MOTORSPORT: Diesel in world touring car championship

It's a SEAT. In fact, there are two of them.

SEAT is part of the Volkswagen group, which also owns Audi -- which has already conquered the Le Mans 24-hour sports car classic with diesel cars.

The diesel touring cars are SEAT's Leon model fitted with a 280 PS diesel engine derived from the 170 PS 2.0-litre TDI featured in the top-selling Leon FR.

One of the drivers of the new SEATs at this weekend's round of the WTCC at Scandinavian Raceway in Anderstorp, Sweden, will be a Frenchman familiar to Australia V8 Supercar fans -- Yvan Muller, who has raced in our endurance races at Sandown and Bathurst with Craig Lowndes in a Ford Falcon and previously with Holden Racing Team.

Muller is fourth in the WTCC, behind three BMW drivers.

The other SEAT pilot in a diesel car will be little-known development pilot Jordi Gene.

SEAT's other drivers - Gabriele Tarquini, Tiago Monteiro and Michel Jourdain -- will remain in the team's "traditional" touring cars running on petrol.

Volvo has an SC60 touring car running on ethanol which is second in the Swedish championship.

It has entered that car, driven by Robert Dahlgren, for this weekend's WTCC round.

Meanwhile, SEAT Sport chief engineer Benoit Bagur says of the new Leon project: "Since the FIA (the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile, world motorsport's governing body) made it possible to enter a diesel engine in the (WTCC) competition, we started looking into the viability of the project, and it took off a few months ago.

"The basis for the engine is the 170 PS 2.0-litre mounted in the Leon FR.

"We kept the engine block and the cylinder head of the production model, but changed the turbo compressor and gearbox.

"Furthermore, we had to alter the front part to house the intercooler and create new air intakes.

"The diesel engine is 35 kg heavier than the petrol, so we had to redistribute some weight.

"After satisfactory test results, we are eager to see its potential in actual racing conditions."

Muller says he has "done some testing with the diesel engine and the lap times are very similar to the petrol".

"It is a little slower in the corners because of the extra weight and there is more stress on the tyres, but it is a little bit quicker on the straights," Muller says.

"The chassis of the SEAT Leon is one of the best, but the straight-line speed is too slow and now SEAT Sport has found a good solution to this problem."

Development driver Gene says: "We are facing a double handicap with the diesel car.

"The first is that according to regulations, a diesel car has to weigh 30 kg more than one with a petrol engine.

"The second is that the intercooler and the turbo are situated ahead of the front axle, which makes weight distribution detrimental compared with a petrol car.

"But, as the Leon has the best chassis in the championship and our engine torque will be much higher, I think that, in the mid-term and on certain tracks, we can be competitive."

SEAT Sport director Jaime Puig also predicts the car "can become a competitive car in the mid to long term".

Because of the V8 Supercar testing rules it's being called a driver evaluation day.

Also to be trialed that day by the reigning Bathurst-winning team are Formula Ford drivers Tim Blanchard and James Moffat, youngsters with a couple of familiar surnames who are first and third in the national FF championship.

Richard Lyons, the Irishman who will race with Team Vodafone again in the Sandown and Bathurst enduros paired with Alan Simonsen, will also be at the session.

Reed, who had a brief run in a Paul Morris Holden Commodore in southern Queensland last year in the week leading into the Gold Coast Indy, is coming home from his Florida base especially for the day.

"This is sure to be the highlight of my year," Reed says.

Team Vodafone's regular drivers, Craig Lowndes and Jamie Whincup, will only be allowed to drive 10 laps at the most on the day.

Lyons can take part in the evaluation day because he has not competed in any V8 Supercar sprint races this year.

It will again be the opening round of the V8 Supercar Championship, on February 21-24.

"Our position as round one is further confirmation that the Clipsal 500 Adelaide is the largest and most prestigious V8 Supercar event on the calendar," says race chief Andrew Daniels, obviously forgetting that there is a race in Australia called the Bathurst 1000.

No great surprise there. It was only a matter of time.

However, the electronic edition of Motorsport News this week points out that the deal is only for one year.

V8 Supercars chairman Tony Cochrane has backed off on his threat that the V8 Supercar races from Melbourne's Albert Park not be screened on GP (and former V8 Supercar) telecast Channel 10.

Indeed, there is a question about what position Cochrane will have in the sport by next year, with his term apparently expiring at the end of this year -- and moves for a new chairman, with a big push for former federal politician John Hewson (although there are forces against him too).

To ensure the attendance of the V8 Supercars, the GP has surrendered its once sacrosanct "pole position" on the Formula 1 calendar.

It will be on March 13-16 next year, with indications that Bahrain will be the opening race.

From 2009 Abu Dhabi is set to be the opening round of the world championship.

Melbourne's race will start at 3.30pm next year, instead of the usual 2pm.

That apparently equates to a 4.30am start on British television, and 5.30am in continental Europe.

It is a partial compromise to F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone wanting a night race, which would create substantial extra costs for an event already estimated to have lost $35 million this year.

Victorian tourism minister Tim Holding insists his government wants to extend the F1 contract beyond its 2010 expiry, but our guess is that the chances of that happening are diminishing.

Although we suspect Ecclestone will not be entirely happy with everything in Melbourne, he and his organisation may be happy to keep getting a race sanction fee from Victoria each year -- as, it seems, he now is in France.

The recent French GP at Magny-Cours was, according to Ecclestone at the time, going to be the last there, but European reports now say he is agreeable to it continuing for another year or two.

Meanwhile, Ecclestone may have a new American ally if he is to keep F1 alive in the US after the collapse of the Indianapolis arrangement.

The car manufacturers that own or bankroll most of the F1 teams certainly want a US foothold retained.

Stan Kroenke is an American sports mogul who is keen to add a Champ Car event around the streets of Denver to his portfolio of gridiron, baseball and ice hockey teams.

While Ecclestone denies knowing Kroenke, they have a mutual friend involved in London's Arsenal soccer club -- and both have mentioned in recent talk of a takeover of that club.

McLaren continues to insists that none of that Ferrari information has found its way on to the MP4-22 McLaren-Mercedes cars of Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso, although paddock rumors suggest the FIA has enough proof to throw the book at McLaren.

Reports from Spain suggest dual world champion Alonso, now only 2 points behind Hamilton in this year's championship, will be free to leave McLaren if the team is found guilty.

There is a chance Nigel Stepney, the British mechanic/engineer sacked by Ferrari in the case, may go public with names of former colleagues he claims have conspired against him before the world motorsport council hearing gets underway.

There are reports Speed was virtually assaulted by Scuderia Toro Rosso team principal Franz Tost after he spun out of the European GP at Nurburgring.

Although Tost apparently spent 15 minutes apologizing to Speed, the relationship between the team and Speed has clearly broken down.

And the relationship between Toro Rosso and Italian driver Vitantonio Liuzzi is not much better.

Without a US GP next year, Speed is probably seen -- in the thankless world of F1 -- as dispensable.

France's triple Champ Car champions Sebastien Bourdais is in Toro Rosso's sights.

There is talk now that Bourdais may race in both F1 and Champ Car for the rest of this year.

It seems the only clash would be the Gold Coast Indy, by which time he may have a fourth Champ Car title wrapped up anyway.

After four wins from eight races, he is now 20 points ahead of Team Minardi USA's Robert Doornbos and 25 clear of Australia's Will Power.

The other driver in Toro Rosso's sights is German youngster Sebastien Vettel, the BMW-Sauber test driver who raced in the US GP in place of Robert Kubica.

Vettel already has a personal Red Bull sponsorship.

Toro Rosso is Italian for Red Bull. The team, originally Minardi, is jointly owned by Red Bull tycoon Dietrich Matezitch and former GP racer Gerhard Berger.

Dixon has won three races on the trot -- the latest of them on the Mid-Ohio road course in Lexington.

With five races remaining, Franchitti has 474 points to Dixon's 450.

The next round is at Michigan International Speedway on August 5.

Danica Patrick qualified on the front row at Lexington but was bumped by Andretti Green teammate Tony Kanaan at the start and finished fifth -- her best on a road course.

Kanaan was even more unkind to another of his teammates, Marco Andretti, who he flipped in the mayhem at the start.

"It's a bummer when people act that way on starts and things just get crazy," says 20-year-old Andretti, whose father Michael owns the team with Aussie Kim Green.

Perhaps not a career-enhancing move for Kanaan.

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