MOTORSPORT: A final, crucial query on Townsville

We have consistently advocated here for a year the merits of taking a V8 Supercar round to a major provincial centre like Townsville, although we also have consistently queried the wisdom of such an event being a street race.

In any case, Howard's announcement yesterday -- flanked by Queensland racing icon Dick Johnson -- is being generally interpreted as the "sealer" that there will be a V8 Supercar round in Townsville in mid-2009.

We hope so, but we still have a query on whether everything is watertight.

Our query is finicky, and it may well be answered within 48 hours in favour of those who have lobbied so hard for the Townsville event.

The query is whether Labor leader Kevin Rudd, who the opinion polls keep telling us will be Australia's new PM from November 24, has committed to the Townsville race.

The Labor candidate for the seat of Herbert, George Colbran, "announced" Labor's commitment in late October to tip in the $10 million of federal money that V8 Supercars Australia and its cohorts have been seeking.

We reported here three weeks ago, on October 25, that Colbran had said: "After many months of working with Kevin Rudd and Kevin Rudd's people behind the scenes, I am able to announce that if there is an incoming Rudd Labor Government, I have been able to secure $10 million for the upgrade of Reid Park which will allow for the V8 Supercar series to happen here in Townsville in July 2009".

Colbran had said that Rudd's office called him the previous day with its all-clear.

Our query is why this message has never been heard publicly from Rudd.

We have had a conversation this morning (Thursday) with Townsville Bulletin reporter Tony Raggatt, who covered the Howard announcement in the city yesterday.

Like us, Raggatt cannot recall any public commitment of $10 million for the Townsville race directly from Rudd's mouth; only the announcement by candidate Colbran.

Now Herbert is a crucial seat in the upcoming federal election, requiring a swing of about 6.2% for Colbran to unseat sitting Liberal MP Peter Lindsay.

So it is quite possible, judging by the opinion polls, that Labor might win power federally but the Liberals retain Herbert.

And, without a specific pledge directly from Rudd, where would that leave the Colbran commitment if Colbran is not elected and Lindsay retains the seat yet his party loses power?

Again, as we conceded above, this is finicky.

And, with expectations in the Far North that Rudd will visit that area in the next couple of days, any doubts we have about Labor's commitment may quickly be proven to be misplaced.

However, until the commitment is heard directly from Rudd we see just some slight question mark over whether it is yet all go on the Townsville race.

Townsville mayor Tony Mooney talked yesterday of bipartisan political support for the race, but where is the evidence of Rudd's support?

And we note that V8 Supercars Australia chairman Tony Cochrane's statement yesterday welcomed Howard's pledge as "icing on the cake" but made no mention of any federal Labor commitment.

Cochrane praised new Queensland premier Anna Bligh and treasurer Andrew Fraser, mayor Mooney and Townsville Enterprise chairman and prominent car dealer Tony Ireland for their efforts.

There is just that one piece of the jigsaw we are waiting to see in place before we are convinced that there is going to be a race on the streets of Townsville in mid-2009.

For the city's sake, we hope to hear the word directly from Rudd soon.

In this era of me-too politics, that should not be too much to expect.

Like last year, the title fight is likely to go into the last round two weeks later at Victoria's Phillip Island.

Perhaps even the last of the three races at the Island.

HSV-Toll's Garth Tander arrives in Launceston with a 20-point lead over Triple 8/Team Vodafone's Craig Lowndes -- with Lowndes' Ford teammate Jamie Whincup and Holden's reigning champion and Tander's teammate Rick Kelly still right in the hunt, just 34 points bracketing the four of them.

Tander has won the Symmons Plains round, and five of six races at the track, the past two years.

Kelly's form also has been good there -- he won a race in Tassie in 2004 and was poised for the round victory in '05 until an electrical gremlin in race two -- but still finished on the podium.

And it was at Symmons Plains last year that Kelly, with fourth place, snatched the series lead from Lowndes that ultimately, and so controversially, translated into the title.

The HSV boys might have good form at this track, but -- as we highlighted here immediately after Bahrain -- the pendulum of success has swung dramatically Ford's way since the early-season Holden dominance.

Although it is Lowndes and Whincup in the title chase, Ford Performance Racing's Mark Winterbottom and Steven Richards, as well as Stone Brothers Racing's James Courtney and even veteran Russell Ingall can still have a big hand in shaping the championship outcome.

V8 Supercar Championship points after 12 of 14 rounds -- Garth Tander 530 points, Craig Lowndes 510, Jamie Whincup 501, Rick Kelly 496, Mark Winterbottom 336, Todd Kelly 330, Steven Richards 311, James Courtney 309, Russell Ingall 297, Will Davison 299, Mark Skaife 294, Steven Johnson 265, Greg Murphy 230, Jason Richards 199, Lee Holdsworth 180.

V8 Supercar teams championship standings -- Team Vodafone 1137 points, Toll HSV Dealer Team 1131, Ford Performance Racing 752, Holden Racing Team 711, Stone Brothers Racing 699, Jim Beam Racing 622, Tasman Motorsport 429, Garry Rogers Motorsport 343, WPS/WOW Racing 229, Autobarn Racing 155, Supercheap Auto Racing 149, Team Sirromet Wines 74, Glenfords Racing 71, Fujitsu Racing 57, Team Kiwi Racing 51, Jack Daniel's Racing 36, Team BOC 31.

Fittingly, the main straight at Symmons Plains is being named after the state's favorite motor sport son.

Bowe began in junior open-wheelers -- Formula Vee and Formula Ford -- at Symmons Plains in 1971.

Weel has put his two Level 1 racing licences up for sale or lease.

A sale could fetch about $3million,

Marcus Marshall's father, John, appeared close to buying PWR mid-year but the deal was not completed and he has since been linked to other teams, although again without anything coming to fruition.

Driver-commentator Cameron McConville's impending departure from PWR was already known, and he is being linked to Brad Jones Racing -- which is switching to Holdens next year after a long but unsuccessful run with Fords -- while Paul Dumbrell is thought to have a deal with Stone Bros for '08.

And the Supercheap sponsorship may yet be seen on another Holden team.

The crux of the matter is whether the fourth, fifth and sixth-placed Williams-Toyota and BMW-Sauber cars should have been disqualified from the race after the fuel in them was found to be well below the minimum required temperature.

If they were disqualified, and Nico Rosberg, Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld lost their driver points, Lewis Hamilton would end up as the 2007 world champion instead of Kimi Raikkonen.

F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone, who has always evaded talk of retirement, has been moved to say that such an outcome might just drive him out of the sport.

"I don't think anything's going to happen if it goes through," Ecclestone said.

"In my opinion, they don't have to change the results of the race -- it's an infringement of the regulations.

"On the same weekend, McLaren used an extra set of tyres (on Hamilton's car), which they shouldn't have used -- that was an infringement (for which McLaren was given a small fine) -- so maybe if anything does happen at this court of appeal, maybe they'll treat it exactly the same as the tyres."

Ecclestone also raised the prospect that McLaren boss Ron Dennis may yet withdraw the appeal.

Isn't it one of the joys of such motor sport cases that you don't really have to await the outcome because so often the result is scripted in advance by Ecclestone or FIA president Max Mosley!

It was a 2007 Ferrari like that in which Kimi Raikkonen won the Formula 1 world title, but without traction control -- which is outlawed in F1 next year.

And normal service was resumed as Schumacher topped the timesheets as more than 20 drivers took part in the start of testing for 2008.

Although there is a top drive going alongside Lewis Hamilton at McLaren following Fernando Alonso's departure after just one season, Schumi has no thoughts of a comeback to racing.

Australia's F1 driver Mark Webber is missing the test, instead setting of on his annual adventure for charity in Tasmania over the next few days.

Apart from winning a record 35 WRC events, Loeb has twice raced in the Le Mans 24-Hour sports car classic for Pescarolo Sport -- finishing second overall in 2006.

Loeb has no intention of switching full-time to circuit racing.

Even with doing so, he can make a strong argument to being the world's best driver these days.

Domenicali's promotion is taking the scuderia back towards its Italian roots, which history might say is not necessarily a good thing.

Meanwhile, we have spotted some words of wisdom from Brawn -- who played a big hand in all of Michael Schumacher's seven world titles -- as he assumes the reins at Honda.

"There has to be a methodology to producing the racing car," Brawn said.

"It's an engineering exercise. It's not black magic. It's not about secrets that are kept in cupboards.

"We have to look at the process and see if it is working well (clearly at Honda it hasn't been!).

"That is my initial focus. We have to catch up.

"But Honda are much closer to where you need to be to get to the top in F1 than Ferrari were.

"When I joined them back in 1997 they did not even have a design office at Maranello."

Brawn said it may take at least three years to make Honda a top team again, but going on his reckoning ultimately, he rates Jenson Button as good a chance of winning a world title as Lewis Hamilton has with McLaren.

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