Motorsport midweek wrap: a month of mourning

The nation's grieving for the King of the Mountain will last at least a month. On Friday, September 22, there will be a public memorial service at Sandown racetrack in outer eastern Melbourne. At Bathurst the perpetual trophy for the winners of the Great Race will now be named in Brock's honor.

There will be a parade of his Bathurst-winning cars, including replicas where originals no longer exist, at Mt Panorama on the morning of this year's race, on October 8. They will be driven by Brock's co-drivers, rivals and probably his racing son, James.

A special homily will be delivered at the track by chaplain Gary Coleman and a minute's silence observed. The front row of the grid will be left vacant in memory of Brock's six pole positions for the classic and all cars will carry 05 decals in the race. These are just the official tributes to Peter Perfect. Then there are all the spontaneous outpourings of Brocky's legion of fans.

The nine cars Brock drove to Bathurst victory are:
1972: Holden Torana LJ XU1 (500km race)
1975: Holden Torana L34 with Brian Sampson
1978: Holden Torana A9X with Jim Richards
1979: Holden Torana A9X with Jim Richards
1980: Holden Commodore VC with Jim Richards
1982: Holden Commodore VH with Larry Perkins
1983: Holden Commodore VH with Larry Perkins and John Harvey
1984: Holden Commodore VK with Larry Perkins
1987: Holden Commodore VL with David Parsons and Peter McLeod

At the Goodwood Revival in Britain the weekend before his death Peter Brock bumped into the American motoring identity of the same name. Ironically, that Peter Brock was the designer of the original Cobra Daytona Coupe in 1964 and the Superformance Cobra Daytona Coupe in 1999 on which the car in which Brock died was modelled. At Goodwood "our" Brock drove an FX Holden and a Corvette Stingray designed by the American Brock while at General Motors in the late 1950s.

The Confederation of Australian Motor Sport panel investigating Brock's death in Targa West last Friday comprises barrister Walter Sofronoff, former CAMS chief executive John Keeffe and Australian Rally Commission risk management specialist Colin Trinder.

>> V8 chief says no to new Oran
V8 Supercar chief Tony Cochrane has urged Oran Park owner Tony Perich to forget ideas of re-creating his track further out of Sydney and says he should instead invest the money in Eastern Creek. "Tony talked up building a new circuit, but we've said to him, ‘Forget that, that's absolute rubbish'. He should do a deal and put that same sort of money into Eastern Creek -- and you could make Eastern Creek into a really great facility," Cochrane told The Panel Beaters webcast.

"We don't want to have new things opening up all over the place. What we're trying to do -- what we've been trying to do now for 10 years -- is to consolidate the circuits that are there and make them much more workable." This week's Auto Action magazine says Perich is looking at three sites -- one near Wilton, in the Southern Highlands -- and is not commenting on Cochrane's suggestion.

Hamilton, son of an immigrant from Trinidad, has won the GP2 series run at European rounds of the F1 championship. He introduced himself to McLaren chief Ron Dennis at 11 and asked for an autograph and a drive. Dennis noted Hamilton's phone number and told him to ring him in nine years. However, McLaren was in touch within three years as the youngster excelled in karting and he was signed to the F1 team's junior driver scheme.

"My colour is an advantage in that it's something people talk about," Hamilton says. "Being the first black man doesn't matter much to me personally, but for the sport itself it probably means quite a lot."

Dennis says exploitation of Hamilton's color "is a no-no". Try telling Bernie Ecclestone that!

"Zidane retired with more glory than Schumacher," Alonso says. "Michael is the most unsporting driver with the largest number of sanctions in the history of F1. That doesn't take away from the fact that he has been the best driver and it has been an honor and pleasure to battle against him."

Alonso says officialdom favors Schumacher and Ferrari.

"A little bit of help has never gone amiss. Quite often they go over the line of what is acceptable and it is inexplicable. No one is going to believe the penalty I was given (after Italian GP qualifying) for a long time. The excuse they gave was far from honest ... It isn't good for our sport. One thing I am clear about, though, is that he who laughs last, laughs longest. If we get things right in two of the three races that are left the world championship will be ours."

Young Spanish championship contender Dani Pedrosa is also struggling against injury. Pedrosa's Honda teammate, American Nicky Hayden, heads him by 22 points in the title fight, with Valentino Rossi another four points behind and three races remaining after Australia.

Rossi is mounting a strong late charge for a sixth straight world title and a sixth consecutive win at Phillip Island would be a big help. Stoner is set to stay on a Honda next year rather than join Rossi in the Yamaha camp.