Stoddart laps up Minardi miracle

The first 'victory' of Formula One's season will be celebrated here today during the much-vaunted return of this city's prodigal son, Paul Stoddart.

The kid who left the working-class suburbs two decades ago with little more than a few dollars in his pocket will parade the latest baubles of his self-made success - two 200mph racing cars which have cost him £30million.

Stoddart paid that sum to acquire an ailing Minardi team and produce the machines which will be unveiled outside the Victoria State parliament buildings before, unofficially, carrying the Australian flag in Sunday's opening grand prix. Forget Ferrari and their defending champion Michael Schumacher, don't mention McLaren-Mercedes and their revenge-driven duo of Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard, and nobody cares about the new kids on the block like Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya.

An astonishing sense of national and personal pride grips Melbourne in advance of the arrival of the major players. Stoddart, 45, the archetypal ambitious go-getter Australians admire so much, is delighted to be making his home debut at Albert Park's lakeside track as the first man from these shores since Sir Jack Brabham to own a Formula One team.

The population is thrilled to feel that it has a definable slice of this sporting spectacle again, rather than merely playing hosts to the rest of the world.

What Stoddart has achieved since taking over the financially-stricken, perennial Italian no-hopers in the second week of January is little short of a Formula One miracle.