Enduro Driver Pairing Announced For Third Fpr Falcon

[RaceTime]

August 25, 2003 - Following a successful test day at Phillip Island last Friday (August 22), Ford Performance Racing (FPR) confirms that experienced Australian drivers Adam Macrow and Darren Hossack have been selected to drive the team's third FPR Falcon at the forthcoming Sandown and Bathurst endurance races.


FPR has provided this opportunity to two local drivers in order to benefit from their previous V8 Supercar endurance racing experience, while at the same time promoting local motor racing talent.


Hossack, 33 and Macrow 24, both from Victoria, will drive the team's third FPR Falcon entry at the Betta Electrical Sandown 500 on September 14 and the Bob Jane T-Marts Bathurst 1000 on October 12.


Hossack is a leading competitor in the 2003 Australian Sports Sedan Championship and has been a top ten finisher in three out of four Bathurst V8 Supercar races that he has competed in to date. His racing background includes numerous Karting and Formula Ford titles along with Speedway successes.


Macrow joins FPR's enduro line up following a successful career in Karting, Formula Ford, Formula Holden and Sports Sedans. He is yet to gain a finish in the Bathurst classic, but competed within the top six in this event in 1999 with Tony Longhurst. Enduro co-driver roles with John Faulkner Racing and Castrol Perkins Racing have added to his impressive racing resume.


This latest FPR driver pairing completes the team's endurance race driver line up, which will be one of the blue oval marque's most competitive ever assembled at Sandown and Bathurst.


Triple champion and 1996 Bathurst champion Craig Lowndes will be joined by Glenn Seton who will start his 20th Mount Panorama classic this year in the CAT FPR Falcon. FPV FPR Falcon driver David Besnard will be joined by 26 year old Konica V8 Supercar Series driver Owen Kelly from Tasmania.


According to FPR Chief Engineer John Russell, the team has put together a strong three car endurance race package, despite the late timing of its finalisation.


"The team ran all six of its drivers through two cars on Friday in an intensive program aimed both at this season and the future. It was an excellent day's testing in near perfect weather conditions. The team continues to grow in confidence and ability each time we run. Despite the third car being a late addition to our endurance race program, I'm delighted with the spectrum of drivers we have in the team. Adam, Darren and Owen did a commendable job assisting the three regular drivers during the test. We look forward to Sandown and Bathurst with the team's new composition."


FPR Managing Director David Flint is looking forward to the team's three car assault in these endurance races, particularly with the return of Sandown's 500 kilometre endurance race format.


"We have put together an expanded team that has all of the ingredients required to mount a successful 2003 enduro campaign. I am delighted that we are bringing two local drivers into the fray to display their talent in our third car. All of our driver pairings will make FPR a blue oval force to be reckoned with at Sandown and Bathurst and I wish our newest drivers, Adam and Darren, a successful debut with FPR."


Friday's test saw all team drivers take part using car 6 (CAT FPR Falcon) and car 19 (FPV FPR Falcon) in sunny and clear weather conditions at Phillip Island. A series of endurance race set up configurations and components were tested along with driver change pit stops.


Darren Hossack - "I am very excited to be joining such a top level Ford team for the endurance races. I am looking forward to doing a solid job for the team and hopefully continuing my run of strong results at Sandown and Mount Panorama. I used to race karts for Peter Macrow's racing team - so Adam and I basically grew up and competed together in our early racing years. We have been long term friends and competitors so I am looking forward to teaming up with him."


Adam Macrow - "It is great to be given another opportunity at Bathurst and Sandown with such a professional team. The fact that Darren and I will be able to set up and race our own car will be fantastic, considering that we have worked together before and are good friends. Both races are going to be very tough, we will need to learn to set the car up quickly in order to be competitive and to have a consistent car that will see us through our stints. I can't wait!"

[marcus]

great to see Hossack back in a V8 , I guess the years that he has been out he has learnt alot now he can put it all into practise

[GTRMagic]

Thinking aloud, I wonder if the 3rd car will be on stream to receive the UK-built engines like the other 2? The third car was not in the plans until TEGA made a ruling only recently, might be a stretch to get the program turned around in time to supply more engines

[Joe5619]

Good on FPR for using Aussie drivers!!!!! Specially considering their international links..

& the also say they took car #6 & 19 to the test.. I'm hopeing FPR where smart enough to paint the #5 on the side of one of the doors... Considering Seto only did 27 laps at Oran Park & less than that at Qld... One would assume car #5 has the best tyre base???? I could be wrong though

[GTRMagic]

But the 3rd car is still an afterthought, it wasnt planned to be run at Sandown/Bathurst, and will increase the team's workload from where it was planned to be.

Adam Macrow was quick at Oran Park in the FF's (not sure how he did that as 1998 FF champ) and Darren Hossack regularly shows some pace in that SAAB in the Sports Sedans

In terms of tyre bank, perhaps the #5 number will appear on one of the other cars and the nice new unused tyres used in practice for Sandown and/or Bathurst

[RRR]

GTRMagic, you can enter FFord as a former champion three years after you won the series, which is why there was no problem with Macrows entry. Just wait, Lowndes and Perkins might enter next season!

[GTRMagic]

Thanks for that RRR, I recall a note in AA a few years ago when LP's brother Terry wanted to have a hit in a national FF race only to be told he couldnt because he was a past champion. Might have been early 1990's?

Its sad when you look at the names down the list of the former champions, how very few of them are still around the sport in a driving capacity today.

http://www.formulaford.com.au/archives/archivesmain.htm

[smithers]

And even fewer of them still in a Ford.

[GTRMagic]

This is true too The Generation XR thing died a sorry death didnt it...

[smithers]

I assume that was prior to Kartstars?

[GTRMagic]

It sure was, production cars was on the list of things to do but it never went anywhere after a single season....

[rdmdog]

Yeah, that Sam Newman was a heaps better idea!!!!!!

[paydriver]

Sam is fantastic to watch. If I were a panelbeater, or the freight forwarder for the spare parts, I would be over the moon at having Sam drive my car.

The Lambo boys were a wake up pretty early, $40k damage from the first outing at the Grand Prix meeting saw them go looking for the old crate they sold Ross Zampatti a few years ago for Sam to wreck.

[Crash Test]

The FFord thing is weird- if you finish in the top ten in the national championship, you can't compete at State level the following year...

By the way, Terry has made it back into competition, racing a little open wheel historic jigger, very quickly mind you..

[DAVID PATERSON]

Pre 1990 many of the names have disappeared without trace, however post '90 is a who's who.

[RaceTime]

I have the Formula Ford Festval from Winton from around 1988/89 somewhere - mighthave to re-run that and make that available on RaceTime - be interesting to see some of the names from back then....

[GTRMagic]

So where have names like Michael Mortimer, Peter Salminen, Michael Dutton, Russell Becker, Andrew Clifford, John Vernon, Garry Jones, John Blanchard, Michael Geoghegan, Jamie McHugh, Glen Zampatti, Peter Forster, Andrew Reid, Tim Wood, Andrew Gubb, Geoff Walters, Luca Duca, Gavin Monaghan, Adrian Mastronardo, Con Toparis, Leif Corben, Roger Martin, Simon Kane, Richard Steigler, Kris Matich, Robin Bennett, Martin Carpenter, Dave Roberts, Richard Carter, Andrew Clifford, Alan Bisset, David Stanley, Andrew Burden, Ian Thomas....

No I didnt remember them all off the top of my head, I had a little help from http://www.formulaford.com.au/nation...our%20roll.htm

[Wayne Kerr]

Con Toparis has a regular drive in a Mercedes






Delivery van for the family fruit shop in Goulburn.

[bondy_racing]

i remember he was spose to drive for RPM International in konica and was replaced by Geoff Full,Greg Crick and Aaron Mcgill.

[GTRMagic]

Con drove for Alan Jones' AMSA for one race too

[Crash Test]

Jamie McHugh does some very good things in speedway sedans these days.

Richard Carter is an absolute gun on the Historic scene in his new Ralt RT4.

Ian Thomas did the Nascar thing, should have died in a shunt, came back and then disappeared again.

[racer69]

Last i heard of Gavin Monaghan was in 1997, when he drove one Mike Conway VP Commodore in an AMSCAR round.

[The Tool Man]

I recently heard what Garry Jones was doing and for the life of me cannot remember.

I havent seen or heard of John Balnchard for about two years.

[HarvestMotorspt]

John Blanchard is CEO of a melbourne automotive aircon company.

Andrew Reid is at Perkins Engineering. He is no.1 engineer on Steve Richards's car.

[William Dale Jr]

Would that aircon company be Palm Air?

Kris Matich is involved with the family business, isn't he? One other thing I recently found out was that Kris ran a motorcycle racing team in Australia in the early 80's. Somehow, I wouldn't have picked that...

David Roberts is a guy I've always wondered about - whatever happened to him. He won the DTE in 1988 and I never heard anything of him again. Another guy I've always wondered about was Alex Jakovljevic; I wonder what 'Alex Alphabet's up to now?

RaceTime, I'm guessing you mean full results from the festival? They'd be nice to see, I've got the report in Auto Action, but they don't give full results of any of the heats nor the final.