MOTORSPORT: SA hungry for more V8s

It coincides with the state’s wealthy Shahin family taking over the former Mitsubishi test track at Tailem Bend (100km south-east of Adelaide), but the talk of another V8 Supercar event there is being fuelled by campaigning for the state election to be held on March 15.

The incumbent Labor government has said it will present plans this week for a new motorsport park.

Premier Jay Weatherill’s government already had shown support for the proposed $40 million development at Tailem Bend by the Shahin family’s Peregrine Corporation.

Perhaps trying to steal Labor’s thunder ahead of its announcement this week, and hoping to be in Weatherill’s position within a month, opposition leader Steven Marshall made known at the weekend a Liberal government led by him wanted a second V8 Supercar round in the state.

Marshall said a Liberal government would use part of a $15 million regional development fund to leverage financial support from the private sector, local councils and the federal government to improve, upgrade and expand SA’s motorsport facilities.

Marshall also committed to spending $200,000 to assess how to extend and tailor a year-long motorsport calendar for the state.

“Hosting the Clipsal 500 has raised SA’s motorsport profile and we want to build on this success by attracting an additional V8 race to SA, centred on the proposed Tailem Bend motorsport precinct,” Marshall told Adelaide’s Advertiser newspaper.

“We will develop a comprehensive motorsport and classic car calendar centred around our two premier V8 Supercar events to leverage maximum tourist numbers from overseas, interstate and intrastate.”

Mark Skaife, who was chairman of the V8 Supercar Commission for two years and remains a strategy adviser on the sport, said a second SA event “totally meets our [V8 Supercars’] growth plans”.

Skaife said he had visited Tailem Bend with Peregrine Corporation representatives.

“It could be a great race track,” he said.

“It reminded me of Oran Park in Sydney, which was always one of the drivers’ favourites.”

Peregrine is still finalising the takeover of Tailem Bend from the Coorong Council. But while the venue already is being used for some low-level motorsport, the Peregrine development could take two-three years once approved.

Not only does it appear to have the support of both sides of politics and the council but CAMS identified it last year as the best site in SA for a permanent “home’ for motorsport.

It is at the intersection of the Dukes and Mallee highways, close to the Princes Highway.

The Shahins, who business empire includes more than 100 service stations in SA, most with major franchised fast food outlets attached, envisage it becoming Australia’s biggest motorsport park.

Tailem Bend has become the favoured site for upgrade to stage major motorsport events ahead of Mallala and Adelaide International Raceway to the north of Adelaide sites at Gilman near Port Adelaide and Monarto, near Murray Bridge – which, like Tailem Bend, is south-east of the capital.

Meanwhile, proponents of a $25 million motorsport and driver training facility on NSW’s Central Coast  -- christened CASAR Park ( Community Automotive Sport and Recreation ) are hopeful of lodging an application soon with the Wyong Council.

Rain halted America’s biggest race for six hours after 38 of the 200 laps.

Once it got going again under lights there was a 13-car crash at three-quarter distance in which Australian Marcos Ambrose’s Ford was caught up.

Earnhardt’s victory, at the speedway where his legendary father was killed 13 years ago,  came a decade after his other win in the classic. It ended a winless streak for him since mid-2012.

Earnhardt’s Chevrolet held off Denny Hamlin’s Toyota, Jeff Gordon’s Chev and Brad Keselowski’s Ford at the finish.

Mercedes factory team driver Nico Rosberg simulated qualifying laps and then a race distance in Bahrain on Saturday – the final day of the second four-day test, with another to come there this week.

Without using the softest of Pirelli’s 2014 tyres, Rosberg’s best lap of the Sakhir circuit was 1:33.283sec – over 1.6sec quicker than any other driver.

Red Bull Racing’s woes continued when its new Australian driver Daniel Ricciardo took over from four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel for the last two days of the test. Ricciardo’s running was cut short by a gearbox failure on Friday and a problem with the RB10 car’s Renault power unit on Saturday.

The West Australian’s best lap was more than 6.5sec slower than Rosberg, while Vettel’s best for the week was almost 7sec off the Mercedes driver’s pace.

Rosberg’s teammate Lewis Hamilton clocked the second best time of the test, while the Mercedes-engined McLaren was third and fourth on the week’s timesheets, driven by Danish rookie Kevin Magnussen and Jenson Button.

Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen were both more than three seconds slower than Rosberg – and behind a fifth Mercedes-powered driver, German Nico Hulkenberg in the Force India car.

Ricciardo and Vettel’s best times were 15th and 17th among the 23 drivers to test.

Ricciardo’s replacement at Red Bull-owned Scuderia Toro Rosso, Russian rookie Daniil Kvyat, was more than half a second ahead of the Aussie – although Toro Rosso did even fewer laps than Red Bull.

The BBC’s chief F1 writer Andrew Benson noted that, with eight of the 12 days of pre-season testing now gone, Red Bull has done about a sixth of the mileage of Mercedes as well as being way off its pace.

“Renault’s problems centre on the energy recovery system, which they are struggling to run at full capacity,” Benson said.

“What has been seen on the track over the first eight days of pre-season testing could well be the result of management decisions made two or three years ago by the various teams and companies involved as they began to assess the new regulations.

“That does not mean Red Bull and Renault will not recover, but it does mean winning again this year is likely to be a far bigger challenge than over the previous four.

“The rules of the game appear to have changed, and at the moment it seems as if others have adapted better than Red Bull and Renault…”

Rosberg’s time in Bahrain indicated the new-generation F1 cars will be closer to those of the immediate past than the two seconds a lap earlier thought. Benson noted that the 1.6-litre turbocharged V6s were producing more power than the previous normally-aspirated V8s but said that restrictions on aerodynamics meant the cars now had less grip.

The extra torque is making them much more difficult to drive. Teams also are wary about fuel consumption, with a 100kg limit (about 130 litres) this season without any refueling allowed.

Rosberg said the biggest challenge for drivers was “all the new systems, hybrid power – there is a lot of complications in that”.

“The early races are going to be all about reliability, who can get to the end,” he said.

Benson quoted what he called a “senior figure” from one of Renault’s lesser teams (there are three – Lotus, Toro Rosso and Caterham) saying that while there had been reliability issues with the French manufacturer’s power units “we’ve certainly seen some very strong power figures”.

However, Benson wrote: “There is a feeling that the model Red Bull and Renault have used for their partnership [which has produced four seasons of domination] is now outdated, and that they are suffering for a lack of integration between the chassis and engine design teams – integration that both Mercedes and Ferrari have.

“Both those have bought into the need for the car and engine to be designed as a single package under these new rules, which are by far the most complex F1 has ever had.”

Red Bull has done only 137 laps in the eight days of testing so far compared with 624 by Mercedes, 541 by McLaren and 538 by Ferrari.

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