MOTORSPORT: HRT ownership big test for V8SA

Walkinshaw regains HRT but needs stamp of approval
Mark Skaife has been big news in the past 24 hours. It was always going to be a big week going into his final V8 Supercar round, at least as a full-time driver, at Sydney's Oran Park this weekend.

But in the space of just hours yesterday there was a splash in Rupert Murdoch's News Ltd newspapers around the country that Skaife was in debt to his Holden Racing Team co-owner Tom Walkinshaw to the tune of $3.6 million.

Mid-afternoon came a statement from Skaife's manager, Craig Kelly, of Elite Sports Properties, that there were numerous inaccuracies in that story, by News' now regular V8 Supercar correspondent James Phelps, that it was a private business matter anyway and that Skaife was working closely with "all parties involved, including his business partner Tom Walkinshaw, who he co-owns HRT with".

Then, within a couple of hours of that, came the announcement at 6pm that Walkinshaw and Skaife had reached agreement "after several weeks of discussions on arrangements for Walkinshaw to assume full ownership and running" of HRT.

Skaife is to be left with "no debt or other outstanding financial commitments". And he's going to be an ambassador for HRT and Holden, with which he's only halfway through a 10-year sponsorship deal.

Yesterday's story in the News Ltd papers crystalised, in the mainstream media, rumours that had been around for at least two years.

While Phelps was pilloried by Craig Kelly and others for inaccuracies in his story, the crux of it was the $3.6 million debt.

Except for the mention of the number of shares -- 1.75 million -- in Skaife Sport that transferred to Walkinshaw early last year when he regained the first half of HRT, and Skaife's residential arrangements, which Phelps apparently jumbled, there wasn't much of it that was news to us, or regular readers of the Australian motorsport press -- essentially Auto Action and Motorsport News magazines -- over the past couple of years.

Indeed, our ramblings on the subject are contained in these links
Changing of the guards
Major Tom in total control?
Ford's next V8 Supercar
Skaife still hungry for more
Skaife's other races - against time
HRT row is over money
Honda's warming globally, but the blowtorch is on HRT

But that's the history. And what a saga it's been. What is important, indeed crucial, now is V8 Supercars Australia's consideration of this matter.

Put another way, whether V8SA accepts the transfer of HRT's licence(s) to field two cars in Australia's premier motor racing championship.

The reality is, particularly with some cars gone from the field already and question marks over others, V8SA does not have much alternative but to accept the transfer of ownership from Skaife to Walkinshaw. V8SA may not be pleased at having to accept it though.

As we pointed out a few weeks ago, what was then TEGA, the Touring Car Entrants Group, which has since morphed into V8SA along with Sports & Entertainment Ltd's 25 per cent stake in the sport, stated in early 2007 when "stamping" the transfer of the first 50 per cent of HRT that it had not approved Walkinshaw "as a person suitable to hold a controlling interest in a licence nor hold a licence in his own right".

Well, whether V8SA likes it or not, Walkinshaw holds a licence, even two, in his own right, subject to its approval.

Now Scotsman Walkinshaw is a man who has been associated with a lot of motor racing success, not only in Australia but around the world. And a lot of controversy. He has his supporters, a small band we'd have to say, who stick and indeed swear by him. He has his enemies too. And there are others who are simply critics.

These critics have included a couple of British judges. Justice Sir Gavin Lightman said in the High Court in London in early July 2002 that the defandants in a case before him -- Walkinshaw and parties associated with him in the Arrows Formula 1 team that was in the process of going defunct -- "can only be described as underhand and improper, indeed downright dishonest".

Harsh words indeed, and we can't say that we could have arrived at that conclusion from our admittedly brief dealings with Walkinshaw or our longer observations of him.

Mr Justice Pumfrey was not quite so severe some months after Justice Sir Gavin Lightman in questioning Walkinshaw's business acumen.

"Mr Walkinshaw left me with the clear impression of a man who was in over his head," Mr Justice Pumfrey said. "He appeared to lack the clarity of thought necessary to follow a clear policy. He obviously had a high opinion of his own business abilities, but my impression was different."

Mr Justice Pumfrey said that, in the demise of Arrows, Walkinshaw's behaviour had in certain respects fallen well below the standards expected from the managing director of a large company.

Not kind words those from the two judges, but that was all five years or more ago now.

And, whatever his sins, Walkinshaw has remained at the helm of Holden Special Vehicles (which we have gleaned through this whole fuss, after years of cloudiness, is 100 per cent owned by him, with Holden pretty much simply receiving royalties on HSV car sales) and now he's back in complete control of HRT, subject to V8SA approval.

You don't have to like him, and indeed we've never seen any indication from Walkinshaw that he's remotely interested in winning any popularity contests.

What he is interested in is winning motor races. And, if he is going to be the 100 per cent owner of HRT again, he is undoubtedly going to be the main man in getting Holden back to winning regularly after losing the championship this year and having been beaten at Bathurst three years in a row.

As much as we felt the Skaife story was  probably going to be aired in public, via the mainstream media, at some point, when it came early on Monday, and seemingly with a few errors, we felt some pity for one of the great drivers in Australian touring car history that it had come in the week of what ought to be a celebration of his career and a grand sendoff.

Perhaps now that the dirty linen has been washed in public and the HRT ownership settled, subject to that V8SA approval, he can be farewelled in style. And Oran Park too, because this is its last V8 Supercar round.

And a new champion, Jamie Whincup, applauded. We read a curious quote from Whincup last night in this week's electronic Motorsport News.

"People like to talk about the championship like it is already mine, but the truth is I am nowhere near it," he said.

The boy's in denial. No need to be. It's gotta be his. By every measure he's been the V8 Supercar champion of 2008.

Webber's absence gives Kiwi kid F1 chance
Mark Webber's absence from much of Red Bull Racing's off-season F1 testing has given a New Zealand teenager a window of opportunity. Only a window.

It's not as though Webber has opened the door for 19-year-old Kiwi Brendon Hartley to take his place. But the teenager, who finished third in this year's British Formula 3 Championship, will be in an RB4 at Spain's Jerez circuit on December 15. That will be the start of a three-day test.

Sebastien Buemi, the Swiss driver who is based in France and may get an F1 race drive next season with Red Bull's sister team Scuderia Rosso, will drive an RB4 on all three days of the test.

Sebastian Vettel, the 21-year-old German sensation who is going to be Webber's new teammate, will take over from Hartley after the first day of the test.

Hartley has done a demonstration run this year in a Toro Rosso STR3, but this will be his first serious F1 outing.

Whatever headaches F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone has at the minute, he'll be pleased that Hartley's outing will do heaps for F1 interest in New Zealand, a country with a proud history long ago in grand prix racing.

Next, we hear, will be moves to get a Middle East driver into an F1 car.

Webber, incidentally, is aiming to be fully recovered from his broken right leg in time for the launch of next year's Red Bull car on February 10.

The country has five F1 drivers now -- Sebastian Vettel, Nick Heidfeld, Nico Rosberg (born in Germany to a German mother and his world champion Finnish father), Timo Glock and Adrian Sutil.

Mercedes-Benz and BMW are big players in F1, while Toyota's F1 team is based near Cologne.

The country has had at least one F1 GP every year since 1961, yet it seems there may not be a German GP in 2010. These days the race rotates and is scheduled to be at Nurburgring in 2009 and Hockenheim in 2010.

Nurburgring general manager Walter Katiz has said his circuit won't pick up the 2010 race if Hockenheim can't run it.

Both circuits are losing about A$10 million a time staging the race, and Hockenheim boss Josef Schmidt has said: "There will be no more F1 in Hockenheim without state funds."

Bernie Ecclestone would love the sound of government money, but clearly this is another country -- like the US, Canada in a different way, France, and China -- wondering about whether F1 is worth Bernie's big bucks.

Don't mention the war, but Rubens does
Hot on the heels of the belated news of Rubens Barrichello's great unhappiness at having to hand the 2002 Austrian GP to his Ferrari teammate Michael Schumacher, mentioned in our previous column, come further signs of friction between the pair.

Barrichello won the the charity kart event in Brazil at the weekend organised by Felipe Massa while Schumacher finished eighth.

But Barrichello, who for so long was the loyal "bridesmaid" to the German at Ferrari, said "it seemed like Schumacher thought he was in a war".

"Maybe he forgot that he is in Brazil now," Barrichello said.

Brazilian Lucas Di Grassi, a rival of Barrichello for a Honda F1 drive in '09, finished second overall in the two-race event, with Massa third.

Barrichello was unhappy with Di Grassi's aggressive driving, saying "we can't go around hitting other people on the track".

But, delighted at beating his young opponent, Barrichello said on Globo TV: "Can we quickly send this tape to Honda?"

Lovely guy Rubens, but we fear his F1 days are over.

Atko ready for fog and ice at WRC finale
The World Rally Championship concludes this weekend in Britain, indeed in Wales.

Sebastien Loeb has already clinched his fifth drivers' title, but his manufacturer Citroen could yet lose out in the other championship to Ford, the winner the past two years and needing something of a miracle to complete a hat-trick.

Subaru has won the Rally of Great Britain nine times -- four of those wins coming from Norwegian Petter Solberg every year between 2002 and 2005.

Solberg's Australian teammate Chris Atkinson had a birthday on Sunday and is looking forward to the end of his best WRC season, although the conditions are sure to be tricky.

"It's quite difficult driving in fog, and there's a fair chance of it being icy as well, so they'll be some of the most tricky and unpredictable conditions we've driven in," Atkinson said.

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