MOTORSPORT: Queensland Raceway may be back on

Light in the tunnel for axed Queensland track
The axing of Queensland Raceway's round of the V8 Supercar Championship may yet be reversed -- just a week after the announcement.

Ipswich mayor Paul Pisasale has been working overtime at brokering a peace deal that would overcome the breakdown of relations between V8 Supercars Australian and QR chief John Tetley. A fresh announcement, reinstating the only Queensland round on a permanent circuit, may come by the close of business this week -- that is, tomorrow (Friday, January 15).

Mayor Pisasale met Tetley on Tuesday and V8 Supercars Australia and Queensland government officials yesterday. It appears that any deal to get the round back on the calendar is going to need the Ipswich council, probably with state government assistance, to deliver what each of the feuding parties want.

For V8SA that is the track at its price and on its terms, which may mean the council picking up the tab for the CAMS permit for the round, which had been provisionally on the calendar for April 30 to May 2.

For QR's Tetley it probably means getting not only the hire fee for the circuit but a pledge to cover the cost of any damage to it, and perhaps a five-year contract.

We've reported on this upheaval, and the background to it, twice already this year -- yes, and it's not yet the midpoint of the first month of the year! -- but now there is light at the end of the tunnel. Despite V8SA chairman Tony Cochrane's stated hard line that the QR round won't be restored this year, we can see it happening if mayor Pisasale can get all the ducks in a row.

"We want this race to go ahead -- it's important for Ipswich that we don't lose it," Pisasale has said.

It's now a matter of V8SA and Tetley getting what they want, saving face, and allowing Pisasale to emerge as the saviour of the round.

"Mayor Pisasale is certainly a can-do person, and if anyone were to broker an outcome it would be Paul," Cochrane has now said.

Tetley need not be concerned about a repeat of the $200,000 loss he claims QR suffered on last year's round if he can get the pure "dry hire" of the venue that he wants.

Reimbursement for track damage is another key point, with reports now surfacing of Perth's Barbagallo Raceway already up for $14,000, with the prospect of the bill going higher, from its surface having been damaged by sticky tyres on the V8 Supercars.

Mayor Pisasale has taken on the challenge of making himself a hero in this row, and we should know very soon whether he's pulled it off. If he does it will avert a second major break in the season (four weeks between Hamilton, New Zealand, and Winton, Victoria, as well as two months mid-season) and provide some continuity and rhythm to the calendar and the TV coverage.

Ford warming to Dick Johnson Racing again
Dick Johnson/Jim Beam Racing could soon be back in the Ford factory fold, according to the lead story in this week's Auto Action magazine.

There will be only 10 FG Falcons in the V8 Supercar field this year, against 19 VE Holden Commodores. And Triple Eight Race Engineering/Team Vodafone is switching from Fords to Holdens this season, taking the series champion of the past two seasons, Jamie Whincup, and the sport's most popular driver, Craig Lowndes, with it.

Auto Action editor-at-large Mark Fogarty reports in this week's editon of the magazine that Ford's promise to support its severely depleted ranks in the championship "could be to restore financial support to exiled Ford legend Dick Johnson".

Last season the Blue Oval only backed Ford Performance Racing and Stone Brothers Racing financially, a decision which led Triple Eight boss Roland Dane to run his Falcons without Ford's badges (instead a Hogster!) and then defect to the other participating manufacturer.

As Fogarty points out, DJR -- without the advantage of factory support -- outperformed FPR and SBR last year, finishing third in the teams' championship.

AA is to publish next week an interview Fogarty has done with Ford Australia president Marin Burela, but in this week's report it already quotes Burela saying of V8 Supercar racing: "The name of the game is performing well and winning. We're not in it just to participate. We're in it to win ... we see it as critical to our brand.

"We are committed to the sport, we're committed to the teams and we're there to help them -- and we will. How that evolves as we move through 2010 and '11 you'll have to wait and see."

Fogarty points out that, while Burela is bullish on Ford fighting back against Holden's declared ambition to dominate the season, the Ford boss refused to confirm increased spending on V8 racing.

Murphy missing but in Top Gear
V8 Supercar veteran Greg Murphy, having moved to Paul Morris Motorsport after the demise of Tasman Motorsport, will miss the opening round of the championship in Abu Dhabi because of a date clash with the Top Gear Live shows in his native New Zealand on February 18-21.

Murphy is to co-host the arena shows with Top Gear regulars Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond. Team owner Paul Morris will fill Murphy's seat in Abu Dhabi, with the Kiwi arriving in the Middle East in time for the second round a week later in Bahrain.

The car they will race there will be the Morris-built Commodore that Russell Ingall drove last season, while Triple Eight is building a new one for Murphy once the championship is back on home soil and after those for Whincup, Lowndes and Ingall.

"After I retire from bikes it's my plan basically," Stoner, still only 24, said this week. "Once I retire from bikes I think cars will be a little bit more of a relaxing sport for me.

"I'm not talking about going to Formula One, but something like V8 touring cars in Australia. I think something like that would be a lot of fun.

"It's something I'm planning on. But for now and for the near future I'm enjoying my bikes and that's all I want to do for now."

Cochrane gets his man for CEO slot
V8 Supercars Australia this week has confirmed Englishman Martin Whitaker as its chief executive for the next four years after Cameron Levick lasted only a few short months in the slot and Tony Cochrane found himself having to become an executive chairman.

Whitaker, who will take up the role in April, has been the CEO of the Bahrain International Circuit for six years and will remain there until after the opening round of the F1 world championship and the second round of the V8 Supercar Championship.

Whitaker's impressive CV includes having been global motorsport director of Ford Motor Company, working for two presidents of the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), for Bernie Ecclestone's Formula One Management (FOM) and McLaren International.

The announcement of him joining V8SA said the appointment came after "an extensive six-month, worldwide search that included three continents with applicants of the very highest level, experience and qualifications in motorsport management".

Cochrane, who reverts to non-executive chairman of V8SA for another two years, said that "enticing someone of Martin's expertise to the CEO position is an outstanding testimony to the size and quality of our business and our sport".

"The fact that we are so well positioned on the world motorsports stage means that we can now attract and afford the best people as we move forward in our next five-year phase," Cochrane said. "We have big plans, exciting plans and we intend to double the size of our sport and our business in the next growth phase."

V8SA's announcement said the next two months "will herald the significant rollout of major new media and TV deals, a new marketing campaign headed up by one of the world's hottest female artists of today, new major sponsorship signings and the inaugural Abu Dhabi season opening round".

Whitaker, for his part, said: "It is difficult to imagine a better time to be involved with V8 Supercars as its reputation and widening global appeal is going through a significant increase.

"V8 Supercars is now one of the foremost series in global motorsport with a vibrant business platform and a growing fan base, not only in Australasia but throughout the world.

"Since my involvement with the championship began some four years ago (as Bahrian promoter) I have continued to be impressed by the power of the brand, its unique competitiveness and the professionalism of the organisation.

"I look forward with immense enthusiasm to being part of V8 Supercars at a time when the sport has so much to offer."

Apparently Whitaker has been in Cochrane's sights as CEO for a long time, and we can see what it is that would have so impressed Cocho about the Englishman -- his ability with figures.

It is Whitaker who has consistently claimed that Bahrain's GP generates close to US$600 million a year -- more than three times that claimed for Melbourne's F1 event, and despite the Bahrain crowd being a small fraction of that in Australia or anywhere else except Turkey on the F1 calendar.

He should fit like a hand in a glove at V8SA headquarters. Perhaps he can pop some genuine evidence for the US$600 million claim in his briefcase for the flight to Oz.

Rally Oz second most popular in WRC
On the subject of numbers, CAMS this week issued a statement that "independent television audience figures reveal that last September's Rally Australia in the Northern Rivers of NSW attracted a worldwide audience of more than 53 million people -- the second most popular round of the 2009 FIA World Rally Championship."

It said the reborn Rally Oz "was shown on 264 channels worldwide over 862 individual broadcasts", with the event's chairman, Alan Evans, stating that "these figures do not include news programs and sporting updates which are incorporated in normal network scheduling".

The full statement is here.

The 53 million sounds more realistic than many of the figures we hear for events, but yet again no serious substantiating evidence.

MINI rally news awaited
Prodrive, headed by David Richards and which operates Ford Performance Racing in Australia and previously ran Subaru's world rally championship team, is set to reveal a new WRC campaign for 2011 -- expected to involve the MINI.

"We're about to do something which will be a milestone in the WRC," Richards said.
 
VW trio fight it out in Dakar Rally
Three Volkswagen factory teammates -- Spaniard Carlos Sainz, Aatar's Nasser Al-Attiyah, and American Mark Miller -- are locked in a tight tussle for victory in South America's second Dakar Rally with the field back in Argentina with only three stages to go.

Frenchman Guerlain Chicherit in a BMW scored his first Dakar stage win overnight, Australian time, on the section from the capital of Chile, Santiago, to San Juan.

Chicherit, who said he had been allowed "off the leash" after the electrical problems he endured early in the event, finished the stage half a minute faster than Argentina's Orlando Terranova, who notched the best result this year in a Mitsubishi now that entries of the Japanese make are privateers after the long-dominant factory's withdrawal.

Last year's Dakar winner, South African Giniel de Villiers, was third fastest in his VW on the latest stage, just 9 seconds behind Terranova, but remains out of contention for outright honours this time.

Former world rally champion Sainz, who had won the 10th stage -- his first this year - in Chile the previous day, had trouble with two slow punctures and was 7 minutes slower than Chicherit.

More importantly, Sainz was more than 5½ minutes slower than VW teammate Al-Attiyah and the Qatari is now less than 4½ minutes behind in the outright classifications.

"We hit a big tree, we were really lucky not to roll, yet I took five minutes from him on this stage," Al-Attiyah said.

American Miller is also within 24 miutes of Sainz, while French legend Stephane Peterhansel in a BMW is almost 130 minutes behind the Spanish leader, with Chicherit fifth.

The event ends in Buenos Aires at the weekend.

SEAT Sport director Jaime Puig said: "After achieving all possible successes in the WTCC, we are now going to focus all our efforts on customer sports in different championships."

SEAT won the past two WTCC titles with Frenchman Yvan Muller and Italian Gabriele Tarquini, but has been at the centre of a long row over the equalisation of its turbodiesels with the category's normally-aspirated petrol cars.

The SEATs were granted a variable limit to their turbo boost pressure for the first three races of last year, prompting BMW to threaten to quit the series.

The limit was then reduced, after which SEAT started making noises about the withdrawal it has now announced.

VW stalls again on F1
After hinting a couple of months ago that it may be interested in supplying engines to Formula One, VW is now cooling expectations of any involvement in GP racing.

Its motorsport director Kris Nissen has said it would want to see more stability, "a slightly different image", and yet further cost-cutting for it to entertain entering F1.

"There will be at least a couple more Dakars to come before this decision is taken," said Nissen, who added that it would be more likely to use its Audi, Bentley, SEAT or Bugatti brands rather than VW if it were to go GP racing.

Woman MD for Sauber team
F1 will have its first woman team managing director this season -- Austrian Monish Kaltenborn, 38, at the recently re-privatised Swiss team Sauber.

Kaltenborn has been a member since 2001 of the management board of the team -- in recent years BMW-Sauber, a name it seemingly has to retain for now, even if it is now using Ferrari engines again.

She has been its head of legal affairs since 1998 and has looked after its relations with the FIA, FOM and the F1 teams association, FOTA.

Peter Sauber will be team principal but only at races, while his son, Alex, 36, now heads the team's marketing.

Late start for Red Bull Racing
Mark Webber's Red Bull Racing will miss the first F1 pre-season test at Valencia from February 1-3 but join other teams at Valencia in Spain on February 10-13.

The team will have only 12 days of testing, preferring extended wind tunnel development, before the season starts in Bahrain, but with the renowned design abilities of Adrian Newey that should not be a hindrance.

FIA fights court decision on Briatore
As anticipated, the FIA is appealing the decision of French court Tribunal de Grande Instance to overturn the life ban on former Renault F1 team boss Flavio Briatore -- and the five-year ban on that team's technical director Pat Symonds.

"The FIA president (Jean Todt), the FIA Senate, the World Motor Sport Council, and the FIA's member clubs from all countries will take whatever measures are necessary to ensure the continuing integrity and safety of the sport," the governing body said in announcing its appeal in the "Crashgate" scandal.

It said the bans on Briatore and Symonds remained in place pending the appeal but that drivers, like Mark Webber, managed by Briatore would be issued with super-licences for this season.

The FIA also said it was well advanced on a disciplinary procedure to address the issues raised in the French court's judgment.

Hush over Teixeira and Campos
No further news yet on the prospect of Tony Teixeira, boss of the collapsed A1 GP series, buying a stake in new F1 team Campos Meta, but Italian constructor Dallara has denied that the Spanish outfit is behind on payments for the cars it is building.

Three Aussies at Indianapolis 500?
There could be three Australians in this year's Indianapolis 500 in the US, with 23-year-old James Davison perhaps driving in the great race for Vision Racing, while Ryan Briscoe and Will Power will be there with Penske Racing.

Vision Racing boss Tony George, who previously ran the Indianapolis Motor Speedway as well, has offered Davison a full-time IndyCar series drive, dependent on the driver raising sponsorship.

Most likely is that Davison will spend another season in the Indy Lights series, in which he finished second for Vison last year, with a one-off IndyCar attempt at the 500.

Image: jamiewhincup.com.au

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