MOTORSPORT: Power chases ultimate glory in US

Will Power this weekend embarks on the road to regain his IndyCar crown and claim the 100th Indianapolis 500 in the 50th year of Roger Penske's mighty racing operations that have begun the year promisingly in NASCAR and V8 Supercars.

One of Australia's most successful open-wheeler drivers, Power is now 35 – almost the age at which Mark Webber finished in Formula 1 – but not even half that of a couple of veterans racing at Victoria's Phillip Island this weekend.

Alf Costanzo and New Zealander Kenny Smith are both 73 and are lining up in Formula 5000s at the 27th Phillip Island Classic Festival of Motorsport, a meeting with 60 events and 540 entries.

Costanzo, who won the Australian Drivers' Championship a record-equalling four times, in 1980-83, and once starred in a Bathurst 1000 with Allan Grice, will be at the wheel of a 1970 McLaren M10B.

Smith, a three-time winner of both the New Zealand Grand Prix and Lady Wigram Trophy in a career spanning 58 consecutive seasons, is in a 1976 Lola T332.

"I just love racing. I'm too young to retire," Smith says.

Power too may have many years ahead of him in Indy racing.

He won the 2014 series title after years of near-misses and was barely a tenth of a second away from victory – and an extra million dollars – in the Indianapolis 500 last May, losing out to Penske teammate Juan Pablo Montoya.

The Toowoomba ace converted only one of six pole positions last season into victory, on the Indianapolis road course two weeks before the 500.

Penske's two Ford Falcon FG X V8 Supercars each notched a pole position at last weekend's Clipsal 500 in Adelaide, while his two Ford Fusion NASCARs finished first and second in the third round of the Sprint Cup at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano are in the top six of the 45 drivers already on the points table.

Team Penske is again fielding four cars in the Indy series – for Power, Colombian Montoya, Brazilian Helio Castroneves and Frenchman Simon Pagenaud – with indications its Chevrolet engines and aerodynamics, and those of Team Ganassi, retain an edge over Honda-aligned rivals such as Andretti Autosports.

The series starts on the streets of St Petersburg in Florida.

One of Sir Jack Brabham's grandsons, 22-year-old Matthew, is to contest the two events at Indianapolis this May in a Chevrolet-powered Dallara prepared by expatriate Australian tycoon Kevin Kalkhoven's KV outfit.

But already there are other young Australians competing in the USF2000 Championship that is a feeder series for Indy racing and also begins this weekend at St Pete.

They are Anthony Martin, Jordan Lloyd and Luke Gabin. Martin, who hails from Perth but before that Kalgoorlie, was fourth in the series as a rookie last year and has been the pacesetter in recent pre-season testing. Australia's first Formula 4 champion, Lloyd is from Toowoomba and Luke Gabin is from Perth.

The IndyCar Championship, like the Formula 1 World Championship starting in Melbourne a week later, has 22 drivers for starters, although up to 33 can take part in the Indy 500 – and the entry list is likely to be over-subscribed.

Unlike F1, in which there are few winners, 15 of this year's IndyCar drivers have been victorious.

The reigning champion is New Zealander Scott Dixon, who snatched his fourth title from Montoya on a countback six months ago.

Series officials responded to the death of British driver Justin Wilson after last season's race at Pocono, Pennsylvania, by ordering the tethering of many of the suspension pieces susceptible to scattering on impact in a crash, including the nose cone like that which came off American Sage Karam's car and hit Wilson.

Dixon and Power have been strong advocates for IndyCar to follow F1's lead towards greater head protection for drivers, perhaps with 'halos' – the concept F1 is pursuing – or even canopies.

"I'm not biased either way ... whichever works best," Dixon said.

"We could have a different version of the same idea [as F1]."

Australian F1 driver Daniel Ricciardo rebuked German rival Nico Hulkenberg for poo-pooing the 'halo' Ferrari trialled in Barcelona last week, and Dixon added: "Why you would try to deny progress of safety is completely beyond me. The fans aren't going to think any less of a driver because he's in a more protected cockpit."

Although Power had only the one win last year, he led 10 other races, but Penske Racing president Tim Cindric admitted: "We had a few troubles in the pits when it was time to get ourselves positioned for the championship and we ended up with a couple of DNFs that really weren't his fault. It wasn't our typical year in many ways."

So plenty of incentive for Penske and Power to do better this year.

The highlight will be the Indy 500, with the prospect of victory – which would be Penske's 17th in the 'Greatest Spectacle in Racing' – on the 100th running of the classic on May 29.

"I feel I have a lot of experience now and, after last year [when his narrow second place was the best finish by an Australian], I now have a really good idea how to win this race. It would obviously be phenomenal to win the 100th."

Pirelli hasn't gone ultrasoft for our GP
Pirelli's new ultrasoft F1 tyres won't be used at the Australian Grand Prix next weekend.

Teams had to choose early the number of medium, soft and supersoft tyres they wanted among the 13 sets each driver is allowed (apart from rain tyres) for the event.

They all have to have at least one set of mediums and one set of softs available on race day, March 20 – and must use at least one of those sets.

Pirelli also nominated a set of supersofts for qualifying, with the teams then allowed to choose the other 10 sets from the three compounds.

Daniel Ricciardo and his Russian teammate at Red Bull Racing, Daniil Kyvat, will have two sets of mediums, four of the softs and seven of the supersofts.

Triple world champion Lewis Hamilton will have only the compulsory set of mediums but six sets of softs for his Mercedes, while teammate Nico Rosberg will have a second set of mediums and only five sets of softs – with both having six sets of supersofts.

Eight teams have opted for identical choices for their two drivers, while Swiss team Sauber and new American team Haas made different choices for their pairings.

Mudly Talker out of retirement ... in his 90s
Murray Walker is returning to television at 92, but he's unlikely to be seen on Australian screens.

Walker – otherwise known as Mudly Talker, largely retired for 15 years, and who has survived a bout of cancer – won't be commentating but will be sent by Britain's new free-to-air (FTA) GP telecaster Channel 4 to several races to "interview some of the stars of F1".

Channel 4 has taken over from the BBC as Britain's FTA telecaster, while Australians now get Britain's Sky pay-TV telecasts.

Mark Webber also will be part of the Channel 4 line-up in Britain, apart from what he does with Channel 10 in Australia.

VW says it again: we're in WRC until 2019
Volkswagen has reconfirmed its commitment to the World Rally Championship until the end of 2019.

That came after the Volkswagen Group's latest denial of any interest in entering F1, in which it has said – among other things – that there is not enough certainty in the rules.

Audi is the Volkswagen brand most often touted as a possibility for F1.

Volkswagen felt the need to restate its commitment to rallying in the wake of its board shake-up as a result of its emissions scandal.

"The old board approved the [WRC] program until 2019, but in November when the new guys were in we got the program approved for this season and they said: 'You come back in the [northern] spring and talk about the future'," said Jost Capito, the VW motorsport director soon to join the McLaren-Honda F1 team.

"So we went back to the board with our program until 2019 and we got this approved as it was before, but this time with the new board.

"It's nothing new, but it's the proof that the future until 2019 is done."

VW has won 37 of 42 WRC events and a hat-trick of world titles since it began campaigning its Polo R in 2013.

Meanwhile, Hyundai team manager Alain Penasse has criticised the Korean manufacturer's Belgian driver Thierry Neuville for crashing at last weekend's Rally Mexico.

"The accident on the first day [which caused a broken suspension arm on the first gravel stage] can happen when you are fighting for a win ... [but] the second accident was not necessary," Penasse said.

"We didn't understand why he drove at a speed which was too much."

However, Penasse said that, with the advantage of starting eighth on the road, Neuville next month could emulate Northern Irishman Kris Meeke's feat in winning Rally Argentina that denied VW a clean sweep of last season.

Utes secure for this year under V8 Supercars
V8 Supercars will continue running the V8 Ute Racing Series this year after the previous organising company's voluntary administration.

The utes will complete their eight-round schedule following a new agreement between V8 Supercars and the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport (CAMS).

The next round is scheduled for the V8 Supercar event at Tasmania's Symmons Plains on the first weekend of April.

While there were 32 franchises – 16 Ford and 16 Holden – under Australian V8 Ute Racing Pty Ltd, only 17 utes raced at Adelaide's Clipsal 500 last weekend.

CAMS chief executive Eugene Arocca said he was pleased V8 Supercars had taken control of the utes, while V8 Supercars chief James Warburton said his organisation "have made no secret of our desire to manage the category long-term".