MOTORSPORT: Vodafone hangs up on V8 Supercar sponsorship

Triple Eight chief vows big new title sponsorship
The Car of the Future's debut in V8 Supercar racing next year will come without the sponsor that has been the sport's biggest for several seasons -- Vodafone.

Vodafone Hutchison Australia has announced, after a $444.7 million loss in the 2010-11 financial year, that it is quitting its sponsorship of Australian cricket and Triple Eight Race Engineering, which has competed for six years as Team Vodafone.

But Triple Eight chief Roland Dane has been quick to say: "We will be on track in 2013 with new title sponsorship and we'll be bigger, better and faster as we roll out our Car of the Future Holden Commodores.

"Vodafone has been an integral part of our team ... [and] by working together as TeamVodafone we feel as though we have set a new benchmark in Australia for how a brand lives and breathes its sponsorship -- and how it brings that sponsorship to life.

"Together Triple Eight and Vodafone have set new benchmarks for motor sports in Australia, both on and off the track, since our first race together in Adelaide 2007.

"We have enjoyed 68 race wins together, three Bathurst 1000 wins, three teams championships and three drivers championships -- and fully intend to add to all of those during the balance of 2012! At the same time, together we have created some of the most memorable activations ever seen in the sport in Australia."

Apart from V8 Supercar promotions, these "activations" have included Jamie Whincup driving a Formula One Vodafone McLaren at Albert Park in the lead-up to an Australian Grand Prix and Craig Lowndes driving a similar F1 car at Bathurst, while McLaren driver Jenson Button sampled a Holden Commodore V8 Supercar.

Vodafone Hutchison Australia consumer business unit director Noel Hamill said Team Vodafone had been "an incredible, high-octane, excitement machine that has thrilled and inspired motorsport fans and our own employees around Australia".

"Thank you Roland, Craig and Jamie, and the entire Triple Eight Race Engineering team, for a wild ride and for making Team Vodafone such a high-profile success."  

Vodafone's contribution to Australian cricket is reported to have been up to $15 million a year, while the Triple Eight sponsorship and leveraging of it is thought to have absorbed about $10 million a year out of the telecommunications company's annual advertising and promotion budget of more than $140 million.

While Vodafone's withdrawal is a blow to Triple Eight and motor sport, Dane's management expertise and record of success makes him well positioned to find a replacement backer, even in tough times for many big companies. His comment that "we'll be bigger, better and faster" may be a clue that he already has a new major sponsor lined up.

Dane has his drivers under long-term contracts -- Whincup until the end of 2014 and Lowndes the end of 2015.

Greg Murphy out for three months
While Vodafone will disappear from Australian race tracks next year, a familiar face is going to be missing from races for the next three months. Persistent back trouble has required that Greg Murphy have more surgery and he may not race again until Melbourne's revived Sandown 500 in mid-September or the Bathurst 1000 in October.

He will miss the mid-June round of the V8 Supercar Championship in Darwin, as well as the Townsville, Ipswich and revived Eastern Creek -- now officially Sydney Motorsport Park -- rounds after surgery next week.

Murphy said the troublesome disc in his back had continued to rupture despite earlier surgery that kept him out of the Tasmanian round and a round of New Zealand's new V8 SuperTourer series.

"I need to get the vertebrae fused," he said. "My medical team has assured me that I will have no lasting effects from this operation, which is expected to fast-track a full recovery."

The multiple Bathurst winner, one of the most popular touring car drivers on both sides of the Tasman Sea, will turn 40 during his absence from the tracks.

An announcement on who will deputise for him in his Kelly Brothers Commodore is expected by Monday, with Owen Kelly and David Russell among drivers linked to the seat.

Crunch looms in World Rally Championship
Today may be a crunch day for the World Rally Championship.

Motor sport's world governing body, the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), has demanded that organisers in countries wanting to stage a WRC round next year sign a five-page agreement today by today that will increase their costs with new contributions towards timing and television coverage.

Rally Australia is due to be back on a 13-round calendar next year under the rotation of the South Pacific round with New Zealand, and we are waiting to hear the stance of the Coffs Harbour Rally Oz organisers to the FIA demand.

Autosport.com has said there are "significant concerns" among many WRC organisers and "a feeling that nobody would sign contracts, forcing a debate on the subject at next week's World Motor Sport Council meeting [on June 15]".
 
Lewis, Schumi, Kimi could make F1 seventh heaven
The talking point ahead of the Canadian Grand Prix early Monday, Australian time, is -- apart from the banning of Red Bull Racing's holy floor -- whether we will see a seventh different winner in seven races.

Among those not to have won yet this year, McLaren's Lewis Hamilton could be considered most likely as he has had two victories in the past four GPs in Montreal, while Michael Schumacher was the fastest qualifier in Monaco two weeks ago, even if he didn't get to start from pole, and Canada was his best race last year. He was unlucky that day not to be on the podium for the first time in his comeback -- and he has won in Montreal seven times.

Rain last year strung out the epic race more than four hours and there is the prospect of showers again this weekend, which could favour Ferrari's championship leader Fernando Alonso.

It also could be time for last year's Montreal victor McLaren's Jenson Button's fortunes to change after three lean races.

The race on the street circuit on an island in the St Lawrence River in the heart of the city comes 30 years after the death in Belgium of Canada's revered Gilles Villeneuve, winner of the first GP in Montreal.

While Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber are only three points behind Alonso, three others - Hamilton, Mercedes' Nico Rosberg and Button -- are within 25 points of the lead.

Williams has already had a surprise victory this season courtesy of Pastor Maldonado and reportedly will use a radical new wing this weekend, while Kimi Raikkonen and his less experienced Lotus-Renault teammate Romain Grosjean have shown signs they could jag a win.

Incidentally, the chief executive of Group Lotus, Danny Bahar, has been dismissed by Malaysian owner Proton's new parent company DRB-Hicom.

Bahar, who came to prominence as a marketer with Red Bull and then worked for Ferrari, had been suspended from Lotus two weeks ago over his lavish lifestyle. He had championed the rebranding of the Renault F1 cars this year as Lotus.

Despite persistent rumours that Group Lotus is for sale, DRB-Hicom has said it remains "committed to ensure the ongoing and future business operations as we take the Lotus Group to the next level to remain relevant in the global automotive industry".
   
Angry Webber eyes another place in history
Australia's last-start GP winner Mark Webber is annoyed at aspersions cast on his second Monaco victory, when his RB8 car had the controversial hole in its floor that has since been banned. Webber said his and Sebastian Vettel's cars had been cleared throughout all scrutineering at recent races.

"I am happy to be called lots of things and have criticism about my driving, but I will not take talk about the car being illegal," Webber said. "It pisses me off, to be honest."

Webber said the season was proving "very tight", with each race outcome "sensitive to venue, temperatures and drivers even". He predicted that consistent points finishes would not be enough to clinch this year's world title.

"Consistency is nice, but wins are what win championships -- you need to win," he said.

Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner has vowed that his two drivers remain "free to race" each other for the title.

The only Australian to have won the Monaco GP twice, Webber could make a little more history in Montreal -- if he finishes in the top three he will have the most podium finishes in F1 by an Aussie. He and triple world champion Sir Jack Brabham are level now on 31 podiums each -- although Brabham's came from 126 starts, while Webber has driven 184 GPs.

Our other F1 world champion, Alan Jones, notched 24 podiums from 116 GPs.

Webber trails both our champions for GP wins -- he has eight after Monaco to Brabham's 14 and Jones' 12.

Image: teamvodafone.com.au

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