MOTORSPORT: Adding fuel to fires of change

In the lead-up to this weekend's new street race at Valencia in Spain, Red Bull driver Coulthard has called for a ban on refuelling to make F1 more interesting -- and as a way of making the sport "greener".

Coulthard's call comes during a season that has been well above average in terms of competitiveness, but also coincides with his Australian teammate Mark Webber's recent warning that the disparities between the rich and poorer teams will be emphasised again with the introduction of KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems) and the slashing of aerodynamics.

It also follows several small fires during pitstops in the recent Hungarian Grand Prix.

Coulthard says refuelling detracts from F1 racing by "turning the grand prix into a series of low-fuel sprints between pit stops".

"In the days (pre-1994) when you carried your entire race fuel load on board the car, there was a much bigger role for the driver in managing the tyres and brakes," he said. "These days, in dry conditions, you very rarely see anyone win from further back than the second row of the grid, because race pace largely mirrors qualifying pace -- which is not surprising when the conditions are so similar.

"So if we need to spice up the racing, in my view one of the best ways of doing that would be to ban refuelling. It could also chime in nicely with the desire for F1 to pursue a 'green' agenda, in that the FIA could give every team a fixed and publicly known amount of fuel for the race distance and they would have a clear incentive to be as fuel-efficient as possible."

It's odd that, for what is meant to be motorsport's premier series, F1's prominent players always have to keep tossing up ideas not just to improve it but to try to get it right, because despite its status it's never been right -- and rarely even anywhere near it.

Coulthard's suggestion at least seems a pretty simple way of making improvement -- certainly on the environmental front.

Heading down a new street this weekend
The new Valencia street circuit is 5.44km -- about 100 metres longer than Australia's grand prix street track at Albert Park in Melbourne.

Honda team boss Ross Brawn is expecting windy conditions, reminding us that the city has hosted America's Cup yachting -- and was chosen partly because of its breezes.

McLaren is going for its fourth straight win this season.

Although it was Heikki Kovalainen who triumphed in Hungary two weeks ago rather than Lewis Hamilton, championship leader Hamilton has a terrific record on street circuits -- he's won in Melbourne, Monaco and (in F3) in Macau.

Kovalainen says the track is likely to be very fast by street circuit standards, while Hamilton has made it clear he is now intent on winning the championship rather than winning every race. He has 62 points, five more than Ferrari's reigning world champion Kimi Raikkonen, while Felipe Massa in the other Ferrari is eight points behind the McLaren star.

Ferrari leads the constructors' championship with 111 points to McLaren's 100. Both top teams have won five races this year, and BMW-Sauber the other -- in Canada.

McLaren last won four consecutive GPs in 2005 with Raikkonen and Juan Pablo Montoya.

Although Kovalainen had been seen as under-performing before his Hungarian victory, he had only started 27 GPs before his first win -- less than double world champion Fernando Alonso, who was a winner after 30 starts, and Raikkonen (36).

Triple world champion Niki Lauda reckons Massa is a stronger challenger to Hamilton than Raikkonen, who is continually reported to be contemplating retirement.

"Up until now the battle has been between Massa and Hamilton because Raikkonen's performance has been going up and down all the time," Lauda said.

Massa had done a "perfect job" in Hungary until his engine failed three laps from the finish.

Meanwhile, Hamilton had his luggage stolen earlier this week as he checked out of a Spanish hotel with his girlfriend, singer Nicole Scherzinger of the Pussycat Dolls.

The thieves ran off with a rucksack and leather bag which they snatched from the open boot of his Mercedes-Benz as the chauffeur cleaned a mirror.

"They were opportunists and looked like drug addicts," an onlooker said.
 

McLaren's recent edge over the Italian team is seen as partly attributable to its simulator.

Ferrari used Fiat's Centro Ricerche simulation facility to prepare for the new layout at Valencia.

Moog is involved in the aerospace and defense industries, making aircraft, spacecraft, military weapon and missile controls.

It seems a wheel bearing triggered the fire, which the two drivers in the transporter could not extinguish, leaving billionaire Roger Penske with a damage bill of millions of dollars.

Penske already has one spare car at the Infineon Raceway road course in Sonoma from a recent test, but the team is now rushing two more across the US, but they are in oval-track configuration.

Penske Performance president Tim Cindric told Speed Channel that pit equipment, uniforms, a shock dyno, a fabrication shop, and "a lot of gearbox stuff" had been lost in the fire.

Briscoe took pole position at Sonoma in 2005, before he was with Penske, but he has been classified 16th and 19th in his two races there.

"The track is very physically and mentally demanding in that the steering gets really heavy around the circuit, the corners are very taxing and there are a lot of ups-and-downs with blind turns," Briscoe said. "Even though it's one of the most challenging tracks we go to, I can't wait to get back there because it really is a fun course to drive."

Brisbane-born New Zealander Scott Dixon goes into this weekend 78 points ahead of Castroneves and could clinch the title. Dixon won the Indy Racing League in 2003 and his six wins this season for Chip Ganassi include the Indianapolis 500.

After the IndyCar season ends, but before the non-championship Gold Coast race, Dixon is to drive an Acura prototype in the 1600km Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta with 2003 Indy 500 winner, two-time CART champion and former Honda F1 team boss, Brazilian Gil de Ferran, and Frenchman Simon Pagenaud, who was Will Power's Team Australia teammate in Champ Cars last year.

De Ferran's team is only three months old and its general manager is expatriate Australian John Anderson.

Dixon is no newcomer to sportscars, having won the 2006 Rolex 24-hour race at Daytona driving for Ganassi.
 
Heavy penalties in NASCAR engine case
An update on the NASCAR engine scandal we touched on at the end of our previous report, thanks to Autoweek in the US.

Officials have came down hard on Joe Gibbs Racing, which tried to alter dynomometer test results after last weekend's Nationwide Series race in Michigan.

Inspectors attempting to figure out how much horsepower JGR's Toyota engines were making discovered that the team had installed spacers behind the accelerators of its cars, preventing the pedals from going to the floor and opening the throttle all the way -- and resulting in reduced horsepower measurements.

Crew chiefs Jason Ratcliffe and Dave Rogers have been suspended indefinitely and fined US$50,000 each, while team owner Gibbs has promised extra penalties on the pair.

Drivers Joey Logano and Tony Stewart were docked 150 points each and Gibbs lost 150 owner points for each of the two entries.

Five members of the crew have been suspended indefinitely and both entries are on probation for the rest of the year.

Penske-Ganassi stock car merger in wind?
We made mention some time back of how top American open-wheeler team owners Roger Penske and Chip Ganassi had not been able to achieve consistent success in NASCAR, surely the major race series in North America, and this week we came across a fascinating read that dealt with precisely that subject.

It is hard to comprehend how Penske, in particular, has not brought the same commitment to stock car racing that he has to IndyCars and even sportscar racing.

Particularly interesting in the Sports Illustrated article we came across here is the suggestion that Penske should buy Ganassi's NASCAR operation -- both of them running Dodges -- as a way to field a four-car team to challenge the sport's four big teams.

The author alludes to a potential oil company sponsorship clash between long-time Penske supporter Mobil and rival Chevron, which backs the Ganassi car driven by Juan Pablo Montoya through its Texaco Havoline brand.

However, since the article was penned it has been announced that the Havoline sponsorship of that car will cease at the end of this season, making the amalgamation idea even more sensible.

Incidentally, William Chipps, senior editor of IEG Sponsorship Report in Chicago, estimates sponsorship would range from $15 million to $20 million a year for a car like Montoya's, which will still have Wrigleys support for half of next year.

However, there is talk that Ganassi may also lose the Target sponsorship on the NASCAR he fields for Reed Sorenson, who is 30th in the Sprint Cup -- nine places behind Montoya.

But there is no suggestion, at least yet, that Ganassi will lose the naming rights sponsorship on his IndyCars driven by Scott Dixon and Dan Wheldon from Target.

A1 going to greater lengths for equality
The A1 Grand Prix series organisers have come up with a radical step to genuinely equalize the field in a category that already has cars that are supposed to be identical -- and for the season starting next month powered by Ferrari engines.

Now the telemetry from the fastest car in practice and qualifying will have to be made available to all other competitors. Read about it here

Meanwhile, we note reports this week that Andretti Green Racing may take over the running of the US team in the series.

A1 GP has lost a lot of money and generally has not gained a lot of traction, but the entry of professional outfits such as AGR can only improve its chances of doing so.

The Rat's tell-all tale is on the way
A book is close to publication on the career of New Zealander Paul Radisich.

The highlights of the Kiwi's 30 years of racing have been twice winning the World Touring Car Cup title at Monza and competing against the likes of Nigel Mansell, Peter Brock and Damon Hill.

The Rat: The Paul Radisich Story, written by Sandy Myhre, is to be launched at the Speedshow in Auckland on September 19.

We gather Radisich talks candidly in the book about motor racing politics, V8 Supercars and of his sudden split with Team Kiwi Racing last year.

So it was no surprise when New Zealand's Waikato Times carried a report on Wednesday that "both the regional council and the Hamilton City Council were caught by surprise when they were asked to pay $120,000 to help subsidise the free bus service (at April's Hamilton street race) which many councillors thought was being paid for in total by the promoter".

And the news got worse for Environment Waikato, which now finds "may again have to dig into its pockets to help fund the 'free' buses during next year's event in Hamilton".

Several options have been presented for how the cost ought to be split, but the Waikato Times report said "councillors were unhappy with any of the scenarios" and suggested yet another.

"Councillors Pat Gregory and Simon Friar said the V8 Supercar event promoter should pick up the whole cost," the paper reported.

This all has a rather familiar ring to it.

Duval replaces Galli for Rally NZ
Belgium's Francois Duval, third in last weekend's Rally of Germany in what was a one-off return on his favoured tarmac, will replace injured Italian Gigi Galli in next week's Rally New Zealand.

Galli, eighth in the world rally championship, broke his left leg in a dramatic crash last Friday when his Stobart Ford Focus slammed into a tree stump.

Duval, 27, won the second last Rally Australia in WA in 2005, but has been on the WRC podium 12 times.

Long week in the outback on safari
The Safari starting in Kalgoorlie this weekend will involve 2700km of competition over seven days, although the total distance for those who make the finish will be 4400km.

Now called the Australasian Safari, this year it has three sections -- auto, motorcycle and quads.

Nine-time winner John Hederics is favourite again in the auto division after dominating last year's event. Hederics will drive a Holden Colorado that is his 2007-winning Rodeo rebuilt.

Hot on his heels are expected to be last year's second and fourth place getters, Reg Owen (Nissan Patrol) and Geoff Olholm (Mitsubishi Pajero), while veterans Peter Glennie (Toyota Landcruiser) and Bruce Garland (Isuzu DMAX) will also be in the mix.

Three overseas drivers taking on the WA outback are Dakar regular Paul Green, a Brit in a Desert Warrior, Sweden's Par "Pelle" Wallentheim, a teammate to Garland in a second Isuzu DMAX, and New Zealander Sarah Twaddle.

If you want to keep tabs on the Safari the website is here

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