MOTORSPORT: Rallycross in Oz … the great unknown

The rallycross revival in Australia has arrived, but what it’s going to amount to is the great unknown.

The ambitious Extreme Rallycross Championship held a shakedown on Saturday at Brisbane’s Lakeside Park.

Expressions of interest to run an Australian Rallycross Championship have closed with CAMS, the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport.

There is no official word yet on how many applications there are, let alone who from.

Extreme promoter David Ridden said he submitted an application, but he admitted it was abbreviated because his time had been consumed preparing for Saturday’s shakedown and the scheduled start of his series at Lakeside Park on September 4-5.

Rally and rallycross great Bob Watson’s Rallycross Australia camp has not replied yet to our inquiries about whether it has expressed interest to CAMS in running an official championship.

Rallycross Australia’s plans for two trial events this year at Broadford, north of Melbourne, collapsed when Motorcycling Victoria reneged on a deal at the venue, leaving Watson’s plans for a wider six-round series next year up in the air.

CAMS had been publicly supportive of Rallycross Australia’s plans, while relations between the country’s governing body of motorsport and Extreme’s Ridden have been cooler.

Ridden intends to press on with the Extreme series irrespective of whether he has CAMS’ imprimatur.

John Tetley, owner of the famous Lakeside International Raceway 30km north of Brisbane and now hemmed in by housing, recently added a rallycross course to the old circuit that hosted premier touring car events, rounds of the old Tasman open-wheeler series and the Australian Superbike Championship.  

Australian-based Scotsman Alister McRae, brother of the legendary but late 1995 world rally champion Colin and a top-level rally driver in his own right, is the “main man” for the Extreme championship starting at Lakeside Park on September 4-5.

He is driving the only 300hp 2.4-litre naturally-aspirated four-wheel-drive Super Lite car imported into the country – a Ford Fiesta from Olsbergs MSE – and put it through its paces again at Saturday’s shakedown, having earlier tried it at Sydney Motorsport Park.

Potential competitors in the Extreme series are being given until the eve of the opening round to enter, but among those with some profile at the shakedown were V8 Supercar endurance co-driver and development series driver Macauley Jones and stunt rider Matt Mingay.

McRae says “the time is right” for rallycross – a mixture of gravel and circuit racing with jumps and often water splashes in the short courses – to pick up in Australia on the boom overseas.

Ridden remains hopeful of other Super Lite entries during the Extreme championship’s planned seven-round series, but in the meantime will rely on his support categories, for turbocharged four-wheel-drive cars and naturally-aspirated 2WDs, to provide the bulk of the action.

Rallycross was popular in Australia in the 1970s with considerable manufacturer participation and Peter Brock, Allan Moffat and Watson among its stars, while Larry Perkins won the sole national title at South Australia’s Tailem Bend in 1979 in a Volkswagen Beetle.
   
Extreme Rallycross Championship Series calendar:
Round 1 – September 4-5, Lakeside Park, Brisbane
Round 2 – September 25-26, Calder Park, Melbourne
Round 3 – October 30-31, Sydney Motorsport Park
Round 4 – November 13-14, Lakeside Park, Brisbane
Round 5 – December 11-12, Wayville Showground, Adelaide
Round 6 – January 15-16, Calder Park, Melbourne
Round 7 – February 19-20, Sydney Motorsport Park

Block leads America’s Global Rallycross Championship (GRC) from Swede Sebastian Eriksson, but victory in the weekend’s seventh round in Washington DC went to Brazilian Nelson Piquet Junior.

Piquet, a former Formula 1 driver and son of a triple F1 world champion, recently won the “world title” in the new electric international open-wheeler series, Formula E.

Early last week he was at Donington Park in England for the start of official testing of the second-generation Formula E cars, then on Thursday he tested an IndyCar with Team Penske at Sonoma in California before heading across the US for the GRC round.

It was his 21st GRC event and his first win and it came ahead of Swede Patrik Sandell and Block – all of them in 600-horsepower Ford Fiesta STs.

Piquet drives for the SH Rallycross team of James Sullivan, who also is involved in the KVSH Racing team in IndyCar with expatriate Australian Kevin Kalkhoven and American former racer Jimmy Vasser.

Sandell nudged Piquet’s left rear in the final, causing the tyre to rub, but he held on – after starting from pole position, courtesy of his heat and semi-final wins – for the victory and his third podium of the championship, putting him third in the points.

“It is a very special day for me. It is less than two months since I won a world title in London and now I’m delighted to get on top of the podium in Washington,” Piquet said.

Brabham, the 21-year-old grandson of late triple world champion Sir Jack Brabham, is associated with Andretti Autosport, but his Indy Lights drive there has dried up because of lack of budget.

As pointed out here last Friday, accusations of serious financial problems have been made about the Andretti business in a lawsuit by two disgruntled associates – one of whom is seeking reinstatement after having been fired.

Brabham previously tested an IndyCar at Iowa Speedway in July but found the Sonoma road course “a lot more physically demanding”.

“You really had to muscle the car a lot more, but it was an incredible experience and so much more fun than anything else that I have driven,” Brabham said.

“Speed-wise it was difficult to really judge as the regular drivers (taking part in the test) were on different-compound tyres to the Mazda Road to Indy guys (including Brabham) and there was no official timing.

“But it appears unofficially that Piquet and myself were the fastest rookie drivers – and we did almost identical times.

“I want to race one so bad now. I am ready if given the opportunity.”

Brabham is particularly keen to break into IndyCar next year as the season’s highlight will be the 100th Indianapolis 500 – the race in which his grandfather started the rear-engined revolution more than half a century ago.

Geoff Brabham, Matthew’s father, drove in about 100 IndyCar races too, including 10 Indy 500s.

Matt Kenseth’s victory in the latest round at Michigan International Speedway was his third win this season and the sixth in the past eight races for Joe Gibbs Racing – four of them by Kyle Busch.

Four of the top six drivers in the series are in Chevrolets, including leader and defending champion Kevin Harvick, while Roger Penske’s two men in Fords – Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski – are second and fifth.

The Penske pair were seventh and ninth at Michigan, while Kyle Busch wound up 11th after starting at the back of the field.

It is the best result in the classic by an Australian, after Madsen was third last year.

American Donny Schatz won the event for the ninth time in 10 years.

Madsen, from Sydney but now based in Knoxville, has had many successes in the World of Outlaws series in the US, including six wins last year.

His biggest triumph was in last year’s Kings Royal at Eldora Speedway in Ohio.