MOTORSPORT: Racing all around the world

A full banquet for motor racing fans
A bumper weekend of motorsport ahead.
>> Round four of the V8 Supercar Championship at Hamilton, New Zealand;

>> Round four too of the Formula One World Championship in Shanghai, China, where Aussie Mark Webber was second last year for Red Bull Racing, is one of only four drivers to have finished every GP there, and with rain forecast for Sunday;

>> NASCAR, and Aussie Marcos Ambrose, in action at Texas Motor Speedway in the eighth round of the Sprint Cup;

>> Round four of the Indy Racing League, with Aussies Will Power and Ryan Briscoe in the dominant Penske team, at Long Beach, California;

>> The American Le Mans Series (ALMS) too has a round at Long Beach, with David Brabham a likely frontrunner;

>> The Formula Renault 3.5 Championship, also known as World Series by Renault, gets underway in Spain, with Australian youngster Daniel Ricciardo one of the favourites there;

>> The new GT1 sports car world championship begins in Abu Dhabi; and

>> Oh, almost forgot, the second round of the Australian Rally Championship -- and the first of the year on gravel -- is on at Busseltown and nearby Nannup south of Perth, WA.

Kiwis need to shine at Hamilton
Hamilton's V8 Supercar round has had a late spurt of ticket sales, although the attendance is still sure to be well short of the first street race there in 2008 -- and heady earlier days at Pukekohe.

Super performances by the NZ driver contingent -- most likely Shane van Gisbergen in a Stone Brothers Ford Falcon, perhaps Fabian Coulthard in a Holden Commodore, as he has consistently been in the top 10 at this track previously, or maybe from Kiwi pin-up boy Greg Murphy, Jason Richards or Steven Richards -- would go some way to improving the atmosphere there.

V8 Supercars Australia executive chairman Tony Cochrane this week called on Hamilton people to turn out in support of the event.

"The people of Hamilton have got to work with it and help grow it and everybody benefits from that," Cochrane was quoted by the Waikato Times newspaper saying.

Cochrane said he had never seen such a drop-off in attendance numbers at any of the other rounds in the series and that he would look at how to reinvigorate interest in Hamilton.

"Obviously the NZ economy is in a bit of a dull spot at the moment and that's having an effect on the event," Cochrane told the paper. "We have a very good working relationship with Hamilton City Council and we will be having discussions with HCC over the course of the weekend to see what can be done for future years.

"We want to speak to as many people as we can to see if there's other things we can do ensure we get back to the numbers of year one (2008, when the three-day attendance was reported at 170,000)."

While the Hamilton deal has four years to run yet, there is talk in NZ of a possible move to the new Hampton Downs Motor Sport Park between Auckland and Hamilton. In more buoyant times it was always thought that NZ ought to have two rounds.

The forecast for Hamilton this weekend is fine weather with temperatures approaching 20 degrees C.

Triple Eight Race Engineering/Team Vodafone and Toll Holden Racing Team are sure to be among the pacesetters, with their stars Jamie Whincup and Garth Tander respectively having won all six championship races so far -- and Tander won two of the non-championship races at Melbourne's F1 grand prix.

Whincup and Tander's teammates, Craig Lowndes and Will Davison, could be in the hunt too, but much of the focus will be on Kiwi Van Gisbergen -- who has three podiums in the championship so far this season and was third, fourth and second in the three races at the GP. The 20-year-old Aucklander's previous best finish at Hamilton was 10th, but he's a much improved driver this year.

Coulthard is the only driver to have been in the top 10 at all previous five races at Hamilton, so there are reasonable expectations of him too -- although a podium would seem a long shot.

James Courtney, third in the championship and the only Ford driver to have won a race this season (albeit non-championship, at the GP), has done well at Hamilton in the past -- with a second, two thirds, a fourth and a 13th - and is keen to notch a fourth V8 Supercar victory there this weekend.

But, if the Blue Oval is to break through in this championship, Ford Performance Racing's Mark Winterbottom -- second in the championship, 57 points behind Whincup -- may be the man to do it.

There are two, 59-lap, 200km races for the weekend -- and our money (only monopoly money!) is on Tander, who made a clean sweep of the three races in '08 -- when Whincup was unable to take his place in the field, although he won both races last year.

Rain tip for Shanghai as Red Bull defends 1-2
The rain stayed away in Malaysia two weeks ago, but it will spice up an already close and exciting F1 world championship if it comes during Sunday's Chinese GP in Shanghai.

Mark Webber seems to think the championship is already only a three-way fight -- between Ferrari, McLaren and his Red Bull team, apparently ruling out Mercedes (nee BrawnGP).

That may prove to be a bit hasty. Not only might Mercedes yet be in the tussle but also Renault -- or at least its No. 1 driver, Robert Kubica.

Seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher's comeback has been underwhelming to date, with only nine points under the new scoring system and a best finish of sixth place.

While this author still has doubts about the wisdom of Schumi's return with Mercedes, the great man said this week: "The last two races have not been very fortunate for me, but I am aware of the reasons.

"Everything is going according to plan. You can only improve step-by-step and I am confident that we are achieving this."

And Mercedes team boss Ross Brawn said: "Circumstances beyond his control limited his race performance in Melbourne and Sepang. It would be particularly good for Michael to be able to have a clean race and show the progress he has made since the start of the season."

Fernando Alonso, now occupying one of the Ferrari seats in which Schumacher sat for so long, is not under-rating the German, even at 41.

"I am sure he will show his true qualities when the car is better," Alonso told Germany's Sport Bild. "I really believe Michael will be a serious competitor for the title this year."

Turbos on the way back? Briatore too?
Lots going on in F1, as always, off the track too.

There is speculation about a return, from 2013, to turbocharged 1.5-litre engines not used since 1988. The world governing Federation Internationale de l'Autmobile (FIA) has struck a deal which would allow the disgraced Flavio Briatore and the Renault team's long-time technical director Pat Symonds -- banned in the wake of the 2008 Singapore GP "Crashgate" scandal, in which driver Nelson Piquet Junior was ordered to crash -- to return to F1 in 2013. It is a face-saving exercise all-round, especially for the Renault pair -- who would probably be too old to do much in F1 by then anyway.

McLaren's Ron Dennis has said that it was his team's decision to start to unwind its long "marriage" to Mercedes, rather than the other way around -- after what Dennis claimed was years of pressure from the German manufacturer to surrender control.

"I made it very clear to Mercedes-Benz (which held 40 per cent of McLaren), as did the other shareholders, that we are not for sale," Dennis said, claiming that everything was done amicably.

"They got exactly what they wanted -- a grand prix team they had complete control over (BrawnGP) -- and we had continuous engine supply and the ability to promote our product and build the McLaren brand."

And, while Felipe Massa leads the world championship for Ferrari and is the fourth most successful driver in the Scuderia's history, no serious talks on extending the Brazilian's contract will be held before July at the earliest, with mounting speculation that Robert Kubica -- on a one-year deal with Renault -- is being lined up as teammate to Fernando Alonso.

Michelin, which quit supplying F1 tyres at the end of 2006, says it is interested in returning -- but that it must have competition.

"We do not want to be the only supplier," a Michelin spokesman said.

Bridgestone, which is now the sole supplier, has indicated it will pull out at the end of this season.

Two F1 trailers bought by the failed USF1 team have been seized by a court in Britain for unpaid bills and are for sale on eBay. The trailers were bought from BrawnGP and still display the logo of last year's world championship winning constructor.

Sporting gesture towards Ambrose in Texas
Marcos Ambrose is seeking his first top 10 finish of the season in NASCAR's Sprint Cup in Texas.

Last time Ambrose raced at this 2.4km oval he was running second when his Toyota ran out of fuel on the second last lap.

"We gambled and gave it a shot, but we came up just a little short," Ambrose said. "I really wanted to win that race. We probably only needed half a gallon to make it. That was the difference between second and 15th."

Tonight (Friday) in the grand ballroom of the Speedway Club at the Texas Motor Speedway the Tasmanian will be presented with a sportsmanship award.

"I am honored to receive the sportsmanship award and thank the Motorsports Hall of Fame panel, Eddie Gossage and everyone at Texas Motor Speedway," Ambrose said. "I have such a great appreciation for our sport -- when I came into NASCAR I promised myself I was going to appreciate every single day and not get mad or angry. I remind myself every day that I'm doing something that millions of kids out there -- girls and guys -- would love to do when they grow up.

"Sure, you may get disappointed at times and there are compromises, however you can never lose sight that there are not many downs when you are a racecar driver. I love what I do, so to be recognised like this for the first time -- especially when I'm a goofy Tasmanian coming from 14,000 miles away -- is pretty awesome."

The Toowoomba racer leads the series by a commanding 32 points after two wins and a fourth place last weekend in Alabama, was second at this round last year and won the very last Champ Car race on these same streets two years ago.

The defending winner is the third Penske driver, Brazilian Helio Castroneves, who won last weekend's race at Barber Motor Sports Park and is second to Power in the series.

The ALMS race at Long Beach is only 100 minutes, the shortest in the series. It will mark the first time the LMP1 prototypes and the more nimble LMP2 cars -- like the Honda Performance Development factory-backed ARX-01c that David Brabham will share with Frenchman Simon Pagenaud -- will race in a newly-combined LMP category.

Thumbs up for Ricciardo in another Renault series
Australia's latest international racing star Daniel Ricciardo this weekend starts his quest for a third title in Europe in three years.

Winner of the British Formula Three Championship last year after victory in the Formula Renault West European Championship in 2008, Ricciardo this year will race in the Formula Renault 3.5 Championship, also known as World Series by Renault.

Graduates of the series include F1 stars Sebastian Vettel, Robert Kubica and more recently Spaniard Jaime Alguersuari, who is racing for Scuderia Toro Rosso -- the former Minardi.

Ricciardo, 20, of Perth, is already the F1 reserve driver for Red Bull Racing, although on standby at the Chinese GP because of the young Aussie's commitment in Europe is veteran and 13-time GP winner David Coulthard -- who also has been confirmed this week as a Mercedes driver in the German touring car championship, or DTM, which Audi has won the past three years.

The Formula Renault cars in the series Ricciardo is in have a 3.5-litre, 425-horsepower V6 engine fitted to an Italian-made Dallara chassis.

The first round is at the new Motorland Aragon circuit in north-east Spain.

Ricciardo has recovered after a right thumb injury from a mountain biking accident that forced him to miss one of Renault 3.5's pre-season tests.

He will drive in the series for French team Tech 1, which has won the title twice in the five-year history of the championship.

The other rounds will be held on circuits that are or have been F1 or MotoGP venues -- some of them both.

All but one round comprise two races -- the exception being in mid-May at the Monaco GP, where there will be a single sprint.

At the other rounds the cars will run in the first race in a new "light" aerodynamic configuration and then in the second race will have to stop for a change of tyres -- a format that will require the 24 aspiring F1 drivers in the field to adapt their styles to differing technical conditions.

Among the drivers in the series is one of 1992 F1 world champion Nigel Mansell's sons, Greg.

Six marques in new sports car world championship
Sports car racing has a world championship for the first time since 1992, starting this weekend at Abu Dhabi's Yas Marina circuit.

Auto Action columnist Luke West summed up the new GT1 championship succinctly in this week's edition of the magazine.

"Twenty races over 10 weekends on four continents; 48 predominantly professional drivers in 24 cars from 12 teams representing six marques. Marque is the operative word, as manufacturers cannot be directly involved. The six brands are Ford, Nissan, Lamborghini, Maserati, Aston Martin and Corvette," West wrote.

It could be good. Sports cars have always looked and generally sounded spectacular, but as a category it has been a checkered history. Maybe the time is right for GT1.

Rallying on the gravel of WA's south-west
Standings after round one: Scott Pedder (Mitsubishi Evolution IX) 81 points, Simon Evans (Subaru Impreza WRX) 64, Justin Dowel (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX) 52, Eli Evans (Honda Civic Type R) 50, Mark Pedder (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX) 45.

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