Geoffrey Harris•5 Apr 2013

NEWS

MOTORSPORT: Short format, long haul for V8 Supercars

Australasia's major race series starts ‘super sprints' experiment in Tasmania before a rushed trip to NZ next week, while Craig Lowndes reveals what he loves about his new car

Sprints bring different dimension to championship

Some things old and some things new in V8 Supercars (V8SC) this weekend – and next.

It’s been more than a month since the opening round of the championship that has ushered in the V8SC's Car of the Future (CoTF), although there were the four non-championship races at Melbourne’s grand prix a fortnight ago, and now it’s back to one of the most traditional tracks in the series.

Symmons Plains near Launceston in Tasmania is hosting a round of Australasia’s premier motor racing championship for the 41st time (the most apart from Melbourne’s Sandown) and immediately afterwards the 28 cars will be on the way to New Zealand to race at a revamped Pukekohe near Auckland next weekend. That’s provided they all get through the Tasmanian round without too much carnage!

Indeed, there are some fears of serious damage with the new Saturday format for Symmons Plains, although drivers (and particularly teams) are likely to want to err on the side of caution to avoid that.

This round will see the introduction of what is being called the “60/60 Super Sprint format” that will be used at six rounds this season. Officially there will be three races at the Tasmanian round – one of 120km on Saturday, with a difference, and two of 100km each on Sunday.

The Saturday race will be split into two halves though – each of 25 laps of the 2.4km circuit renowned for its two long straights and tight corners.

Drivers will qualify for the first half and the finishing order of that first sprint will decide the starting order for the second half only 15 minutes later – from a double-file rolling start.

Saturday points will be awarded solely on the finishing order of that second sprint.

There will be two more qualifying sessions Sunday morning for that afternoon’s two races.

There will be no refueling stops during any of the weekend’s racing and any changing of the mandatory soft tyres will be driven by strategy rather than official edict.

Many drivers are skeptical about the new Saturday format, worried at the prospect of mayhem from the double-file rolling start. It could make for better spectating and TV viewing but certainly there will be concerns among the V8 fraternity about getting through that day and preserving cars for Sunday and the following round in NZ just a week later.

“I think it's a bit of a waste of time,” said 2010 series champion and Holden Racing Team driver James Courtney, fifth in the points this season.

“If cars are damaged there will not be enough time to repair them so it will probably become quite processional.

"I’m generally keen to try new things, but I’m wary about a couple of aspects of the ‘split race’ format [on Saturday]. Having the double start straight into probably the tightest section in Australia suggests it could produce mayhem at Turn One and at some other tight tracks [later in the year].”

Courtney’s HRT teammate Garth Tander said: “I think we have probably picked the trickiest place on the calendar to bring a rolling start to first up because the first couple of corners at Symmons Plains are quite tricky, so two-by-two going into Turn One and Two is going to be pretty exciting.''

But Russell Ingall, in another HRT-built Commodore (and this weekend equaling Mark Skaife’s 221 event starts -- leaving them behind only John Bowe), can see a big positive in the rolling start.

“The double-file rolling start for the second part of the Saturday race could actually be safer than a standing start because it eliminates the chances of a car stalling on the grid,” Ingall said.

Brad Jones, owner of the Holdens in which Fabian Coulthard and Jason Bright flew at the GP, likes “the potential to mix it up a little bit” – provided there isn’t undue damage.

The top engineer at another Holden team, Richard Holloway of Garry Rogers Motorsport, predicts: “the starts and the first three or four laps will be much more aggressive”.

Todd Kelly, spearheading Nissan’s new campaign in the championship, said: “All it’s about is getting in the car and going out there and racing as hard as you can from when the lights go off until when you get the chequered flag.

“You don’t have to worry about strategy or refueling – it’s really down to the driver and less about the team and what they do in the garage.

“It’s about looking after your tyres, managing your own race and going out there and driving as hard as you possibly can for the duration of it – which is very similar to how the formats were when I started in V8 Supercars, so I can’t wait.”

That’s Saturday. And on Sunday, with history showing a 70 per cent chance of a safety car in any race at Symmons Plains, there are expectations some drivers and teams may punt on a tyre change.

Ford Performance Racing’s Mark Winterbottom has talked of there being “a lot of unknowns”, especially with Saturday’s rolling start, and that it “will be trial and error for everyone”.

Nissan driver Michael Caruso knows that he has to be prepared for whatever may be in store but lamented that ``the formats seem to change every week''.

The following weekend in NZ it will be four 100km races – two each day of the weekend – with no fuel stops. The cars are to be shipped from Burnie in Tasmania on Monday and flown from Melbourne to Auckland on Tuesday.

The overall winner of the Pukekohe round will be awarded a new Jason Richards Memorial Trophy in honour of the popular Kiwi V8 Supercar driver who died 16 months ago of a rare form of cancer. He was just 35.

New Zealanders Shane Van Gisbergen, Fabian Coulthard and teenage rookie Scott McLaughlin have already been pacesetters this season -- all in Holdens. They are sure to be particularly determined to claim the Richards trophy.

CoTF suiting Lowndes better

While Craig Lowndes remains the main man in V8 Supercars in the eyes of the fans, the Queensland-based Victorian has largely had to play second fiddle to Triple Eight teammate Jamie Whincup in terms of results in recent years. This season, the veteran leads the championship and reckons the CoTF suits his driving style.

It is the switch to the larger 18-inch tyres that Lowndes particularly likes.

“For me, it’s a great transformation from last year to this year -- this car now feels very much like the cars I had way back in the 1990s,” Lowndes said.

“And that’s a very good thing… This car definitely suits my driving style. I’m able to carry speed into the corner where I couldn’t last year. I’m able to trail-brake later and deeper into the corner.”

Lowndes’ engineer Jeromy Moore expanded on what it is that has made the driver so much more comfortable this year.

“It’s probably more so the tyres than the car,” Moore said.

“With the change from 17-inch to 18-inch, there is a shorter side wall so the tyres don’t flex as much laterally when you load them up, allowing a bit more mid-corner grip, which suits Craig’s style.

“Craig likes more of a car with which he can carry speed into a corner, not so much just brake really late and get on the power really hard.

“That’s more his forte. That’s why he does really well when he drives GT cars at Bathurst. The tyres are actually very similar to that - and that suits his style more than last year’s car, for sure.”

And Lowndes added: “The last time we had independent rear suspension and were able to carry that speed into corners was probably in the early days (mid-1990s) when we actually ran on a Bridgestone tyre and we had a drive tyre and a steer tyre.

“You were able to work with the car and tyres, and now… it feels very much like the touring cars of old for me.”

DJR hangs in, Erebus looks longer term

Wilson Security has extended its backing of cash-strapped stalwart team Dick Johnson Racing on what company chief executive John McMellan has termed “an interim basis”.

Wilson’s main involvement in V8 Supercars is with Brad Jones Racing, which McMellan said he did not want “diluted or compromised”. He made it clear that DJR still needed to find extra backing for this season.

Ahead of this weekend’s Tasmanian round, DJR’s pay drivers Tim Blanchard and New Zealander Jonny Reid are 17th and 27th in the points in a pair of Ford Falcons with enhancements from Ford Performance Racing.

Meanwhile, Erebus Motorsport has tipped significant improvement in its AMG Mercedes-Benz E63s driven by Tim Slade, Lee Holdsworth and European Maro Engel from the WA round on the first weekend of May.

Erebus engineers have spent time with AMG engineers in Germany recently.

Erebus chief executive Ryan Maddison predicted only minor gains for the E63s at Symmons Plains and in NZ.

“Perth will represent the point when we expect to observe notable improvements in performance,” Maddison said.

“And by the time we enter the endurance race season [in September] we should be heading into the phase for our long-term goals.”

Maddison likened the experience to laying “foundations and building blocks”.

“We have the right team personnel and drivers to make this project successful,” he insisted.

Calendar clashes do rallying a disservice

Years ago the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport would never have scheduled rounds of the V8 Supercar Championship and the Australian Rally Championship on the same weekend.

The first round of this year’s ARC in Canberra clashed with the Clipsal 500 in Adelaide. This weekend the WA round of the ARC at Busselton and around timber town Nannup coincides with the Tasmanian event in the V8 Supercar Championship.

The events are a long way apart but the ARC is the loser out of them.

Although WA’s Forest Rally draws terrific crowds, especially for the tarmac stages on the Busselton foreshore, there is little prospect of national attention on it, especially with the V8s racing at Symmons Plains.

The biggest clash is yet to come – in mid-September, with the Sandown 500 in Melbourne and Rally Australia at Coffs Harbour in NSW on the same weekend.

A World Rally Championship round, Rally Oz has its global audience but in Australia it is unlikely to attract much attention outside the Coffs region while the Sandown 500 marks the start of the V8 Supercar endurance season.

Meanwhile, Honda Jazz driver Eli Evans and co-driver Glen Weston are aiming for an eighth straight ARC round win this weekend. It is being trumpeted as a feat that will top the record of late New Zealander Possum Bourne for Subaru almost 15 years ago, although the ARC was at a much higher level then.

Evans leads the driver points this season on 78 from Scott Pedder, who has returned to competition in a Renault Clio R3 and has 74 points, with Jack Monkhouse on 53 in a Nissan 200SX.

The Mazda2 driven by young star Brendan Reeves has been rebuilt since Canberra with stronger driveshafts and better brakes.

Across the Tasman Sea this weekend Rally Otago in an around Dunedin is the southern hemisphere’s biggest classic rally, with competitors including former world champion Miki Biasion in a Porsche 911 and Australians Neal Bates and Coral Taylor in a 1980 Toyota Celica RA40.

Meanwhile, the funeral of rallying identity Fred Gocentas, who died this week at age 72, will be held at St Peters Lutheran Church at Reid in the ACT on Monday (April 8), at 11am.

Gocentas was synonymous with Mitsubishi Galant VR4s and Lancers of the 1980s and ’90s.

He co-drove for five-time Australian champion Ross Dunkerton and three-time champion Greg Carr, as well as Japanese drivers Katsuhiko Taguchi and Kenjiro Shinozuka, and won the Southern Cross Rally twice with Scotsman, Andrew Cowan.

Power, Ambrose hope for better in America

Aussie IndyCar driver Will Power is chasing victory at Barber Motorsports Park in Alabama this weekend for the third straight year.

Power led practice, qualifying and the race for Team Penske at the season opener on the streets of St Petersburg in Florida two weeks ago but JR Hildebrand ran into the back of him under caution when he was third and he finished 16th.

Penske is fielding a third car for AJ Allmendinger at Barber, a 3.8km road course at Birmingham likened to Road America. It is the first open-wheel race for several years for Allmendinger, who was suspended from NASCAR racing last year for using the amphetamine Adderall but won five straight Champ Car races in 2006.

Penske also has entered Allmendinger for the Indianapolis 500 in May after dropping Australian Ryan Briscoe, who started on the pole at The Brickyard last year.

Monopoly chassis supplier Dallara will notch its 200th win in Indy racing at Barber, while among the engine suppliers the victories have been split 12-4 in favour of Chevrolet over Honda since the introduction of the new car last season.

Canadian James Hinchcliffe won for Andretti Autosports at St Petersburg and leads the points from Penske’s Helio Castroneves, Marco Andretti, Tony Kanaan and New Zealander Scott Dixon. Reigning champion Ryan Hunter-Reay is only 18th and four-time champion Dario Franchitti 25th.

Australian Marcos Ambrose is 15th in NASCAR’s Sprint Cup heading to the half-mile oval track at Martinsville, Virginia. While Ambrose is still chasing that elusive first oval-track win in America, and a first top 10 finish this season in his Ford Fusion, his legendary team owner Richard Petty won a record 15 times at Martinsville.

Ambrose said brakes were most important at the “paper-clip” track.

“The track is so flat that they [the brakes] really get abused… You have to take care of them,” he said.

Dale Earnhardt Junior leads the Sprint Cup in a Chevrolet by 12 points from reigning champion Brad Keselowski in a Penske Ford.

AJ Allmendinger, once Ambrose’s teammate at Richard Petty Motorsports, has finished 11th, 13th and 16th in three Cup races this season with Phoenix Racing. Aric Amirola in the other Petty entry now is 20th in the Cup standings – five places behind Ambrose.

Sports Illustrated has pointed out this week that the pair’s combined finishing average this season is 20.8 and that neither has led a lap yet, although Richard Petty Motorsports still ranks ahead of Earnhardt Ganassi Racing.

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MOTORSPORT: Short format, long haul for V8 Supercars

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