MOTORSPORT: Rally Australia needs Sydney connection

The Citroen C4s of Loeb, his Spanish teammate Dani Sordo (pictured), and the Citroen junior team's French ace Sebastien Ogier were each penalised one minute late last night for illegal front anti-roll bars.

That made Loeb's world title rival, Ford factory team leader Mikko Hirvonen, the winner and gave the Finn a five-point lead, instead of just one point, with two rounds of the championship remaining -- in Spain and Britain.

Meanwhile, Citroen factory team boss Olivier Quesnel has said he will release Loeb for the new F1 season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix at the start of November, most probably with Scuderia Toro Rosso -- but that he's sure the Frenchman will continue rallying next season.

"Both parties wish to remain married," Quesnel said. "I am not a gambling man, but I bet Loeb will still be a rally driver next year."

A good bet that, too, as Loeb has made it clear that, while F1 interests him, he intends to renew his Citroen contract for at least another two years.

The revived Rally Australia, held on the east coast of the country for the first time -- after almost two decades in the west (when Hirvonen also won, in 2006) -- produced the hoped for great tussle between the Citroen and Ford stars.

While the spectator appreciation of it was pretty good, the event appears to us to have made little connection with the broader Australian sporting public.

What it needs when it returns in two years, in rotation with New Zealand on the WRC calendar, is an opening and finishing stage in Sydney.

And certainly it also needs Australia's top rally driver, Chris Atkinson, in the field.

Atkinson was missing this year after Subaru's factory team folded at the end of last season and he could not find the sponsorship to contest more than one round of the championship with the Citroen junior team.

The other big negative from the revival of Rally Australia was two stages having to be cancelled on Friday because of opponents of the event throwing rocks at competitors.

Australian Associated Press correspondent Robert Grant provided a perspective on how that action left a sour taste.

Loeb won the weekend's event on the roads in the Kyogle and Tweed shires of NSW's Northern Rivers region, ending a four-month winless streak after he triumphed in the first five rounds of this year's championship and looked headed for a certain sixth straight world title.

While the asphalt surface at the next event should favor Loeb, Hirvonen -- now with four wins this season -- has a big chance of becoming the first driver to beat Loeb to the world title since Norway's Petter Solberg in 2003.

Citroen has accepted the penalties for the illegal anti-roll bars without challenge.

While the decision cost Loeb his 53rd WRC rally victory, Sordo retained third place in the event but Ogier dropped from fourth to fifth, behind Hirvonen's Ford teammate and countryman Jari-Matti Latvala.

Cody Crocker was the best-placed Australian in the event, finishing 12th outright -- and third in the Production WRC division -- in a Subaru Impreza WRX STI prepared by Les Walkden Rallying.

Czech driver Martin Prokop in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution won the Production WRC category, 42.2 seconds ahead of New Zealander Richard Mason in a Subaru, with Crocker and co-driver Ben Atkinson a further 53.1 seconds back.

Loeb won nine special stages ahead of Ogier with eight, Latvala seven, Hirvonen five and Sordo four.

The final day's victory before his one-minute penalty had looked to be a tactical triumph for Loeb, who gambled by surrendering the lead to Hirvonen on Saturday afternoon in exchange for a better road position on Sunday's stages, while the Finn was handed the difficult job of clearing the road of gravel for his following rivals.

Citroen factory team boss Olivier Quesnel admitted the wrong anti-roll bars had been used on the C4s but claimed they had not boosted the performance of the Citroens.

"We accept the decision given that the photo on the homologation form does not match the part fitted to the car," Quesnel said.

"The difference had no effect on either the performance or reliability of the car; it was simply due to an administrative error and does not stem from any desire to cheat.

"On behalf of the team, I would personally like to apologise to Sebastien Loeb and (his co-driver) Daniel Elena who scored a superb victory on the stages this weekend."

Loeb admitted the penalty was a blow to him winning a sixth world title.

"I am obviously disappointed, but you've got to accept it when the regulations are applied," Loeb said. "Instead of being just one point behind Mikko Hirvonen, I now have a five-point deficit to make up.

"That clearly complicates matters regarding our bid to win a sixth title, but this won't have any effect on our determination to win in Spain."

Hirvonen said he would have preferred to have won in different circumstances.

"It's a shame that after such a thrilling battle for three days the result of the rally is decided in the stewards' room," Hirvonen said.

"I suffered a points loss in Portugal two years ago, so I know how Sebastien, in particular, must feel."

World Rally Championship driver standings after 10 of 12 rounds -- Mikko Hirvonen (Finland, Ford Focus) 78 points, Sebastien Loeb (France, Citroen C4) 73, Daniel Sordo (Spain, Citroen C4) 50, Jari-Matti Latvala (Finland, Ford Focus) 35, Henning Solberg (Norway, Ford Focus) 29, Petter Solberg (Norway, Citroen Xsara) 25, Matthew Wilson (Great Britain, Ford Focus) 23, Sebastien Ogier (France, Citroen C4) 20.

Nikon in, but are we seeing the full A1 GP picture?
Organisers of what is now called the SuperGP -- previously Indy -- on the Gold Coast were to announce Nikon today as the replacement naming rights sponsor for the October 22-25 event after scrubbing the earlier deal with energy drink Nitro, because of its embarrassing failure to cough up the contracted money.

At the time of writing we have not seen the Nikon announcement.

We will be interested to know (but won't hold our breath) if there is any mention at the announcement of the gravity of the problems in the A1 GP series that is to be the international open-wheeler component of this year's carnival on the streets of Surfers' Paradise.

Sources within the A1 GP community tell us that the cars have been sitting in the open at Dunsfold airport in Britain, where the Top Gear TV program is filmed.

The cars are reportedly being held there by freight/logistics company Delivered On Time, which is said to be owed millions of dollars by A1 GP Holdings.

That is a different entity to A1 GP Operations, which was liquidated in June to pay suppliers -- although A1 GP headquarters insisted it was business as usual while its base was being relocated from Silverstone in Britain to Algarve in Portugal.

We also hear that A1 Team Monaco has cancelled its travel and accommodation bookings for the Gold Coast, which remains one of only two rounds confirmed (the other is at Assen in Holland) on what is supposed to be a 10-round calendar.

As much as we would like to see A1 survive and prosper, our sources are skeptical that it will last even until the end of October, which to our way of thinking should be a golden opportunity for it to showcase the product it claims is the most competitive open-wheeler racing in the world.

Even if it does continue, we will be very interested to see whether John Martin -- our national Formula Ford champion in 2006 and now racing in the Superleague Formula championship in Europe -- will remain A1 Team Australia's driver.

Incidentally, Frenchman Sebastien Bourdais, dumped recently from F1 by Scuderia Toro Rosso, won the weekend's Superleague Formula round in Portugal on debut.

And New Zealander Brendon Hartley won the weekend's European Formula Three Championship round, driving for Britain's Carlin Motorsport -- the team for which the 20-year-old Australian could clinch the British F3 Championship next weekend.

Toyota's F1 boss claims the Japanese manufacturer does not intend to follow Honda's (and BMW's) lead and quit F1.

An Indian consortium reportedly has applied to buy BMW-Sauber. The Times of India newspaper has said the deal would be based around a 50 million euro investment and involve Swiss driver Neel Jani, who won the 2007-2008 A1 GP series and whose father is Indian.

Indian liquor and airline billionaire Vijay Mallya already owns one F1 team, known as Force India and which was originally Jordan.

We also see reports that Malaysia is backing a potential new F1 entry under the Lotus name, with word that there may be an announcement after this month's Singapore GP.

Ross Brawn, principal of the world championship-leading BrawnGP team born out of the former Honda team, has been fined but escaped a driving ban after being caught speeding at more than 160kmh in Britain.

And former F1 designer -- and designer of the McLaren F1 road car -- Gordon Murray is now working on a fuel-efficient, three-seater city car.

Lastly today, for anyone who did not see it at the weekend, a tragic story of a father devoted to his son's racing career.

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