MOTORSPORT: It's go, go, go for Aussies

The news is mainly good, some not so
Things are going in the right direction for Australia's Formula 1 driver Mark Webber. He's driven more than a grand prix distance in Red Bull's new RB5 without any apparent problems with the right leg he broke three months ago, and the car looks promising.

Things are also going well for the man who is perhaps the forgotten Australian international four-wheel racing star, David Brabham. He's landed a Le Mans drive with Peugeot's factory team trying to break Audi's stranglehold on the great sports car race.

Marcos Ambrose will start 23rd in the Daytona 500 on Monday morning, Australian time. The line-up for "The Great American Race" is here.

after this morning's two Gatorade Duels, won by Jeff Gordon in a Chevrolet and Kyle Busch in a Toyota. Ambrose finished 13th in the first of those two 150-mile, or 240km, sprint races in his Toyota. The results of that race are here and those of the later duel are here.

A raft of changes have been made to V8 Supercar racing for this season. We hope, but are not convinced, they're of great consequence, but we'll detail them later.

Receivers and managers have been appointed to three companies associated with Craig Gore, former owner of a V8 Supercar team and who was the man behind Team Australia in Champ Car/IndyCar, after the companies defaulted on $145 million of loans. There are plenty of reports today about the corporate developments in News Ltd newspapers.

Quite a lot happening on the rallying front. There's an Aussie in this weekend's world championship round in Norway -- Dale Moscatt, who will be co-driving with 18-year-old Russian Evgeny Novikov -- who has been described as "one of the big hopes of world motorsport" -- in the Citroen Junior Team with which Chris Atkinson finished fifth in the season-opening Rally Ireland two weeks ago.

The Australian Rally Championship gets underway this weekend with Rally Tasmania in the state's north-west, the tarmac round of a series much diminished by the loss of manufacturers but still with plenty of driving talent.

And we've come across quite an enlightening report on just where the revival of Rally Australia in northern NSW is at. It's a story from the Northern Rivers Echo newspaper and it's worth a read in its entirety. It's here.

So plenty happening, even if the V8 Supercar and F1 championships are still some weeks from starting.

Danica Patrick is No. 1 - in a swimsuit around a race car
She can race fine and fast on ovals, but on the streets of Surfers' Paradise at last year's Gold Coast Indy she was a lame duck, and we can't believe speculation that the proposed new US F1 team is about taking her into grand prix racing. But on the cover of Sports Illustrated magazine a year ago she looked great, and now comes a sensational Danica Patrick video. Enjoy it here.

Webber back in action - what's an F1 seat worth?
Readers may already have seen news of Mark Webber's return to the F1 cockpit the day after the launch of Red Bull's RB5.

He did more than a GP distance at Jerez in Spain. Although he still has a pronounced limp from the right leg broken when he was hit by a four-wheel drive vehicle while cycling in his Mark Webber Challenge in Tasmania last November, he seems to be well on the way to full recovery, even if it will have a titanium pin in it for another 18 months. (He's already had one removed).

What interested us most in his return, apart from noting that it had gone well, was a reminder of just how lucky Australia is to have an F1 driver, and indeed how lucky Webber is to be in F1.

He got there without having won any championships on the way up and without any truckload of sponsorship money. He had a little financial support, but nothing major.

The reason we mention this is that India has hopes of having an F1 driver, now that one of the F1 teams is Indian-owned -- Vijay Mallya's Force India, which is the umpteenth incarnation of what was once the Jordan team. India is also due to get a GP within a couple of years.

Two Indian drivers have been thereabouts on the road to F1. Indeed one, Narain Karthikeyan, had a season in the world's premier series in 2005 with whatever the Jordan team was that year. The other contender is Karun Chandhok, who drives in the GP2 series at the European GPs.

Chandhok is 25 and is considered the more likely of the pair to crack it for a drive with Force India.

But he let it be known this week what the asking price is for an F1 drive, presumably with Force India -- US$10 million to US$15 million for a season!

We thought pay drives were almost a thing of the past in F1, especially since the field had reduced to 20, with the prospect it may even be 18 this year unless a sale of the Honda team is finalised soon.

Sponsorship was supposedly an issue in at least one of the Scuderia Toro Rosso drives this season, and it was the backing that Takuma Sato had from Japan that at one point had him ahead of Sebastien Bourdais and other contenders.

However, Bourdais indicated when he was retained for a second season that the financial issue had become less important as the process progressed.

Although veteran Giancarlo Fisichella may attract sponsorship because of his popularity in Italy, we doubt he is paying for his drive with Force India, and his teammate, German Adrian Sutil, is a highly-rated talent although he may have to bring some sponsorship to retain the other seat in the team.

However, we would be surprised if it is anything like US$10-15 million, yet one should not be surprised at anything in F1, even in these difficult economic times.

If indeed Chandhok is right in saying, "For an F1 drive, you are looking at 10-15 million dollars," we remain incredulous at how Webber got there without big money or a prestigious title -- although he did win a Formula 3000 race at Monaco.

Grounds for confidence at Red Bull
Webber and his new teammate, 21-year-old German Sebastien Vettel, tell us the RB5 is "beautiful", although we find it hard to see the beauty in modern F1 cars that some do.

To us the cars are too similar these days. We preferred it when there was the creative brilliance of Colin Chapman's Lotus cars and some of the early Tyrrells -- even the six-wheeler -- designed by Derek Gardner.

Whatever, there is reason for hope that the RB5 can give Webber a better shot at some serious F1 glory.

Renault, whose engines Red Bull use, has been granted some leeway to enhance its motors this season, despite the freeze on development that is in place.

Somehow Renault found itself at a disadvantage last year and somehow, as miraculous as it seems, the team has been given a free kick that will put it on a better footing against its F1 rivals.

Yet remember that Fernando Alonso won two GPs in 2008 with the Renault engine that was at a power disadvantage. (Super driver, Alonso!)

Remember also that Vettel won a GP, the Italian at Monza, for Scuderia Toro Rosso (nee Minardi!) -- a car identical to Red Bull's 2008 RB4 except that it had a Ferrari engine rather than Renault.

Red Bull tycoon Dietrich Mateschitz wants performance from the Red Bull F1 team this year -- fifth or better in the constructors' championship.

There is no doubt that Vettel is an exceptional talent. F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone recently called him "fantastic, super talented, and ballsy". He may be better than the sport's other young stars -- Lewis Hamilton, Robert Kubica and Nico Rosberg.

It is easy to think Vettel may overshadow -- i.e. outpace -- Webber, and indeed we have contemplated and couched that here before, but Red Bull team principal Christian Horner reminded everyone this week that Webber "has always managed to get on top of his teammates".

We'd be happy to see that again this year, although it is a taller order than ever before.

Again as Horner said this week: "They will push each other hard and bring the best out of each other, and it will be interesting to see how it develops."

Interesting indeed.

"We can promise both (drivers) equal treatment, that is for sure," Horner said.

Great news. That's something Red Bull could not have promised a couple of years ago.

Let the battle -- of the teammates -- begin.

David Brabham has big shot at Le Mans glory
Some other great news this week -- that David Brabham is to be part of Peugeot's three-car campaign in the premier division of the Le Mans 24-hour sports car classic in mid-June.

Brabham, 43, has won the GT1 category at Le Mans the past two years in Aston Martins.

Now he has the chance to repeat the feat of his eldest brother, Geoff, in winning Le Mans outright in 1993 -- with Peugeot, in a 905 Ev1.

We gather the youngest Brabham had four offers for Le Mans this year, probably including in one of Prodrive's Aston Martin prototypes (a project for which we so applauded David Richards recently).

The Peugeot gig is on top of Brabham's Honda Acura commitment in the American Le Mans Series.

He will also contest the Spa 1000km in Belgium in May as part of Peugeot's Le Mans build-up.

However, the Acura connection appears to have precluded him from driving with Peugeot at the Sebring 12-hour in the US in March, where the French manufacturer will field two cars as it mounts a huge effort, with an optimised traction control system, to end German Audi's Le Mans domination.

At Spa and at Le Mans on June 13-14 Brabham will partner Spaniard Marc Gene and Austrian Alexander Wurz, while Sebastien Bourdais will be paired with his French compatriots Franck Montagny and Stephane Sarrazin, and in the third car will be France's Nicolas Minassian, Portugal's Pedro Lamy and Austria's Christian Klien.

Bourdais and Brabham have replaced Canada's 1997 F1 world champion -- and supposed potential V8 Supercar driver -- Jacques Villeneueve and Brazilan Ricardo Zonta in the Peugeot squad.

Brabham said the 908 HDi FAP car "gives me a great opportunity to go for outright victory and three wins in a row".

"The car and the turbodiesel are naturally completely different from what I am used to."

One of our new year pledges here was to keep a closer tab on Brabham's performances this year.

He has snuck under the radar of many Australian motorsport fans in recent years, but we get a vibe that he is regarded within sports car racing as one of its finest drivers -- if not the finest.

He is, in some ways, the most successful driver in the history of the American Le Mans Series, with pole positions and race wins in all four categories.

Apart from his GT1 success at Le Mans, he was second outright there in 2003 in a Bentley EXP Speed 8 with Brits Johnny Herbert and Mark Blundell.

How good would it be for Australia, and the Brabham family, to have another outright Le Mans winner in 2009 -- the year that marks the 50th anniversary of family head Sir Jack's first F1 world title!

Let's hope V8 Supercar rule changes are for the best
Quite a lot of tinkering has been done to the V8 Supercar Championship Series format for this year.

Some of the changes, like 85 per cent ethanol fuel and those with tyres, had been known for some time, but a fuller list has been finalised and published in recent days.

Here, in its words, is what V8 Supercars Australia announced:

>> Two individual races, one on Saturday and one on Sunday, across 12 championship events.
>> Individual victory to every race winner across 26 races in the season.
>> A podium to duly recognise 26 race winners across the championship.
>> Qualifying determines both Saturday and Sunday grids.
>> The Top 10 Shootout returns for the final leg of qualifying.
>> The Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 and the L&H 500 at Phillip Island remain as the only single-race events.
>> The L&H 500 will retain two Saturday qualifying races which count for championship points but not a race result.
>> Removing all reference to the term "round" and referring to all race weekends as events.
>> No compulsory pit stop window, meaning that teams can stop whenever they choose.
>> There will be at least one fuel stop in every race.
>> A "soft" compound tyre at select weekends that teams must use at least once during racing.
>> Each race, outside of the two endurance races, are worth 150 points to the winner on a sliding scale.
>> Teams being free to utilise any tyre from their allocation as they see fit across an event.

We welcome any improvement in racing. We can't see that all of the above amounts to much, although we'll be happy to be surprised.

Perhaps cars running on different fuel loads will spice things up a bit.

As much as we will be pleased to see more overtaking, we find it rather ironic that after years of such vigorous parity arguments the aim now is for -- in the words of new V8SA chief executive Cameron Levick -- "faster cars, (and) slower cars, plenty of passing and more on-track drama".

V8SA also wants team strategies emphasised and a better fan experience.

Admirable aims, and let's hope there is a whole lot of that this year -- for fans at the tracks and TV viewers.

We liked the comments of reigning V8 Supercar champion Jamie Whincup during the week.

He's a young man who will be trying to retain his title while also bearing in the mind the good of the sport -- the bigger picture.

"If I put my drivers' cap on, not everything is perfect, but for V8 Supercars all the changes will be positive, and if the category is better then it's good for the drivers as well," Whincup was quoted by Australian Associated Press as saying.

"The only thing that scares me is we just want to make sure the best team on the day and the best combination wins the race.

"We don't want to get to the point that anyone can win at any time -- then it becomes comical.

"We need to be really careful we still keep the teams and drivers who do the best job win the race."

Surely it can only be up from here for ARC
The Australian Rally Championship gets underway this afternoon (Friday), with the first three stages of Rally Tasmania on tarmac roads near Burnie in the state's north-west.

Saturday is the biggest day of the event, with eight stages over 116km of competition, with another eight stages, but only over 72km, on Sunday.

Quite a lot has been mentioned in the past couple of weeks about the loss of manufacturers from the ARC.

First Subaru pulled out three or four years ago. Mitsubishi scaled back then went. Ford came and went. Now Toyota has gone, although its stars Neal Bates, with co-driver Coral Taylor, and Simon Evans with wife Sue, are in Tassie in the now familiar normally-aspirated, four-wheel-drive Super 2000 Corollas.

They are hoping to find ways to continue as privateers for the whole series, and let's hope they do.

And, while many fine rally drivers -- including Steve Glenney and Scott Pedder, and there are lots more -- are sidelined from the national series these days, there is loads of driving talent in the sport.

The field this weekend includes Eli Evans, Simon's younger brother and championship runner-up last year, and top West Australian Dean Herridge, both in Subaru Impreza WRX STis, Victorian Spencer Lowndes in a Mitsbushi Evo IX, Glen Raymond in a Toyota Corolla, and 20-year-old rising star Brendan Reeves in a Subaru.

Then, because it's a tarmac event, there's Jim Richards in a Porsche 911 GT2, Tony Quinn in a new Nissan GTR and Tony Longhurst in a Subaru.

So lots of potential for this branch of the sport still, and for those keen to keep tabs on it the website is rallytasmania.com.au

The Whitten boys at Wangaratta in northern Victoria, Jeff and Peter, are the keenest rally reporters in the country.

For many years they published the RallySport magazine, which is now a website -- rallysportmag.com

Nice guys, although we haven't always agreed with father Jeff's views.

However, we think he's on the ball with a recent column, headed "Struggling ARC needs to re-invent itself".

He stated a few home truths, but saw a few rays of hope as well.

Here's some of what he had to say:
"With a national governing body that cares little for rallying, and a part-time rally commission who, until recently, were more interested in political point scoring than actually promoting rallying, it's little wonder that rallying is in the state it is.

"We are trying to run rallying with more than one arm tied behind our backs.

"The 2009 ARC looks like a lame duck. It's one salvation might be that this year it will begin to reinvent itself.

"Now there will be a chance for privateers to finally challenge each other for a win -- a chance that some of our leading ex-factory drivers might keep the sport alive front in non-factory cars, and a chance for some of our under-funded, but greatly talented, young drivers to rise like cream to the top.

"2009 might be the start of a new beginning."

Let's hope so.