MOTORSPORT: Firing, hiring, finances and now racing

After a couple of weeks where firing, hiring and financials dominated the headlines, Supercars return to the track this weekend as the championship roadshow returns to Winton Raceway in country Victoria.

Walkinshaw Racing’s performance will be heavily scrutinised following last week’s decision to sack team principal Adrian Burgess. The Englishman, in his fourth year at the team - following a high-profile and lucrative poaching from Triple Eight Race Engineering - was relieved of duties after Walkinshaw’s horror start to the year.

His exit was hinted at by the team’s lead driver James Courtney when he spent the WA races a fortnight ago scrabbling around at the back of the field.

Behind the cheeky and cheery façade, Courtney plays politics as ruthlessly as any driver and it would not surprise if he was at least consulted by team owner Ryan Walkinshaw before Burgess got the bullet.

The irony in all this is Courtney and Burgess go way back to Formula Three racing in Europe. In fact it was Courtney who lured Burgess to Australia to manage the old Dick Johnson Racing squad and together they won the 2010 Supercars championship.

Burgess’ time at Walkinshaw Racing has not been a success. He has been unable to bridge the performance deficit to Triple Eight and his attempts to find a cure through engineering fixes and personnel reshuffles looked increasingly knee-jerk.

It all culminated last year in the loss of Holden’s funding money - and the Holden Racing Team title - which transferred to Triple Eight from 2017.

If there is any consolation, Burgess would be aware a forced departure from Walkinshaw Racing management isn’t rare and by no means a career death sentence.

His predecessor Steve Hallam, a fellow Brit, went on to win the Bathurst 1000 with Tekno Autosports and now works for Toyota Racing Developments in North America.

Hallam’s predecessor, Australian Craig Wilson, now runs the high-performance spin-off of the Williams Formula One team, Williams Advanced Engineering, in Britain.

Burgess’ interim replacement is Matt ‘Techo’ Nilsson, a Supercars and Walkinshaw stalwart (apart from a stint with Prodrive Racing Australia), who has engineered both championship and Bathurst wins. Nilsson is an inclusive team player who will bring a sense of calm to the highly-charged atmosphere.

But he alone is not the solution for an organisation in need of more engineering and financial resources if it is to start moving in the right direction once more, let alone recapture its glory days.

While Burgess went out the door, Craig Lowndes’ relationship with Triple Eight was extended on a full-time basis for another two years out to the end of 2019.

The category’s most popular driver joined T8 in 2005 and is still highly competitive. Just as importantly, Lowndes remains a merchandising bonanza for his backers.

Speaking of money, the other off-track issue of the moment centres on the plans of private equity company Archer Capital to sell its 65 per cent majority share of Supercars.

Archer bought-in to the sport for close to $200 million in 2011 is reportedly looking for $80 to $100 million to exit. So you wouldn’t classify the exercise as a financial success.

News Corp Australia is understood to be one of five potential bidders for the company via a process being managed by investment bank UBS. Non-bindng indicative bids were due to be made earlier this week.

Other potential bidders named were formers Supercars owner SEL and Ticketek owners TEG. Team owners are also said to be mulling a bid.

News’ interest make sense as its pay TV network Fox Sports (co-owned with Telstra) televises the championship and paid $241 million for six years (along with Network 10) for the broadcasting rights. Buying the majority share of the entire sport for less than the price of its TV rights? Sounds OK.

Completing the process is likely to take several months.

Meanwhile, on the track, expect more strong form from emerging championship leader Fabian Coulthard and WA double-winner Scott McLaughlin this weekend in their DJR Team Penske Ford Falcons.

Winton was one of DJRTP’s best circuits last year and the team has lifted its game appreciably since then.

By contrast, arch-rival Triple Eight, racing as the Red Bull Holden Racing Team, traditionally struggles at Winton, which is not good news for drivers Shane van Gisbergen and Jamie Whincup.

So don’t be surprised if another team has a shot this weekend.

Given the past and present form of both Chaz Mostert and Mark Winterbottom, expect the PRA Falcons to be close to the leading pace. Brad Jones Racing’s Tim Slade scored a breakthrough double win here last year and could surprise again. His team-mate Nick Percat could also be a player.

Nissan Motorsport desperately needs to find some form and, as Winton is the team’s test track, the venue mid-way between Melbourne and Albury could provide the stage for a strong performance. For once, Nisan’s Swiss rookie Simona de Silvestro’s won’t be starting from scratch learning a circuit so she has a great chance to be best chance to be on the pace.

Privateer Commodore teams Garry Rogers Motorsport (Garth Tander and James Moffat) and Erebus Motorsport (David Reynolds and Dale Wood) could also be in the mix to be on the podium .

Weather could also play a role in determining results. Heavy rain is forecast at least for Saturday.

Here’s what to watch out for this weekend:
>>Winton debuts the new Supercars wildcard entry system. Shae Davie, James Golding and Macauley Jones (son of Brad) step up for this weekend, so the starting grid is extended to 29 cars.

>>Taz Douglas returns in the second LDM Commodore for Winton after Matt ‘grandson of Jack’ Brabham drove the car in Perth two weekends ago.

>>The Winton SuperSprint comprises the ninth and 10th races of the 2017 Virgin Australia Supercars Championship. It includes practice on Friday; practice, qualifying and one 120km race on Saturday plus qualifying and a 200km race on Sunday. The cars race on the Dunlop super-soft tyre.

>>The clockwise 3.00km circuit has a top speed of 225km/h. Average speed is 131km/h. Since last year’s resurfacing there has been more patching in corners where the surface crumbled.

>>Chaz Mostert set the qualifying lap record in 2016 on a brand new surface in the Supercheap Ford Falcon FG X at 1m 18.7603 sec. Fabian Coulthard set the race lap record last year in a DJR Team Penske Ford at 1m 19.7092 sec.

>>John Bowe and Glenn Seton share the most race wins at Winton with five each. Mostert and team-mate Mark Winterbottom both have the most pole positons with four.

>>The 2015 Supercars champion Mark Winterbottom celebrates his 36th birthday this weekend at a circuit where he has had seven podium finishes in his last seven starts.

>>Scott McLaughlin will make championship race start number 150 at Winton.

>>A safety car hasn’t made an appearance during a championship race since Symmons Plains in Tassie, but there’s likely to be one at Winton as it has been called out at least once every year since 1999.

>>Fox Sports will show the action live. Ten and ONE will show highlights on Saturday and Sunday.