MOTORSPORT: A huge week in V8 land

Bathurst 1000 week is traditionally the high point of interest in touring car racing, or what for 12 years has been called V8 Supercar racing, but this week is giving the Mountain a big challenge.

The street race at Sydney Olympic Park has been confirmed and now comes the shock news that one of the sport's top drivers, James Courtney (pictured), will apparently be switching to Dick Johnson's Jim Beam Racing next season.

That has been reported in the weekly electronic Motorsport News magazine. While we suspect it is on the money, we note that the report did not contain any definitive quotes from Courtney, his manager Alan Gow, Johnson, Ford, Stone Brothers (Courtney's existing team), Ford Performance Racing or Jim Morton/Ford Rising Stars (the expectation has been that Courtney would drive a third FPR Falcon for Morton next season).

Official confirmation may not be far away though, it seems.

Davison, we suspect, will take up Courtney's spot at Stone Brothers, one of only two Ford-financially-supported teams next year (along with FPR) -- and indeed we wonder if that deal may already have been done before this Courtney news.

If indeed it is Davison that goes from DJR/Jim Beam, that will mean Steve Johnson can stay in his legendary dad's team, and that's probably the best thing.

Motorsport News also has a report today on something we mentioned here in our past two columns -- that Marcos Ambrose, dual V8 Supercar champion for Ford, which then assisted him in his move into American stock car racing -- will be driving a Toyota in NASCAR's premier series, the Sprint Cup, next year.

Now while there is a lot happening, we sincerely hope that it is all dwarfed by next week's Bathurst -- the event that we look forward to most each year and which, despite all the hype about Homebush, we suspect (and hope) will remain the centerpiece of Australian domestic motorsport.

Bathurst is something that grew naturally into an icon; Homebush is something that its organisers will try to fashion/market into that.

Despite our reservations about the street race, particularly on financial grounds, even the harshest critics of V8 Supercars Australia chairman Tony Cochrane must give him full marks for his tenacity in pursuing this dream.

However, all the talk about it these past few days -- including Monday's official announcement by new New South Wales premier Nathan Rees, of his government's support for it -- has been long on hype and short on substance.

It seems to us that the government's commitment is still only a pledge rather than anything contractual, although we don't doubt now that the event is going to happen, unless the global financial meltdown's impact becomes even more horrendous than we're already seeing.

Cochrane claims the Homebush green light is the biggest thing to happen in the 12-year history of V8 Supercars, and -- irrespective of anyone's stance on the event -- it is hard to disagree with that.

Apart from anything else, V8 Supercars are getting plenty of media attention in Australia's biggest city, which has been its Achilles heel for quite some time.

The media coverage has been pretty much as expected, which we foretold some time ago.

Rupert Murdoch's News Limited is pro-Homebush, and indeed there is a report today (by its rival) that News' Australian chief John Hartigan (and V8 Supercar telecaster Channel 7's David Leckie) vigorously lobbied former NSW premier Morris Iemma for the street race (while the advice of Events NSW chief John O'Neill and Sydney Olympic Park chairman Michael Knight has been spurned).

Fairfax Media's Sydney Morning Herald is heavily questioning the event's merits (and Cochrane and Co would say it is anti it and totally negative).

The ABC appears to us to be essentially neutral, as it should be, but certainly open to airing the views of critics.

The most recent example of that we've come across is here.

In any case, we reckon the media coverage is only half the story.

We mentioned yesterday in our regular Monday motorsport wrap that we had read a transcript of a debate in the NSW Parliament last week about the street race proposal. We have read it again today, and draw your attention to it here.

The reality is that this event is now happening, but there are many things mentioned in this debate that are pertinent -- and will remain so.

We are cynical about politics and politicians -- and most of those who spoke in this debate made some dreadful bloopers, although we won't labor those here -- but lots of pros and cons are covered in this document.

Whichever side of the fence you're on, it's worthwhile reading to get a fuller picture of the matter.

We have serious reservations about the street race, on financial and environmental grounds in particular.

How the NSW government has ticked it off with so little scrutiny of the sums is almost beyond comprehension.

There is plenty of evidence around that the costs and losses of motorsport events on temporary street circuits are quantifiable but that the claimed benefits are largely unquantifiable -- and indeed the claims are often sheer fabrication.

One example fresh in our minds is an international report we have read about (but admittedly not seen in full yet) which apparently says the benefit from Bahrain's Formula 1 grand prix is close to US$400 million a year while that from Monaco's is -- we've seen two figures mentioned -- US$17.5 million or US$120 million.

Now come on? How on earth does Bahrain, with by far the smallest GP attendance of any race on the F1 calendar, come to benefit financially four times or more as much as the “crown jewel” Monaco, when that is the one race the world's financial high-rollers make sure they don't miss?

These kinds of numbers are the nonsense that we get so often in these debates.

Some people with memories that go back a while keep bringing up the audit report on the short-lived V8 Supercar race in Canberra.

While it is not a pretty picture, and while we do not hide from being a vehement critic of street races on financial grounds, we are not convinced that the Canberra experience is the most relevant in the Sydney discussion.

Canberra had some particular problems -- a track that was too narrow, and perhaps not a big enough population for such an event, although its Summernats works well financially in the New Year holiday time.

Anyway, for anyone interested in that Canberra audit report it's here.

Far more relevant in contemporary Australian motorsport is what happens with Eastern Creek, which after Oran Park's closure soon will be Sydney's sole remaining permanent race circuit.

Now there is no getting away from the fact that in almost 20 years Eastern Creek has not proved a big winner with race fans.

It is owned by the NSW government and operated by the Australian Racing Drivers Club, which we understand pays $600,000 for the "licence" to do that.

It put up a plan for a major upgrade of the Creek -- needing $90 million from memory -- to cater for bigger and perhaps better events there.

Monday's announcements tells us, without saying so specifically, that the government isn't greatly interested in Eastern Creek.

While it is not exactly cannibalising it, it looks as though it is prepared to starve it to death.

And that would be a tragedy for Australian motorsport.

Any permanent circuit lost will not automatically or even necessarily be replaced by another.

Eastern Creek is used all year round, indeed virtually every day of the year, for either motorsport or motoring/motor industry events, so it has an important place in the landscape.

While the Creek's crowds have often been embarrassingly poor, that perhaps has been a reflection -- in the fickle Sydney market -- of the calibre of some of the "entertainment" our motorsport categories, including V8 Supercars, have offered/provided.

The bumper crowd at the recent Muscle Car Masters there -- featuring five iconic Australian touring cars from the Jane, Geoghegan, Beechey, Moffat days -- said a lot.

We didn't find that at all surprising.

Nor are we surprised at the way the Homebush event has evolved.

But, since Australian motorsport is not all about -- and nor should it be -- V8 Supercars, let's hope that Eastern Creek is not lost because of it.

The ARDC largely represents an "old guard" of the sport, and we reckon the old dogs still have plenty of fight left in them.

We shall see.

As part of the Homebush announcement, the full 2009 V8 Supercar calendar was released. Here is is:

March 19-22:  Clipsal 500, Adelaide
March 26–29:  Australian Grand Prix, Melbourne (non-championship)
April 17–19:  Hamilton 400, New Zealand
May 1–3:  Winton Raceway, northern Victoria
May 29–31:  Tasmania Challenge, Symmons Plains, Launceston
June 19–21:  SkyCity Challenge, Hidden Valley, Darwin
July 10–12:  Townsville 400, north Queensland 
July 31–Aug 2: Sandown, Melbourne
August 21-23:  Queensland Raceway, Ipswich
September 11–13: L&H 500 Phillip Island, Victoria
October 8–11: Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000, NSW
October 22–25: Nikon Indy 300, Surfers Paradise, Queensland
November 5–7: Gulf Air Desert 400, Bahrain
November 20–22: Barbagallo, Perth, WA
December 4–6: Sydney 400, Homebush

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