MOTORSPORT: A new V8 star surfaces

Monday motorsport reportAugust 20, 2007

Less than 10 days after being voted the sport's most under-rated driver in Auto Action magazine's poll, and just four rounds after a huge crash at Victoria's Winton circuit, Holdsworth became the 46th man to win a round of the championship in its 48-year history -- most of it as the Australian Touring Car Championship.

Holdsworth made the smart call to start the third race at Sydney's Oran Park with wet-weather tyres on his Garry Rogers Motorsport VE Holden Commodore, shot to a lead of almost 50 seconds by mid-race, and kept his cool in the second half as the safety car bunched up the field four times.

In his fourth year of V8 Supercar racing, it was only the 24-year-old's 27th championship round and, after qualifying fourth, finishing 10th in Saturday's race and then fourth in the first of Sunday's two races, he came away from the weekend with 47 points to the 38 of both Steven Richards and Craig Lowndes.

It was the first win for Garry Rogers Motorsport since Cameron McConville's victory at Winton in 2004, at only the second start for the team's VE.

And Holdsworth's performance prompted team owner Rogers to liken him to the legendary Jim Richards.

"He doesn't get flustered - he's always level-headed," Rogers says.

Although Holdsworth admitted he had taken a tyre gamble that paid off, he was justifiably pleased with himself for having survived the pressures of retaining the lead in a race of such mayhem.

Although Lowndes brilliantly won Sunday's other race, Richards' better placing in race three -- fifth versus Lowndes' 14th -- gave him second overall for the weekend.

It is Richards' first podium since his return to the Blue Oval camp this season with Ford Performance Racing -- and it is ironic that he finishes second to a driver now being likened to his great father.

Steven Richards long ago outgrew the tag of being Jim Richards' son and, while he has not won a V8 Supercar championship, he has had Bathurst success with both Holden and Ford and is one of the hardest and most consistent racers in the series -- although he still trails FPR teammate Mark Winterbottom by 17 points this season.

It was a weekend top team Toll HSV's Garth Tander and Rick Kelly will be happy is behind them, although they still head the drivers' championship.

Tander surrendered the series lead to Kelly on Saturday but second place in the third race of the weekend -- benefiting from a late tangle between Jamie Whincup, Russell Ingall and Jason Richards -- regained it for him by six points.

While Tander had a DNF and a 19th in the first two races of the weekend, Kelly's scoresheet for the round was second, 15th and 15th (and a lap down)  -- earning him 24 points to Tander's 20.

Holden Racing Team's Mark Skaife won Saturday's race but finished the weekend with only 24 points after going off in the last.

Todd Kelly was disappointed with the outcome of his 100th championship round -- eighth, second and 11th in the three races -- but his 36 points was the best of the four drivers in Walkinshaw Performance Commodores and he remains fifth in the championship, behind the HSV pair and Ford/Triple 8/Team Vodafone pair Jamie Whincup and Lowndes.

Whincup was third in the weekend's opening race and just a quarter of a second away, behind Ingall, from repeating that in the crazy last race -- perhaps an ominous sign with the Sandown and Bathurst enduros next on the calendar.

We awaited the debut of 18-year-old New Zealander Shane Van Gisbergen with interest as Team Kiwi returned, now aligned with Stone Brothers rather than FPR, and his 20th, 13th and 24th in the three races showed maturity and had plenty of his rivals taking notice.

V8 Supercar round 8 points - Lee Holdsworth 47, Steven Richards 38, Craig Lowndes 38, Todd Kelly 36, Jamie Whincup 32, Mark Winterbottom 32, Jason Richards 31, Russell Ingall 26, Rick Kelly 24, Mark Skaife 24, Will Davison 22, Garth Tander 20, Max Wilson 15, Steven Johnson 14, Andrew Jones 11, James Courtney 11, Steve Owen 10, Greg Murphy 9, Paul Dumbrell 8, Simon Wills 8, Jason Bargwanna 6, Fabian Coulthard 6, Jason Bright 5, Shane Van Gisbergen 4.

V8 Supercar championship after 8 of 14 rounds - Garth Tander (Holden) 389 points, Rick Kelly (H) 383, Jamie Whincup (Ford) 317, Craig Lowndes (F) 301, Todd Kelly (H) 297, Mark Skaife (H) 273, Mark Winterbottom (F) 204, Will Davison (F) 194, Steven Richards (F) 187, Russell Ingall (F) 181, James Courtney (F) 168, Steven Johnson (F) 156, Lee Holdsworth (H) 128, Greg Murphy (H) 122, Jason Richards (H) 99, Jason Bright (F) 55, Paul Morris (H) 54, Max Wilson (F) 54, Steve Owen (H) 45,  Paul Radisich (F) 36, Dean Canto (H) 34, Jason Bargwanna (F) 34, Andrew Jones (F) 19, John Bowe (F) 17, Shane Price (H) 16, Cameron McConville (H) 16, Paul Dumbrell (H) 8, Simon Wills (F) 8, Fabian Coulthard (H) 8, Jack Perkins (H) 6, Shane Van Gisbergen (F) 4, Alan Gurr (F) 2.

V8 Supercar teams championship - Toll HSV Dealer Team 772 points, Team Vodafone 618, Holden Racing Team 570, Ford Performance Racing 391, Jim Beam Racing 350, Stone Brothers Racing 349, Tasman Motorsport 221, Garry Rogers Motorsport 162, WPS-WOW Racing 88, Team Sirromet Wines 62, Fujitsu Racing 57,  Autobarn Racing 45, Team Kiwi Racing 40, Team BOC 27, Supercheap Auto Racing 24, Jack Daniel's Racing 22, Glenfords Racing 17.

And a little bit more from the paddock
A few other tidbits out of the Oran Park weekend ...
• After its glorious history dating back to 1962, circuit owner Tony Perich wants to stage a grand farewell before the track succumbs to Sydney's urban sprawl, with a four-day extravaganza when the curtain finally comes down, whether that is next year or in 2009.
• Moves being talked about to spice up V8 Supercar racing from next year apparently include Champ Car-style push-to-pass buttons on the cars, smaller fuel tanks and bonus points for leading laps in races.
• V8 Supercars Australia has sold the New Zealand TV rights to the series to TV3 for the next five years, replacing TVNZ. As with all sports television deals it's claimed to the biggest and best, but -- as has happened in Australia with the move from Network 10 to 7 -- we wonder how long it will be before the angst begins.
• Stewards fined Aussie Racing Cars competitor Phil Ward $30,000 fine after an altercation with chief scrutineer Lance Smith on Friday. Ward was also excluded from the meeting.

Australia's Chris Atkinson was quick enough to be on the podium, winning three stages of the rally in his Subaru Impreza, but a big spin on the first stage and a crash on the final day relegated him to 15th.

Next up on the WRC calendar is the New Zealand round, on the North Island starting at Hamilton on August 31.

The biggest challenger to France's triple world champion Loeb's C4 Citroen in Germany was Belgian Francois Duval in a Citroen Xsara.         

Finn Gronholm was distracted by a cow on the final stage, went off the road and dropped 80 seconds as he diced with Duval, who was in his first outing with the OMV Kronos team and had not driven a Xsara since his 2005 Rally Australia victory.

Gronholm had to make emergency repairs to his damaged suspension at the end and scrambled to salvage fourth place.

Two-time world champion Gronholm's countryman and Ford teammate Mikko Hirvonen wound up third in the asphalt rally debut of Ford's 2007 Focus.

It is 2006 Rally Oz winner Hirvonen's eighth podium in 10 rounds this year.

Czech privateer Jan Kopecky in a Skoda Fabia took an excellent fifth place ahead of Norwegian former world champion Petter Solberg in a factory Subaru, 3¼ minutes behind Loeb's Citroen.

Loeb has never been beaten in Germany since the country joined the WRC in 2002 and his winning margin over Duval was 20.3 seconds.

Despite Loeb's success, Ford has stretched its advantage over Citroen in the manufacturers' championship by one point to 41 with six rounds left.

Aussie Atkinson's Friday spin cost him eight minutes.

"I cut a corner a little too deeply and the car bounced out, spun around and we went off backwards into a field," he says.

Then on Sunday he hit a wall 1.5km from the finish of the 16th stage when he made an error under braking.

The impact damaged the front-right corner of the Impreza and he was forced to stop.

Nonetheless, Atkinson says it was important for him to take risks in Germany and explore the Subaru's capabilities rather than settle for a steady pace.

"Unfortunately, I just pushed a little too hard," he says.

"But overall we have shown the car to be quick on asphalt, so it is very encouraging for the remaining three sealed surface events this year."

Atkinson was in the top 10 on 13 of a possible 15 stages in Germany despite still having little asphalt experience.

Apart from the three stage wins, he set two second-best times and two third-best times.

"It meant a lot to win those stages," he says. "I keep making improvements to my driving.

"I'm still making mistakes here and there, but there's a lot to learn -- this is only our second asphalt rally on BFGoodrich tyres -- but obviously we're not learning too slowly.

"I'm very pleased with the speed -- we were consistently fast, which is pretty cool.

"Two years ago I did my first asphalt rally, and it was never going to happen straight away, but it's pretty good to be doing these sort of times now.

"We've had awesome pace here. It's just a shame that I made a couple of mistakes. We could have been fighting for a podium."

Chris Atkinson is seventh in the WRC with 20 points.

World Rally Championship driver standings after 10 of 16 rounds -- Marcus Gronholm 80 points, Sebastien Loeb 72, Mikko Hirvonen 63, Petter Solberg 29, Henning Solberg 28, Daniel Sordo 28.

WRC manufacturer standings - BP-Ford 143 points, Citroen Total 102, Subaru 53, Stobart VK M-Sport Ford 50, OMV Kronos Citroen 35, Munchi's Ford 6. 

Webber & Alonso - tons of difference
Mark Webber and Fernando Alonso have a bit in common.
They both made their Formula 1 debuts in Australia, both driving for Minardi -- Alonso in 2001 and Webber in '02.

When the world championship resumes this weekend in Turkey they will both notch up 100 GPs (remember that Alonso reverted to test driving duties with Renault in 2002).

In Alonso's first 99 GPs he has won two world titles, 18 races, been on the podium 44 times and accumulated 454 points.

Webber has only two podiums and 77 points to his name.

Certainly the Aussie has had more than his share of misfortune, particularly mechanical failures at Williams and earlier this year with Red Bull, but how things might have been different if he had  opted to race for Renault in 2005 instead of Williams!

A long shot, we would have thought.

However, the both Williams seats may open up, with Nico Rosberg tipped to join McLaren if Fernando Alonso walks away from this season's top team because of its perceived favouritism towards superstar newcomer Lewis Hamilton, and rumours persist that Alex Wurz may be on the skids at Team Willy.

It would ironic for triple Champ Car champion Sebastien Bourdais that, having just landed an F1 seat with Scuderia Toro Rosso (formerly Minardi), a better opportunity might open up at Williams-Toyota for Doornbos, who is trailing him in the American series.

Doornbos may have something that Williams may now need -- loads of sponsorship dollars.

Alex Shnaider, the Canadian-based Russian businessman bought Eddie Jordan's team and ran it under the Midland name until selling it on to Dutch exotic sports car maker Spyker, says he's prepared to save the outfit again.

And Adrian Campos, a Spaniard who drove for Minardi in the 1980s and once managed Fernando Alonso, is involved in talks about buying a minority stake in Honda-powered Super Aguri.

Shnaider, who it seems is still owed money from his deal with Spyker, says that outfit needs a new commercial partner or an outright sale of the team.

"Our (Midland's) first priority has always been to see the team passed to a safe pair of hands -- an owner with a commercial brand to be promoted to the public, a person or company with the vision and resources to develop the potential within the team," Shnaider says.

"I believe that Spyker or the Mol consortium (now in operational control) will need to bring in a partner to achieve this, or alternatively, they will need to sell the team outright.

"Midland is a secured creditor. We have rescued the team in the past and we are capable of doing it again, if necessary.

"Not that it really matters, though, because we expect Spyker to fulfill their obligations."

Super Aguri principal and former Japanese F1 driver Aguri Suzuki is in talks with Spanish businessman Alejandro Agag, a major shareholder in the Campos Grand Prix team that races in the GP2 support series at European GPs, about a buy-in following a default by major sponsor SS United.

Adrian Campos says: "We are looking (at F1) and our project is in that direction (Super Aguri).

"I don't know how and I don't know when. Now we are focused on GP2, but there are other possibilities. Next year in my opinion would be too soon (for F1), but you never know."

Embezzlement charge against Shanghai official
The former deputy general manager of Shanghai International Circuit, which hosts China's F1 GP and staged Australia's V8 Supercars in 2005, is to go on trial on Thursday, charged with embezzlement of almost US$140,000.

Yu Zhifei has been under investigation for 10 months and is alleged to have used company money to pay for a house for himself.

He was expelled from the Communist Party in May.

"It may not look that great on paper but I am really pleased with how things went," Ambrose says.

And, after the Montreal street circuit and Watkins Glen road course, he says: "I love getting back on the ovals.

"If I didn't do another road race, it wouldn't make me upset at all. I love this oval stuff so much that, for me, the road courses are now a distraction."

Ambrose remains eighth in the Busch points and now it's on to the 800-metre Bristol Motor Speedway, then to California.

Photo Credit: Ross Gibb Photography

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