MOTORSPORT: A future on the fringes

Thursday motorsport reportSeptember 27, 2007

Will there be any motor racing in Australia's two biggest cities, Sydney and Melbourne?

What's got us thinking about this is the news this week that Melbourne's V8 Supercar endurance race, the Sandown 500, is no more.

That's news that will be confirmed when the 2008 V8 Supercar calendar is announced in the next few days.

The Sandown classic, the traditional warm-up for Bathurst although Queensland Raceway "stole" it for a while, will be replaced by a 500km event at Phillip Island, the original home of endurance car racing in Australia that played host to the forerunner of the Bathurst 1000.

Phillip Island is an iconic circuit -- how lucky we are to have tracks as great as Bathurst and the Island in the one country -- but it is 100km further out of central Melbourne than Sandown.

And Bathurst is even further out of Sydney. We have no quibbles about Bathurst. The Mt Panorama circuit is one of the best in the world. And the annual Great Race is in on the same pedestal.

But Sydney has already lost Amaroo Park in recent years and Oran Park, another wonderful circuit, is on death row because of the urban sprawl.

There have been moves for a street race at Homebush, venue of the 2000 Sydney Olympics, but they have never gained serious traction.

Eastern Creek has existed for almost 20 years now but still fails to entice big crowds.

In Melbourne, Calder Park is moribund, while now Sandown's future will hinge on a sprint race in the V8 Supercar Championship -- and overcoming doubts about the ability of the Melbourne Racing Club, a horse racing club that is, to run motor racing in place of former promoter Jon Davison.

The Victorian government has a contract for a Formula 1 grand prix in Albert Park until 2010, and the V8 Supercars will be back there next March after skipping this year.

Losses on the GP are becoming horrendous and, unless the organisers kowtow to F1 supremo's wishes for a night race, there must be a big question mark over whether the contract will be extended beyond 2010.

If that event falls over, what motor racing will there be in Sydney and Melbourne in the next decade? Answer: probably not much.

Probably still V8 Supercar sprint rounds at Eastern Creek and Sandown, but nothing more.

Perhaps Sandown is now on death row as a motor racing venue.

Its demise would leave Eastern Creek as the only fully-operating race circuit in the metropolitan areas of Australia's two major cities.

And the Creek is a helluva long way from Sydney's CBD and for much of Sydney's population.

It is handy enough for hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of Sydney people, but if they haven't come by now what is going to attract them in the future?

V8 Supercars Australia likes to project its product as an Aussie heartland sport, third only to cricket and AFL.

There's no doubt that motor racing, especially V8 Supercars, has a serious following, but in view of all the above it's hard to see its future as anywhere but on the fringe in the Australian sporting landscape.

Sure, Adelaide has embraced its Clipsal 500 as a more than adequate replacement for the F1 GP it lost to Melbourne. But, as good as South Australians feel about their V8 Supercar race, what impact does it have interstate?

Other than the most dedicated of V8 fans, who outside SA gets excited about the Clipsal? Are any more people interstate watching that V8 round on TV than if it were at Mallala?

Brisbane's old Lakeside has been replaced by Willowbank -- or Queensland Raceway -- out Ipswich way.

Like Eastern Creek, Willowbank has survived its initial very rocky financial road, but the V8 Supercar drivers bag it unmercifully.

The V8 Supercar honchos want to race on the streets of Perth rather than the long-established Wanneroo -- or Barbagallo Raceway -- if they are to continue taking their show west each year.

Hopes of a street race in Fremantle some years ago fell over, and there is resistance in Perth to the cost of a race in the city. So where does that leave Wanneroo in the long-term?

Of Australia's five major cities, only Adelaide seems to have much a racing future.

V8 Supercars Australia chairman Tony Cochrane is quoted in today's Herald Sun newspaper in Melbourne saying Sandown needs to spend $360,000 to maintain its racing permit but that he's been given no assurance by the Melbourne Racing Club that will happen.

Cochrane is also reported to be unhappy that the MRC has ignored requests to upgrade the pits. (Former promoter Davison, whose "franchise" was not renewed by the MRC, claims to have been prepared to spend $1.5 million on a pit makeover).

"If people don't want to upgrade their facilities then we have no choice but to move," Cochrane says. "We have to look at the long-term future of the sport."

Followers of motor sport will be pleased to hear Cochrane taking such a keen interest in its long-term future, although many will need more convincing of Cochrane's genuine long-term interest in motor sport generally and even V8 Supercars in particular.

In any case, the future of Cocho's category is looking as though it's away from the country's major population centres.

Dissenter rocks the Townsville boat
A Townsville street race is still a long way from a fait accompli.

A lobby group comprising V8 Supercar Australia officials and Townsville heavyweights went to Canberra recently seeking the final $10 million they say will make the event a goer.

That money would top up $30 million already committed -- the bulk of it by the Queensland government and Townsville city council.

However, there has been a setback this week with Peter Lindsay, the federal Liberal MP for the Townsville seat of Herbert, questioning whether $40 million needs to be spent for a motor race. Indeed, he says it's too much.

Lindsay's alarm bell again focuses attention on the wisdom of street races.

The idea of taking Australia's premier racing category to a regional centre like Townsville is to be applauded, but if $20, $30 or $40 million is to be spent might it not be more worthwhile to do it on a permanent circuit?

Lindsay says he supports the concept of a V8 Supercar race in Townsville but believes other funding options need to be considered.

V8 Supercars chairman Tony Cochrane's hopes have clearly been on unlocking the federal money during an election campaign from a government desperate to retain office and an opposition prepared to match, or top, most of its commitments.

Cochrane has not taken Lindsay's stance well, threatening that if the federal money is not forthcoming Townsville will miss out entirely.

"The Townsville City Council want to see a race in 2009, the council want to see the urban renewal of Reid Park by 2009, the State Government wants that, our fans in north Queensland want to see that, the business people of north Queensland want to see that, the Townsville Enterprise want to see that -- the only person who doesn't quite get it at the moment is Peter Lindsay," Cochrane says.

Objective observers are entitled to wonder why it is that all these arms of government -- local, state and federal -- are expected to contribute to the staging costs of a race in far north Queensland without V8 Supercars Australia seriously hitting its kick?

Moves already for NZ venue shift
Seven months before Hamilton stages its first V8 Supercar street race under its deal as the home of the NZ round of the series for the next seven years, there's a move across the Tasman to relocate it.

Colin Giltrap, the NZ motor industry figure reputed to be worth about $300 million, is reportedly trying to buy the Whenuapai Air Base near Auckland -- and wants to run the V8s and NZ's A1 Grand Prix round there.

The Royal NZ Air Force will be quitting Whenuapai in coming years.

NZ's Independent Financial Review says Giltrap's partners in launching a bid for Whenuapai are Frank Radisich (Paul's father) and Peter Sinton, who are directors of Auckland Motorsport Park and V8 Supercars Whenuapai.

Giltrap has bankrolled NZ's entry in the A1 GP championship that begins its third series this weekend at Zandvoort in Holland.

Taupo Motorsport Park, further south on NZ's North Island, is to host its second A1 round next January -- by which time it hopes to have raised $3 million in a float on the NZ stock market.

Sydney's Ian Dyk, who notched a podium in Mexico last season, will be Australia's A1 driver this season, with the car again prepared by Alan Docking, the Aussie who has been based in Britain for three decades and has helped many young Australian drivers -- including Mark Webber -- progress in open-wheeler racing.

Queenslander John Martin and West Australian Daniel Ricciardo will get experience in the Friday practice sessions for rookies.

Another Sydney driver, Chris Alajanian, will race for Team Lebanon in the A1 series. Both Alajanian's parents were born in Lebanon before migrating to Australia.

Mosley is a brilliant man without much of a profile beyond motor sport, while Stewart was not only a great race driver but a pioneer of F1 safety -- although his dress sense (tartan trousers and caps) and dial-a-quote reputation have made him a somewhat comical figure.

The McLaren penalties, remember, are a fine of almost A$120 million and the loss of all constructors' championship points this year, handing Ferrari another manufacturers' world title.

Now here is Mosley's retort to Stewart saying those actions are "unjustifiable":

"He (Stewart) said the FIA's decision would not have worked in a civil court. He has no qualification to say that.

"Then he starts saying this is personal between me and (McLaren chief) Ron Dennis, at great length, because everything he does is at extreme length.

"It's annoying that some of the sponsors listen to him because he's won a few championships.But nobody else in F1 does -- not the teams, not the drivers.

"He's a figure of fun among drivers. He goes round dressed up as a 1930s music hall man. He's a certified halfwit."

Savage stuff.

Stewart's not likely to try to outpoint Mosley in a verbal stoush, although he could perhaps suggest that those who built the car he raced for most of the 1970 season -- the March company, of which Mosley was a founding director -- were fullwits!

That car was so crook that Stewart's team owner, Ken Tyrrell, had to turn constructor -- a move that changed the face of F1, producing some brilliant and innovative F1 machinery (including the six-wheeler).

But in any war of words, Max Mosley is always going to win.

Of suggestions that he and the FIA always favor Ferrari, particularly over McLaren, Mosley has a simple answer.

"If Ferrari's chief designer had 780 pages of McLaren secrets [as McLaren's chief designer Mike Coughlan had from Ferrari] and I didn't act then there might be a point to the argument."

Drivers' title chase in home straight
Just three F1 GPs remaining now, with McLaren rookie Lewis Hamilton holding a two-point advantage over dual world champion teammate Fernando Alonso -- and this weekend's race is at Fuji in Japan.

Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen is only 13 points behind Hamilton and the Finn's win in Belgium two weeks ago capped a four-race stretch in which his worst finish has been third.

Alonso has gad six straight top-four placings, including a pair of wins and remains our favourite for the title.

Hamilton has not won since Hungary almost two months ago. While he has finished in the top five in all but once race this year, all three remaining tracks are new to him -- the last two are Shanghai and Interlagos in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Alonso's experience generally, and of these tracks in particular, is going to be invaluable.

Autosport reports that the plans to raise cockpit sides further have been signed off after strong lobbying from the Grand Prix Drivers' Association, of which Aussie driver Mark Webber is a director.

"The guys involved in that nasty accident in Australia were the two guys pushing it very hard," Webber says.

"David obviously felt something had to be done, and Alex felt the same after having an F1 car pass his visor."

Nigel Stepney, the Englishman reputed to have leaked Ferrari's secrets to McLaren, also has a book on the way called Red Mist.

As we've reported before, seven Lewis Hamilton books are due out by Christmas.

Rupert Murdoch's HarperCollins has paid Hamilton a US$2 million advance.

Murder attempt on Moscow's Minardi man
An attempt was made this week to murder Sergei Zlobin, the Russian who was Minardi's test driver for a season when it was owned by Aussie Paul Stoddart.

Zlobin, 37, survived an explosion in his Mercedes-Benz MG-500 sports utility vehicle after he drove just a metre in reverse in northern Moscow.

He suffered only minor bruises but the car was badly damaged.

Zlobin's Minardi deal came about through a sponsorship by Russian gas giant Gazprom.

The reason for the attack on him is unclear.

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