MOTORSPORT: Cheers for three quiet achievers

A trio to keep an eye on
Mark Webber's Red Bull Racing contract has been extended until the end of next year as he goes for back-to-back Grand Prix victories in Hungary this weekend.

The future of Formula 1 and V8 Supercars is coming to a head, but no confirmation of that vital new, signed Concorde Agreement in F1 or details of V8 Supercar cost-cutting yet.

And Jamie Whincup and Craig Lowndes are staying put with Triple Eight/Team Vodafone for another three years.

British enduro specialist Ben Collins, reckoned to be The Stig in Britain's Top Gear TV program, is going to drive for the Kelly Gang at Phillip Island and Bathurst with Nathan Pretty.

Danica Patrick says she's not going to F1 next year, but that's no surprise; NASCAR has always been more likely for the Indy darling.

Jacques Villeneuve, an F1 world champion who last won a GP 12 years ago and last raced in F1 in 2006, is making noises, at 38, about a comeback (yes, to F1) next year, seemingly with the new US team.

Spanish teenager Jamie Alguersuari is set to become the youngest GP driver this weekend (replacing, without any testing, sacked Sebastian Bourdais at Scuderia Toro Rosso) at 19 years and 125 days -- breaking New Zealander Mike Thackwell's almost 30-year record by almost two months.

Ferrari has fired its aerodynamics chief, Englishman John Iley, who has had to cop the blame for the uncompetitiveness of the F60 car this season.

And the battle between Jean Todt and Ari Vatanen to succeed Max Mosley as president of the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) is hotting up -- Todt representing more of the same (tyrannical Mosley style, without the S&M presumably) and Vatanen a fresh and independent approach. All part of the politics, Vatanen has just been scolded by the FIA Foundation, see crash.net. More background on that tussle later.

So lots of news -- and racing, including the Brickyard 400, NASCAR's annual visit this weekend to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where Goodyear is certain it has overcome the embarrassing tyre woes of a year ago. And the WRC's Rally of Finland, the last round before the new Rally Australia in northern NSW in early September, the final round of the Australian Rally Championship in South Australia, and the Australian Safari in Western Australia are only a week away now.

But what has captivated this author most this week has been the success of three little-known or recognised Australian competitors -- Steve Glenney, Daniel Erickson and James Kovacic.

Glenney we've mentioned here before as one of the country's outstanding talents who has had terrific success in sporadic outings as a rally privateer.

A horse trainer in the Adelaide Hills, he's won Targa Tasmania on tarmac and a round of the ARC on gravel in SA's Barossa Valley.

Now, in his national-level circuit racing debut, Glenney has won a round -- and two of the three races -- of the Australian Manufacturers Championship at Sydney's Eastern Creek driving a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X.

And Glenney says the Evo X, built by Ralliart in Melbourne (headed by former touring car engineer and team manager Alan Heaphy), will double as a tarmac rally car "and we plan to use it in the Bathurst 12-hour in February".

This author was staggered that, during better economic times, Glenney was not snapped up for a manufacturer drive.

He now has some sponsorship, from Mt Vincent Wines, which hopefully is going to help him fulfill his undoubted potential -- and the Australian motorsport public get to see and appreciate it.

The other unsung heroes who have caught our attention -- on Page 40 of this week's Auto Action magazine -- are youngsters. It's always pleasing to see Australian racers, particularly "kids", making headway overseas.

A couple of weeks back we made mention of Newcastle's Josh Scott winning a round of the British Formula Renault Championship -- and Perth's Daniel Ricciardo is leading the British Formula 3 Championship (and is set to do one, perhaps two, rounds of the 3.5-litre World Series by Renault in Europe).

Daniel Erickson, 21, from Orangeville in western Sydney, has just won a round of the British Formula Ford Championship, in an Australian-made Spectrum car, at Donington Park.

He led the first 13-lap, 41km race all the way from pole position, crossing the finish line 1.6 seconds ahead of American Josef Newgarden in a French Mygale car and Spectrum/Kevin Mills Racing teammate Alex Jones of Britain.

And, to quote the Auto Action report: "Erickson held the race two lead off the start line, but an early safety car saw him drop to second behind series leader James Cole. Erickson briefly regained the lead, but Newgarden and Cole caught him in the closing laps. Erickson started sixth for the final race and, after losing several positions in the opening lap, he recovered to claim sixth and the round win."

Erickson is one of the Confederation of Australian Motorsport (CAMS)/Australian Motorsport Foundation (AMSF) "international rising star" squad this year, which provides him some financial support, and a fundraiser had just been held by his family and supporters to keep him going in Britain, so that's reaped prompt dividends.

The British Formula Ford Championship has always been an important stepping stone in international racing and Erickson had already chalked up some impressive results -- second in round eight, fastest lap in the ninth round at Knockhill, and third at Snetterton two weeks before Donington.

He was the rookie of the year, and fourth outright, in Australian Formula Ford last season, including winning the championship's last race at Sydney's now sadly-gone Oran Park. Clearly the kid's got talent. His website is demotorsport.com.au.

Not surprisingly, Erickson's hero is Mark Webber -- and what a role model in perseverance in international racing for a young Aussie to have.

Kovacic, from the Gosford area of NSW, is an even more interesting tale. He's of Croation origin, scholastically brilliant at both mathematics and English, and last weekend was his 16th birthday. He celebrated that milestone by winning a round of the Formula BMW Americas series at Lime Rock, Connecticut.

Kovacic qualified third and held that position in the first race run there, then started fifth and charged through the field in the later race, becoming the first winner in the series this year not to have been on pole position.

Kovacic said, again thanks to Auto Action: "I don't know what our Team Apex guys did to this car, but it was really fast. I tried to keep out of trouble, find good spots to make my passes and drive hard."

Kovacic is fifth in the series on 52 points -- that's about 40 per cent of the leader's tally, but we suspect "our boy" hasn't done all the rounds.

It is harder to gauge Kovacic's race-winning performance in the US, but he's clearly another kid with talent. And his website is jameskovacic.com

Great to see the likes of Glenney, Erickson and Kovacic keep coming through the ranks of Australian motorsport and, in the case of the young open-wheeler racers, having a crack overseas.

Australian motorsport is not all about V8 Supercars, despite what some people would have us believe. And we're sure there is plenty more talent coming through those ranks.

One to watch will be Matthew Brabham, grandson of our triple F1 world champion Sir Jack and son of Le Mans 24-hour winner Geoff, who made his Formula Ford debut quietly in the Victorian series at Sandown last weekend after a distinguished karting career.

The V8 Supercar Championship continues at that Melbourne circuit next week and we're hearing that ticket sales are not strong.

Just as the prospect of losing traditional GP venues -- like Silverstone in Britain and Nurburgring and Hockenheim in Germany -- is becoming a big issue in F1, it is important too that traditional Australian events -- and tracks, particularly permanent tracks in major metropolitan areas -- not be lost, so let's hope those responsible for promoting Sandown can give it a gee up, even in these awkward economic times.

The extension of Jamie Whincup's contract at Triple Eight/Team Vodafone was no surprise in the end, after he toyed -- supposedly "reasonably seriously" -- with the idea of following Marcos Ambrose's footsteps into NASCAR in America.

Staying put makes perfect sense for driver and team -- and especially for Whincup if it's true that it's now worth $700,000 a year to him.

We saw him quoted saying: "We (he and Triple Eight Race Engineering principal Roland Dane) did a big sporting deal over a couple of steaks and a couple of beers -- it doesn't get better than that for me.

"My gut feeling steers me in the right direction every time and it said,  'Don't give up this opportunity, this is a big one, stay in Australia and drive for one of the best teams with the financial support from Vodafone and also with Lowndesy as well'. It was the right call."

Whincup has emerged over the past several years as an independent and forthright character -- and, most importantly in the sporting context, a winner.

We've come to like the bloke's style -- on and off the track. And we spotted a few interesting comments from him in his column in Brisbane's Courier-Mail newspaper this week.

"There is some concern that, with V8 Supercars appointing Mark Skaife to look into and develop a cheaper race car of the future, the V8 engine could be in jeopardy.

"The world is changing and our racing has to change with it. We do need to reduce costs, but hopefully we will still have advanced cars that are good to drive. And most importantly they need to remain V8s.

"I know that, with high fuel prices a lot of manufacturers are going away from V8 engines, but I think it's very important that Australia's main touring car engine runs a V8. That's the main drawcard of our sport."

We agree with Whincup that the V8 engine is the central element of the Supercar product, but we do wonder about its future -- in the motor and motor racing industries.

And speaking of forthright characters, Ford's World Rally Championship leader Mikko Hirvonven (yes, he's a point ahead of Citroen's Sebastien Loeb) says of the new points system for next year to reward drivers for resuming the day after retiring from an event: "It is a really stupid idea." See crash.net

To F1 now and re-signed Mark Webber is 9-2 third favourite (with thespread.com) for the Hungarian GP, behind Brawn GP's F1 World Championship leader Jenson Button at 2-1 and Webber's Red Bull teammate Sebastian Vettel at 9-4.

Lewis Hamilton is 7-1 in what is supposed to be a quite revised McLaren-Mercedes, Button's teammate Rubens Barrichello at 12-1, Renault's Fernando Alonso at 14-1 and Ferrari pair Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen at 20-1 and 33-1 respectively.

Incidentally, Webber is the 102nd driver to have won a GP and 12 of the 20 drivers on the F1 grid have now won F1 races.

Statistically-minded readers will enjoy the numbers ahead of the Budapest race from Reuters.

Just some (official) explanation/clarification of Kiwi Mike Thackwell's place in F1 history, courtesy of formula1.com: "In 1980 Thackwell started the Canadian GP aged 19 years and 182 days, but the race was stopped after an accident on the first lap. Thackwell was unable to start the new race because he had to hand his undamaged Tyrell car over to teammate Jean-Pierre Jarier. Since Thackwell did not thus officially start the part of the race that was recognised as the real Canadian GP that year his record was annulled. Thus the mark is held by Mexican star Ricardo Rodriguez, who started the 1961 Italian GP aged 19 years and 208 days. Besides Thackwell and Rodriguez, other 19-year-olds to race in F1 were Chris Amon, Fernando Alonso, Sebastian Vettel and Esteban Tuero."

This author had the pleasure of seeing Pedro Rodriguez drive -- in the rain, and he was a rainmaster! -- but the f1centric article is a reminder of what a driver his brother Ricardo must have been.

To conclude today some more recommended reading:
>> Ari Vatanen criticises Max Mosley's endorsement of Jean Todt to succeed him as FIA president, see forumula1.net

>> Esteemed F1 correspondent Maurice Hamilton looks beyond the Mosley presidency on TheSportBlog at the London Guardian and Observer website, see guardian.co.uk

Apart from Hamilton's views, there is some beautiful writing in this piece, including: "Ari Vatanen ... would be likely to bring moderation and reason to the presidency, qualities for which Todt was scarcely celebrated by rivals during his time as the obdurate head of Ferrari. The F1 teams have been notable for their silence (on Todt's nomination), the absence of a ringing endorsement indicating a deep-seated concern that Todt will be Mosley with a French accent."

>> Another columnist, Will Gray, weighs in on the same subject, at uk.eurosport.yahoo.com concluding that "on paper it looks as though Todt should step into the seat with ease".

Images: Glenney - Nathan Wong; Erickson - demotorsport.com.au; Kovacic (pictured right) - jameskovacic.com

Read the latest Carsales Network news and reviews on your mobile, iPhone or PDA at www.carsales.mobi