MOTORSPORT: Heat on V8 Supercar bosses

One-one as Splittergate row intensifies
Another two races in the V8 Supercar Championship gone. Holden and its former champion Garth Tander win one, Ford and reigning champion Jamie Whincup the other, longer, confusing race.

Two more victories for two of the superteams run by foreigners that have come to dominate Australia's major race series.

We've lamented here a few times this foreign domination, wondering whether what we now have is a de faction British touring car championship with Australian drivers, although we admire the standards these superteams have set -- particularly Triple 8 Race Engineering/Team Vodafone.

But the issue that hung over Symmons Plains in Tasmania at the weekend and won't go away is "Splittergate" -- the row over the front air dams on the cars built by Triple 8 -- for itself and its customers. This row erupted at the previous round at Winton and several Holden teams formally protested a couple of weeks later.

CAMS stewards refused to entertain the protest at Symmons Plains last Friday, declaring it way too late. But Holden's Walkinshaw Performance promptly lodged an appeal, which is to be dealt with at CAMS in Melbourne on June 10.

Many in the sport -- and media -- seem to have put the issue in the too hard basket.

Our observation is that the V8 Supercar community has wanted to be totally independent of CAMS for a decade or so now but now that it has a "hard ball" to contest many who so value that independence want to "handball" that hard ball back to CAMS -- and our reading of the situation is that CAMS is reluctant to accept that handball.

Admittedly this is a distant observation, but we have a feeling that CAMS' attitude is that Splittergate is an issue of the making of those in the V8 Supercar paddock who want to be big, independent boys and that in this hour of difficulty those boys ought to sort out their own problems.

And we note a couple of interesting observations in an article on the nearest thing to an official V8 Supercar website by long-time motor racing writer Allan Edwards that "the emphasis has moved from being an eligibility issue to a question of management competence" and that "many in pitlane believe an alleged lack of leadership shown over the issue by the powers-that-be has become a bigger issue than the eligibility of the splitter mount itself". That article in full is here.

We hear that pressure is now building not only on V8 Supercar competition technical director Campbell Little but perhaps the organisation's still relatively new chief executive Cameron Levick. Stay tuned for developments.

The weekend also produced:
>> A big hint that Jamie Whincup is close to deciding his future, with indications he's hoping to combine some form of racing in America with continuing to race in Australia. Might it be following Marcos Ambrose's NASCAR path, starting in the third or second tier series in the US, but continuing to drive the Australian endurance races with Triple 8/Team Vodafone/Craig Lowndes? Fraught with danger, we would have thought.

>> A growing, indeed almost overwhelming feeling from drivers that the 2.4km Symmons Plains needs to be lengthened as part of any upgrade -- which is on the agenda in negotiations for an extension of the circuit's contract to host a round of the championship.

>> The first podium for Kiwi driver Paul Cruickshank Racing/Wilson Security's Fabian Coulthard in Sunday's race -- and it might quite easily even have been second or even first. Great effort.

>> More woe for Ford Performance Racing (should we really continue to consider it a superteam on the basis of its results?) and James Courtney, while his Dick Johnson Racing/Jim Beam teammate Steven Johnson consolidated third place in the championship.

>> The pluck we've come to expect from veteran Russell Ingall, in spades, as well as taking on even more of an elder statesman's spokesman role on the sport's issues.

V8 Supercar Championship standings after eight of 26 races - Jamie Whincup (Ford) 1044 points, Will Davison (Holden) 948, Steven Johnson (F) 753, Lee Holdsworth (H) 723, Garth Tander (H) 720, Craig Lowndes (F) 669, Rick Kelly (H) 627, Fabian Coulthard (F)  606, Shane Van_Gisbergen (F) 600, Mark Winterbottom (F) 573.

Symmons Plains Sunday race top 10 -- Jamie Whincup, Will Davison, Fabian Coulthard, Mark Winterbottom, Lee Holdsworth, Russell Ingall, Jason Bright, Jason Bargwanna, Tim Slade, Michael Patrizi.
 
Symmons Plains Saturday race top 10 -- Garth Tander, Russell Ingall, Steven Johnson, Will Davison, Todd Kelly, Shane Van Gisbergen, Craig Lowndes, Jamie Whincup, Greg Murphy, Lee Holdsworth.

Legislation this week with Rally Oz green light
Barely three months now until the scheduled revival of Australia's World Rally Championship round in northern NSW -- and still a lot of hot potatoes.

The NSW government is to introduce legislation this week for Rally Australia to proceed.

Organisers have welcomed a statement last week by NSW's state development minister Ian Macdonald, who also paved the way for the Sydney 500 V8 Supercar street race in December.

Macdonald's rally statement, with what look like some very dubious numbers (average 51 million TV viewers for a WRC round, which we reckon equates to the average F1 audience of last year, yet the projected economic benefits are a mere fraction of those claimed for F1 races?), is here.

There is a link there to the response of the rally organisers, while a contrary opinion by local newspaper Northern Star editor Sue Short is expressed here.

Another subject on which we shall stay tuned.

Briscoe pipped by Dixon at Milwaukee
Australia's Ryan Briscoe led the most laps in today's IndyCar race at the Milwaukee Mile in Wisconsin, where he won last year, but was pipped by New Zealander Scott Dixon for victory.

Penske driver Briscoe led from laps 26 to 132 and again from Briscoe 154 to 200 before Dixon got by him as they came up on the lapped Tomas Scheckter and Dixon took the lead he held for the remaining 25 laps to win by 2.12 seconds.

Dixon now leads the series -- four points of Briscoe and Dario Franchitti, who are tied for second.

Last week's Indianapolis 500 winner Helio Castroneves had a weekend from hell and wound up 11th.

Graham Rahal finished fourth for Newman-Haas-Lanigan, ahead of Danica Patrick in the best of the Andretti Green cars -- and continuing her consistent top five finishes this year.

The next race is next weekend at Texas Motor Speedway.

IndyCar championship standings -- Scott Dixon 161, Ryan Briscoe 157, Dario Franchitti 157, Danica Patrick 139, Helio Castroneves 136, Dan Wheldon 126, Tony Kanaan 122, Bobby Rahal 114, Marco Andretti 109, Ryan Hunter-Reay 102.
 
NASCAR's Cup king wins but Stewart on top
NASCAR's reigning -- and triple -- Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson scored his second win of the season today at Dover International Raceway.

Johnson's victory ahead of Tony Stewart gave Chevrolet a 1-2 finish -- and Stewart has overtaken another Chevrolet driver, Jeff Gordon, in the championship lead by 46 points.

It is the first time an owner-driver has led the Cup since the late Alan Kulwicki went on to win the title driving his own cars in 1992. However, Stewart is yet to win a race as an owner.

Australia's Marcos Ambrose finished 20th today in his Toyota.

Alex Wurz heads new Formula 1 entrant
Former Williams, McLaren and Benetton Formula 1 driver Alex Wurz has lodged an entry for next year's F1 world championship with a new outfit called Team Superfund.

It joins David Richards' Prodrive, Lola, Campos Meta1 and Team US F1 among new entrants wanting to get on the grid under the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile's plan to introduce budget caps from next season.

Team Superfund is bankrolled by Wurz's Austrian countryman Christian Baha, the founder and owner of investment company Superfund.

It proposes that its cars be powered by the FIA's standard-specification Cosworth engine.

Meanwhile, all the existing F1 teams have submitted conditional entries for next season -- the big condition being that a new Concorde Agreement be signed by all teams, the FIA and F1 commercial rights holder Bernie Ecclestone by June 12.

We can see there's going to be a winner here soon -- Ecclestone, yet again. And a very interesting article on FIA president Max Mosley and his future, here.

As we predicted a while back, the man disgraced a year ago in a sex scandal is now angling for another four-year term at the head of the FIA.

The winner driver was Brazilian Augusto Farfus.

BMW has been furious with the FIA this season over what it has seen as favouritism towards SEAT.

Read the latest Carsales Network news and reviews on your mobile, iPhone or PDA at www.carsales.mobi