MOTORSPORT: Indy on the skids

Gold Coast missing from IndyCar's 2009 calendar
Just when the future of a couple of motor racing events ought to have been becoming clearer the pictures have got even more clouded.

We'll come to the Homebush/Sydney Olympic Park street race proposal in some detail a little later, but suddenly there is a very big question mark over the future of the Gold Coast Indy -- Queensland's biggest sporting event -- as we've known it for almost two decades.

This year's Indy has finally been confirmed for October 23-26, but the 18-round IndyCar calendar for 2009 does not have a Surfers' Paradise round.

While there is perhaps room for another race to be added to that calendar it is difficult seeing it being on the Gold Coast -- despite reassurances in Queensland earlier this year that there was a new five-year agreement in the wake of the amalgamation of the old Champ Car series with the Indy Racing League.

The crux of the matter is this: the Japanese round of the IRL -- or IndyCar -- in 2009 will be at Motegi on September 19.

A Gold Coast round would need to be -- for transport logistical reasons -- either a week before or a week after Motegi.

Now any motor race in Australia in September is going to clash with AFL and NRL football finals, for starters.

On September 26 it would most likely be on AFL grand final weekend.

A week before Motegi, on September 12, could create a clash with a revival of a world rally championship round in northern NSW and perhaps south-east Queensland, if such revival is indeed going to take place as claimed.

Another problem with September 12 is that, for the V8 Supercars that have had equal billing at the Gold Coast in recent years, it would mean sandwiching sprint racing through close concrete barriers on a street circuit between the 500km Phillip Island enduro and the Bathurst 1000.

Already this year's Indy is a non-championship round for the American-based open-wheeler series because the IRL had already pledged -- before the reunification -- that Chicagoland Speedway's September 7 race would be the final championship round.

The Gold Coast organisers say track construction will start in two weeks, but there is no word of a naming rights sponsor (nor, indeed, is there one for the Australian MotoGP at Phillip Island now barely two months away!)

We note with interest a report in this week's Auto Action by that magazine's editor-at-large Mark Fogarty, filed from Indianapolis, in which he quoted IRL commercial division president Tony Angstadt saying that, although it was announced in April that Surfers' Paradise had sealed a five-year agreement with the IndyCar Series, it was only a non-binding memorandum of understanding that had been signed.

Angstadt emphasised that the only contract was for this year's event, with a deal to secure a points round from 2009, in the words of Fogarty, "still in the works".

Looking at the 2009 calendar we query whether such longer-term future is now even on a radar, let alone "in the works".

For the record, here is the 2009 IRL calendar:
April 5 -- St. Petersburg, Florida (street course)
April 19 -- Long Beach, California (street course)
April 26 -- Kansas Speedway (superspeedway)
May 24 -- Indianapolis Motor Speedway (superspeedway)
May 31 -- Milwaukee, Wisconsin (oval)
June 6 -- Texas (superspeedway, at night)
June 21 -- Iowa (oval)
June 27 -- Richmond, Virginia (oval, at night)
July 5 -- Watkins Glen, New York (road course)
July 12 -- Toronto, Canada (street course)
July 26 -- Edmonton, Canada (airport)
August 1- Kentucky (superspeedway, at night)
August 9 -- Mid-Ohio (road course)
August 23 -- Infineon Raceway, California (road course)
August 29 -- Chicagoland (superspeedway, at night)
September 6 -- Belle Isle, Detroit (street course)
September 19 -- Twin-Ring Motegi, Japan (superspeedway)
October 11 -- Homestead-Miami, Florida (superspeedway)

On the basis of that calendar, this year's Surfers' Paradise event may very well be the last time the American open-wheelers race on the Gold Coast, presumably leaving the streets of the tourist mecca to the V8 Supercars.

V8 Supercars Australia chairman Tony Cochrane won't be at all unhappy about that.

But Will Power, Ryan Briscoe, and Brisbane-born New Zealander, former IRL champion, this year's Indianapolis 500 winner and series leader Scott Dixon, and Indy Lights racer and IRL aspirant James Davison will have no home race to look forward to beyond this October.

We gather that the long-standing Queensland legislative requirement that the Gold Coast event contain an international open-wheeler category was dropped somewhere along the line in recent years.

The A1 GP series organisers have been keen to get on the Gold Coast program, but that is not an irresistible package.

A1's racing is quite entertaining but the drivers are nobodies to the public -- more so than 75 per cent of the Champ Car fields of recent years.

Whether the Queensland government is prepared to continue underwriting the Gold Coast event to anywhere near the tune it has -- believed to around $12 million a year -- as a purely domestic event now remains to be seen.

Sydney street race stuttering towards 'go'
We awoke Tuesday to a little headline in Sydney's Daily Telegraph that read, "All roads lead to V8 race."

Here we were led to believe for more than a week that a full-speed-ahead signal was coming from the NSW government on a Sydney Olympic Park street race by last Friday (July 25).

Well Friday came and went without a word. Then on Tuesday the Daily Telegraph tells us that something has been given the green light, but it's still not quite what had been expected.

The NSW government's budget committee had given the nod for the commissioning of an "operational plan". And the go-ahead for a final feasibility study. And an independent chairman is to be appointed to oversee the whole process.

By this stage we were starting to think there was too much bureaucratic claptrap and were wondering whether the project really was going anywhere.

But, no, there was V8SA chairman Tony Cochrane telling us: "This is great news for Australian motorsport and reflects the fact that the NSW government wants NSW to be the event capital of Australia.

"We are naturally delighted to be given initial approval for what will be Sydney's biggest annual motorsport carnival and party.

"Olympic Park is tailor-made as an entertainment and events precinct and our (season) 'Grand Finale' will turn this into a showcase street circuit which will make every Australian proud.

"No stone will be left unturned in making this a world-class event."

Now we've had a feeling for a month or so that the pendulum was swinging Cochrane's way, and indeed we suspect this project is eventually going to get up -- although it looks as though it is going to have to overcome plenty of red tape.

We certainly want to see V8 Supercar racing retained -- and thriving -- in Sydney, but if what happened this week is in any way a green light for a big new carnival in Australia's major city then we must say the mainstream media has been mightily under-whelmed by it.

Half a single column on page 5 of the Daily Telegraph has been about the sum total of the media coverage of this momentous occurrence.

The Australian Racing Drivers' Club -- which operates the NSW government-owned Eastern Creek that Cochrane has vowed the V8 Supercars won't return to -- has been publicly lobbying for the government to await the $350,000 report it (the ARDC) has commissioned on a proposed upgrade of that western Sydney permanent circuit before throwing all its eggs in the Homebush basket, remembering that Oran Park is history after December.

"A decision taken now could cost the state tens of millions of dollars and, worse still, seriously affect its own Eastern Creek Raceway," ARDC president John Cotter said. "The same positive economic rationale that applies to a street race at Olympic Park can be applied Eastern Creek. And Eastern Creek comes with none of the negatives."

Blacktown City Council mayor Leo Kelly weighed in too.

"Why spend $30 million and some $11-15 million annually to stage a three-day event when the existing Eastern Creek offers year-round operations and no additional set-up costs," Kelly said. "There are no additional environmental issues and the circuit is located well away from residential areas."

Eastern Creek also claimed to have the support of the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport and Motorcycling Australia. But, to us, something critical changed on this Homebush proposal changed a few weeks back -- and we haven't quite identified precisely what it was.

Certainly NSW's state development minister Ian Macdonald has become a vigorous supporter of the street race idea.

"It (Homebush) is an ideal site for the holding of this race, which draws massive support particularly in the western parts of Sydney," Macdonald said. "We (NSW government) feel that it's a very good proposition and it will have excellent economic benefits for NSW."

We note that NSW premier Morris Iemma was more expansive on the proposal to BigPond Sport, as reported at V8Supercar.com.au

"The government will pull affected agencies together (Sydney Olympic Park Authority, Events NSW, Department of State and Regional Development, Treasury) with the V8 Supercars' body to finalise detailed feasibility studies and an operational plan for the event," Iemma said (N.B. This is the first mention of Events NSW getting involved).

"An independent chairperson will ensure this next stage can progress quickly and efficiently."

Iemma said the proposal was exciting and would "bring a great sporting spectacle to the heart of western Sydney".

"But we want to ensure maximum benefits to the people of NSW and the best return on the investment of taxpayer dollars," he said. "The Homebush location is a fantastic Olympic legacy and the V8s could be a great addition to an already busy sporting and entertainment precinct."

Iemma predicted the event would create up to 110 full-time jobs and generate more than 30,000 visitor nights to the state each year.

"With the V8 Supercars races here, Sydney would become part of V8 Supercars Australia's international racing agenda, showcasing our city to the global market through additional media exposure," he said.

"The Sydney races would be the 'jewel in the crown' of the V8 supercar series championship."

Now this is where Iemma was off into fairyland.

As much as a Sydney street race might become a great carnival, in the way the Clipsal 500 has in Adelaide, and it may indeed become the crown jewel in what will always be essentially a national championship, this notion of massive international television coverage is absolute, unadulterated crud.

For starters, the world won't be taking massive interest unless the world's best drivers are participating. And what is in any way international about it? Perhaps a music artist in concert.

Apart from our report earlier this week about national TV audiences declining, we've highlighted here throughout this year that the international TV audience for V8 Supercars is negligible -- consistently running below 7000 viewers on Motors TV in Britain, we understand.

Despite claims of a potential international audience of 850 million viewers there is not the slightest skerrick of evidence that any more than perhaps one or two million people overseas are watching V8 Supercar racing.

And, however good any racing at Homebush might be, how or why is that audience suddenly going to massively expand?

Morris Iemma thinking the world is going to be hanging out every year to watch a street race from Sydney Olympic Park only emphasizes to us how little politicians know about the businesses of motor sport and international television.

Hand the man a postage stamp, face down -- so he can write his entire knowledge on these subjects on it!

A few points heading into Winton:
>> Ford has dominated this year's championship, with four consecutive round wins now.
>> Of the 29 cars on the V8 Supercar grid, 20 -- or virtually two-thirds of the field -- use Winton as their nominated test circuit.
>> Ford Performance Racing's series leader, Mark Winterbottom, has seven heat wins this season -- two more than Holden Racing Team's Garth Tander, the reigning champion and running second this year, and three more than the next-best Ford man, Triple 8/Team Vodafone driver Jamie Whincup, who is third in the series.
Whincup sizzled at Winton last year, but an interesting comment from Winterbottom this week: "You always expect Garth to be up there, but Whincup is hit and miss; if he gets it right he gets a bag of points, but he often gets it wrong."

And "Frosty" Winterbottom shows no sign of feeling any heat by leading the championship.

"I think I drive better under pressure," he said.

It's going to be interesting to see how James Courtney (Stone Brothers Racing Falcon) and Russell Ingall (Supercheap Auto Commodore) fare after sharing the podium with Winterbottom at Queensland Raceway last round.

Hamilton has F1 hat-trick in his sights
Lewis Hamilton has been in scintillating form at the past two Formula 1 races, somewhat reminiscent of Ayrton Senna at the British Grand Prix and Jim Clark at the German GP, but it is a decade since a McLaren-Mercedes driver won three in a row.

That was Mika Hakkinen at the GPs of Europe 1997 and Australia and Brazil '98.

Hamilton's victory at Hockenhim gave him a four-point lead over Ferrari's Felipe Massa.

Ferrari has won five of this season's 10 races (Massa three and Kimi Raikkonen two), Hamilton has four victories and BMW-Sauber's Robert Kubica was the other winner.

McLaren and Ferrari have each won four of the past 10 Hungarian GPs, but Ferrari has not triumphed in Budapest since Michael Schumacher's victory in 2004.

Raikkonen won for McLaren in 2005.

Eight of the 10 F1 teams have been represented on the podium this season.

While Hamilton will be the man in the spotlight this weekend, and there will be much attention on whether Ferrari is still on competitive terms with McLaren, it is a milestone weekend for Fernando Alonso.

It was at the Hungaroring five years, in 2003, that Alonso became F1's youngest race winner at 22 years and 26 days.

And, despite his Renault not being a match for the McLarens and Ferraris at the minute, in our mind the Spaniard is the best driver in modern F1.

It was in Budapest last year that his testy relationship with Hamilton during one season at McLaren disintegrated over Alonso's blocking of the younger man at the McLaren pits during qualifying -- although Hamilton's earlier refusal to give way to Alonso the track is largely forgotten.

And it was in Hungary just two years ago that Jenson Button scored his only GP win with Honda, giving Australia's Mark Webber some cause for optimism about a shock result.

Ferrari has said its problems in Germany were tyre-related.

"Despite the fact that the last two races have been negative for us, the Scuderia (team) is definitely not in crisis," Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali has said. "The team is still leading the constructors' championship and theoretically one of our drivers could again be back at the top of the drivers' classification on Sunday night.

"We are on a similar points tally to last year, we have won half the races so far and indeed taken half the pole positions.

"If we look at where Ferrari was in 2007 after 10 races, today we are in a much better position and this year there is one more race than last, which gives us even more opportunities to fight back."

Incidentally, Raikkonen is making noises about wanting to try rallying when he bows out of F1, widely expected to be at the end of 2009.

His older brother, Rami, is a rally driver of some repute in Finland, while Alonso is said to be moving to Switzerland to be handy to the Ferrari factory -- adding to the speculation that he will be Raikkonen's replacement.

KERS may not be up to speed in time
Japan's Formula 1 constructors, Toyota and Honda, are dubious that Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems (KERS) can be safely introduced into GP racing in time for next season.

"We're all fighting very hard to have a raceable, safe KERS, but whether it is achievable or not has to be seen," Toyota team principal John Howett told Autosport.

"The challenges are enormous for everybody. A lot of the teams are struggling (to bring it in within the expected timeframe)."

Honda team principal Ross Brawn doubted whether it will have KERS in place from the start of the season.

"KERS has a performance gain but the downside is accommodating and packaging all the various elements," Brawn said. "I think the performance gain at the moment is possibly marginal, but then we haven't necessarily explored all the potential of KERS, how it can be used.

"We will (start with it) if it leads to a performance gain: we haven't done enough work yet to know. We are scheduling to start the season with it, but we will see how it develops."

A BMW-Sauber mechanic received an electric shock recently from a test car using KERS, which allows energy to be stored from the car during a race and then be re-used by the pressing of a button.

Red Bull's retiring David Coulthard is another doubter, saying: "There are concerns about isolating the electrical charge that is stored within the car and the volatility of the chemicals used in the lithium batteries.

"F1 is all about the technical challenge, but usually the risk is limited to the drivers.

"Quite clearly KERS has opened up another area. You can bury your head in the sand, and it's not politically correct to talk about it, but while we are going through the development phase there is a risk that extends to people at the factory and trackside personnel.

"I know there are working groups looking at how to manage and overcome these issues, so hopefully a satisfactory solution will be found, but the timescale is certainly pretty tight to be ready for the start of next season."

Coulthard, who will remain a test driver for Red Bull next year, added: "I'll be wearing a full-rubber body suit to make sure that I'm safe ... F1 driving suits will become like fireproof condoms!"

Among those they will take on in identical cars on a specially-built circuit will be retired F1 world champion Michael Schumacher and world touring car champion Andy Priaulx.

In the same Nationwide Series road race as Ambrose will be Canada's 1997 F1 world champion Jacques Villeneuve, who has been trying to establish a stock car career for two years.

Villeneuve had seven NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series starts and ran two races in the premier Spring Cup last season.

Next week Ambrose will move on to Watkins Glen, the famous road course in New York State where he will also be racing in the Cup again -- hopefully his third start at the top level.

Subaru hopes up as WRC resumes
The WRC resumes this weekend after a five-week break with the Rally of Finland starting the second half of the season.

It will be the third event for Australia's Chris Atkinson in the '08 factory Subaru Impreza WRX.

While the previous two outings in Greece and Turkey did not go well for the Aussie, his Norwegian former world champion teammate Petter "Hollywood" Solberg got his first podium of the year on the Acropolis Rally and then backed it up with a solid sixth place finish in Turkey.

Subaru team boss David Richards has claimed his outfit is about to rediscover the former glory that saw it win more than 40 WRC rallies between 1993 and 2005.

In haste earlier in the week we skipped the latest Australian Rally Championship round, Rally SA, where Simon Evans, national champ of the past two seasons, won the first heat in his factory Super 2000 Toyota Corolla and his younger brother Eli in a privateer Subaru Impreza beat him in the second heat.

Toyota team boss Neal Bates remains well ahead in the series after second and third places in the SA heats, while privateer Spencer Lowndes was fourth in both in his Evolution IX Mitsubishi Lancer.

Next is the new tarmac round in Tasmania's north-west on October 4-5 -- clashing with the Australian MotoGP at Victoria's Phillip Island.

ARC points after 4 of 6 rounds -- Neal Bates (Toyota) 283, Eli Evans (Subaru) 226, Simon Evans (Toyota) 187, Spencer Lowndes (Mitsubishi) 184, Michael Guest (Subaru) 123, Glen Raymond (Toyota) 122.

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