MOTORSPORT: Mitsubishi conquers the mountain

Mitsubishi Evo IXs 1-2 in Bathurst 12-Hour
Less than a week after its announcement that it is to cease making cars in Australia, Mitsubishi scored one of its greatest motor racing successes on Australian soil -- in the Bathurst 12-hour race.

Indeed, while the only thing most people know about the enduro yet (before next weekend's 3-hour package on Channel 7) is the spectacular multiple rollover of Len Cave's Mazda 3 MPS, Mitsubishi Evo IX Lancer RSs finished first and second.

These were not factory entries, but rather privately-owned cars built and prepared by TMR Australia, the latest incarnation of what was Team Ralliart Australia and still headed by Alan Heaphy, the renowned team manager and engineer formerly in V8 Supercar racing and, for a couple of years up until 2006, in the Australian Rally Championship.

The winning Evo is owned by Rod Salmon, who co-drove it with Damien White and Graham Alexander, while the second-placed car was shared by Tony and Klark Quinn with TV personality Grant Denyer.

The latter trio was unlucky not to win, having incurred three drive-through penalities during the course of the 12 hours as well as seeing a 2½-minute lead late in the race negated by a safety car.

The result emphasised that, while the Australian public never warmed enough to locally-made Mitsubishis in dealer showrooms, the Japanese giant's imported cars are winners -- on and off the racetrack.

Veteran Heaphy was mightily chuffed to see two "so basic" Mitsubishis emerge 1-2 from the enduro against much more expensive machinery -- some of which had had a lot of extra money spent on enhancements.

He said both the Evos got through the race on one set of brake pads and the winning car had the same rear tyres the whole distance -- 253 laps of the mighty mountain circuit.

The BMW 335i that won the 12-hour last year finished third this time, a lap behind the two Mitsubishis, with Craig Baird, Paul Morris and owner Garry Holt again sharing the driving.

Fourth was another BMW 335i, which at one time was leading until Steve Owen got stranded just before the The Cutting with an electrical problem.

Rounding out the top five was another Mitsubishi Evo IX, but this one a GSR -- and which David Wall had put on pole position. However, it finished 10 laps behind the two RSs.

The weekend wasn't so good for Holden, which saw its Sportwagon -- yet to go on sale -- fall victim to brake failure (perhaps from a damaged lining) within two hours of the start, with Nathan Pretty colliding with Guy Gibbons' Lotus Exige.

The Sherrin Motorsport BMW 130i was a non-starter, while Alfa was embarrassed by its 159 diesel, which didn't qualify after little practice and a reluctance to swallow its fuel when it mattered.

Nor did the Alfa safety car cover itself in glory, refusing to start at one point.

The race start was delayed 13 minutes while a dead kangaroo was removed with dignity, and that of course pushed the finish 13 minutes beyond the scheduled 6.30pm end.

But what this Bathurst race will inevitably be remembered for was Cave's Mazda flipping 10 times through The Chase -- and the 57-year-old escaping without any serious injury.

The race was nine hours and 42 minutes old when Cave lost a wheel, slid sideways into the sand trap and began rolling so spectacularly -- and with the impact so severe the engine, front suspension and gearbox were torn clear, with the car coming to a halt on its roof on the exit of The Chase.

Fords 1,2, 3 in WRC and youngest winner
Ford's Focus filled all three podium positions in the Rally of Sweden, where 22-year Finn Jari-Matti Latvala became the youngest driver to win a round of the World Rally Championship.

Four-time world champion and winner of this season's opening Monte Carlo Rally, Frenchman Sebastien Loeb, rolled his Citroen C4 on the first full day, was forced out with a clutch problem, resumed in pursuit of manufacturer points but was caught by police speeding on a transport stage and ultimately retired -- making it a sorry 100th WRC event for him.

Australian Chris Atkinson's chances of a repeat of his Monte Carlo podium went out the window on the first day after his Subaru Impreza hit a snow bank, got bogged and dropped more than 15 minutes.

"The conditions were very hard," Atkinson said. "The slide into the bank was quite a surprise. I wasn't feeling entirely comfortable with the car in the conditions, which were a mixture of snow and gravel and so made the level of grip tricky."

Latvala, who started 10th and led from the end of the second stage, finished 58 seconds ahead of compatriot and Ford factory teammate Mikko Hirvonen, who now leads the championship, while Italian Gigi Galli, driving for the Stobart team, took third place, 1 minute 25 seconds off the pace.

Latvala broke the record as the WRC's youngest winner held by Finnish legend Henri Toivonen, who died in 1986.

"It's almost unbelievable. Henri (Toivonen) was one of my idols and secretly I've always wanted to beat his record as the youngest winner," Latvala said. "The rally started so well from the first stage. We've made no mistakes, the car has been absolutely perfect and I've been able to control the speed -- I'm really happy about that. I feel very comfortable now."

It was Latvala's second podium finish, as he was in the top three at the Rally of Ireland last November when driving for Stobart, Ford's B team, before being promoted into the factory outfit on the retirement of dual world champion Marcus Gronholm.

The third round of the WRC, in Mexico, is from February 28 to March 2.

World Rally Championship driver standing after 2 of 15 rounds -- M. Hirvonen 16 points, S. Loeb 10, JM Latvala 10, P. Solberg 9, G. Galli 9, C. Atkinson 6, F. Duval 5, A. Mikkelsen 4, D. Sordo 3, 10. JM. Cuoq 2, 11. T. Gardemeister 2, PG. Andersson 1, J. Hanninen 1.

World Rally Championship manufacturer standings -- Ford 26 points, Subaru 16, Stobart 16, Citroen Total 15, Suzuki 5.

We believe that Larry Perkins has bought -- indeed bought back -- one of the licences he sold several years ago.

Gore said the WPS/WOW drivers, Max Wilson and Jason Bargwanna, were "contracted", but their future is not clear.

He said his two Team Licence Agreements had been sold to undisclosed parties with the blessing of the Touring Car Entrants Group of Australia (TEGA), while the team's cars and equipment are to be sold separately.

Gore's statement said he would still sponsor, via the financial services group Wright Patton Shakespeare (WPS), the Chrysler V8 Supercar safety car for the next five years and remained committed to his Team Australia program and driver Will Power in the Champ Car series in the US.

He gave as the reason for his V8 withdrawal an increasing commitment to the continued growth of his businesses, especially WPS, and his health -- he suffered an inner-ear injury in his helicopter last October.

We suspect there is a fair bit more to this situation than last night's announcement told us -- and perhaps it will take a while to filter out.

Cochrane foresees smaller V8 fields
There's talk of reducing the size of the V8 Supercar field, perhaps by up to six cars to 26.

Just what V8 Supercar honcho Tony Cochrane's rationale for this idea is we're not sure, but we wonder whether it is linked in any way to rumors about the health of some teams.

"I think probably 26, 28 cars should be in the main game," Cochrane said. "Then what we should do is have a system for the enduros where we can add the top six or top eight or top 10 development series cars and give them a financial incentive to be involved in those two events."

Cochrane said he wanted teams to be limited to a maximum of four cars -- a point on which British team owners Tom Walkinshaw, Roland Dane and David Richards are apparently at odds with him.

We're with Cochrane on that one.

In terms of race results, the V8 Supercar Championship has effectively already become a de facto British touring car championship.

Need we remind you again that all but one of the races last year were won by Walkinshaw, Dane or Richards cars -- and the one Aussie team owner who had success, Garry Rogers, has turned to Walkinshaw for more assistance this year.

How about we reAussify this series?

Concerns Queensland Raceway too slippery
There are concerns about Queensland Raceway ahead of this week's V8 Supercar testing, according to a report in Brisbane's Courier-Mail newspaper.

"Queensland-based V8 Supercar teams have threatened to boycott the official test day at Queensland Raceway over fears the circuit has been rendered unsafe after being recently treated against degradation," the paper's motorsport writer Gordon Lomas has reported.

"Several drivers of a variety of race cars have complained that the surface at the 3.12km facility near Ipswich has become slippery after a special compound was sprayed over 40,000sqm of the track to stop the surface from oxidising and breaking up.

"It was put down on January 28 and normally takes 48 hours to cure, however the drying process has taken much longer than expected with concerns over poor surface grip."

Lomas said that circuit owner John Tetley allayed fears the track is unsafe in the face of teams apparently being prepared to travel to Sydney's Oran Park instead to test.

Lomas conclued that the teams were expected to proceed with Thursday's official test day at Queensland Raceway after further inspections by drivers and V8 officials.

However, Tetley was quoted saying: "It will probably be another three to four months before it gets back to what it was.

"I've heard all these stories from prima donna V8 drivers saying there is no grip and that a couple of cars have ended up on their roofs, but that is just not true."

Peace at hand in American 'war'
Peace at last may be near in the 12-year open-wheeler "war" in America.

Champ Car co-owners Kevin Kalkhoven and Gerald Forsythe have reportedly reached agreement with Indianapolis Motor Speedway chief and Indy Racing League founder founder Tony George to combine the two series immediately.

One hurdle that has to be quickly overcome is a clash of dates between an IRL round scheduled at Motegi in Japan and Champ Car's US marquee event, the Long Beach grand prix.

George has reportedly offered Champ Car owners free Dallara chassis and Honda engines to sign up with him for the season, as well as US$1.2 million a car as part of the IRL's TEAM program.

The Champ Car races at Long Beach in California, Edmonton in Canada and Surfers' Paradise would be added to the '08 IndyCar schedule.

"Both sides want this to happen very much and we're working on it," Kalkhoven said.

Movie star Paul Newman -- co-owner of Champ Car's most successful team, along with Carl Haas and more recently Mike Lanigan -- is delighted at the prospect of reunification.

"I feel like I died and went to heaven. This is the best news I've heard in a long time," Newman said.

But don't believe a word of the prospect raised in the Gold Coast Bulletin newspaper of Ryan Briscoe being paired with Will Power in Craig Gore's Team Australia.

Briscoe has the best gig going with Team Penske, which has won the Indianapolis 500 a record 14 times.

"I'm most looking forward to the month of May -- I can't wait to go to the Indy 500 with Team Penske," Briscoe said.

"The expectations will be very high because I'm driving with the most successful team ever to compete at Indy, and it's certainly the most important race that we run all year.

"There will be so much preparation going into that event -- it's going to be huge and I can't wait for it. I've seen how excited Roger (Penske) gets for Memorial Day weekend and I'm just so excited -- it's going to be great.

"Last year's ALMS (American Le Mans Series) racing was a totally different experience for me.

"I'm accustomed to working as a solo driver, with my own crew and team -- it's what I had done my entire career. I'm really looking forward to building the team around me and getting back into familiar surroundings.

"I'm fortunate that I live near the race shop in Mooresville, North Carolina, because I've been trying to spend a lot of time there with the team to get to know everyone really well so we're on the same page when the season starts (at the end of March)."

Matt Jonsson, who will be chief mechanic on Briscoe's car, said: "Ryan reminds me a lot of Gil de Ferran (the Brazilian who won the Indy 500 and later managed Honda's Formula 1 effort), because he's very analytical and wants to see and understand everything.

"Not only is he knowledgeable about racing, but he also appreciates the mechanical and technical aspects of the sport as well. After tests and races, he goes back and studies his own data to learn more about his performance; it's really exciting to see that kind of enthusiasm in a driver."

Turn out lights on Eastern Creek F1 report
Even more out of the question than Briscoe driving for Craig Gore is the notion raised in Sydney's Sunday Telegraph about Sydney poaching Melbourne's F1 grand prix and running it at Eastern Creek -- under lights!

The paper claimed that, in an exclusive interview, NSW Premier Morris Iemma said he wanted NSW to usurp Victoria as the premier state for sporting events.

"The (NSW) government is also understood to have spoken to Formula 1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone about bringing the Australian Grand Prix to Eastern Creek," it said.

"Mr Ecclestone dropped a bombshell last week when he announced he was thinking of quitting Melbourne to chase better money and sponsorship in other international cities.

"Last year's grand prix ran at a loss of almost $35 million to the Victorian government.

"Mr Ecclestone reiterated again yesterday that the Melbourne Grand Prix was as good as dead because of Victoria's refusal to install lights at Albert Park and stage the event at night to allow Europeans to watch the event during their lunchtime, rather than at 3 or 4am.

"The Sunday Telegraph understands the NSW government is prepared to install lights at Eastern Creek, but that the Australian motor racing fraternity would have to accept Eastern Creek as a venue.

"V8 Supercars have been pressuring the government to use the Homebush precinct as a street circuit, but the government will insist Eastern Creek become the permanent home of motor sport in NSW to complement the existing road circuit at Bathurst.

"Securing an F1 GP would be a massive coup for NSW while cementing Sydney as a global sporting city.

"The move would also help boost Mr Iemma's popularity among his key constituents."

Somebody needs a reality check here.

If Melbourne's GP goes at the expiry of its contract in 2010, it's virtually certain to be overseas -- perhaps to St Petersburg in Russia.

And Ecclestone won't cop Eastern Creek as a venue for an F1 race. Therefore, there's no need for any lights -- unless for some other purpose.

South Africa cool on A1 GP
Despite South African Adrian Zaugg's victory in the A1 GP round at Eastern Creek little more than a week ago, we're hearing that tickets are not selling well for his home race at Durban the week after next, despite price cuts.

And the word is that the country may not want to remain on the A1 calendar beyond this year.

Busy times for Leanne Tander
Leanne Tander, runner-up in last year's Australian Formula 3 Championship as well as being the wife of V8 Supercar champion Garth Tander, is set for a busy year abroad and at home.

She is to contest the Formula V6 Asia Championship as well as having another crack at the Aussie F3 title.

Formula V6 Asia cars are 400hp and were previously used in the World Series by Renault series in Europe.

We're not sure yet of the calendar for the Asian series, but last year it had rounds in Indonesia, China, Japan and Malaysia.

NASCAR has great history, and making more of it
NASCAR is celebrating its 60th birthday this year, and this coming Sunday (early Monday, Australia time) is the 50th annual Daytona 500.

Apart from all the other history, this race will mark the start of the first full season of the Sprint Cup (previously the Nextel Cup, and before that the Winston Cup) to be contested with what until now has been the Car of Tomorrow but which now becomes the Car of Today -- a standardised NASCAR meant to be suited to all kinds of tracks, so there is not the need for so many different cars for the various ovals and road courses.

While NASCAR is massive in the US its popularity and TV audience has plateaued the past couple of years, so officials are now happy to consolidate the product they have rather than risk antagonising fans.

How refreshing to see a sporting administration that takes notice of its fans.

We watched a pipe-opener NASCAR race from Daytona on Fox over the weekend, think it was called the Budweister Shootout, and if it is an indicator of what's ahead it's going to be a great season.

Dale Earnhardt Junior, who spent a lot of his off-season in Australia, won first time out for the already dominant Hendrick Motorsports and Chevrolet -- and the fans loved it.

While Earnhardt Junior hasn't won a major race for two years, he is a past winner of the Daytona 500 and is NASCAR's most popular driver, simply for being the son of the The Intimidator, the great Dale Earnhardt who died on the last lap of the Daytona 500 nine years ago.

Apart from keeping an eye on how Aussie Marcos Ambrose does in his third year in American stock car racing (he's scheduled to drive 14 Sprint Cup races later in the season, as well as a full Nationwide -- formerly Busch -- Series campaign in Ford Fusions), there's a lot to look forward.

Like whether Jimmie Johnson can become a three-time champion. He equalled Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jeff Gordon's back-to-back titles of 1997-98 in the past two seasons, but only Cale Yarborough has won three in a row -- in 1976-78.

Johnson won 10 Cup races last year, including four in a row towards the climax.

Toyota is trying to win its first Cup race in its second season at the top level of stock car racing and has contracted former championship team Joe Gibbs Racing from the Chevrolet camp in that quest, with drivers including two-time Cup champion Tony Stewart.

After Juan Pablo Montoya's first full season in NASCAR last year, other former open-wheeler drivers Dario Franchitti, Sam Hornish Junior, Jacques Villeneuve and Patrick Carpentier are making the move into stock car racing.

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