dominic
00:35:28Beninca's Porsche just pulling away from John Bow's Ferrari down the main straight.
00:35:33These two guys have been having a really good battle, say, the last four or five laps. It's
00:35:37been tough going. Bow is about to hand over to Crompton. Look at the rain on the windscreen
00:35:42of the Ferrari 355 as he continues to pursue Beninca. All leaders must stop in the next
00:35:48ten minutes. Now, otherwise they will break the rules. Craig Deane, they don't want to
00:35:52do that. No, Costanzo still, of course, well and truly out in front of the Maserati from
00:35:56Beninca, then Bow, Warwick, Elstrick, Fitzgerald and de Goston. As we look at the Class D leader,
00:36:02Alan Lecher, who was leading Class D in the under 2.5 meter class prior to his recent
00:36:06pit stop, all the way from Perth, has done a good job. In fact, he's worked his way up
00:36:11to, just pick him up, 18th outright. Cameron Edwards now behind the wheel of this car and
00:36:17a beautiful little Honda Civic. Only a 1.8 liter engine, I think they are. They've got
00:36:22the VTEC variable engine timing system in them, a very, very competitive car. Speaking
00:36:26of competitive, how about Tony Longhurst in the Longhurst Newman entry, the Class C car.
00:36:31Longhurst is up to 11th outright and second in Class C. He's just been wringing that car's
00:36:37neck. He's absolutely hammering it, isn't he? Really attacking the curves, giving the
00:36:41debut of Ford's AU Falcon a real workout. There's Alfredo Costanzo just coming up behind
00:36:46our Class D leader. Signals the Maserati through and Albi is absolutely flying. He's got the
00:36:51lead out to almost 12 seconds now. 1.18.68, fastest lap for Costanzo as well. This is
00:36:58the Class E leader, Aaron McGill, Don Pulver, the Ducks for Tohita's car. So, he had problems
00:37:04in qualifying too, but was quite happy with the car. I believe that that would be a very,
00:37:07very competitive run today. Again, this baby class up to 1.8 liter. A good battle in this
00:37:11class between the Suzuki and the Proton. Kalasidy's running the Proton this weekend, running second
00:37:16on the road to Gill's car. Interesting seeing Don Pulver partner Aaron McGill. Don's raced
00:37:22a V8 supercar in the past. A bit of a step backwards down to a 1.3 Suzuki Swift GTI.
00:37:28In terms of power, that is. Yeah, it's been the dominant car in this class for so many
00:37:32years. I remember Mark Brayne running this car in the ill-fated Bathurst 12-hour. It's
00:37:37totally dominant in this category. Superb little machine. And even though the new Proton
00:37:42M21 Coupe has a superior power-to-weight ratio to the Suzuki, it's still a very, very
00:37:47competitive race car. Look at the difference in size between it and the Toyota Soarer as
00:37:51it roars past a tiny car. When you consider, Mark, they're only sort of 1.3 liters. They've
00:37:56really got a tiny engine, don't they? This is the Cartwright, the Gloucester car which
00:38:00has come in. Jamie Cartwright just about to jump into the car now. Toyota RZ Supra, twin
00:38:06turbo, beautiful motor car. A lot of potential from this car too. A car that was brought
00:38:10into Australia by Car Imports Australia, which is the Cartwright family business.
00:38:15Jamie's father, Roger, raced at Bathurst some years ago, and Frank Lowndes is looking after
00:38:19the preparation of this car this weekend. They've got a great team. All the guys that
00:38:23used to look after Roger's cars at Bathurst in the mid-70s. It's more like Dad's army
00:38:27in the pits around his car, but they've put on a very professional show. Well, full credit
00:38:31to Christian de Goston because he's done a very good job to bring that car into the pitstop
00:38:36in seventh position. They'll obviously have some work to do now as they come on through.
00:38:4230, almost 35 minutes gone. It's another car that was not brought into Australia by the
00:38:48parent manufacturers of the Toyota Australia. Don't touch it, but a lot of private importers
00:38:52have brought it in, and it's a spectacular looking machine. Here's John Bauer. Has he
00:38:55done it this time? He's on line this time, and he's going to hold that lead over Dominic
00:38:59Van Encke. Tremendous battle for second place outright in the OAM Insurance Endurance Classic
00:39:04at Sandown. He moves up to second position. Van Encke back to third, but they have to
00:39:08make their driver changes. Well, that's exactly where John Bauer made the move on Van Encke
00:39:12earlier. It didn't come off because Bauer drifted wide, and Van Encke was right there
00:39:16to snatch it back from him. This battle for second continues as Van Encke puts on. Alfie
00:39:20Costanzo is in to hand over the wheel to young Dean Kando, this 17-year-old. This is a very
00:39:25big moment in his racing career to take over the lead of a major endurance race, especially
00:39:30in this category, and some big wraps on this young guy. Let's see how he'll go. Well, it's
00:39:35all happening down here in pit lane, Lee, and I can tell you the heavens are just starting
00:39:38to open up again as well here at Sandown. Young Dean Kando is now being strapped into
00:39:42the car by Alfie Costanzo in the Maserati. He's waiting for the team to finalise it.
00:39:46Now, that's a little bit slower than I think they would like. We might try and grab a quick
00:39:49word with Alfie. Things have been going extremely well with the Maserati. So far, very good.
00:39:54So, I hope that it stays straight. Well, it's starting to rain at the moment. That's
00:39:59a bit of a daunting prospect for young Dean Kando. It is. Not only for him, but it would
00:40:03have been probably worse for me. But for everybody else's sake, I think if it goes to wet, it
00:40:12messes everyone up. Ciao, ciao. Ciao. Tremendously talented driver, Alfredo Costanzo, multiple
00:40:18Australian Drivers' Champion. Drove for Alan Hamilton and Porsche Cars Australia for many
00:40:22years in a number of different categories. And was very, very dominant, even at 50 odd
00:40:26years of age, still very competitive. Last won a race in 1984 in a Formula Pacific. Last
00:40:32won a Sandown race in 1979 in a Lola Formula 5000 that time. But a great driver. A guy
00:40:37of course that really John Bauer took the mantle from in open-wheeler racing. Costanzo
00:40:42really was to open-wheeler racing in those days. I guess what, Lowndes and all those
00:40:45guys out of V8 supercars today. John Bauer, of course, went that route and then came,
00:40:49of course, into V8s and driving the Ferrari in this race today. Well, it's creeping up
00:40:53towards midday as Beninka comes into the pits. He is about to hand over to Gary Walden. Walden
00:40:59is already in the car, strapping in. A very handy driver indeed himself, Gary Walden.
00:41:04And away we go. Great pit stop, very quick applause from the crew and a slap on the back
00:41:11for Dominic. Great opening stint. Now it's all up to Gary Walden. Walden's first drive
00:41:19actually in a Porsche this weekend. His first race in a Porsche. Not driven one before.
00:41:23Raced the Dodge Viper in the Century Batteries Australian GT Production Car Championship
00:41:27this year. Was leading the series. Had a huge accident at Malamar when he rolled the car.
00:41:31Totally destroyed it, so didn't do the final three rounds of the championship. And hopes
00:41:35to have the car rebuilt for the three-hour race at Bathurst. So he's jumping in to help
00:41:38Dominic out this weekend. But of course a very accomplished steerer.
00:41:42There he is, just settling in. Just looking at those clouds lead to storm clouds gathering.
00:41:48So, all sorts of drama happening down in the pits, Greg Rust. Certainly is, but what a
00:41:55lightening pit stop from you, Dominic Beninka. I think today the race will be won in the pits
00:41:59so hopefully. And we've done a very good stop. We're only planning a driver change. It's
00:42:04going to make it all the whole distance on the field. So I think we're looking good at
00:42:08the moment. What's it like out there from a driver's perspective? It's sprinkling a
00:42:11little bit here in pit lane at the moment, but I guess it's still fairly dry out there.
00:42:15It's not too bad. It's really pretty okay. The tyres are a little bit off now that they've
00:42:19done 37 minutes. The brakes are hot, but otherwise the car's going fine.
00:42:25Well, it certainly is going fine. Now here is Neil Crumpton. You can see him bringing
00:42:29the seat forward there. Setting himself up. Let's hope this is a quick one. Val was in
00:42:33the lead when he came into the pits in the 355 Ferrari. Let's see what Crumpton can do.
00:42:39He's been enjoying driving this. He's had a couple of drives of this car in the GT Production
00:42:43Car Championship throughout 98 when Val has had V8 supercar commitments when the dates
00:42:48have clashed. So Crumpton is certainly no new coming to this car, Greg. No, in fact,
00:42:53he's driven it very, very well too in the times that he has been in the car. So he should
00:42:56come out on the road. Still in second spot, I think. No, back in third spot. So Crumpton
00:43:02back out on the road now in the Ferrari Fragrance Car third spot. Hopefully these guys can complete
00:43:06a lap after their pit stops. Trip up the timing system. Oh, Peter Fitzgerald. He's just pulled
00:43:13up apparently. Now this is the car he was of course sharing with Ed Aitken. It's Aitken's
00:43:17car. The car that Jimmy Richards used to win the championship in back in 1995. So obviously
00:43:23some kind of electrical problem or fuel problem. The car has obviously just stopped on the
00:43:27track. He hasn't even been able to roll it over the grass. Now it's a great battle here.
00:43:33Canto and Crumpton. Well, wrapping up. Well, if our timing monitor is right, the race leader
00:43:40is Gary Walden in the Benica Porsche. And of course, we just saw that pit stop. It was
00:43:45a very good one from Val. Crumpton has now taken over the wheel. We've just seen him
00:43:49overtake up the back straight Dean Canto in the Maserati. So things going well for the
00:43:54Ferrari boys and also the Porsche of Dominic Benica. Now look at Canto. Swerving all around.
00:43:58He's got plenty of power to play with. Tries an outside move on Crumpton.
00:44:04Ferrari F355 Challenge. V8 engine of course. All aluminium. Three and a half litres in
00:44:09capacity. The car weighs about 1,440 kilograms. And look at that power output. 280 kilowatts.
00:44:15Side by side. He'll need every ounce of that as they have a drag race down the straight
00:44:19with the twin turbos of the V6 Maserati kick in. And he blasts past the Ferrari in a straight line.
00:44:25What a big moment for young Dean Canto, though. 17 years of age and to be able to do that
00:44:28to John Bow in a Ferrari. His father, Rocky Canto, is a Sydney panel beater. He raced
00:44:32himself years ago. So there's a lot of passion in this Canto family about motor racing, particularly
00:44:37about Italian cars such as Maseratis and Ferraris.
00:44:42Good pit stop there, Greg, with the Val Crumpton car. Yes, it certainly was. And at the moment
00:44:46it's all happening here in pit lane. Tony Longhurst getting out of the new Ford Falcon.
00:44:50And of course, we can see Sam Newman getting strapped in at the moment. We'll grab a quick
00:44:53word with John Bow, who looked frantically a moment ago as young Dean Canto overtook
00:44:57Neil Crumpton going down the front straight. This really is a one-hour sprint, isn't it,
00:45:01Ferdinand? Yeah, it is, actually. We were a bit unfortunate. We had a stop-go penalty
00:45:05for jumping the start, which I didn't think I did. But obviously, the judges did. But
00:45:10the problem we've got is the clutch is slipping out of the slow corners. So you've got to
00:45:14be very gentle on it. So, I mean, that's losing us a bit of time. But man, I can't
00:45:19believe how good that Maserati goes down the straight. When you say the clutch is slipping,
00:45:23will it be all right towards the end of the race? Well, you have to nurse it. I mean,
00:45:26I'm sure Neil can nurse it because he's a very good and sympathetic driver. So that'll
00:45:30be OK, I'm sure. But it slows you down a bit. Well, John Bow saying Neil was a sympathetic
00:45:36driver. He's not showing too much sympathy towards young Dean Canto at the moment. He's
00:45:39really giving him a hard time. But look at the power. Have a look at this. The Maserati
00:45:43just blasts away down the main straight. Big-time horsepower on this car. Yeah, in
00:45:49excess of probably 400 horsepower, they're now getting out of this little 2-litre V6
00:45:52twin-turbo car. It's got a 6-speed get-track gearbox in it. Oh, Canto all over the place
00:45:57too. Not the most beautiful handling car you've ever seen, Mark. Yeah, it's pretty wild stuff
00:46:03though. Good for Maserati. You can see the Ghibli Cup car up leading this tremendously
00:46:08tight competition. Well, Cromden's going to hassle him all the time. This is the way it
00:46:12sits at the moment. Gary Walden on board the Dominic Meninca Porsche leads the way
00:46:17from this car on screen. Dean Canto and Cromden has overtaken now, or he has taken over the
00:46:21wheel rather. The Elstrex Veridis entry from Warwick and Warwick in the top five. This
00:46:26is the OAMS Insurance Endurance Classic on your home of Motorsport Network 10. And we'll
00:46:30be back right after this.
00:46:43Terrific action here at Sandown. We're just under 15 minutes to go in the debut of the
00:46:54OAMS Insurance Endurance Classic. There is the Whitman's Chocolates lightship. We will
00:46:58be bringing you marvellous scenes from Sandown all day. And of course, keeping an eye on
00:47:03the ever-changing weather here, which will for sure impact at some stage. We've already
00:47:08had light rain during this race, but it has not so far affected it too seriously as we
00:47:13see a terrific battle for second between Canto and Cromden. Gary Walden, though, still leads
00:47:18in the Meninca Porsche. And this is Car 16, who is doing a very good job at the moment.
00:47:25In Class C, that is Trevor Talbot, who's teamed up with Peter Phelan in the big VT Commodore.
00:47:33Running fourth out right. This is a race to boot for the VT Commodore as well, too, so
00:47:36they're doing a tremendous job in a brand new car. Graham Hunt, Andrew Medicki in the
00:47:42Falcon XR8. They've done a pretty impressive job, too, in this car. Running in the over
00:47:482.5 litre class, of course, against the new VT Commodore, the new AU Falcon, the Magna
00:47:52and the Camry. Well, Medicki is putting in some very quick laps at the moment. And Jeff
00:47:59Full, in the same category in Class C, has been able to get past Sam Newman. Grant Kenny
00:48:04doing a tremendous job in Class B. He is running 14th out right. He has taken over
00:48:09from Scotty Jacob. And he's running third in Class B, 14th out right. Well done, Grant
00:48:14Kenny, in his debut. He's doing an extremely good job. It is Gary Walden who still leads
00:48:19the way, though, in the Meninca Porsche. Dean Canto in the Maserati. Then we've got two
00:48:24Ferraris, Neil Cromden and Perry Spirides doing a good job. Luke Warwick has taken over
00:48:30Dad Max. Oh, there's a Spirides car off. Perry Spiroff, that's what they call him. Now we
00:48:36know why. Well, he was running so well. I don't know how close he was, in fact, to Cromden.
00:48:42In fact, he was fourth out right, so they're doing a great job in the car that he's sharing
00:48:45with Paula Elstrick. So, the Melbourne builder, Perry Spirides, in the car that Ross Palmer
00:48:50drove at Bathurst last year in the 3R with Greg Crigg. He's been fairly competitive all
00:48:54weekend, but obviously problems there. Now, the Cartwright-Degostin entry, they have moved
00:48:59to sixth out right. Now, when Christian handed over the wheel, they were seventh, so he's
00:49:02moved up one position better. Good work, but here is our race leader. Car number one, as
00:49:06we have a look at the Spirides replay, the HSV replay. Just overcooking him, maybe some
00:49:11oversteer coming out of that corner has just turned him around. Yeah, hard car to drive
00:49:14and, as you know, it limits the Ferrari 355 Challenge. Loops it around, but no other angle
00:49:21of the replay here, you can see. I think he just lost the rear end, probably got on the
00:49:24power a tad too early and around it went. Now, while that was fourth, heading off the
00:49:27circuit, Perry Spirides, the gap from first to second from Gary Walden in the Porsche
00:49:32back to second. Here it is now. It's gone from 2.6 down to 1.5 and even less than that
00:49:36now. Look at young Dean Canto, right up on our race leader. This is a 17-year-old kid
00:49:42sitting in second spot. This is his biggest race of his career. He's taken over from the
00:49:47experienced Alfredo Costanzo. They were in the lead when he handed over, they lost the
00:49:51lead during the pit stops. Benica and Walden made a lightning pit stop to take the lead
00:49:56for the first time during the race. But Dean Canto, to his credit, he got hassled by Neil
00:50:00Crompton a few laps ago, but he has surged forward and now he is right up on Gary Walden.
00:50:06Yeah, this is going to be an interesting battle all the way to the flag as we get down to
00:50:09the last ten minutes of this OEPS Insurance Endurance Classic. And Canto now makes a run
00:50:13down the outside. Now you'll see the power of the Maserati. Right around the outside
00:50:18of Gary Walden as we go on board with Gary. He's got the inside run though. The Benica
00:50:23Porsche doesn't want the youngster to take over the number one spot. Great driving by
00:50:27both of them, especially the youngster. He's dealing with a very experienced campaigner
00:50:31here in Gary Walden though. Walden with a backing of Burk Power Truck Sales and also
00:50:36Battery World for this weekend at the Benica Porsche. Of course, not driving the Dodge
00:50:39Viper, but you can see it's got the rear-wheel drive flat-six Boxer Porsche engine in. Weighs
00:50:43around 1,325 kilos, develops around 221 kilowatts, about 340 horsepower compared to the 400
00:50:50horsepower you're now seeing in the Maserati. Look at this, the drag of the back straight
00:50:54but they've come up on traffic. And Gary Walden said, you beauty, because he's used that to
00:50:58his advantage and Canto got caught up behind Damien White, the leader of Class B at the
00:51:03moment. So he has dropped back a couple of car lengths, but you can bet the Maserati's
00:51:07going to be right back up there real soon. That really helped Gary Walden. He's certainly
00:51:11got the race package. In fact, we're just trying to look at some lap times, but 206
00:51:16kilometers per hour down the main straight that time compared to, that was Walden. Oh,
00:51:20he's turned in. That's the Chadwick Michael entry and he's turned in on our race leader.
00:51:24Can you believe it? He mustn't have seen him. He couldn't have seen him. So, Gary Walden
00:51:30in the black Benica Porsche, Chadwick in the Magna. Now, Canto, of course, has gone through.
00:51:34We'll now go through to the race lead. Well, there is Gary Walden, rightfully so, looking
00:51:41absolutely disgusted. And, well, we'll give the Chadwick Michael entry the benefit of
00:51:47the doubt. It just looked like he did not see him at all. Well, very hard when you're
00:51:51lapping traffic, particularly when you've got so many different classes in this category
00:51:55and so many different speed differentials, but they all do a tremendous job. And, of
00:51:58course, it is motor racing. However, this is your new race leader. Let's have a look
00:52:01at the replay. And just the way he turned in there, he, well, it's always hard to guess
00:52:07this from sitting up here, but it just looked like the way he moved across just had no idea
00:52:12that Gary Walden was coming through at that rate of knots. Here is it from the front angle.
00:52:17Here it is from the front angle. And around they go. It was really just one of those things,
00:52:23Lee, where I don't think Walden was quite far enough down the inside to really have
00:52:27claimed the corner. Although if Robert Chadwick had been aware that he was there, I'm sure
00:52:31he would have made room. It was just, I guess, one of those racing incidents. Here we go.
00:52:35This is on board with Gary Walden. Make up your own minds as we head into the right-hander.
00:52:39Bang. Well, Greg Russ, that's exactly what Gary Walden didn't need.
00:52:49Very disconsolate faces down here at the moment, Gary. Tell us what happened.
00:52:52Mate, the standard of driving in this race is a bloody disgrace. The flaming idiot that
00:52:56was right alongside him, he turned straight into me. Why don't they look in their bloody
00:53:00mirrors? Honestly, not all of them, but there's a few flogs out there, I tell you.
00:53:05Well, some unhappy faces down here at the Beninka pit.
00:53:08Well, there you go. Well, we expected to hear just that. You can see the look on Gary's
00:53:12face after it happened and he was leading the race. We are well inside ten minutes to
00:53:17go. He had the lead. Well, you could almost taste the victory. You did have this young
00:53:22guy, Dean Cano, breathing heavily down upon him. But that incident there with the Myhill
00:53:28Chadwick Mitsubishi, and now Walden is out of the race. Also gives Cano quite a bit of
00:53:34breathing space too. Neil Crompton still running second in the Ferrari, but some 7.2 tenths
00:53:39of a second behind. Then Warwick, Spirides, Jamie Cartwright still up there in fifth spot
00:53:44now. So they've done a tremendous job to come from sixth on the grid up to fifth out
00:53:48right in what's been a trouble-free run at this stage. Well, I tell you who will be delighted
00:53:51with their run is the Warwick combination. Father Max and son Luke in the Porsche 911
00:53:56RS CS, the car that Cameron McConville won the 1996 GT Production Car Championship in.
00:54:02They have taken over the reins this weekend and are running in third out right. And obviously
00:54:07third in Class A. They're doing a tremendous job. Class B is still being dominated by the
00:54:12Mitsubishi Lancer Evo III of John Trimble and Damien White. Young Damien behind the
00:54:17wheel at the moment. Class C is being well and truly led by Andrew Medicki. He's doing
00:54:23a great job over Jeff Fulham. Sam Newman is running third in his category. How about
00:54:28Grant Kenney? He has just overtaken Sam Newman. So it's the battle of the celebrities out
00:54:32there. Grant has just overtaken him in the overall standings. Kenney is now 13th. And
00:54:38in terms of Class B, he's maintaining his third position. So he's doing great. Yeah,
00:54:42good effort. Of course, Grant Kenney has done a number of celebrity races, always been very
00:54:45competitive. So no doubt this might be a new career for Grant Kenney. Back to Class D,
00:54:51Craig, if we have a look at that, because we should give the guys a good wrap right
00:54:55throughout all five categories. Calvin Gardner leads the way there. And Class E, it is still
00:54:59the Don Pulver Aaron McGill. Suzuki Swift GTI on screen right now. Who leads the way
00:55:04in Class E? In fact, side by side, Gardner's done a good job in this car, the car that
00:55:08he shares with Tom Watkinson. They won the Bathurst Three Hour in this class last year,
00:55:11the under 2.5 litre category. Been pretty much again on the pace all weekend. Gardner
00:55:16coming through now, and McGill, Pulver, Class E, the up to 1.8 litre class just behind
00:55:21them. And in fact, actually something I just picked up the lap before, Kozhi Kalasidis
00:55:28is in fact leading Class E now. So, whether Pulver or McGill lost something in their pit
00:55:34stop. So well done to Kozhi, he's now up there in 20th outright. Well, it's a good run for
00:55:38the Proton too. Proton, yeah. Yes, he had a race win, a round win at the Australian
00:55:43GT Production Car Championship not so long ago, so he's battled to get the car competitive
00:55:47all year, and finally starting to pay dividends. Now, not only is it just over five minutes
00:55:52till the end of the OAM's Insurance Endurance Classic, which has been an absolute ripper,
00:55:56we were sorry to see what happened to Gary Walden because that was a tremendous battle
00:56:00up in the lead between he and Canto, but it is less than one hour, folks, to the start
00:56:05of the 1998 Tickford 500. Greg Murphy and Mark Nosky will start from pole alongside
00:56:11their Mobile One Holden Racing teammates, Mark Scaife and Craig Lowndes. The defending
00:56:16champs, Murphy and Lowndes, in separate cars, and they are each individually going for their
00:56:21hat-trick. Of course, they won 96-97, who will win the 1998 Tickford 500? Stick around
00:56:26because that's coming up in less than one hour. So, time now running out, less than
00:56:32five minutes till this OAM's Insurance Endurance Classic here at Sandown. Russ Hamilday in
00:56:37the Toshiba Evo 5, John Trumbull, of course, leading the Class B in the daily fender car
00:56:42just behind him. Russ has had a pretty good run, although synchro problems with fourth
00:56:45and fifth gear means that he's got to double clutch the car down the main straight here
00:56:48at Sandown. But a car that is pretty much stock standard, as you'd buy it from Mitsubishi
00:56:54Rally Art, the Evo 5, they now race in the World Rally Championship. The car is owned
00:56:58by Ross Arman in Adelaide. Ross Halliday, who's driving it, is a McDonald's franchise
00:57:04owner in Adelaide. Perhaps we should call him Ross McHalliday. Well, things haven't
00:57:08changed up front, Craig, either, because it's still, in fact, it's just increased. It's
00:57:12about nine seconds the gap now. As we have a look, there's the Neumann-Longhurst XR6
00:57:18that's being overtaken by Halliday. Talking about the lead up front, though, the gap between
00:57:24the leading Tao of Kanto and Crompton is now some nine seconds. The Warwicks are still
00:57:29sitting outright third, and then the Elstrex-Varides combination in the second Ferrari in fourth.
00:57:36Fifth is the Cartwright-Nagosta entry. That's a great result for those guys. We go back
00:57:40Wallace-Dean, and Damien White in the Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 3 is sitting in eighth outright
00:57:46and the leader of Class B. A terrific job there. Richard Davis in the Jayco Caravans,
00:57:51Commodore HSV GDSR, a big 5.7 litre car. In fact, Gary Baxter will be running in the Racing
00:57:58for Life Falcon at Bathurst for the V8 Supercar Weekend. This is only a one-hour race, so
00:58:05we're running down now to the last three minutes, right on three minutes to go to the final
00:58:09flag at this OM's Endurance Classic. Now, Craig, is this the same Commodore that ran
00:58:15in the three-hour last year with John Cowley behind the wheel? Is that the same car? Exactly
00:58:18the same configuration, different car, but same configuration. This car's been driven
00:58:22by Gary Baxter and Richard Davis. Baxter, a well-known Commodore Cup driver. In fact,
00:58:26he's won the ROH Wheels Commodore Cup Series twice. Richard is a caravan parker out of
00:58:31Adelaide, but they've put in a really, really good performance in this car. It's not an
00:58:34easy car to drive. It really does suit the sand down track, like 5.7 litres, so plenty
00:58:39of horsepower out of the car, six-speed gearbox, and they can really sort of use all its power
00:58:45around a track like sand down. Well, you are witnessing something very special. It's the
00:58:49first time we have had the GTP Endurance Race along with the Tickford 500, and it's been
00:58:55very eventful, right from the word go, right back when John Bower, who got the jump, got
00:59:00a stop-go penalty on the opening lap for jumping the start, or allegedly jumping the start.
00:59:04John Bower didn't agree with the officials, but nonetheless, they're still battling on,
00:59:07and Neil Crompton, his teammate, is sitting in second behind this young charger, Dean
00:59:12Canto, the 17-year-old, driving for the House of Maserati in the Maserati Ghibli, doing
00:59:18a tremendous job. He's got some ten and a half seconds over Crompton. At the moment,
00:59:22they had a terrific battle not so long ago. Crompton gave him a really good working over,
00:59:26but the power of the Maserati got him out of trouble and got him away from Crompton,
00:59:31who sits well in front of Luke Warwick. In that second spot, Warwick back in third. And
00:59:36we are counting down one and a half minutes left to run in the OAMS Insurance Endurance
00:59:40Classic. So Canto will do another two laps.
00:59:45Very impressive performance from the Maserati team, from Marino Ciuffitelli and all the
00:59:49boys. Marino, of course, has worked with Alfie Costanzo in just about every year of
00:59:53Costanzo's racing career. He used to work on the Formula 5000s that Costanzo raced many
00:59:57years ago. He's actually Alfie's brother-in-law. So he'd be very, very happy to see maybe Maserati
01:00:02notch up its first win in Australia since probably the mid-60s, maybe even the late
01:00:0650s. Now here is second place Neil Crompton on board the Ferrari 355. Now, Neil has a
01:00:12very busy day, but he's a fit man, trains very hard. He's got to back up in around about
01:00:1845 minutes time in the 98 Tickford 500. And of course, Neil is teamed up with board credit
01:00:23partner Glenn Seaton. They'll be going, well, Neil will be going for his first win. Of course,
01:00:29Glenn has won the Tickford 500 a couple of times, but Neil keen to do well, breaking
01:00:33the tradition or his tradition of teaming up with Wayne Gardner. And he's also changed
01:00:37marks. He'll be driving, of course, for Ford this year. We wait with much anticipation
01:00:42for that race. But at the moment, Crompton has got second well and truly wrapped up in
01:00:47the GTP one hour. Here is a young race leader. Now, 15 seconds left to run. We'll see if
01:00:53the chequered flag will come out. I think we'll run out of time. Chequered flag should
01:00:58come out this time around as he gets it out. No, it won't. So he'll do one more lap. Kato
01:01:04comes across the line. With the longest lap of Dean Kato's life. He's 17 years of age.
01:01:09One of the few cars you can actually see over the dashboard. He's only about five foot high.
01:01:13He's a short, stocky guy. Very enthusiastic and passionate about his motor racing and
01:01:17a very mature and polished performance. The credit to him, because when he took over from
01:01:21Alfie Costanzo, the track was very wet. There's the gap back to Neil Crompton sitting in second
01:01:25spot, who's done a really good job in the Ferrari. Talking about Kato, Craig, when the
01:01:32track was wet earlier on, he was pretty loose and he was getting out of shape quite often
01:01:36and looking like heading off the circuit. But he's done well. He's composed himself.
01:01:40Of course, the track strived to help matters. Yeah, and of course, you know, he settled
01:01:43himself down, I guess, after the pit stop. He was under a bit of pressure from Crompton.
01:01:46Now he's got a bit of a road between the two of them, so he can relax. Now here is the
01:01:50Warwick Porsche, a car driven by Cameron McConville to win the 96 GTP Production Car Championship.
01:01:56This is the father and son combination of Max and Luke Warwick. Luke Warwick, the son,
01:02:00is behind the wheel at the moment and has done a terrific job. He's sitting third and
01:02:03he's on his way home. The final lap in the OAMS Insurance Endurance Classic. And they
01:02:09will be delighted. Now, is that the first time they've driven together? In fact, Luke's
01:02:12only ever driven a historic Formula 4. It's his father Max's race, historic Formula 5000s.
01:02:17But this is really the first time in a competitive national race like this that they've certainly
01:02:22been together and they'd be very impressed about that. Now this is it. Checkered flag
01:02:26time. Well done. The 17-year-old Dean Kato in the Maserati wins the 1998 OAMS Insurance
01:02:34Endurance Classic. We go on board with Neil Crompton in the Ferrari. He flashes across
01:02:38for second. Well, what a great win for the veteran Alfie Costanzo, teamed up with the
01:02:43youngster Dean Kato. That's a tremendous win for those guys. There they are, your winners.
01:02:49They'd be absolutely over the moon. I would think there'd be plenty of red wine and spaghetti
01:02:54bolognese tonight with the Costanzo camp. He'll be delighted. He really deserves it.
01:03:00He's been a great member of the Australian motorsport family for so many years.
01:03:06And it's great to see the oldest and the youngest driver in the race take out victory together.
01:03:10Isn't that tremendous? It is. And speaking about old and young, we've
01:03:14got dad and son. And this is the Warwick Fabrics Porsche coming across the line, the 911 RSCS
01:03:20to pick up third outright. As they come across the line, well done to the Warwick family.
01:03:27Now class B, Damian White, the young driver. Now that looks like Damian left of screen
01:03:32there, teamed up with John Trimble. They've come across the line to take out eighth outright.
01:03:37But the winners of class B, it appears as though Andrew Medicki has wrapped up class C.
01:03:42So we see young Dean Kato with the chequered flag. Well, that is a very significant moment
01:03:48for the beginning of what could be, I bet you he's hoping he has as long a career in
01:03:53motor racing as his teammate Alfie Costanzo. And Alfie, you know, we say it so many times,
01:03:58he still tries just as hard today at 55 years of age as what he ever did. Still enjoys his
01:04:03motor racing, super competitive. And really this weekend, this car has been absolutely
01:04:07outstanding. No one really has been able to get close to it in terms of outright speed.
01:04:12Well, there it is. The hour has literally flashed by. It is over for 1998. The OAMS
01:04:18Insurance Endurance Classic and the combination of Costanzo and Kato have won from Bauer and
01:04:23Crompton. The Warwicks in for third, Elstrech and Spirides from Hartright and Degostin.
01:04:28That's a great result. Sixth back through ten, Halliday and Wallace, Dean and Porter
01:04:32in for seventh. Trimble and White, Davis and Baxter, Hunt and Medicki, more right after this.