FPR heads off court case

September 29, 2006Motorsport - Friday report

A court battle has seemingly been avoided in a dispute between two FPRs -- Australian V8 Supercar team Ford Performance Racing and world superbike team Foggy Petronas Racing.

A report in the business pages of Melbourne's Herald Sun newspaper today says two senior executives of the Australian FPR, Anne Ross and Rod Barrett, have spent a lot of time in the past month protecting the team's corporate identity and trademarks in legal negotiations with the British-based bike team of superbike icon Carl Fogarty.

"A potential court battle was looming after both companies applied to IP Australia to register trademarks in more than 10 identical industry categories, including motor racing and merchandising," the report says.

"But both companies have struck a deal under which each will respect certain rights of the other."

"Things have moved on now and we've probably had $25 million of investment in the circuit, and it's been seen for some time the Bathurst Regional Council have been pushing to have the maximum number of events increased," Martin says. The legislation could be passed by the end of October.

With a record 90 Grand Prix wins to his name, if he wins two of these last three races Schumacher will equal the combined tally of Alain Prost (51) and Ayrton Senna (41). However, the German has not scored a single point at either of the previous GPs in Shanghai. Kimi Raikkonen, who will take his place at Ferrari next season, could be the man this weekend. He was third two years ago and second last year. And McLaren needs a victory in one of the remaining races to avoid its first winless season since 1996.

Aussie Mark Webber, set to switch from Williams to Red Bull, is quoted at 66/1 and his teammate there, veteran David Coulthard, at 150/1. Alonso's teammate has not been confirmed, but young black British star Lewis Hamilton is quoted at 20/1 for the world title on the presumption he is going to get the second McLaren seat.

Ferrari's Felipe Massa is at 5/1 with Honda's Jenson Button at 13/2. Renault's new boy, Finn Heikki Kovalainen, is quoted at 10/1 compared with teammate Giancarlo Fisichella at 12/1. Rubens Barrichello is 16/1 in the second Honda, while Toyota pair Jarno Trulli and Ralf Schumacher are both 50/1. Also at 50s is BMW's Polish youngster Robert Kubica, while his teammate, Nick Heidfeld, is 80/1. Williams pair Nico Rosberg and Alex Wurz are 66/1 and 125/1 respectively.

"I went over the handlebars and landed on my shoulder. I broke the top of the humerus bone of my right arm. It's a real tough break. I had an operation on Wednesday morning and the doctor reassured me about my condition. I've cancelled all my appointments at the Paris Motor Show." The Kronos Citroën team has not yet announced a replacement for Loeb in Turkey.

An updated series calendar now formally lists Eastern Creek as the venue for the Australian round on the first weekend of February. The 24 competing countries will each field identical 500-horsepower Lola cars.

France won the first series with 13 wins from 22 races and the well-performed Nicolas Lapierre is heading its attack again this weekend, while Ryan Briscoe is Australia's main man for the opening round. Last season teams had two cars at each round, but this season only one chassis and some spare parts are permitted as part of cost-cutting measures after the initial series lost more than US$200 million.