MOTORSPORT: No FG Falcon V8 Supercar this year

Ford boss rules out FG racing this season
V8 Supercar fans aren't going to see the new FG Falcon racing this year, which is a huge disappointment.

A year ago it seemed that the FG may have been racing in the second half of this season and just a few weeks ago it seemed there was still a prospect at least one Ford team may have run an FG towards the end of this season.

Indeed, even today V8 Supercar championship leader Jamie Whincup has expressed the slightest glimmer of hope that a Ford team -- but not his Triple 8/Team Vodafone -- may have one on track by the season finale.

However, Ford Australia president Bill Osborne confirmed this week (at the launch of the FG road car) that the new Falcon would not race until 2009.

"Homologating the car in time to race it this year would have meant we would have had to show its new look early -- it wasn't an option," Osborne told the Carsales Network.

"It would not necessarily make sense to pull the current cars off the track. They're going well right now," Osborne said.

According to the Ford boss, the company's motorsport resources are looking at thoroughly revising the Falcon package as part of the changeover to FG.

"It's not just a case of hanging new panels," the new Ford Australia boss, himself an engineer, said.

It would have been great to have seen the new Falcon on track perhaps by the endurance races at Phillip Island in September-October.

We would have thought that Dick Johnson Racing -- although it may be in championship contention, and it has the possible complication of its Jim Beam alcohol sponsorship -- or Jason Bright's Britek would have been the way to introduce the FG to race fans.

Whincup writes in his column in today's Courier-Mail newspaper in Brisbane:
"A lot of people have asked when the V8 Supercar version of the FG will hit the track. Well, it has not been homologated yet and will not make its debut on the racetrack until the start of the 2009 season.

"Homologation may come through a bit earlier and that could allow one of the Ford teams to campaign an FG-spec V8 Supercar towards the end of the season if it is not challenging for the championship [a contraction of Osborne's comments, as we have pointed out above].

"At this stage most of the top Ford teams, including mine -- Team Vodafone -- are going to be in the running for the title.

"It is a fairly involved and complex process whenever a new model comes around and the development of the FG Falcon V8 Supercar has been going on behind the scenes for some months.

"We were lucky enough to see the new road car well before its first official public display in Melbourne in early February. After our private viewing we went and did a 3D drawing of the exterior on the CAD (Computer Aided Design) system.

"Then we went into the process of physically building the outside of the car such as the front splitter, rear bumper, front guards, side skirts and rear wing. Those pieces are being made right now.

"From there the car will be aero tested against whatever changes Holden decides to make to its Series II VE Commodore.

"As I understand it, both those V8 Supercars, the Ford and the Holden, will undergo an aerodynamic test at the Woomera rocket range (in South Australia) in the next couple of months.

"Ford Performance Racing has built a test car for the express purpose of the test and it is almost complete.

"Team Vodafone has designed and developed the bodywork at the team's base in Brisbane and we will put that on to FPR's T-car and then testing will start.

"Stone Brothers are also a part of the development of the new car, so the three teams collectively have played a role in the development of the FG Falcon V8 Supercar."

It's just a pity that fans are going to have wait, it now seems, another 10 months to see the car in racing action.

Precious little is being heard about it on this side of the Tasman. We have seen and heard some of our media contemporaries doubting claims the attendance will be -- and even claims of ticket pre-sales of -- 150,000.

As skeptical as we often are here about motor racing crowd and TV figures, we find the 150,000 believable in this instance.

That will be a three-day figure, and we have no doubt there will be a mega crowd at Hamilton on all three of the days.

While we also frequently express concerns about street races, especially the costs, we applaud V8 Supercars Australia finding a new permanent -- at least for seven years -- home for the category in NZ.

Indeed, we -- and we think almost anyone -- would reckon NZ could host, indeed deserves, two rounds a year.

Australia and NZ are the natural heartland for the V8s -- and racing in those two countries ought be pretty much enough for V8SA.

Better that than the V8s going to many other places. Other than the purely financial gain for V8SA, we wonder about the benefits of racing in Bahrain -- although we quite enjoy telecasts of any form of racing from that deserted Middle Eastern desert track.

And we think the notion of the V8 Supercars going to Singapore in the near future is pie in the sky.

The Aussie sedans are not on the program for the first Formula 1 night grand prix in the Asian island state at the September, but V8SA chairman Tony Cochrane was muttering about them perhaps being added next year.

While ever F1 tsar Bernie Ecclestone is alive Aussie V8 Supercars will not race at the Singapore GP.

Fans who read the dedicated motorsport trade press may have noticed in recent days Cochrane now saying the V8 Supercars may have a stand-alone race meeting at a new permanent circuit mooted for Singapore -- as opposed to the temporary, downtown street circuit that will be used for the GP.

We doubt even racing that will happen, but if it does it will be very much a consolation prize for V8SA.

CAMS takes the soft option in Mosley scandal
Australia -- or at least Australian motorsport officialdom -- is sitting on the fence in the controversy surrounding disgraced Federation Internationale de l'Automobile president Max Mosley.

However, New Zealand has brushed the man at the centre of the "sick Nazi orgy with five hookers" story broken 12 days ago by London's News of the World newspaper.

NZ's Automobile Association withdrew its invitation to Mosley to attend a World Environment Day transport and environment summit in June.

NZ AA spokesman Greg Hunting said: "I wrote to him late last week suggesting it might not be possible under the circumstances.

"On the same day I received a note from him saying he regretted not being able to attend."

Motorsport NZ said Mosley's attendance at events it was involved with was also under review.

Morrie Chandler, the New Zealander who is effectively the world head of rallying and who is also an FIA vice-president, does not expect to see Mosley in the Shaky Isles.

The extraordinary general meeting of the FIA senate that Mosley sought to decide on his future has been set for Paris on June 3 -- still many weeks away.

As much as we have admired Mosley's brilliant intellect, although not the vindictiveness with which he has pursued people such as McLaren team principal Ron Dennis, it is amazing that he can even be entertaining staying at the FIA helm even until that special meeting.

Mosley is incapable of accepting that -- since the News of the World revelations -- he is on the nose, globally.

He persists with painting himself as a victim on the basis that his privacy was invaded. He has said that his behaviour was "harmless and completely legal". His problem is that he got caught, by whatever means.

We don't doubt Mosley's stamina for fighting his rearguard action, but -- however long it takes -- it can only end with his departure. The longer the wait the less dignity there will be in that exit.

As we have pointed out before, the Automobile Association of America (AAA), the largest motoring organisation in the world with 51 million members in the US, and Germany's ADAC, which represents more European motorists than any other association, have made it plain, publicly, that they want him out.

The Confederation of Australia Motor Sport (CAMS) has taken what Auto Action magazine this week called "a measured approach".

Auto Action quoted CAMS president Colin Osborne saying that by the time of the June 3 meeting in Paris "we should be in possession of all the relevant facts and data on this issue and at that point in time we will obviously finalise our position".

CAMS' FIA delegate is Garry Connelly, who was best known for his role in the former Rally Australia in Western Australia and who will attend the Paris meeting.

"Each day there seems to be something slightly different emerge and therefore we are not going to come to any conclusions one way or the other at this point in time," Osborne said.

What Auto Action calls the "measured approach" we call indecisive and soft.

In the big picture the A1 concept has survived almost three seasons but is continually seen to be under dark clouds, while on a micro level the Australian team headed for 1980 F1 world champion Alan Jones has never consistently got its act together.

Making matters worse for us, New Zealand is second in this third season, 15 points behind Switzerland -- represented in the driver's seat by Neel Jani.

Kiwi driver Jonny Reid has had four race wins this season, more than any other driver, and is the defending round winner in Shanghai.

What has reinvigorated things is having 26-car fields, rather 20 or less in either the former IRL or Champ Car.

Formula 1, remember, was built through the 1980s on Bernie Ecclestone guaranteeing fields of 26, although he's got away with less -- mostly six less -- for a long time now.

The strengthening of IndyCar is expected to see at least 39 cars trying to make the Indianapolis 500 next month, rather than that great race clawing for a full field of 33 in recent years.

Next week, because of commitments that could not be breached, Champ Car will stage its final race in Long Beach, California, while IndyCar -- or this time the old IRL regulars -- will race in Japan, with both carrying points towards the unified championship.

The Long Beach finale has drawn a few old favorites out of the woodwork -- including Roberto Moreno, Paul Tracy and Jimmy Vasser, as well as Antonio Pizzonia, Alex Tagliani and Nelson Phillipe.

It's sounding like an historic meeting. In terms of closing the book on the great divide in American open-wheeler racing it will be.

The Scotsman's switch from open-wheelers to stock cars has been anything but smooth -- and last weekend he didn't even qualify for the Texas round of NASCAR's premier series, the Sprint Cup, in his Chip Ganassi Dodge.

"If you can't qualify for a race, that's pathetic," said the notoriously intolerant Ganassi, although he shared the blame among his whole team.

"We were a little bit at fault for not giving him (Franchitti) a car to qualify," Ganassi said. "We're a better team than that."

Juan Pablo Montoya, another Ganassi driver and another former Indy 500 winner, is the team's top Sprint Cup driver, but he is only 19th in the championship -- and more than 300 points behind leader Jeff Burton.

Reed Sorenson, yet another driver for Ganassi, is 27th in the points and, like Montoya, finished two laps down at Texas.

Reminds us of that comment from a former Australian prime minister that life wasn't meant to be easy.

>> Early take on Targa Tasmania
Targa Tasmania is on next week. It starts in Launceston on Tuesday. Expect Steve Glenney in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX to give the Porsche GT2 of multiple winner Jim Richards a run for its money.

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