Motorsport: It's official - Steven Richards rejoins Ford

New Year's Day motorsport reportJanuary 1, 2007

Last of the big V8 driver deals?
The worst-kept secret in Australian motorsport for the past few months has been confirmed today -- V8 Supercar racer Steven Richards is returning to the Ford "family". It was finally and officially announced this morning that Richards has joined Ford Performance Racing, run by the Prodrive operation of British automotive entrepreneur David Richards (no relation to Steven!).

In what may be the last of the big-money contracts for V8 Supercar drivers, with Ford and General Motors both hurting financially, it is a five-year deal reputed to be worth $750,000 to $800,000 a season. The 34-year-old Richards replaces Jason Bright, who has left FPR to spearhead his own Ford team, Britek.

Richards is the only driver to have won the Bathurst 1000 in a Holden and a Ford and this will be his third stint with the Blue Oval. He previously drove for Stone Brothers Racing in 1998 and for Glenn Seton's Ford Tickford Racing, the predecessor of FPR, in 2001. 

Richards has been a regular V8 Supercar racer for a decade and was seventh in the 2006 championship with Larry Perkins' Jack Daniel's Racing. He has raced in 12 Bathurst 1000s, winning in an EL Falcon with Bright for Stone Bros in 1998, then succeeding in a VT Holden Commodore with Greg Murphy in 1999. He has also had two second places (the first of them with his legendary father, Jim, in a Gibson Motorsport Commodore in 1997) and one third at Mt Panorama.

A Formula Ford national champion in his youth and a qualified aircraft mechanic as well as, briefly, a works test driver for Nissan's British Touring Car Championship effort in 1998, Richards is described by FPR in today's unbelievably low-key announcement as having "a solid reputation for his uncompromising speed, technical knowledge and consistency".

Richards says of his return to the Ford fold: "It is terrific to be joining a team that is clearly on the rise following the speed that FPR displayed during the 2006 season. Mark Winterbottom's results in 2006 mirror FPR's and I am sure we can make a formidable combination that will continue developing FPR's front-running form in 2007. It is a special time to be joining this team and I can't wait to get behind the wheel of the FPR Falcons at our first test day. There is no settling-in period and the intention is to get the new season started on the pace with FPR at the Clipsal 500 (just two months away in Adelaide)."

Meanwhile, Larry Perkins -- ever-conscious of costs, believing the salaries of leading drivers are over-inflated, and in any case wanting to foster young talent -- is likely to install youngsters Shane Price and his own son, Jack Perkins, in the Jack Daniel's cars for '07.

The V8 Supercar merry-go-round has already seen several other moves: Greg Murphy to Tasman Motorsport from PWR/Supercheap Auto Racing, Paul Dumbrell from the Perkins camp to PWR/Supercheap, and Andrew Jones from Tasman to his uncle Brad Jones' BJR, while veteran John Bowe is expected to find a home at Paul Cruickshank Racing after making way for Jones.

Red Bull could make Webber, says Brundle
British Formula One commentator and former grand prix racer Martin Brundle, who was Michael Schumacher's teammate in the German's first full season in F1 (1992), reckons Mark Webber's switch to Red Bull Racing this year "could be the making" of the Aussie.

"It's the chance he (Webber) has been looking for," Brundle says. "With Renault engines, two quick drivers and Adrian Newey designing the car, there are few limits to what can be achieved (by Red Bull Racing)."

Brundle also is a big rap for Webber's new teammate, the Scottish veteran David Coulthard (who is managed by a company in which Brundle is involved). "DC has still got it, and if he smells a result there's no stopping him. It could be his best season for years," Brundle says.

Webber claims Mercedes wanted him
The most memorable moment of Webber's five-year F1 career remains his fifth place on debut with Paul Stoddart's Minardi team at the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne in 2002, although he scored a podium with Williams at the Monaco GP in 2005 and was on course for second place in that glamorous event in '06 until the car failure that probably spelt the end of his relationship with Williams.

It is curious that Webber has now told Italy's Autosprint magazine that he may have begun his F1 career in a McLaren-Mercedes if Mercedes had had as much sway at McLaren as he now believes it does. Remember that Webber raced sports cars for Mercedes in the late 1990s.

Indeed, how could that be forgotten: he was lucky to escape alive after two horrendous, 300kmh crashes at Le Mans that ultimately saw the Merc sports cars outlawed and Webber buy his way out of his contract with the German manufacturer.

"To race with Mercedes was fantastic -- it made me mature from a professional point of view," Webber told Autosprint. "Why didn't this relationship evolve towards F1? It's simple: because Ron Dennis is the boss at McLaren. Mercedes [management] had a lot of respect for my work, they believed in my potential, but at McLaren the drivers never came under their discussion. These days Mercedes probably has more say in the management of the F1 program, but it wasn't this way until recently."

Australia's second round for the 550-horsepower A1 single-seaters will be at Sydney's Eastern Creek on February 2-4. In an announcement last Friday, A1 Team Australia invited the public to meet its drivers at appearances over the next month -- at the Summernats in Canberra and Parramatta, Blacktown, Chinatown and Martin Place in Sydney, as well as the NRMA Motorfest at Australia Day celebrations in Hyde Park. So intent, it seems, is A1 on promoting its concept of competition between countries rather than between drivers, that A1 Team Australia didn't mention the names of the drivers it is inviting the public to meet!

Australia is 12th in the series on 18 points after five rounds and with seven rounds remaining. Germany is leading on 44 points, thanks to the performances of 19-year-old Nico Hülkenberg, who is from Emmerich on the German-Dutch border and is managed by Michael Schumacher's life-long manager, Willi Weber. Hülkenberg, who at other times is a fork-lift driver, has scored points in 80 per cent of the races this season and in Malaysia won by more than 42 seconds in torrential rain. However, he has twice clashed with Kiwi Reid off the start line, creating a rivalry that will boost interest at Taupo.

The 10 races so far -- five sprints and five features -- have produced seven different winners, with South Africa, Malaysia, Holland, Italy and Switzerland notching wins apart from Germany and NZ.  Reid has given NZ three pole positions, the most of any country, and his victory at Sentul in Jakarta hoisted NZ into fifth position, just one point behind defending champion France -- which is still chasing its first win this season, although Nicolas Lapierre has scored four podiums. At the same stage of the first season France had won eight races.

Britain is second to Germany and has the highest average qualifying position, fifth, while drivers Oliver Jarvis and Robbie Kerr gave it podiums at Beijing in China and Sepang in Malaysia, although its first victory is proving elusive.

Verdict near in 20-year murder case
A case over the murder almost 20 years ago of American motor racing identity Mickey Thompson and his wife is coming to a head, with a jury on the verge of a verdict on the man accused of ordering the killings -- Michael Goodwin, the creator of supercross. Jurors in California failed to reach a verdict before Christmas after a five-week trial but will resume deliberations tomorrow.

Thompson was involved in many forms of racing, including as an entrant at the Indianapolis 500 for many years. As a competitor he held more than 400 speed records, was the first person to travel more than 400mph (640km/h) on land and built and drove the first slingshot dragster.

At dawn on March 16, 1988, two black men in hooded jogging suits ambushed Mickey and Trudy Thompson in their driveway at Bradbury, 32km north-east of downtown Los Angeles and shot them in the head. Goodwin, who has been in jail since 2001, is alleged to have hired the killers, who have never been found. 

Thompson and Goodwin entered a business partnership in 1984 but it soured within four months. Thompson won subsequent legal action and Goodwin was ordered to pay more than US$500,000.

Prosecutors contend that Goodwin -- who came to Australia for the country's first supercross meeting in Sydney in the early 1980s, and also promoted a Rolling Stones concert in Los Angeles -- ordered the killings after his business relationship with Thompson disintegrated. Thompson won a US$514,000 court judgment that caused Goodwin to file for bankruptcy. Over the years, as Goodwin appealed and accumulated bills for lawyers, the amount owing ballooned to US$800,000. 

Goodwin did not testify at his trial. Thompson's sister, Collene Campbell, a former municipal mayor, has been agitating strongly for her brother and sister-in-law. Thompson had bought US$250,000 of gold shortly before the killings but it disappeared. A US$1 million reward was offered on TV to try to solve the murder and Ms Campbell's son died in a drug case dispute.

Bernie third on 'pensioner grid'
F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone has been ranked the world's third most powerful "pensioner", behind Manchester United soccer manager Sir Alex Ferguson and TV wildlife presenter and environmentalist Sir David Attenborough but ahead of  the Queen, Nelson Mandela and Rupert Murdoch. A survey professionals was done for Virgin Money. While the names on the list are of pensionable age, none of them would be relying on a pension cheque.

Poor timing but worth watching
Willi Weber finds himself wearing a US$130,000 watch he didn't really want. Weber commissioned the Tourbillon watch in anticipation of Michael Schumacher winning an eighth F1 world title. Fernando Alonso and Renault ruined that plan, "so now I have a nice watch", says Weber.

Small value in a champion's name
An Englishman has paid little more than 100 pounds to adopt dual world champion Fernando Alonso's name. David Fuller has also taken on the names of a British television character from the 80s and a Brazilian soccer star. So 21-year-old Fuller is now Fernando Alonso Rodney Trotter Ronaldinho!

Empty pockets - but here's Ho-Pin
Ho-Pin Tung is 24 and Chinese but was born in Holland. He's the new German Formula Three champion, a title Toyota F1 driver Jarno Trulli once held. Like Trulli, the new rising star wants to make it to F1 and has some connections to the Spyker team, but he's suffering from that perennial motorsport problem -- lack of money. His philosophical manager, Bert Winkler, says: "It is just like looking into a lolly shop -- if you have no money, you go without."