MOTORSPORT: A whole new direction in Sydney

The scheme would see the main circuit extended 800 metres to 4.7 km and racing would change direction to clockwise.

The plans involve forming three tracks within the existing facility and the Australian Racing Drivers Club (ARDC), which has operated the NSW government-owned venue for several years now, claims there effectively would be six track layouts under the new proposal.

Something that stands out in this week's ARDC announcement is a desire to tap into the drifting phenomenon.

More below, but our initial impressions are that -- while it involves a major makeover for the Creek -- it is largely an old-guard solution. Its proponents invoked Allan Moffat in this week's announcement and, as much as we acknowledge and respect Moffat's standing in the Australian motorsport community (and indeed he is a cherished friend of the writer), we see it as a very traditional approach -- more about construction than entertainment.

With Oran Park closing after this year, the debate over the future of motorsport in Sydney is essentially about permanent versus temporary.

We have always expressed here a strong preference for the permanent, which in this case is Eastern Creek, while Sydney Olympic Park (aka Homebush) would be the temporary.
However, there is no denying that the Creek has almost two decades of baggage that we are not sure any amount of money can remedy.

The question is whether a silk purse can be made out of what, judging by attendances, motorsport fans for almost 20 years have seen as a sow's ear. And the problem is that getting the answer is going to cost an awful lot of money -- and even then the response may be very negative.

If it all boils down to a choice between Eastern Creek and Homebush, we cannot help ourselves reverting to a theme we expressed here some months back -- that Australia might have been a whole lot better off if it had followed the American way (ovals, or speedways) rather than the European route (road racing).

What Sydney motorsport needs for the future is a permanent venue that is suitable for other entertainment, such as music concerts. A speedway, or superspeedway, in the right location could have been just that -- a nicely-contained, multi-purpose facility.

Homebush might be all right for the other entertainment but, we suspect, will come up short as a motor racing venue -- if it ever gets put to the test (although we suspect it is going to be). Even if a street circuit there were to prove good, it is going to come at an inordinate cost without any great enduring benefit.

Eastern Creek might also be useful for other entertainment such as concerts, and its race track(s) might be improved immeasurably, but we just wonder whether the public will ever want to know about the place in sufficient numbers. Somewhat sadly, we suspect not.

Much of the above presumes that Sydney's issue is purely a choice between Homebush and Eastern Creek, and perhaps it is not that simple. Maybe the city will end up with both -- but that is going to mean the NSW Government tipping vast amounts of money into both, and that is hard to see.

The smoke signals of recent weeks have suggested that Homebush is going to get the green light. In the short term whatever government money is needed to make that street race happen -- perhaps $30 million initially -- looks like a lot less than the major revamp of the Creek envisaged this week.

But while Homebush street circuit would be almost solely for a V8 Supercar event (with the usual few support races), Eastern Creek is already (and certainly could be even more so in the future) available for virtually the whole spectrum of motorsport, and all-year-round.

In the cases of both Homebush and Eastern Creek the NSW Government is ultimately the landlord and master, yet it is almost in a no-win situation. If it backs a Homebush street race and it ends up becoming a financial black (or red?) hole, like most street races, the government risks a savage backlash at some point and the potential embarrassment of scrapping it.

And, if Eastern Creek withers completely on the vine in the meantime, the massive danger is that in the longer-term future Sydney ends up with no motorsport.

If the state government supports the Eastern Creek proposal and rejects the Homebush idea (far less likely, we would think), then -- if V8 Supercars Australia chairman Tony Cochrane has the ticker to stand by his word that the V8s won't go back to the Creek -- Australia's premier motor racing series might be lost forever to the country's major city.

And if the government doesn't go with the Homebush race, instead backs Eastern Creek -- because of its permanency, for catering to all forms of motorsport and driver and safety education, and its year-round availability -- but the revamp does not increase the popularity of the western Sydney venue, then a whole lot more money will have been lost.

Whichever route motorsport in Sydney takes from here on, we just wonder where the sport generally is going to be in three, five and 10 years. We have a nagging feeling that it may become politically unacceptable, in much the same way as smoking has. We may well be wrong in that, and -- for the sake of watching our chosen sport -- we hope we are.

Enough rambling. We promised more detail on the Eastern Creek proposal, so here is some -- as an extract from Thursday's announcement.

"A $350,000 feasibility study commissioned by the ARDC has outlined opportunities to use Eastern Creek International Raceway as the basis of the world-class development... The plan includes three interlinked tracks offering six permutations, of which three can be used simultaneously.

"The track developments also allow for year-round use of the complex for road safety training, as well as providing convention facilities, music arenas and a purpose-built 'youth entertainment' bowl.

"The ARDC and designer, UK-based Apex Circuit Design, presented the plan this week to the NSW government, owners of Eastern Creek Raceway... According to Apex the new facility could be built within two years using more than 70 per cent of the existing Eastern Creek circuit as its base.

"The existing structure would enable the 'supercircuit' to be built for approximately one-third the cost of a greenfields site... Initial estimates for the cost of the track development are $93 million, with graded implementation to suit budget requirements.

"The ARDC, which leases Eastern Creek Raceway from the NSW government, will commission financial modeling to determine payback timelines and sources of funding."

ARDC president John Cotter (pictured) talked about Sydney needing "more motorsport facilities and permanent closed-road training capacity", and that Eastern Creek was already fully utilised. Cotter claimed the Apex report: "maps a blueprint for a strategy which could contribute substantially to tourism and further global recognition of Sydney".

Pardon us for reverting to comment here, rather than simply reporting what someone said, but when people in motorsport or politics start trotting out lines like that our alarm bells start ringing. To get Eastern Creek to a point where it could attract decent domestic crowds for motor racing events would be an achievement, but to try to envisage it as some kind of tourist attraction is beyond our comprehension.

Anyway, more from Cotter.

"The plan confirms the ARDC's proposition that an investment in an appropriate permanent facility is far more advantageous than investment in a non-permanent street circuit," he said.

Apart from lengthening the main circuit by 800m to 4.7km, it allows for a 3.0km national track, a 1.7km club circuit, a corporate track and a drift bowl "to be built in a special stadium section of the complex".

Apex proposed reversing the direction of racing to clockwise "to create a spectacular high delta (heavy braking) corner at turn one within the stadium section".

The proposed international track has four extra corners and more than double the potential passing areas of the circuit it would replace," the ARDC announcement said.

"The proposed track would qualify for use by all motor racing disciplines up to Formula 1."

Thankfully that was the nearest the announcement came to mentioning F1, because any notion of F1 at Eastern Creek is fantasy -- and at night even more so. The Australian Grand Prix is now contracted to Melbourne for another seven years, and it will be in the late afternoon, without lights (despite F1 tsar Bernie Ecclestone's huffing and puffing earlier this year).

While we have characterised the ARDC's announcement as pretty old-guard, it did provide a specific teaser for the now generation.

"The emergence of drift racing has huge youth appeal and Eastern Creek has the ability to incorporate a purpose-built track where young people can compete under supervision in safety," Apex managing director Clive Bowen said.

"The concept is that Eastern Creek would become, in part, a club facility for teenagers and young adults."

The ARDC concluded its statement by pointing out that the 90-hectare Eastern Creek venue "has operated profitably in recent years under ARDC control".

The bottom line in this whole debate is that the NSW government has a hard decision, or perhaps more than one, to make. We don't particularly envy it having to face up to the big-picture issues confronting motorsport in Sydney. Nor do we have a lot of faith that it will get it right.

A lot of it will inevitably come down to the lobbying skills of the competing parties, and on that score we would tend to tip V8 Supercars Australia and Homebush ahead of the ARDC and Eastern Creek -- although the government may come to a realisation that the ARDC is one of its constituents and V8SA is not (it's more of a "tourist").

Whatever comes out of the whole debate we just hope that for the future of motorsport in Sydney, especially in the long term, it's for the best.

We are coming to the conclusion that it is going to be very difficult for the Gold Coast event organisers and the Queensland government to come to an agreement with the Indy Racing League.

The crux of it is this: the IRL wants its series each year to conclude in the US in October. For there to continue to be a Gold Coast race it needs to be "paired" with the Japanese round, which next year is in September. But, while Indy has worked in many respects on the Gold Coast in October for almost two decades, it would be unworkable in September, because the accommodation is already filled by school-holidaying families and it does not fit with the national motorsport calendar and would clash with football finals.

Looking into the crystal ball, we can see A1 GP replacing IndyCars as the international open-wheeler component of the Gold Coast event.

A few months ago this was unthinkable. Now we see it as much more likely -- and becoming increasingly so. As we have said previously, as a racing 'product' A1 GP could be very good on the streets of Surfers' Paradise but the drivers are little known, primarily because they are young and rising -- rather than established -- stars.

Alan Jones, Australia's 1980 Formula 1 world champion and these days principal of Australia's A1 team, is pushing the A1-for-the-Gold-Coast barrow very hard, emphasising its global footprint compared with the more "parochial" American IndyCar.

Jones claims A1 would come at half the cost of the Indy show, which all-up is draining the Queensland government coffers of about $11.7m a year these days. A1 would be happy about an October date -- surely a big factor (and V8 Supercars Australia is already assured next year's dates are October 22-25).

Getting on to the streets of Surfers' Paradise would instantly give A1 GP a marquee event it desperately needs.

A big problem that could come with any switchover from IndyCars to the Ferrari-powered A1 machines will be in the branding of the Gold Coast carnival. The word Indy is synonymous with it, even if for 12 years the Champ Cars that ran in it were the opposition to the IndyCars that ran in the separate Indy Racing League. A1 does not have the same ring to it, let alone the same prestige -- born from the link to the Indianapolis (or Indy) 500.

A whole new identity would have to be found for an event packaging A1 GP and V8 Supercars as a double act. But, that's what marketing people are for... Perhaps a starting point might be a play on the name Paradise.

A naming rights sponsor was finally announced this week for this year's Indy. It is Nikon, a household name described by the Indy organisers as a world leader in digital imaging, precision optics and photo imaging technology.

"Nikon has a one-year deal with an option for a further two years," said Queensland sports minister Judy Spence.

The Gold Coast Bulletin newspaper's page three report of the sponsorship described it as "a million-dollar lifeline with a loose agreement until 2010".

One question now arising in Queensland is just how many more Gold Coast motor races minister Spence is going to get to see, whatever they are called. Brisbane's Courier-Mail newspaper highlighted on Wednesday, also on page three, that Spence had "a $50,000 taxpayer-funded junket to the US in May" to see, among other things, the Indy 500, but that she came home without the firm deal she was supposed to seal for the long-term future of the Gold Coast event.

"She failed to come back with the one thing she had promised to go there to do -- obtain a signature on a contract to secure the Gold Coast Indy race for the next six years," wrote Courier-Mail state political correspondent, Steve Wardill.

"Letters obtained by The Courier-Mail reveal Ms Spence wrote to Premier Anna Blight in April requesting permission to travel to the US to sign an Indy contract.

"Ms Spence was granted approval but returned from the 10-day trip without the promised contract which has still not been signed, leaving the Indy event in limbo... Sources within the racing industry believe such a deal in May was fanciful given the newly-merged Indy Racing League appears lukewarm on the event and is demanding a change of race date."

Wardill wrote that Spence met IRL chief Tony George but that her travel report did not state that the deal could not be signed, but rather than the trip was "successful".

Queensland opposition leader Lawrence Springborg has raised the point that the state's former premier, Peter Beattie, is in Los Angeles being handsomely paid as a trade commissioner to build the kind of relationships that ought to have been able to help in such situations.

Yes, indeed. Yet another example of politicians who don't -- or can't -- get to grips with realities when it comes to motorsport (and not just motorsport).

Speculation persists that reigning world champion Kimi Raikkonen will have retired by then -- perhaps even by the end of this year if he beats Lewis Hamilton to another title.
Although second in the championship currently, Raikkonen has not won a grand prix since April.

Ferrari is said to want not just quick drivers but a team leader -- a genuine replacement for Michael Schumacher.

Ross Brawn, who was Schumacher's technical lieutenant throughout the golden days and who is now running Honda's under-performing F1 team, has told The Guardian newspaper in London: "Of all the drivers right now, Alonso is the only one that I see as totally complete, as Michael was."

The Guardian commented: "The feeling at Honda is that a driver of Alonso's calibre could be worth as much as 0.6 seconds a lap, and the Spaniard's test and development talents are just what Honda need in 2009 when a raft of new aerodynamic rules, slick tyres and KERS energy regeneration are being introduced."

For those of us who remember so vividly Honda's standards that, along with McLaren chassis, made Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost so formidable in the late 1980s and early '90s, how good would it be to see Alonso help make it happen again! But it's not likely to happen in just one year.

Heikki Kovalainen's victory in last Sunday's Hungarian GP was only the second time that car 23 has won an F1 race. The previous time was Jim Clark in Belgium in 1964...

The McLarens are numbers 22 and 23 because of the team's disqualification from the constructors' world championship last year, because F1 skips the number 13, and because when this season began there were 11 teams, since reduced to 10 by Super Aguri's collapse).

And another pearler from our man Cosgrove ...

The engine failure in Felipe Massa's Ferrari just three laps from victory in Budapest was far from the unluckiest late-race exit in F1 history. Cosgrove reminds us that Nigel Mansell holds the record for leading the most laps but losing the race.

At the 1991 Canadian GP, driving a Williams-Renault, Mansell led 68 laps (98.551%) of the 69 laps, but the race was won by Nelson Piquet (Senior) in a Benetton-Ford. On the scale of laps led without winning, Massa rated only 31st in F1 history at 85.714%.

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