MOTORSPORT: Lots of wheels turning at Bathurst

Bathurst is gearing up for its new enduro, a six-hour production race on Easter Sunday, as Porsche and Mark Webber prepare to start the defence of their World Endurance Championship titles.

And Molly Taylor will be testing the Subaru she will drive in this year's Australian Rally Championship in Tasmania over Easter.

Out of the US there is a suggestion of Audi going NASCAR racing, perhaps with Kimi Raikkonen after his contract with Ferrari in Formula 1 expires at the end of this year.

The return of a production car enduro to Bathurst comes just days after the regional city's mayor, a local MP and senior council executive had talks with NSW regional development minister John Barilaro about funding for a second circuit at Mt Panorama.

A delegation earlier this year had talks in Canberra with the federal government, with a positive response – although not a firm commitment yet – to a plea for a $20 million contribution to the project.

Mayor Garry Rush (not the hall of fame speedway racer), MP Paul Toole and council executive David Sherley have sought a similar amount from the NSW government, which had already provided $5 million towards a feasibility study of what is being called Velocity Park and would be primarily for motor industry activities and motorcycle racing.

Councillor Rush said minister Barilaro and his officials had given the Bathurst delegation a good hearing and the state government was keen to see the project move forward.

"Minister Barilaro was very engaged in discussions, as well as being complimentary on the work we have already done, especially in regard to the letters of support from big-name motor industry companies," Cr Rush told Bathurst's Western Advocate newspaper.

Easter racing has been part of Mt Panorama for much of the existing 6.213km public road course's 78-year history – initially focused on motorcycles but in recent years a car festival.

It has hosted its touring car enduro in October since the 1960s and this century it has been home to a 12-Hour race in February that transformed from mass-production road cars to primarily GTs.

The new six-hour production car race starting at noon on Sunday has more than 50 entries.

Drivers entered include V8 Supercar star Chaz Mostert, the 2014 Bathurst 1000 victor back from a broken leg suffered on The Mountain last October, and John Bowe, a two-time winner of the 'Great Race', the first winner of the 12-Hour in 2007 and the reigning Touring Car Masters Champion.

Mostert is in a BMW 335i E92 this weekend with friend Nathan Morcom, while Bowe will share a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo with ex-V8 Supercar racer David Wall, now back in the Porsche Carrera Cup.

Apart from the six-hour, there are five support categories and more than 300 competitors entered, with Sunday's action to be streamed on bathurstmotorfestival.com.au – and highlights to be screened two weeks later on SBS Speedweek.

Porsche unveils Webber's new WEC wheels
The first round of the World Endurance Championship is three weeks away at Britain's Silverstone circuit, but the three major motor manufacturer teams – Porsche, Audi and Toyota – will be at France's Paul Ricard track over the next two days.

What is being called the season prologue will serve as an official test for those manufacturers and their new machinery, which has already been extensively tested privately.

The latest Porsche 919 Hybrid that Australian Mark Webber will share with New Zealander Brendon Hartley and German veteran Timo Bernhard will carry the No. 1 this season after that trio's success in last year's drivers' championship and Porsche's manufacturer title.

Swiss driver Neel Jani, Frenchman Romain Dumas and German Marc Lieb remain in Porsche's No. 2 entry.

Porsche and Audi have abandoned their third entries for the WEC's major round, the Le Mans 24-Hour in France in June, sticking to just two cars each for the entire series this season – expanded to nine rounds with the addition of a race in Mexico in early September.

Porsche has 260 people working on its team but on March 31 will bid farewell to its technical director, Alexander Hitzinger, who is going off to "a new challenge outside motorsport".

Porsche this year has reduced weight of the 919's 2.0-litre, V4 turbocharged petrol engine and its fuel consumption, and improved the efficiency of the two energy recovery systems of the hybrid drive.

"The components of the electric drive have become even more powerful and efficient," it said.

"That applies for the optimised electric motor at the front axle, the power electronics and the new generation of lithium-ion battery cells in the in-house developed battery.

"A new front axle allows for more set-up options, while the intense tyre development with Michelin made a [more] refined overall set-up for the 919 Hybrid possible."

Of the V4-turbo with direct injection, Porsche said: "The combustion efficiency and mixture preparation of the engine, driving the rear axle, was further increased. Also the 90-degree V-engine shed some more weight.

"Last season the output of the combustion engine was well above 500 horsepower, but the 2016 regulations stipulate a lower amount of energy from fuel per lap and reduce the maximum fuel flow for prototypes.

"In this way, the regulations prevent the LMP1 cars from becoming increasingly faster, yet at the same time fuel the engineers' efforts to generate more power from increasingly less fuel.

"For the 919 this means around eight per cent less fuel and power. In other words 10 megajoules less energy per Le Mans lap from the fuel.

"That costs about four seconds for every 13.629-kilometre Le Mans lap.

"Through the new restrictions, the combustion engine has dropped to below 500hp."

Of the 919's two energy recuperation systems, it said: "The kinetic energy produced at the front axle when braking is converted into electrical energy.

"The second recuperation system is installed in the exhaust tract, where the exhaust-gas stream drives a second turbine in parallel with the turbocharger.

"It uses excess energy from the exhaust pressure that would otherwise escape into the environment.

"The VTG technology used here – that is, the variable adaptation of the turbine geometry to the level of exhaust pressure – drives the turbines, even at low engine revs and low pressure.

"The additional turbine is connected to an electric generator. The electricity produced – along with that generated by the KERS at the front axle – is temporarily stored in lithium-ion battery cells.

"When the driver calls up the full-boost, additional power output of more than 400hp will thrust him back into his seat.

"This power is applied to the front axle by the electric motor and it temporarily transforms the 919 into an all-wheel drive car with system power of around 900hp."

The prototype manufacturers will be allowed three aerodynamic configurations during the season.

Porsche said it would run a high-downforce package at Silverstone and Belgium's Spa in May; that Le Mans with its long straights would require very low drag and it would have an extremely low-downforce configuration there; then another high-downforce package for the remaining six races.

Audi's updated R18 e-tron with its turbo-diesel V6 will move up a hybrid class to six megajoules (Porsche is in the 8MJ class), with its front axle recovering the energy. Audi also has switched from flywheel energy storage to lithium-ion batteries. It has changed its gearbox from seven-speed to six to save weight.

Audi has gone for a smaller monocoque this year, a radical front end that includes a raised and ultra-slim nose and gull-wing doors.

Toyota, the champion manufacturer in 2014 but winless last season (and yet to win Le Mans), has developed a new hybrid system at its Higashi-Fuji Technical Centre for its new TS050 model.

2016 World Endurance Championship calendar:
March 25-26 – Prologue, Paul Ricard circuit, France.
April 17 – Silverstone Six-Hour, Britain.
May 7 – Spa Six-Hour, Belgium.
June 5 – Le Mans test day, France.
June 18-19 – Le Mans 24-Hour, France.
July 24 –Nurburgring Six-Hour, Germany.
September 3 – Mexico City Six-Hour, Mexico.
September 17 – Circuit of the Americas Six-Hour, Austin, Texas.
October 16 – Fuji Six-Hour, Japan.
November 6 – Shanghai Six-Hour, China
November 19 – Bahrain Six-Hour, Bahrain.

Briscoe says Ford fighting the good fight with GT
Ford's new GTs finished fifth and eighth in class in their second race in the US last weekend, the Sebring 12-Hour in Florida, although the first of them – in which Australian Ryan Briscoe was one of the drivers – was on target for a podium until late in the race.

At one stage it had led the GTLM class, won again by a Chevrolet Corvette, but was knocked off the track in the final 10 minutes with Britain's Richard Westbrook at the wheel.

Briscoe, New Zealand's IndyCar champion Scott Dixon and Westbrook will drive the car at Le Mans, where three other of the GTs that Ford is running in conjunction with iconic American team owner Chip Ganassi will compete on the 50th anniversary of the Blue Oval's first outright victory in the 24-hour French classic.

Briscoe's next race in the car will be on April 16 at Long Beach, California, where the American sports car series will be a support act to the IndyCar round.

Briscoe was upbeat about the GT's second outing after its debut in the Daytona 24-Hour in January.

"We fought all day long. We finished on the lead lap. We were fighting," he said.

"We still have a pretty good list of things to go through to make better, but it was a really good day for us.

"It was exactly what we wanted to accomplish. Obviously, we wanted to go for the win, but big steps from Daytona and exactly what we needed on a demanding track in demanding conditions [with a lot of rain].

"Everyone did a great job. Really, really positive day for our second race with the car."

A four-ringed circus in NASCAR?
NASCAR.com's Matthew Dillner has predicted that Audi is preparing to enter American stock car racing against Chevrolet, Ford and Toyota.

"I've heard rumors for two years of Audi entering NASCAR and know the interest has been there," Dillner tweeted this week. "My prediction is that it will happen."

Autoweek's Mike Larson then mentioned 2007 F1 world champion Kimi Raikkonen as a potential driver for Audi if it went into NASCAR.

Raikkonen, who has had only three podiums in 39 races since rejoining Ferrari from the World Rally Championship, did a race in NASCAR's second-tier Xfinity series and another in its third-tier pick-up truck series in 2011.

Tanja Bauer of Sky Sport News linked Raikkonen to Stewart-Haas Racing for next season.

Tony Stewart is retiring from driving at the end of this year, but the team – co-owned by America's new F1 team owner Gene Haas and Stewart – is already committed to switching from Chevrolet to Ford next year.

Tassie test for Taylor in new Subaru
Molly Taylor will test her Subaru WRX STI over two days during Easter at Branch Creek, east of Devonport in the island state. The STI has been built by Tasmania's Les Walkden Rallying for Taylor to campaign in this year's Australian Rally Championship.

The ARC starts in Western Australia in four weeks and Walkden said the first round would be "all about finishing" for 27-year-old Taylor and co-driver Bill Hayes, who were runners-up last year in a Renault Clio.

"Once we get back to the east coast events we'll up the pace and push a little harder," Walkden said of the campaign that marks Subaru's return to Australian rallying.

"If Molly can finish on the podium at each event she'll win the championship," he predicted.

Walkden has begun building a second WRX, expected to be driven by Taylor at Rally Australia in November.

2016 Australian Rally Championship calendar
Round 1 – Forest Rally WA, April 22-24
Round 2 - National Capital Rally, ACT, May 27-29
Round 3 – International Rally of Queensland, June 17-19
Round 4 - Rally South Australia, September 9-11
Round 5 – Rally Australia, Coffs Harbour, NSW, November 18-20

Honda going rallycross with Civic Coupes
Honda has confirmed its entry to America's Global Rallycross Series with a pair of turbocharged Civic Coupes.

The Civics will be prepared by rallycross specialists Olsbergs MSE in association with Honda Performance Development.

They will be driven by Swede Sebastian Eriksson and Finn Joni Wiman.

Eriksson was runner-up in the GRS last year and Wiman won it in 2014.

This year's series starts on May 21-22 in Phoenix, Arizona.

American Honda's advertising manager Nick Lee said the GRS was "seriously extreme racing and a terrific platform to showcase the new Civic Coupe to an enthusiastic, performance-minded young audience".