MOTORSPORT: Power's official nemesis back

Australia's IndyCar champion Will Power will have to defend his hard-won title in America this year under the direction of the official he famously gave the "double bird".

It was at the oval track at Loudon, New Hampshire, in August 2011 that Power exploded after Brian Barnhart restarted an IndyCar race in rain, triggering a massive pile-up that aborted the event.

Taken out in that carnage, Power ran towards race control with the middle finger of each hand waving in defiance at Barnhart.

"They cannot have this guy running the show. He makes such bad calls all the time. I was begging [Barnhart, on radio], 'Please do not go green [restart the race], it's too slippery'.  Shame on him," Power said.

His gesture and the TV interview that followed promptly went viral on social media.

Power was fined US$30,000 for "unsportsmanlike conduct", although he worked off that penalty in appearances for IndyCar rather than shell out the cash.

Brazilian Helio Castroneves, a three-time Indianapolis 500 winner and runner-up to Power in last year's series as a Penske teammate of Power, called Barnhart "a circus clown" later in that 2011 season. Castroneves also was fined US$30,000, and he too worked it off without parting with the folding stuff.

Although removed as IndyCar race director at the end of that year, Barnhart has long been entrenched among the old guard of Indianapolis-based American open-wheeler racing officials and has been the series vice-president of competition the past three years.

Now he's being returned to his former role, but with strictures curbing the autonomy he had in the previous 15-year stint.

IndyCar last year introduced a system of three stewards in control towers, with at least two of them needing to agree on any penalties imposed during races.

And statesmanlike Roger Penske – the ultimate boss of Power, Castroneves, Juan Pablo Montoya and now Frenchman Simon Pagenaud at Team Penske – has welcomed Barnhart's reappointment as race director.

"I think it's good to bring someone in who knows the teams, all the antics with all of us," Penske said.

"I know his heart is in it. He was moved aside to take on other roles and responsibilities, but he's never distanced himself too far from that race director's spot.

"I'm glad to see Brian back on his feet there. I don't always agree with him, but he'll be an asset."

Automotive billionaire Penske's right-hand man in his racing operations that also include NASCAR and now V8 Supercars in Australia, Tim Cindric, said IndyCar had not needed to look far in its search for a race director to replace Beaux Barfield, who has returned to American sports car racing.

"Brian's been there before, he's a known quantity, and bringing someone in we didn't know is a bigger question," Cindric said.

"Brian is somebody we understand, he understands us, and he's the guy. I don't see any other candidates out there who are any better.

"All we as teams want is consistency. It's probably one of the most difficult jobs, a thankless job, but it's also one that puts you right in the thick of it."

Barnhart was a mechanic for Penske in the days of CART (Championship Auto Racing Teams), a predecessor of the modern IndyCar, and another American team owner, Rick Galles, including on the 1992 Indy 500-winning car of Al Unser Junior in the closest finish in the history of that classic.

In the great split in American open-wheeler racing in the mid-1990s Barnhart became race director of the Indy Racing League headed by Tony George, who was later ousted by his relatives in the powerful Hulman family that owns the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, after squandering hundreds of millions of dollars on a series that eventually reunified with the rival series.

Barnhart was often criticised, even lampooned, for his autocratic and inconsistent decisions.

He once started a street race in Baltimore, Maryland, while safety trucks were still on the track.

Veteran IndyCar correspondent Robin Miller said that by the end of 2011 Barnhart had "lost all respect inside the paddock".

Miller said Barnhart "displayed more bad decision making than usual" that year.

Of the New Hampshire incident, he said it was "stupid, ridiculously dangerous, expensive and embarrassing".

"Those travesties should be the final nail in the coffin of a former parts changer who was given unlimited power by Tony George to play god with IndyCar racing the past 16 years," Miller wrote at the time.

This year's IndyCar drivers were informed of Barnhart's return as race director at a meeting in Indianapolis this week, but there have been no public comments from them.

Power won the IndyCar title last year after a decade in America, where he has won 24 times in almost 140 races and had been series runner-up three times – twice to his great rival, Scotsman Dario Franchitti – before getting the monkey off his back.

While Power will be the only Australian driver full-time in the IndyCar series this year, Ryan Briscoe and James Davison may land starts in the Indianapolis 500 in May.

IndyCar president of competition and operations Derrick Walker, who years ago ran Team Australia for Gold Coast businessman Craig Gore with Power and Pagenaud as drivers, said Barnhart had been a natural choice to return to his former role this season.

"We believe that, based on his extensive experience in race control, combined with the three-steward system, Brian Barnhart is a good fit as IndyCar race director," Walker said.

"The process allows the race director to focus on running the race, without the double-duty of reviewing multiple replays and simultaneously trying to make a call.

"In terms of determining penalties our process defines that a majority vote amongst the three stewards is required, which ensures a jury-like process.

"Last year we found that this was a fair system when making difficult judgment calls."

Barnhart said the new system was a great advance for Indy racing.

"I'm excited about this opportunity and look forward to doing it again," Barnhart said.

"I take a great deal of pride in being race director of the IndyCar series.

"One of the things that excites me the most is the steward system we implemented last year.

"That was a great advancement in how we review and make discretionary decisions, and having that assistance in making calls is a big improvement to the way we officiate IndyCar events."

Total Trib Media in Pennsylvania quoted 77-year-old Roger Penske saying: "It's amazing in this world today that we can say that all of our sponsors [in America] have renewed with us to go forward on multiple-year contracts, which gives us a great base to build on as we go into the future."

Which makes it even more amazing that the Penske organisation has not rounded up the sponsorship to field a second V8 Supercar in its first season in Australia's major championship, having taken control of Dick Johnson Racing.

It was confirmed this week that 27-year-old Tim Blanchard is the 25th and last full-time V8 Supercar driver this year, becoming teammate to 26-year-old Bathurst 2011 winning co-driver Nick Percat as Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport returns to a two-car team.

V8 Supercar teams have a two-day test at Sydney Motorsport Park next weekend, clashing with the Bathurst 12-Hour GT race, ahead of the start of the V8 Supercar Championship in Adelaide three weeks later.

Another American report this week by the Associated Press wire service said that Richard Petty Motorsports (RPM), the team Marcos Ambrose left to return to V8 Supercars in Australia with Penske, was lacking sponsorship for 26 of the 36 rounds in NASCAR's Sprint Cup this year.

However, it quoted RPM director of operations Sammy Johns saying the team was moving forward as if it would have two full-time cars (Fords supplied by Penske) all season for Aric Almirola and ex-Penske driver Sam Hornish Junior, who has replaced Ambrose.

RPM recently hired 35 staff and has moved back into its former base at Mooresville, near Charlotte, North Carolina.

Two-time Daytona 500 winner Michael Waltrip will drive in this year's edition of "The Great American Race" on February 22 because one of his Toyota team's regular drivers, Brian Vickers, has been sidelined by heart surgery.

Tony Stewart, the three-time Sprint Cup champion who last year killed a driver in a dirt-track sprint car race, has bought the All Star Circuit of Champions Sprint Car Series, one of the oldest dirt-track organisations in the US.

The travelling series has 50 race dates a year, but "Smoke" Stewart won't be returning to sprint car driving – for now, at least – after the death of Kevin Ward Junior as he walked down a New York dirt track towards Stewart's sprint car last August.

Stewart was not charged over Ward's death and Guy Webb, who is selling the All Star Circuit of Champions to Stewart, said he had "great peace of mind to hand over the reins to dirt track racing's biggest advocate".

Meanwhile, NASCAR chairman and chief executive Brian France has said the Sprint Cup averaged 5.3 million TV viewers a race last year.