MOTORSPORT: Hallowed is the mountain

One big, long, special day - that's Bathurst's Great Race
Sunday can't come fast enough: the Bathurst 1000, the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 these days. If the Melbourne Cup for horses is the race that stops the nation, this is a variation of it.

Bathurst is the one motor race each year that attracts the attention of lots of Australians who might otherwise not take any interest in touring car (or V8 Supercar) racing throughout the season.

While in that sense it is similar to the Cup, it is also quite different. The horses cover the two miles at Flemington in just a few minutes, while the 1000km at Mt Panorama on Sunday will take more than six hours.

It's a lot easier, obviously, to grab and keep the attention of the once-a-year fan, or punter, for a short horse race than an endurance car race. While motorsport's true believers will either be at Mt Panorama or glued all day to a television on Sunday -- probably with a bunch of mates -- many hundreds of thousands more will catch a 'slab' of the telecast at the start, the finish or somewhere in between. Perhaps even a few 'slabs'. And thoroughly enjoy it, no doubt.

The Bathurst 1000 is an event of which any Australian, and especially an Australian who loves motorsport, is entitled to feel immensely proud. It is held at a genuinely iconic circuit, on roads at other times used by the public. There is nothing else on earth like this place for a race -- up and down the side of a mountain more than 160 times for those who make it to the finish.

The circuit, the location, the 300m climb and descent in each lap, the atmosphere (with lots of the best and a bit of the worst of Aussie culture), the cars (just two makes these days) and the drivers, old and young; even the weather, have made it The Great Race. So bring it on.

But while we see comparisons with the Melbourne Cup there is one mighty big difference. And that's the way the Cup captivates the nation in the days leading up to the running of the race, in an even bigger way than the AFL and NRL grand finals. Bathurst alas doesn't.

In the days counting down to the Cup people who at other times have no interest in horse racing are making their selections of what to back on that first Tuesday in November. The press is full of material for friends, families and workplaces to have sweeps on the Cup. There is a fever in the air.

In contrast the lead-up to Bathurst is generally dull. Unfortunately it often takes a big, spectacular, even nasty crash to turn the spotlight sharply on the Bathurst lead-up. Or a sensational lap, as we saw from Greg Murphy five years ago.

This year the countdown to the Great Race has been exceptionally dull - at least as we write, on Friday morning.

Is it that the V8 Supercar scene and key players are dull? Is it the media's fault? Is it that the event is away from the Big Smoke? Is it the promoter's fault? Perhaps a bit of all of that.

If it is unduly the latter of those possibilities, the promoter, then that is a real worry -- especially looking ahead to the new Sydney 400 at Homebush in 14 months, presuming the contract actually gets signed.

Anyway, if nothing else, Saturday's Top 10 qualifying shootout will inject some interest into things.

And then, come Sunday, the race will look after itself. It always does. Can anybody remember a bad Bathurst race?

A mate said to us recently that this Bathurst would be decisive for V8 Supercars. He meant that it would be a crucial test of whether the public still had the appetite for watching V8 Falcons and Commodores racing.

At the time our mate mentioned this we didn't see the particular significance; that this was any special crossroads for the sport. But an alarm sounded when we thought back to the raceday crowd at the new Phillip Island 500 four weeks ago being less than 20,000. We dismissed that at the time as something of an aberration, and are still prepared to do so.

We have been studying the size of the television audiences quite closely this season and, while we haven't had the chance to take a detailed look at the Phillip Island television numbers, we gather they were down about 9% on the equivalent V8 Supercar Championship round last year - which was the Sandown 500. If 9% is right then that is not as bad as the downturn in the TV audiences for some other rounds this season.

So we're still not convinced that our mate has it right in thinking this weekend is a particularly critical time for V8 Supercar racing. While not greatly alarmed, though, we shall remain alert for any signs of deteriorating health.

Or, indeed, for signs of V8 Supercars being in improving shape.

One thing always in abundance at this time of year, heading into Bathurst, is facts and figures. Lots of them we find rather mundane these days, but the one of particular interest this year is whether Craig Lowndes and Jamie Whincup can make it three wins in a row at the mountain on Sunday.

The pair would become the first drivers to do it since Peter Brock and Larry Perkins for Holden in 1982-84 (along with John Harvey in 1983).

Incidentally, terrific to see the bronze statue of Brocky finally in place at the mountain. A perpetual reminder of the man who, more than any other, made this event what it is.

The form guide, not just from previous years but the recent Phillip Island enduro -- where they were second -- gives Lowndes and Whincup every chance. There will be quite an irony in it if they complete the Bathurst hat-trick as their Triple 8/Team Vodafone (as pictured) will not have Ford financial support beyond this season.

For those with a fondness for Bathurst stats, 10 fast facts are here

Something we have found curious going into this year's race has been Steven Richards remark: "Realistically there are only three teams in the running."

Richards, who along with Ford Performance Racing teammate Mark Winterbottom is Ford's other main hope this weekend, is usually so measured in everything he says. His top three we assume are himself and Winterbottom, Lowndes and Whincup, and Holden Racing Team's Garth Tander and Mark Skaife.

While rightfully the three most favored pairings, to say there are only three teams in the running is quite unrealistic. Far more realistic is Whincup's assessment that about eight cars have the potential to win the race.

Among them, in our opinion, are Will Davison and Steve Johnson in the No 18 Dick Johnson/Jim Beam Falcon and James Courtney and David Besnard in a Stone Brothers Falcon - both combinations on the podium last year. And why not Rick Kelly and Paul Radisich in an HSV Dealer Team Commodore; or Russell Ingall and Paul Morris in their Supercheap Auto Commodore; or Kiwis Murphy and Jason Richards in their Tasman/Sprint Gas Commodore?

As one of the abovementioned 10 fast facts highlights, the Bathurst-winning car does not necessarily start from the front row of the grid. This is a race tough to win, and - as Skaife says - so easy to lose.

"The great thing about Bathurst is as long as you're somewhere there in the top 10 with an hour to go you're in with a shot," said Garth Tander, this season's championship leader and indeed reigning series champion -- although the focus for everyone at the minute is all on winning Bathurst rather than worrying about the championship.

"There's always traditionally a safety car in that last hour and as we saw last year in the last half hour of the race it got completely turned on its head where one car (the Winterbottom-Richards Falcon), which was leading, took itself out, (and) the lead changed three or four times in the last 10 laps.

"You've got to get to that last hour -- and then you've got to start the race there and, that's what we're looking for."

Aaahhhh. Great anticipation. Great Race. Guaranteed. Bring it on. Fast.

That old distortion on the global television audience
Didn't see the 60 Minutes story on Whincup and Tander last Sunday night. Apparently V8 Supercars Australia had been trying for three years to get up a story on the show, so its perseverance has paid off again. Quite a coup. A top-rating show on the main rival of its race telecaster.

We have, however, seen a transcript of what was said. All sounded pretty puffy.

Whincup described it in a newspaper column he wrote this week as "a fairly honest representation of our sport".

While we're sure no dishonesty was intended, we question the accuracy of something said in the introduction to the story - by a presenter, not either of the drivers featured. This was the statement that: "The V8 races are now beamed into 850 million homes around the world."

This is a propaganda line from V8SA that we've touched on a few times before. V8SA goes to some pains to say, certainly when pressed, that what it is talking about is potential reach rather than actual audience. Just as well too.

Because if V8 Supercar races are being beamed into 850 million homes around the world then, from what we glean, 99% or more of those homes either have their TVs turned off or tuned to other programs when the V8 Supercars are on.

Just yesterday we noticed that the audience for the Phillip Island 500 on Motors TV in Britain was less than 6000 people. Britain's just one market, but it's a big and important one.

And it's a helluva long way from 6000 people to 850,000,000 homes.

Proof Melbourne doesn't need a night GP
On the subject of television figures, some interesting ones this week on Formula 1 telecasts in Britain. The numbers of viewers there for each GP this year have been up about 500,000, boosted no doubt by Brit Lewis Hamilton's success - leading the world championship and looking likely to win the title in his second season.

But what we find particularly interesting, in the context of talk about night racing or a perceived need for night GPs, is where the Australian race stands.

Remember that Melbourne's GP contract has been extended to 2015, seemingly on the basis of it starting at 5pm Australian eastern summer time rather than it going to the night, as F1 chieftan Bernie Ecclestone wanted.

As we reported here earlier in the year, the mid-afternoon replay in Britain of this year's Oz GP drew 3.9 million viewers on ITV.

That was the opening race of the season and, prior to the Singapore night GP two weeks ago (for which we haven't yet seen figures), the Oz GP has only been topped on ITV this year by the British GP (4.53m), the Canadian GP (3.99m) and the Monaco GP (3.98m).

So Melbourne/Oz is No. 4 on a table of 14.

Those numbers - and the report we obtained them from is here and it certainly vindicates Victoria's decision against a night race. (The debate about the size of the F1 global audience is another one altogether, and we don't dwell on that here today - except to say the ITV numbers point to perhaps an average 50 million worldwide rather than the oft-claimed hundreds of millions).

Even though we haven't yet seen the Singapore numbers, the delayed telecast of Melbourne's race is doing comparatively very well against other GPs even though the race's actual start time is not as time-friendly (for a live telecast) for the European audience as Ecclestone would like.

The irony of the numbers in the report to which we have provided the link is that Canada has just been dropped from next year's F1 calendar. The Montreal organisers, who seemingly thought they had a GP sewn up until 2011 after forking out extra money (after tobacco sponsorship was outlawed), were not notified of the decision before the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) announced it midweek.

Something about a "contract problem", Ecclestone said. Has a familiar ring to it that.

While many in Montreal seem resigned to Canada's GP having been lost, it may be simply that Ecclestone is manoeuvring to get any future races there underwritten by government.
Montreal has been one of the most popular stops on the tour with the F1 troupe and its absence next year will leave North America without a GP for the first time in 43 years (the US GP dropped off the calendar this year after eight years at Indianapolis).

This is not a situation that will please the car manufacturers in the sport. But what it emphasises is the reality that it is Ecclestone who must be satisfied first and foremost.

Latest F1 plans disguise Mosley's drive for new term
A lot of noise this week from FIA president Max Mosley about how F1 is perhaps only a year away from imploding financially unless costs are slashed. Mosley and Ecclestone are thus now pushing for a generic F1 engine.

While a generic engine may not greatly affect the F1 spectacle (because the fans don't get to see much, if any, of the engine anyway), this is one proposal that might just turn us off F1. It is one thing for NASCAR to have a generic chassis and competing manufacturers to drop in engines, but surely in F1 a Ferrari ought to run with a Ferrari engine, a McLaren-Mercedes with a Mercedes engine (even if built by Ilmor), a BMW-Sauber with a BMW motor, and Renault with its own powerplant.

And we like the idea of Red Bull Racing having a Renault engine and its "cousin" Toro Rosso having the same chassis but with a Ferrari engine.

Surely this is one thing in F1 that isn't broken, so why does it need "fixing"?

Talk of cost containment sounds terrific, but the manufacturers and private billionaires involved in the sport are, largely, happy to pay whatever it costs to build engines.

Our interpretation of the situation is that it is Mosley, not so many months ago in disgrace over his sex scandal with five hookers, trying to flex his muscles, trying to convince his FIA colleagues that only he has the vision that motorsport, and particularly F1, needs - and that, therefore, he deserves another four-year term in his top job after this term expires in a year's time. Intoxicated on power and determined not to let it go we'd call it.

For the record, the FIA has given Mosley full authority to negotiate with the newly-formed Formula One Teams Association for the introduction of "radical measures to achieve a substantial reduction of costs in the championship from 2010". If agreement can't be reached Mosley will impose what he wants.

More F1 news
A few other F1 matters as the Japanese GP looms at Fuji - the third last round of the world championship, in which McLaren's Lewis Hamilton leads Ferrari's Felipe Massa by seven points.

>> BMW-Sauber is keeping Nick Heidfeld next year as Robert Kubica's teammate. That closes off one option for Fernando Alonso. Perhaps it was Alonso who closed it as he has Renault, Honda and perhaps Red Bull alternatives, leaving Heidfeld as BMW-Sauber's next best option.

Despite the perception the German has been off the boil, since the Canadian GP in June (won by Kubica), Heidfeld has scored the equal third-highest points total of all F1 drivers - behind only Hamilton and Massa and four more than Kubica. Heidfeld is thus fifth in the world championship, eight points behind his third-placed teammate and ahead of Hamilton's teammate, Heikki Kovalainen. Heidfeld also has set the second most fastest laps this season, behind only Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen -- a man seen (rightly) as an even more serious under-performer of late.

Somewhat amazingly, Raikkonen has set the fastest lap in 10 GPs this year - equaling a Michael Schumacher record.

>> It was at Fuji a year ago that Australia's Mark Webber was the best-placed he's ever been in seven years of GP racing to win in F1, until Sebastien Vettel ran into the back of him on a restart in the torrential conditions, out him out of the race. Webber was initially furious with Vettel, but within hours came to realise the youngster had not been as much at fault as he had instantly thought.

How ironic now that Vettel is a GP winner, of the Monza race in Italy last month, in Red Bull's secondary team, Toro Rosso, while Webber is no closer to the top step of the dais. Also, the Red Bull Racing suggestion that an electrical surge in Webber's gearbox in Singapore was caused by train tracks under the circuit have been vigorously dismissed by the city-state's Mass Rapid Transit authority, which has said there were no tracks within 200 metres of where the Red Bull car's gearbox fouled.

>> Webber's teammate David Coulthard, now nearing the end of his long F1 career, claims the underlying pace difference between the Red Bull and Toro Rosso cars (the same chassis, designed by the esteemed Adrian Newey, but those of Webber and Coulthard powered by Renault and the others of Vettel and Sebastien Bourdais with Ferrari motors) is close to half a second a lap in favor of the Toro Rosso (nee Minardi). If it is that much, it says a lot about Ferrari power - and if and how it has increased during the supposed engine freeze.

>>>The revised 2009 F1 calendar announced this week by the FIA has 18 races. March 29 - Australia (Melbourne)
April 5 - Malaysia (Sepang)
April 19 - Bahrain
May 10 - Spain (Barcelona)
May 24 - Monaco
June 7 - Turkey (Istanbul)
June 21 - Britain (Silverstone)
June 28 - France (Magny-Cours)
July 12 - Germany
July 26 - Hungary (Budapest)
August 23 - Europe (Valencia)
August 30 - Belgium (Spa-Francorchamps)
September 13 - Italy (Monza)
September 27 - Singapore
October 11 - Japan
October 18 - China
November 1 - Brazil
November 15 - Abu Dhabi
 
>> Ferrari will revert to a "lollipop" for its pitstops at Fuji this weekend after the communication failure that led to Massa accelerating away with the fuel hose attached in Singapore - something that perhaps cost him the race and maybe the world title.

>>The Bridgestone tyres on the F1 cars at Fuji will have green stripes painted in the four grooves in a token environmental gesture.

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