MOTORSPORT: NZ microscope on V8 Supercars

And a new crisis is looming in the World Rally Championship.

Auckland councillors this week deferred a green light for V8 Supercars, demanding more information.

While a return to Pukekohe on the southern outskirts of Auckland remains likely, some councilors are intent on rigorous scrutiny of the V8 Supercars Australia proposal.

Auckland Tourism, Events and Economic Development (ATEED) submitted a proposal to the council which has been discussed out of earshot and view of the public and media, supposedly on the grounds that it is commercially sensitive, but in any case ATEED has been told to present a revised report by the end of this month.

Councillor Des Morrison, who represents the Franklin ward that includes Pukekohe, has said he wants to be sure proper “due diligence” is done on the proposal for V8 Supercars to return to the permanent circuit at the horse racing venue.

“After the problems they’ve had in Hamilton - and I was on council for six years when the Australian V8s ran at Pukekohe - I am particularly interested in the due diligence which has been carried out and the business plan,” Morrison told Fairfax NZ News.

Councillor Cameron Brewer queried the secrecy surrounding the consideration of the proposal.

“I can’t understand the extreme secretness and sensitivities given there is just one V8 Supercars Australia and just one likely venue in Auckland,” Brewer said.

“So where are the competitor or commercial sensitivities?

“Who are we trying to protect and from whom?

“After all this is ratepayers’ money and we don’t want to start going down the slippery slide Hamilton went down.”

Brewer wants the Audit NZ full report on Hamilton made public to ensure Auckland does not repeat the mistakes made there.

The four years of the V8 Supercar round in Hamilton, 130km south-west of Auckland in the Waikato region, cost the regional city’s taxpayers $40 million.

Audit NZ’s review found former Hamilton council chief executive Michael Redman had spent millions of dollars without authorisation.

Redman later became chief executive of ATEED in Auckland but was forced to resign last October following Audit NZ’s report.

Brewer said one of Audit NZ’s key concerns had been that officials in Hamilton had been “wheeling and dealing” behind closed doors and not involving the city’s elected representatives in decision-making.

The Hamilton contract to host V8 Supercars was cut three years short of its intended seven-year life, with V8 Supercars buying assets the city had paid for – such as fencing for the temporary street circuit – for just $1.25 million after a sudden take-it-or-leave-it offer.

Fairfax NZ News reporter Jessica Tasman-Jones this week has described that offer as having “blind-sided” the Hamilton council.

V8 Supercars Australia had taken over the promotion of the Hamilton event after the failure of the local private promoter after the first two years.

Australian-based Kiwi touring car legend Greg Murphy is fourth in the series behind Jonny Reid, John McIntyre and Kayne Scott after missing the second round at Christchurch’s Ruapana circuit due to back surgery.

Angus Fogg and Daniel Gaunt join the series this weekend but Murphy admitted that overhauling the trio in front of him for the sprint title was “a long shot”.

Three endurance races with two-driver line-ups will follow at Taupo, Pukekohe and Ruapana after the mid-season break.

While support categories will practise on the Friday, the V8 Supercars will only be on track on the weekend and will have a 36-lap, 140km race on the Saturday (August 25) and a 56-lap, 220km race on the Sunday.

Competitors will have to use both hard and soft Dunlop tyres in each race.

It will be the first V8 Supercar round at the venue since 2008, with Sydney’s sole round since then being the December street race at the Homebush Olympic precinct, which appears increasingly out of favour with the new NSW Liberal government.

Australian Racing Drivers Club chief executive Glenn Matthews said the ARDC was keen to attract more major events to Sydney Motorsports Park “such as MotoGP and World Superbikes”.

“We hope to have some big announcements later this year,” Matthews said.

We reported here recently some interest in Mackay and now there is discussion about Cairns, where the hotel occupancy rate is reportedly only 50 per cent.

V8 Supercars Australia appears happy, with Townsville’s contract expiring next year, to give speculation about interest in other Queensland regional cities a helping hand, indicating it is open to any offers.

Expansion in northern Queensland is arguably more feasible than more international events on calendar, especially if it were to create new permanent tracks rather than temporary street circuits.

Tempering the talk regarding Cairns though has been a comment by Tourism Tropical North Queensland chief executive Rob Giason that a V8 Supercar event may not fit with that city’s tourism strategy.

“The FIA is hoping to rubber-stamp next year’s WRC calendar at the June 15 meeting of the World Motor Sport Council (WMSC) – but the chances of that happening appear remote following significant unrest among event organisers,” Autosport.com reported yesterday.

Australia is due to host a WRC round on NSW’s Coffs Coast again next year under the rotation system that sees this year’s South Pacific round in New Zealand, starting in Auckland on June 21.

The FIA is reportedly wanting event organisers to sign terms for next year’s rallies by next Friday, June 8.

The latest bone of contention is a new fee of almost $130,000 (100,000 Euros) to cover the cost of timing and safety tracking and the production and distribution of television coverage.

Organisation of the WRC has been in turmoil for months after the FIA axed Britain’s North One Sport as the series promoter following problems in its Russian-owned parent company.

Autosport quoted an anonymous event promoter saying the FIA was trying to force quick agreement to terms for next year’s rallies, while the promoters want to discuss matters at this month’s WMSC meeting. 

Adding to the WRC’s woes has been the loss this week of sponsor Nokia, which had been seen as a potential partner in developing new media coverage of the series.

Nokia appears to have been disillusioned at the vacuum created following North One Sport’s exit without a prompt replacement.

WRC Commission president Jarmo Mahonen has said a new promoter will be revealed at this month’s WMSC meeting, almost three months after an earlier deadline, and ruled out the FIA handling the role itself.

However, Vettel is contracted to Red Bull until the end of the 2014 season and said he couldn’t envisage himself driving for any other team.

Equal second in this season’s world championship with Webber (and they are just three points behind Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso), Vettel said he had great confidence in Red Bull’s RB8 – the latest creation of F1’s most successful designer Adrian Newey and the only car to have won two grands prix this year.

Vettel said the team still had not extracted the RB8’s full potential “but we steadily make progress”.

Australia’s 1980 world champion, Alan Jones, publicly encouraged Webber to switch to Ferrari after his Red Bull contract expires this year.

Webber has repeatedly been linked to the second seat in the Italian team with Brazilian Felipe Massa consistently under-performing in the past 18 months, although he was closer to the pace at last weekend’s Monaco GP.

While it would be huge kudos for Webber to be invited to join Ferrari, there is one very good reason for him not to change teams.

At Red Bull he can win races and, depending on how this season unfolds, might yet jag a world title there.

At Ferrari he would be much more of a No. 2 to Alonso, who has a long contract there, than he is to Vettel at Red Bull and, barring the Spaniard missing a lot of a season through injury or illness, would have no chance of becoming world champion.

In this author’s view, for Webber to switch to Ferrari – as flattering as it might be – would amount to acknowledgment by him that he has foregone hope of winning a world title.

Australia’s Marcos Ambrose, 20th in NASCAR’s Sprint Cup this season, has finished in the top 10 on his past two visits to Dover, including third last time, and is fond of the concrete track.

His front row start in last weekend’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte, North Carolina, was crueled by a broken left front wheel hub, leaving him still chasing that elusive first oval-track victory in the Cup.

The Detroit street race, just a week after the Indianapolis 500, is the second in a string of five IndyCar rounds over five weekends.

Aussie Will Power leads the series with three victories from five rounds so far, while Penske teammate and countryman Ryan Briscoe was our best performer at Indy this year but has gone winless since 2010.

Roger Penske has orchestrated the return of IndyCars to Motor City, where lanky Englishman Justin Wilson won last time for the now-defunct Newman-Haas team. This time he is with Dale Coyne Racing.

IndyCar chief executive Randy Bernard, halfway through a five-year contract after being recruited from America’s Professional Bull Riding series, revealed this week that a team owner is trying to have him sacked.

The move is believed to be by an owner using Chevrolet engines (not Penske) and peeved that the recent turbo parity ruling may have contributed to the Honda-engined cars of Chip Ganassi driven by Dario Franchitti and Scott Dixon finishing first and second in the Indy 500 after Chevrolet-powered cars dominated qualifying.

For fans of American oval racing, ESPN.com this week had a panel of media experts debate the merits of the Indy 500 and Coca-Cola 600. It’s interesting reading.

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