MOTORSPORT: A special favour for Toyota

One driver can now change a world championship racing calendar - and lots of other drivers aren't happy about it.

A round of sports car racing's World Endurance Championship has been brought forward a week to avoid a clash with a Formula 1 grand prix and to allow dual F1 world champion Fernando Alonso to drive in both.

However, it's created another clash - and that's the cause of the anger for others.

The Japanese round of the WEC at Toyota-owned and operated Fuji Speedway has been moved and will now be on the second Sunday of October rather than the third, when the United States Grand Prix will be run at the Circuit of the Americas in Texas.

As the only manufacturer now fielding hybrids in the top level of sports car racing, after the withdrawal of Porsche and Audi over the past two years, Toyota has a lot of clout in the WEC - and series chief Gerard Neveu conceded that.

"How could we have someone like Fernando Alonso in our paddock, racing for Toyota, and say we are going to Japan without him in their car?" Neveu said in announcing the date change.

"For Japanese fans, to respect what Toyota is doing, and for the championship as well ... we work always to protect the interests of the championship and this is first and foremost what we took into consideration.

"Alonso is racing for a world championship, and to win that he can't miss a race. It was logical and if you ask the Japanese fans they are very happy."

McLaren F1 superstar Alonso, making his sports car racing debut this year, tweeted that the news about Fuji was "fantastic" for those Japanese fans.

Not happy though are many international drivers who are WEC regulars but also scheduled to race in America on that second weekend of October in the Petit Le Mans, the last round of the International Motor Sport Association's North American sports car championship at Road Atlanta.

As the WEC calendar was originally announced by the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), these drivers would have been able to drive both at Road Atlanta and Fuji, but not now.

"I understand the benefit for commercial reasons for WEC, Toyota and Fuji BUT what about all the drivers who have already done deals based on the current calendar and who have been a loyal part of the [WEC] championship for many years?" British driver Oliver Jarvis tweeted.

And Frenchman Olivier Pla tweeted: "Many thanks @FIAWEC ... your lack of consideration and respect for the drivers who had a contract with a team in IMSA to race [in America] the same weekend are unbelievable."

And Pipo Derani, the Brazilian rising star of sports car racing also tweeted:

Among other drivers affected will be Briton Mike Conway, who will be one of Alonso's Toyota teammates in the WEC 'super season' that will stretch until June next year, and Brazilians Bruno Senna and Augusto Farfus - a recent visitor to Australia for the Bathurst 12-Hour.

The WEC's Neveu said he hoped Petit Le Mans could move, but IMSA said there were numerous factors - especially TV arrangements - that prevented that.

This is a feud sports car racing could have done without as the WEC and IMSA try to agree on common rules from 2020 so that more manufacturers and teams can compete in the important American market as well as more globally.

Dream endurance schedule for Matt Campbell

Good news on the endurance racing front though is that 22-year-old Australian Matt Campbell will get to race in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, not just this year but next year too.

Now a Porsche 'Young Professional' - after winning Australia's Carrera Cup in 2016 and races in the manufacturer's international Supercup last year - Campbell has been confirmed to pilot one of two of the company's new 911 RSRs in the WEC. It will be for American actor Patrick Dempsey's Proton Racing team in the LM GTE Am class, with Campbell's co-driver(s) yet to be named.

Campbell, who was fourth outright and second in the Pro-Am class for American-based Porsche team Competition Motorsports at this month's Bathurst 12-Hour, will also get to race for the manufacturer at Germany's Nurburgring 24 Hours in May in a 911 GT3-R.

Camaro flies on debut at Daytona

Chevrolet has pole position for NASCAR'S Daytona 500 for the sixth year in a row - and its powerhouse team Hendrick Motorsports for the fourth straight year - this time with the new Camaro ZL1.

All four of Hendrick's cars were among the dozen that qualified to compete for the pole in next weekend's marquee event in stock car racing, with youngster Alex Bowman lapping the four-kilometre Florida superspeedway in 46.002 seconds at an average speed of 195.644mph (314.858kmh). The 24-year-old replacement for retired Dale Earnhardt Junior, quickly christened 'Bowman the Showman', said that with the horsepower advantage of the Hendrick Chevy "I just held the steering wheel".

All four Joe Gibbs Toyotas were in the top seven, with Denny Hamlin taking the other front-row starting position alongside Bowman.

The other 38 positions in the 40-car field will be decided in two 150-mile (240km) sprint races three days before 'The Great American Race'.

Ford won the restrictor-plate classic last year in Kurt Busch's debut with Stewart-Haas Racing as it switched from Chevs, and the Blue Oval scored a quinella in The Clash, a 17-car race at Daytona at the weekend in which the starting order was decided by draw. Roger Penske's Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano finished first and second, and The Captain's new, third NASCAR Cup driver Ryan Blaney finished fourth, behind Kurt Busch.

While that was a whitewash for Ford, its fastest driver in qualifying for the 500 was Kevin Harvick in eighth.

Drivers say aerodynamic changes this year have 'planted' the cars to the track more firmly, changing their stability levels in the draft, which could make pack racing more difficult.

"What will be hairy is when we're three-wide on older tyres," Hamlin said.

Tommi's team looks sweet for Sweden

Round two of the World Rally Championship is coming up at the end of the week in Sweden, where Toyota scored its first victory on its return to the WRC last year.

Toyota, which appears to have had the best testing for the event - close to team boss Tommi Makinen's Finnish base - is coming off a double podium in the season-opening Monte Carlo Rally and are equal leaders with M-Sport Ford in the manufacturers' championship.

Both those makes, as well as Hyundai and Citroen, will field three cars in Sweden - the only full winter rally on the 13-round WRC calendar, requiring tungsten-tipped steel spikes on the tyres for grip.

Toyota's Finnish driver Jari-Matti Latvala has won the event four times, including last year, while Estonian Ott Tanak is now in a Yaris after finishing second in Sweden last time in a Ford.

The world champion of the past five years, Frenchman Sebastien Ogier, now in his second season in a Fiesta, has had three wins in Sweden and has never failed to finish there.