Honda takes APCC first blood

This weekend's motor racing round-up by Brett Ramsey

Honda has drawn first blood in this year's Australian Production Car Championship at the opening round of the new CAMS National Motor Racing Series at Goulburn's Wakefield Park Raceway.

Driving the nimble S2000 sportscar young NSW driver Drew Russell took out the overall honours with two wins to one over the big Falcon XR6 Turbo of David Ryan.

A surprise in third with the Volkswagen Golf GT1 of Kosi Kalaitzidis beating John Houlder in the first of the Falcon V8s.

Defending Champion Sebastian Loeb has won the Rally of Mexico, round three of the World Rally Championship. Driving a Citroen Loeb passed Subaru driver Petter Solberg late in the event after Solberg encountered power steering problems that slowed him on the final stages.
Third in the event went to Manfred Stohl in the OMV Peugeot. Australian driver Chris Atkinson recovered to seventh place after he went off the road after hitting a rock on Day One.

F1A long winter of testing is over and the anticipation builds as the 2006 World Formula One drivers Championship gets underway next weekend in Bahrain.

So what does testing tell us, if anything, about the year ahead?
Well, first thing is that the FIA's much-vaunted move to slow the cars down via a new smaller 2.4-litre V8 engine instead of the V10 3-litre units has done little more than cost millions of dollars and annoyed manufacturers.

Test times in Valencia showed only a small drop in pace, and by the time this year is over expect times to be somewhat the same as last year at most tracks.

As a guide to who will be quick in 2006 it's a case of round up the usual suspects...

So far Honda is looking a real chance with test driver Anthony Davidson setting the quickest times at Valencia. Jenson Button and his new team-mate Rubens Barichello have also been fast and there's a lot of confidence in the Honda ranks that this year all that money and hard work will finally pay off.

Defending champions Renault and Fernando Alonso are also looking strong and with the Spaniard heading to McLaren in '07 don't be too surprised to see Giancarlo Fiscichella figure strongly this year. If he doesn't expect the 'job vacant' sign at Renault at the end of the season...

As usual Ferrari has kept a low profile, testing predominantly at Mugello and Fiorano. Bad weather has hampered much of the Prancing Horse's recent tests and rumours abound that reliability of the new V8 is still a problem. Most of the interest on the driving side will revolve around new boy Felipe Massa and how he fits in alongside Michael Schumacher.

McLaren was also fast in the pre-season. Kimi Raikkonen was second to Davidson's Honda and with rumours surrounding a move to Ferrari in '07 the Fin will be keen to atone for last year when mechanical problems probably cost him the title.

Of the rest Toyota will need to put on a better showing in '07 or else one can expect the management and stockholders to be asking some very serious questions regarding return on their (significant) investment.

Williams could surprise. After a year in hell with the uncompetitive BMW motor they move to a purchased Cosworth. Much has changed since Cosworth V8s dominated the Grand Prix scene but there is still plenty of knowledge at Northampton on how to build strong, fast and reliable V8s.

Australian Mark Webber will be under some pressure this year. He showed plenty in qualifying and in short bursts during races but too many mistakes and confrontations with other drivers cost the Aussie dearly. This year he will have the added pressure of a new and much-vaunted team-mate in Nico Rosburg, who has shown up well in the pre-season.

Red Bull, with the experienced David Coulthard and youngster Christian Klein, has been quick in testing but the new RB2 may be just an interim chassis until the first design from poached McLaren designer Adrian Newey and his team comes on board.

With thanks to Dirk Klynsmith, 'Graphic Dak' for Formula 3 images.