MOTORSPORT: Awaiting word on Rally Oz

After last year's closest finish in World Rally Championship history, when Ford's Marcus Gronholm was victorious over Citroen's Sebastien Loeb by 0.3 seconds, the final day of Rally NZ this year began with less than 15 seconds covering the top four drivers.

Frenchman Loeb, the sport's superstar, went from fourth early on the short final leg in his Citroen C4 to his 44th WRC round victory, 17.5 seconds ahead of his Spanish teammate Dani Sordo.

It was a disastrous final day for Ford, which was headed for a 1-2 finish but ended up with only third -- by Finn Mikko Hirvonven, almost 24 seconds behind Sordo, while his countryman and teammate Jari-Matti Latvala crashed, as did Belgian Francois Duval in another Ford Focus.

Subaru's Norwegian former world champion Petter Solberg salvaged fourth place in his Subaru Impreza hatchback but Australia's Chris Atkinson's hopes were over when he crashed on the final day and even though he resumed for testing purposes still didn't make it to the finish.

World motorsport's governing body, the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), now intends Rally Australia and Rally NZ to be our region's WRC round in alternate years.

An announcement is expected soon, perhaps this week, on plans for Rally Oz -- held for almost two decades until 2006 in Western Australia -- to be staged in northern NSW and perhaps southern Queensland.

We await this announcement with great interest, having previously expressed our skepticism that Rally Oz will be revived. Here is our last comment on the subject two weeks ago, with links there to earlier commentary going back more than a year.

Atkinson remains fourth in this year's drivers' championship on 40 points -- 46 behind the great Loeb.

The Aussie missed four stages and dropped 20 minutes after his crash on the opening day, ruling out any prospect of a podium finish, but resumed on day two under the SuperRally format

He was second fastest on the opening stage of the final leg but was forced into a final retirement after nudging a bank on the inside of a corner, damaging the radiator and being unable to restart the Subaru's engine.

"This weekend has been tough, especially after our third position on the last gravel rally in Finland," Atkinson said. "It's disappointing that we had to retire again.

"We were testing some suspension components, and under braking the car slid straight on and we nosed into a bank and damaged the radiator, so that was it.

"Now we have a little gap to look at what we can do ahead of the Rally of Spain (on October 2-5)."

Teammate Solberg said: "I never thought I could get fourth after being 10th on the first day.

"While I'm happy about the result, the thing is we are still not up there -- we want to win, not get fourth. We're not here for fun. We have to improve the speed."

Solberg's older brother, Henning, was one of the stars of the event in his Ford, winning seven stages after dropping to 45th on the first day because of a power steering failure.

Loeb spun on the opening stage of the last day, fell to fourth place and had conceded to himself that he could not win.

By mid-Sunday it looked like Hirvonen and Latvala had the top two places secured, but on the second last stage the Ford attack faltered, with Latvala retiring and Hirvonen losing 50 seconds.

Ford's post-event statement said: "The 29.72km Whaanga Coast is one of the great challenges in the FIA World Rally Championship, winding through lush, green hills with stunning views of the Tasman Sea. It lived up to its reputation as the rally's keynote stage as firstly Latvala swiped a bank and retired with a damaged radiator and then Hirvonen punctured a tyre and later spun his Focus RS WRC, losing a minute and sliding to third."

Ford team boss Malcolm Wilson said: "This is one of the most disappointing days that we've ever had.  After being in commanding first and second places going into the last countryside stage, we certainly didn't expect to find ourselves with just third. I really feel for Mikko because he drove a faultless rally and showed he can take the fight to Loeb. He and Jari-Matti showed tremendous pace this weekend and we'll come back fighting."

While bitterly disappointed, the Finnish drivers were gracious in the circumstances, but a fifth world title is now almost in Loeb's grasp.

The maximum 10 points from NZ has moved him eight points clear of Hirrvonen at the top of the table with four events remaining.

Sordo's eight points helped push Citroen's lead over Ford in the manufacturers' series out to 20 points.

After three rounds in five weekends, the WRC pauses for breath in September before the Spanish round -- the first of two asphalt events on successive weekends.

World Rally Championship driver standings after 11 rounds -- Sebastien Loeb 86 points, Mikko Hirvonen 78, Dani Sordo 51, Chris Atkinson 40, Jari-Matti Latvala 34, Petter Solberg 32, Henning Solberg 22, Gigi Galli 17, Matthew Wilson 12, Francois Duval 11.

WRC manufacturer standings -- Citroen Total 141 points, BP Ford Abu Dhabi 121, Subaru 74, Stobart VK M-Sport Ford 51, Munchi's Ford 22, Suzuki 20.

Huge turnout in memory of Colin McRae
We mentioned here in our previous report that Rally NZ was coinciding with the McRae Gathering in Britain, honoring the late Colin McRae who gave Subaru its first WRC round victory in NZ 15 years ago, became a legend of the sport but was killed last year in a helicopter crash.

IndyCar battle goes to wire -- Wilson ninth winner
The IndyCar title fight is going down to the final round next weekend at the Chicagoland Speedway (remember, the Gold Coast Indy at the end of October is non-championship this year).

Leader Scott Dixon, the Brisbane-born New Zealander, was only fifth in last weekend's round on the Detroit road course after pitting early while in the lead and never fully recovering.

Ganassi driver Dixon now needs to finish eighth or better next weekend to be sure of repeating the series success he had as a rookie in 2003.

Justin Wilson won in Detroit for Newman-Haas-Lanigan. The lanky Englishman is the ninth different winner in the series this year, and his triumph followed his four wins in Champ Car.

Brazilian Helio Castroneves finished second for the eighth time this season to close to within 30 points of Dixon.

However, Penske driver Castronves -- who had started on the front row alongside pole man Dixon -- could have ended up narrowing the gap by another 10 points by winning but was forced by officials to surrender the lead for blocking Wilson.

Australian Will Power was eighth for KV Racing, his fourth top 10 finish of the season, after recovering from front wing damage.

Fellow Aussie Ryan Briscoe was ninth for Penske after a similar pit strategy to Dixon, but the Sydneysider is now assured of fifth in the championship.

The scheduled 90-lap race ended after 87 laps when the race hit the two-hour time limit.

Brazilian Tony Kanaan, last year's winner at Detroit, finished third and Power's Spanish teammate, Oriol Servia, was fourth.

An angry Castroneves said of his penalty: "Consistency is the only thing I ask for. I've been in this series since 2002, and we never had a situation like this. We always have a warning, and then if you do it again, then you're going to be penalized. All of the sudden, I didn't get any warning. It was, 'Move over, or you're going to be black flagged.' It was uncalled for. I know that (IRL competition chief) Brian Barnhart is trying to put pressure on and make everyone disciplined, but two races to go for the championship ... I don't think it's the right thing to do."

Barnhart countered: "We talk about blocking every week in the drivers' meeting and tell them what they can and can't do and what the code of conduct is on the racetrack. Castroneves clearly moved his car to impede the progress of a following car (Wilson) and moved his car in response to the actions and the line taken by a following car. We want to race clean and fair and we need to call them like we see them."

Asked whether the championship situation was considered, Barnhart said: "You can't officiate based on points or who's involved or what position they hold. You have to do it out of fairness and competition."

So on to Chicago and the end of what has been a pretty good first season of the amalgamated IRL and Champ Car.

IndyCar championship standings after 16 of 17 rounds -- Scott Dixon 606 points, Helio Castroneves 576, Tony Kanaan 481, Dan Wheldon 464, Ryan Briscoe 412, Danica Patrick 359, Oriol Servia 345, Marco Andretti 339, Ryan Hunter-Reay 338, Hideki Mutoh 334. Will Power is 14th on 301 points.

The Spanish dual world champion will either have to stay at Renault or perhaps spend a season at Honda until a Ferrari vacancy arises, not that Honda would want a driver of his class on just a one-year deal.

BMW-Sauber has retained Robert Kubica for next year, but could not get him to agree to the three years it wanted -- perhaps a clue that Kubica is in Ferrari's sights.

The Polish youngster's teammate, Nick Heidfeld, has again been told to lift his game, especially in qualifying, if he wants to be retained next season.

Surely BMW would only discard Heidfeld if it could snare Alonso, but again the Spaniard may only be available for a year until the Ferrari door opens.

Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo has denied that Raikkonen is in a crisis, not having won a grand prix in the past eight rounds of the world championship -- and is 13 points behind McLaren's leader Lewis Hamilton, and six behind Massa.

Massa has won four times this season to Raikkonen's twice, and Raikkonen has taken just one point from four races on street circuits this season.

But Spa-Francorchamps, venue of this weekend's Belgian GP, is a special track for Raikkonen -- he has won the past three GPs there.

Meanwhile, Montezemolo has criticised F1's new circuits -- presumably pointing the finger at Valencia and perhaps the upcoming Singapore -- which he says "are doing harm to F1".

"You can't overtake and nine times out of 10 whoever takes pole position wins," he said.
Montezemolo will get plenty of support on that view.
 
Top five or bust for Red Bull Racing boss?

There are rumblings at Australian F1 driver Mark Webber's Red Bull Racing, with suggestions that team boss Christian Horner is on borrowed time unless it finishes in the top five teams in the constructors' championship (it's now sixth, after being fourth earlier in the season).

If there is to be a change of chief at Red Bull, the logical man, to our mind, is Gerhard Berger, now heading the energy drink company's second team, Scuderia Toro Rosso (formerly Minardi) -- which is almost certain to be sold within a year.

Berger, a 10-time GP winner who has Toro Rosso running well, may be keen to keep working with Sebastien Vettel, the young German driver who is being switched across to Red Bull next season, if not earlier.

Ecclestone sings yet another song on Mosley
F1 ringmaster Bernie Ecclestone has changed his tune again on FIA president Max Mosley, now saying that he only called for Mosley to quit because of pressures on him amid the sex scandal of recent months and that there's now no reason for Mosley to go.

Mosley not only won a vote of confidence from the FIA but has since been awarded damages and costs by Britain's High Court in his invasion-of-privacy action against the News of the World.

Ecclestone's remarks in a BBC interview at the weekend are being interpreted as him perhaps being open to Mosley seeking another four-year term of office -- something he warned against at the height of the sex row.

F1's race fees now more than TV income
Something far more precious to Ecclestone than his 40-year friendship with Mosley is F1's coffers.

A new edition of the Formula Money report is out in Europe, and it reportedly shows that race fees now amount to more than TV revenues for the F1 empire. Here is an article on it from the website of British F1 telecaster ITV.

Runner-up in previous safaris, Riley's Mitsubishi Pajero had dents in every panel after he led virtually all 4300km, almost half of it in competition, to win by more than 18 minutes.

Another Safari veteran, Des Harrington, took second place in a Nissan Patrol.

Bruce Garland was third in his prototype Isuzu D-MAX ahead of Swedish teammate Pelle Wallentheim in an Isuzu VehiCross, with NSW cotton farmer Peter Glennie fifth in his Toyota Landcruiser.

Garland said the safari had been "great practice" for the next "Dakar" -- in South America next January.

Before that he will tackle the UAE Desert Challenge in late October.

"We know the car is strong and reliable and really good on fuel," Garland said. "We know it's quick because we've been matching times with Steve and Des and they have six-litre Chevy petrol engines under their bonnets compared with our four-cylinder diesel.

"It shows we will be very close to the mark with the Dakar cars, because they have restrictors."

Brabham had pole position for the American Le Mans Series round in Detroit and, with co-driver Scott Sharp, came within four seconds of victory.

The podium was a clean sweep for Honda's Acura brand after an Audi was excluded from third place.

The winning Acura was driven by two youngsters -- Frenchman Franck Montagny, once a Toyota junior development driver like Aussie Ryan Briscoe, and Brit James Rossiter, who only recently moved to the US.

They gave Andretti Green Racing its first ALMS victory.

Brazilian Gil de Ferran and Frenchman Simon Pagenaud, who was Will Power's Team Australia teammate in Champ Car last year, wound up third.

Brabham and Sharp are now only four points from Penske Racing's Timo Bernhard and Romain Dumas in the LMP2 category championship, while Acura now heads Porsche in the manufacturers' championship and will step up to LMP1 next year (see announcement here).
Brabham and Sharp have had two wins and a second place finish for the Patron Highcroft team in the past three races, with two more to go -- the next of them the 1600km or 10-hour Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta in October.

Ryan Briscoe returned to the ALMS series at the weekend, partnering American Patrick Long in a Penske Porsche Spyder -- as well as driving the IndyCar round -- and was on course for a podium finish but pitted with five minutes to go for tyres.

That was Penske team tactics, as it gave Bernhard and Dumas fourth, and two extra points in the championship, while Briscoe and Long were classified fifth.

Jimmie Johnson, Cup champion the past two years, won the 500-miler in a Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet from Greg Biffle in Roush Racing Ford and Denny Hamlin in a Joe Gibbs Toyota, ahead of Kevin Harvick (Chevrolet), Matt Kenseth (Ford), Carl Edwards (Ford) and Kyle Busch (Toyota).

Next weekend's race is at Richmond, Virginia, where The Chase -- for which the 12 top drivers will be equalized on 5000 points and then battle for the title over the final 10 rounds -- will be finalised.

Ambrose will concentrate on the Nationwide Series round at Richmond, with his next Cup outing at Dover, Delaware, on September 21.

Kyle Busch won the Nationwide round at Fontana from Carl Edwards and Brian Vickers.

Eight races remain in that series.

NASCAR Sprint Cup standings after 25 of 36 rounds -- Kyle Busch 3755 points, Carl Edwards 3547, Jimmie Johnson 3386, Dale Earnhardt Junior 3323, Jeff Burton 3234, Greg Biffle 3159, Kevin Harvick 3132, Tony Stewart 3110, Matt Kenseth 3081, Jeff Gordon 3074. Ambrose is 49th on 400 points from five races.

NASCAR Nationwide Series standings 27 of 35 rounds -- Clint Bowyer 3913 points, Brad Keselowski 3709, Carl Edwards 3691, David Reutimann 3503, Mike Bliss 3474, David Ragan 3428, Kyle Busch 3344, Mike Wallace 3136, Jason Leffler 3129, Marcos Ambrose 3082.
 

Ricciardo finished third from seventh on the grid in the first race.

"I did badly in qualifying, and started from the fourth row, so I knew it was going to be tough," he said. "I took risks at the start (jumping to third), as it's always more difficult overtaking later on.

"You need to know how to score points, and this third place is important for the championship (which he leads).

Ricciardo finished fifth from fifth on the grid in the second race.

Spaniard Roberto Merhi won the first race from Finn Valtteri Bottas, and the order was reversed in the later race.

Next weekend's Formula Renault racing is at Le Mans in France.

Damon Hill fesses up -- F1's a waste of money
Finally today a little wisdom from 1996 world champion, and Australian GP winner that year, Damon Hill, that F1 is "frivolous" and "a wonderful waste of money". More here

Image: Joel Strickland

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