MOTORSPORT: Adelaide great, but one missing link

Sensational start, but where are Adelaide's race drivers?
What a wonderful start to the V8 Supercar Championship the weekend's Clipsal 500 was.

More on that in a moment, but on the Formula 1 scene we understand there are major concerns about the introduction of KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems) at this week's Australian Grand Prix, with CAMS marshals to be issued with insulated gloves to withstand 1000 volts if they need to handle damaged cars.

And the move to decide the world champion by the most race wins rather than the most points was overturned within three days -- it's been postponed at least a year.

Now back to the magnificent start to the V8 Supercar Championship. We were critical of the build-up (or lack of it) to the season, although we knew things would come right once the weekend arrived and indeed they did -- almost beyond any expectations.

Great racing, a great event, a very healthy crowd, especially in the context of the economic climate, and a brilliant telecast -- by V8 Supercar Television on the Seven Network.

Credit where credit's due -- and Adelaide deserves it by the truckload for what it turned on at the weekend.

Whether it was good planning or good luck, running the Clipsal 500 on a weekend without any AFL games was a huge plus.

So many positives ... the stamp that champion Jamie Whincup put on the start of his title defence, Will Davison's brilliant debut with the Holden Racing Team, the evenness of Triple 8/Team Vodafone and HRT, the victorious debut of Ford's FG Falcon (even if the Ford badges were missing from the Triple 8 cars Whincup thanked the Ford fans), the form of Jason Richards and Cameron McConville in the Brad Jones Racing Commodores, Lee Holdsworth in his Garry Rogers Motorsport Commodore and Steve Johnson in his Dick Johnson/Jim Beam Racing Falcon and the promise the new Kelly Brothers outfit showed.

Lots of other positives too, although we're not going to regurgitate here what the excellent telecast and comprehensive print media coverage have already done.

There was some angst over the qualifying format and that's sure to rumble on, perhaps even cause a change for the next round.

We see pluses and minuses in the new system, but we suspect the weight of opinion that the minuses outweigh the pluses may see change implemented quite rapidly.

The only negatives we observed through the course of the weekend were some of the outlandish drivel in the "streets of gold" publicity in some newspapers around the country and the rounded crowd figure we heard -- 280,000 for the four-day carnival.

Certainly the crowd was very good (and held up much better than we expect will be the case at this weekend's Grand Prix in Melbourne), but -- having seen an instant crowd counter on our TV screen during what we recall was the first Test of the cricket series just concluded in South Africa) we continue to be staggered that motor racing, the most technological of sports, cannot provide accurate attendances when major ball sports do.

Perhaps that's a matter for another day.

But the one immediate lingering concern we have about Adelaide, the Australian capital city most devoted to motorsport, is how a quarter of a century of, firstly, a Formula 1 grand prix and, for the past 11 years, the V8 Supercar round that in many ways has become the benchmark of the championship has not produced a top-shelf racing driver -- indeed a production line of them -- in that time.

Russell Ingall's career was in train by the time F1 began in Adelaide in 1985 and he won the Driver to Europe series, forerunner of the Australian Formula Ford Championship, in 1990.

There has been Mark Poole and now Tim Slade (although we note he was born in NSW and lives in Melbourne). Bryce Washington is another, but not yet in the big league nationally.

Perhaps turning up an ace driver is the next challenge for motorsport in South Australia to tackle.

It's achieved pretty much everything else possible in the sport.

V8 Supercar Championship top 10 drivers after first of 14 events -- Jamie Whincup 300 points, Will Davison 267, Lee Holdsworth 249, Steven Johnson 222, Jason Richards 207, Craig Lowndes 168, Shane Van Gisbergen 168, Rick Kelly 156, Russell Ingall 150, Jason Bright 141, Todd Kelly 96.

V8 Supercar top 10 teams after first event -- Triple Eight Race Engineering 468 points, Holden Racing Team 396, Brad Jones Racing 333, Garry Rogers Motorsport 306, Dick Johnson Racing 300, Stone Brothers Racing 258, Jack Daniel's Racing 252, Paul Cruickshank Racing 189, Ford Performance Racing 174, Walkinshaw Racing 174.

Second year setback for NZ street race
Now while Adelaide came up smelling roses, here's something from New Zealand about the next round, the Hamilton street race on April 17-19, that is quite contrary to the "streets of gold" nonsense in the weekend press.

The introductory paragraph in the Waikato Times newspaper reads: "Tough times have prompted companies to bail out of $650,000 worth of hospitality packages for next month's Hamilton 400 V8 Supercar races." (more here)

WA leans towards Wanneroo upgrade
In Western Australia two options have been put up for upgrading Wanneroo/Barbagallo Raceway, which the state's Sport and Recreation Minister Terry Waldron says offer a better strategic direction for motorsport in WA than a street circuit -- which was the preference of V8 Supercars Australia.
One option would involve the construction of 1-1.2km of new track, the other 2km of extra track -- with new pits, garages and other amenities.

A master plan for redevelopment is due to be completed by the end of the year.

WA Sporting Car Club chairman Rick Gill told Perth's Sunday Times newspaper the two proposals would mean WA would be on par with other international-standard circuits in Australia such as Phillip Island and Eastern Creek.

Top 10 finish for Ambrose in NASCAR's big league
Dual Australian V8 Supercar champion Marcos Ambrose scored his best oval-track finish in his NASCAR's Sprint Cup today -- 10th -- on the "bullring" at Bristol, one of the toughest tracks on the American stock car tour.

Ambrose had qualified a strong 13th and here is what sportingnews.com said about his race:

"With an astute call to stay on the track during the first round of pit stops under caution, Ambrose's crew chief Frank Kerr leap-frogged the Australian driver to third in the running order.

"If there was a surprise in Sunday's race, it's that Ambrose, who made his reputation as a road-course racer, managed to hold on to a 10th-place finish despite dropping a cylinder in the No. 47 JTG-Daugherty Racing Toyota late in the race.

"His previous best Cup finish on an oval track was 17th at Daytona earlier this year."

Ambrose even headed the field at Bristol at one point -- the first time he has led a lap in Sprint Cup competition, earning him five bonus points. He has jumped four places on the points table to 24th.

Third at the Watkins Glen road course in New York last year remains Ambrose's best Sprint Cup finish from 17 career starts.

"I'm really keen to try to break that mentality thing of a road-racing guy," Ambrose said. "I know I'm good on road courses, but I want to be good at every single track we go to, and today was a big step to really validate why I'm here on a full-time Cup ride.

"We're going to celebrate tonight because it feels like a win to us considering the adversity that we had today."

Kyle Busch won at Bristol ahead of Denny Hamlin and Jimmie Johnson.  Next weekend's round is another half-mile (800-metre) oval at Martinsville.

NASCAR Sprint Cup Driver standings after 5 of 36 rounds -- Jeff Gordon  (Chevrolet) 794 points, Kurt Busch (Dodge) 718, Clint Bowyer (Chevrolet) 715, Kyle Busch (Toyota) 709, Carl Edwards (Ford) 665, Kasey Kahne (Dodge) 639, Tony Stewart (Toyota) 633, Denny Hamlin (Toyota) 631, Jimmie Johnson (Chevrolet) 627, Matt Kenseth (Ford) 610. Marcos Ambrose (Toyota) is 24th on 500 points.

Brabham Jr pays tribute to Brabham Sr
Still no sign of any special tribute at this week's Australian Grand Prix to mark the 50th anniversary of the first of Sir Jack Brabham's three F1 world titles, although we notice it is acknowledged in the GP official program.

David Brabham drove the Cooper-Climax T51 his father pushed -- literally -- to the 1959 title at Sebring in Florida over the weekend, as we foreshadowed here a few days ago.

The youngest son of Sir Jack re-enacted that historic moment and did a few parade laps before driving the new Acura LMP1 sports car in the opening round of the American Le Mans Series.

"It was pretty cool to drive one of my father's cars for the first time -- it really meant a lot," David said. "It was a great experience to re-enact that memorable finish and repeat a bit of motor racing history that happened 50 years ago.

"Looking back, I dread to think what it was like for my father to push the car all that way (800 metres), let alone the safety implications, but it was a wonderful opportunity to remember my father's achievements all those years ago."

Audi's new R15 -- driven by Allan McNish, Tom Kristensen and Dindo Capello -- won the Sebring 12-hour. A transmission failure after 302 laps -- 10 hours and 10 minutes into the race -- put Brabham and co-drivers Scott Sharp and Dario Franchitti out, although they were classified fifth of the LMP1 prototypes.

"We didn't make it to the finish but I think it has been a success in a way because it was such a scramble to get the cars reliable and we had a pretty good solid run through the race," Brabham said.

"We had a problem there right at the end but it is a new program (Honda brand Acura previously campaigned in the LMP2 category) and we are learning as we go along.

"There is a lot for us to learn with the new car in regards to the set-up, reliability, its tyres -- but we are going to come away from here knowing a whole lot more about our car. We now have a much clearer idea on what we need to do in regards to the set-up."

Frenchman Sebastien Bourdais, a four-time Champ Car champion in the US, drove at Sebring for Peugeot and is now bound for Melbourne to drive for Scuderia Toro Rosso at the GP.

Bourdais is also booked to drive at the Le Mans 24-hour classic mid-year for Peugeot.

Brabham will join the Peugeot squad for Le Mans, which his elder brother Geoff won outright -- in a Peugeot -- in 1993.

Box SEATs in World Touring Car Championship
SEAT is dominating the World Touring Car Championship after two rounds. Autosport is also covering that extensively.

And there is more at the championship's official site here.

KERS issue set to erupt
KERS promises to the story of the week leading into the start of the F1 World Championship at the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne.

The system, which involves the recycling of energy on F1 cars and is expected to provide a boost of 80 horsepower for 6-7 seconds a lap, is not compulsory in its introductory year.

We expect BMW-Sauber, Ferrari, McLaren and Renault to use KERS, but Brawn GP, Toyota, Red Bull Racing, Williams, Toro Rossi, Williams and Force India either won't or are unlikely to risk it in the early races of the season.

We have heard from an authoritative source that there are still major safety concerns with KERS, including for officials who may have touch damaged cars or injured drivers.

We will revisit the subject later in the week as the picture, hopefully, becomes clearer.

Suddenly it's not winner take title
The Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) did a U-turn on Friday, just three days after announcing the introduction of Bernie Ecclestone's proposal that the F1 drivers' world champion be decided by the most wins in a season rather than the most points.

The Formula One Teams Association (FOTA) had strongly objected to the idea, while world champions Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso and retired Michael Schumacher were also critical of it.

The FIA is looking stupid in the matter, but FIA president Max Mosley is apportioning blame to his old mate Bernie Ecclestone, who he said had indicated the teams were happy to have system.

Ecclestone is now painting the U-turn as a one-year postponement, but it gives FOTA the chance to renew its push for a system that simply allocates more points -- 12 instead of 10 -- for a win. 

We see it all as part of the arm-wrestling between FOTA and Mosley/Ecclestone that may come to dominate the sport's politics this year.

The Indy Racing League and Rally Australia
Finally today an Indy Racing League update. Even though the series won't come to Australia any longer, there are two Aussies -- Ryan Briscoe and Will Power -- driving for the mighty Penske Racing as the IRL season draws near, although no mention of that here.

And contrasting points of view on the revival of Rally Australia in northern NSW here.