MOTORSPORT: Now WA biffed off calendar

Special Tuesday motorsport report

Fireworks erupt over West's lost round
The year is just 40 days old and now there have been five changes to the V8 Supercar Championship calendar -- this time the dumping of the West Australian round, with Perth's Barbagallo Raceway branded a "third world facility" by the series organisers.

With the June 4-6 round in the west off the calendar there will now be a nine-week break in the season, from mid-July to mid-September -- unless or until WA is restored to a calendar now supposedly final.

First Queensland Raceway at Ipswich was ditched from the schedule, then Symmons Plains in Tasmania moved a week because it dawned that it had clashed with the end of Melbourne's horse racing spring carnival, then Queensland Raceway was reinstated, and the Gold Coast carnival in October became a two-part, 600km enduro with international co-drivers in more than half the cars.

Now Perth is off the calendar, because V8 Supercars Australia says the paddock and pitlane at Barbagallo Raceway, or what to many will always be simply Wanneroo, doesn't meet occupational health and safety standards.

There's a lot more to this story, some of which we touched on in the middle of last November.

The WA government has played harder ball than other state governments on splurging money on motor racing. It wouldn't agree to a street race in Perth and it won't bankroll a total makeover of Wanneroo or a new permanent track. It's cap, certainly for now, appears to have been a $5 million contribution.

Irrespective of the rights or wrongs, V8SA again has taken the early upper hand in what is potentially another ugly public spat.

Anger is starting to surface in Perth, with Rick Gill -- chairman of the Wanneroo circuit operator, the West Australian Sporting Car Club -- quoted in the West Australian newspaper today (more here) -- calling V8SA's decision "unethical … bordering on dictatorial".

While V8SA's acting chief executive Shane Howard said in announcing the axing: "We are extremely disappointed for all our fans in WA.

"As a group we have worked overtime in trying to get this third world facility revamped so that both the paddock and pitlane meet basic occupational health and safety legislation.

"Despite a reduced sanction fee of around 25% of the actual cost for us to race in Perth, committing to a long-term five-year deal and offering the services of Mark Skaife and our engineers to design the new circuit at our cost, we still get a lip service response.

"The situation is best summed up by a recent seven-page letter and subsequent letters that have received just a one paragraph response at best.

"Our WA fans will at least have the extensive free-to-view live coverage (author's note: of rounds interstate and overseas, although not all live) on the Seven Network.

"Hopefully this opens the door for other regions of WA to approach us with a view to bringing one of the world's greatest touring car championships to a new destination in the future."

These clouds things often have a silver lining, and the eventuality may well be that WA gets a new round -- perhaps in the Bunbury region.

In time the west may end up with two rounds, but first things first -- Perth needs to be back on the calendar for this to be a proper national championship.

New Moffat with FPR for enduros
Confirmation has come, just days after Ford legend Allan Moffat returned to the Blue Oval "family" as an ambassador for Ford Performance Vehicles, that his son James will race in the V8 Supercar endurance races at Phillip Island and Bathurst this year with FPV's motorsport offshoot, Ford Performance Racing.

Moffat Junior was already organised to race an FPR-run Falcon in the V8 Supercar development series this year.

After the announcement of him joining FPR's "main game" endurance squad, Moffat Junior said: "Joining the Ford factory team, FPR and Prodrive is an unbelievable opportunity for me.

"It's everything you work towards... to join one of the best, most professional teams in the country, operating at the highest level, and already the support they've given me is tremendous.

"My primary aim in 2010 is to win the development series and to be competitive at Phillip Island and Bathurst. Then I can focus on taking the final step to the V8 Supercar series after that."

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