MOTORSPORT: Red faces over 'green' V8 Supercars

V8SA comes a little clean on carbon emission offsets
A month ago we mentioned here an embarrassing slip-up in V8 Supercar racing's efforts to portray itself as environmentally friendly.

It was something we stumbled across while scrolling over a few back issues, from late June, of The Bulletin newspaper from Townsville, the Queensland provincial city that will host a new V8 Supercar street race on July 10-12 next year.

It had come to light that, after making a song and dance in early 2007 about its intention to plant 30,000 trees over two years to offset carbon emissions from its two series (the main championship and the development series) and the transport of the race cars to and from tracks, V8 Supercar Australia had somehow forgotten to include the plane flights to and from its overseas rounds (Bahrain and New Zealand) in its calculations.

The matter had found its way into the hands of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).

In fairness it must be pointed out that V8SA entered into its very well-intentioned tree-planting exercise voluntarily, rather than through any requirement to do it. But how it got itself into the position it did is beyond belief.

V8SA has said this week that it relied "on two separate third-party scientific expert reports" in deciding how many trees to plant to offset the carbon emissions it generates. It said that towards the end of the 2007 season "on its own initiative and cost, obtained another independent third-party audit of the calculations contained in the earlier experts' reports on which V8 Supercars relied to base the program".

V8SA marketing manager Brian Clinton said that it came to light during the preparation of the third report that the earlier calculations did not include the transportation of vehicles or staff to the overseas events.

Allow us to interpret what we think Clinton is getting at here; that the experts displayed a distinct lack of expertise. That may be the case, but we wonder whether there's not be a bit of buck-passing going on here. Who engaged the "experts"? Surely V8SA. Did it get the wrong "experts"? Twice?

Was there something amiss in the brief(s) given to the "experts"? What did V8SA do to verify, or simply check, the reports provided to it? How did V8SA not pick up that reports, twice, overlooked the transportation to and from the overseas rounds in their calculations?

Many questions; few answers.

"Without knowing it, V8 Supercars had made incorrect statements to the effect that it was entirely offsetting the C02 emissions from the Championship Series and Fujitsu Series. With full and open dialogue with the ACCC, V8SA has clarified and rectified this position," Clinton said.

V8SA remains committed to offsetting a "significant" proportion of its direct CO2 emissions by planting native trees in each of the countries in which it races, with the program continuing in 2009.

Its "program" also includes "primary school visits, direct TV advertising, media coverage and on-track activities aimed at the millions of followers of the sport".

And, of course, it is moving to ethanol fuel (E85) in '09.

Now this all sounds very good, and indeed we note that V8SA has previously said it planted 17,500 trees in the first year of its carbon offset program, 2007, rather than the 15,000 that was the expectation. However, there is no sign in this week's announcement that V8SA has committed to planting a revised definitive number of trees to offset what at the third attempt is hopefully the correct calculation of its carbon emissions, including those fuel-guzzling flights to and from Bahrain and NZ.

Rather, its solution has been to amend the program statement on its V8 Racing Green website.

"Our native tree-planting program in 2007 and 2008, over the life of the native trees, is expected to offset all the CO2 emissions of the 2007 and 2008 Championship Series and Fujitsu Series of the testing, practice, qualifying, warm-up laps and racing worldwide, as well as the transportation and travel for Australian-based events (including the non-championship Australian Grand Prix)," Clinton said.

So rather than revise the number of trees needed to offset the emissions generated, just massage the words. In effect saying that the earlier miscalculations still ought to cover everything.

Perhaps the lesson from all this is to be wary of anything from V8SA that involves numbers: crowd and television figures as we've already found; and now carbon offset numbers.

Holden wants a parity adjustment
Motorsport News is thumping its chest a bit this week about a "scoop" in its weekly electronic version (free up until now, but which from August 26 it is trying to entice readers to part with what it says will be as little as $1 a week).

The story (at mnews.com.au) is that Holden is seeking a parity adjustment in V8 Supercar racing. Indeed, it has reported that Holden is "vigorously" pursuing the matter.

Holden's submission was lodged before Winton (round eight of 14), claiming Ford's BF Falcon had an aerodynamic advantage over Holden's VE Commodore in the first half of the season (seven rounds). Holden motorsport manager Simon McNamara claimed in the Motorsport News article that a change in the methodology of judging parity had left Holden at a disadvantage this year.

McNamara had no qualms about the new -- but yet unraced -- FG Falcon, but pointed out there was still a lot of racing to be done this year against the BF.

For the record, Motorsport News highlighted some interesting figures from the first half of the season:
Round wins: Ford 6, Holden 1.
Pole positions: Ford 6, Holden 1.
Qualifying in the top ten: Ford 38, Holden 32.
Race wins: Ford 15, Holden 5.
Race wins by teams: Ford Performance Racing 7, Triple 8/Team Vodafone 5, Holden Racing Team 5, Dick Johnson/Jim Beam Racing 2, Stone Brothers Racing 1.

Motorsport media watchers are keen to see how Motorsport News' electronic version does once it comes at a cost. Don't let us dissuade you from parting with a few bucks if you can afford it, but remember that motorsport coverage (and indeed coverage of hot topics that other autosport media won't touch) will remain free here twice a week.

V8 Supercar drivers tell how they see it
Auto Action magazine's second annual V8 Supercar Drivers' Poll made a few headlines this week, even if most of them were based on a finding that wasn't new -- that Paul Morris is regarded by his rivals as the dirtiest driver out there (and that he doesn't give a damn about that, and even delights in it).

AA is well worth its $5.60 cover price each week, but especially so this week with the results of this survey. We won't attempt to regurgitate it all, but here are a few of what we thought were salient points:

Apart from Morris, Steven Richards, Craig Lowndes and Russell Ingall are regarded as the dirtiest drivers.

Morris is also rated the most dangerous driver, ahead of Jason Richards, Michael Patrizi, Marcus Marshall and Shane Van Gisbergen.

Rick Kelly is now regarded as the fairest driver, ahead of Mark Winterbottom, Steven Johnson, Mark Skaife and Andrew Jones, while Craig Lowndes -- who was rated the fairest a year ago -- did not score a vote this time for fairness.

FPR, which a couple of years ago was a laughing stock, is now regarded as the best team in the sport, ahead of Triple 8/Team Vodafone, Supercheap Auto Racing (might its two votes have been from Morris and Ingall?) and HRT.

Mark Winterbottom was voted the best driver this season by 18 others, after not scoring a vote last year. A distant second was Jamie Whincup, ahead of Garth Tander.

James Courtney topped the poll as the most over-rated driver, ahead of Greg Murphy, Michael Patrizi and Rick Kelly.

We were intrigued that more than half the V8 Supercar drivers listed F1 greats as their hero -- 11 of them nominated Ayrton Senna, and two each Nigel Mansell and Sir Jack Brabham. Aussie touring car legend Peter Brock only got the same two votes.

The V8 Supercar boys say Greg Murphy is the biggest whinger, ahead of fellow Kiwi Jason Richards, then Mark Winterbottom, Mark Skaife and Rick Kelly.

Garth Tander is the most respected, ahead of Mark Skaife, Mark Winterbottom and Russell Ingall, while Craig Lowndes got only a single vote this time after being the most respected a year ago.

The team bosses the drivers don't want to race for are Team Kiwi's David John and Larry Perkins, ahead of Paul Cruickshank, Garry Rogers and Paul Morris.

The drivers most wanted as teammate are Jamie Whincup, Craig Lowndes, Lee Holdsworth, Rick Kelly, Mark Winterbottom and Paul Morris.

Those least wanted as a teammate are Greg Murphy, Michael Patrizi, Russell Ingall, Mark Skaife, James Courtney and Garth Tander.

Asked "Would you drive for another manufacturer?", 73 per cent of drivers said "Yes". AA comments: "Brand loyalty is clearly a thing of the past."

Not surprisingly, Toyota got an overwhelming vote as "the most relevant manufacturer that could come into V8 Supercars". But the most relevant question (not part of this survey) is whether Toyota wants to come into the category.

Even more drivers believe V8 Supercars needs more manufacturers to ensure its long-term survival. One even asked the question: "Should there even be V8 Supercars, or will we have to change our format in the future?" The majority of drivers favor V8 Supercars adopting a NASCAR-style silhouette chassis.

An even bigger majority -- about three quarters -- want the V8s to race more often. And most want more overseas races… "The general feeling was that around three or four international events was acceptable," AA comments.

Most drivers believe the championship points system is pretty close to right now, and even more want it locked in long-term.

Almost half said that V8SA does not do enough to promote the sport. And more drivers would prefer one long race at championship rounds than three shorter races, with about 20 per cent preferring a mixture. (Ultimately, the format is likely to be dictated by the TV broadcaster).

And a majority of drivers say they would rather win the championship than Bathurst. (A sign of how times have changed).

Airport worker who stole gear gets off lightly
A worker at Avalon Airport, near Geelong in Victoria, was fined $3000 this week for stealing $34,000 of V8 Supercar gear from containers that were waiting to be flown to the new Hamilton street race in April. The thefts included Greg Murphy's helmet and Rick Kelly's $20,000 steering wheel, other helmets, team shirts and a laptop computer.

The Geelong Magistrates' Court heard that Christian Wylie, 22, was an apprentice aircraft maintenance mechanic and cut the seals on containers during his meal break and checked out the contents.

During his next break he went back to the containers and stole the gear, and during a third break used his boss's ute to take the stolen property out of the airport. He hid the property by the side of a road and collected it on his way home after work.

Wylie was arrested ten days later and all the gear was recovered.

Magistrate Rosemary Carlin said that she probably would have jailed Carlin had he not pleaded guilty.

Webber warns of less competitive F1
Formula 1 racing has been much better in recent times than some of the yawnathons we endured during Michael Schumacher's heyday, but there have been some ominous warnings -- not least from Australia's F1 driver Mark Webber -- that things will deteriorate next year.

And that's not good news with the F1 season starting in Oz -- in Melbourne on March 29.

While F1's rules have been relatively stable for three years, the fears are that changes for 2009 -- including reduced aerodynamics and Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems (KERS) -- will enable the teams with the most resources to increase the disparity between the front and back of the field again.

Autosport has reported that "the spread at the season opener in Australia is likely to be far greater than it was this year" and that Webber predicted the new regulations would have a detrimental effect on the spectacle at first.

"The racing hasn't been too bad this year," Webber told Autosport.

"My opinion is that next year it will be much more spread out because people will be getting used to the rules. It won't be as good in the short term. Whenever you change the rules, some people get it right and some people get it wrong."

Autosport said the gap between the first and last cars this season was usually about two seconds a lap in race conditions: "a dramatic improvement from even five years ago, when it was nearer four seconds".

"The stability of the regulations in the last three seasons has allowed the lesser-funded teams to catch up, as those at the front find there are only minor improvements to be made three years into the development cycle," Autosport said.

"The regulations have remained largely untouched since the introduction of 2.4-litre V8 engines, while the switch to a sole tyre supplier after 2006 allowed the gap to close further."

Force India technical director Mike Gascoyne said: "If you compare qualifying this year to last year, across all the teams, the average improvement is 0.2sec, whereas we're more like 1.4sec.

"McLaren and Ferrari are still at the front, but they are generally the teams that have made the least improvement, so you would say those improvements are getting harder to find. In the midfield group there are times when you have half a second from seventh to 20th. It's incredibly close."

Atko cautious as Loeb goes for seventh German gold
Australia's world rally championship star Chris Atkinson will get his first taste, in competition, of Subaru's WRC 2008 Impreza on tarmac in Germany this weekend.

It is the tenth round of the WRC, and French Citroen ace Sebastien Loeb is going for a seventh straight German victory, which would see him overhaul Finn Mikko Hirvonen's one-point lead in his Ford.

The Rally of Germany is in the wine-producing Mosel region, near the city of Trier and close to border with Luxembourg.

Hirvonen said this event is "quite fast for a Tarmac rally, with very narrow stages - especially if it rains it's a really, really nasty one".

It will be the fourth event for Subaru's first hatchback rally car, and Atkinson is fresh from a podium at the previous round in Finland -- albeit more than three minutes behind winner Loeb.

That third placing him back up into third in the championship, and he has outpaced his Norwegian 2003 world champion teammate Petter Solberg most of the year.

Atkinson has contested the German event three times previously, with a best finish of eighth in 2006. Last year he won three stages and was among the three fastest drivers on four others, but finished only 15th.

"We were fast in Germany last year, but this year we have a new car on new tyres and it's the car's first rally on tarmac, so it's hard to know where we are speed-wise," Atkinson said.

"Our test for it on tarmac went well, and if we can carry the same form we had last year it would be good."

Subaru held back on releasing the its new Impreza WRC car until it was considered totally competitive, but it has not delivered the big leap forward that was expected -- and that it needed to regain its former glory.

Solberg has admitted he will struggle in Germany, saying: "The weather is not looking good, it's going to rain, and we had a completely dry test."

This will be his seventh attempt at this rally, and his best result was sixth last year.

Subaru team principal David Richards said Germany would be important in setting the tone for the year's remaining asphalt rounds in Spain and Corsica. But Subaru operations director Paul Howarth said: "This event is lethal in the wet as the roads are coated in shiny tar on which any water just sits, making it incredibly slippery.

"It's also very fast and very narrow in the vineyards, mostly one car width, so lines and precision are critical."

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