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00:00Only three cars in total will make up the Courier Mail GT production car race here at Honda Indy 98.
00:06A great spread of cars, diverse brands, manufacturers. It really is good racing.
00:14We saw a tremendous race at the Tickford 500 not so long ago with the OAMS Insurance Endurance Classic.
00:21Five different classes. If this is something new to you, class A, B, C, D and E.
00:26A variety of machines but obviously the premier class and the glamour class is class A.
00:32The supercars and there they are on screen at the moment. Car 85 is Rodney Forbes who sits on pole
00:37position. We'll talk more about him later on. Of course the cars are on their warm-up lap.
00:42Let's have a look at the grid and we touched on it briefly because Rodney Forbes did pick up pole
00:46position yesterday. Starting alongside him will be the veteran Jim Richards, back to Dean Canto
00:52and Darren Palmer, Arman, Kewlan, Thorn and King. Interesting there, Canto will not start. He's going
00:58to start from the back of the grid due to some turbo charge irregularities. We'll get onto that
01:01later. Linton and Trimble, Simpson and Cowley, Kenny in the Subaru Impreza. A very impressive
01:07performance from Ratcliffe in the Camry V6. Then another Subaru and Gardner in the Mazda.
01:13Now we'll point out the various categories as the race progresses. Sexton, Cohen, Davis, Spirides.
01:18Perry had some problems with his Ferrari F355 yesterday but you can expect him to come through
01:25the field. Jackson, Williams, Hughes and McGill getting back into the class E cars there. Greg Murphy,
01:30this one should be a ripper. The V8 supercar race was good. I think this one will be a little closer
01:35than that and plenty of action. Jim Richards and Rodney Forbes on the front row. I'm sure
01:39there'll be a bit of fireworks there. Especially Rodney out-qualifying Jimmie.
01:44And so it was a good result. Well, Jim of course is in a brand new car, a rebuilt car.
01:53The vehicle he is in today suffering a heap of damage not so long ago. Rodney Forbes going
01:59through. There is Jim Richards. Here is the Ferrari, one of two Ferrari F355s in this race
02:04and that is young Darren Palmer in that one. Has not long returned to Australia. He has been racing
02:10in the Formula Mazda series in the USA and comes back into the car that is usually driven
02:16by either John Bowe or Neil Crompton. I'll tell you what, if qualifying is anything to go by,
02:21the battle between Jim Richards and young Rodney Forbes should be fantastic. They're only eight
02:26one hundredths of a second, not even a tenth of a second between the two Porsche 911 RS CS cars on
02:32the front row of the grid. So as I say, if that translates to race pace, we should have a tremendous
02:37battle. Isn't Jimmie Richards amazing? He just tried anything. He comes out of winning in a Volvo
02:44a few weeks ago in Bathurst and now he's now he's racing his Porsche again at the Service Paradise.
02:50He's just an amazing guy. You know, I saw him in a truck race once. He was representing New Zealand
02:56in a Trans-Tasman Challenge, so he should be representing New Zealand. And he did very well.
03:00But he was a great rally driver early in his career. He's driven production cars very successful
03:04in the production car series in England. He even did a stint in Formula 5000 open wheeler racing
03:10cars. He's driven just about everything that's been on a racetrack. Twelve laps for the Coorier Vale
03:14GT production car race have just about completed their warm-up lap and indeed Rodney Forbes,
03:20the first there to the front row, and the rest will come. As you can see, it's a great shot of
03:24the main straight here at Service Paradise and we really have been blessed with tremendous weather,
03:29not only today, and let's hope this stays for tomorrow, but all through this weekend.
03:33It's important, it helps with the lead-up, all of the preparation,
03:38and of course it really helps with good racing.
03:42We can confirm that spot there, that should have been Dean Canto in the Maserati Ghibli,
03:47the car that was so dominant at Sandown at the Tickford 500 meeting, ran away with that race,
03:52but he's been pinged. Apparently the scrutineers found some turbo booster irregularities in the car
03:57when they did their standard checks and now he's been pinged and he's moved right to the back of
04:01the field in the Maserati. That's the white car just underneath the bridge there, so he's got a
04:04lot of work to do, the youngster. Set for a start now, not too far away, watch the lights, away we
04:08go. Now Rodney Forbes has bogged it down, Jim Richards gets the jump, Darren Palmer in the
04:13Ferrari slots into third spot, then we go back to Ross Armond, but it is Jimmy Richards who leads
04:18the way. Now let's hope they all get through this first chicane okay, because in the V8 supercars
04:23it was Chaos Central, they get through no problems for the first 10 or so, do they? So no worries,
04:29John Cowley sneaking his way through there in the HSV Commodore. Gee, Rodney Forbes has been
04:34impressive, hasn't he? We saw him in Formula Ford last year, son of Bob Forbes, the former
04:40touring car driver and team owner. He's done very, very well in a very short period of time. Rodney
04:46Forbes now matching Jim Richards pace for pace throughout qualifying, let's see if he can repeat
04:51that performance in this 12 lap around the streets of Surface Paradise. Well Rodney's an interesting
04:55situation in himself because he raced Formula Fords last year, he did some Porsche Cup earlier
05:00this year, now GTP as we see Dean Kando muscling his way through. He's already got past four or
05:05five, maybe half a dozen cars from rear of grid in the Maserati Ghibli, so keep your eyes on the
05:10young teenager from Sydney. Well that car was an absolute rocket on the long straights at Sound
05:14Out, producing somewhere in the region of 400 brake horsepower for the twin turbocharged V6
05:20engine. Look at it crank up here as it fires out of that corner, way past that Commodore, just
05:26picking his way through the field. He's doing a tremendous job, I think Kando is really going to
05:29move up through the field. Perry Sperini's in the Ferrari F355 doing a good job too, Greg. Yeah he
05:34is, he's coming back through the field as well after being a lot further back at the start of
05:37the race. Jim Richards though pulling away and Rodney Forbes just ripping away from Darren Palmer there,
05:44making a big gap. Well it's the two Porsche 911 RS club sports, they have just bolted on this
05:51opening lap and it's Darren Palmer sitting there in third and he's got Ross Armand all over the
05:55back of him. This is a real four-wheel drive track too, lots of stop-start corners, Ross Armand now
05:59really showing that the Evo Mitsubishi can really hand take it into its own around these corners,
06:04he's throwing that thing around and out of these slow corners the traction that that car's got
06:09really comes into its own. It's been a tremendously successful machine for Mitsubishi Motors
06:13in their World Rally Championship program. Tommy McEnan very, very fast in this car throughout the
06:20World Rally Championship season and there have been a number of different evolutions of this car
06:25and each one has been successively faster and it's really, you can see the performance
06:30here as he runs with this very high priced Italian Exotic just in front of him. Well the last time
06:35Darren Palmer raced in the GT Production Car Series is he climbs the kerb, so too does Armand,
06:40was in a Subaru WRX Impreza, now he's made a pretty significant step up into the Ferrari F355.
06:48Of course the car owned by his dad Ross Palmer who has been instrumental in setting up this series,
06:53the GT Production Car Series. We go to our lead pair and it is Jimmy Richards in the
06:58Fire Oil 911 RS CS leading Rodney Forbes, it's a good close battle, look how far they've pulled
07:03out on the other guys, they didn't even come into view on that shot. Well Dean Canto is already up
07:07to 13th position starting out at 23rd, so plenty of speed aboard the Maserati as he tries to track
07:13down this pair and look at the gap they've opened up over Palmer in third position.
07:19We go through Tulen is top five, King, Thornt, Trimble, Bering, Linton and Terry Spirides has
07:25worked his way up from 20th to 10th in the second Ferrari F355, he's going really well.
07:32I guess knowing how hard this track is Greg Murphy on brakes, you can imagine how hard it is on a
07:36production car brakes. Very much so, I just saw the Nissan GT-R go through there and it's a very
07:41very heavy car and around here it has good horsepower, obviously gets out of the corners
07:46very well but I think it'll probably start to suffer later on under brakes. There's Dean Canto
07:51in the Maserati, the car on screen now, two litre twin turbocharged V6 engine, he's already into the
07:57top 10, look at the way he's gobbling up this field, just showing the enormous amount of speed
08:02that this Italian thoroughbred qualified third fastest with a 209.02. They seemed to think it
08:09was producing a little bit too much horsepower, maybe the turbos were producing too much boost
08:13but look at that, might have a little bit of contact, yeah, you can see a bit of bodywork
08:16or a taillight flying there, look at the damage to the front of the Maserati now as he tries to
08:20find his way past the car in front. Oh there's going to be contact there with John Trimble,
08:25oh he's dead twice, there's damage to the front, there's a bit of smoke coming off the wheel.
08:29Daily Planet car there, John Trimble on the outside in the Mitsubishi, then again,
08:33oh that was, well that's Beric Linton in the BMW, yes it is, Cowley goes through, the HSV GTS
08:40Commodore. Oh look at the amount of smoke pumping there, this Maserati's really in trouble, it's been
08:45banged in the front then a few seconds later that right front guard's come in on the front tyre,
08:49I'm not sure if he's going to be able to continue or watch that with interest but look at the smoke
08:53belching from that front right-hand tyre. He's going to have to come in, I think he,
08:56does he realise that this late, yes he does. Well that's a great shame for the young man,
09:00the winner at the Sandow one-hour race, only 18 years of age, very impressive on his GT production
09:06car debut in Victoria. That was a, that was a sort of a concertina effect from Bob Thorne in the
09:11Supra, he got sideways coming through the back chicane and Canton didn't have a choice but ran up
09:16the back of him. Well the two Porsches around in front, the two 911 RS CS's, it's Jimmy Richards
09:22and Rodney Forbes, they lead the way from the Ferrari of Darren Palmer, he sits nicely there
09:27in third. Have a look at Terry Spirides in the other Ferrari, he is from 20th up to 6th, John
09:32Cowley inside the top 10, the GT2 production car race continues as Rodney Forbes is our new race
09:38leader right after this break. Welcome back to the 98 Honda Indy as Rodney Forbes maintains his
09:54lead over Jim Richards, there has been some swabbing of that lead, now Rodney's got about
09:59two or three car lengths over Jim Richards at the moment, the 31-year-old computer analyst and
10:04programmer from Sydney's Northern Beaches showing us that he's reasonably diverse over the past
10:09couple of seasons from Formula Ford and he's been mixing it in the Porsche Cup and now here in the
10:14GTP. Jimmy comes right up on the back of him now, Richards starting to apply the pressure,
10:19these guys are absolutely miles out in the front, in front of our third competitor Darren Palmer,
10:24some 18 seconds they have pulled out so while they're dicing with each other they're not
10:30certainly not slowing each other down because they're still doing pretty reasonable lap times.
10:34Darren's got a problem with that Ferrari but he's miles off the pace, look at the times,
10:38these guys are running 2.07s, 2.08s, he's doing 2.12s. Oh, Jimmie Richards underneath Rodney Forbes
10:43and Forbes are giving him heaps of room too, they obviously realise they're having a bit of fun out
10:47there at the same time as having a bit of a good race. They've got such a huge cushion haven't they,
10:51like 18 seconds and building all the time over the Ferrari in third position. I think they realise
10:56that and they're not going to do anything silly to knock each other off but I'm sure they're still
11:00fairly serious. There's an incident here with some of the Class E competitors, Nigel Williams
11:04in the 98, Suzuki Swift GTI, 76 there is Hughes, overcooked it, whoops. Now this is something
11:11interesting guys because while everything's sweet, everything's rosy out in front as we
11:16see Forbes pull out of the draft to try and get past Richards, member of the Tickford 500 as Forbes
11:22looks good for an overtaking move on Jimmie Richards here, down the main straight, gets him
11:25up the inside, nice move. Remember back at the Tickford 500 everything was going exactly the same
11:31for our race leaders, the back markers played a part in it and Gary Walden was taken out of
11:36that race. Well the crowd are loving this too, it's a battle between these two German thoroughbreds,
11:41the Porsche 911 RS CS, which CS standing for Club Sport, very much part of Porsche racing history,
11:48the club racer, the amateur racer who can buy a car off the showroom floor completely stripped out
11:54with big brakes, a lot of engine power, you go and race these things on weekends. It's a fantastic
11:58piece of equipment this car, so versatile and as you say it just runs and runs all day long,
12:04hardly ever has a problem with any of these cars and it's a very good car to be racing. Oh what's
12:08John Cowley, got some bumper damage there, the big HSV Commodore, top Class B competitor at the moment
12:16is King, we go back to Class C it's Mark Cohen, Class D is Calvin Gardner and E is McGill,
12:26now five different categories A through to E. Fabulous bit of gear, Porsche 911, as we look
12:33our way back through the field Mark King and the Mitsubishi Lancer RS, another one of the
12:37evolutions of the Mitsubishi rally weapon and it's just amazing Greg Murphy that under these
12:44current regulations in World Rally the manufacturers have to build a car that you
12:48have to, you can buy off the showroom floor which is like a road-going version of the rally weapon.
12:53Yeah that's right, very expensive road-going versions too but a super bit of equipment and
12:58obviously in the World Rally Championship a spectacular thing to drive and these guys are
13:03adapting these, putting a set of slicks on them and adapting them for the racetrack which is fantastic.
13:10Well one thing we should make mention of too that we haven't touched on is that
13:14former Ironman champ Grant Kenney is in this, Grant has really taken to motor racing, he's a
13:19big motorhead, he competed in the one hour endurance race at the Tickford 500 and he's
13:25taken the wheel for this race and is sitting overall in 12th position, he's sitting in the
13:30top five in his class which is Class B so he's doing a good job, he's Mark Cohen who
13:35currently leads Class C in 14th outright.
13:40Yeah big Aussie Commodore V8 SS, 1362 kilograms, it's no lightweight this thing, gives its tyres
13:48and brakes a real pounding, big five litre cast iron hull, the V8 with a five speed transmission
13:55which is about 165 kilowatts but really it's the weight. I reckon he'd be using both feet on that
14:01brake pedal for too long Mark. Well you can see the GT production cars at the FAI 1000 Classic at
14:08Bathurst on November 14 and 15, last year was the very first year for the three hour endurance race
14:14on the Saturday afternoon, it was a huge success in 97 and so much so they've been overwhelmed with
14:20entries for this year, it's going to be a great run again and all the same cars here you see here
14:27today, 23 cars in fact and more that are going to be on the mountain battling away, I think they've
14:32got in excess of 30, I think they might even be approaching 40 entries for that race so it's
14:38going to be absolutely huge. Here's our race leaders picking their way through the slower traffic and
14:42look at the lead they're building on Darren Palmer, it's after 23 seconds now, these guys still
14:47operating the two minute eight, Palmer back in the 2.11s and Armand in the Mitsubishi, he's back
14:53and running 2.14s, so these two Porsches have got this race absolutely to themselves provided they
14:58keep going and at the moment they're looking absolutely bulletproof, 3.8 litre air-cooled
15:03flat six engine six-speed transmission producing about 300 brake horsepower with massive 320
15:10millimetre disc brakes all around, they really are a super performance car and they're really showing
15:16their form here around surface paradise. Now we've had a couple of cars receive stop and go penalties,
15:22one was car 30 which is Perry Spirides who was going so well, he was up inside the top five in
15:29fifth position actually and car 10 Carol Jackson in the Honda Civic, so we think that it went through
15:36from race control jumping the kerbs excessively, so stop go for those two, well that's a shame for
15:42Perry Spirides coming from 20th up to fifth and he was going very good times too, Spirides, so it's a
15:48real shame because he was making his way up through the field was catching the guys in front of him,
15:52Armond and Palmer pretty quickly. Must be a pretty fine line Greg, you know being a driver when you're
15:57cutting the kerbs it's obviously the fast way around the track but there must be a fine line
16:00between when the officials say well he's cutting too much kerb. Yeah it's a hard one to call and
16:05I've been pinged a couple of times for that too but the kerbs around here are so good to run over,
16:09they really, the car does absorb the kerb very very well so it's easy to run over the top of them
16:14and if you get a nice straight straight line it's easy to do and sometimes you just go a little bit too far.
16:22We have a look at McGill, our Class E leader, the GTP action continues here,
16:29the Gold Coast, Surface Paradise, this is Honda Indy 1998 and it's the two Porsches still way out in front.
16:45This is Honda Indy 98 on the streets of Surface Paradise, there's the Whitman's Lightship
16:51that plays such an integral part in so many great motorsport events in the country,
16:56some action here, a replay of an earlier incident, he's trying to pick up the number. Ross Arman,
17:01Ross Arman in the Evo, Mitsubishi, his traction didn't really work there on the four-wheel
17:06driver I think. He was obviously chasing Perry Spirides, we haven't yet seen Perry come in for
17:11his stop-go penalty, the word we got through was excessively jumping the kerbs, it's always been a
17:17problem here on the Gold Coast that drivers have had to contend with. Here's Mark King,
17:21the Mark King car, Grant Kenney on board. He's got his foot right on that Subaru too.
17:30He's doing a good job, he's sitting in 11th position, now the leader of this group Mark King
17:35is quite a way up, he's in sixth position outright. So Grant doing a good job, this is only his
17:41second major race, the one-hour Endurance Classic, I think Tickford 500 was his first
17:48major one, this is his second, so he's getting some valuable miles in the car in the lead-up to
17:52FAI 1000 Classic and their three-hour Enduro event up there. I can tell you what Lee, I think it's a
17:57bit easier to teach him to be a race driver than it'll be to teach me to be a night man.
18:03Might take a bit longer to do it too I think. Or a pit crew member for that case mate.
18:08Oh it's a super pit crew member, thank you very much. Yeah it's a great little car,
18:12the original Pocket Rocket they call it, the Subaru WRX, dominant World Rally Championship.
18:19Jim Richards back in front of Rodney Forbes, so these two are still battling hard at it.
18:23Oh I mean it's just two races isn't it Greg, I mean look at the gap now, 33 seconds,
18:2833 seconds more than half a minute, considering this is only a 12-lap race,
18:32I've opened up half a minute over the Ferrari F355 in third position driven by
18:36Darren Palmer, Spiridi's in fourth, Armand's back to fifth. So the leader in Class B is the
18:42car we just saw on screen a few moments ago, Grant Kenney. Good to see Berwick Linton back in the
18:46GTP category as well, a long-time driver, he's only a young guy from the Gold Coast here, he's
18:51campaigning the road chill BMW owned by the Searls and we have two laps left to run in the first of
19:00two GTP races this weekend and Linton is currently running in ninth position outright.
19:09I think it goes to show how good Rodney Forbes has come on in the last short period of time
19:14that he has been racing competitively, as you say before he did Formula Ford,
19:18now racing the Porsche and he's really going well. Yeah very impressive, I think he's 30-31
19:25years of age so it's actually quite a late starter but to be running up there with Jimmy
19:30Richards, such high-powered machinery, it's quite an impressive showing. As you just saw there,
19:36Berwick Linton leading Class S, the sports car category, he just went past Aaron McGill,
19:42our leader of Class E, here is Darren Palmer who has maintained his third outright position
19:50in the Ferrari Eau de Toilette, Ferrari 355. Pretty safe there, 38 seconds behind our leading
19:57duo but it's another 22 seconds back to Ross Arman, so he's sitting pretty comfortably in
20:04third position, the field become very spaced out around this 4.5 kilometre circuit,
20:09having a great battle for the lead but really this is third place,
20:13a long long way behind. Well here they are up front, this battle has gone on all race long
20:17between Jim Richards who is in front, both cars, the Porsche 911 RS CS's, Rodney Forbes sitting in
20:24second spot. Now we're winding down, a little over one lap left to go, we saw them being quite
20:30generous to each other, leaving plenty of room to get by, now it's a serious time, these guys have
20:36been out by themselves for the entire race, we'll see if Rodney Forbes can stay with Jim Richards,
20:40it looks like Jim's decided to turn it up a little bit. He's turning up the work a little bit now,
20:44a bit sideways there coming onto the main straight, I think this circuit also really
20:49does separate the men from the boys, it's a very difficult circuit, the walls are very daunting
20:54and to be quick around here, it takes a fair bit to keep on line. Here's Rodney Forbes now,
21:00comes up the inside again of Jim Richards, there's now John Tramoli in the Mitsubishi,
21:06he's in front of them but the inside... Well Jimmy used that to his advantage, he
21:11snuck down the inside of the Mitsubishi and that left Forbes with only one place to go,
21:16that was on his bumper following him through, now he's nicely positioned in front,
21:20he can defend from the front and as this final lap unfolds, a guy with an enormous amount of
21:25experience, Jimmy Richards, 50 years of age, formerly from New Zealand, now resides in
21:30Melbourne as he has for many years, but what an incredible record, five times the winner of
21:34Bathurst, two times the Sandown 500 winner, four times Australian Touring Car Champion,
21:40he's also been a GT Production Car Champion, he's won just about everything there is to win and
21:44he's still competitive in his 50s. When you were growing up in New Zealand, was he one of your
21:49heroes as a motor racing kid? I mean, stood out as one, obviously him and Peter Brock,
21:55but Jimmy, I mean, he still has got, I'm sure, as much talent as he ever had, he hasn't lost a
22:00tenth of a second. Oh he's gone wide, very wide, Rodney Forbes is all over the back. All over the
22:05back, I'm just, I put the mocker on him straight away, but Jimmy, so competitive still and as quick
22:10as anybody in any car. Oh look at this down the outside, Rodney Forbes trying to attack as they
22:15into the chicane, break through the chicane, he's got him too. Nice move there by Rodney Forbes,
22:21will he be able to hang on to it? They're really pushing the cars hard, he's got Jimmy here,
22:25he should be able to have enough to take this to the chequered flag, whether there's a problem with
22:29it, he's really dropping dramatically, so this wasn't going to plan, I'm sure Jim Richards wanted
22:35to be in front of this stage, there is less than half a lap left to run, Rodney Forbes on the way
22:41home, he and Jim Richards are battling all, now Richards has started to come back now, he may have
22:47missed a gear coming through the chicane, I think on the up change and he just dropped back and now
22:51he's pulling him in on the last, I don't think that was that was the plan at all, he wanted to
22:55be where he was, it didn't go to plan, he's got about four or five car lengths between himself
23:00and Rodney Forbes, it's all too late, well done, the Sydney side of Rodney Forbes will take out
23:05the first race in the Courier Mail GT production cars, over the line he comes, Jimmy Richards will
23:10have to settle for second spot, now our leader for Class B who is quite a way back was Mark King,
23:17is Mark King in the Mitsubishi Evo 3 yet to come across the line, he should be able to maintain
23:23that position but Rodney Forbes, that's one for him, got one up on Jimmy, here's our third place
23:28car, Darren Palmer, we've been talking about him in the race but he really got monstered by those
23:33torches, 44 seconds it was behind them as they crossed the line on the penultimate lap, probably
23:39get even going to be bigger this time around, yeah I'd say it will be too and the superb sounding
23:44F355 Ferrari is definitely tromped on today, he's coming past Grant Kenny in the Subaru WRX,
23:51so a good run there for Darren Palmer, he'll be satisfied with that third spot, well look at that,
23:5847 seconds was the finishing gap, so the two Porsches, the German machine just absolutely
24:04crushed the Italians here today, for our other classes the sports car class was taken out by
24:08Beric Linton in the BMW for Class C, here is Mark King, he is our leader of Class B bringing it home
24:16and a quarter of a lap left to run for him as he comes through the MCI S's, there has been no
24:21pressure applied from him, John Trimble has been the closest, he's running second in Class B outright
24:26but he's nowhere near where King is, and behind King a very impressive performance once again from
24:31David Ratcliffe in the Camry, the Toyota Camry V6, oh dear, he's made his way through the S's, I think
24:39he's going to be okay, so tremendous battles right through the field in GT production,
24:47hang on to it, Mark goes past Chris Sexton in the Falcon, another long-time campaigner of the
24:55GT production car category, now another one, Calvin Gardner has done exceptionally well for Class D,
25:02someone's dragged on, you can see where it's picked it up from just as Rodney Forbes and
25:05Jim Richards picked their way through on their wind down lap, someone's caught one of those
25:09tyres and dragged them right down the circuit, it's a bit of debris but fortunately the race is over.
25:14As we go back we're taking you through our various classes, as our winner Rodney Forbes goes up the
25:20back straight, the final one was Aaron McGill in Class E, he's leading at this at the moment,
25:26this is our Class B winner Mark King coming across the line from the Mitsubishi Evo 3,
25:32a good run for him, in fact it was a very easy run for him, he wasn't challenged,
25:37he comes on down, a good one for him going into tomorrow's second race, well done Rodney Forbes
25:43beating Jim Richards to the line, the two Porsche 911 RSCs is in for the win from the Ferrari of
25:48Darren Palmer, Ross Armand after crunching the wall got to the line and Perry Spirides in for fifth,
25:54more right after this.