MOTORSPORT: DJR still in turmoil

Courtney tries to focus on championship tilt
It's more than a week since Bathurst and less than a week now until the Armor All Gold Coast 600, yet still the ownership of Jim Beam/Dick Johnson Racing has not been clarified.

The poisonous rift within Australia's oldest touring car team continues, with speculation rampant that the deal for mining magnate Nathan Tinkler to buy forklift entrepreneur Charlie Schwerkolt's half share of the team has collapsed.

James Courtney leads the V8 Supercar Championship for the team and wants to concentrate on that campaign rather than be distracted by the politics within the team. However, Courtney is believed to have an "out" clause in his contract allowing him to depart if Schwerkolt is not involved in the team.

Team manager/sporting director Adrian Burgess may be in a similar situation and there is talk of a mass exodus of crew at the end of the season.

Courtney is being linked to a move to Gold Coast-based Paul Morris Motorsport, although there could be an opening for him at the Holden Racing Team if -- as expected -- Will Davison switches to Ford Performance Racing.

The V8 Supercar Australia board approved Tinkler taking over Schwerkolt's stake in DJR before Bathurst, but it seems that Tinkler may have gone cold on the deal.

Schwerkolt saved DJR from extinction in early 2008 and, apart from improving its financial position, is said to have been instrumental in its deals with manufacturer Ford, sponsor Jim Beam and V8 Supercar constructor Triple Eight -- which also built and ran the Holden Commodores that finished one-two at Bathurst eight days ago.

Courtney and co-driver Warren Luff finished fifth there in the first Ford to cross the line.

It is now 10 days since Jim Beam Racing issued the following statement at Bathurst:

"There has been considerable speculation regarding Jim Beam Racing and a rumoured rift between co-owners Dick Johnson and Charlie Schwerkolt... An agreement has been entered into for a change of ownership at DJR, the details of which are confidential and will be disclosed at the appropriate time... No further comment will be made by Dick Johnson, Charlie Schwerkolt, or team members at this stage."

DJR endured a couple of years of turmoil before Schwerkolt's rescue.

A couple of weeks of this latest upheaval has been more than enough. For the good of the team, and the sport, hopefully it can be resolved soon -- preferably before this weekend's Gold Coast round of the championship, which takes on a fresh new look with the 18 international drivers.

Stewards say Holdsworth the pitlane offender at Bathurst
There's another twist in the tale of No33 Fujitsu Racing/Garry Rogers Motorsport Commodore speeding in the pitlane at Bathurst after having led the race and being in line for a podium finish.

While David Besnard drove a heroic stint at the Mountain but has been portrayed as the offender and been dropped from GRM's line-up for the Gold Coast race, the Bathurst stewards officially listed GRM's lead driver Lee Holdsworth as the man responsible for breaking the 40km/h pitlane limit.

This came to light in a report by Briar Gunther for BigPond Sport and published on the V8 Supercar website. In it Chief Steward Steve Chopping is quoted saying: "Our belief was it was Lee Holdsworth.

"The officials are properly briefed, the equipment is accurate and I doubt team data [which pointed to Besnard] would be able to tell us to the few metres involved whether it was on entry [Besnard] or exit [Holdsworth]."

However, Holdsworth said: "The [team] data shows that Besnard was in second gear in pitlane.

"The stewards can argue about it all they like, but there is nothing quite like the facts... They have made a mistake, full stop. Now let's get on with life!"

Team owner Garry Rogers did not comment beyond confirming that the team data showed Besnard was the pitlane speedster.

"I can't really comment at the moment, as much as I'd like to," he said.

Petty driver's gripes ominous for Ambrose?
Jamie McMurray held off Kyle Busch to win the weekend's NASCAR Sprint Cup round at Charlotte, while champion of the past four years Jimmie Johnson was third, Johnson now has a 41-point lead in The Chase ahead of Denny Hamlin, who was fourth at Charlotte.

Australia's Marcos Ambrose finished 16th in his sixth last race for JTG Daugherty -- but there may have been a big warning from Charlotte of what's ahead for him when he moves to Richard Petty Motorsports next season.

Kasey Kahne, the highly-rated young American stock car racer now with the Petty team but set to move to Red Bull Racing next season and then the all-conquering Hendrick Motorsports in 2012, shed a lot of light on the state of RPM. Kahne vomited during the Charlotte race and a substitute driver, J.J. Yeley, completed it in his place, but Kahne erupted over brake issues at RPM he called "a mess" and "a joke".

NASCAR bulletin SceneDaily reported: "Brake issues that have plagued him [Kahne] periodically throughout the year cropped up again Saturday, leaving him with no brakes and having to lift off the gas and coast through the corners.

"Eventually he wrecked while two laps down on lap 124... The team fixed the car, but Kahne, who had thrown up, didn't want to continue driving a car more than 100 laps down."

Kahne, who it is speculated may move to Red as early as this week's race at Martinsville, believes the brake fluid RPM uses has caused his problems.

"I completely lost my brakes for the third time this year and the second time in three weeks," he said. He also was angry at criticism of him by an RPM team member, although he would not name his critic.

"I was told that I needed to start doing my part, is what one guy told me last night after the race... I can't control the issues I've had this year.

"I don't know how many parts I've broke, how many shifter handles, control arms, blowers, brakes... If I really thought about it, I could come up with all kinds of stuff... You can't control that as a driver. I'm doing my part. I just need the car."

As we have reported here before, RPM is only a shadow of the team from the days of Richard 'The King' Petty winning 200 races. For Ambrose's sake, let's hope things are better next season than Kahne paints them this year.

Incidentally, McMurray's victory at Charlotte was his third this season for Chip Ganassi's team. The other two were the Daytona 500 and The Brickyad 400 at Indianapolis. The first of his six career Cup victories also was at Charlotte in 2002.

NASCAR Sprint Cup standings after race 31 of 36 rounds: Jimmie Johnson (Chevrolet) 5843 points; Denny Hamlin (Toyota) 5802; Kevin Harvick (Chevrolet) 5766; Jeff Gordon (Chevrolet) 5687; Kyle Busch (Toyota) 5666; Tony Stewart (Chevrolet) 5666; Carl Edwards (Ford) 5643; Greg Biffle (Ford) 5618; Kurt Busch (Dodge) 5606; Jeff Burton (Chevrolet) 5604; Matt Kenseth (Ford) 5587; Clint Bowyer (Chevrolet) 5543. Australia's Marcos Ambrose (Toyota) is 26th with 2981 points.

Finally, and also from America, Roger Penske's racing lieutenant Tim Cindric's end-of-season blog... It's a lesson for teams in how to communicate professionally with fans.

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