Geoffrey Harris•18 Jan 2013

NEWS

MOTORSPORT: Aussies excel on Dakar Rally

Australians are in the top 10 of two categories of the world's toughest motor race with the finish “in sight” this weekend

Geoff Olholm, Paul Smith and bikers going gangbusters in South America

What a Dakar Rally this has been for Australia!

Geoff Olholm of Cairns is in the top 10 in the car category of the world’s toughest motor race with two days remaining in the gruelling two-week off-road rally in South America.

Paul Smith of Warrnambool, a Dakar rookie , won a stage of the quad category this week on a Honda TRX7000XX – the first stage win by an Aussie in the event since Andy Caldecott’s motorcycle stage victory in 2006, when the Dakar was still run in Africa (and just days before the South Australian lost his life).

Smith is seventh overall among the quads. He had been confident of a stage win if his crew could overcome overheating problems that had troubled in him the sand dunes, which they finally did mid-week.

“I’d only been able to ride at around 60 per cent,” Smith said.

Rod Faggotter of Longreach and Ben Grabham of Bathurst have consistently been among the top 20 of the motorcycle category this year, on a Yamaha 450 Rally Replica and KTM450RR respectively, after Hobart rookie Matt Fish finished an amazing third on the opening stage on a Husqvarna TE 449 RR.

On one stage this week five Aussies were in the top 25 bike riders.

The event website today shows Olholm and British navigator Jon Aston 10th in the cars in their diesel Toyota Hilux, less than 4½ hours behind French legend Stephane Peterhansel’s X-raid MINI. That gap may sound huge, but after 12 days of the Dakar it’s not – even if it is distorted a little by the cancellation and shortening of some sections this year because of floods.

While Peterhansel is on course to take his 11th Dakar victory (the first four of them on two wheels, the rest on four) in Chile at the weekend, South African Giniel de Villiers, a former winner too, is little more than 50 minutes behind him in a Toyota.

Spaniard Nani Roma is third in another MINI, but still 40 minutes further back than de Villiers despite winning the latest stages.

Other stage winners in recent days have been American Robby Gordon in his Hummer and Orlando Terranova in a BMW – the first Argentinian to have won a Dakar stage.

Terranova is fifth outright but Gordon is about six hours off the lead and behind Aussie Olholm.

Australia’s veteran Dakar competitor Bruce Garland was forced to retire from the event overnight through sheer exhaustion after repeated problems with the Isuzu D-Max he and navigator Harry Suzuki were running.

“Beyond exhaustion. No food or sleep for days. Have officially withdrawn, (but) gutted,” Garland reported.

Garland had believed the Isuzu’s woes had been electrical but has come to suspect he may have had a bad batch of fuel.

Perth rookie Adrian Di Lallo and Victorian navigator Steve Reilly are inside the top 40 in the car category in another Isuzu D-Max previously campaigned by Garland and Suzuki.

Cyril Depres is on course for another two-wheel victory, which will give France a double in the event’s two most prestigious categories.

Loeb still the one in chaotic Monte

Nine-time world rally champion Sebastien Loeb will only drive in four rounds of this year’s world championship – and he’s out in front in the first of them, the Monte Carlo Rally.

Fellow Frenchman Sebastien Ogier is running second in Volkswagen’s debut in the modern WRC, 95 seconds behind Loeb’s Citroen. Ogier, who was Loeb’s Citroen teammate until the end of 2011, isn’t unhappy at being behind his countryman for a change, saying he only needs to beat those competing full-time in the WRC now.

Spaniard Daniel Sordo is third in another Citroen, but Russian Evgeny Novikov is closing on him in a Ford.

After the chaos of last season, when the WRC’s promoter went bust on the eve of the championship and wasn’t replaced until this season, teams were furious at confusion created by timing and tracking issues on the opening day of the Monte.

A Spanish company has replaced the WRC's long-standing timing and tracking provider and there were no split times available on any of the opening day's four stages and results issued in the afternoon were wrong, showing Belgian Thierry Neuville as the leader instead of Loeb – and other errors.

Volkswagen Motorsport boss Jost Capito said it was "completely unacceptable”.

"The Federation Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) expects the manufacturers and the teams to be properly prepared and they are charging a high entry fee. The least you can expect is the proper timing,” Capito said.

"And it's not just the timing - it's security too. The FIA is pushing so much on safety, I don't know how they can run stages where the safety system is not working, where it shows up on the screen that there is an emergency, yet the car is moving. If there is a real emergency, then what will happen?

"This is completely irresponsible."

Citroen team boss Yves Matton said it was "impossible to work like this".

Webber gets Raikkonen’s race engineer

Mark Webber will have a new race engineer for what may be his last shot at the Formula One world title.

Webber’s long-time engineer at Red Bull Racing, Ciaron Pilbeam, has moved to the Lotus-Renault team as chief race engineer. Simon Rennie, who was Kimi Raikkonen’s race engineer in the Finn’s fabulous comeback to F1 last season with Lotus-Renault, has been hired by Red Bull as the replacement working with Webber.

Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali this week has reiterated president Luca Di Montezemolo’s recent statement that rules out Red Bull’s young triple world champion Sebastian Vettel joining Fernando Alonso in the Italian team in the next couple of years.

While Montezemolo has seen Vettel as a potential Ferrari recruit at some stage, he also has queried whether “two roosters” can co-exist “in the same hen house”.

Domenicali said Ferrari wanted to ensure the team was well balanced and that Brazilian Felipe Massa’s return to form in the second half of last season proved that he belonged in “the family”.

Nico Hulkenberg, like Vettel (and Michael Schumacher) a German, is now seen as the most likely teammate for Alonso, ahead of Webber, if Massa is dumped at the end of this year.

Meanwhile, Alonso has rated Lewis Hamilton – now with Mercedes after leaving McLaren – as his main opponent, rather than Vettel.

“Hamilton remains the best driver. Vettel was only that in parts (in 2012), but he deserved to win three titles in a row,” Alonso said.

Mixed feelings on new V8 Supercars

Now that V8 Supercars has its new TV deal, with the Seven network for reportedly $10 million a year less than previously (but some sharing of advertising revenues), the focus in the local motorsport scene is turning to testing of the newcomer AMGs and Nissans.

Erebus Motorsport, which is taking over long-time Ford team Stone Brothers Racing, secretly tested the first of its Mercedes-Benz E63 AMGs this week and declared itself “very happy with the results”.

"We had a shakedown … it was amazing, the sound, the look,” Erebus owner Betty Klimenko said. “The sound of that (M159) engine gave me goose bumps. My dream on wheels did exactly what it was meant to - nothing went wrong, nothing fell out or dripped or spluttered.

“It all went according to plan, which is a big achievement for the boys in Germany (AMG) and here in Queensland (Erebus/Stones)."

Shane Van Gisbergen, the young New Zealand driver who mysteriously quit Stones at the end of last season, has signed to drive a Ford Falcon in NZ’s second season of its V8 SuperTourers.

The seat at Jonathon Webb’s Gold Coast-based Holden V8 Supercar team Tekno Autosports which we mentioned in our first report of the year on January 4 could be filled by Van Gisbergen is still open – and there are no date clashes on the V8 Supercar and V8 SuperTourer calendars.

Van Gisbergen told NZ’s TV3 this week that “all the changes that were happening for this year (at Stones) just wasn’t something to look forward to”.

“I never said retirement (when he quit). I just said I was leaving for a bit. That could be a week, a year … who cares?”

Meanwhile, the Kelly brothers – Todd and Rick – whose team is transforming to Nissan Motorsport, are reportedly concerned that the Nismo VK56DE quad-cam engine they will run in four Nissan Altimas is not producing as much horsepower as the Holdens they have raced for years.

They may seek “parity adjustments” ahead of the opening round of the V8 Supercar Championship in Adelaide on the first weekend of March – which could be the start of a whole new round of politics in the sport.

The compulsory pre-season test day at Sydney Motorsport Park is now just four weeks away – on Saturday, February 16.

Limited Toyota challenge to Audi

Toyota will mount its challenge to Audi’s sports car dominance with just one entry in the full eight-round World Endurance Championship this year.

However, it will field two of its updated TS030 hybrids at the Le Mans 24-Hour in June – and the lead-up race at Belgian’s Spa circuit in May.

Toyota won three races at the end of last season in its comeback to the top level of sports car racing.

A spokesman for the Japanese company’s German-based sports car project said it was “still serious about winning” despite the sole entry for most of this year.

“The target will be to win Le Mans and the world championship,” the spokesman said.

Read the latest news and reviews on your mobile, iPhone or PDA at carsales' mobile site...

MOTORSPORT: Aussies excel on Dakar Rally

Tags