MOTORSPORT: No Car of the Future until 2013

Rather than a transition year in 2012 with the first Cars of the Future running against the existing specification race cars, V8 Supercars Australia has decided that the CotF will be  "fully implemented across the entire field" the following season.

"Car of the Future is incredibly important to the future direction of V8 Supercars and as such it is vital that we get the product and its introduction absolutely right," V8SA chief executive Martin Whitaker said.

"We have complete support from all the teams and manufacturers in this decision. It's a common sense decision that allows all teams to be on an equal playing field at the start of 2013."

Whitaker said two prototypes being constructed by Pace Innovations were "on target" for completion in time for "winter testing".

The prototypes were intended to have been ready for the season launch and test day at Sydney's Eastern Creek on January 29. Whitaker claimed the CotF program was "well advanced -- and we will have two prototypes built and ready to test mid-year".

"This (postponement) decision allows all the players in the car's introduction the flexibility of time to plan for a full and well-considered transition in 2013," he said.

Mark Skaife (pictured), the six-time Bathurst 1000 winner, five-time series champion and TV commentator as well as a V8SA director, has overall responsibility for the CofF project.

"It is imperative we ensure these technical changes are fairly dealt with across all teams and that we adhere to the primary objectives of reducing cost whilst maintaining the integrity of the championship and ultimately the high quality of racing," Skaife said.

"The CotF is the platform for the next decade of V8 Supercars, which will be implemented to ensure the future success of the sport with the ability to introduce more manufacturers.

"In discussions with manufacturers, it is crucial that the car's appearance and DNA will closely mirror that of the road-going equivalent of the respective manufacturer -- a unique element that allows the V8 Supercar CotF to genuinely stand apart from other touring car series in the world.

"The CotF involves significant technical changes that ensure teams are able to build and maintain these cars with greater efficiencies, which will assist with their overall viability. This is certainly a very exciting period for V8 Supercars."

Plenty of spins on those comments from Whitaker and Skaife, while many fans will still be wondering what the CotF project is all about and whether there ever will be new manufacturers in the sport.

Garland has a fractured vertebra halfway down his spine after his Isuzu D-MAX ute bounced off a sand dune and landed heavily near the end of stage six.

The remaining competitors have had the rest day in the two-week rally and are now heading back through Chile towards next weekend's finish in the Argentinian capital, Buenos Aires.

Carlos Sainz, the Spaniard who won last year's Dakar after two world rally championships in the early 1990s, has won four stages so far this year, but his VW teammate Nasser Al-Attiyah of Qatar won the latest, seventh stage.

What was to have been the longest section of the event was cut in half -- to "just" 273km between Arica and Antofagasta -- because organisers said it would allow teams and drivers to be better prepared for the second half of the rally.

BMW's Stephane Peterhansel, the Frenchman who won the Dakar three times for Mitsubishi after six wins on two wheels, had another puncture on stage seven -- after four on stage six -- and lost seven minutes.

Peterhansel still finished fourth for the day, but almost five minutes behind South African Giniel de Villiers, another former winner who made the day a trifecta for VW.

Peterhansel remains third outright but more than 21 minutes behind leader Sainz, while Al-Attiyah is just 82 seconds in arrears of the Spaniard -- having halved the gap on stage seven, on which his victory was the seventh of his Dakar career and second this year.

Sainz and Al-Attiyah had a bitter row at the end of last year's Dakar, with the Spaniard accusing the Qatari of dangerous tactics. Sainz said that was now behind them but that the rivalry remained "intense". He said the shortened stage seven was still "really hard".

"But in the end, I am happy. There was a very tricky sand dune section. It was a good day -- but a tough one," Sainz said.

Al-Attiyah said he would now step up his efforts to overhaul his teammate and win the Dakar for the first time.

"From now on, I really have to attack," Al-Attiyah said.

"In order to avoid flat tyres we have to avoid sliding sideways too much. Last year I had six flat tyres. This year I really focused on my driving to avoid flats and stay on course as much as possible."

Meanwhile, Peterhansel admitted it was "getting pretty bad" for his chances.

"It is my fault. I drive too fast on this terrain. I don't have the right pace," he said. "Anyway, on the podium, second, third, fourth, fifth or eighth, it's all the same. The only thing we wanted at the start was final victory and that seems to be getting out of reach."

Poland's Krzysztof Holowczyc finished stage seven fifth in his BMW after two punctures and wondering whether the BMWs were too heavy for the tyres on the terrain.

Frenchman Guerlain Chicherit destroyed his MINI Countryman while doing demonstration runs for the cameras on the rest day.

Garland remains his usual cheerful self.

"The hospital is wonderful -- it's more like a resort, really comfortable with a fantastic view of the coast, and lots of pretty nurses who have been giving me sponge baths -- it's not all bad!" he said.

"We [he and long-time co-driver Harry Suzuki] were going so well and everything was running to plan. We were in the top 20 and ready to start moving up the field. The D-MAX was running like a charm and now this -- when we so badly needed a good result.

"I knew I was in trouble as soon as we landed. I felt my spine crunch. I've landed hard plenty of times but never had this much pain. It was unbelievable. I just drove off the main track so we were out of the way of the crazy truck racers, and then I got out and lay down.

"The hit was so hard on my side that it broke an engine mount. We were lucky that a spectator who obviously knew a lot about cars came out of the crowd and helped Harry get the car sorted. I took a couple of Nurofen and then we took it slowly for the last 30km and I went straight to the medical centre."

Garland and Suzuki still finished the stage 26th, which left them 22nd outright -- after having been 19th the day before. They had been aiming to end the third Dakar in South America in the top 10 after finishing 11th in the first in 2009, when they were the first "amateur" or non-factory team, the first diesel ute and first production chassis car.

They had to withdraw last year after a freak incident in which a spare wheel dislodged and smashed the radiator on the same stage that was their downfall this time.

Of his injury, Garland said: "Apparently it's quite a big crack and very close to the spinal cord. If it had been a bigger hit or I'd had another knock, I could have ended up a paraplegic, so I know how lucky I am.

"I've had to lie really still for 24 hours or so, which is a big challenge for someone like me, but you do as you are told in a situation like this. I nearly went stir-crazy counting all the lines on the ceiling, but I've now got a brace on which means I can move about a bit, which is wonderful.

"Now they are making me a special hard brace and I could be ready to come home within a few days. Once I get home, we'll find out what we need to do but they're saying it could be three or four months of being careful before it's right again.

"I can't wait to get home. Then I'll just lick my wounds and see what happens next."

For progress on Garland check www.isuzumotorsports.com

Suzuki and the Isuzu Motorsports team are traveling back to Buenos Aires to prepare to return to Australia while Garland already has plans for a customer car building program and a team management arrangement for would-be Dakar competitors.

Geoff Olholm of Cairns and co-driver Steve Riley were 58th in their first four-wheel Dakar before the rest day. Olholm, driving a BMW, has described one of the stages as "rougher than seven days of [the Australasian] Safari".

The website of Australian telecaster SBS is keeping a tab on the pair's progress, while a mid-event report posted in Cairns is here: http://therocknews.com.au/

The Hispania Racing Team has said it won't be fielding the younger Senna this year and there appears to be no other opening for him now.

"I can definitely say that Bruno Senna is not going to race for HRT -- 100 per cent not," team principal Colin Kolles told Reuters.

Spanish-owned HRT has signed 33-year-old Indian Narain Karthikeyan, who last raced in F1 for Jordan in 2005, as one of its drivers.

The only remaining vacancies left, apart from the second HRT seat, are at Force India, which is expected to stick with Germany's Adrian Sutil and introduce Briton Paul di Resta.

However, Reuters said Italian Vitantonio Liuzzi and Germany's Nico Hulkenberg, who raced for Williams last year before making way for cashed-up Venezuelan Pastor Maldonado, also are in contention.

Karthikeyan returns to F1 in the season that will see the first Indian Grand Prix in New Delhi on October 30.

Fellow Indian Karun Chandhok started 10 GPs for HRT in its debut season last year but his career has now stalled.

Kolles said Austrian Christian Klien and Japan's Sakon Yamamoto remained in the frame for the remaining HRT seat.

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