MOTORSPORT: Forget No 4 for now; No 2's in reverse

V8 Supercar chairman Tony Cochrane and Car of the Future project leader Mark Skaife still claim there could be a fourth or even fifth brand in Australia’s premier race series next year, although it’s doubtful they’ll be on the grid at the start of the season.

But what the Mercedes kerfuffle has overshadowed is that one of the two stalwart manufacturers of V8 Supercar racing, Ford, is scaling back its involvement. It confirmed that to Dick Johnson Racing (DJR), which it has backed (with the exception of 2009) since 1980, and Stone Brothers (SBR), which it has supported since 2001.

And Ford is remaining tight-lipped publicly on what remaining factory support those two teams will have next year.

Ford’s backing of the Prodrive-run Ford Performance Racing is assured until the end of next season, but it is becoming increasingly clear (and acknowledged by Prodrive chief David Richards) that beyond then FPR will have to stand largely on its own feet.

Indications are FPR is rounding up the major sponsorship to ensure that, but the picture is not as bright for DJR and SBR. They will need to lock in similar major long-term sponsorship to survive.

And it may not be too many years before there are ownership changes at those teams, simply because of the ages of the team principals.

Indeed, the spotlight has been on the future ownership structure of SBR this week, with it named as the team that was earmarked to run the proposed Mercedes entry, or entries, in association with Erebus Racing, which fields two SLS GT3 Mercs in the Australian GT Championship.

Mercedes-Benz Australia effectively vetoed Erebus’ talks with Mercedes’ German-based specialist tuning arm and operator of its Customer Sports program.

M-B Australia said it had “thoroughly investigated” the possibility of Mercedes engines and bodyshells being entered in the V8 Supercar Championship but “resolved that we will not be proceeding with it as it is not a ‘fit’ with the Australian and New Zealand branding positioning”.

M-B Australia said it had not had any direct talks with SBR.

There is a whisper that the Erebus plan may have been broached with another V8 Supercar team too, perhaps Kelly Brothers (already committed to fielding Nissan Altimas). No sign of any direct talks between M-B Australia and that team either.

“We are not interested in V8 Supercars – we already have a Car of the Future and it’s called a Mercedes-Benz,” M-B Australia spokesman David McCarthy said.

V8 Supercar honcho Tony Cochrane took great exception at the collapse of the Mercedes V8 Supercar proposal being portrayed as a failure for his organisation.

“We didn’t get knocked back, Erebus did,” Cochrane told AAP.

“It’s not V8 Supercars that goes and doorknocks the manufacturer – we don’t race the cars.

“What we do, have done and continue to do, with various teams, is go and stand alongside them to represent V8 Supercar at the table in a negotiation between the team and the manufacturer.

“We paint the overall V8 Supercar story and the team paints their story of how they want the manufacturer to be involved or not be involved.”

Except that, in the Mercedes case, there is no evidence that a team with a V8 Supercar franchise was at the negotiating table with M-B Australia on the Erebus proposal.

Cochrane insisted there were still “some other very, very big conversations that are going on at the moment … with at least two manufacturers”.

Mazda and Hyundai/Kia continue to be the subject of speculation, with SBR’s name constantly linked to the Koreans – although the team has always insisted it would continue racing Fords next season.

Cochrane also said in the wake of the Mercedes news: “If we just end up the three [manufacturers] we’ve got [for 2013], we’re very happy”.

But in another 15 months’ time it’s not hard to envisage that, while there might still be Falcons on track, the manufacturer Ford won’t be participating.

NASCAR down to three manufacturers too
America’s major race series, NASCAR, will have only three makes next year – Chevrolet, Ford and Toyota – after the pull-out announced this week by Dodge.

With its last remaining team, Penske Racing, defecting to Ford next season, Dodge could not find another with sufficient sponsorship to mount an adequate Sprint Cup campaign. It had talks with its legendary former driver, Richard 'The King” Petty, now running Fords (including for Australian Marcos Ambrose) as well as Front Row Motorsports and IndyCar team owner, Michael Andretti.

Having spent two years developing a new Charger for next season before aborting the project, Dodge’s chief motorsport executive Ralph Gilles said: “We really, really are concerned about our fans’ happiness factor … we’re just as devastated as everyone else.”

Despite a previous 20-year pull-out, Dodge has won 215 NASCAR Cup races since 1953 – including 55 since its return in 2001 and three this season by Penske’s Brad Keselowski, who stands seventh in the championship.

Among its wins over the years have been four Daytona 500s, six Coca-Cola 600s in Charlotte, a Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis and the first race at Talladega in 1969, plus six titles with five drivers and two manufacturer crowns.

Richard Petty said of Dodge’s withdrawal: “I don’t know what it says about the sport. And what does it say about where the sport is at right now that a manufacturer chooses to leave.”

In three previous Cup starts at the Glen he was second once and third twice – leading two of those races.

Ambrose’s crew chief Todd Parrott said this week: “The key to getting around Watkins Glen is having Marcos Ambrose as our driver.

“The biggest challenge we will face this weekend at Watkins Glen is making sure we stay on the race rack and take care of the brakes and the transmission.

"Pit strategy will be key as this race typically comes down to two or three stops. Last year we had to make three pit stops because our mileage wouldn't allow us to do it in fewer. This year we are hoping with the new EFI systems our mileage will be better and we will be able to make it in the preferred two stops.”

While Ambrose, 18th in the championship is renowned in NASCAR as the best road course racer, reigning Cup champion Tony Stewart has won at the Glen five times in the past 10 years.

And last weekend’s victor at Pocono’s “Tricky Triangle”, Jeff Gordon, is a four-time winner at the Glen, but not since 2001.

Having had to dump his second Sprint Cup driver, A J Allmendinger, after a positive drug test, Penske now has the embarrassment of two sons being arrested over a break-in at the Nantucket Yacht Club (near the even more famous Cape Cod, Massachusetts) after two women claimed they had been assaulted in the club’s carpark.

One of the sons is Jay Penske, 33, owner of Dragon Racing – a part-time IndyCar team for which Australian Ryan Briscoe once raced in the Indianapolis 500 – as well as chief executive of the hugely successful digital media company PMC. The other is Mark Penske, 35.

Nantucket’s The Inquirer and Mirror newspaper reported that a woman had claimed one of the Penske sons was urinating in the carpark and, when confronted, “turned and continued to urinate on her boots”.

The women also were alleged to have been pushed before the men ran to the yacht club. After being arrested they spent the night in the Nantucket Police Department’s lock-up.

While the women have not pressed assault charges, the Penskes are to face a hearing on August 20 on charges of breaking and entering the yacht club with intent to commit a misdemeanour.

Meanwhile, dumped driver Allmendinger -- now in NASCAR’s “Road to Recovery” drug rehabilitation program - has revealed the substance he tested positive to was Adderall. Allmendinger claimed the drug was in an “energy pill” given to him by a friend when he complained of feeling tired.

Adderall is a prescription drug used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

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