MOTORSPORT: Bathurst 1000 a week later next year

Sydney Motorsport Park misses out on V8 Supercar round
The Bathurst 1000 will be a week later next October, while a flyaway international round of the V8 Supercar Championship has been scheduled just a week after the Gold Coast 600 next season.

And while a pre-season test day will be held at Sydney Motorsport Park, the first time the “new-look” four-make V8 Supercar series – with Nissan Altimas and AMG Mercedes-Benz E63s competing against Holden Commodores and Ford Falcons – will race in Australia’s biggest city won’t be until the end of the season.

That will be at the Sydney 500, perhaps the last as the contract expires the NSW government reportedly not keen on renewing it.
Sydney Motorsport Park, formerly Eastern Creek, does not score a round on the calendar next year after having provided a venue for the series this year when a new Asian round did not eventuate – and still has not appeared on next year’s schedule.

The international rounds next year are the return to Pukekohe in New Zealand in April after the financial disaster of the street races at Hamilton, the new American round in Texas in mid-May and Abu Dhabi in early November.

While the Bathurst classic will be a week later, on October 13, there will still be a two-week gap to the Gold Coast 600, on October 26-27.

That avoids the Queensland event clashing with the final round of America’s IndyCar championship in California and sports car World Endurance Championship round in Japan and may  help recruit a better line-up of international drivers to the Gold Coast.

However, it also will make V8 Supercar teams nervous and extra-cautious of damage on the streets of Surfers’ Paradise with the cars immediately being loaded for the following weekend’s round in Abu Dhabi.

The 2013 calendar was released today at the same time as an announcement in New Zealand about the $6.6 million upgrade of Pukekohe as part of the five-year contract for V8 Supercars to return there.

Now that the calendar is finalised there will be even greater spotlight on the renewal of the category’s TV deals in Australia and NZ.
There are suggestions today that if the Ten Network replaces Seven as the telecaster that the V8 Supercar races at the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne will become part of the championship, as Ten already is the F1 telecaster.

Late charge of the Red Bulls
The first half of the Formula One season was super-competitive, with seven drivers and five makes of car winning races – and the prospect of other victors.

Fernando Alonso led the championship handsomely, despite his Ferrari not being the best car in the field.

Then Mercedes emerged as the benchmark team, but now neither Lewis Hamilton nor Jenson Button are title contenders.

Almost in a flash, Red Bull Racing and Sebastian Vettel have won three races straight.

The Red Bull-Renault RB8 is now the dominant car, with Mark Webber also right on the pace again – although his race in Japan was ruined by Frenchman Romain Grosjean and, after pole position at the weekend, he was outgunned by teammate Vettel at the start.

Vettel getting ahead so soon perhaps averted the need for team orders later in the race, as the German would not have taken the world championship lead from Alonso if Webber had won.

There are just six points between Vettel and Alonso and it is to be expected that Red Bull and Ferrari will want maximum points from their superstars in the remaining four races – and their teammates may be required to help them.

Webber is 63 points behind Vettel and will be obliged to do whatever he can to assist Vettel.
Remember that team orders are now entirely legal under the agreement in which Ferrari agreed to the 2014 engine rules for 1.6-litre turbocharged engines.

The Korean GP was the first this year in which any team had finished first and second.

Webber said that, apart from his imperfect start, he had to take great care with his tyres.

“Tyres are like women – they’re difficult to manage,” he said - a comment that might have been expected to spark some controversy.
Korea was another good race for Australia’s younger F1 driver, Daniel Ricciardo, although he had to start from 21st on the grid after a gearbox change.

Ricciardo fought through to eighth place in his Ferrari-engined Toro Rosso but dropped a place to French teammate Jean-Eric Vergne at the end.

“Every time I braked the car pulled to the left and I was locking the front a lot – that cost me eighth place,” Ricciardo said.

“It would have been my best result of the season.”

Nonetheless, Ricciardo has been in the points in four of the past five GPs – as well as in Melbourne at the start of the year.

Vergne heads him the championship, with more points from his three eighth places, but the Aussie has generally had the edge in qualifying.

Formula One drivers’ world championship after 16 of 20 rounds
1. Sebastian Vettel (Germany,  Red Bull-Renault) 215 points; 2. Fernando Alonso (Spain, Ferrari) 209; 3. Kimi Raikkonen (Finland, Lotus-Renault) 167; 4. Lewis Hamilton (Great Britain, McLaren-Mercedes) 153; 5. Mark Webber (Australia, Red Bull-Renault) 152; 6. Jenson Button (GB, McLaren-Mercedes) 131; 7. Nico Rosberg (Germany, Mercedes) 93; 8. Romain Grosjean (France, Lotus-Renault) 88; 9. Felipe Massa (Brazil, Ferrari) 81; 10. Sergio Perez (Mexico, Sauber-Ferrari) 66; 11. Kamui Kobayashi (Japan, Sauber-Ferrari) 50; 12. Nico Huelkenberg (Germany, Force India-Mercedes) 45; 13. Paul Di Resta (GB, Force India-Mercedes) 44; 14. Michael Schumacher (Germany, Mercedes) 43; 15. Pastor Maldonado (Venezuela, Williams-Renault) 33; 16. Bruno Senna (Brazil,  Williams-Renault) 25; 17. Jean-Eric Vergne (France, Toro Rosso-Ferrari) 12; 18. Daniel Ricciardo (Australia, Toro Rosso-Ferrari) 9.

F1 constructors’ world championship
1. Red Bull-Renault 367 points; 2. Ferrari 290; 3. McLaren-Mercedes 284; 4. Lotus-Renault 255; 5. Mercedes 136; 6. Sauber-Ferrari 116; 7. Force India-Mercedes 89; 8. Williams-Renault 58; 9. Toro Rosso-Ferrari 21.

A court in Hyderabad issued the warrant last Friday when Mallya failed to appear in court over cheques from his Kingfisher airline to the Hyderabad International Airport bounced.

Kingfisher, India’s second largest airline until a year ago, has debts of about $2 billion, has not paid its staff for seven months, and its fleet has been grounded for two weeks with threats that its licence will be cancelled.

Mallya, 56 and nicknamed the “king of good times”, is seeking a foreign buyer to avert collapse.

He also is trying to sell part of his United Spirits liquor empire to Diageo, the world’s largest distiller.

Meanwhile, Force India is set to lose its young German star Nico Hulkenberg next season to Swiss team Sauber, in place of Mexican Sergio Perez – who is headed to McLaren-Mercedes in place of Lewis Hamilton, who is taking Michael Schumacher’s Mercedes seat.

A Mexican rookie, Esteban Gutierrez, is reported by the BBC’s Andrew Benson to be set to take the second Sauber seat from Japan’s Kamui Kobayashi, who just a week ago seemed to have saved his place with third in his home GP.

The financial support of Mexican telecommunications magnate Carlos Slim, reputedly the world’s richest man, virtually guarantees the presence of a Mexican driver in the Ferrari-engined Sauber team.

Spaniard Jaime Alguersuari, Swiss Sebastien Buemi and German Adrian Sutil are vying to replace Hulkenberg at Force India.

The BMW Group has announced withdrawal of its financial support for what has been its works team of late, WRC Team Mini Portugal – operated by Motorsport Italia.

Atkinson was only recently brought into the operation and immediately finished fifth in Rally Germany in his Mini debut.
Motorsport Italia team manager Bruno de Piant has said: “It would be a pleasure to work with Atko again on any motorsport project.”

BMW’s pullout has been blamed on the economic picture, especially in Europe, but British company Prodrive – which owns Ford Performance Racing - will continue to build customer Mini rally cars.

BMW’s senior vice-president of business co-ordination and brand management Dr Key Segler said Mini had to contest every round of this year’s WRC to meet its homologation obligations.

By the end of this year it “would have achieved the prerequisites to allow those interested to continue to run the car in the WRC on a customer rallying basis”.

Prodrive business development director Richard Taylor said his company, which has achieved three podiums with Spaniard Daniel Sordo in a Mini, said he understood BMW-Mini’s decision.

“In the challenging economic climate it was not unexpected,” Taylor said.

“It is however good news that Mini remains enthusiastic about the WRC and wishes to see Mini rally cars continuing to run competitively in the WRC and other championships.

“We look forward to continuing to work with Mini and BMW Motorsport to maximise the performance of both WRC and Super 2000 Minis on behalf of our mutual customers and our own WRC team. 

The titles were clinched with their wins in the first heat of the weekend’s Australian Rally Championship round at Coffs Harbour.
Evans’ co-driver is Queenslander Glen Weston, while Boaden’s is Helen Cheers.

In the second heat at Coffs Harbour the Mazda2 driven by four-time national champion Simon Evans pipped younger brother Eli’s Honda by 2.9 seconds.

The Mazda had melted a catalytic converter the day before.

Boaden completed a 4WD sweep of his home event on Sunday.

The remaining ARC round is Rally Victoria in Gippsland on November 16-17.

Toyota triumphs in NASCAR and sports cars
A couple of big racing successes for Toyota at the weekend.

Clint Bowyer delivered the Japanese manufacturer its 10th win of the year in NASCAR’s Sprint Cup in the 31st race of the season - at Charlotte, North Carolina – and six of the top 10 finishers were Camrys.

At Fuji in Japan, Toyota’s TS030 hybrid sports car beat Audi’s R18 e-tron quattros in the fifth round of the World Endurance Championship.

The Toyota – driven by Austrian Alex Wurz, Frenchman Nicolas Lapierre and japan’s Kazuki Nakajima – finished 11 seconds ahead of the first of the Audis.

It is Toyota’s second success in its comeback season in major sports car racing – and both have been in the past three rounds.
Australian John Martin shared the winning car in the Le Mans Prototype 2 category at Fuji, an Oreca-Nissan 03 entered by ADR-Delta, while David

Brabham shared the JRM HPD ARX-03a that was second in the privateer classifications.

In America, Bowyer’s NASCAR win was his third this season with Michael Waltrip Racing and lifted him to fourth in the championship still led by Penske Dodge driver Brad Keselowski, although Jimmie Johnson (Chevrolet) and Denny Hamlin (Toyota) have closed on him.

Australian Marcos Ambrose’s Ford Fusion was badly damaged 15 laps into the 334-lap Charlotte race.

Ambrose lost 27 laps during repairs and finished 33rd and 31 laps down.

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