Geoffrey Harris•1 Nov 2013

NEWS

MOTORSPORT: Lowndes lashes 'double stacking'

The biggest figure in V8 Supercar racing rubbishes pitlane hold-ups and the attitude of officials to them

"No one in V8 Supercars seems to be listening"

Having taken the lead in the quest for his first V8 Supercar (V8SC) title in 14 years, Craig Lowndes is now making headlines for another reason.

Lowndes, nearing 40, has been the leading light in Australian motor racing for most of the past two decades and a fan and media favourite, but rarely has he been outspoken. Now, he has had an outburst about the "double stacking" of cars in pitlane during V8SC events – a problem that arises because there is not enough room for teams to service two cars at once.

While Lowndes heads Triple Eight/Red Bull teammate Jamie Whincup by six points with only the Phillip Island and Sydney events remaining in the season, he feels he could have finished higher than eighth last Sunday at the Gold Coast and been further ahead in the championship if not forced to stack again.

His vehement criticism is buried in a regular column he contributes to a major national newspaper group. Nonetheless, he is scathing of officialdom.

"I've said this before but no one in V8SC seems to be listening. If you simply closed the pits during a safety car period that would force everyone to pit under racing conditions, so no one would have to stack and therefore no one would be artificially disadvantaged," Lowndes said.

"You'd still retain the cost savings by only using one [fuel and air] boom in the pits… So there's no downside to doing it that way.

"Can anyone explain to me why they don't change the rule?.. I have lost track of the number of times it has cost us a shot at winning a race, for absolutely no reason."

The criticism is sure to turn up the heat on the issue because of Lowndes' pre-eminent position in the sport. Ironically, though, the engineer on his Holden Commodore, Jeremy Moore, has given a much more measured perspective regarding the issue on the official V8SC website.

Moore said on V8supercars.com.au that it's "the lesser of two evils" and the Red Bull team's incident at the Gold Coast "wasn't as bad as it looked".

He said that the "over-riding reason" teams double stack is that staying out on the track can be more detrimental than waiting a few seconds behind a teammate in the pits.

Moore agreed that not allowing V8 Supercars to pit under the safety car would stop the issue but said there always would be times when every car would stop as early as possible. He said he believed Lowndes could have been worse off last Sunday if he had to pit while the race was green.

And, like Red Bull Racing in Formula One (which has to manage a far more fractious relationship between its drivers, Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber), Moore insisted there was no favoritism towards either of the Red Bull V8SC drivers.

Just as well, because – in the eyes of the fans – Lowndes winning the championship this year could be the best thing to happen in a long time.

Ambrose gets a 'ninth life' in NASCAR

Another V8SC champion from long ago now, Marcos Ambrose, has been in the news too this week with confirmation of a ninth season in America's NASCAR.

Next season will be Ambrose's fourth with Richard Petty Motorsports (RPM) in the Sprint Cup and he – and his army of fans – will be hoping it will be much better than this year.

In 33 races, and with only three remaining, he has not had a top five finish and only six top 10 finishes, leaving him 21st in the points. The Tasmanian's best finish this year was sixth at the Michigan superspeedway in August.

The past two seasons Ambrose won the round at the famed Watkins Glen road course and accumulated eight top fives and 18 top 10s in those two years.

At this week's announcement that he will continue with RPM next season the 2003-04 V8 Supercar champ, now 37, admitted "it's time to deliver" and "it's all about results" in the big league of American stock car racing.

"I'm absolutely focused on making the most of 2014 and that's what I'm going to do," Ambrose said.

"I'm having a great time, but 2013 has been tough – no doubt about it… It's hard to keep your head up… I sacrificed more than most to be here in America.

"I want to win. I want to make The Chase [the 'play-offs' over the final 10 races for the top dozen drivers – and this season, in extraordinary circumstances, the top 13]. I've got unproven and unfinished business in NASCAR."

Nurburgring on the chopping block

The world's greatest race circuit, Germany's Nurburgring Nordschleife in the Eifel Mountains, is for sale. The 20.8km circuit with 73 bends and known as 'The Green Hell' is in administration under the weight of huge debts.

A buyer – most likely one of the German car-makers or a partnership of them – will be compelled to keep the track open to the public and the motor industry.

Although not used as a Formula One circuit since Niki Lauda's fiery Ferrari crash there in 1976, car-makers still use the Nordschleife for intensive road car testing. Amateur racers can drive the circuit for 26 euros a lap.

A sanitised, much shorter neighbouring track is used for F1 and other racing nowadays.

Despite its parlous financial state, it is said Nurburgring Nordschleife generates annual revenues of up to $85m per annum and underlying profits of around $9m.

"The Nurburgring is without a doubt the cradle of German motorsports. It's an automotive cultural treasure," German motoring club ADAC's president Peter Meyer said.

ADAC also has been mentioned as a possible buyer of the circuit. But what chance Australia's Linfox making a bid for it?

Red Bull insists Webber to go to end

Red Bull Racing has had to stomp on rumours this week that Sunday's Abu Dhabi Grand Prix will be retiring Mark Webber's final F1 race.

A story swirled that Webber, who has admitted he has had difficulty finding motivation in his farewell season before switching to sports car racing with Porsche, would be stood aside to give younger Australian Daniel Ricciardo an early start as four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel's teammate.

Another arm of the story was that Russian teenager Daniil Kyvat would take Ricciardo's seat with Red Bull junior team Toro Rosso at the American and Brazilian GPs instead of at the start of next season.

But RBR has insisted: "Mark Webber will drive the last three races for us".

Meanwhile, the team's technical chief Adrian Newey has said that Pirelli's switch back to 2012 design tyres mid-year -- after the failures at the British GP -- had contributed to Vettel's dominance of the second half of the season, culminating in his fourth world title in India last Sunday.

"Our car [the RB9] gets quite a bit of its benefit in the high-speed corners and the 2013 tyres were much more load-sensitive," Newey said.

However, Newey said there "was no single magic component or magic bullet to our upturn in performance".

Newey also was adamant that there was no conspiracy within the team against Webber, who has scored less than half the points of Vettel this season.

"The conspiracies [theories] are nonsense. The cars are identical. It must just be bad luck," Newey said.

The Lotus team apologized this week for bad language in a radio exchange during the Indian GP between its trackside operations manager Alan Permane and departing driver Kimi Raikkonen, who was reluctant to let faster teammate Romain Grosjean overtake him.

Raikkonen, who is returning next year to Ferrari with which he won the 2007 world title, did not attend Lotus media commitments in Abu Dhabi yesterday – perhaps because he has not been fully paid by the team.

Venezualan driver Pastor Maldonado – and his huge sponsorship – may switch from Williams to Lotus next season, perhaps leaving talented Force India driver Nico Hulkenberg out of a seat.

And Ross Brawn, who worked with Michael Schumacher through all his seven world titles, and then won the 2009 championship with the team he took over from Honda and Jenson Button as his driver, may finish at the Mercedes factory team at the end of this season.

It seems that with Niki Lauda, Toto Wolff and Paddy Lowe in its management structure there are too many chiefs for Brawn to have a meaningful and appropriate role.

Team chairman Lauda has declared he is determined to keep Brawn, but the Englishman is only likely to stay if he can be the undisputed team principal.

Brawn has been linked to Honda in its 2015 return to F1 as an engine supplier or a role at McLaren after a year's break.

F1 doctor discredits doping allegation

A former head of France's sport anti-doping body, Marc Sanson, has claimed that Formula One drivers have used a substance to help them remember circuits.

"For many years F1 drivers have used tacrine, a product used in the treatment of diseases such as Alzheimer's, in order to remember the circuits more easily," Sanson said.

However, Gary Hartstein, recently a doctor in F1, branded Sanson "a loudmouth knowing nothing looking for a headline".

"Tacrine is not, and never has been, on the prohibited list," Hartstein said.

In any case, Hartstein doubted F1 drivers were taking tacrine because "it has tons of side-effects".

"You may get a performance advantage, you may die… Any number of things may happen, but it's not doping," he said.

"Maybe stupid, but no doping," he added.

Japanese team with Aussie engineer joins Formula E

The new electric open-wheeler world championship to start in 10 months has a sixth team now – with an Australian engineer prominent in it.

Joining the two American, one British, one Chinese and one French teams is that of Japanese ex-F1 driver, Aguri Suzuki.

Reviving on the international stage the Super Aguri name he used as an F1 team operator in 2006-08, Aguri's technical line-up again will include Aussie, Mark Preston.

The team will be known as Super Aguri Formula E or SAFE.

Four-time F1 world champion, and another former F1 team owner, Alain Prost will head the French team.

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MOTORSPORT: Lowndes lashes 'double stacking'

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