MOTORSPORT: Finally the year hits top gear
It's the biggest motor racing weekend of the year so far, even though none of the big events are on the Australian mainland. V8 Supercars at a new track in NZ, Targa Tasmania, Champ Car, IndyCar, the Dakar substitute, and Marcos Ambrose trying to salvageBrakes, bumps, rain - the posers in NZ's new V8 Supercar round
It's mid-April but the year in motorsport seems so far to have been very stop-start. Well, that ought to change this weekend.
The V8 Supercar Championship resumes at New Zealand's new Hamilton street circuit after more than a month's break and a non-championship return to the Australian Grand Prix.
Targa Tasmania is in full swing and concludes on Sunday.
It is an historic weekend for American open-wheeler racing, with the swansong for Champ Car at Long Beach in California while the troupe that retained the name Indy throughout the great divide has a round in Japan.
While the 12-year split that, apart from everything else, opened the door for NASCAR to overwhelm open-wheeler racing in the States should finally be put behind everyone, starting this weekend will be the Central Europe Rally -- an abbreviated "raid" through Hungary and Romania brought on in a hurry as a replacement for the Dakar Rally cancelled earlier this year because of terrorism concerns.
And, while NASCAR's Sprint Cup has a breather, American stock car racing's second-tier Nationwide Series in which Marcos Ambrose competes is off to Mexico.
Mosley out of rounds
The following weekend it's the Spanish Formula 1 Grand Prix in Barcelona, but Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) president Max Mosley won't be there.
Instead he will be going to Jordan for that country's debut in the World Rally Championship.
For Mosley, still fighting to retain his position in the wake of revelations of his weird sex orgy in London last month, Jordan will be much more hospitable as its motoring and motorsport governors are among the minority who have supported him throughout his recent troubles.
Mosley's absence from the Spanish GP will mean he will miss the launch of the FIA's anti-racism campaign in Barcelona, born out of abuse of Lewis Hamilton there during pre-season testing.
Meanwhile, sponsorship experts are now publicly doubting the fears raised, most notably by long-time Mosley foe Sir Jackie Stewart, about the prospect of motorsport, and F1 in particular, losing corporate support over Mosley's behaviour.
A few other developments before we turn to this weekend's action:
- The takeover of the Super Aguri F1 team has collapsed, raising doubts the Japanese-controlled, Honda-connected team will make it to the Spanish GP. The deal was to have been consummated by the end of last month with Magma, an entity headed by Martin Leach, a former president of Ford Europe, ex-chief executive of Maserati and ex-managing director of Mazda Japan. Negotiations are said to be continuing with other parties, but the situation looks grim and we would not be surprised if F1 is back down to 10 teams very soon.
- German youngster Sebastian Vettel is now being strongly touted for a move to Red Bull Racing from the energy drink's secondary team, Scuderia Toro Rosso, next year -- obviously as a replacement for the veteran David Coulthard. What that would mean is that Australian Mark Webber, provided he retains his Red Bull seat, would have the kid who crashed into him at last year's Japanese GP, and about whom he was initially so scathing, as his teammate. Our recollection is that Webber softened his comments on Vettel a few days after the Japanese incident, but in any case the chemistry will be interesting if the experienced Aussie, frustrated by miserable results for most of his F1 career, is paired with a youngster who may just be something special.
- With speculation bubbling about a Sydney grab for Melbourne's GP, and talk of trying to stage the race under lights at Eastern Creek, the Australian Racing Drivers' Club has retained Apex Design to advise on a possible major upgrade at the Creek. Perhaps the time is ripe for such an upgrade, but we find it hard to contemplate the venue ever hosting F1.
Positivity is abundant about this new round and, as we said here last week, let there be no doubt that there will be a bumper crowd and it's a good thing to see a new long-term venue for the V8s in NZ even though we are circumspect about the financial wisdom of street events.
There's been rain in the Hamilton area in recent days with the prospect of more over the weekend.
Temperatures are cold and the temporary track will not only be "green" -- that is, not have an established, permanent circuit's advantages from regular usage, rather than any particular environmental friendliness -- but is expected to be bumpy and exceptionally hard on brakes for the Falcons and Commodores.
It promises to be a cocktail for excitement -- and hopefully nothing more than plenty of that.
Drivers have everything to race for at this stage of the season and at a new venue, so let's hope no "teething troubles" arise to preclude that.
Fords have made most of the running this year but Kiwi favorite son Greg Murphy has had a phenomenal record in the previous NZ rounds at Pukekohe and has a brand new Commodore for Hamilton.
Already this season Murphy has been showing signs of a return to his form of yesteryear -- he's the General's third top driver to date -- and the series could do with him back at the very pointy end of the field.
Murphy has been dismissive of 'Enforcer' Russell Ingall's prediction of a crashfest this weekend, but that stance may have been driven by perceived domestic (NZ) political pressures -- although Murphy is not renowned for political correctnesss and diplomacy.
We expect him to be very much centre stage this weekend, not only because of his enormous popularity with the Kiwi fans but a new car that may elevate Tasman Motorsports to the top rung.
The home environment could also bring out the best in Murphy's teammate, Jason Richards, but the Kiwi to watch out for at this round may just be teenager Shane Van Gisbergen in his Stone Brothers Falcon.
The weight of numbers of Aussie drivers, though, and the form of the likes of Jamie Whincup, Will Davison, Lee Holdsworth, the Kelly brothers and reigning champion Garth Tander most likely will produce an Aussie victor over the course of the weekend.
Townsville mayor Les Tyrell will be there seeing how a V8 Supercar round works on a street circuit ahead of the start of construction of the North Queensland city's Reid Park facilities ahead of a new round next year.
Financial details are still being finalised with the Queensland government.
And we hear that the future of the West Australian round is close to being known, with V8 Supercars Australia not wanting to go back to Wanneroo/Barbagallo beyond this year but the WA government cool on the idea of a Perth street race.
V8 Supercar Championship points after the first two of 14 rounds -- Jamie Whincup (Ford) 540, Rick Kelly (Holden) 432, Lee Holdsworth (H) 426, Mark Winterbottom (F) 382, Will Davison (F) 356, Craig Lowndes (F) 339, Greg Murphy (H) 330, Garth Tander (H) 326, Mark Skaife (H) 322, Todd Kelly (H) 308.
Usual suspects up front at Targa
In Targa Tasmania eight-time winner Jim Richards is the leader in the early stages in his 2008 Porsche 911 GT2, narrowly ahead of South Australian Steve Glenney in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9 and Tony Longhurst in a Les Walkden Rallying-prepared Subaru Impreza WRX STI.
It's very much as we had anticipated in that modern section so far, with just 4 seconds between that leading trio.
In the classic competition last year's winner Rex Broadbent is dominating in his 1974 Porsche 911 RS, while in the showroom two-wheel-drive category the Mazda3 MPSs of Rick Bates and Alister McRae are out in front of dual national rally champion Simon Evans' Toyota TRD Aurion.
It's sad that the flawed and ultimately failed concept be associated with Gurney, but we've come across an interesting perspective from him this week.
"Indy racing had more potential in 1979 than NASCAR and had open-wheel (racing) been given equal leadership, IndyCar would still be bigger today than NASCAR," Gurney said.
"Now it's just limping along -- and that's one of the great crimes of the ages."
Hopefully the recent reunification, which will be able to be completed once this weekend's dual events are out of the way, will see American single-seater racing return to something approaching what it ought to be -- a spectacle and a genuine alternative to F1.
American writer Robin Miller this week reflected on more than 450 CART/Champ Car races and the halcyon days of the Andrettis, Al Unser Junior, Emerson Fittipaldi, Rick Mears, Nigel Mansell, Juan Pablo Montoya, Paul Tracy, and Alex Zanardi.
But Miller concluded: "The on-track product was doomed because car owners can't run the store. Never have, never will."
Perhaps a salutary lesson there for the V8 Supercar fraternity.
Australia has two drivers in the top echelon of American open-wheelers these days -- Will Power and Ryan Briscoe.
Power will be with KV Racing this weekend at Long Beach, which -- despite some attempts to give the title to Surfers Paradise -- has been the crown jewel in Champ Car.
Briscoe is in Japan with Penske Racing for the Indy 300 at Twin Ring Motegi, which has a tricky oval on which drivers need to change down through the turns.
Briscoe needs to open his account there with a decent result as his Brazilian teammate, Helio Castroneves, is leading the IndyCar series after being the only driver to have finished both of the first two rounds in Florida in the top five.
Dakar Series starts Sunday
The Central Europe Rally, the first event to qualify for the newly-created Dakar Series, starts in Budapest, Hungary, on Sunday and has a 2600km route, including about 1100km of competition divided into seven special stages in Hungary and Romania.
The stages range in length from 100km to 320km -- the longest being a loop around the Romanian spa town BaiaI Mare.
The seven-day rally finishes on the shores of Hungary's Lake Balaton on Saturday, April 26.
Incidentally, next year's Dakar marathon is being planned for Argentina and Chile.
His record so far this year is:
Round 1 -- 39th in Camping World 300 at Daytona International Speedway in Florida
Round 2 -- 22nd in the Stater Bros 300 at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California
Round 3 -- 28th in Sam's Town 300 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in Las Vegas, Nevada
Round 4 -- 11th in the Nicorette 300 at Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, Georgia
Round 5 -- 19th rain-shortened Sharpie Mini 300 at Bristol Motor Speedway in Tennessee
Round 6 -- 23rd in the Pepsi 300 at Nashville Superspeedway in Tennessee
Round 7 -- 18th in the O'Reilly 300 at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth
Round 8 -- 17th in the Bashas Supermarkets 200 at Phoenix, Arizona
Ambrose is 17th in the championship this season in his Ford Fusion. After eight rounds last year he was eighth.
Asked this week to assess his season and where his team is headed, Ambrose said:
"We've underperformed so far this year, and we're trying to turn that around desperately.
"It's confidence, it's people around you and it's just getting the runs on the board and growing.
"I feel like I've been treading water here since the start of the season, and I'm looking forward to making it better."
Australian fans, even from the Holden side, would like, we are sure, to see Ambrose succeed in NASCAR -- none more so than us.
However, as we have pointed out here before, we have grave doubts that the once-great Wood Brothers outfit is the team for him to be trying to do it with.
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