MOTORSPORT: Davisons going places at the double

As Will Davison chases a repeat of his V8 Supercar success with Betty Klimenko's Mercedes-Benz team at regional Victoria's Winton circuit this weekend his cousin James has landed a drive in next week's Indianapolis 500.

The V8 Supercars are practising at Winton today with an extra set of Dunlop tyres, which have to be handed back at the end of the day.

But the SuperSprint format has been retained for now, with two 60km sprints Saturday rather than a combined 120km that was mooted ahead of Sunday's 200km.

The 28-year-old James Davison won't get to qualify his Honda-powered IndyCar at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway this weekend because he was already committed to the Pirelli World Challenge at Mosport in Canada in the Nissan GT-R in which he won at Barber Motorsport Park in Alabama last month.

Instead Frenchman Tristan Vautier will try to qualify the car at The Brickyard, where there will be 34 cars competing for the 33 places in May 24's "Greatest spectacle in racing".
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There has been practice all week there, with the fastest average speeds around the 4km superspeedway topping 370kmh and Davison fourth fastest on Wednesday in one of Dale Coyne Racing's three entries.

There also have been some spectacular crashes, with the Chevrolet-powered cars of Brazilian three-time Indy 500 winner Helio Castroneves and young American Josef Newgarden flipping at the southern end of the track – without injury to either driver.

Women drivers have been in the wars there – Pippa Mann had a big crash in one of Coyne's cars while Simono de Silvestro's similarly Honda-powered Andretti Autosport car caught fire, but again neither was seriously injured.

The other Aussie in the field is reigning IndyCar champion Will Power, whose best finish in the Indy 500 has been fifth place six years ago. James Davison finished midfield on debut in the classic last year with KV Racing Technology.

Apart from his Nissan drive in the Pirelli series he races an Aston Martin in America's sports car championship.

The much-anticipated Formula One Strategy Group meeting in Britain appears to have decided little, other than sticking with this year's four-engine limit – which inevitably will mean a 10-place grid penalty for Australian Daniel Ricciardo soon, when he needs a fifth power unit.

Plans for cost saving in F1 appear to have been abandoned, according to the first report on the meeting by Autosport.com, with a move towards allowing customer cars instead.

Commercial tsar Bernie Ecclestone has been dismissive of French tyre maker Michelin's conditions for a return to F1 after a decade out of it.

Australia's premier open-wheeler driver award, the Gold Star, has been shelved this year in a slap to the country's thin Formula Three field and with the new Formula Four starting in less than two months, although it appears barely half the 20 F4 cars the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport has bought will race at the first round in Townsville.

The second round of the Australian Rally Championship is on in forests around Canberra this weekend. The Evans brothers, Simon and Eli, both former national champions, will fight out the two-wheel-drive battle in a Honda Jazz and Citroen DS3 respectively, while the four-wheel-drive category has a couple of interesting new entries. Justin Dowel, another former national champion, will debut a Hyundai i20 prototype with a chassis built by European specialists Dytko and Mitsubishi Lancer Evo running gear, while Mark Pedder will debut his Argentinean-developed Peugeot 208 'Maxi' car.

Harry Bates, son of multiple national champion Neal, will make his ARC driving debut in a Toyota Corolla Sportivo with veteran Queensland co-driver John McCarthy. Bates senior and long-time co-driver Coral Taylor will be in a Classic Toyota Celica, while Taylor's daughter Molly is at the wheel of the front-wheel-drive Renault Clio in which she won a heat of the opening round of the ARC in Western Australia – and in which Scott Pedder won last year's national title.

Big things are expected of the Prodrive Fords at Winton this weekend after they were the pacesetters at the previous V8 Supercar Championship round two weeks ago at Perth's Barbagallo circuit, where Winterbottom and Mostert each won a Saturday sprint before a safety car on the Sunday nobbled them, and Will Davison took victory in an Erebus Mercedes E63.

Winton is Prodrive's home circuit although, under this year's testing restrictions, it hasn't visited it ahead of this weekend's fourth round.

Winterbottom won the Sunday race at the Victorian regional track last year and said that if the FG X worked well this weekend "then we have a car that is going to be good everywhere" as he chases a  first championship title after a decade with FPR/Prodrive.

Winterbottom and Triple Eight Race Engineering pair Craig Lowndes and Jamie Whincup have been the multiple race victors this season among the six winners in nine races.

However, since the introduction of the new-generation V8 Supercars in 2013 Winton has been a bogey track for Lowndes, this season's series leader, and Whincup, fifth in the points after six titles in seven years.

Lowndes will be chasing the 100th race victory that eluded him in Perth, while last year's rising star, young New Zealander Scott McLaughlin, is looking to get his campaign in his Volvo S60 back on target after a horror start to the season that has left him only 17th in the championship.

It was two years ago at Winton that Nissan's James Moffat and Michael Caruso scored a Saturday sprint race one-two finish using E70 fuel rather than the E85 to which they immediately had to revert.

There has not been another win since by any of the four Nissan Altimas prepared by the Kelly brothers team and new-specification VK56DE engines to overcome power and driveability shortcomings are unlikely before the second half of the year – perhaps not until Melbourne's Sandown 500 in September.

Will Davison said Winton had been something of a bogey track for him too in recent years, but he's pinning his hopes on the form and confidence he and Erebus have carried over from Perth as well as Lee Holdsworth's Mercedes victory at Winton last year.

The V8 Supercar Commission headed by Steve Horne stuck with the SuperSprint format this week – a decision strongly backed by his predecessor as commission chairman, Mark Skaife.

While drivers and fans are clamouring for the Saturday sprints to be rolled into one race, Skaife said it wouldn't be right for the sport to make such a change to its format during the season.

"I agree that the format is not the best format, but changing it mid-season is fraught with danger," Skaife said.

"Sensible people [at the commission] have decided not to change the format for this weekend and I agree with that."

However, the commission agreed that teams be allowed an extra set of tyres for Friday practice – a move that was widely welcomed.

"It's a small expenditure for teams in comparison with the usefulness of data that you get and it sets you up for a much better race weekend," Triple Eight team manager Mark Dutton said.

"Every single team up and down pit lane will benefit."

Honda's F1 chief tips podium by July
While Red Bull Racing keeps turning up the heat for a better F1 power unit from Renault, in the short term, and perhaps for Audi as a replacement supplier in the longer-term, Honda's F1 engine chief has admitted he's under the pump over the Japanese manufacturer's miserable return with McLaren.

Despite the pressure he's feeling though, Yasuhisa  Arai is predicting big things from the McLaren-Hondas of Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button that have not finished any of the five grands prix this year in the top 10 to score a world championship point.

Alonso retired from last weekend's Spanish GP mid-race with a brake failure, while Button described his car as "very scary" on the Barcelona track and – in a huge turnaround from his usual optimism – doubted he could score a point this year.

However, Arai has predicted a McLaren-Honda podium finish by the British GP in July.

Arai told Autosport he was sure the team could catch Ferrari and Williams during the season – and even runaway Mercedes by the end of it.