FEBRUARY 1999

FOG PLAYING WITH F1 TEAMS IN AUSTRALIA, SCHUMACHERS IN AUSTRALIA
MAR 02 - Two Formula One drivers due to arrive here at the Melbourne Airport on Monday had been delayed because of Fog. They are Jordan's Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Minardi's new Spanish driver, Marc Gene. The flight was diverted from Melbourne to Adelaide, according to sources. Most of the Formula One cars are already here, but Ferrari will only arrive here on Wednesday said sources late on Monday. McLaren expects more equipment to arrive in the next day or two.
Ferrari driver Michael Schumacher and his younger brother Ralf Schumacher from the Williams team arrived in Melbourne earlier than expected. They arrived at Melbourne Airport just after 9 pm on Sunday. Michael Schumacher was not expected here in Melbourne until Wednesday as Ferrari extended their final preparations. Luca Badoer conducted the team's final shakedown on Monday at the Fiorano circuit.

BAR'S PRESS RELEASE, READY FOR THE OFF!
MAR 02 - After 15 months of intense activity, British American Racing is "cleared for take off". When Jacques Villeneuve and Ricardo Zonta power their British American Racing-Supertecs down the pit lane for the first practice session of the Australian Grand Prix weekend at the Albert Park circuit in Melbourne on March 5, the ambitious new team will have reached another significant milestone in its brief but action-packed history. For everyone involved in the British American Racing project, though, this milestone is the "Big One" - the one everyone has been anticipating. It will mark the team's baptism of fire in Formula One. For the first time, British American Racing personnel will be able to see how their team stacks up against its rivals - the other 10 teams that will be contesting the 1999 FIA Formula One World Championship. Talking with several key British American Racing staff members just prior to their departure for Australia, it was clear that optimism, pride and just a little nervousness were the overriding emotions as the team stood on the brink of its first Grand Prix. "We're proud of what we've achieved to this point," observed Chief Engineer, Steve Farrell. "We'll finally get to see the fruits of our labours in Melbourne and find out how well we've done against our rivals. We're hoping for good things, but at the same time, we're realistic. We know there's a lot of development in the car, and if we keep pushing and improving it, hopefully at the end of the year, we can say, 'yes, we've done a good job in our first season'. "Personally, I think it's great that finally we have the opportunity to go racing after months of build-up and a tough test programme. I really hope the result in Melbourne will reflect the hard work that has been put in by each member of the British American Racing team." Farrell's view was echoed by Senior Race Engineer, Jock Clear, the man who carries overall responsibility for the set-up and race performance of Jacques Villeneuve's car. "The first race, in Australia, will really lay the foundation for British American Racing's season and for what's to come," he said. "It will also allow us to concentrate on issues behind the scenes that concern the whole business of being a team and working together. These are things the fans don't see, but which are critical to the long-term success of any team. "We're very encouraged by what we've achieved so far, but we're taking a realistic view about the first race. I think we'll be competitive and should do well. "We've shifted our emphasis in the last couple of weeks to nail some reliability issues and realise the potential of the car to score points. We'll see where we are in terms of both reliability and performance after the first three races, in Australia, Brazil and Imola. If we qualify strongly and run well, we'll be very happy. If we score a points finish, I think that would be an incredible performance. I think collectively the team has accomplished a huge amount, but we have no illusions about the size of the task ahead of us." It was British American Racing's highly experienced Team Manager, Greg Field, though, who summed the situation up most succinctly. "I'm feeling scared, apprehensive, excited and nervous, all within the space of five minutes at the moment - it's all peaks and troughs," he commented. "We're obviously looking forward to being in Melbourne at our first Grand Prix, so we can say, 'Right, we've finally arrived. Now we can stand up and be counted'. We're looking for a good result, and after the last shakedown and test at Silverstone, I'm optimistic. We know it will be a hard race, but we're up for it." As for the scene of British American Racing's first-ever Grand Prix, the picturesque 3.294-mile/5.301-km Albert Park circuit in the centre of Melbourne is undoubtedly one of Formula One's more challenging venues. The area's relatively temperate climate means the track will be in good shape, although because it is a street circuit used only for the Grand Prix, the surface is likely to be quite dirty when the cars first start running. Grip levels should increase markedly in the course of the weekend as rubber is deposited. The key issue for all teams will be to get their tyres working within the optimum temperature range. With that thought in mind, engineers and drivers will strive to achieve a good basic chassis balance for their cars as quickly as possible and then fine-tune set-ups to compensate for the evolving track conditions. The Australian Grand Prix has a well-deserved reputation for being unpredictable, often with a number of changing factors coming into play during the course of the weekend. The weather in Melbourne, for instance, could be an issue at this time of year with high temperatures and even heavy rain always a possibility. All the teams will be hoping for a useful slice of racing luck in Australia. Whatever happens, though, British American Racing personnel will know that if effort counts, they should be on target for a good result in Melbourne. ( BAR )

WHAT'S NEW FOR WILLIAMS IN 1999 SEASON
MAR 02 - New for Williams is the introduction of a new brand. As part of a major review of the teams' image and reputation, Williams Grand Prix Engineering will now be presented as WilliamsF1. The new 'brand' image has been adopted throughout all departments of the company. The team will be known as Winfield WilliamsF1. The Williams FW21 is sporting a brand new livery. WilliamsF1 has launched its official website which can be found at www.williamsf1.co.uk. The Winfield WilliamsF1 team has two new race drivers in Alex Zanardi and Ralf Schumacher, the first complete driver change since 1993. Although not on the scale of the changes in 1998, there are a few new technical regulations for the teams to take into account for the 1999 season including the introduction of an extra groove in the front tyres, a driver's seat that is fully extractable with the driver still in place and retention cables to stop loose wheels becoming detached from cars. ( WILLIAMS )

McRAE TRIUMPHED AT SAFARI RALLY, MAKINEN DISQUALIFIED
FEB 28 - Colin McRae recorded an emphatic victory in the Safari Rally as the new Ford Focus triumphed in only its third world championship start in Nairobi. The Scotsman came home almost eight minutes ahead of world champion Tommi Makinen's Mitsubishi in what is widely regarded as the world's toughest rally. Frenchman Didier Auriol took third spot but his Toyota team lodged an immediate objection against Makinen claiming the Finn had received illegal assistance when repairing a puncture on day two. McRae's navigator Nicky Grist said: "The Safari is a delicate balance between speed and caution; we seem to have got that balance right and we are delighted for the team... for all the effort... to have developed a competitive car so quickly."
" This win means more to me than my first Safari success ," said 30-year-old Scot Colin McRae, who won the Kenyan event in 1997. " This is a new car and a new team and for me that makes this very special. This is a good indicator for the rest of the season. In its first three rallies the Focus has finished third twice and won here and they're superb results for any car let alone one which is still in the relatively early stages of development. The engineers have done a fantastic job in designing the car. It was a controlled drive. You can't drive flat out and win the Safari but we found a good pace throughout and it worked well. Over the last few months we've experienced big highs and big lows but this is the biggest high of all ," added McRae.
Makinen's joy at claiming the runners- up berth was short-lived when, after a protest by Toyota, he was disqualified for receiving help from spectators to change a tyre during the second day. See also overall standings.
Final positions from Safari rally: 1 C McRae GB Ford 8 hours 41 minutes 39 seconds 2 D Auriol Fr Toyota +14m 26s 3 C Sainz Sp Toyota +18m 07s 4 I Duncan Ken Toyota +23m 56s 5 P Solberg Nor Ford +44m 49s 6 H Rovanpera Fin Seat +58m 29s

AUSTRALIAN ROUND WILL BE SPONSORED BY HONDA COMPANY
MAR 01 - According to the press release from FedEx Championship Series Honda Australia company will stay main sponsor for CART series at Australian continent. "I can think of no more appropriate Naming Rights sponsor than Honda, an organization whose name is synonymous with quality motor vehicles, motor sport research, development and racing," Cowley said. "The stability and prestige accruing from association with the Honda organization cannot be over-emphasized." Said Robertson, "As a business opportunity, the Honda Indy 300 is a clear winner for Honda, giving us a great promotional launching platform for our products. It also is a very enjoyable event to be involved with."

STEWART PRESS REPORT
MAR 01 - RUBENS BARRICHELLO Car No.16 (SF3-04) "I like Melbourne very much, the city, the people and particularly the weather - it makes those 24 hours of flying worthwhile. I'm looking forward to the race because the circuit should suit the car. It doesn't have the usual characteristics of a road circuit, you have much more chance to drive the car to its full potential." "There is a noticeable improvement in this year's car from the point of view of driveability. It has good traction, which will help in the slow corners and impressive stability under braking. All the set-up changes we have made during testing have had an effect on the car's behaviour, which is very encouraging. It means we have a chassis we know we can work with and we have found more straight-line speed with the new engine. I'm confident that what we have learned from our winter testing will give us a solid chance of being competitive in the race." JOHNNY HERBERT Car No.17 (SF3-03) "I don't remember a lot about the shunt in Barcelona but I'm glad the car stood up so well to the impact. I'm very optimistic about Melbourne and the season in general. The car has a good feel to it and the new Ford engine has given us more top end power." "Having driven the SF2 in testing at the end of last year, there is no doubt that this year's package is a big step forward. Obviously we are still learning about the car and our testing has shown that there is potential for improvement in the early part of the season. Melbourne is not the most demanding circuit in the world. You have to be able to ride the bumps well and the SF3 has proven in testing that it can do that. The style of the corners should suit the car's handling ability. I'm confident that the team can have its best ever start to the season given the shape we are in." GARY ANDERSON, SGP Technical Director "We are all encouraged with the performance of the car in winter testing. Rubens produced a time of 1:21.1 on the final day in Barcelona which gives us a bit of momentum going into Melbourne. The times we have been doing in testing given the fuel loads we have been running are impressive." "We weren't able to complete our full testing programme in Barcelona because of Johnny's accident but I believe there's still quite a lot of time left in the car. We'll be working hard to get the maximum out of the chassis and engine package from Friday onwards. We have some aerodynamic and suspension modifications to come and all the simulations we have carried out of those bits and pieces point to improved performance. Melbourne tends to be a bit dirty early on but improves as the weekend goes along. I think we can be reasonably competitive and there's no PAUL STEWART, SGP Deputy Chairman "There is no doubt we are better prepared for 1999 than we have ever been in the past. Our readiness is what you would expect from a team that has been in the business for over a decade rather than a new outfit entering its third year in Formula One." "A tremendous amount of hard work by everyone at Stewart Grand Prix and Cosworth Racing has enabled this to happen. Attracting Gary Anderson to the team, bringing in David Ring as Managing Director and having Neil Ressler join the board of SGP are all key components of a strategy designed to strengthen the company and improve our competitiveness in 1999 and beyond. Johnny's accident in Barcelona has caused minimum disruption to our collective effort." "To write off a chassis, gearbox and a number of components before the season is a big blow to any team. But we have been able to absorb that blow and we are approaching the race in Melbourne with confidence. We are still sending three complete cars and a host of spares to Australia. Nothing will make me more proud of our preparations than a good result in Melbourne. It would be a fitting reward for the tireless efforts of every member of the team."

LAST FERRARI READY AFTER MORNING SHAKE DOWN RUN
MAR 01 - Luca Badoer carried out the shakedown of the third F399 on Monday morning at the Fiorano circuit. Badoer finished a total of 5 laps with chassis no. 192, the T-car, and clocked a fastest time of 1:02.32 in a trouble free session. It is now all systems go for Ferrari as they start preparations at the Melbourne Albert Park circuit for the season opener on March 7th.

ALL SEATS FILLED UP, LAST USED TODAY FROM TAKAGI
FEB 01 - Arrows team spokesperson first words were: "He will no doubt become an exciting addition to the team". Team boss Tom Walkinshaw : "Signing Toranosuke gives me a great deal of satisfaction. I am confident that he and Pedro will work hard to take Arrows another step forward in its aim to achieve success in Grand Prix racing". With the signing of Takagi comes a budget estimated to be in the order of 4 million pounds. Takagi is sponsored by PIAA, a Japanese automotive parts maker and will bring over 4 million pounds of sponsorship money. . Takagi had the following to say after the announcement: "I am very happy about joining the Arrows Team for the forthcoming season. A very strong technical team has prepared the car and engine and I know that I will give my best to achieve credible results for the team."

NO MORE SPECULATIONS ABOUT SECOND ARROWS SEAT
MAR 01 - Not just Arrows team is to confirm its drivers for 1999 season, but also Finlannd's leading newspaper Turun Sanomat said that Mika Salo will lose seat to Tora Takagi at Arrows team for full 1999 season and is also close to sign deal with Honda prototype team. Finn will confirm into the middle of the season move to Japanese company and sign deal, but there are no details what sort of deal. Verstappen signed three year's deal according to internal Honda sources, but what will sign Salo is still a secret. Japanese driver Takagi will bring to Arrows team over $5 million of sponsorship money for one year contract. Money can deliver everything, that's the life in the high tech motorsport too.

FRENTZEN OPTIMISTIC AND ALSO REALISTIC
MAR 01 - German driver H.H. Frentzen said for DSF TV and German newspapers that Jordan team, for which he will be driving in 1999 season is capable of finishing Australian GP this Sunday at least in five position. Ferrari and McLaren will be to strong, but Williams, Benetton, Prost and BAR are not serious threat. German also feels that he is not in good relationship with British fans, especailly because Damon Hill was axed by Williams team in order to provide free seat for German driver in '97 season. About Damon he said that Brit is very much leader of the British based team and that Brit is ready to perform well and to be head of the team through full '99 season. Atmosphere in Jordan team is much more relaxed and nicer than in Williams team. Many internet surfers also vote about Frentzen chance for win in '99 season. And the result was the next: 55% yes 45% no We can just wait and see, Damon or Frentzen first?

BADOER WAS SHAKING DOWN LAST FERRARI'S
FEB 28 - Luca Badoer was in charge of shaking down two of the three Ferrari F399's to be shipped to Melbourne, Australia for the season opener on March 7th. He did so at the Fiorano circuit on Sunday morning. In total Luca Badoer completed 11,5 laps of which he did 6 in Michael Schumacher's race car (chassis 190) and 5.5 laps in Eddie Irvine's car (chassis 191). During the session he clocked a fastest time of 1:03.44 and the session went by without any technical problems. On Monday Badoer will shakedown the T-car (chassis 192) at Fiorano.
( FERRARI )

DARLINGTON TEST FOR HAMILTON AND STEWART
FEB 28 - Bobby Hamilton is ready to be more competitve on this year's Tran South event. His best finishing spot at that event was nineth place. Aslo Stewart, this season Rookie in Winston Cup Series id very caotious about that event and feels this race will be one of the most challenging in '99 season. Anyway, Tony Stewart posted best lap of 168.931mph with Bobby Hamilton, who lapped 166.754mph in its best lap at Darlington Speedway. "I need all the time I can get on this place," Hamilton said and also added: "I need to spend lots of time here. If NASCAR had unlimited tests, I'd be here at least five times before we came back for the TranSouth Financial 400." Tony Stewart, ex IRL champion, this season Rookie in Winston Cup series said: "This is the toughest place I've ever seen. I just want to make the race and get out of here with the car in one piece. The entire track is tough, not just one part. I tried to watch Bobby's line first thing this morning, but he told me I better look elsewhere if I wanted to go fast. I didn't do too bad."

DAMON HILL PREDICTS SLIGHT ADVANTAGE FOR McLAREN TEAM
FEB 28 - Brit Damon Hill, 1996 World Champion expressed his feelings about his rivals. He expected that McLaren team is in slight advantage, but Ferrari will be very close too. Next to follow will be Williams, Benetton and Jordan. The rest of the field also can spring some surprise. He said: "I think McLaren will still have the edge on everyone. The gap is smaller than it was but it is more difficult to find gains. There is less in the pot. We are all scraping what we can within the regulation parameters to find that last little bit". He added that Ferrari's inability to win the world championship just shows how difficult Formula One is and added that it is also testimony that the best budget, everything at your disposal and the best driver doesn't necessarily guarantee the team victory in every single race. "That puts the achievements of McLaren and Williams into much starker contrast."

BRIDGESTONE PRESS RELEASE AHEAD OF AUSTRALIAN GP
FEB 28 - It will be an historic occasion for Bridgestone at 2pm (local time) in Melbourne on Sunday when the lights go out to signal the start of the opening Grand Prix of the 1999 FIA World Championship season. "Sunday's race in Australia will be the first Grand Prix for which our company will supply all the tyres," says Yoshihiko Ichikawa, Technical Manager of Bridgestone Motorsport, "and we look forward to the challenge of working with new drivers and technicians. We believe that we can meet the demands of the teams while at the same time satisfying the requirements of the FIA to reign in the cornering performance of the cars." A total of 2640 Bridgestone tyres, in wet and dry weather formats, will be available to the 11 teams contesting the 58-lap race. All conform with the FIA requirement of four grooves. The drivers will have a choice of dry-weather tyres in two compounds, while for the first time since Bridgestone entered F1 competition in 1997 there will also be only two "wets," supplied in an identical pattern but with different compounds. Every F1 team has already had an opportunity to evaluate the dry-weather "Melbourne" Bridgestone's in winter testing, either in Europe or South Africa. This should ease the task of adapting to the requirements of the Australian track. "Last year the average speed at the Albert Park circuit was just over 200 km/h," says Ichikawa. "There are some high speed sections and several difficult corners, but the most significant characteristic of the track is its smooth surface. The challenge for the teams will be to find a setup which prevents the tyres from overheating, although their final choices of compound will also take into account their pit stop strategies." Bridgestone Australia: Motorsport success Bridgestone's considerable success in motorsport includes winning the Australian Championship for V8 Supercars from 1996 to 1998, the 1.000-kilometre race at Bathurst, New South Wales, in 1996 and 1998, and Group N victories over many years in the Rally Australia, a round of the World Rally Championship. This year Bridgestone has been awarded the contract for supplying a control tyre for V8 Supercars. Based in Adelaide, South Australia, the publicly-listed Bridgestone Australia Ltd Group of Companies is a major supplier to the Australian automotive industry. Bridgestone's tyre-manufacturing plant at Salisbury, in the northern suburbs of Adelaide, was opened in 1985 and currently serves all four Australian car manufacturers: Holden, Toyota, Mitsubishi and Ford; most of whose cars are supplied fitted with Bridgestone tyres. ( BRIDGESTONE )

COULTHARD NOT JUST FOR MELBOURNE WIN, BUT FOR CHAMPIONSHIP
FEB 28 - Scot David Coulthard, third placed in driver's standings last season is in confident mood ahead of new season. He feels he is ready for first titla and that he has worked very hard in past months to be competitive and finally wins WC title. Coulthard: "Every driver wants to win in Melbourne and I'm no different and for sure I want to beat the best in the world. I don't want to be given things. I want to go out there and win for myself. I've shown that I can lead the field and win races. I've got the speed and the ability. I'll just give it my best shot and go for it."

'NO BYE BYE WITHOUT MY DECISION,' SAID DAMON HILL
FEB 28 - After talks that Hill may retire after '99 season and later on that Schuey also plans to retire after 2002, Brit Damon Hill expressed more words about his plan for the near future. Damon Hill was surprised it took people so long to realize that his contract expires at the end of the 1999 season and said: "Eddie has to decide who he wants to drive so there is no secret anywhere. I am not concerned. It does not sit with my objectives to be competitive". Hill also stressed that everybody has to go at some time, but was reluctant to be too specific. Instead he said: "I could walk away tomorrow and say that I have done well, but I cannot get rid of that feeling that you have to keep pushing yourself as long as you can. Don't ask me why I feel that, but I do. Whatever I do I have to make the best of the opportunity. I would never feel good if I failed to put my best effort into whatever I was doing". Brit finished his speak by: "I have to get the best out of myself. The whole experience is rising to the challenge every time. You never know what might happen. You might be talking to the future world champion."

NASCAR SERIES TO EXPAND CALENDAR FURTHER MORE
FEB 28 - Not only Winston Cup but also Busch series are very attractive all over the America. Nascar Winston Cup Series are ready to expand their series through full season. Because of that program California and Texas were added two years ago along with Las Vegas the following year. A new race in South Florida makes its debut this season. Fans who wouldn't have had the chance to attend a race in the past now have the chance to catch the action live near their hometown. If the success of expansion, into Las Vegas for instance, can be matched in future locations, NASCAR's growth is seemingly unlimited. ( NASCAR )

SCHUMACHER TO RETIRE AFTER 2002?
FEB 28 - Hot and disappointing news for all Michael Schumacher fans in the world. Today, Michael Schumacher's manager Willi Weber announced in a weekly German magazine that the German Ferrari star will retire from the Formula One scene in 2002. Michael Schumacher's contract with Ferrari will end in 2002. In a recent interview, Michael Schumacher already said that he will end his career with Ferrari. Seeing his contract ends in 2002, it was generally understood he will quit F1 racing as from then. In 2002, Michael Schumacher will have competed in 10 full seasons of Formula One racing. After Schumacher's retirement, Willi Weber will also become an ambassador for the Fiat concern and thus also for Ferrari.

HAKKINEN READY FOR SECOND TITLE
FEB 28 - Finn Hakkinen, '98 champion is almost 100% sure he will retain his title from '98 season. "I am very relaxed about the championship. I am not worried about the past," said optimistic Finn. Finn also feels that '99 season will be much closer fight between more teams, at least four teams are capable of winning the race: "I know that this year will be more difficult so I have worked harder. But I know how to win races now and how to win championships. I won't be putting my energies into areas that are not important, all my energies will be going towards winning the championship again."

WURZ ALREADY PREDICTS RESULTS FROM AUSTRALIAN GP
FEB 28 - Austrain Alexander Wurz, Benetton second driver expressed his thoughts about chances for different teams to be competitive on first GP of season and also about reliability issue. Wurz explained: "I do not think half the field will finish the race. Ferrari and McLaren will fight for the first place, Williams, Benetton and BAR compete for the third. Jordan, Sauber, Prost and Stewart also had some good testing results. So this season is going to be very interesting because a prognosis is very hard to make."

TEAM KOOL GREEN AND PLAYER'S WERE TESTING AT SEBRING
FEB 27 - Few days ago we reported from test at Laguna Seca and now is the time for report from Sebring test. Team KOOL Green and Player's Forsythe Racing team, a pair of teams which are expected to mount strong challenges to Target Chip Ganassi Racing's bid for an unprecedented fourth consecutive FedEx Championship Series title were testing this weekend on the 1.7-mile road course at Sebring. Both Green drivers Paul Tracy and Dario Franchitti were emphasizing chassis and Firestone tire development work. Franchitti was happy about two testing days and said after all: "We left the car pretty standard overall and just worked on tires. Considering that, we were pretty fast, so I'm encouraged by the results. Firestone has definitely made progress in certain areas. We did 105 laps Saturday and 95 laps Sunday. That's quite a lot of laps and it's pretty hard work, considering you're doing a qualifying lap each time. We ran a brand new car, and it was great out of the box." Player's drivers Greg Moore and Patrick Carpentier were concentrating on finding the proper setups for circuits like Detroit, Toronto and Vancouver. Moore was more happy about reliability of Reynard - Mercedes - Firestone package: "We had no mechanical problems and the Player's team really did an outstanding job."

MORE CARGO FOR MELBOURNE ALREADY FLIED
FEB 27 - The cargo airplane of Alitalia that consist Sauber, Prost, Minardi and Ferrari equipment left early today from the Malpensa airport with a total of 10 cars and all other fright of the teams. On board is also some equipment of Peugeot and Renault. Ferrari will fly-in two other cars on Sunday night after they have had their last shakedown earlier that day at Fiorano.

BENETTON READY FOR MORE SUCCESS
FEB 27 - British based Benetton team is optimistic ahead of Melbourne event. Technical director Pat Symonds was optimistic about all work they have done during the winter tests. "We feel that from the long list of development topics that we had when we first ran the car that we have achieved most of our objectives," he said. Both Benetton drivers Wurz and Fisichella are according to Symonds well prepared for full season. "In addition to all the preparations on the technical side, the drivers have been through a very intense physical training programme over the winter. They therefore approach the season at a peak of fitness and with a strong mental attitude."

PROST OPTIMISTIC FOR NEW SEASON
FEB 27 - The new Peugeot A18 engine is superior in every way and according to the Prost team it has more power, torque and is more driveable than its predecessor. It is also 4 kg lighter than the A16 and can withstand a higher operating temperature, which will give the team a greater margin for maneuver. The aim of the team for the 1999 season is to get results and they feel that they are capable of taking on the leading teams. "Now that our setup is in place, we believe we are capable of competing with the teams that will make up the leading pack behind McLaren and Ferrari," was writen on Prost's press release.

SAUBER AND MINARDI FLY TO AUSTRALIA
FEB 27 - Sauber and Minardi already sent their cars to Australia but they had to use a backup emergency plan and only informed the airport in Milan of their delay getting through the tunnel on Thursday. The flight waited for the team and in the end the delay amounted to only half a day instead of 24 hours.

JORDAN TEAM FULLY FOCUSED
FEB 27 - Jordan team already shipped all cars to Australia, but all crew will fly to Australia over the weekend and team was very busy last three weeks and many members hardly await to rest for few hours on flight for Melbourne. Damon Hill said that whole team worked well and all know each other very well too: "Sometimes tempers have been frayed, sometimes we had a real laugh together. It is a good way to build a team spirit over the winter months. everyone at Jordan puts in the hours because they are all working together for the same dream - being in a winning team. I always try to remember that I am pushing not only for myself, but for everyone else too." Eddie Jordan is a little bit nervous ahaead of new season as they will be target for many middle teams. Jordan is now a winning team and that's something different for us to previous seasons. All sponsors, mass media, drivers, crew inside the team, all partners and fans, rivals will look very closely on us and try to use everything to help or beat them. Team boss Eddie Jordan is ready to bounce back all those positive and negative energy around the team and work on all areas even harder and better than in past seasons. Eddie Jordan also said: "Jordan was fourth in the championship last year and I am desperate to be in the top three this year. We have to move on and I have to believe now that a championship is possible. As a team, we are stronger for what happened last year and more focused in every area of the business and in every activity. Now we know we can win, we want more."

SCHUMACHER TO LOSE SPONSORSHIP MONEY FROM DEKRA
FEB 27 - All Schuey fans were using Ferrari caps and Schumacher caps with logotype of Dekra company. But now Dekra company, producer of mechanical parts of the car and all programs associated with car industry has decided to pull out of Formula One and to promote its product in other motorsport series.

LEADER BURNS OUT, McRAE IN NICE LEAD AT SAFARI RALLY
FEB 28 - A smashed steering column forced Britain's Richard Burns to retire from the Safari Rally and handed the race lead to Scotland's Colin McRae. McRae's extra hard-compound tyres were almost unmarked after Saturday's leg. Burns, the defending champion and overnight leader, was left stranded when his Subaru steering column broke at Nyaru control, 246km northwest of Nairobi. McRae took full advantage of Burns' misfortune and ended the day nearly 15 minutes ahead of world champion Tommy Makinen. Tommy Makinen was helped by people that live in the area of Safari Rally to fix new tires up. Because of that rivals complained, but Mitsubishi team rejected that anything was made wrong. You can also hear Mitsubishi Team Boss voice about that issue.
Leading times after third day: 1 C McRae GB Ford 6 hours 18 minutes 45.5 seconds 2 T Makinen Fin Mitsubishi +14:46.4 3 D Auriol Fr Toyota +19.09.0 4 C Sainz Sp Toyota +23:52.2 5 P Liatti It Seat +26:30.1 6 I Duncan Ken Toyota +27.28.8

WARD, HALLANSWORTH AND CARLSON GET READY FOR PHOENIX
FEB 27 - Jeff Ward still is the driver for ISM Racing, team co-owner Bob Hancher said, as Pep Boys Indy Racing League teams prepare for the "Test in the West" Feb. 26-27 at Phoenix International Raceway.

Driver Tyce Carlson says the competition has become so intense in the Pep Boys Indy Racing League that it’s vital that teams use any testing opportunities.

John Hollansworth Jr. leads the Sprint PCS Rookie of the Year standings heading into the MCI WorldCom 200 on March 28 at Phoenix International Raceway. ( IRL )

FIRST BRITISH BASED NASCAR SCHOOL WIDE OPEN!
FEB 27 - Well known Nascar Racing driver Richard Petty plans to open first European Nascar school for young talents and enthusiasts. Racing school will use all Nascar machinery, directly from USA. For sure, that's very encourage plan for other American Winston Cup stars. The Richard Petty Driving Experience will be based at the proposed Rockingham Motor Speedway, launched last week. Well-established in the US, the RPDE will come to the British oval with between six and eight of its fleet of specially built 160mph stock cars.

OPEN DOORS FOR McRAE AS BURNS RETIRED FROM SAFARI RALLY
FEB 27 - At Safari Rally Brit McRae has an open all doors for his first victory for new Focus Ford team. Overnight leader Richard Burns is out of the Safari Rally. He was forced to retire this morning with suspension damage. Burns, who took his first WRC win here last year, was leading after the first stage this morning but hit trouble in the second.
Leading times: 1 McRae Ford 4h32'42"6 2 Auriol Toyota +3'23"5 3 Sainz Toyota +7'36"3 4 Makinen Mitsubishi +15'37"9 5 Liatti Seat +21'40"9 6 Duncan Toyota +24'21"7

UPDATED PICS FROM SILVERSTONE AND FIORANO, TAKAGI IN NEW JACKET!
FEB 26 - Yes, we got again more fantastic pics from Silverstone last day of testing for all F1 enthusiast that hardly await for next Friday and season opener in weeks time at Melbourne. Just take time and you can explore all pics. And we got shoot, where Takagi also uses new design package for Arrows '99 car. That might be for all us full confirmation of the words who will drive for Arrows in 1999 season.You can also explore shoots of Damon Hill, Alexander Wurz, Pedro de la Rossa, Ricardo Zonta and other interesting pics.

BURNS LEADS THE WAY AT SAFARI RALLY AFTER DAY TWO
FEB 26 - Britain's Richard Burns blasted his way into the lead of the Safari Rally at the end of the second day in Kenya. Burns, who won the event last year, is nearly 27 seconds ahead of Spain's Carlos Sainz with fellow Briton Colin McRae well placed in third. But world champion Tommi Makinen is over 13 minutes adrift while team-mate Freddy Loix was lucky to escape serious injury after a massive crash as Mitsubishi's hopes of a record seventh successive rally victory faltered "I can't believe that we survived because the impact was so large," said McRae. "The Focus is so strong and I think it must be built like a tank to survive that! It's been a little frustrating today because having to stop to change a tyre and a few brake troubles on the final stage meant we didn't have a clean run through the sections. But you have to expect these things on this rally and we should be very happy with our position. It's been a typical Safari, very hot and very rough, but we're in good shape for tomorrow." .
Leading times after day two: 1 Burns Subaru 2:50.06.2 2 Sainz Toyota 2:50.32.9 3 McRae Ford 2:52.02.4 4 Auriol Toyota 2:56.24.8 5 Makinen Mitsubishi 3:03.17.8 6 Liatti SEAT 3:05.34.4

NEW $10 MILLION RACE FOR HAWAII CART!
FEB 26 - The PPG CART officials have announced that drivers will compete for the biggest single-day purse in motorsport history later this year. The Hawaiian Super Prix on the island of Oahu on 13 November is to offer $10 million in prize money, and $5m to the winner of the non-points event. The race will be available to the top 12 from the CART series which will have ended two weeks earlier. "The State of Hawaii is very pleased to host this new and exciting race event," Gov. Cayetano stated. "We are grateful for the tax and charity dollars the HSP will generate, and are prepared to provide the red carpet treatment for all the organizers and participants."

WILLIAMS DRIVERS ABOUT AUSTRALIAN GP, ARROWS TO ANNOUNCE DRIVERS
FEB 26 - Williams team, many times constructor's champion and driver's champions are ready to bounce back and fight for points in every single race this season. And what they hope about Melbourne, season opener. Alex Zanardi: "I'm quite confident. I believe that, due to the work we've been doing over the winter, I can go home with a smile on my face. I guess once I've done the first lap of the circuit I will get even more confident - or less. I like Australia. I'm looking forward to going there and hopefully not just to enjoy the weather and the beauty of the country but also to have a good result. That would be a good way to start the season." Ralf Scumacher: "For all of us Melbourne is one of the most exciting Grands Prix of the year. It's the first race therefore the first chance to find out how well we have operated during the winter in comparison to the other teams. This year, it is also my first race for the Winfield WilliamsF1 team and I hope to have more luck than I did during the last two Australian Grands Prix when I didn't see the chequered flag."
The Arrows Formula One team have said they will make an announcement next week to clear up confusion over their driver line-up for the new season. Spaniard Pedro de la Rosa has been confirmed but Arrows have yet to say whether he will be joined by Finn Mika Salo or Toranosuke Takagi of Japan.

McLAREN HOPES, HONDA TEAM NOT HAPPY, SALO TO HONDA, FERRARI HOPES
FEB 26 - McLaren team is in big hurry for Melbourne, Australian GP in one week's time. They already expressed their hopes for new season. Mika Hakkinen: "I can't wait for the new season to start. I'm feeling better than ever and looking forward to the opportunity to defend my title. Melbourne is a great place to start the Championship - the track is good fun to race on and the atmosphere is like a carnival." David Coulthard: "I have spent much of the winter either testing or concentrating on my physical training, so I feel well prepared for the new Grand Prix season. Albert Park is a good circuit, if lacking in high-speed challenge, and I always seem to perform well here." Ron Dennis, McLaren team boss: "The team is only too aware how competitive the new season will be. While testing, as always, is rarely indicative of teams' true performance abilities, our Winter times have supported our belief that the MP4-14 will be competitive in 1999."

Honda team and Jos Verstappen were disappointed after not very successful end of Silverstone testing week. They were never really able to challenege for the best time, despite being every time very close to achieve that. They were also unhappy about weather conditions, many times there was a lot of rain, what is not unusual for the February at all. Yesterday (Thursday) they pushed the car on the limit but failed with the test as run was completed early on after technical problems they experienced in Honda prototype. Honda team will contentrate on developing new elements for their car and in cooperation with Mugen company also on the engine developement for their main team for '99 season, British based Jordan team.

It's now almost confimed that Mika Salo will leave Arrows with some money from contract violation. His future is still open, though it's also rumoured that Harvey Postlethwaite is interested in hireing Salo to drive for Honda prototype team. Finn Salo lose seat to Takagi and Rossa, both those two drivers brings also a lot of sponsorship money and those were mayor elements for Malik and Walkinshaw decision on driver seats.

Ferrari team completed pre season testing at Mugello and now expressed his first fellings about F399 chances for 1999 season: "I'm pretty happy with it and there's nothing wrong underneath my bum. We still don't know whether it's good enough or not, but it is promising." Designer of new F399 Rory Byrne was a little bit in caotious mood and just said: "All the performance criteria I laid out at the design stage have been met. It's our best shot at it and we understand where the problems are."

WALLY DALLENBACH IN OPTIMISTIC MOOD AHEAD OF LAS VEGAS RACE.
FEB 26 - Wally Dallenbach knows perfectly well that your position in the standings after two races doesn't mean a thing. But for a guy who missed the first two races of last season, being in the top-10 heading into 1998's third race feels pretty darn good. Dallenbach heads for the Las Vegas 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway with quite a bit of confidence. He knows he's run well twice, and he knows he could have run even better both times. And when you consider that Dallenbach loves to race on relatively flat superspeedways, you can see why the Bud team likes its chances at Vegas. ( NASCAR )

EXCLUSIVE NEWS FROM THURSDAY TESTS IN MUGELLO, SILVERSTONE.
FEB 26 - Ferrari team completed together with German Michael Schumacher full race simulation with all true elements of the race as pit box, everything was in action at Mugello circuit. All mechanics, engineers, pit crew were in action and made two valuable pit stops during race simulation. Schuey pitted every 20 laps and made in total of 78 laps. In the morning it was rainy weather, in the afternoon there was sunshine and actions go ahead exactly after 12:30 in local time (CET). This Sunday Luca Badoer will shake down at Fiorano two cars for the Australian Grand Prix.
In Sillverstone, there were also last mayor actions ahead of next week's season opener. In test attended McLaren, Williams and Honda team. Quickest man on the circuit was David Coulthard (McLaren), closely followed by Alessandro Zanardi (Williams), third quickest was Mika Hakkinen (McLaren) and fourth Jos The Boss (Honda prototype). Weather was also a lot better than on Wednesday. Williams completed testing program and will ship all cars to Melbourne in few hours time. Sauber team's flight for Melbourne, Australia finished even before they start to fly. Why, because they missed their flight when the only tunnel connecting them with Milan had to be closed because of a serious accident on Thursday afternoon.

FIRST TEST FOR LE MANS 24H ENDURANCE RACE.
At Paul Ricard circuit, France we were able to watch four different '99 contenders for Le Mans 24h race. There were competing BMV V12, TOYOTA GT1, PORSCHE 911 GT1 and AUDI R8 manufacturers in first real test of their developements for new '99 prototypes. Mcnish, former Porsche runner said: 'The Toyota is a different car to the Porsche I drove last year,' he said. 'It took a while to adapt to both team and car, but I was happy with my performance by the end of the test.'
Leading times: Tom Kirstensen BMW V12 LMR 1m46.0s Martin Brundle Toyota GT-One 1m46.2s Uwe Alzen Porsche 911 GT1-98 1m46.6s Rinaldo Capello Audi R8 1m47.1s

JJ. LEHTO WILL FIGHT FOR ANY PENNY!
FEB 25 - Champ Car exile JJ Lehto is suing Hogan racing, after they replaced him with Helio Castro Neves last month. Finn career for CART competition seems to be finished after very uncompetitive last season. Best place Finn snatched last season was the 6th place. Many times his car did not take long into the race, but also Finn made few very costely mistakes. 'The timing of this termination has totally destroyed any opportunity I might have to drive in the CART Championship Series in 1999,' said statement from Lehto.

NASCAR ORGANIZATION TO HOLD ALL MEDIA RIGHTS!
FEB 25 - Nascar Organization is in favour to hold all TV, Radio and other important media rights after 2000 in the way to be even more strong and atractive in near future for all Nascar fans. That means many TV houses may be in troubles after the end of their exclusive rights for covering all Winton and Busch series. "The decision by NASCAR was made after considerable research," said Mike Helton, senior vice president and chief operating officer for NASCAR. "By retaining and negotiating the rights, we will be able to develop new strategic values and new media products that would not have been possible under our old approach. Today's decision will continue to propel the growth of the sport well into the next century and we believe it will significantly benefit the entire industry, and particularly our fans."

FINN JUHA KANKKUNEN LEADS SAFARI RALLY.
FEB 25 - Finn Juha Kankkunen begins his 130th Rally in career in the best way he can. He leads the way after great run through the Jamhuri park on the outskirts of Nairobi. Sainz is careful at the start: 'There was a big ditch in there so we took it carefully because it would be silly to have unnecessary damage to the car at this point. The rally is going to be long and hard – Kenya has been without serious rain for nearly seven months so the roads are very dry and will be tough on the car.'
Leading times: Kankkunen Subaru 1:53.4 Burns Subaru 1:54.4 Sainz Toyota 1:54.5 McRae Ford 1:55.2 Liatti SEAT 1:55.4 Duncan Toyota 1:55.6

LOT OF INTERESTING COMMENTS FROM F1 PITS.
FEB 25 - Damon Hill said about no.1: "I think it can be. It is just a small step away. But it is Honda's decision whether it wants to put all its eggs into one basket and give us the push we need." He summed up by saying: "It was immediately obvious that this chassis package was a great deal better than last year. The car is quite quick, but we all want more because we know that there's a huge difference between being number uno and one of the rest."
Hill and Head think Coulthard must be more selfish to be a championship contender. Hill expressed: "David has to remember that he has a greater obligation to himself than to McLaren. A driver's career is brief, and if you get a break at the top, it is an even shorter time. Nobody is going to expect him to defer, certainly in the earlier part of the season". Few days earlier Patrick Head also expresed the same: "There is no reason why he can't battle for the championship, but he need to change mind in his head."
The Jordan Grand Prix factory was busy into the early hours of Thursday morning with team members packing up the cars and freight for Australia. After Damon Hill had shaken down his race car for Melbourne (the fourth Jordan Mugen-Honda 199 chasis), his mechanics stripped the car down to pack it up with Heinz-Harald's race car, the spare car and some 87 packing cases carrying 16,000 kilos of freight. "There is always a massive push to get everything ready for the first race, " explained Team Owner Eddie Jordan. "No matter how well prepared you are, you always want to use every minute to keep working and testing the car to have it as finely tuned for the first race as possible. That inevitably means several late nights before things are finally ready to fly out. It certainly creates a big buzz around the factory." Cold and wet conditions at Silverstone did not dampen Damon's spirits as he shook down the car yesterday. He was very pleased with the running of his race car and excited about the first race. "Even after all these years of F1 racing, I still get very excited by the start of the season," he said. Both Jordan drivers fly out to Australia early to acclimatise and adjust to the eleven hour time change. Team members follow this weekend. The truckies will set up the garage at the circuit on Monday 1st February, work on the car then begins in earnest on Tuesday. ( JORDANGP , AUTOSPORT )

FINN SALO ALMOST FOR SURE OUT!
FEB 25 - According to the close sources Arrows team is rather to decide for Takagi as second driver in '99 season. Salo did not perform too impressive in last tests and team is more on Japanese side at the moment also because of sponsorship money that will come from Tora Takagi. Tom Walkinshaw is in favour of keeping Mika Salo while Morgan Grenfell Private Equity would prefer Takagi and the budget of approximately 4 million pounds he would bring with if being signed for the upcoming season.

ALMOST ALL TEAMS COMPLETED TEST PROGRAM.
FEB 25 - Damon Hill shows the way to all rivals in wet Silverstone as he posted quickest lap in third Jordan chassis. Two cars were already sent to Melbourne by Jordan team. Second quickest was again very impressive Jos Verstappen in Honda prototype, third quickest was Giancarlo Fisichella for Benetton team. Next drivers that attend at testing on Wednesday were in order by posted time also Rossa for Arrows, Wurz for Benetton, Zanardi in Williams, Villeneuve in BAR, Takagi in second Arrows and Zonta in second BAR car. Hill made the most laps on Wednesday, exactly 27laps in wet conditions, Verstappen made 24laps, all others less than 10 laps. Mayor test actions were held into the afternoon, as morning was too wet. British American Racing today completed its final shakedown tests before departing for the first Grand Prix of the 1999 Formula One season in Australia. Villeneuve said about his hopes for season opener after the final test: "We used this shakedown to verify that everything was in place and ready for Australia. For example, we made sure that the pedals and seat were comfortable for me. This was not a test as such, so it did not help on the performance front, but we can now go to Melbourne confident that all is fine and that we should be competitive in our first race." Williams, Minardi and Benetton team drivers will fly to Australia in few days, as they want to be fully acclimatize for the season opener.
In Fiorano Eddie Irvine was the lonely driver and made 72laps. That means he made virtually full race distance and Ferrari team is confident about reliability of the car. Schumacher was not testing. Team is ready to prepare cars for final shake down and send them to Australia. All teams will send their cars to Australia before the end of this week. First free practice in Melbourne is scheduled for Friday's morning on March fifth. See also test times page.

JAN MAGNUSSEN SAFE AT PANOZ!
FEB 24 - Dane Jan Magnussen, ex Stewart Formula One team driver has signed for Panoz team and his seat is reserved for full 1999 season. He will be driving in FIA GT series, although 1999 calendar was not jet fully announced. 'We have been lucky to acquire the services of Jan Magnussen and we are delighed with him,' said team boss Don Panoz. 'He is one of the best drivers around.'

HILL AND HERBERT HAPPY ABOUT LUCKY END OF 300KPH SHUNT!
FEB 24 - Stewart driver Johnny Herbert has praised the safety advances made by Formula 1 in the last decade for allowing him to walk away from a 190mph shunt. Herbert and Damon Hill likened the crash at Barcelona last weekend to the Formula 3000 crash in which Herbert cam close to losing his legs at Brands Hatch in 1988. Herbert was able to climb out of his Stewart with just a stiff neck on Saturday. 'The head protection did a damn good job,' said Herbert, 'and though you could see where my helmet had crushed the structure, I stayed conscious throughout and was able to walk away without any bruises. The rear wing failed just as I was going past the exit of the pit lane and the car just turned sharply to the left at around 190mph. The car did a quick 180 and hit the barrier with the right-side. It was a big impact which glanced the car off again and sent it sliding down to the first corner.' Hill was coming out of the pits just as the accident happened. 'His rear wing just collapsed and pitched him left into the barrier,' said Hill. 'I could see his car going down the barrier, and it just carried on crashing, ending up right in the middle of the track down by Turn 1. It was the biggest shunt I have ever seen. It was an Indy-style shunt. He ended up demolishing the car all the way down to the end of the straight. I legged it down there in the car and parked just by him to see if he was ok. Mercifully, he was virtually unscathed. He gave me the thumbs up, so I came straight back to the pits.' The crash was the first test of the new-for-'99 wheel restraints which are designed to keep the wheels attached to the car in a shunt. All four worked flawlessly. 'That was quite impressive,' said Hill. 'They're better off not bouncing around.' 'Front and rear wing failures are two of the worst things that can happen because they only happen at high speed. The effect is the car has effectively lost all its drag. There is nothing to decelerate the car at all.' The FIA is aware of Hill's concerns and it was on the agenda for the meeting held on Tuesday of the Technical Working Group.

MORE TESTING FOR BTCC TEAMS!
FEB 24 - British ace James Thompson topped testing times at Jerez circuit with Frenchman Christopne Boullion finishing close behind into the second in last two days of testing.
Leading times: James Thompson Honda 1.45.86 Jean-Christopne Boullion Renault 1.45.89 Anthony Reid Ford 1.46.27 Alain Menu Ford 1.46.46 Rickard Rydell Volvo 1.46.75 Paula Cook Honda 1.48.78 (autosport)

TEST REPORT FROM LAGUNA SECA.
FEB 24 - Team Rahal driver Bryan Herta continued to ride his wave of success at Laguna Seca Raceway on Tuesday as he unofficially toppled the existing track record during the opening day of the CART Open Test. Brian Herta has made best lap of 1:07.728 (new record) with his team mate Max Papis close behind him in second spot with time of 1:08.286. Rookie Pablo Montoya finished third quickest for Ganassi team with time of 1:08.419 and Robby Gordon clocked time of 1:09.544 and finished as fourth fastest. There attend also Richie Hearn, Adrian Fernandez and PJ Jones. (cart)

EDDIE JORDAN: 'HILL WILL QUITE IF JORDANS ARE UNCOMPETITIVE.'
FEB 24 - We got almost sensational news from Jordan team few moments ago (13:00GMT) as Damon Hill frightened all his fans all over the world with the speech that he will retire after '99 season in case Jordan car will not be a winning car. He described himself as very good driver, but he needs all support from the team to do job in the way he wants to! Jordan team sources said that Hill wants everything or nothing, so just be or not to be. No middle ways for him any more, according to the Jordan internal sources. Team boss Eddie Jordan, who has teamed Hill with Heinz-Harald Frentzen for the new campaign also said: 'How long Damon can go on, I don't know. If he does a good job for us, we'll want him to stay. If he doesn't, he'll want to stop himself. He'll be strong enough to make that decision.'

TUESDAY WAS ONE OF THE LAST TESTING DAYS FOR F1 TEAMS.
FEB 23 - In Silverstone we can watch five drivers that attend on the circuit. Fastest among them was Italian Fisichella for Benetton, second fastest was Wurz in second Benetton, third Verstappen in Honda prototype, fourth Schumacher for Williams and fifth fastest Villeneuve for BAR team. Weather was not an ideal, but was at least dry according to the teams. Ferrari team continued with testing at Fiorano, home track. Both drivers, Schumacher and Irvine attend on test. They plan to finish with testing program probably on Thursday as last cars will be shipped to Melbourne on Friday. In Mugellofor Minardi team also run both drivers, Badoer and Gene.

NEW LIVERIES FOR BAR TEAM BEFORE SEASON OPENER.
FEB 23 - British American Racing launched their 99 contender in dual liveries on January 1999, but now they change outside look of the car after quite strong dispute with FIA organization. This week the team started their final testing session before the start of the season and all was revealed when their identical cars appeared on the Silverstone circuit with the British American Tobacco 555 logo on the one side and the Lucky Strike logo on the other side. Max Mosley, FIA boss already commented: "We can't stop them doing that under our rules, although we think it is not the ideal situation." Many sources around F1 teams are of opinion that BAR team is still in big danger to continue fight with FIA into the middle of season, what for sure will not be any good for the new team competing in F1 series. Craig Pollock, Team BAR boss also confirmed that team must only concentrate on racing from the first day at Melbourne: "Now it is time to re-focus on the business of racing. Ultimately, it is on the track where British American Racing must make its mark. I believe we are capable of doing just that."

BRAZILIAN BARROS STRONG IN PRE SEASON TEST AT JEREZ!
FEB 23 - Brazilian Alex Barros hit the top of the timing sheets on the final day of the IRTA Test at Jerez today to end up fastest overall from the three day pre-season test. In the 250 class there were no surprises as Italian Valentino Rossi was fastest once more.
Final testing times from Jerez: 1Alex BARROS BRA Honda 1'42.780 2 John KOCINSKI USA Honda 1'42.858 3 Kenny ROBERTS Jr. USA Suzuki 1'43.363 4 Norick ABE JPN Yamaha 1'43.714 5 Jean Michel BAYLE FRA Modenas 1'43.911 6 Max BIAGGI ITA Yamaha 1'44.068 45 7 Carlos CHECA SPA Yamaha 1'44.180 8 Juan BORJA SPA Honda 1'44.192 9 Tetsuya HARADA JPN Aprilia 1'44.240 10 Luca CADALORA ITA Muz 1'44.915 (dorna)

BENETTON AND HONDA AT SILVERSTONE, SCHUMACHER AT FIORANO.
FEB 23 - Giancarlo Fisichella and Alexander Wurz were both running for Benetton team, while Jos Vertappen was running for Honda team at Silverstone on Monday. Best time posted Italian Fisichella, ahead of Verstappen and team mate Wurz. Weather was really bad on Monday, so only pray can help British based teams for better Tuesday. On Tuesday are many teams expected to run last test ahead of season opener in Melbourne, Australia. Benetton have in plan race simulation if weather improves.
Michael Schumacher undertook the shakedown of Ferrari's second F399 on Monday at Fiorano. During the session he did a total of 18 laps in wet conditions with a fastest time of 1:08.200 in a trouble free session. Michael Schumacher will continue with testing on Tuesday at Fiorano.

CART RACING SCHOOL FULL OF WORK!
FEB 23 - Members of the all-female PPG Pace Car Driving Team, which paces the field at all FedEx Championship Series events, recently completed their annual refresher course at the Bob Bondurant School of High Performance Driving in Phoenix, Ariz. Thirteen members of the team participated in three days of testing at the Bondurant facility, driving Ford Mustang GTs on both the 1.6-mile Bondurant circuit and the 1.1-mile West course. (cart)

VOLVO TO DECIDE ABOUT SECOND DRIVER, HARVEY OPTIMISTIC FOR NISSAN!
FEB 23 - Also in BTCC series many things are happening at the moment. Not only a lot of testing, but also drivers' seat are not jet fully decided. 'TWR Volvo asked if they can enter a car as TBA but we've advised them that the registrations have to be complete,' said BTCC boss Alan Gow. For Volvo are on the entry list Tim Harvey, Vincent Radermecker and Jan Nilsson.
Privateer Matt Neal is on target to win the £250,000 on offer to any independent who wins a round of the BTCC this year. Neal's will race a '98-spec Primera which, unlike the works cars this year, has not been forced to change from the racing-friendly wishbone rear suspension.
Series will begin in five weeks time, with season opener at Donington Park on April fifth.

TOM ANDERSEN, FORMER ZANARDI'S TEAM MANAGER PRAISED ITALIAN!
FEB 22 - Now new F1 star, double CART champion, Alex Zanardi rejected an offer of 8 million pounds from Target Chip Ganassi team and signed 'only' worth 3 million pounds offer to drive for Williams Formula One team. Tom Anderson, Zanardi's former team manager from Ganassi team praised Zanardi's move and said: 'He is far better than Jacques Villeneuve. Providing he is given a competitive car, I believe he will be more than a match for Schumacher and the rest.'

PROST TEAM READY FOR COME BACK ACTION!
FEB 22 - Prost team finished testing days in Barcelona on first spot. In spite of running the AP02 with a light fuel load and on fresh tyres, Jarno Trulli is adamant that the AP02's got the potential to get the Prost team right up there with the middle runners. He added that there is still room for improvement, but stressed that the AP02 can't be compared with the team's AP01 used in the 1998 season. He summed up by saying: "It is a true racing car, a true F1." The team will run shake down programe at Magny Coursecircuit on Tuesday, Feb 23rd.

JORDAN TEAM OPTIMISTIC, HILL ALSO VICTIM OF HERBERT CRASH!
FEB 22 - Last week Jordan team undertook their last full testing session at Barcelona over a four day period and it was the first full week of testing for newly signed Heinz-Harald Frentzen. He clocked a fastest time of 1:21.34 over the four days and said the following after the session: "The car feels good and we have done some very good work here this week. There are still things we need to improve before the race in Australia, but I am confident this can be done." He ended the four day session in third place overall. Damon Hill had an eventful last day at Barcelona when he had to cut short his session when Herbert's wing came off in front of him causing him to spin his car as he was coming into the pit lane. According to the team's test manager, Tim Holloway the damage could have been much worse. He added: "I think everyone was relieved that the chassis was not damaged." Hill himself was disappointed about cutting short his session but said that overall the team made much needed improvements to the speed and the set-up of the car. Jordan team already shipped two cars into Australia, Melbourne, while third car will be shipped after the shake down test at Silverstone on Wednesday, Feb 24th which will be held by Damon Hill.

DURA LUBE POST RACE COMMENTS AND FACTS!
FEB 22 - Mark Martin, Ford Taurus driver feels that he lost more times than won the race into the pits. Such were also his comments: "There's all kinds of things that can go wrong on restarts. Believe me, I've lost a lot more races than I've won, and there's all kind of ways to lose them. "To me, every restart was just another opportunity to have something go wrong. But we had the car to pull it off there at the end." Second placed Jarrett was trying to pass Martin, but he did not have enough speed into the last corners and also comented: "That was going to be my one shot if I could do something on the restart. I tried to get a really good run on him, but Mark got to the corner before I did, so that was kind of it after that. It seems like we have second place down pat. We just can't get to victory lane here." Jeff Gordon, while ha was into top five lost the engine and just said: . "Today pretty much shows it doesn't matter what you do in Daytona. You've got to do it every weekend."

MARK MARTIN SNATCHED JUBILANT 30 RACE VICTORY AT DURA LUBE!
FEB 22 - Ford's star, Mark Martin wins thrilling Rockingham Dura Lube 400 miles long race ahead of another Ford driver Dale Jarrett. Both finished last season's Winston Cup Series into top three overall, but they have enough of waiting, and they are back. Bobby Labonte finished well third for Pontiac manufacturer, fourth place went to Jef Burton and fifth to Jeremy Mayfield. In pre season tests and also on Daytona 500 Fords were not so high, but at the right moment they climbed back, and now we get them all around top five group. Three time's Winston Cup Champion Jeff Gordon finished race even before the finish line as his Chevy car finished the race into the blue white smoke. Ernie Irvan crashed with his Pontiac two times at Rockingham, but survived till the end of finish line, his car was totally wrecked at the back side, but crossed finish line anyway.
Finishing spots: 1 Martin Ford 2 Jarrett Ford 3 B Labonte Pontiac 4 Burton Ford 5 Mayfield Ford

MIKA SALO NOT ON THE ENTRY LIST FOR AUSTRALIAN GP!
FEB 22 - Strange, but confirmed news are that Finn Mika Salo, currently still driver for Arrows team is not on the entry drivers' list for the season opener. All others are on, funny is also that Tora Takagi is on the list. What that means? Simply, Japanese Tiger may be drafted by Arrows team after FIA govering body decided that Pedro Diniz can leave Arrows team freely without money charge. Arrows team is short on money and Finn simply droped out. Salo did not perform strong in last tests at Barcelona and Silverstone. Tora Takagi may bring to the team over $5million sponsorship money. Many spectators from Melbourne have already noticed that the Arrows pits carry Tora Takagi's name as Arrows' second driver. However, the Australian Grand Prix organisers said this weekend that the names of the drivers were presented to the track by the FIA and not by the teams themselves. Teams can change driver's line up till March 4th.

AMERICAN JOHN KOCINSKI DOMINATES IN 500cc SPRING TESTS!
FEB 22 - The traditional IRTA Tests at Jerez in Southern Spain, got underway on Friday with John Kocinski leading the 500cc field on board his Kanemoto Honda machine. The American, one of the few factory Honda riders to contest these winter practices, scored a best lap time of 1.43.275. He was 0.3 seconds faster than Brazilian Alex Barros (Honda). Another of the main attractions was Luca Cadalora’s debut with MuZ, whilst the Yamahas of Max Biaggi and Carlos Checa had difficulties to match the pace at the front. In the 250 class, Italian youngster Valentino Rossi rode under the official lap record. On second day Kocinski continued with impressive run and posted even better time. ( DORNA )

MINARDI TEAM VERY ENCURAGED BY MUGELLO TESTS.
FEB 21 - Italian Luca Badoer was running M2 car on Thursday, Friday and Saturday and posted very promising times, best time was only one second slower of Eddie's Ferrari time. The Team worked on the set-up and on engine verifications. As for reliability the car ran trouble free. In the course of the day the Italian driver simulated a number of starts in order to get familiar with the GP routine procedures after being absent from the competitions for a long period. Badoer made exactly 55 laps and will continue with testing on Tuesday before shipping to Melbourne, Australi.

ANDRETTI AND FITTIPALDI WILL MEET WITH FANS.
FEB 21 - Newman - Haas Racing team mates Michael Andretti and Christian Fittipaldi will be in Palm Desert, Calif. on Thursday for an appearance at the Equilon Lubricants Conference and Awards Dinner at the Palm Desert Marriott Hotel. Later on Fittipaldi will travel to Detroit, where he will make an appearance on behalf of title sponsor Kmart at the 47th Annual 1999 Big Kmart Detroit Autorama at Cobo Hall. The Autorama is one of the oldest and biggest custom car shows in the country. Fittipaldi will meet with the fans and made some promotion for title sponsor. ( CART )

RUDD WILL START FROM POLE AT 12:30 ET / 18:30 GMT.
FEB 21 - Ricky Rudd, man who was waiting for pole position for a good three seasons is ready to begin Dura Lube 400 race from first place and finish from where he will start. On the front row he will be partnered by Jeff Burton, who also did not have much of luck on this circuit. Both Ford front starters will try to stop charging Jeff Gordon in Chevy, who will start from second row. Will Ford drivers stop Chevy's star or not for second straight win, you can see all the answers into OFFICIAL TIMING SYSTEM PROVIDED BY NASCAR.COM.

JOHNNY HERBERT INVOLVED IN HIGH SPEED CRASH!
FEB 21 - Johnny Herbert, new driver for Stewart team in '99 season has faced yesterday with high speed crash at Barcelona circuit. High speed crash resulted in red light for other drivers as safety crew helped Brit to come out of the wrecked car and moved car out of safety gravel. "I do not remember a lot about it, but all I know is that the car went left at very high speed," explained Herbert. "All I got was a slight bump on the knee, but other than that, I'm fine." Both team mate Rubens Barrichello and team boss Jackie Stewart were eye witnesses of 300kph crash at the end of finish straight in Barcelona circuit. "It was a big impact," said Barrichello. "I'm just glad Johnny is okay" Both Stewart and Herbert praised the strength of the chassis, and the current regulations, for their role in allowing Herbert to walk away. "What it demonstrates is that the safety elements in today's F1, both for the car and the driver, work very well indeed," said Stewart.

IRVINE RUN F399 AT FIORANO, MIXED TIMES ON LAST DAY AT BARCELONA CIRCUIT.
FEB 20 - On Saturday, it was Eddie Irvine's first time in the car he will use to contest this year's world championship. In the morning he did around twenty laps, working on his driving position in the car. In the afternoon, he did a few runs, making changes to the set-up and balance of the car. At the end of the day, Irvine said he was happy with the way his first run in the new car had gone and also with the work achieved. Testing ended at 18h00. Irvine completed a total pf 45 laps, with a best time of 1.27.804. Ferrari will run at Fiorano starting on Monday 22nd February.
In Barcelona we have mixed times. As teams did not jet posted their press releases we can only guess what happened on Saturday at Barcelona. Quickest was Jarno Trulli (Prost), who clocked best lap time of 1:21.09 and made over 50laps, second quickest was another surprise Rubens Barrichello (Stewart) who was less than one tenth of second back, third was Frentzen (Jordan), who made over 70 laps, most on Saturday of all drivers presented at Barcelona circuit. Fourth was again very consistent Hill in second Jordan car, but was able to run less than 10 laps. Top five list was completed by Panis in second Prost car. All those drivers into top five were in 0,5seconds. Rest, including in order Hakkinen, Coulthard (both McLarens), Diniz (Sauber) and Herbert (Stewart) were one second or more back to the best time posted by Trulli in Prost car. Herbert was also in troubles and made less than 10 laps (see above). Most of the teams used new tyres, work on set up of the cars as they already shake down cars for Melbourne, Australian GP in two weeks time. Few teams will continue with testing next week at Silverstone. After all week we can say that McLaren is in great shape, Jordan also looks strong. Stewart, Prost and Sauber are also very close to the top, but not fully on top!

RICKY RUDD SPRINGS BIG SURPRISE AND GRABS DURA LUBE POLE POSITION!
FEB 20 - After rainy conditions and postponed qualifying runs, Winston Cup series drivers finally got opportunity to qualify for Sunday's race at Rockingham speedway. Ricky Rudd, Ford driver who was waiting for that moment four seasons, grabs Dura Lube pole position for 400 miles long race. Rudd's lap of 23.284 seconds, at an average speed of 157.241 mph, puts him in the top spot for tomorrow's race. Rudd will be joined on the front row by another minor surprise, Jeff Burton, who struggled in Bud Pole Qualifying all last season. The rest of the top-5, however, went according to form, with Jeff Gordon, Jeremy Mayfield and Mark Martin starting third through fifth.
Leading times: Ricky Rudd Frd 157.241mph Jeff Burton Frd 157.180 Jeff Gordon Chv 157.167 Jeremy Mayfield Frd 157.018 Mark Martin Frd 156.931 Rusty Wallace Frd 156.904 Mike Skinner Chv 156.864 Brett Bodine Frd 156.689 Bobby Labonte Pon 156.676 John Andretti Pon 156.649

TRAGEDY AT RALLY TASMANIA.
FEB 20 - Two rally drivers were killed in Tasmania, Australia, today when their car crashed into a tree. The driver and navigator, whose names have not yet been released, were competing in a Subaru WRX in the three-day Rally Tasmania.

FORMER ZANARDI CHIEF MECHANIC MOVED UP ONE STEP HIGHER!
FEB 20 - ( CART ) Rob Hill has moved one step higher at Chip Ganassi Racing team. Hill has served as chief mechanic with Target/Chip Ganassi Racing since 1996, and helped guide Alex Zanardi to FedEx Championship Series driving championships in both 1997 and '98. "Although we've been successful with a two-car team, there are challenges," said Tom Anderson, managing director of Target/Chip Ganassi Racing. "With Rob's people skills and racing knowledge, our team's overall communication will improved with him serving as crew chief." Hill has moved to the new position of crew chief. He will oversee Hodgson, who will be from now chief mechanic for Montoya and Weaver, who will continue as Vasser's chief mechanic.

FIA CONFIRMED DINIZ MOVE TO SAUBER TEAM.
FEB 20 - The FIA Contract Recognition Board has decided that Brazilian driver Pedro Diniz can easily drive for Swiss Sauber team in 1999 season. Arrows were trying to enforce the contract, which committed Diniz to the team for both 1998 and 1999. However, it is understood that the contract included a get-out clause, which was performance-related. And we know very well where they finished last season. They scored 6 points in total. The decision leaves Diniz free to race for the Sauber-Petronas team. It also left Arrows with a significant hole in their budget, since Diniz is rumoured to bring up to ten million dollars of personal sponsorship with him.

MOSLEY HAPPY ABOUT RETURN OF US GP.
FEB 20 - Max Mosley is very happy about return of US GP event in 2000 season. He said that Formula One competition need to be more world wide open and not just for European continent. He also said why US dropped out in last few seasons: 'The single problem in the United States was that there was no permanent home, which builds up a tradition. One sees that all of these circuits where you have got 20 years or more of a Grand Prix, it starts to build a tradition, it becomes an annual event. It's very important to have stability in a permanent home, and I think Indianapolis will provide that."

JORDAN THREATENS IN BARCELONA, FERRARI'S RACE DISTANCE TEST AT MUGELLO.
FEB 20 - Heinz Harald Frentzen tops times on Friday in Jordan car at Barcelona circuit, second was David Coulthard for McLaren and very close in top three second Jordan driver Damon Hill. Jordan showed impressive runs yesterday, as both drivers made over 60 laps, both commented that car improves dramatically from day to day. Coulthard has beaten '98 champion for a very long time ago. So, yesterday he did exactly that. Fourth fastest was also very quick Stewart driver Rubens Barrichello and only than Mika Hakkinen in second McLaren. All entire drivers that stay off best time more than one second were in order, Panis, Trulli, Herbert, Diniz. Frentzen clocked best time of 1:21.37.
Double world champion Michael Schumacher was once again behind the wheel of Ferrari's F399 on Friday at Mugello where the team is working on the final preparations for the season opener at Melbourne in Australia on March 7th. The German driver spent the morning session working on the setup of the car and the afternoon session was spent on reliability testing. Schumacher completed a race distance simulation, which included two pit stops for refueling and new tyres. He completed a total of 80 laps and managed to set a time of 1:27.406 seconds around the 5.250 km Mugello racetrack. Irishman Eddie Irvine will takeover the testing duties on Saturday and will drive a F399. The team's test driver Luca Badoer was also in action, but drove the Minardi. All times are available on F1 test page.

SPRING TRAININGS TO CONTINUE.
FEB 19 - Next week, on February 23rd and 24th many drivers will attend on spring trainings at Laguna Seca racing circuit. Nine drivers are on the entry list for the test, ranging from Michael Andretti, rookies Juan Montoya and Cristiano da Matta. Robby Gordon, the only owner and driver in the FedEx Championship Series, is scheduled to test at Laguna Seca after an initial shakedown of Team Gordon's recently delivered Swift chassis this weekend. Other drivers on the entry list include the Team Rahal tandem of Bryan Herta and Max Papis. Patrick Racing teammates Adrian Fernandez and PJ Jones and Della Penna Motorsports driver Richie Hearn are also on the entry list for this test.

FIA ANGERED BY BAR'S COMPLAINT AFTER ALL!
FEB 19 - FIA organization is very angry about BAR team behavior and two different ways they are doing in F1 competition. At the same moment they told FIA that they will respect court decision, in other way they lodged complaint against earlier decision. 'We feel that was outside the spirit, if not the letter, of the Concorde Agreement,' said Mosley. He also said the team were "going too far in the tobacco advertising area. Several governments make concessions and allow (teams) to run with tobacco advertising, but one mustn't overdo it.'

SCALVINI TOPS 125cc TESTING TIMES!
FEB 19 - ( DORNA ) With the current champion Kazuto Sakata not attending these test sessions, the Italians have placed four riders in the top six. Only Japanese Masao Azuma and France As Arnaud Vincent prevented the complete hegemony of Scalvini, Locatelli, Marco Melandri and Lucio Cecchinello. Both Melandri and Cecchinello crashed out on Thursday, with Melandri escaping almost uninjured whilst his fellow countryman hurt his left foot.

BARRICHELLO HARDLY AWAITS MAIDEN VICTORY.
FEB 19 - Brazilian Rubens Barrichello hardly expect his first victory in F1 competition. He is very confident about Stewart chances for first win this season and has spoken out: "I think that if I was with another team this year, then I would say that I would be facing a tough 1999. But I know I am not - and I am with someone who wants to win. Like everyone else, Jackie wants to do well in Formula One. He has got ambitious plans and he is following them through, contacting people, expanding things and generally doing more than he has ever done before. He is spending time with the right people, so I feel I have every confidence in him."

'EURO' NASCAR COMPETITION?
FEB 19 - German driver Ralf Schumacher and his manager Willi Weber begin with new 'secret' plan in Europe. Weber wants to open new series in Europe that will be the same to the NASCAR competition over Atlantic. The Williams driver put the top-secret new car through its paces at the Vairano test track in northern Italy last week. The planned 'Euroc' series is the brainchild of Schumacher's manager, Willi Weber, and former BMW and Mercedes sports boss Jochen Neerpasch. It is also expected that next year series could begin.

RADSTROM TO MISS SAFARI RALLY!
FEB 18 - Radstrom sustained the injury when he slipped and fell on some steps in a Nairobi hotel in Tuesday afternoon. He had just arrived in Kenya to begin preparations for the Safari event but will now be flown back to Sweden where doctors will decide if his leg needs to be pinned. The initial report says that he has received two breaks to his lower left leg.

TEST REPORTS FROM BARCELONA, SILVERSTONE AND MUGELLO!
FEB 18 - On a sunny Thursday in Barcelona, all F1 teams were allowed to run only from 3:00PM to 6:00PM as other motorsport series also have scheduled testing at Barcelona circuit. Hakkinen again clocked fastest time of the day for McLaren team, second quickest was Jordan fresh driver Frentzen, closely followed by Coulthard in second McLaren car. Hill finished day as fourth fastest for second Jordan car. Both Jordans run trouble free all day! Diniz clocked fifth and Panis sixth fastest time for Sauber and Prost team.
In mixed weather conditions, Alexander Wurz posted quickest lap for Benetton team, Fisicihella did not attend on Thurday's test. Arrows regular drivers Salo and Rossa also test revised A20, but they were both runing mostely in wet conditions.
In Mugello Ferrari team continued with testing. Michael Schumacher was runing in F399, while Eddie Irvine still in modified F300. Both drivers improved their times, posted on Wednesday. Schumacher made over 90 laps, so again full Grand Prix simulation. Testing continues all over the Europe on Friday.

OVAL CONSTRUCTIONS IN EUROPE FOR AMERICAN SERIES!
FEB 18 - ( AUTOSPORT ) In Britain and in Germany already begin with the construction of big oval speedway, that will provide American series to move over the Atlantic also into Europe continent. Germany's Lausitzring will race against the Rockingham Motor Speedway in the bid to bring US open-wheelers to Europe. In the Britain also have in plan the £50 million stadium complex on the outskirts of Corby on Northamptonshire that will centre on a 1.5-mile oval and a 2.237-mile infield course.

BADOER WILL BE SECOND DRIVER FOR MINARDI TEAM!
FEB 18 - The Minardi team announced on Thursday that Luca Badoer will drive for them in the 1999 season, but he will also be Ferrari's test driver. Badoer, who previously drove for the team said he kept a good relation with the team ever since he left and is very excited about the opportunity to drive in the upcoming season.

ARROWS MAY RUN V12, McLAREN NOT JET DECIDED.
FEB 18 - It is reported that the Arrows Formula One team might run with a V12 engine in the near future. According to a leading magazine, the Arrows team is contemplating building their own V12 to be used in stead of the V10 the team is using in the upcoming season.
McLaren team will decide on which car to use for season opener just after the end of testing in Spain. The team didn't want to go into specifics, but a spokesperson for the team said: "There is no definitive answer. We are keeping our options open at the minute."

MAST SHORT ON SPONSORSHIP MONEY!
FEB 18 - ( NASCAR ) It looked like gloom at the tail end of 1998 for Rick Mast, who did not have a ride, and owner Cale Yarborough, who was forced to shut down a majority of his operation that had ran cars for more than 10 seasons. The arrival of South Carolina auto dealer Wayne Burdette as co-owner helped the team get back on track and produced an amazing performance at Daytona. Mast's next stop -- at North Carolina Speedway in Rockingham -- is for the same race he sat on the Bud Pole in 1998. The only question mark is sponsorship.

WEDNESDAY NEWS FROM TESTING ALL OVER THE EUROPE AND AFRICA.
FEB 17 - Both Michael Schumacher and Eddie Irvine were in action on Wednesday, when both run in Ferrari cars. After a few laps to tune the new F399 to suit the Mugello track, Michael Schumacher did a grand prix distance simulation run with 73 laps. Everything went according to plan. Eddie still run in F300 car and tried few new components for F399 car. Jordan Team's final test before the Australian Grand Prix commenced on Wednesday in Barcelona with two new Jordan Mugen-Honda 199 cars running together for the first time. Damon Hill in Chassis number 01 was joined by team mate Heinz-Harald Frentzen in Chassis number 03 (Chassis 02 has been the chassis used for the FIA crash tests). In the first of a four day test, each Jordan driver ran his car for the maximum number of miles remaining on each engine - 64 laps for Frentzen, 57 for Hill. Frentzen lost some time in the morning due to an electrical fault, but otherwise set up work on both cars progressed unhindered, and both drivers posted good, consistent lap times. Jordan team also plans testing on Friday and Saturday at Barcelona circuit. McLaren drivers Hakkinen and Coulthard posted almost identical times as Jordan drivers, as both teams also simulated race run. But main surprise of the day was very good run by Jean Alesi, who posted quickest time of the day in his Sauber car. But he run on low fuel as they were trying few more new parts for season opener,now just three weeks away. Prost car was driven only by Jarno Trulli, who posted also close time to both McLarens. Prost's revised car and engine worked pretty well on Wednesday. The Winfield Williams team has now completed its test at Kyalami. The team had to stop running just after lunch as both cars were damaged after going off the track but both drivers got in some good running in the morning. Overall a lot of progress has been made at this test and the team is happy. Testing will probably continue for Williams team next week in the cooler conditions of Silverstone. James Robinson, senior Williams engineer said at the end of testing in Kyalami: "We have learned a lot at this test about the car and especially about temperatures! On the good side, we have got a good grasp of the problems and their corresponding solutions. However the bad side is that Melbourne will be upon us very soon." In oppressively hot conditions, Ricardo Zonta managed to put in 20 laps for the BAR team on the last day of testing at Kyalami circuit, reliability issues terminating his runs prematurely on several occasions. The young Brazilian also suffered two minor off-course excursions, due at least in part to the very slippery track surface. The resulting delays meant British American Racing did not have the opportunity to run its car in qualifying trim with new tyres or low fuel, as the Williams team did during the morning. Zonta also has to said after last day at Kyalami circuit: "Today hasn't gone as well as we expected, but I am still very happy with the team. They have worked really hard all week and, despite the problems, everybody retains great motivation. We've learned a great deal this week, and that's more important that setting a good lap time." Benetton team and Arrows team run in cold Silverstone on Wednesday. Alexander Wurz was driving for Benetton team, while Tora Takagi ( lost seat to Rossa in Arrows already, now in game for second Minardi seat ) and Mika Salo were driving for Arrows team. Especially Takagi lapped very impressive times, very close to the times posted by Wurz in Benetton. That was also best ever result for Arrows car this season. Salo was again driving in frustrating style, more than one second back of best time posted by Japanese driver Takagi. Giancarlo Fisichella did not attend on Wednesday's test. On Thurday we can also expect Stewart team to test car in Silverstone.
( JORDAN WILLIAMS BAR FERRARI )

JOHN CLELAND ENJOYS IN NEW VAUXHALL CAR.
FEB 17 - Brit Cleland, this season driver for Vauxhall team was very impressed about new '99 challenger. He also said: 'It is a massive improvement on where we were at this stage last year, it has the potential to win races and maybe the championship. There is a lot still to do, but it's looking really good.' Yvan Muller was a little bit less optimistic and said: 'In the winter you have so much speculation. It's difficult to say whether it it faster than the '98 car, because we have not run them on the same day.'

TAKAGI ALSO IN THE GAME FOR MINARDI SEAT, MALAYSIA CONFIRMED!
FEB 17 - Japanese driver Toranosuke Takagi is in frame for second Minardi drive. The 25-year-old is understood to have started talks with the team at the end of last week, and so has entered what appears to be a four-way battle for the second seat. Minardi sporting director Cesare Fiorio this week put Badoer's chances at 40%, Shinji Nakano and ex-Sauber man, Norberto Fontana's at 20% and Takagi's at 10%.
According to FIA president Max Mosley the Malaysian Grand Prix, scheduled for the 17th of October in Kuala Lumpur will go ahead. If the Malaysian GP will be cancelled, it will leave another five week gap in the upcoming 1999 season's calender. A possible substitute for such an event has been speculated to be the re-introduction of the Portuguese GP or even a South African GP. But, according to sources, the Malaysian organizers of the race has already paid the fees for the 1999 and 2000 season to secure themselves the right to host the Malaysian GP.

NEW CART RACE COMENTATOR.
FEB 17 - ( CART ) A new addition to the CART Public Relations staff is Merrill Cain, who joins the auto racing sanctioning organization as Broadcast Public Relations Manager from major league baseball's Detroit Tigers. Cain, a graduate of Central Michigan University with a bachelor's degree in Broadcast and Cinematic Arts, was Publications Manager and coordinated the Tigers' Internet site.

JEFF GORDON IS VERY MUCH WANTED MAN IN F1 COMPETITION!
FEB 17 - British legendary F1 driver, champion and now team owner of Stewart F1 team said that he was always interested in Gordon's driving services. Englishman was so much impressed during Daytona race weekend that he already offered Gordon test drive in Stewart F1 car. Jackie Stewart said: 'I tried to get Jeff to drive one of our team cars at Paul Stewart Racing once,' he said. 'I phoned him up once and said, 'Will you come over?' But it never happened because there wasn't an American company willing to cough up the $100,000 in sponsorship needed to send him to Europe. I must have been the first of the international bunch to see the potential of him.'

RUSH HOUR FOR MANY TEAMS THIS WEEK!
FEB 17 - Many teams will have this week full hands of work, as Melbourne is closer every day. They need to test many new components, few of them will already run revised cars, new powerplant and so on. Prost team already revised gear box, many other internal parts of the car, they lost two engines last week, Minardi will try new Ford engine, Jordan, Ferrari, Benetton, McLaren will also use few secret parts just to test that everything work properly. Stewart, Arrows also plan to use revised parts, such as front wings and other minor parts, that are not seen from outside. Benetton will test new controversial FTS break system. Many interesting things will happen this week, but times will not be best indicators, as we never know what test teams run, smoe with low fuel, some will run race distance and so on. All test times will be posted on our TEST side after 20:00 GMT.

WHY GORDON HAS DECIDED TO DRIVE IN NASCAR SERIES?
FEB 17 - Many Winston Cup fans, drivers are now with one question in head. Why the hell Jeff decided to drive in Winston Cup Championship. IRL series were not jet established at the time of his early driving career, Gordon was known as damn good oval racer, he loved and he still loves oval tracks. His passion is for sure overtaking moves on last laps of the race, he knows exactly time when to press on the full gas. Many today's drivers attend to drive in other categories, Gordon did not! Tony Stewart was IRL champion, now he is fighting with Gordon for NASCAR Cup throne, or for example one year ago we have another Gordon, Robbi Gordon, who was not so impressive in Winston Cup Series, but he already won few races in CART series. It is damn hard to be competitive in different series. Driving style, motivation, passion, everything must be at the right place for almost full season, to be at the end crowned as champion. Jeff did that three times out of four seasons, really impressive!

BOTH WILLIAMS AND BAR TEAM HAVE GOOD DAY AT KYALAMI ON TUESDAY!
FEB 16 - Both Williams and BAR team expressed big applaud to South Africa and Kyalami circuit over the past few days. Here attend over 60.000 crowd and weather is also nice and warm there. Both teams run very well on Tuesday, as both Williams drivers Alex Zanardi and Ralf Schumacher completed over 30 laps, Zonta for BAR team did also over 40 laps. Jacques Villeneuve flied home and will wait to hear more about team plans for the next week. Alex Zanardi concentrated on practicing his starts, while team mate Ralf Schumacher regained his composure after a spin in the morning part of the session on Tuesday. BAR team and Ricardo Zonta have suffered at the end of Tuesday test gearbox failure, same that happen few days ago to Villeneuve. Both teams will test only one more day, on Wednesday. Williams and BAR have in plan to finish a full race distance test, but that will be hard task for both teams! Main concern for the teams is reliability issue. Also Zanardi spoken out about that: "We came here and we have found more problems than we thought we would. However, this is a huge plus for us as we now know what we have to do before Melbourne. We have got a lot of good set-up work done which is making the car faster." Also Zonta said few words about his first impressions: "As this is my first visit to Kyalami, this morning I ran a few laps just to get to know the circuit and build up my confidence. It is a difficult track and it is important to find the limits, especially on the fast corners. Today was very productive for us. We did some long runs, which taught me a lot about the car and helped my engineers with their preparations for the first race. The car feels good and we found some promising set-ups that we will continue to work on Wednesday" Schumacher posted quickest lap time of 1:24.63, closely followed by team mate Zanardi 1:24.76. Zonta made the most lap on Tuesday, but only lapped time of 1:25.38 on his first day of testing at Kyalami.

INTERNATIONAL PROTOTYPE CUP CANCELED!
FEB 16 - Formerly well known FIA GT series project which is now known as IPC, drop into the wather after mayor companies such as Porsche, McLaren and other decided to withdrawal from previously known series due lack of motorsport success and big financial sums invested into that sport. There must be in at least 20 teams, but only Mercedes and Audi were interested for such cup. FIA press release blamed a lack of support from major manufacturers for the decision. The revamped FIA GT championship will still go ahead as planned. Calendar for revamped series will be published out after March 12. Last champions in such high rated Prototype cup were Zonta and Ludwig.

HOT WEATHER HITS RALLY ARRANGEMENTS.
FEB 16 - Soaring temperatures have forced the organisers of the Safari Rally to cut short the first and second legs through hilly countryside southwest of Nairobi. Top drivers arriving in Kenya for the World Championship event starting on 26 February have been met by temperatures of 29C. Officials warn it will be one of the toughest events in recent years. World champion Tommi Makinen, chasing a hat-trick having won in Monte Carlo and Sweden, starts the mandatory 10-day practice with his rivals this week.

McLAREN TO RUN '98 CAR, MINARDI'S NEW ENGINE, BRIDGESTONE IN TROUBLES!
FEB 16 - McLaren team is in big doubts about season opener in Melbourne. New car is according to the news from McLaren team not enough reliable and not enough quick. Coulthard lapped over one second slower times in '99 car than Hakkinen in last year's car. Only Hakkinen was able to run new car quicker of last year's model, but still admitted: 'Personally I would be very surprised if that happened.' But technical director Adrian Newey has said that using the title-winning MP4-13 in the first race next month, 'is an option we have always borne in the back of our minds'.
Minardi team will test this week at Mugello circuit new specification Ford engine. Only few more days can afford all mayor teams, as after the end of next week cars and all important parts will be shipped to Australia. Minardi team is very concerned about reliability issue, as only one good week will be available for them to test Ford's new engine.
Japanese tyre manufacturer Bridgestone is ahead of tuff task, as they will need to provide teams fresh rubber on four different places. BAR and Williams are testing in South Africa until Thursday, Minardi and Ferrari will run at Mugello from Wednesday, Jordan, Arrows, Benetton and Stewart will be testing at Silverstone from Wednesday with McLaren and Prost testing at Barcelona at the same time.

TEAM KOOL GREEN HELP NEWCOMER FOR BETTER FUTURE!
FEB 16 - Team KOOL Green general manager Kim Green will assume overall responsibility for the Atlantic Championship as part of the team's ongoing driver development program. They will provide racing car for very talented young driver Alex Gurney. "The opportunity to compete in the KOOL/Toyota Atlantic Championship is something I've always dreamed about," said Gurney. "The fact that I'll be doing it with Team KOOL Green makes it all the more exciting. Working with them last year was invaluable to my development as a racing driver and I hope to make similar progress this year in Atlantics."

NO TOBACCO ADDS FOR DRIVERS IN '99?
FEB 16 - The leading Labour MP Peter Hain said Formula One drivers should as a first step stop wearing tobacco adds on their overalls. "We would like to see the drivers taking tobacco off their helmets and overalls," he said. According to Hain it inspires young people to smoke: "If they were encouraged to stop wearing the branding, it would stop that almost sexy image of tobacco".

TAKAGI AIMS CHAMP CAR SERIES FOR '99 SEASON.
FEB 16 - Japanese driver, ex British Formula Vauxhall racer is close to sign deal for PPG CART team. Shinichi Takagi is aiming to graduate from the Japanese F3 series to a Champ Car ride with the Project Indy team. He would likely share the seat with sometime Grand Prix driver Mimmo Schiattarella.

NO TEACHING, NO RESULTS SAY IN PACWEST TEAM!
FEB 15 - ( CART ) Almost whole PacWest team, last season not so high in ranking list and both drivers Mauricio Gugelmin and Mark Blundell attended on special seminar 'Think out of Box'. All team was already impressed by chairman Mike Vance. "I believe that this seminar will give our people the tools to work together successfully in the coming season," remarked McCaw, who traveled from the Seattle area to attend the event in Indianapolis. "It is important for people to think in ways that they haven't before." Added McCaw: "I met Mike many years ago, and his teachings had a great impact on me both personally and professionally. The entire group was still absorbed by Mike's presentation when it ended, so I think the day was a great success."

WILLIAMS ENCOUNTERS PROBLEMS, BAR RUNS PRETTY GOOD AT KYALAMI!
FEB 15 - The Winfield Williams F1 team managed little running at Kyalami on Monday. Alex Zanardi's car was already confined to the garage after Sunday's accident and Ralf Schumacher's car had electrical problems. Ralf's car was fixed by 5pm on Monday and he put in a few laps before the circuit closed for the day. James Robinson - Senior Operations Engineer said about today's test: "We have had a few problems today but that is what testing is all about. The majority of the problems have been sorted and hopefully we will have both cars on the track tomorrow.'
Villeneuve and BAR have very good day though, getting three quarters through a race distance simulation in before the gearbox control software problem. BAR team was able to put 66 laps on Monday, so pretty nice number of laps after two very difficult days for them. Villeneuve leaves tonight and his team mate Zonta will continue with testing of the new car. Villeneuve clocked best time of 1.24.22 and Schumacher 1.25.34. On Tuesday testing continues, and both teams also asked for one special day of testing on Thursday, but Kyalami circuit organizers did not jet confirm or reject the teams request.

FEW MORE DETAILS ABOUT DAYTONA 500 RACE, SEASON OPENER.
FEB 15 - As you probably already know Jeff Gordon snatched lead at Daytona 500 just ten laps to go, and that from Mike Skinner and later on was defending first position by holding off his good friend and teacher, Dale Earnhardt. What that race also indicate us is, that Chevy cars are this season much stronger, Pontiacs a little bit stronger too, but Fords lost a lot during winter break. Mayfield, Martin and other drivers, who are now driving in Ford machines will have very tuff '99 season, even harder than last season. Really nice race day, but champion is back in great shape, or I would better to say, two champions! "I had a mirror-full today," the 27-year-old Gordon said. "It's a dream come true for me to race Dale Earnhardt all the way to the finish line in the Daytona 500. "He taught me so much out there. He's probably going to tell you I learned too much from him." Earnhardt eased off the accelerator driving off turn two and took a run at Gordon on the back straightaway. But the seven-time series champion just couldn't catch the winner. "I couldn't even get to his bumper," Earnhardt said. "If I could have, maybe I could have done something with him. But he was very, very strong."

IRVINE OK AFTER CAR ACCIDENT, SOUTH AFRICAN GP IS VERY CLOSE.
FEB 15 - While Ferrari driver Michael Schumacher was busy testing the team's F399 at Barcelona in Spain Eddie Irvine escaped unhurt from a car accident in Milan, according to Italian sources. Irvine is ready to test F399 car for the first time this week at Mugello circuit.
South African GP may be seen in F1 calendar in a very short time as over 60.000 fans attended in last three days to watch three F1 cars, which are testing here for this week. Speaking to a South African television crew on Sunday, Patrick Head said 'apart from the fact that Kyalami offers similar conditions to upcoming Grands Prix in Australia and Brazil, there exists a strong possibility of a Grand Prix at Kyalami this year.'

ALSO IRL SERIES DONATE WELCOME HELP TO AMERICAN RED CROSS!
FEB 15 - Just few days later, when CART competition donated blood to injured Ford workers, Indy Racing League also decided to help American Red Cross. Deepening its two-year commitment to the American Red Cross, the Pep Boys Indy Racing League and its Founder and President Tony George have donated more than a million dollars to American Red Cross relief efforts in Russia, Central America and to the Indianapolis Red Cross.

TEAMS ABOUT BARCELONA AND KYALAMI TESTING ON SUNDAY.
FEB 15 - ( FERRARI , McLAREN ) Unfortunately for both Ferrari and McLaren team, they both suffered blown engines in Barcelona, when Michael Schumacher had to abandon the most part of the morning session on Sunday because of such and Mika Hakkinen suffering a blown engine in the afternoon part of the session on Sunday. Ferrari team spent the rest of the day by working on car set-up and making adjustments to the aerodynamic settings. Ferrari has now concluded its test on the Catalunya track. From the middle of next week, the team will resume testing at Mugello.
( BAR ) In “character-building” day at Kyalami, BAR team was able to provide Jacques Villeneuve only 25 laps due variety of small problems on new car. Jacques Villeneuve: We’ve experienced a number of small problems today and didn’t really have the chance to do as much work on the car as we would have liked, so it’s been a bit disappointing. Tomorrow is my last day here at the test and we want to do a race simulation as well as work on different set-ups. Hopefully, everything will be sorted out by tomorrow and we’ll have a productive day."
( WILLIAMS ) A lot of progress was made today but unfortunately at the end of the day Alex Zanardi went off the Kyalami circuit and the FW21 was damaged. Due to various small parts being damaged earlier at the test, there is now a shortage of parts, so Alex will not be able to run tomorrow. As long as communications between South Africa and England work well he will be back on the track on Tuesday morning.
( BENETTON ) Work focused on distance simulation and reliability and Giancarlo Fisichella completed 65 laps in the Benetton B199 on Saturday. On Sunday Fisichella concentrated on set up work in preparation for Melbourne and completed 28 laps in the Benetton B199. Weather conditions were both days dry with low temperature at Barcelona racing circuit.

JEFF GORDON, DEFENDING CHAMPION, WINS DAYTONA 500 IN PERFECT STYLE!
FEB 14 - Jeff Gordon picked up a cheque for $2 million after winning a thrilling last lap duel with Dale Earnhardt at the Daytona 500 in Florida. The defending Winston Cup champion finished two car-lengths ahead of Earnhardt, who did everything he could to win NASCAR's premier race for the second year in a row. Gordon, who banked $1m for his victory plus a $1m Winston 'No Bull 5' bonus, had snatched the lead with a daring move on the 190th of 200 laps.
Final places from Daytona 500: 1 J Gordon Chevrolet 2 D Earnhardt Chevrolet 3 K Irwin Ford 4 M Skinner Chevrolet 5 M Waltrip Chevrolet 6 K Schrader Chevrolet 7 K Petty Pontiac 8 R Wallace Ford 9 C Little Ford 10 R Mast Ford

FINN MAKINEN GRABS SWEDISH RALLY VICTORY!
FEB 14 - World champion Tommi Makinen held off Carlos Sainz of Spain by 18 seconds to win the Swedish Rally in Karlstad, his fifth victory in the last six events. It followed hard on the heels of the Mitsubishi's driver's success in last month's Monte Carlo Rally, the opening world championship race. 'This feels great,' said the Finn. Former world winner Sainz, hoping to become the first non-Nordic winner in the 47-year history of the Swedish event, was second for a fourth year.
Finishing results: 1 T Makinen Fin Mitsubishi 3 hours 29 minutes 15 seconds 2 C Sainz Sp Toyota + 18.1 sec 3 T Radstrom Swe Ford + 37.8 sec 4 D Auriol Fr Toyota + 40.3 sec 5 R Burns GB Subaru + 5:49.3sec 6 J Kankkunen Fin Subaru + 5:54.4sec

TV RIGHTS WON BY BBC TELEVISION!
FEB 14 - ( AUTOSPORT ) Most of the British fans, and European to will get a chance to follow BTCC competition also on television. British national TV station BBC will broadcast the series. Few of them will be aired live, rest of the races will be shown one week later. "We are thoroughly delighted to have secured the most favourable possible dates for this year's live races," explained Alan Gow, Chief Executive of TOCA. "It reinforces the BBC's support for the series. Combined with the regular hour-long feature packages of the remaining rounds of the championship, we now have the perfect spread of coverage for the year ahead." For the most European fans we can confirm only that Eurosport TV station will show highlights from BTCC one week after each event. BTCC show will be mixed together with other motorsport series into weekly motorsport emission.

DE FERRAN HOPEFUL AFTER SPRING TRAININGS!
FEB 14 - Brazilian Gil De Ferran is happy about Spring training result, where he finished fourth fastest overall with best time of 25.126 at Homestead race speedway. "That was good," de Ferran said of his best speed, "but what pleased me more was I learned some things that, hopefully, will help us in the race. It's very important to keep the car balanced during the race as the fuel load lightens and the tires get worn, and we found some things there. We worked to get the oversteer out of the car and got the rear end to stick better."

SECOND DAY AT KYALAMI AND BARCELONA.
FEB 14 - British American Racing team has second day in row very troubled at Kyalami circuit. The BAR technicians worked throughout the night to find all problems and solve them. They changed gearbox system, but without mayor success, as in early morning they suffered again same problem after only four laps. They again work for a good four hours on gearbox system and the team came out again into the middle of afternoon, but Villeneuve suffered brakes problem at that moment. Because of the time wasted with the gearbox problems, the team has asked for an extension of testing until 17h30, which was granted. But without mayor success, Canadian driver was able to do only eight more laps, most of them later on, but he finished day as he began, with mechanical failure. Reliability might be now main concern for new BAR team. Williams team run without mayor problems, Ralf clocked quickest lap of the day of 1:23.90, Alex followed his team mate with the time of 1:24.40. Tomorrow testing will continue.
For the second day in row, McLaren team wins head to head fight with Ferrari team at Barcelona circuit. Finn, 98 champion posted quickest lap during today's test in Barcelona, second was Michael Schumacher and third Benetton driver Giancarlo Fisichella. Hakkinen posted best time of 1:21.217 and Schumacher for Ferrari 1:21.690.

DAYTONA 500 KICKS OFF NEW SEASON!
FEB 14 - ( NASCAR ) Just few more hours and we will begin with new NASCAR Winton Cup season. Many drivers are ready to show their potential. Who will win, who will lose and who will be big hero of the race, well we will get all details in few hours. Somehow, no matter how many races a driver wins during his career, it seems incomplete without a victory at the "The Great American Race." The obvious favorites tomorrow are Bud Pole Award winner Jeff Gordon and last year's Daytona 500 winner Dale Earnhardt. They will have some stiff competition from the rest of the field, with Bobby Labonte and Jeremy Mayfield driving tough cars and Terry Labonte, Mark Martin and Rusty Wallace still gunning for their first Daytona 500 win.

FERRARI, WILLIAMS AND BAR TEAM REPORTS.
FEB 14 - ( FERRARI ) The Ferrari team was present at the Barcelona circuit on Saturday with Michael Schumacher behind the wheel of the F399. In the morning part of the session he busied himself with running continuous laps with the F399 and completed 30 laps in total. In the afternoon part of the session, he concentrated mainly on set-up and the team was able to get through the entire scheduled programme for the day on Saturday. Michael Schumacher drove a total of 68 laps with a best time of 1:22.29. The team will continue on Sunday and Michael Schumacher will once again be in action.
( WILLIAMS ) Williams team is happy about conditions in South Africa, temperatures are very hot, over 30C and sunny conditions allowed them last real preparation for the comming season opener in Melbourne. Patrick Head, technical boss, also arrived to South Africa together with Williams team and said after the first day of testing: "This is our last opportunity for a major test with two cars before Melbourne. It allows us to run in temperatures similar to those we will encounter there. We are pleased to be here. We are making good use of it and making progress."
( BAR ) British American Racing team is also very happy about yesterday's test. They contentrated mainly on engine and gearbox mapping, as well as general set-up work, in preparation for an endurance test scheduled to start today. Jock Clear, Senior Race Engineer for BAR said about yesterday's work: "We had a couple of small issues to deal with earlier this morning, but once we got started we had a virtually trouble-free day. It is difficult to do any performance work on a dirty circuit like this, so much of the programme today concentrated on systems checks and mapping work with Supertec, which went very well. All in all, we're happy with the way things are going."

McRAE RETIRED FROM SWEDISH RALLY, MAKINEN IN LEAD!
FEB 13 - Briton Colin McRae's hopes of scoring his first world championship points of the season were dashed when he was forced to retire from the Swedish Rally during the opening stage on day two. His Ford Focus developed engine problems and his withdrawal was a major disappointment for himself and Welsh co-driver Nicky Grist. Finland's Tommi Makinen extended his lead over Spain's Carlos Sainz after 14th stage. The dominant Finn was eventually forced to reduce speed because of tyre problems but ended the second day with a time of two hours 37 minutes 16 seconds, 30.8 seconds in front. Radstrom is still third overall for the only Ford Focus car that stay into competition.
Leading times after second day: 1. T. MAKINEN FIN/mitsubishi lancer 2:37:16,6 2. C. SAINZ SPA/toyota corolla + 30,8 3. T. RADSTROM SWE/ford focus 48,8 4 D. AURIOL FRA/toyota corolla 1:02,8 5. R. BURNS VB/subaru impreza 4:51,4 6. J. KANKKUNEN FIN/subaru impreza 4:56,6

SHORT REPORT FROM BARCELONA AND KYALAMI TESTS.
FEB 13 - From Barcelona we got report that David Coulthard was running for McLaren team and Michael Schumacher for Ferrari team. Coulthard won dual fight for almost four thenths of a second. Coulthard clocked time of 1:21.90 on Saturday. So, 1 - 0 for McLaren on first day into head to head testing fight.
In nice and partly cloudly weather allowed Alex Zanardi, Ralf Schumacher and Jacques Villeneuve at Kyalami circuit, South Africa good testing day. Ricardo Zonta did not attend on today's test. Williams duo clocked best time, but Villeneuve in BAR was close behind. Ralf has one travel over the gravel, Villeneuve also has one technical problem on the BAR car. Ralf clocked best lap time of 1:24.76 into the Afternoon. There attend more than 27.000 African fans!

JEFF GORDON FAVOURED FOR DAYTONA 500 SEASON OPENER!
FEB 13 - Jeff Gordon is releaved ahead of new season. Gordon clinched three Winston Cup titles out of last four seasons. "The thing that impressed me the most was the 26 top fives," Gordon, who drives for Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, said. "The 13 wins were great, but I don't expect to top that and even compare to that. "I think what we need to do is put ourselves in a position to win. Those top fives are what win championships." Gordon will start from pole season opener, but Bobby Labonte, Pontiac driver will grab any oportunity to win race. "Bobby was at the right place at the right moment," Gordon said. "I feel like we have a car capable of winning the Daytona 500." We can not forget on Dale Earnhardt, who is again in great form, and two-time champion Dale Jarrett, Terry Labonte, Mark Martin, who won a 25-lap sprint race here last Sunday, Rusty Wallace, Rusty Wallace, Jeremy Mayfield and Jeff Burton.

TORA TAKAGI CLOSE TO SIGN CONTRACT FOR HONDA TEAM.
FEB 13 - Japanese driver, who lost fight for second Arrows seat to Spaniard de la Rossa is very close to the contract for Honda team. He will probably sign one year's contract for testing the new Honda prototype. Takagi is favour for Honda seat because he is Japanese guy, very quick, young and talented driver. Last season he outqualified Brazilian Rosset 14 to 2.

TODAY AND TOMORROW MORE TESTING IN BARCELONA AND KYALAMI!
FEB 13 - Ferrari team will for the first time test new F399 in Barcelona, but there will be also McLaren team and Benetton team to continue extensive training's in Spain. Other teams will fly back to Spain next week, on Wednesday to continue with testing. Also in Mugello and Silverstone few more teams are planning to test next week. Ferrari 399 will be running by Michael Schumacher, McLaren probably by Mika Hakkinen and Benetton by Giancarlo Fisichella. In South Africa both BAR and Williams team will begin with testing in pretty warm climate. This might be big boost for both teams as climate is almost the same to the Melbourne, Australia. Jacques Villeneuve, Ricardo Zonta, Alex Zanardi and Ralf Schumacher will present on testing for next four days.

WELCOME CHARITY ACTION FROM CART COMPETITION!
FEB 13 - ( CART ) IMG Motorsports, promoter of the Medic Drug Grand Prix of Cleveland, is teaming with Cleveland radio station WNCX-FM on Friday to help replenish the blood supply of the American Red Cross in a show of support for the automobile workers injured in last week's explosion at the Ford Motor Company's Rouge complex in Michigan.

JEREZ IRTA TESTS UNDER THE WAY!
FEB 12 - Almost all FIM cup riders are ready to begin extensive spring training's at Jerez circuit, Spain. For the first time there will compete all three series 125, 250 and 500cc riders. 1998 champions Doohan, Capirossi and Sakata will not attend at Jerez spring trainings. But there will be Ueda, Cechionelo, Locatelli, Ui, Biaggi, Checa, Abe, Barros, Cadalora, Crafar, Roberts, McWilliams, Perugini, Waldmann, Rossi, Jacques, Manako and many other motorbike stars. Many Spanish fans are expected to visit Jerez circuit during test weekend.

JORDAN AND BENETTON TEST REPORTS, BENETTON TO CONTINUE ON SATURDAY!
FEB 12 - ( JORDAN ) Damon Hill and Heinz-Harald Frentzen have been putting the new Jordan Mugen-Honda 199 through its paces on the Circuit de Catalunya in Spain this week. The Jordan team and drivers are working hard to pack in as much testing as possible in the weeks leading up to the first Grand Prix of the season, to take place in Melbourne on March 7th. Hill drove the new car on Tuesday 9th and Wednesday 10th and posted the third fastest lap time on Wednesday of 1.22.52, behind the two McLarens. "I still feel very positive about the car," he said. Frentzen, who until this week had been running in the 1998 car, drove the Jordan Mugen-Honda 199 for the first time on Thursday 11th. At the end of his 80 laps he said, "It is great to get behind the wheel of the new car. The reliability seems good and the handling is a step up from the 1998 chassis. The new Mugen-Honda engine is also a step forward. I am looking forward to our four day test in Barcelona next week when we can do some more work." Jordan's test schedule continues next week with a four day test, once again at the Circuit de Catalunya. All the freight for the Australian Grand Prix - 87 cases containing the three cars and spare parts - will be packed up in the following week and fly out to Melbourne on Friday 19th February.
( BENETTON ) The Mild Seven Benetton Playlife team tested for the fourth and final day at Barcelona on Thursday. Work was hampered in the morning due to problems with the gearbox control systems. In the afternoon the team tried out both sets of tyre compounds and completed some long runs. Alexander Wurz completed the first full race distance in the B199. The team feels great strides have been made with the set-up and overall reliability during this test. Testing will now continue in Barcelona on Saturday and Sunday with Giancarlo Fisichella in the B199.

WALLACE TO REPLACE HARMON!
FEB 12 - ( NASCAR ) Winston Cup Series car owner Junie Donlavey changed the direction two drivers were headed Wednesday. He announced veteran Mike Wallace has replaced Raybestos Rookie candidate Mike Harmon as his driver for the Daytona 500; and that he has signed a primary sponsor for his blank-sided No. 90 Ford Taurus.

TEAM GORDON CHOOSE FIRESTONE TYRES FOR FULL 1999 SEASON!
FEB 12 - ( CART ) Robby Gordon, who will drive for his own Team Gordon will shod his car into Firestone tyres for full 1999 season. Firestone's long-standing relationship with Menard, along with Gordon being a 1998 Firestone driver with Arciero-Wells Racing, made it a no-brainer for the tire maker to add the newly-formed Gordon team to the fold. The addition gives Firestone a total of 20 cars in CART, the most for the tire maker since it joined the series in 1995.

MAKINEN REJOINS OVERALL LEAD AFTER FIRST DAY OF SWEDISH RALLY.
FEB 13 - Tommi Makinen came out on top after spending the opening day of the Swedish Rally in Karlstad locked in combat with Spain's Carlos Sainz. There was never more than six seconds between the pair but the Mitsubishi driver from Finland edged 1.7 seconds ahead at the end of the session. Despite the event being run in sub-zero temperatures, the weather was much warmer than expected, leaving some stages with patches of treacherous gravel showing through the ice.
Top times after the first day: 1 T Makinen Fin Mitsubishi 1 hour 15 minutes 35 seconds 2 C Sainz Sp Toyota + 1.7s 3 T Radstrom Swe Ford + 21s 4 D Auriol Fr Toyota + 35s 5 C McRae GB Ford + 1m57s 6 R Burns GB Subaru + 2m26.7s

BAR MAY BE BANNED FROM AUSTRALIAN GP.
FEB 12 - The new British American Racing team may be banned from the Australian Grand Prix if it has its two cars in different colours, reports AAP. FIA president Max Mosley told reporters in Melbourne that race stewards had the power to rule out BAR's cars if its liveries were found to be unacceptable. BAR, which is making its debut in F1 this season, last week lost an appeal against FIA's decision that the team's plans to have different liveries were against the sport's rules.

EARNHARDT AND LABONTE GRAB SECOND ROW FOR DAYTONA 500!
FEB 12 - Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart already assured start of front row previous week, yesterday was the time for other Winston Cup drivers to compete for the rest places. Dale Earnhardt and Bobby Labonte were the most successful and finished first and second respectively in special qualifying event. It is the 10th year in a row that Earnhardt has won a Daytona qualifying event. This time it has earned him fourth position on the starting grid. Labonte locked up third place by winning the opening qualifying race.
Leading starting spots for Daytona 500: 1 J Gordon Chevrolet 2 T Stewart Pontiac 3 B Labonte Pontiac 4 D Earnhardt Chevrolet 5 J Burton Ford 6 J Mayfield Ford 7 K Schrader Chevrolet 8 D Jarrett Ford 9 M Martin Ford 10 R Wallace Ford

CARLOS SAINZ REGAIN OVERALL LEAD AT SWEDISH RALLY!
FEB 12 - Spaniard Carlos Sainz impressed all rivals with great come back action, as he moved up from third overall to first place after seventh stage. The rally covers a total of 1,478 km with 384 km over 19 special stages. Weather is very cold and icy and Spaniard really answered to his rivals by fantastic performance in his Toyota car. 1998 champion Makinen finished day as second quickest, while he was leading almost full first day for Mitsubishi team. The cars are fitted with hundreds of special studs to combat the ice and snow that will cover the course. "I'm very happy with things so far," said McRae. "We've made a few minor adjustments at the service park to try to improve the high-speed handling but so far I've been quite cautious on the ice."
Leading times after seventh stage:1 SAINZ Toyota 1:13:46.5 2 MAKINEN Mitsubishi 1:13:47.5 3 RADSTROM Ford 1:14:07.1 4 AURIOL Toyota 1:14:20.8 5 McRAE Ford 1:15:43.0 6 BURNS Subaru 1:16:10.5

MAKINEN CONTINUES IN DOMINANT FORM SWEDISH RALLY, FORD MODIFIED PUMP!
FEB 12 - Finn Tomi Makinen continues in spectacular form this year's Swedish Rally. In cold and icy conditions Finn produced lead over six seconds after third leg out of ninethen. Second placed is Spaniard Sainz who retired from Monte Carlo rally after the first leg. Makinen is driving for Mitsubishi team, while Sainz is Toyota driver. Swede Radstrom finished as third fastest overall after third leg.
Leading times after third leg: 1. T. MAKINEN FIN/mitsubishi lancer 37:46,7 2. C. SAINZ SPA/toyota corolla +6,0 3. T. RODSTROM/ SWE/ford focus +14,5 4. D. AURIOL FRA/toyota corolla +24,5 5. C. MCRAE GB/ford focus +31,5 6. R. BURNS GB/subaru impreza +1:18,3
Two Ford Focus cars that were stripped of their points for failing to conform to world championship standards at last month's Monte Carlo Rally, race in this week's Swedish Rally in Karlstad. Ford have modified the water pumps.

JORDAN WILL BE BIG THREAT FOR 1999 SEASON!
FEB 11 - Many Formula One teams are very frightening of new Jordan J199 car. Only on second day of running at Barcelona circuit, Damon Hill already posted time under 1:23:00. That time was this season broken only by Hakkinen, Coulthard, Herbert, Ralf Schumacher and Hill. Also McLaren technical director Adrian Newey expressed: 'They had such a good second half last season, and the new car looks very sensible and has a good engine. I think they will be up with us this season.' But interesting thing is that just three days ago Coulthard, McLaren second driver said, Hill will be nowhere near to McLaren '99 car. Things may change very quick. And many F1 drivers rate Damon Hill as one of the best car developers so far in later F1 history. H.H. Frentzen will get chace to drive new J199 probably next week in Silverstone, where testing continues.

FERRARI AND SCHUMACHER GO TO BARCELONA!
FEB 11 - Not much more time for testing for all F1 teams as just 22 days seperate us away of season opener in Melbourne, Australia. Also Ferrari team is under the pressure as they were unable to test new F399 car after heavy snow fall yesterday. Scuderia Ferrari-Marlboro will test next Saturday 13 and Sunday 14 February at Barcelona circuit with Michael Schumacher driving the F399. No news about Eddie Irvine jet. Ferrari team have right to test individually after Bernie Ecclestone, Montezemolo and Bridgestone boss agreed about special regulations for Italian red team.

PORSCHE RETURNS BACK AND WILL COMPETE AT LeMANS 24 H!
FEB 11 - Porsche team will enter into Le Mans 24h race competition this season despite strong words that they will not compete in this year's event. They will not run in GT 1 competition, but they will run in lower classes. The entry of two 911 GT3s in the GTS division will represent the international competition debut of the latest 996-type version of Porsche's staple sportscar. The car is expected to spawn a new, more-powerful GT2-style car for 2000.

NASCAR PROMOTES MIKE HELTON.
FEB 11 - ( NASCAR ) Mike Helton was named senior vice president and chief operating officer for NASCAR, it was announced today by Bill France, president of NASCAR. In his new position, he will oversee all day-to-day operations of NASCAR, in addition to his current duties with competition. All departments within the NASCAR organization will report to him. Bill France will continue to serve as president of NASCAR.

REYNARD AGAIN BIG THREAT FOR OTHER CHASSIS MANUFACTURERS IN '99!
FEB 11 - Spring training's already show us that Reynard Chassis is again very strong. In last three seasons there were only good words about Reynard product. Swift, Penske and Lola were hopeless in last seasons, when Vasser and Zanardi took PPG crowns, but also other Reynard drivers were very strong and often completely filled up top ten places. Many CART fans already though that Reynard will lose advantage after their entering into F1 competition. Swift technical director Mark Handford said after all, 'We put a lot of emphasis on making a better road course car and we dropped the ball.'

HAKKINEN QUICKEST, BENETTONS STRONG, ROSSA SIGNED FOR ARROWS!
FEB 11 - Mika Hakkinen continued to show great form and topped time sheets on last day of testing in Barcelona for this week. Very impressive were both Benetton drivers, Fisichella and Wurz. Both Benettons used the new Front Torque Transfer (FTT) braking system, which the FIA have deemed legal despite claims by rival teams that it goes against Formula One's technical regulations.
Second Spaniard in F1 signed for '99 season! Pedro de la Rossa signed for Arrows team after the team reached an agreement with the Spanish petroleum company Repsol. De la Rossa, who regularly outpaced both drivers from Arrows team (Salo and Takagi) said after agreement: "Driving in Formula One was always one of my dreams and now I've realised it." Spanish driver has attended last time in F1 10 years ago!

HONDA TEAM WILL NEED TO BE CHECKED AS OTHER F1 CARS!
FEB 11 - Many teams were unhappy about Honda position in past few tests. Honda team and their regular test driver Joss Verstappen were quickest in Jerez two weeks ago and many teams were not happy about that. Many are skeptical about Honda progress as they only entered into F1 competition. Honda team posted fantastic times two weeks ago, but this week they were not on top any more. Rumors are that Honda was running underweight car two weeks ago. Eclestone, boss of F1 already said that they will introduce new rule also for teams, that they not compete currently into F1 competition. Honda will enter into F1 with its own team in 2000.

SPANIARD GENE HAPPY AS NEVER BEFORE.
FEB 11 - Spaniard Marc Gene, pay driver who signed for Minardi for full '99 season is very happy about Minardi team progress. He said that he did not expected such good result for low budget Italian team, but certainly we did not expect to see such unexperienced driver on top of timing sheets. He finished less than 0.9s adrift of Hakkinen best time yesterday and said that he is very tired. There are also strong words that new Ford V10 engine is big boost for Minardi team. One day earlier Herbert posted very impressive time in Barcelona, for Stewart team but with Ford engine into the back of car. Ford developed extra light engine, that's also a lot smaller and can produce over 705bph. It seems Ford produced great engine for this season. Gene said: "The potential of this car really strike me a lot and I am more than satisfied with my performance. I studied for two days and today, at last, I was more confident with the car, feeling I was ready to push a little bit harder. If we consider that I have been in Formula 1 only for three days now and that I have not been in a Formula 1 car for a month and a half, I really believe my time was something of a surprise! I am very tired like all the Team's lads here but I am sure this result will reward everyone for the hard work we did until today."

HILL AND FRENTZEN HAPPY ABOUT NEW J199 CAR!
FEB 10 - ( AUTOSPORT ) Despite only eight and eleventh quickest time on the first day ( Tuesday ) for both new Jordans 199 at Barcelona circuit Damon Hill and HH Frentzen both praised new car. Jordan's Damon Hill and Heinz-Harald Frentzen were reported to be getting on well and getting used to the new car, spending the day concentrating on 'understanding' the 199. Hill explained that with under a month to go until the Australian Grand Prix, working on the race set-up was vital now. ' We are now moving into an important two weeks of testing when we will work on getting an optimum set up for the car.'

SNOW STOPS FERRARI, HILL AND GENE - MINARDI MAN :) RIGHT BEHIND McLARENS!
FEB 10 - Sensational day was today, anywhere where F1 cars were presented. In Italy because snow stopped Ferrari team to test new F399 further more ( I am living 150km away of Fiorani, in Slovenia and we have over 60cm high snow :) and because McLaren team is not such superior team any more in Barcelona. And Minardi STAR Gene springs up big ever surprise for the last four months in F1 competition. He finished fourth fastest and only 0,8 off best time posted by Hakkinen in new McLaren car. What that means. Different sorts of tests or what. Not I would say as Hakkinen's time was over half a second quicker than yesterday's. And Damon Hill finished less than 0,5 behind McLaren duo. Coulthard just yesterday hit back at Damon Hill that ex World Champion lives in illusions. But now seems Scott will quit very soon. An yesterday's Stewart time posted by Herbert. Fantastic atmosphere ahead of season opener. Teams seems to be very equal this season, last season we could see differentials over 6 seconds on winter tests, but this season it is different. Much more equal times now. That's really great! And Panis finished fifth fastest for Prost, just little over one second behind. Benetton pack of Fisico and Wurz followed up, than Verstappen in new Honda prototype, and Rossa again outpaced both Salo and Takagi in Arrows car. Both, Frentzen and Coulthard run in 1998 cars. Other were driving in new '99 cars.
Bad weather conditions delayed the test programme of Scuderia Ferrari-Marlboro at Fiorano. Today, testing started at 9.50 am. Michael Schumacher drove the F399 on a wet track, completing three series of laps for a total of 39 laps (best time 1m 07.018s). Eddie Irvine completed a total of 18 laps driving the F300 (best time 1m 07.331s). At 11.30 snow began to fall: 30 minutes later, the team was forced to stop testing. For the time being, it is not yet known when the testing will continue.
See also complete test times list and great F1 test pics.

1998 ROOKIE OF THE YEAR KANAAN BUSY AFTER SPRING TRAININGS!
FEB 10 - Tony Kanaan continued with testing for new formed McDonald's team after Spring training last week. He made over 325 miles at Sebring International Raceway in his new Reynard Honda car. "We had a very productive week of testing at Spring Training and Sebring," said team president Steve Horne. "To be able to do this amount of pre-season testing is a big advantage for us. We are making a lot of progress with the performance of the car, but there is more to do yet."

ROOKIE TONY STEWART RELEASES HIS REAL CHANCE FOR GOOD RESULT!
FEB 10 - Tony Stewart, ex IRL champion and now Rookie in Winston Cup Championship respect all rivals from Nascar competition. He is only in his first season and he knows very well what that mean. He will be trying his best, but he will not be able to finish on top spots every race. His main aim is to be consistent and in the first third of timing sheets. "I expect to be schooled a lot here," said Tony Stewart. Stewart passed his first test with flying colors, qualifying on the outside of the front row in the Home Depot Pontiac in Saturday's Bud Pole Qualifying for next Sunday's Daytona 500. Monday was a different story, as he posted only the 39th-best time in practice. "I got schooled in practice already today," he said. "It's those lessons that you learn. You have to remember those in order to be successful in this series. Trust me, it's a big book. It's bigger than the Encyclopedia Brittanica. There's chapter after chapter that must be learned in order to be good in this series."

ZANARDI AND RALF WORRIED ONLY ABOUT SUPERTEC V10 POWER.
FEB 10 - PPG CART champion Alex Zanardi and Ralf Schumacher are not happy about new Supertec V10 engine. Ralf also said that last year's version of Mugen Honda engine is stronger as this year's new Supertec engine. But new FW21 pace is anyway great said both drivers. Last year's FW20 was not good as Villeneuve and Frentzen finished only twice onto the podium position. This year's chassis is big step forward. Zanardi commeted: 'I know Ralf is a little worried about the engine. He thinks the Mugen (that he raced last year) is better.'

ROOKIE GENE HAPPY ABOUT TEST FOR MINARDI TEAM!
FEB 10 - Spaniard Marc Gene, only driver confirmed so far from Minardi team for 1999 season was very impressed about new M01 contender. He finished ib both days at the end of timing sheets, but he was still learning in setting up new car. Also Minardi team are full of confidence for this season champagne. Gene said: " We had a positive day, after all, because, after yesterday's first contact with the car, today we could concentrate more on its set-up. I am quite satisfied because, even if I could run less than scheduled - I could push a little more without taking any risk. Tomorrow ( Wednesday ) we are going to face up to a hard work which will allow us to put to good use the experience collected in these two days of testing."

VALLELUNGA TEST REPORT.
FEB 10 - Alain Menu, ex Peugeot driver in STW cup, now driver for Nissan team is happy about test results. He was fastest all week in new Primera car and said: 'I am a little bit confident now!' Nicola Larini also posted quick times and finished second quickest in his new Alfa 156 car. Very competitive was also Yvan Muller, who was driving '98 Vectra and finished third quickest. Jason Plato, driving for Williams Renault Laguna team finished tests fourth quickest in '98 car.

HERBERT IMPRESSIVE, COULTHARD DISMISSES HILL CLAIM, ARROWS NEW A20!
FEB 09 - Johnny Herbert caused a big surprise on the second day of Formula One testing at the Circuit de Catalunya on Tuesday when he outpaced the new car of world champions McLaren. Hakkinen was fastest, but in '98 car. Herbert's performance was welcome news for team chief Jackie Stewart, under pressure to gain results this year after two unsuccessful seasons. Former world champion Damon Hill had a troubled time in the Jordan and was more than 1-1/2 seconds off the pace. See test times under F1 test page.
Scotland's David Coulthard has hit back at Damon Hill's assertion that he can challenge for this season's world championship crown. Hill, the 1996 champion, said last week he thought Jordan were ready to compete with Formula One's heavyweights - a claim dismissed by the Scot. Coulthard said: 'I think there are a few more teams in front of Jordan who have a better chance. I would expect it to be between McLaren and Ferrari.'
Arrows team did not presented new A20 car, but they anyway ran new A20. New car will be presented in new colours and with new sponsors in about 80 days. It is still black at the moment. So, on April will be car completely different.

LAUDA AND ECCLESTONE POINTED SCHUMACHER FOR '99 TITLE!
FEB 09 - For Bernie Ecclestone, head of F1 competition is Michael Schumacher on the right way to clinch title for Ferrari team after 20 years of waiting. Niki Lauda, ex Ferrari champion also predicts Schumacher as main title contender for '99 season. And what thinks about Schumacher Mika Hakkinen. Finn said for the press that Schumacher has less than 40% chance for grabbing this year's title because here is Flying Finn back for fight this season. Also other teams will be closer to the leading pack.

FATHER WILL PROVIDE HIS SON DRIVE FOR DAYTONA!
FEB 09 - ( NASCAR ) Barry Bodine, youngest son of NASCAR Winston Cup Series driver Geoffrey Bodine, said Saturday night he would replace his father as driver of owner Dennis Shoemaker's Miccosukee Indian Gaming Chevrolet in the season-opening NASCAR Busch Series Grand National Division NAPA Auto Parts 300 at Daytona International Speedway.

FORD AND VAUXHALL READY FOR NEW SEASON!
FEB 09 - ( AUTOSPORT ) Both teams from BTCC series were testing in past few days in preparation for new season. Alain Menu and Anthony Ried were driving new Ford Mondeo cars in Donington, UK and lapped best ever time posted by Mondeo car on that circuit. Anyway, Menu commeted: 'We've made some progress and we did a reasonably good time ( 1.10.3) and the fastest I've ever been with the Laguna was 1m 9.8s.'
Vauxhall first run was posted at Kyalami circuit, South Africa. In nice warming climate John Cleland completed over 60 laps without mayor failure on the car. They will continue with testing for few more days.

FEW INTERESTING WORDS FROM IRL SERIES.
FEB 09 - ( IRL ) When Brazilian Gualter Salles drives in his second Pep Boys Indy Racing League event, the MCI WorldCom 200 at Phoenix International Raceway on March 28, he will have do so without his "coach," Tony Stewart, who shares ownership of the team with Larry Curry and Andy Card.
Arie Luyendyk is the only driver to win the 200-mile race at Phoenix International Raceway in both a CART car and a Pep Boys Indy Racing League car. He won the race in 1991 averaging 129.988 mph and the inaugural Indy Racing League event there in 1996 averaging 117.368 mph.

PPG CART STAR RIBEIRO TO RETIRE FROM RACING!
FEB 09 - Brazilian racing driver Andre Ribeiro, last season driver for Penske Mercedes team announced today that his racing career is over. He will enter into a car sales business by help from Penske company.
At the same moment rumors are now confirmed about Penske plan for 1999 season. They will run only one car, their driver will stay Al Unser Jr. Unser is double PPG CART champion and all team hopes for relatively good season after difficult last year. Reliability was the mayor problem for Penske team in last two seasons. Best ever season was for them in '93, '94 and '95 when Tracy, Unser and Fittipaldi won almost every second race. After that team was in big troubles, first they left Fittipladi, and later on also Tracy. This season they abandoned Ribeiro and stay with one single car on circuit.

FERRARI AND HONDA READY TO DEVELOP NEW 12V ENGINE!
FEB 09 - Ferrari team and Honda team are ready to develop 12V engines. According to the close resources are both teams of opinion that new materials and technology have so much improved over the last few years, that new 12V engine is absolutely realistic plan. Ferrari used 12V engine last time in 1995 season, while Honda used such aggregates last time in 1992 season, when they completely step out of F1 competition. Later on Mugen company developed Honda engines, but they work only on V10 project.

McLAREN - FERRARI POLITICAL WAR OVER?
FEB 08 - McLaren team boss Ron Dennis was clear about media war betwen Ferrari and its team. He said that he was very badly surprised by the words from Ferrari boss Montezemolo, who all time tried to find something illegal on 'our cars' and also expressed that we are trying to do the same on their cars. Also few accidents between drivers from each team helped to build such hot atmosphere added Ron Dennis. "From a team that spends a great deal of its time working in the media and I think attempting to solve some of its own engineering and technical problems through the media, I am a little surprised he made this comment. But my clear commitment is to try to avoid at all costs any off-circuit political acrimony. It doesn't do either of our two companies any good. It certainly doesn't do the people who find themselves in that public debate any good. Nobody wins in a war of words except the media. We should have our disagreements behind closed doors and see if we can find some sort of solution. This is such an incredibly competitive business, unbelievably so, and it is inevitable that if you are in the position of fighting for the lead with another team then politics are going to come into play," said very nervous McLaren boss.

NEW F399 COMPLETED 200KM WITHOUT MAYOR PROBLEM!
FEB 08 - ( FERRARI ) It seems Ferrari team sorted out all mayor problems as today's test in Fiorano was successfully completed. The F399, fitted with a modified rear wing, completed today 57 laps of the Fiorano track (almost 200 km.) with a best laptime in 1.02.299. Michael Schumacher drove the car just to learn its behaviour. He didn't face mechanical problems. Luca Badoer completed 33 laps with an F300 to test some components. Best laptime: 1.03.547. Tomorrow Schumacher will test the F399 again in Fiorano.

McLAREN TEAM PRESENTED NEW CAR, ONLY ONE LAP ACHIEVED!
FEB 08 - Last year's champions McLaren team and their new star Mika Hakkinen are ready to defend '98 title. Also David Coulthard promised to the mass press that he will fight for his first ever F1 title. Hakkinen already warned his rivals and said: ' First title is only the beginning!' McLaren took the wraps off their latest Formula One charger, the Mercedes Benz-powered MP4-14 at the Circuit de Catalunya near Barcelona.

MARK MARTIN FIRED UP AT THE BEGINNING OF NEW SEASON!
FEB 08 - ( NASCAR ) Only prize race was yesterday, but enough to show driver's abilities for this season. Mark Martin and his No. 6 Valvoline Cummins Ford held on to a .251-second lead over Ken Schrader in the No. 33 Skoal Chevrolet at the finish line to win the furiously-paced Bud Shootout at Daytona International Speedway. The win was Martin's first in a stock car at DIS. The 25-lap dash for cash had six lead changes and an interesting pit stop. Jeff Gordon was penalized a lap after he crossed the front of his pit box and failed to back up before the DuPont crew went to work.

McDONALD'S TEAM PRESENTED THEIR '99 CHALLENGER!
FEB 08 - ( CART ) McDonald's Corporation Tuesday unveiled its new motorsports team during the opening day of Championship Auto Racing Teams Spring Training at Miami-Dade Homestead Motorsports Complex in Homestead, Fla. The team, which is known as the McDonald's Championship Racing Team, will compete in the 1999 FedEx Championship Series. The #44 McDonald's Honda-Reynard Champ Car is owned by Gerald Forsythe and driven by Tony Kanaan, a Brazilian native who won the 1998 Jim Trueman Award as FedEx Championship Series Rookie of the Year.

McLAREN TO LAUNCH NEW CAR, BARCELONA TESTS, VERSTAPPEN SIGNED DEAL!
FEB 08 - McLaren team, defending champions of 1998 season will launch new car today at Barcelona circuit. According to the close resources car is big step forvard comparing to the last year's model. Also new Mercedes engine might have over 760BPH.
Almost all Formula One teams are testing today at Barcelona circuit in preparation for Melbourne GP, which is only 30 days away. McLaren will join other teams on circuit, while Ferrari team plan to stay at Fiorano. Jordan, Benetton, BAR, Stewart, Williams team and few more will compete there for full week.
Jos Verstappen has signed three year deal with Honda company. This season he will be regular test driver for Honda team and will help to develop prototype for 2000. Next season he will be rugular team driver, while second driver will be signed at the end of this season. Jos impressed whole Honda team with his great feadback and all knowledge about F1 technology. He posted best times for Honda team in Jerez two weeks ago.

ITALIAN MINARDI TEAM PRESENTED NEW M01 FOR '99 SEASON!
FEB 07 - Whole Italain team and close partners are in confident mood as new Ford engine might move struggling team for the past four seasons few places higher. Minardi team did not score FIA championship points for the last three seasons, and team was in big crisis. Sponsors are now back, also FIA organization is prepared to help low budget team. First driver for this season will be Spaniard Marc Gene. He competed very well in F3000 (champion in '97) and last season in Nissan series and finished as best ( 6 wins and 3 pole positions ). Spaniard is also very impressive in education area as he degree in Economies at the University of Buckingham. Second driver for '99 season will be confirmed in short time.

GORDON TAKES AWAY POLE FOR DAYTONA 500 FROM STEWART!
FEB 07 - Jeff Gordon has captured pole position for next Sunday's Daytona 500 after qualifying fastest in Florida. Last year's NASCAR Winston Cup champion - and winner of the 1997 Daytona 500 - clocked 46.13 seconds in his Chevrolet around the 2.5 mile circuit, at an average speed of 195.06mph. Joining Gordon on the front row is former Indy Racing League champion Tony Stewart (46.24 seconds). Stewart was in lead for the most of qualifying time, but Gordon just finds extra edge to move ahead of big surprise, Tony Stewart. The remainder of the 43-car field will be determined in qualifying on Thursday.
Top qualifying times: 1 Jeff Gordon Chv 195.067mph 2 Tony Stewart Pon 194.599 3 Ken Schrader Chv 194.553 4 Mike Skinner Chv 194.536 5 Mark Martin Frd 194.196 6 Rusty Wallace Frd 194.187 7 Terry Labonte Chv 194.150 8 Ernie Irvan Pon 193.978 9 Michael Waltrip Chv 193.961 10 Dale Earnhardt Chv 193.865

PAYTON - COYNE TEAM WILL SUPPORT DENNIS VITOLO!
FEB 07 - Dennis Vitolo will mark his fourth season in PPG CART competition. Despite not achieving good result in last four seasons, he is ready to show his talent on all oval tracks for Payton - Coyne team. He will be driving Reynard - Ford package. "We have completely revised our approach to the CART Series. Although I'll be competing in fewer races this year, we have a testing program. Our few days at Homestead were very productive. I have the privilege of David Morgan engineering my car this year and sense that we will work very well together. The Payton-Coyne team is really coming into its own and I'm happy to be a part of it." On a personal note," Vitolo continues, "our entire team embraces shared values. I am proud to represent NicoDerm CQ and Nicorette's mission to improve the health and lives of people who smoke. Dale Coyne and his team exemplify the virtue of relentless hard work and the results it brings. This group has a lot of heart."

SCHUMACHER LOST REAR WING FROM FERRARI, JORDAN TEAM LOOK AHEAD!
FEB 06 - ( FERRARI ) The new F399 completed only two laps in its first day of testing. Michael Schumacher had to stop the session due to a broken rear wing. British American Racing and Benetton team have experienced this problem before in earlier tests. The Italian team decided not to continue running the F399 in favour to explore that uncharacteristic failure. Luca Badoer has driven an F300 for 66 laps: 1.03.026 his best laptime. Next testing session is scheduled for Monday, February 8th at Maranello circuit, local team circuit.
( JORDAN ) The Benson and Hedges Jordan Mugen-Honda team completed its final day of testing yesterday for this week with Damon Hill behind the wheel of the Jordan Mugen-Honda 199 and Heinz-Harald Frentzen in the Jordan Mugen-Honda 198. Damon completed 56 laps (300km) in the fastest time of 1.28.05. The team ran the car for long runs to work on reliability. Everything scheduled was achieved for this test and the team was happy with the day's progress. Heinz-Harald completed 27 laps in the Jordan Mugen-Honda 198 with a fastest time of 1.28.65. He completed brake evaluation in preparation for the 199 car before suffering a mechanical problem, which saw his test finish early. Testing will continue on Tuesday next week (9th February) in Barcelona with both drivers.

A LOT OF TESTING FOR MAYOR IRL TEAMS!
FEB 07 - ( IRL site ) Busy schedule: Driver Greg Ray and Team Menard face a hectic two-plus weeks of testing leading up to the MCI WorldCom 200 on March 28 at Phoenix International Raceway.
Watching, working: John Barnes, one of the four owners of Pennzoil Panther Racing, will take driver Scott Goodyear and the team to Las Vegas Motor Speedway for testing Feb. 8-9 and then to the league’s "Test in the West" Feb. 26-27 to the MCI WorldCom 200 there on March 28.

McDONALDS CONFIRMED MOVE INTO CART COMPETITION!
FEB 06 - ( CART ) McDonald's Corporation unveiled its new motorsports team during Championship Auto Racing Teams opening day of Spring Training at Miami-Dade Homestead Motorsports Complex. The team, which is known as the McDonald's Championship Racing Team, will compete in the 1999 FedEx Championship Series. The #44 McDonald's Honda-Reynard Champ Car is owned by Gerald Forsythe and driven by Tony Kanaan, a Brazilian native who was CART's 1998 FedEx Championship Series Rookie of the Year. The red, yellow and black McDonald's Champ Car, which will run on Firestone tires, will make its racing debut at CART's season opener, the Marlboro Grand Prix of Miami, March 21 in Homestead.

WE MAY WATCH EVEN FOUR ROOKIES IN '99 SEASON!
FEB 06 - Marc Gene, Gaston Mazzacane, Ricardo Zonta and X are ready to begin their's F1 career. Marc Gene is young Spaniard, who compete in F3000 and Formula Ford, but without mayor success. Argentinian Gaston Mazzacane also compete in F3000 last two seasons and did not finished many times on top spots. Both will drive for Minardi team. Third man comes from Brazilia, and that's really driver, worth to write about them. He already signelled to all in BAR team that he can be as quick as '97 Champion Villeneuve. In few days he improved times in Barcelona and Jerez drastically, on last days he regularly outpaced his team mate. Zonta was competing for Mercedes team in GT1 series for the last two seasons. He and Ludwig snatched GT1 title on the last race of FIA GT '98 season at Laguna Seca racing circuit. Fourth X driver is almost known, but not jet confirmed from Arrows team. That may be second driver from Spain, Pedro de la Rossa, who really posted fantastic times for Arrows team. He clocked regularly quickest laps as Finn Salo, regular driver for Arrows. Despite, he will be treated as pay-driver, he is the same example as Pedro Diniz for Sauber team. Quick driver and also money in his bag. But we lost Shinyi Nakano, Esteban Tuero and Taranosuke Takagi. All those youngsters were great F1 talents, but money leads the way in F1 nowadays. Few of them may be back in season or two, few will for sure sign as F1 test drivers and bounce back after the end of '99 season, ready to fight in new century.

SAKATA SWITCHES FROM APRILIA TO HONDA!
FEB 06 - Japan's 125cc world champion Kazuto Sakata has followed the example of Italian Loris Capirossi by leaving Aprilia for rivals Honda. He has signed a contract for next season with the MTP team of Terni, outside Rome, headed by Paolo Pileri. There he will link up with Capirossi, who recently made the move to Honda. Thirty-three-year-old Sakata won his world titles in 1994 and 1998 and took the runners-up position in 1993 and 1995.

DAYTONA 500 QUALIFYING UNDER THE WAY, GORDON ON POLE!
FEB 06 - Jeff Gordon has won the Daytona 500 before but never claimed a Bud Pole win for the event. That all changed Saturday.
Report from earlier: First day of new season is ahead of us. All Nascar fans are ready to watch qualifying and first race of season that's scheduled for February 12. Today's qualifying day for Daytona 500 race. Will Jeff Gordon begin season as he finished last season, as the best in the field. Will Labontes repeat last year's Daytona front row starting spots. A lot of questions we have ahead of new season. Bud Pole Qualifying for the Daytona 500 is under the way, starting spots almost known. When it's over, the front row will be set.

FORSYTHE GROUP IN HIGHS, GANASSI TEAM UNDER THE THREAT!
FEB 05 - Forsythe Players team in highs, Target Ganassi team not in so dominant form any more. When Canadian drivers Carpentier and Moore posted quickest laps ever posted at Homestead circuit everyone from CART fans know what that mean. New season will be a lot more than just fighting for second overall spot like last season, when Zanardi dominated almost full season and others fight for second or less. But Franchitti at the end of '98 season already signaled that Target team can be under the threat. And just that happened yesterday. Jimmy Vasser was all time on top positions, but was never really able to put up best training lap. In last three seasons red team was almost unbeatable, but now here we are, few new and few from waiting list moved ahead of Ganassi team. Forsythe, Old rival Gil de Ferran from Brazil is also ready to bounce back from very average positions posted last season. New Italian star rises during winter break, as Max Papis outpaces his team mate Herta (sixth place) and finished fifth fastest. New rookie Montoya already signaled in positive way to replace Zanardi seat. He clocked seventh fastest. The most impressive was for sure, that he was able to teach so quickly over the winter's time those oval tracks. He was very good driver in F3000 series and is ready to show his driving abilities also on road circuits. Losers are for sure Al Unser, 9th for Penske single car, Andretti and Fittipaldi outside of top 10, Franchitti, winner of four GP races last season. We also need to mention IRL refugee for one race, Boesel who finished eight fastest. Tracy will be replaced by him on first race of season. Carpentier, quickest on both days for Forsythe team expressed: "This gives us a lot of confidence. Actually, what we've been doing the last month has been giving us a lot of confidence. I'm just happy for the guys on the team. They've never stopped believing. I think we're ready to enter the season and I think we're going to be very competitive. We made quite a bit of change to the car this morning and those changes benefited the car. The car was very good and our engineers seem to know exactly which way to go almost 100 percent of the time. We're able to bounce back very quickly when things go wrong."

( NASCAR ) FORD DRIVERS READY TO RUN NEW TAURUS CARS!
FEB 05 - Ford's NASCAR Winston Cup Series teams entered the 1998 season with a great deal of trepidation about the year ahead. They were debuting the new Taurus, and no one knew how it would run. At first, it seemed those fears might be well-founded, as Fords qualified poorly for the 1998 Daytona 500. However, the Taurus turned out to be an excellent race car. As the 1999 season gets set to kick off, the blue oval bunch has lots of reasons to be very confident about all 34 races on the schedule -- including Speedweeks.

ARROWS ANNOUNCED LAUNCH DATE, MINARDI TEAM AHEAD OF HARD TASK!
FEB 05 - British - African Arrows team will present their new drivers and the new team chassis at Barcelona on February 9th. Full next week they will contest on testing at Barcelona circuit. Meanwhile Technical Director Mike Coughlan will stay with Arrows team for another three years.
After announcement of two new Minardi drivers, Italian team is ready to present their new '99 challenger in Barcelona, Spain next week. On 7 February the Minardi team will launch their 99 contender, but they will have a lot of work to do ahead of season opener in Melbourne, Australia. Next week many teams will contest at Barcelona circuit in preparation for new season. Only one month separate us away of first GP in '99 season.

( DORNA ) JAPANESE RIDER ABE AND ITALIAN ROSSI GREAT!
FEB 05 - Abe Keeps top as times drop down at Sepang Test Japanese Norick Abe (Yamaha) improved by 0.8 seconds his fastest time of Wednesday to stay on top of the 500cc scoreboard after the third day of winter testing at the Sepang racetrack in Malaysia. In the 250cc class, Valentino Rossi (Aprilia) was the pace setter despite crashing. The perfect weather conditions, together with the progressive cleaning of the racetrack surface and the improving circuit knowledge of the riders, made sure that most of the participants in these IRTA Tests improved their lap-times. But man who impressed me the most between the all riders was Tetsuya Harada. Last season he was favourite for 250cc title, but lost after horrific accident on last corner of the last race in '98 season. Capirossi drive directly into Japanese rider. Capirossi won, but Aprilia get Harada another big work. They will try together to build up motorbike that will be capable for winning spots. First serious tests for Aprillia 500 project looks almost too good. But, Japanese rider and Aprillia know what they want. Victory in '99 is their secret plan. And they are at the same moment so close and very much away of achieving that.
Leading times - 500cc: 1. Norick Abe Yamaha 2.07.698 2. Kenny Roberts Suzuki 2.07.789 3. Max Biaggi Yamaha 2.08.184 4. Tetsuya Harada Aprilia 2.08.601 5. Régis Laconi Yamaha 2.09.626 6. Nobuatsu Aoki Suzuki 2.09.696
Leading times - 250cc: 1. Valentino Rossi Aprilia 2.09.830 2. Olivier Jacque Yamaha 2.09.850 3. Shinya Nakano Yamaha 2.08.184 4. Ralf Waldmann Aprilia 2.11.472 5. Franco Battaini FGF Corse 2.11.863 6. Naoki Matsudo Yamaha 2.12.217

VITOLO AND MARQUES TO SHARE PAYTON-COYNE SEAT!
FEB 05 - Argentinean Tarso Marques will need to share seat with Dennis Vitolo in Payton-Coyne team. He will be stood down for the seven US oval races by backmarker Dennis Vitolo. Other thirteen races are in pocket for him.

BRITISH WOMAN READY TO CONTEST ON INDY 500!
FEB 05 - Ex F1 driver in early 70s, woman from Britain, Helen Bashford is close to the deal for Indy 500 race. That means (s)he will be the only third woman to contest in Indy 500 race full history. 'The team wants to have me. Now all I need to do is to find the money.' She is close to the deal with Cobb CBR Racing team's Infiniti-powered G-Force chassis.

FIA OVER THE BAR OR BAR OVER THE FIA?
FEB 05 - BAR lost dual livery fight with FIA council, but now they need to answer on few more questions said FIA in special statement. In a statement FIA organization "invited British American Racing to appear before the World Motor Sport Council in Geneva on 12 March 1999 to answer allegations of breaches of Article 151.c of the International Sporting Code and of Article 25.e of the FIA Statutes". "We do not want to comment on the matter at this time," said a BAR spokeswoman. BAR team will not shut up and they are ready to bounce back said BAR spokeswoman: "But we shall make a statement next week after we have considered our position on the matter."

( AUTOSPORT ) DRIVERS TEST NEW CARS FOR '99 SEASON!
FEB 04 - Tim Harvey had a good start with new Volvo car. He was 1.15s off best time posted by Nissan's Laurent Aiello. Harvey is still in fight for second seat in Volvo team. Peter Kox did not have good days last week in his new '99 Honda Accord. Dutchman test was interrupted by fuel pick-up problems. Team boss Dick Bennetts said, 'We're still debugging the car. We didn't get as much running as we would have liked!'

FORSYTHE TEAM STRONG AT HOMESTEAD SPRING TRAININGS!
FEB 04 - Patrick Carpentier was again impressive on second day of testing in Homestead, Florida. He completed second day again on top spot, his team mate Greg Moore moved to second spot. So, today was again perfect day for Forsythe team. Another Japanese driver, Shigeaki Hattori has moved to PPG CART series with the Bettenhausen Motorsports Reynard team to replace Helio Castro Neves, who moved to Hogan Racing. Japanese driver will compete in 13 of the 19 races in '99 season. Shigeaki finished spring training on 28 spot. Finn JJ Lehto will probably stay out of seat for '99 season after Hogan Racing team decision to employ fresh Brazilian star Neves. Best cumulative time after second day from Homestead: 1 Patrick Carpentier 24.962 2 Greg Moore 25.055 3 Jimmy Vasser 25.106 4 Gil de Ferran 25.126 5 Max Papis 25.255 6 Bryan Herta 25.313 7 Juan Montoya 25.423 8 Raul Boesel 25.439 9 Al Unser Jr. 25.454 10 Michael Andretti 25.478 11 Tony Kanaan 25.501 12 Mauricio Gugelmin 25.617 13 Scott Pruett 25.667 14 Christian Fittipaldi 25.716 15 Mark Blundell 25.725 16 Cristiano Da Matta 25.741 17 Helio Castro-Neves 25.784 18 Naoki Hattori 25.977 19 Dario Franchitti 25.999 20 Adrian Fernandez 26.033 21 PJ Jones 26.095 22 Alex Barron 26.162 23 Michael Andretti 26.273

McRAE LASHES FORD AFTER POINTS LOSS.
FEB 04 - Colin McRae has criticised his Ford team after being stripped of third place in the Monte Carlo Rally. The Ford Focus car in which he came third was ruled illegal and he told The Times: 'There has been a major mistake by the engineers and it is a kick in the guts after all the effort I have put in.' Martin Whitaker, Ford's director of European motorsport said: 'We believed that there was a loophole in the regulations and went for it.'

BENETTON STRONG IN SILVERSTONE, RALF IN MAGNY COURSE!
FEB 04 - Giancarlo Fisichella continued good run on Thursday for Benetton team. He improved its yesterday's best time for almost full second and bettered Wurz best time for another half of a second. Hill also improved times for almost full second and finished his run in new J199 car as second quickest, but full second back comparing to Italian Fisichella. Takagi did not run well, and Rossa is close to get second seat for '99 season in Arrows team. Frentzen did test on new Bridgestone tyres and on set up in preparation for next week's Spanish test. Leading times from Silverstone on Thursday: 1 Fisichella Benetton 1:27.019 34laps 2 Hill Jordan 1:28.024 47laps 3 Frentzen Jordan 1:28.641 22laps 4 Takagi Arrows 1:31.497 15laps Schumacher clocked one minute 18.27 seconds in the afternoon session at the French track to pip Italian Zanardi by four hundredths of a second as Williams continued their preparations for the new season which starts in Australia on March 7. "This test has been beneficial to me as I have been able to re-learn the Magny Cours circuit," said Zanardi. "We have got a great deal of homework done with the FW21 and the team have been able to get in some pit-stop practice."

TUFF SEASON AHEAD OF JEFF GORDON!
FEB 04 - Many drivers are ready to finish Gordon dominant form from last two seasons. Many of them changes team, crew, many are ready for new challenge. Few of them who are from Pontiac group will try to improve their performance and come back into the fight for top spots. Jeff Gordon is ahead of tuffs season for him. He already knows how to defend title, but even drivers from Ford manufacturer will be ready to grab a win or more. That's another task that Gordon will need to fight in new season that begins at Daytona Speedway on February 12. Teams are motivated to dethrone Gordon and the Rainbow Warriors. The equipment has never been better. The new race venues are awesome and most of the older ones are improving. Everyone will watch on Gordon!

DAMON HILL HAPPY WITH NEW J199, JUST TESTING FOR DATA!
FEB 04 - Jordan team yesterday were running new J199 model, but only to get valuable data from the car in preparation for next week's Spanish test week. "We have good reason to be encouraged, although we cannot make any real judgements until we run against the other teams in Barcelona next week," Hill said after his drive in the Jordan Mugen-Honda 199. "But, when you consider we have a new engine and new gear box, I am impressed by how reliably the car ran today."

MINARDI SIGNED BOTH DRIVERS!
FEB 04 - The Italian Minardi team have confirme that Marc Gene will drive for them nex season. He will be the first Spaniard to drive in Formula One for a decade. Minardi, who have still got find another driver before the season starts, signed the 24-year-old after agreeing a $7 million sponsorship deal with Spanish company Telefonica. Gene was second in Formula Ford in 1994 then spent three years in Formula 3000 before wining last year's Formula Ford title. The second driver that signed with Minardi is the 23 year old Argentine Gaston Mazzacane.

MAX BIAGGI READY TO REPLACE DAMON HILL!
FEB 04 - Max Biaggi said that there's a lot of chance for him to be a competitive F1 driver like Hill. As we probably know, Hill was great motorbike rider and compete in British cup a long time ago. But Biaggi also forget that Hill need eight years of competing in lower car series. But Italian anyway said: 'Damon Hill was only a test driver before he raced for Williams, so I don't see why I can't go straight to F1 and succeed. There's a big chance for me to go car racing.'

( IRL ) WE WILL WAIT FOR BETTER TIMES SAID PELFREY!
FEB 03 - Greg Paull, team manager for Team Pelfrey, said that it’s "more than likely" that 1998 Pep Boys Indy Racing League Sprint PCS Rookie of the Year Robby Unser will drive the team car at Phoenix. Unser, son of three-time Indy 500 champion Bobby Unser, recently signed a testing contract with Team Cheever but was allowed to step into Pelfrey’s Dallara/Aurora/Firestone in the season-opening TransWorld Diversified Services Indy 200 on Jan. 24. He finished 15th after starting 21st and was running at the end, completing 195 laps. "We’re trying to put together a deal," Paull said. Paull feels the team can do better. It went to Orlando without any testing, and Unser encountered brake problems early in the race. Also, Paull had to get an engine from Kelley Racing due to problems with its engine. After the race, Pelfrey switched engine builders to Katech.

( NASCAR ) A LOT OF WORK FOR DAN PARDUS!
FEB 03 - Winston Cup Raybestos Rookie candidate Dan Pardus will be the busiest man in the Daytona International Speedway paddock and garage areas through Sunday, February 7th, as he prepares three stock cars for four races during Speedweeks '99.

SCHUEY ON BAR, FERRARI 12V BACK, BAR LOST FIGHT, ARGENTINIAN GP POSSIBLE!
FEB 03 - German driver Michael Schumacher said that British American Racing team will neeed a lot of time to be in front of F1 pack. Reliability won't be on their side in first season. 'They will take too long to get the car together and I would be more than surprised if they got around our cars. It takes time to get a team running right, it took us a long time, so it will take them just as long.' Ferrari team also need the time in '96 season as Italian team was completely reconstructed.
Ferrari team is ready to begin with new project for 2000 season. They will again develope new 12V engine as lack of power that can not be provided by their new V10 engine. In '96 Ferrari began to use new V10, but now they are ready to switch in 2000 or 2001 back to 12V. All materials are now so lighter that also V12 is now a realistic plan for Italian team.
British American Racing team lost fight for two different liveries. The new team had hoped to equip drivers Jacques Villeneuve and Ricardo Zonta in different liveries to match to of their cigarette brands, one blue and the other red and white, even though dual colour schemes were outlawed last year. FIA statement was very short: "The complaint by British American Racing against the new rule requiring a team's cars to have substantially the same livery has been rejected by the Arbitral Tribunal of the International Chamber of Commerce which also ordered British American Racing to pay all the FIA's costs."
Argentina not completely out of 1999 calendar is our first word. It seems strange but officials are said to have contacted Bernie Ecclestone, offering the Oscar Cabalen circuit as a possible alternative race host for this year's Argentinian GP.

FRESH DETAILS FROM MIAMI DADE SPRING TRAININGS!
FEB 03 - Canadian boy Patrick Carpentier was the quickest man on first day of spring trainings at Homestead ovel circuit. Second quickest was runner up in '98 season PPG CART cup Jimmy Vasser. Gill de Ferran also posted very respectable third quickest lap time. Greg Moore completed good day for Forsythe team with fourth time. But big surprise or not, for those who know very well Colombian and F3000 champion Montoya clocked in only eight laps fifth best lap time. He replaced '98 CART champion Zanardi in Target Chip Ganassi team, so also good result for Ganassi team as both cars finished into top five spots. Andretti, Fittipaldi, Franchitti, Blundell and Guglemin did not perform quick lap times on first day of testing. Rookie Da Matta also finished into top 10, whilest Hattori from Japan did only six laps and finished well up on first day. Leading times provided by CART: Carpentier 213.092mph Vasser 212.723 de Ferran 210.758 Moore 210.495 Montoya 210.005 Pruett 209.525 Boesel 209.192 Kanaan 209.079 Papis 208.201 Da Matta 208.081 Unser Jr. 207.722 Fernandez 207.538 Hattori 207.482 Herta 207.387 Andretti 206.571

FEBRUARY TEST PROGRAMME PROVIDED BY BRIDGESTONE COMPANY!
FEB 03 - Few details about F1 test dates from Bridgestone tyre company. Two weeks of testing will be placed in Britain, Silverstone circuit. One week of tests is also schedueld for Spain, Barcelona circuit. Bridgestone will be supplying its tyres to the F1 teams which intend to take part in the following programme.
First week: 03 and 04 February 1999 Circuit: England - Silverstone
Second week: 08, 09, 10 and 11 February 1999 Circuit: Spain - Barcelona
Fourth week: 22, 23 and 24 February 1999 Circuit: England - Silverstone

( ESPN ) LAS VEGAS READY TO HOST CART COMPETITION!
FEB 02 - Las Vegas Motor Speedway is ready to host CART competition already next season. Circuit already hosted Winston Cup series last season for the first time, this season there will be another race. Also IRL series has been presented there in past seasons. "We're very interested in exploring Las Vegas as a potential venue for CART events in the future," said CART chairman Andrew Craig. "There is no question that Las Vegas is a terrific marketplace." "A partnership between CART and the Las Vegas Motor Speedway would be another way to showcase our facility and put CART into the world's entertainment capital," Powell said.

MICHELIN TYRE TESTS FOR '99 SEASON IN STW AND BTCC COMPETITION!
FEB 03 - All mayor BTCC and STW teams were testing in Italy, Vallelunga race speedway on special Michelin tyres test. Nissan car, still '98 version was in dominant form ahaead of very improved Alfa Romeo car. Alfa did not compete very well in STW cup last season. This season Alfa seems very competitive with their driver Nicola Larini (two seasons back also Sauber F1 driver). Best time clocked STW refugee Laurent Aiello, who was last season driving for Peugeot team. It seems Frenchman is ready for top spots together with Nissan team this season. However, all teams were testing only new Michelin tyres and times are not the best indicator ahead of season opener.
Times, provided from Autosportmag:
1 Laurent Aiello-Nissan 1m13.44s 2 Nicola Larini-Alfa 1m13.87s 3 Gabriele Tarquini-Honda 1m14.20s 4 Manuel Reuter-Opel Vectra 1m14.21s 5 Yvan Muller-Vauxhall 1m14.54s 6 Tim Harvey-Volvo 1m14.59s 7 Emanuele Naspetti-BMW 1m14.64s 8 Fabrizio de Simone-BMW 1m15.19s 9 Jason Plato-Renault 1m16.57s

HILL DROVE 199, D DAY FOR BAR, MINARDI FREE, ARROWS CONFIRMED SALO!
FEB 03 - Damon Hill already tasted new Jordan 199 car. He did four laps in cold Silverstone. But today and on Thursday Bridgestone tests will continue there! "Well, I have a smile on my face. My gut feeling is very positive." said Hill. Frentzen will drive older 198 version for this week, while Hill will try to get as most data from new car in preparation for Barcelona test which will be held in much warmer climate next week.
D day for British American Racing team we can say at the moment. In few hours we will get full details about decision. BAR team are trying to compete in F1 '99 season with two different tobacco liveries, but arbitration committee will have last word later today.
Minardi team is still in search for two drivers for '99 season. They want two competitive pay-drivers. It was also mentioned that Japanese driver Shinji Nakano droped out of competition for free seat.
Arrows team is close to decide on their two drivers for the '99 champagne. Mika Salo was already confirmed for '99 season as no. 1 driver, second seat is ready for de la Rossa or maybe Takagi. Money play a lot of game there, despite Spaniard impressed all in Arrows team as he was quicker in last tests in Spain from both Takagi and Salo!

( CART ) SHORT REPORT JUST DAY AHEAD OF SPRING TRAININGS!
FEB 02 - Cart competition is ready for Spring trainings, which are scheduled for February 3rd and 4th. Test will be placed at the Miami-Dade Homestead Motorsports Complex where will ba also season opener on March 21st. In last three seasons Target Chip Ganassi team posted best times on Spring trainings, all best times were posted by Jimmy Vasser. This season Ganassi team will use new Rookie driver, Juan Pablo Montoya, F3000 champion from Colombia. Many drivers changes teams, also few new teams were formed this season. In Rookie of the year competition we will see also Cristiano da Matta. Every day you can expect fresh test times from America. More to follow on Wednesday, after 19:00 GMT.

( NASCAR ) WALLACE KNOWS MENTAL GAME VERY WELL!
FEB 02 - Kenny Wallace, driver for Andy Petree Racing - Chevrolet team is of opinion that mental side of every sport is very important. It was Baseball Hall of Famer Yogi Berra who said, "Ninety percent of this game is half mental." While Berra was referring to profession, the famous Yogi-ism could also be applied to the motorsports arena, and specifically Kenny Wallace.

IRL DRIVERS ALSO COMPETE AT ROLEX 24H RACE!
FEB 02 - Arie Luyendyk, John Paul Jr., Scott Sharp and Eliseo Salazar were back in a completely different motorsports competition just after one week, when they were competing on Indy 200 race, opener of new season. "The gearbox broke," said Luyendyk. "I think it broke because we had an alternator problem first. When I went down to shift from fifth to sixth, the engine stalled, and when it stalled and you go the gear with a sequential gearbox, it doesn't like it, and I think it busted the gears." "I think everything went the way we expected," said Sharp, who came to the Indy Racing League from road racing. "I sure would not have expected to go through a 24-hour race the first time out with absolutely no problems with new cars and new teams." No victory for IRL guys, but they survive 24h race. That's big achievement for sure!

IRVAN DID NOT HAVE A CHANCE TO DRIVE AT ROLEX 24H!
FEB 02 - Ernie Irvan just missed his chance at climbing into the MB2 motorsports BMW during the weekend's Rolex 24 At Daytona. Car troubles that didn't get cleared up until Sunday left the less-experienced sports car driver off the list when it came time to put a car on the track at Daytona International Speedway.

LAST TEST AHEAD OF SPRING TRAINING, FRANCHITTI VERY IMPRESSIVE!
FEB 01 - Drivers like Gugelmin, Franchitti, Tracy, Ferran, Fernandez and Jones were testing all over the south of the USA. Gugelmin was testing for PacWest team in Miami Dade Homestead and said: "We continue to run strong and get a lot accomplished. Today, we worked on improving the balance of the car and finding more mechanical grip. Every time we test, we make steady progress throughout the day. The team is doing a really great job. The tires we tested today are not the same tires we plan to run here, so I think we will find more speed at Spring Training. I'm confident we will run strong at Spring Training." Franchitti and Tracy have been testing for Kool Green team in Firebird, outside Phoenix city. Tracy, who was penalised and will not compete in season opener said: "We learned some things about the engine and I came away pretty happy with the car. I only wish we'd had more time. I haven't been on a road course since the Surfers Paradise race in October. We're going to test at Sebring [Feb. 20-21] and I'm looking forward to getting back into the swing of things on a road course." We need to mention there, that Franchitti crashed out when he was testing new Firestone wet tyres, but without mayor consequences. Ferran was also testing at Firebird for Valvoline/Cummins team and pointed out: "Obviously, the conditions were not ideal, but I think the new Reynard is a slight improvement over last year. We will get a better idea in our next test at Sebring. However, the 1999 Honda has definitely improved from last year." Adrian Fenrandez for Patrick team and PJ Jones for Visteon team were both testing in Sebring and Phoenix. "We were able to get some good information from the Phoenix tests," said Fernandez, but Jones expressed: "I think the Swift is a good car and has a lot of potential. We are just scratching the surface of the car's capabilities and there is still a lot of work to be done, but I see improvement each time we test the car."

ROLEX 24 HOURS RACE WIN FOR WALLACE, ELLIOT AND LEITZINGER!
FEB 01 - -Andy Wallace, Elliott Forbes-Robinson, Butch Leitzinger and driver-owner Rob Dyson won their second Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona in three years on Sunday with a narrow two-lap victory in a competitive, rain-plagued race. Taking the lead for good midway through the 18th hour, their Riley and Scott Ford held off the Ferrari 333SP Can-Am of Wayne Taylor, Allan McNish, Max Angelelli and Didier de Radigues. The winning car completed 708 laps around the 3.56 mile (5.7 km) Daytona International Speedway road course, a distance of 2,520 miles (4032 km).
DAYTONA 24H RACE RESULTS:
JAN 31 - 1. (3), Dyson Racing Team Inc., Andy Wallace, England, Elliott Forbes-Robinson, Sherrils Ford, N.C., Butch Leitzinger, State College, Pa., CA, Riley & Scott Ford, 708.
2. (1), Doyle-Risi Racing, Massimiliano Angelelli, Monaco, Didier de Radigues, Monaco, Allan McNish, Scotland, Wayne Taylor, Altomonte Springs, Fla., CA, Ferrari 333 SP, 706.
3. (2), Doran/Matthews Racing, Jim Matthews, Warsaw, N.C., Stefan Johansson, Sweden, Jimmy Vasser, Las Vegas, Nev., Max Papis, Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif., CA, Ferrari 333 SP, 694.
4. (8), Auto Sport Racing, Enzo Calderari, Switzerland, Lilian Bryner, Switzerland, Angelo Zadra, Italy, Carl Rosenblad, England, CA, Ferrari 333 SP, 679.
5. (6), Support Net Racing, Henry Camferdam, Indianapolis, Ind., Duncan Dayton, North Salem, N.Y., Eliseo Salazar, Chile, Scott Schubot, W. Palm Beach, Fla., CA, Riley & Scott Ford, 643

PROST TEAM RAN NEW AP02 MACHINERY AT MAGNY COURSE!
FEB 01 - Alain Prost, team boss of Prost team is happy about first test for new AP02 car. Olivier Panis was running new car at Magny Course circuit without mayor problems. Team contentrated to get as most data from car as possible in preparation for Bridgestone winter test which will follow in few days. 'All went well,' said the Prost's number one driver Olivier Panis. 'The first day was to verify that all works perfectly in the car, and that's true. We don't have any reliability problems. I made very little runs without thinking to the time I could do. The most long run I made was 4 laps.'
News from http://www.multimania.com/pgp

JORDAN TEAM PRESENTED NEW 199 MODEL!
FEB 01 - Jordan team presented their new model 199, new challenger for 1999 season. Jordan are determined to mount a consistent challenge to McLaren and Ferrari this season after winning their first grand prix in 1998 after seven years of trying. "We're going to do things better and harder this year," team boss Eddie Jordan said on Monday as he launched the Jordan 199, which is powered by a Mugen-Honda engine. Former world champion Damon Hill, who achieved the debut victory at Spa in August, said it had given a huge psychological boost to the team and made it "more confident, more professional, more determined". "We want to win more than one race and be out there challenging and harrying (the leaders). We have to be realistic but we are very confident about this car," Hill said. The win in the Belgian Grand Prix came after a dreadful start to the year for Jordan which had tested the resolve of the team and its backers, Jordan said. "To survive something like last year and to come back fighting has a lot to do with the contribution of Eddie Jordan and Mugen-Honda who gave us more power," Hill said. Jordan finished fourth in the constructors' championship and much of the credit for the turnround in fortune last season can be put down to chief designer Mike Gascoyne who joined in July. His 199 car is largely based on the 1998 model but the look is quite different and it has a smaller, more powerful engine with a lower centre of gravity. "There's a lot of effort gone into it and there is a huge weight of expectation -- rightly so," Gascoyne said. The car has been tested very little this year as the team have concentrated on putting as much development time into it as possible. Hill is joined this year by Heinz-Harald Frentzen, who joined from Williams to replace fellow German Ralf Schumacher.