MOTORSPORT: Development developments in Supercars

Three weeks out from the new season, the spotlight in Supercars has suddenly focused on its 12th-ranked team and the development category, now to be known as the Dunlop Super2 Series.

Throughout the summer it’s been all about Triple Eight becoming the new Holden Racing Team, the changes at Walkinshaw Racing (the previous HRT) and DJR Team Penske, Simona De Silvestro’s full-time drive with Nissan and controversy in Newcastle over the new street-race season finale there in November.

Now it’s Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport (LDM) wanting to promote two drivers who finished 17th and 20th in the development series last year into the ‘main game’ – one just 16, the youngest in the sport’s history, the other seven years older.

The teenager, Alex Rullo from Perth, has been given a provisional ‘superlicence’ to race, but 23-year-old Matt Chahda, a mechanic from Albury with support from Sydney construction and property development company Oaklands Built, has been KO’d by CAMS, the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport.

There’s now a furore over the recently-introduced CAMS ‘superlicence’ system that requires special dispensation for drivers not yet 17 and those who haven’t accumulated a stipulated minimum number of points in 20 lesser Australian and New Zealand series within the past five years.

Supercars chief executive James Warburton has called for the system to be reviewed, saying CAMS’ points structure is too heavily weighted in favour of its favoured Formula 4.

While CAMS made exception for Rullo early in the week, even though he’s not 17 until mid-June and hasn’t accumulated the required 13 CAMS points, it has rejected Chahda, who meets the age criteria but has only five CAMS points after two years in the development series in his family-run ex-Stone Brothers Racing Ford Falcon FG.

He also was excluded from the Sandown meeting in Melbourne last September for triggering a multi-car development series race incident, which may have weighed heavily against him.

Chahda attended the Supercars launch in Adelaide on Thursday as LDM’s nominated second Supercars driver for this year, even though CAMS says it told the team the previous day of its decision not to grant him a ‘superlicence’.

The season launch took place as work proceeded on a $20 million combined pit building and hotel at the Tailem Bend Motorsport Park 100km east of Adelaide hoping to land a championship round next year and news filtered out of the death of Clem Smith, long-time operator of the Mallala circuit 55km north of the city that used to host Australian Touring Car Championship rounds.

It was announced at the launch that Super2 Series teams and their drivers will be encouraged to seek wildcard entries at four ‘main game’ SuperSprint rounds – Winton in Victoria, Perth’s Barbagallo Raceway, Darwin’s Hidden Valley and Queensland Raceway at Ipswich – as well as for the Bathurst 1000.

Subject to approval from the Supercars Commission, and gaining a ‘superlicence’ from CAMS, the drivers would be allowed to race in two of those four SuperSprints “as part of their education process”.

“There is particularly strong potential for teams to run at their local event, which is cost-effective and can increase community involvement in those events,” Warburton said.

“We are also working on the formative stages of a Supercars Academy that will further drive the pathway for young talent progressing towards Supercars.”

Some within the sport are seeing contradictions in the treatment of Rullo and Chahda by CAMS, the governing body of motorsport in Australia even though it long ago allowed Supercars to run its category other than the setting and implementation of the sporting regulations.

CAMS was at pains to emphasise that Rullo – a star in the third-tier V8 Kumho touring car series, winning races at 14, before his 2016 development series season with LDM in a Holden Commodore – would be closely monitored and reviewed while on the provisional ‘superlicence’.

On Chahda, who also raced in the Kumho series in 2014, CAMS said: "In considering whether to grant the dispensation, CAMS is required to satisfy itself that there are exceptional circumstances to support a decision to waive the minimum requirements.

"It is the opinion of CAMS that Matt Chahda has not demonstrated the necessary driving skill and competency to support the dispensation requested.

“CAMS values the safety of competitors, officials and fans above all other considerations.”

Warburton acknowledged that CAMS’ points system, minimum age requirement and safety considerations were ‘relevant’, but he said that he sympathised with LDM – 12th in last year’s teams championship, although Nic Percat won the Sunday race at Adelaide’s Clipsal 500 and finished third in the Bathurst 1000 with Cameron McConville – over the rejection of Chahda for a ‘superlicence’.

“We need to review the superlicence because there is self-interest and the points are way too skewed towards Formula 4,” Warburton said.

Under the CAMS ‘superlicence’ structure, becoming champion in Formula 4 – the new international junior open-wheeler category introduced to Australia two years ago, with CAMS owning the 20 cars imported although there has never been a full field – would carry the same weight as Super2, the GT and GT Endurance championships and the Porsche Carrera Cup, and two more points than Toyota’s summer open-wheeler Toyota Racing Series through which two drivers have advance to Formula 1.

The Clipsal 500 on March 2-5 is again the first of 15 rounds in the Supercars Championship, which is scheduled to conclude at Newcastle on November 24-26.

Singer-songwriter Delta Goodrem is booked to perform at Newcastle as well as the Gold Coast 600 and Bathurst in October in her new role as Supercars’ ambassador, hopefully making a more lasting contribution than the much-hyped international star Pink several years ago.

The new five-round Super Utes Series featuring dual cab, turbo-diesel SUVs – with the Mitsubishi, Ford, Mazda and Holden brands to be represented – is to begin at the Townsville event in July.

And, despite the hiccups of the past year and the failure of overseas races in the Middle East and the US, Warburton said Asia “remains a priority” for Supercars. “Our aim is to have two permanent races in the region as part of our annual calendar,” he said.
BMW rules out return to Formula 1
BMW has refuted speculation that its new engine project with McLaren’s road car arm could be a precursor to its returning to F1.

The German company bowed out of grand prix racing at the end of 2009, handing the team it bought back to Sauber.

Spanish sports daily newspaper AS reported recently that BMW was working on a V6 turbo engine and that “there may be a secret hybrid V6 turbo project ready to launch [for a return to F1]”.

However, BMW has told Britain’s Autosport: “When we decided to pull out of Formula 1 in 2009 it was a long-term strategic decision of the company.

“We wanted to put some of the F1 resources into the research and development of alternative powertrain solutions – and so BMW did.

“We established ourselves as the leading premium car manufacturer in the field of electric mobility.

“We are watching the developments in the world of motorsport, but currently we have no plans to re-enter F1.”

Meanwhile, the McLaren F1 team and the man who became its chief executive only last September 1, Jost Capito, have parted ways.

German Capito, who had overseen the Volkswagen rally program that produced manufacturer and driver world titles for four successive years before the company’s shock withdrawal, was hired by Ron Dennis, the long-time McLaren head ousted last November (although he retains part-ownership).

“Regrettably, we have not been able to find common ground with Jost with regard to what is and will be needed to make the team successful again [after not winning in the past 78 GPs],” a McLaren spokesman said.

Volkswagen has given up hope of having the Polo R rally cars it had developed for this year homologated for privateers – in particular last year’s Rally Australia winner, Norweigan Andreas Mikkelsen – to campaign this year.

WRC rules stipulate that a manufacturer must register for the entire championship to have cars homologated, and other manufacturers – especially Hyundai – opposed any waiver being granted.

VW’s four-time world champion, Frenchman Sebastien Ogier, has joined the M-Sport Ford squad and won the opening Monte Carlo Rally last month, while Finn Jari-Matti Latvala joined Toyota and was runner-up on The Monte.

Veteran rally correspondent Malcolm Holmes reports that VW “hope shortly to announce details of individual rental agreements for their championship-winning 2016 cars”, now superseded by the new-generation machinery with more power and aggressive aerodynamics.