MOTORSPORT: Premier nonsense on Homebush

Here is why the NSW government's decision is sheer nonsense.

New NSW premier Nathan Rees has said - according to an ABC news report - that he was forced to approve funding of the Homebush race ahead of November's state mini-budget to avoid the risk of losing the event to another city.

What was that again?

To avoid the risk of losing the event to another city.

What other city could Mr Rees be talking about?

What other city in Australia could be as big and as important as Sydney?

Any other city Rees is talking about has to be in Australia, because there's no way the V8 Supercar Championship is going to end outside our shores. So which Australian city could possibly have grabbed this event had not the NSW government given its support for it to be at Sydney Olympic Park, or Homebush?

At the least it would have to be a capital city, so let's run through them.

>>> Melbourne. No, it was no challenger. The V8s are already there, at the Formula 1 Grand Prix, on the streets of Albert Park, about 3km from the CBD.

>>> Brisbane. We've never heard any suggestion of a street race in downtown Brisbane, and why would there be? The V8s already run at the Gold Coast Indy, indeed share equal billing there with the IndyCars, and next July there will be a new race in Townsville. That's costing the Queensland government and Townsville city council heaps, so -- with three V8 Supercar Championship rounds in the state already (the third at Queensland Raceway) - why would the government or/and the Brisbane city council dream of another?

>>> Adelaide. No, it's already got its Clipsal 500.

>>> Perth. Previous governments have looked at the idea of a street race in the WA capital but both times gave it the thumbs down. The new state government may revisit it, but more likely is that it will help fund a new permanent circuit. So a Perth street race is unlikely.

>>> Canberra. No way. It had a race for a couple of years and cut short the deal. It couldn't get rid of the race quick enough, and it shows no sign of wanting one back anytime soon -- if ever.

>>> Darwin. It already has a round at Hidden Valley. So, rather like Adelaide (although the NT race is on a permanent circuit), it's spoken for.

>>> Hobart. Two rounds in Tasmania, where Symmons Plains near Launceston already has an annual round, is most unlikely. Even more unlikely is the prospect of two trips across Bass Strait for a race.

So that is the national landscape covered quick smart.

No other capital city, other than perhaps Perth, that might have made a play for the slot on the V8 Supercar Championship calendar that Homebush is to fill from early December 2009.

None of them any "threat" to Sydney. So what on earth was Nathan Rees talking about? We don't know, and we bet he doesn't either. What he said was just pure, unadulterated crud.

He doesn't know what he's talking about. And, if he reckons he does, let him come forward and tell us who was going to snatch Sydney's "golden opportunity".

If not a capital city, then surely not Newcastle, Wollongong, Geelong, Bendigo, Ballarat, Rockhampton, Cairns, Bundaberg, Busselton or Bunbury, or Alice Springs either.

In time, perhaps some of those regional centres will get to host a V8 Supercar race, but hardly the series finale?

So it seems to us that NSW minister for state development (and primary industries, energy and mineral resources) Ian Macdonald, and more recently - and importantly - new premier Nathan Rees have allowed themselves to be loaded up with the view that Sydney cannot live without this street race because if they don't snap it up someone else will.

But who? Clearly there was/is no rival.

And in the process the government surely has got offside its Events NSW, which had been given an injection of importance in the past year with the task of identifying and securing major events for Sydney. Events NSW did not want the Homebush street race, did not see merit in it, and strongly advised so.

Its advice was rejected.

Now, unlike Nathan Rees and Ian Macdonald, Events NSW chief John O'Neill is not an elected representative of the people (i.e. public). But he's a man with a fine record in sports administration and proven clout.

We would not have thought he would be a good man to have offside. But surely he must now be justly concerned that in this matter, and the Events NSW he heads has been rendered rather pointless if its advice to the government is not heeded.

Now a government wouldn't always have to do what such a body advises it, but if that body has a strong contrary view, surely a sensible government would give that view due weight, especially when there clearly is not the rivalry to secure this event that the premier has tried to paint.

Offside too, surely, is Michael Knight, who heads the Sydney Olympic Park Authority - another body strongly opposed, and even more central, to the Homebush race concept.

Now Knight once was an elected representative of the people like Rees and Macdonald, and he understands the workings of things better than perhaps anyone. Knight was a key figure in the Sydney Olympics. Many would say the key figure. Not always popular, indeed quite the opposite, but the outcomes of his actions seem -- from this great distance -- to have been pretty right.

So he's a man who knows a thing or two. And a man not to be meddled with, we would have thought. Knight has a reputation as a fearless headkicker.

And so the NSW government has not satisfactorily explained why its getting into this street race. There was no rival, and there is no evidence of thorough study of the claimed economic benefits, and the history of other street races raises more questions than provides answers.

And the same government has rejected the views of two of the state's most influential powerbrokers.

Now that's one up for V8 Supercars Australia chairman Tony Cochrane, who has pushed this Homebush street race barrow long and hard - and, at the minute it seems, successfully.

As much as it looks as though it's happening, if the contract (between the government and V8SA) is not signed (although agreed in principle), we still wouldn't be counting it a certainty.

Certainly not with a premier clearly on L-plates, a minister perhaps swayed more by mateship than substantive argument, and the likes of Michael Knight and John O'Neill in the opposing trenches.

It's the endurance season in V8 Supercar racing right now, with Bathurst next week.

Homebush too is going to be an enduro. More off the track than on it, we suspect.

But that's next week.

If Nathan Rees' reason for giving the green light on Homebush is not false enough, where else would you look for something as stupid but Formula 1.

And what's the latest crazy idea in F1?

While the world is in financial meltdown, Martin Whitmarsh -- No. 2 man (and poised to be No. 1 before too long) at McLaren, the team now leading the constructors' world championship and whose driver Lewis Hamilton surely is destined to become world champion within a month -- has let it be known that the idea of a $1 million prize is being kicked around for the fastest driver/car in Friday practice.

While billions of dollars are being wiped out at every turn in the broader community, who else but those at the centre of F1 could be so out of touch to suggest such a thing?

With the F1 calendar growing towards 20 races a year, that's just another way to burn another $20 million in a hurry when, surely, the emphasis is meant to be on cost containment.

Now Montezemolo is on a crusade against street circuits, although his opposition to them is different to ours. We just don't reckon the financials add up on street races. Clearly he doesn't see them suiting Ferrari for some reason.

And, as great a team as Ferrari is, it is a lot like the Italian national soccer team in one thing -- it's not a very good loser.

In the wake of Ferrari's disastrous Singapore outing, with neither world title hope Felipe Massa nor reigning champion Kimi Raikkonen scoring a championship point, Montezemolo blasted not his team or anyone in it but the track!

"When we race on tracks which should be used for the circus, anything can happen - including the spectacle of the safety car," Montezemolo was quoted as saying in Tuesday's Gazzetta dello Sport newspaper in Italy.

"All this is humiliating for F1 and it is an aspect I want to talk about with the other teams in the next few weeks."

Montezemolo is the chairman of the newly-formed, or re-formed, Formula One Teams Association, and anything and everything about F1 ought be discussed in that forum. Certainly there is an issue about the use of the safety car in F1 at the minute. But it is this bagging of tracks that we find odd; even offensive in a sense.

This is not to say that tracks are beyond criticism. Far from it.

But, as happens with V8 Supercars in Australia, we find it distasteful that competitors bag unmercifully, at the drop of a hat, venues and organisers that have gone to endless trouble and cost to provide somewhere for those competitors to race.

To us the Singapore track looked pretty damn good except for a narrow bridge that we find it hard to believe the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) allowed.

It was obviously bumpy for F1 cars, and that gave the teams some headaches with ride heights, but the resultant sparks added to the spectacle.

The Singaporeans must wonder what has hit them when their track is bagged unmercifully by the president of the most famous entity in F1 before and after their first race. Especially when the event will have done no harm, and indeed probably a lot good, for future Ferrari sales in the rich island state - and elsewhere.

Montezemolo is a man to be much admired in general, and we have always held him in the highest regard for the way he revived Ferrari's F1 fortunes in the mid-1970s, along with Niki Lauda. But in this instance he ought to learn a little diplomacy.

We read in The Independent newspaper from London that engineers from Ferrari, McLaren and Renualt are pooling their "knowledge, resources and experience to frame crucial new aerodynamic regulations aimed specifically at creating better overtaking opportunities". It's called the Overtaking Working Group. Sounds grand. And we wonder what grand ideas will come out of it.

We applaud it, and The Independent article is here.

Like McLaren's Paddy Lowe, we still marvel at Mika Hakkinen passing Michael Schumacher at Spa in 2000 as they simultaneously overtook Ricardo Zonta.

That it has taken until late 2008 for the lack of overtaking to be treated as seriously as it now seems to be is a reflection of the complacency in F1, its administration and its governance. Let's hope a lot of good comes of this working group.

Bild newspaper reported that he has been given a year's probation and fined 720,000 euros -- that's a whole lot more than A$1 million.

The season should have started last month at Mugello in Italy, but that round was cancelled. Some of the new, identical Ferrari-powered cars are still not ready. There won't be a full field at Zandvoort and the points system has been adjusted to allow teams/countries to drop their worst round (or one they miss).

Canada, Germany, Great Britain, India and Mexico won't be there. Australia will be, with John Martin in the driving seat and Alan Jones, the 1980 F1 world champion, at the team helm still. It is not only a crucial season for the series, but specifically for the Australian team. It has massively under-achieved in the three seasons to date.

Much hope rode on Martin when he was plonked in the seat in the middle of last season, but his results have been short of the mark so far - apart from a sparkling performance at Sydney's Eastern Creek. There is no Australian round listed for this season.

A1's hopes in Australia ride on the category replacing IndyCars at the Gold Coast each October after this year. The very real question though is whether A1 GP will get through season four, let alone see a fifth.

One positive for this season is the entry of Andretti Green Racing, jointly owned by Michael Andretti and Australian Kim Green, as the American "seat holder". While this had been widely anticipated, confirmation only came in the past couple of days and, as we write, its driver for Zandvoort has not been named.

It won't be young Marco Andretti -- Michael's son and the great Mario's grandson -- this weekend, because of a clash with the Petit Le Mans 10-hour sports car race in America, which will also see lots of other IndyCar stars -- including Australia's Ryan Briscoe and New Zealand's series champion Scott Dixon -- in action.

The excitement about Andretti Green's entry into A1 is that it could bring Danica Patrick -- the woman who won an IndyCar round this year -- to the series. That is the kind of injection A1 needs, although we wonder if Patrick's star is fading. She was set for a Formula 1 test outing with Honda late this year, but it seems now that has been canned.

While Patrick's looks and the romance of a woman racing fast IndyCars made her a cover model for Sports Illustrated magazine, she has gained a reputation as a whinger and her results have trailed off since her victory in Japan. And the road racing in A1 may not allow her to make a mark.

But A1 needs anyone and anything it can get right now.

The first tarmac round in the history of the Australian Rally Championship is on in north-west Tasmania this weekend, while - after a five-week break since Rally NZ - the WRC has tarmac rounds in Spain this weekend and Corsica next weekend. The Tasmanian Tarmac Challenge combines the regular ARC competitors (although second-placed Subaru privateer Eli Evans is skipping the event in favor of another in Malaysia) and a lot of the "cream" from regular tarmac rallies like Targa Tasmania and Targa West.

So there will be the likes of Neal Bates and Simon Evans in the factory Toyota Super 2000 cars and Jim Richards in a Porsche 911 GT2 (in his 41st tarmac event with co-driver and former V8 Supercar commenatator Barry Oliver) and Tony Longhurst in a Subaru Impreza WRX STI.

One to watch apparently is Tasmania's Jamie Vandenberg in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX.

Also there is the great under-appreciated talent, South Australian Steve Glenney, who has excelled in tarmac events and ARC gravel rallies on his occasional outings. As preparation for the Classic Adelaide Rally next month, Glenney is driving a 1989 Lancia Delta Integrale this weekend rather than his better known Evo IX Lancer.

In what may be a precursor to a full campaign in next year's new two-wheel drive championship in the ARC, Mazda has entered 20-year-old Victorian Brendan Reeves in a Mazda 3 MPS. Reeves won the 2WD category at the World Rally Championship round in NZ and finished second on these Tasmanian roads last year when the event was Rallye Burnie. Potentially Australia's next WRC driver, Reeves' co-driver is his older sister, Rhianon Smyth. More on this event here.

And there's more on the planned new national 2WD championship here.

Rally NZ may have been decisive in the WRC, with Citroen's Sebastien Loeb victorious and Ford blowing it. And Loeb has been unbeatable on the tarmac in Spain since 2004, so he's a hot favorite for more success there this weekend.

Ford has strengthened its squad by replacing youngster Jari-Matti Latvala with asphalt specialist Francois Duval in the second Focus for Spain and Corsica.

The battle between Loeb's teammate Daniel Sordo and Duval could be as enthralling as that between French superstar Loeb and his main Ford rival, Mikko Hirvonen. The No. 2s have a crucial role to play in deciding the manufacturers championship and both have finished second in Spain before.

Latvala will drive with the Stobart-Ford team in these two events.

Subaru is running three Impreza WRC2008s for the first time, with Frenchman Brice Tirabassi lining up alongside regular drivers Petter Solberg and Australian star Chris Atkinson.

As we have foreshadowed a couple of times, it involves Ambrose severing his ties with Ford but staying with his JTG Daugherty team and the car will be run under an alliance with Michael Waltrip Racing. Ambrose will be the first Aussie to run a full campaign in NASCAR's premier division. It's been a very hard road for him in the US to date but he has hung in there.

It's only going to get harder at the top level, but if determination and perseverance count Ambrose is the man for the job. Sometimes those finishes in the midfield don't look flash on the results sheet, but Ambrose is doing us proud in American stock car racing. Good luck to him in trying to make it real big-time.

There's more on his new arrangement here, here and here.

Firstly, a woman's perspective on Lewis Hamilton here

A new excuse -- a tram!!! -- for Mark Webber's latest retirement, here and here.

A perspective on how Webber will stack up against Sebastien Vettel next season here. Lola to celebrate its 50th anniversary here.

Ferrari's financial landscape here.

And one way of deciding the top F1 drivers of all time here.

With the National Rugby League grand final this week between Sydney's Manly Sea Eagles and Melbourne's Storm, NSW-Victorian rivalries are at fever pitch.

Perhaps not so visible is that NSW folk might be having a bit of a quiet snigger at Victorians on the motorsport front this week.

Irrespective of your stance on the Homebush street race, Sydney has "won" (or at least looks as though it has) a big new event.

Victoria, on the other hand, couldn't keep its Australian Rally Championship round, the Rally of Melbourne, alive this weekend, which is how the ARC's historic tarmac event in Tasmania came about.

And the Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix at Phillip Island this weekend has the magic of Valentino Rossi, Casey Stoner, lots of other stars, a guarantee of tons of great racing ... but no naming rights sponsor.

When world championship motorcycle grand prix racing came to Australia in 1989 the brewer Swan paid $1.5 million to sponsor the race. Nineteen years later, with arguably the greatest motorcycle road racer the world has seen, an Aussie as his main rival, and a worldwide television audience, the event -- in sponsorship terms -- has seemingly become worthless. Or are some people not working hard or smart enough in getting a sponsor?

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