Midweek motorsport report
February 21, 2007
>> HRT, HSV have green light for Adelaide
A year of frictions over who controls Holden's two main V8 Supercar teams have come to a head this week, even getting to the stage of the Touring Car Entrants Group (TEGA) briefly withdrawing the licences of Holden Racing Team and HSV Dealer Team just two weeks from the start of the 14-round championship.
The issues at the heart of the row have been whether Scottish automotive entrepreneur Tom Walkinshaw (pictured) is in control of both teams and the tardiness of the Holden factory camp in handing over paperwork relating to the ownership.
While it is clear that HRT (also pictured) and HSV will get to race at Adelaide's season-opening Clipsal 500 on March 1-4, the row is not over. TEGA, which regulates the V8 Supercar, is still seeking more documents from the teams, and one other Holden team owner, Garry Rogers, claims HRT and HSV have broken the rules for two years and should be punished -- and that the punishment should be severe.
Rogers is quoted in Melbourne's Herald Sun newspaper today saying: "I'm not saying throw HRT and HSV out because the fans want to see them racing, but if you go outside the rules you should face the penalty.
"If some teams have had an advantage, that affects how we competed in that market, and if we can't compete, what's the point of being in it.
"In the teams' licence agreement there are a list of things you can or can't do. If you go outside those you commit a material breach. And there are some pretty severe punishments for breaching those.
"If they had owned up to being one four-car team, it would have been okay, but they didn't. They said they were separate teams. Last year they accepted they were grouped. They've got away with breaking the rules for two years."
Walkinshaw's re-emergence in Australia at the start of last year came as a surprise but what heightened the interest in the ownership of the HRT and HSV teams was the way the driver swap was orchestrated for the Sandown and Bathurst endurance races -- with Garth Tander moving from HSV to Toll for those two events, to partner Mark Skaife, while Todd Kelly went in the other direction to partner his younger brother, Rick, who ultimately because the season's champion.
Skaife became the owner of HRT and John and Margaret Kelly, parents of Todd and Rick, the owners of what is now the HSV Dealer Team in the wake of the collapse of Walkinshaw's Arrows Formula 1 empire four years ago.
Throughout all of that Walkinshaw retained control of the Holden Special Vehicles' road car operation in Australia. But since his re-emergence in Australian motor racing over the past year questions have been raised about whether, even if he is not the owner of the two prominent teams, he is in control -- and about the extent of co-operation between those teams.
TEGA's rules preclude the same person owning two teams.
What is not crystal clear is on what basis TEGA has been satisfied this week, to the point of saying: "We don't have any issues running forward. Do we currently expect them to be on the Clipsal 500 grid in Adelaide next week? Yes, we do."
Earlier TEGA had talked of "unwillingness of both organisations to reveal their ownership structures" and that "some of the things we had seen needed to be adjusted".
Skaife says HRT has co-operated with TEGA. Certainly it seems that is true of late. TEGA's argument is that it took a long time to get co-operation.
"TEGA investigated our team licensing agreement and has given the HRT a clean bill of health," Skaife says.
"TEGA has requested to see some more paperwork which will be presented shortly (probably today), but we are happy it will all comply.
"We have been quite willing to co-operate in the proceedings and are now interested in getting on with testing our new VE Commodores for the opening round of the V8 series in Adelaide."
Holden rival Rogers says HRT and HSV should have presented the paperwork much earlier.
"If they haven't been able to do that, it shows they have something to hide," Rogers says. "If it's all so kosher, why has it taken three years? They can come in and inspect my books any time
"I have no beef with Mark Skaife. It's not personal, it's about business and an unfair advantage."
TEGA chairman Kelvin O'Reilly admits that it was the driver swap for the enduros that prompted a stepping-up of inquiries about the ownership issues.
"Our enquiries went from there," O'Reilly says. "We've been expressing our concerns for some period and that's how it potentially came about.
"In future we intend to inquire of our teams, on a random basis, on the exact nature of their relationships so we can verify that what we were presented with at the outset, when people have bought licences, has not varied -- and that will be an ongoing process."
It's a safe bet the last has not been heard of this matter.
>> With a huff and a puff… Nirvana!
Lots of huffing and puffing now for several weeks from Network 7 and V8 Supercars about how terrific the telecasting of the 14-round championship is going to be this year -- and how much more of it there is going to be.
As much as 70% more than used to be seen on 10, we're told. Let's hope it all comes true.
But one thing comes to mind. There now seem to be three certainties in life: death, taxes, and over-abundant optimism at the start of motorsport television deals.
What got us to thinking about this was the mention this week by V8 Supercar chief Tony Cochrane about the extent of the 7 coverage being a "motorsport nirvana".
Some statements can come back to haunt. Let's hope, for the sake of Australian motorsport fans, those two don't.
Perhaps, though, it's worth making a mental note to check in 12or 24 months' time whether we indeed have arrived in motorsport nirvana.
>> Champ Cars on 7 too: but only Gold Coast
The latest television announcement has been that 7 will telecast the Champ Cars at the Gold Coast Indy as well as the V8 Supercar Championship round.
That's a deal that had to happen. V8 Supercars Television, the new production unit that will supply V8 vision to 7, will generate the Champ Car pictures for national and international consumption.
The downside out of it all is that no other Champ Car races will be seen on Australian television (either free-to-air or pay) this year.
Not that the V8 Supercar honchos, and for that matter perhaps many of the fans of their racing, will necessarily be too upset about that. But it's a backward step for those who have broader interests in motor racing.
On the V8 Championship telecasts, the only negative being admitted to so far is that there will be early finishes to Winton, Queensland Raceway and Oran Park rounds to fit in with Seven's AFL commitments.
>> Cross-country miracle Oz can't emulate
After the Daytona 500 in Florida, the Craftsman Truck, Busch series and Nextel Cup troupes (more than 120 competition vehicles, plus countless crew) are now traipsing across the US for NASCAR's second round this weekend at Fontana in California.
What a logistical marvel this is -- moving all those vehicles and people 3951km inside a week.
Makes you wonder how, in Australia, 30 or 40 V8 Supercars couldn't be got from Melbourne's Albert Park grand prix track to race at Perth's Wanneroo a week later!
>> Ambrose likes US way of going
Marcos Ambrose will be in action in the Busch series again at Fontana after his strong 16th at Daytona. It's another 300-mile race this Saturday (Sunday, Australian time).
"It's really important for us to finish these early races in a solid way so that we gain experience and get some good points on the board," Ambrose says.
"After California we have our first road course in Mexico and then go to Las Vegas, where we tested earlier this month, so hopefully things are on track for a strong start to the season.
"Everything in NASCAR is designed to race every weekend and everyone's lives work in a way so that you can race week in, week out. It's a long way from Daytona to California, but travel and busy schedules are just a part of NASCAR.
"The season is very busy, but I'm in America to race. You set yourself up to race and race often. The focus in on the racing and as far as I'm concerned the more racing the better.
"NASCAR sets itself up to race. The way teams operate is centred on racing and travelling so you prepare yourself to race a lot."
>> Lowndes is an Australian Story
Craig Lowndes is to be featured in ABC TV's Australian Story on Monday, March 5 -- the day after the Clipsal 500.
The episode will look at the Ford superstar's relationship with his mentor, the late legend Peter Brock, as well as last year's controversial V8 Supercar Championship and his personal life.
Among those the program has interviewed are Rick Kelly, Mark Skaife, Neil Crompton, Bev Brock, Craig's wife Natalie and his father, Frank.
>> And then there were five… Kiwis
The V8 Supercar Championship will have five New Zealand-born drivers this year -- Greg Murphy and Jason Richards at Tasman Motorsport, Steven Richards at Ford Performance Racing, Paul Radisich with Team Kiwi, and now Fabian Coulthard full-time in a Holden Commodore with the Gold Coast-based Paul Morris team.
>> Richo, the elder, weighs Porsche future
Jim Richards, the most successful of the Kiwi drivers to make his career in Australia, has quit V8 Supercars, is pressing on with tarmac rallying, but is in two minds about the Carrera Cup.
Veteran Richards is reported in today's Motorsport News saying his Porsche team and car are all ready to go at next week's Adelaide street race but that he's not sure who will be driving.
"I've offered someone a ride (MN reckons it's Alex Davison) and they just have to come up with a little bit of money," Richards says.
"If something happens halfway through the year and the right person came along I'd probably let them have a drive.
"I'm not totally against driving myself, but at the same time, if the right package came along, I'd consider my options."
>> New track opening up in West
Australia's newest racetrack, Bunbury International Circuit in south-west Western Australia, is scheduled to launch today. Auto Action magazine says the track is chasing races from Formula Nippon, Japanese Super GT, GP Masters and the FIA GT Championship.
>> Aussie F1 engine that never was
What looks like an intriguing story in today's Motorsport News magazine. Trumpeted as a "World Exclusive", although it's buried on pages 52-56, it's headlined "The Most Amazing F1 Engine You Never Saw". And it was an Australia project!
It looks like heavy going, but the precede to the story reads: "In 2004, McLaren was a heartbeat away from unveiling an engine that would changed the entire F1 landscape -- one that was designed and developed under a shroud of secrecy in Sydney. Then, at the last moment, the entire project was sunk by a sudden change to the technical regulations. Mark Glendinning explores the incredible story of the Bishop rotary valve F1 engine."
Now just need to find the time to read it.
>> Montoya barb for McLaren
While Juan Pablo Montoya is focused on his new career in NASCAR he hasn't completely forgotten about F1. Indeed, he's put a bit of heat on his last F1 team, McLaren.
Montoya says that, not having won a world championship since 1999 and not even a single race last year, McLaren now has no excuse.
"The drivers (dual world champion Fernando Alonso, from Renault, and rookie Lewis Hamilton) are new, the image is new … they have to get results," Montoya says.
"With a world champion who has beaten (Michael) Schumacher (in the team), they have run out of excuses."
Volatile Colombian Montoya fell out with McLaren boss Ron Dennis in the middle of last year but predicts that Alonso will get on well with him.
All that seems to be fair and accurate comment… The bottom line, while we wouldn't expect Montoya to admit it, is that Alonso is a far more complete F1 driver than he ever was.
>> Alonso repeats: F1 ain't sport
Fernando Alonso made news when he said, almost six months ago after a controversial (and blatantly wrong) penalty on him for allegedly blocking Felipe Massa's Ferrari during Italian GP practice at Monza, that F1 was not a sport.
Now he's weighed in with a second installment.
"F1 is business and glamour," Alonso has told a European publication, Focus.
"In the way that I define 'sport', I don't see that you can say that this is F1. Whoever disagrees with me is not opening their eyes."
Through the transformation from an uncomfortable-looking teenager with Paul Stoddart's Minardi in 2001 to the leader of the F1 pack now, Alonso has not lost any of his inherent honesty. Great to see.
>> In the name of the father, a song
NASCAR remains Jacques Villeneuve's ambition, and his manager Craig Pollock is still trying to find the mega sponsorship Canada's 1997 F1 world champion needs to get started in American stock car racing.
In the meantime, Villeneuve will be driving in the Le Mans 24-hours sportscar classic for Peugeot this year and, while the French manufacturer's sights are on winning that race next year, he wants victory first up. That would be quite a feat to add to his F1 title and 1995 Indianapolis 500 win, as well as an open-wheeler championship in what is now Champ Car racing.
At the moment, though, Villeneuve is preoccupied with the release of a music CD, Private Paradise.
Among the tracks on it is one titled Father, in honor of his legendary dad Gilles, who (approaching the 25th anniversary of his death) remains in the minds of some long-time F1 observers the most naturally talented of all GP drivers.
For much of his own career Jacques has shied away from too much talk of Gilles. Perhaps a turnaround has come in the twilight of a career that yielded successes his father never attained, although the younger Villeneuve maybe has not realised his potential either -- and has never generated the adoration of his father at the wheel of a Ferrari with the number 27.
Jacques and his sister, Melanie, performed Father as a duet in Montreal this week.
"It felt great," Jacques says. "It's a very important song. It's the only personal song on the album. I don't write personal stuff and I don't want to sing personal stuff either, but this one, because it's with my sister, I'm quite happy doing it."
Melanie started writing the song in the mid-1980s, after Gilles' death at Zolder in Belgium in 1982, and Jacques says he finished it off "a few years ago … by that time we had grown and we had been used to living without our dad".
>> New and old in the ATCC
The Australian Touring Car Challenge starts this weekend at Wakefield Park at Goulburn, NSW, bringing together V8 Supercars, Super Tourers, Future Tourers and Group A under a handicapping system.
Sometime V8 Supercar drivers Terry Wyhoon and Garry Willmington are going round again after winning the past two titles, as is the first ATCC champion in 2004, Luke Searle, of Newcastle, in a BMW 318i Super Tourer.
The ATCC format is two practices and a qualifying session on Saturday, then on Sunday a five-lap scratch race and two handicap races over 10 and 12 laps. See www.TouringCarChallenge.com or www.WakefieldPark.com.au