D-day looms for DJR and Ambrose's new team

Melting pot at two legendary teams gets even hotter
Crunch time is rapidly approaching in the ownership imbroglios at Australia's oldest touring car team and the NASCAR team of Richard "The King" Petty that Aussie Marcos Ambrose is meant to join next year.

There is a deadline today on the ownership wrangle at Jim Beam/Dick Johnson Racing that has festered for much of the season and been in the public domain for almost one month now.

The V8 Supercar Australia board approved the sale of forklift entrepreneur Charlie Schwerkolt's half-share in the team to young mining magnate Nathan Tinkler before the Bathurst 1000. However, Tinkler has not taken up the stake at the $4 million price thought to have been agreed.

While it appeared that Tinkler had gone cold on the deal, our understanding is that he is still interested but is seeking to reduce the price -- something that is hardly likely to be palatable to Schwerkolt.

All the while V8 Supercar Championship leader James Courtney's future remains clouded.

While Courtney wants to concentrate on winning the title with DJR, speculation swirls of him perhaps joining another Queensland-based team (but running Holdens), Paul Morris Motorsport, or perhaps Holden Racing Team, in place of Will Davison -- who seems set to join Ford Performance Racing next year.

Courtney's future is in the hands of his British-based expatriate Australian motorsport administrator, promoter and powerbroker Alan Gow, but Schwerkolt may well be part of any new equation.

It appears there is next to no chance of a rapprochement -- even short-term -- between legendary former driver Johnson and Schwerkolt, who rescued DJR from collapse in early 2008. Yet, while there is a deadline for an outcome today, the messy brawl inside the famous team may rumble on a while yet.

In the US, Richard Petty is trying to regain control of the team bearing his name but of which he owns only 4 per cent -- and for which Marcos Ambrose is contracted to drive next season, with a reputed US$10 million in sponsorship from Stanley Tools.

Petty, winner of a record 200 NASCAR Cup races and seven championships, was synonymous with Dodge as a driver but of late his team has fielded Fords and now there is speculation that it may tie-up with Toyota if it is to survive.

Such a change would scuttle Ambrose reconnecting with Ford, for which he won two V8 Supercar championships in Australia before embarking on his NASCAR career.

While Ambrose is uneasy about the recent developments at Richard Petty Motorsports he has said he has been assured the team will survive -- although that assurance could yet prove misguided and hollow.

Petty has had little to say publicly, other than that he's been in NASCAR since 1949 and doesn't plan to leave it "until they run me off."

Petty is trying to find new investors to buy the controlling interest in RPM from strapped tycoon George Gillett.

Gillett lost his ownership of British soccer club Liverpool recently (ironically to John Henry, co-owner of Ford's major NASCAR team, Roush Fenway Racing, which supplies RPM's cars), has had trouble sustaining his $90 million debt on his RPM stake, and now has sold a resort for less than he owes on it.

New York-based investment bank Gordian Group is helping RPM try to find new investors, while the syndicate of banks that lent Gillett the money that gave him majority control of the team have been working with a global corporate finance specialists FTI Consulting.

Ambrose has said he realises there is a chance the RPM scenario may not work out and that he could be left in limbo -- and that he's not certain what he would do if RPM collapses.

The obvious fallback position for him would be to return to V8 Supercar racing in Australia.

Ambrose up for the Talladega 'lottery'
Only four races remain in NASCAR's Sprint Cup -- the first of them this weekend at Talladega Superspeedway -- with Denny Hamlin, driving a Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing, just six points behind leader Jimmie Johnson, the champion of the past four seasons in a Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.

Kevin Harvick, another Chevrolet driver who led the championship for much of the season, is 62 points behind Johnson.

The only driver in the six past seasons to overcome a big deficit so late in the season was Johnson, who rallied from 41 points down with four races left in 2006 and from 53 points behind in 2007.

The Talladega track, at 4.283km, is the longest oval on the Sprint Cup schedule, with speeds curbed by engine restrictor plates -- which limit horsepower output.

Ambrose has a previous best finish of fourth at Talladega and, despite the RPM upheaval, continues to put a bright face on his prospects this weekend in the JTG Daugherty Toyota.

While tyre and brake dramas ruined his race on the short Martinsville oval last weekend he had qualified on the outside of the front row and led a career-high 40 laps.

"These restrictor plate races are wild -- it's an absolute lottery," Ambrose said. "If one driver in the pack makes a mistake, there's a 20-car accident. It's important to be out in front of the 'big one' when it happens.

"We were in the wrong place at the wrong time in the April race, but then again last year we made it through, missed Carl Edwards' big crash and finished fourth.

"Talladega is all about drafting -- you've got to be confident and pick your partners right. I always look forward to racing on these big ovals, it's a level playing field for everyone out there... you just have to be in the right place at the right time on the last lap.

"Last weekend at Martinsville was great; we qualified on the front row, and ran out in front for a while. It's awesome to be the pacesetter.

"Now that I've had another taste of it, I just want more of the same this weekend."

NASCAR Sprint Cup standings after 32 of 36 rounds -- Jimmie Johnson (Chevrolet)  5998 points, Denny Hamlin (Toyota) 5992, Kevin Harvick (Chevrolet) 5936, Kyle Busch (Toyota) 5826, Jeff Gordon (Chevrolet) 5795, Carl Edwards (Ford) 5785, Tony Stewart (Chevrolet) 5762, Jeff Burton (Chevrolet) 5752, Kurt Busch (Dodge) 5721, Matt Kenseth (Ford) 5705, Greg Biffle (Ford) 5682, Clint Bowyer (Chevrolet) 5592. Marcos Ambrose (Toyota) is 26th on 3047 points.

Rally calendar but V8 Supercars still in state of flux
Snags in Singapore and the Middle East are still delaying the release of next year's V8 Supercar Championship calendar.

It seems that the V8 Supercars won't be a support category at the Singapore GP but instead may have a round at the island city-state's new permanent circuit from 2012.

The Bahrain round also appears to be in jeopardy but may be switched to Doha in Qatar -- another oil-rich state which would share the cost of transporting the Aussie touring car troupe to the Middle East with Abu Dhabi.

Meanwhile, an Australian Rally Championship calendar has been announced for next year -- with only five rounds, all of them on gravel.

Two of the rounds are international -- the Asia-Pacific championship event in Queensland in mid-May and the relocated (again) Rally Australia in NSW's Coffs Harbour region in September.

Not only is no tarmac round scheduled for the ARC next year but Tasmania as well as Canberra has now disappeared from the calendar.

Australian Rally Championship 2011 calendar
April 16-17 -- Forest Rally, Western Australia
May 13-15 -- International Rally of Queensland*
July 30-31 -- Rally South Australia
September 9-11 -- Rally Australia*
November 12-13 -- Rally Victoria

* Rally Australia and the Queensland event are to subject to approval at the upcoming FIA World Motorsport Council meeting.

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