MOTORSPORT: Cocho changes his tune

Now V8 chief is 'very happy' to have A1 GP
What a difference nine months makes.

There was Tony Cochrane at Adelaide's Clipsal 500 back in late February declaring: "V8 Supercars will never, ever race, anywhere with A1 GP."

And there was the very same Tony Cochrane this week waltzing down what for a few days in late October each year is the pit lane of the Surfers' Paradise street circuit effusing about how "very happy" V8 Supercars are that they will be running with A1 GP on the Gold Coast next October 22-25.

More than "very happy" even. Cocho reckons the combination of V8 Supercars and A1 GP will give the Gold Coast "a point of difference".

Here were we thinking a few days ago that Cocho and Alan Jones, Australia's 1980 Formula 1 world champion and these days "seat holder" for A1 Team Australia in the "World Cup of Motorsport", would be head-butting each other.

But no. There on Wednesday in that Surfers' Paradise pit lane were Cocho and Jonesey arm-in-arm and all smiles about how wonderful life is going to be together on the Gold Coast 300 event schedule.

Not just next year, but for the next five years.

And joining them in Wednesday's "picture opportunity" were several other very happy chappies -- including V8 Supercar one-time winner James Courtney and A1 GP racer John Martin -- as well as Queensland sports minister Jenny Spence.

That's Jenny Spence who reckoned mid-year she had a contract with the Indy boys in the US for them to keep coming to the Gold Coast for another six years, then admitted it was only a memorandum of understanding (more like misunderstanding!) and eventually it became clear the Indy boys had not intention of coming back at all beyond this year.

And they only did it this year, on a non-championship basis, as a square-off to the old Champ Car guys with whom they had reunified. Anyway, that's all water under the bridge. Everyone's happy now.

Cocho and Jonesey aren't heading-butting each other at all. In fact, everyone's the best of friends.

Jonesey, too, has mellowed a lot in the last few months. He's gone from saying that V8 Supercars is a place where race drivers go to retire to toeing the line that it's "the best series of its kind in the world today".

Of course it is. How did Jonesey ever forget that? More to the point, what made him remember it?

Perhaps it was the Queensland government sprinkling a few bucks in the direction of his now beloved A1 GP series.

Oh, and that -- in the form of a new, and presumably improved, five-year contract at Surfers' Paradise -- is probably what has got Cocho so chirpy and magnanimous.

Nobody's too worried, or certainly not saying so, about what the global financial meltdown might mean for motor racing, especially for V8 Supercars or A1 GP.

Nobody's even saying anything too loudly about A1's reportedly parlous financial state.

Indeed, Jonesey is going to some lengths to say that reports of that financial state are very grossly exaggerated.

And, as excited as all the participants are about the new Gold Coast deal, nobody is trying to crow too loudly about the supposed global television hunger for these two categories (830-850 million for V8 Supercars and 600-700 million for A1 GP) and this Gold Coast event (now so much more globally important and attractive than the predominantly US appeal it was meant to have in the Indy days).

Perhaps the reason there isn't too much crowing is that someone might just ask for some verification of the claims because, like us, they might suspect the international audiences -- actual viewers rather than potential reach - for each category would be lucky to be a couple of million pairs of human eyes in each case, if they're lucky.

But if there is not a lot of singing and dancing about the TV audiences, we are meant to marvel at the speed with which the A1 GP deal came together to replace Indy.

Gold Coast Events Company chairman Terry Mackenroth reckons it must be some sort of record for the deal to be done within just a couple of weeks of the Indy boys pulling out.

"The deal with A1 must rank as one of the swiftest deals ever done in motor racing," Mackenroth says.

Too right it must, Terry. That's because A1 GP couldn't snap it up quick enough -- it needed a marquee event somewhere on its world tour, it was never going to get an opportunity like this, and it had already flopped in three years at Sydney's Eastern Creek -- and the Queensland government and Gold Coast organisers needed to find a replacement for the Indy cars quick smart so they weren't left with a lot of egg on their faces.

And Jonesey tells us that A1 GP is not just a replacement category. "We are not an alternative to Indy, we are the preference," he says.

We genuinely hope that A1 turns out to be an exciting formula on the streets of Surfers' Paradise -- and there's a chance it will.

The Ferrari-engined A1 cars are expected to be 3-4 seconds a lap quicker than the IndyCars.

Most of the drivers will be little known, but so were many of the Indy drivers.

Best of all, though, those Ferrari V8s will sound so much better than the Honda Indy engines.

And the beauty of that will be that, at least for a couple of hours, it will drown out the kind of drivel that the few people listening, or looking on, have had to put up with in the announcing of the new-look Gold Coast 300.

Oh, and that name's a bit odd too. The V8 Supercars will have a 200km race on both the Saturday and Sunday. Now when we went to school, and on our calculator still, 200 x 2 = 400.

And, unlike the one IndyCar race, A1 GP rounds have two races -- a short sprint race on the Sunday morning, and the longer feature race in the afternoon. We're not sure that the two races will add up to 300km.

Don't tell us A1 GP is going to come up a bit short on the Gold Coast? Surely not.

However it works out we've got the best of 11 months to prepare ourselves for it.

Heavy hand of big brother at Homebush
Things are on the move regarding the new Homebush V8 Supercar street race in Sydney -- and in ways that some people won't like.

The Sydney Morning Herald ran a Page 3 lead story on Wednesday headlined "New law to block V8 compo claims".

Written by freedom-of-information editor Matthew Moore, here's what the first four paragraphs of that story said:
"State cabinet has approved new laws designed to head off compensation claims by businesses at Homebush Bay which suffer economic loss during five annual rounds of V8 Supercar races due to begin next year.

"The Homebush Motor Racing (Sydney 400) Bill will create a Homebush Motor Racing Authority, a board and an implementation authority. The Homebush Motor Racing Authority will be the sole government agency with powers to approve preparatory works ahead of the race from December 4 to 9 next year.

"It would have powers to circumvent planning and environmental laws to ensure the controversial street racing at Sydney's Olympic Park could proceed without legal challenges, sources who have seen the draft bill said.

"Many tenants at the site have leases with clauses guaranteeing quiet enjoyment but the bill is designed to prevent them seeking compensation for breaches of those clauses and for any loss of access to their premises in the lead-up to or during the event."

Moore wrote that the Sydney Olympic Park Authority will be stripped of virtually all power around the time of the event.

"Responsibility for hosting the race will rest with the Minister for State Development, Ian Macdonald, who will have powers to direct other ministers' agencies to take various action if there is no agreement between the parties in dispute," he wrote.

And later in the article he wrote: "Mr Macdonald would not discuss any details of the bill or say why there was no provision requiring the race promoters to make good any damage, remove rubbish or leave the site in the same condition it was when they took it over."

As if there haven't been enough concerns (mainly financial) aired already about this Homebush project, we are getting a real sniff of scandal in our nostrils about it all.

These things often take a while to completely shake loose.

We shall await developments with interest.

In the meantime, there's the Formula 5000/Tasman Series Revival meeting at Eastern Creek this weekend, and Oran Park's V8 Supercar finale the following weekend -- which should see Jamie Whincup crowned champion, and certainly will see the end of Mark Skaife as a full-time V8 Supercar racer.

Lots to celebrate in Sydney over the next 10 days, so let's enjoy that first before the Homebush controversies overwhelm us.

Let's just hope not too much more shifty business goes on regarding Homebush while we are celebrating at the Creek and Oran Park.

Bernie takes the cake with his medals
We mentioned here a month ago Bernie Ecclestone's idea of awarding gold, silver and bronze medals to the podium placegetters in F1 races -- and that the driver with the most gold medals in a season ought to be the world champion.

That would have meant Ferrari's Felipe Massa would have been champion this year, with six race wins, rather than McLaren's Lewis Hamilton, with five.

Now this idea is getting plenty of media airplay and column inches -- and reams on internet sites -- in the lull between seasons.

And again that emphasizes F1's ability or knack of generating a lot of fuss about something that doesn't necessarily to amount to much and squeezing other forms of motorsport, and indeed other sports, for media time and space.

The medals concept and Mark Webber's broken leg have hogged the limelight from things like the Gold Coast/A1 GP/V8 Supercar "announcement".

Anyway, Ecclestone reckons the medals are a goer as early as next season, and claims that there is pretty much universal agreement in F1 for them -- although that doesn't tally with reports of several teams being unhappy about the idea.

We rather like the idea of rewarding the podium finishers in this way, and certainly of the driver winning the most races becoming champion, although we don't see why -- for the records -- points couldn't continue to be awarded, although perhaps only down to sixth while ever F1 has only 20 cars (instead of the 26 it should have, under the template Ecclestone established in the '80s).

And it has always been intended that the points would remain for the constructors' championship.

Just for the record, if this medal system had been in for the drivers' championship from the beginning of F1 58 years ago there would have been a different world champion 12 times.

Nigel Mansell and Jim Clark each would have won two more titles, instead of just one and two respectively.

Nelson Piquet Senior would not have won any of his three titles in the 1980s.

Alain Prost would have won five instead of four, and Keke Rosberg not only would not have been world champion in 1982 with his single victory that season but he would only have finished sixth in the championship!

The downside is that the championship could often be decided two-thirds of the way through the season, and in 2004 it would have been over at the halfway mark.

Remember those days of Michael Schumacher and Ferrari domination? How could we forget.

And -- as great as Schumi was -- memories of the worst part of it has been revived again with his long-time teammate Rubens Barrichello telling Brazilian TV show Fantastico how he was hounded over the radio for the last eight laps of the infamous 2002 Austrian GP to surrender his lead to Schumacher.

Barrichello recalled how the messages intensified, getting to the point of telling him it was "important for the championship" that he let Schumacher win.

Then, on the last lap, according to Barrichello, he was told, in no uncertain terms, "to think about my contract".

"For me that was an order -- it is better for you to lift your foot, otherwise you are going to be going home," he recalled.

While Schumacher denied any part in the "fix", remember that he handed swapped trophies with Barrichello on the podium in acknowledgement that he was not the winner of the race on merit.

And the FIA fined Ferrari and its drivers US$500,000 for abuse of the podium ceremony and "deplored the manner in which team orders were executed".

Now that his F1 career may be at its end, it obviously rankles the likeable and straightforward Barrichello that he was so constrained in those days -- and he claims to have kept evidence at his home of how that 2002 Austrian GP finish was contrived.

So often it takes a long time for the whole truth to seep out in F1's murkiest matters, but eventually a lot of it finds its way out.

How much more might there be to come? Especially if and when there is a change in the controller's seat!

Toro Rosso is likely to be for sale within a year if "customer" cars -- those based on the design of another team, rather than wholly built in-house -- are outlawed in 2010.

Mateschitz and Berger are very close, so don't be surprised if 10-time GP winner Berger is soon found playing a role at Red Bull Racing, especially as he has been a mentor to Sebastian Vittel, the 21-year-old German who scored that memorable Italian victory for Toro Rosso and has now gone across to Red Bull Racing as Mark Webber's 2009 teammate.

>> Ferrari chairman Luca di Montezemolo was hugely critical of the new Valancia and Singapore street circuits this year, indeed over the top on the latter, but already he is very complimentary about the Abu Dhabi street circuit that joins the championship next season.
How much that might have to do with Ferrari already enjoying massive Abu Dhabi sponsorship and a Ferrari theme park being built in the emirate.

Might it be a case of the money talking.

>> A big kart race coming up Brazil, organized by Felipe Massa.
On the entry list are Michael Schumacher and NASCAR superstar Jeff Gordon -- well he's still a star, even if he didn't win a Sprint Cup race this year while Chevrolet teammate Jimmie Johnson won a third straight title.

Also participating will be Rubens Barrichello.

Would be interesting to see the body language between the former Ferrari teammates in light of Barrichello's revelation mentioned earlier about the 2002 Austrian GP.

>> And, on karting, tucked away on Page 30 of this week's Auto Action is a story that Terry Fullerton -- the karter famously anointed by Ayrton Senna as his greatest rival -- is launching a scheme to reach Australia's next generation of talent.

The 1973 world karting champion is planning to start a driver training academy in Sydney and Melbourne next year.

"I'll be doing something in December, before Christmas, what exactly I don't know, but we'll have something set up properly by next May," Philippines-based Brit Fullerton said.

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