MOTORSPORT: Skaife still hungry for more

Midweek motorsport report

May 16, 2007

Skaife reckons he has "four or five years" of top-level competition left in him, and he wants to do that with the long-running Holden Racing Team ownership saga behind him.

"A very important part of finishing my career well will be getting the TEGA (Touring Car Entrants Group) issues cleared up," Skaife has told Auto Action editor-at-large Mark Fogarty in this week's edition of that magazine.

Skaife admits that negotiations with Tom Walkinshaw over the Scotsman's half-share in Skaife Sports, the company that holds HRT's two V8 Supercar licences, are still not finalised. But he has again strongly denied that he and Walkinshaw don't get along.

Skaife says that perception "is just so far from the truth".

"We want to put together a business package that will ensure, firstly, that HRT is in good health going forward and, secondly, that we do the very, very best that we can for Holden," he says.

Recently turned 40, Skaife admits that the ownership wrangle has been "very, very taxing".

"I'd be dishonest if I said it hadn't been," he says.

"I have worked very closely with TEGA to make sure that we comply – and I understand them having to police the rules. It's been very, very tough.

Skaife goes to Winton in northern Victoria this weekend still trying to break the record 37 touring car championship round wins record he shares with the late Peter Brock.

Skaife has won five Australian Touring Car Championship/V8 Supercar titles, five Bathurst 1000s and three Australian Drivers' Championships in open-wheelers.

And he says: "I have a real desire to finish off my career well. If I can win another touring car championship, or I can win another Bathurst or a couple of Bathursts or something, it'd just be outstanding."

Price says Gorman's remarks are an indication that the company will review how it spends its motorsport budget, rather than it not having a budget to spend.

Price says the development of a racing version of the new model Falcon to be released next year should be seen as a sign that Ford isn't intending to withdraw from racing.

"Our commitment is rock solid," Price has told Auto Action. "If there were ever a time that we would doubt our involvement it is now – and that isn't happening.

"We're going through a changing time in the automotive industry, but that doesn't mean we can just stop our participation in motorsport. What we need to do is some adjustment (of spending) – and the adjustment will be the part that we look at."

Despite the strength of the HSV Dealer Team and Holden Racing Team line-ups (Rick Kelly and Garth Tander, and Todd Kelly and Mark Skaife respectively) Ford's Craig Lowndes won at the rural Victorian track last year.

And Triple 8/Team Vodafone boasts that Lowndes and teammate Jamie Whincup -- the highest-placed Ford driver in the championship this year -- are the only combination to have made the final stage of the new elimination-style qualifying at each of the first three rounds.

Lowndes says that Winton "is one of the most important rounds in terms of qualifying at the front, given that there are so few places to pass".

Ford Performance Racing goes to Winton with the confidence of having scored its maiden pole position at the circuit last year and dominated the first race that weekend, with Jason Bright victorious at what was the start of a run of six victories for the team for the season.

Steve Richards has replaced Bright at FPR this season but is yet to match the speed of teammate Mark Winterbottom.

Bright will again drive a Falcon leased from Brad Jones Racing as the car he crashed at round two in Perth is still not right, while New Zealander Simon Wills will suit up in place of Brad Jones, who announced his retirement at the start of this week (although Jones will drive in the enduros).

Winton will feature three 40-lap races: one on Saturday and two on Sunday -- with enough "fat" built in to the program to ensure there should be no repeat of Pukekohe, where the third race had to be cut seven laps short.

"The way he lives his life is contrary to the complete package -- the kind that allowed Michael Schumacher to win multiple championships, as well as Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost, Jim Clark or even me," says triple champion Sir Jackie Stewart.

"He doesn't seem prepared to make the sacrifice of reducing the lifestyle he has chosen because he enjoys it. He is not prepared to compromise.

"That is why Hamilton has the opportunity to be dominant over time and Raikkonen doesn't -- unless something substantial changes."

Stewart accuses Raikkonen of being "oblivious of social skills".

Meanwhile, Eddie Irvine (who was Schumacher's Ferrari teammate for four years) reckons Hamilton could turn out to be even better than the German seven-time world champion.

"I think Lewis seems to be a more complete package than Schumacher," Irvine says. "Michael wasn't great under pressure and Lewis seems to not know what pressure is."

Hasn't lost his gift for starting controversy, old Eddie.

More than half the competitive distance of 342.86km is new, including more than half the opening leg and all the final day.

The coastal resort of Porto Cervo on north-east Sardinia again hosts the start and finish ceremonies while the event headquarters remains in Olbia. All three legs comprise three stages to be used twice.

This rally ranks among the most demanding of the year.
Australia's WRC driver, Chris Atkinson, has set his sights on finishing "a little higher" than the seventh he achieved in the Rally of Argentina with the Subaru factory team.

It will be Atkinson's second rally with new co-driver, Belgian Stephane Prevot, who joined him after fellow Aussie Glenn Macneall quit the WRC.

"Sardinia is always a tough rally, especially because of the way the road condition deteriorates when the drivers tackle stages for the second time," Atkinson says.

"The opening leg of the rally is made up of three long stages and will be particularly tough on the tyres, especially when the drivers go back along those roads in the afternoon."

Subaru team managing director Richard Taylor says: "The stages are all very demanding on the car and this rally is all about reliability and consistency.

"The fact that so many of the roads will be new for this year is good for Chris, because the more experienced drivers will not be able to rely on familiarity of the stages."

Atkinson's former world champion teammate, Norwegian Petter Solberg, says: "I really hope we can start to push for a win again.
"It is a rally we have won before (in 2004), and we are on the right track (with development of the latest Subaru Impreza).
"I'm starting to miss the feeling of being on the podium at the end of a rally.

Meanwhile, Spaniard Xavier Pons will drive a third factory Subaru in the WRC in the last eight rounds this year, starting with Rally Finland on August 3-5, and the whole of next year.

Former Citroen driver Pons has competed in 52 WRC rallies and was fourth last year in Sardinia, Turkey, Australia and New Zealand but could not find a competitive drive for this season.

He ended last season seventh in the championship while his French teammate Sebastien Loeb landed his third consecutive title. Loeb leads the championship again this year.

The recruitment of Pons could be related to reports that Atkinson is set to join the new Suzuki factory team next year.

The Rally of Canberra, which is also a round of the Asia-Pacific championship, will begin with a ceremonial start in the national capital early on the evening of Friday, June 1, before going straight into the forests with a 10.33km stage in the Bluetts forest plantation.

Some teams are concerned about the night stage, according to Rallysport electronic magazine editor Peter Whitten, as they don't have driving light set-ups for their cars. However, event organisers say they are too far down the track to change plans.

The night stage may help breathe some live into an event that is in serious danger of folding.

Glenney has sold his own Subaru since winning the SA event in his one-off ARC outing last year.

He hopes to drive the Crocker Subaru in the NSW and Victorian rounds too, but has not finalised a co-driver yet.

Glenney is hopeful of a factory drive with Mitsubishi Ralliart if it returns to the ARC in 2008.

Patrick has been the darling of The Brickyard since 2005, when she led almost 20 laps and came close to victory.

But the No 8 qualifier for this year's race has stunned the Australian No 7 starter with her outburst against him.

"He crashes (into other drivers)," she says. "I've seen it before - I've been a victim sometimes when he just has some brain fade."

"I was watching the ALMS (American Le Mans Series) race earlier this season at St Petersburg (in Florida) with our (Andretti Green Racing) Acura car and he crashed into Marino Franchitti.

"He is fast, there is no doubt about it. But whether or not he can get that together and finish the race (Indy 500) and be smart, that's the other half of it."

Apart from Patrick, Sarah Fisher has qualified 21st for the 500, while Venezuelan Milka Duno is hopeful of gaining one of the last 11 spots in the field of 33 at this weekend's final qualifying to be the third woman in the race.

Two-time winner Al Unser Junior will also be trying to make the field this weekend in a car entered by AJ Foyt, who is celebrating his 50th year at The Brickyard.

Alfa general manager David Stone, one of the three drivers in that car, says that, while still new in Australia, diesel car racing is popular in Europe.

"With our obsession with power in Australia, we often forget that diesels beat petrol engines hands down when it comes to torque," Stone says.

"With so many car makers now offering advanced high-performance diesel cars that would make ideal racing cars, it's time more car makers used motorsport to dispel the common belief that the only way to performance is a big V8."

 "Motorsport is the ideal way to change the Australian perception of diesel cars as being slow and dirty," he says. "I am sure that in coming months the 159 is going to see a lot more diesel competition."

Perhaps a field of them for the celebrity race at next year's grand prix in Melbourne?

Peugeot has already won shorter races in the Le Mans Series at Monza in Italy and Valencia in Spain recently -- with drivers of F1 experience Marc Gene, Pedro Lamy and Stephane Sarrazin, as well as former A1 GP star Nicolas Minassian.

And the French manufacturer has 1997 F1 world champion Jacques Villeneuve on board for the 24-hour on June 16-17.

The 55 cars accepted for the race are from 41 teams representing 13 nationalities.

The prototypes are the star attraction and make up more than half the field -- 28, including 16 in the top category, LM P1.

The Audi and Peugeot diesels are in this bracket and will be challenged by the petrol-powered brigade led by three new V10-engined Pescarolos and two Courage V8 turbo C75s.

Creation, Zytek, Dome are also represented in this category, as well as a Lola powered by the famous V8 Audi turbo that has won the 24-hour five times.

LM P2 is for less powerful and lighter cars, while in the LM GT1 Grand Touring category six Aston Martins will fight four Corvettes and two Saleens as well as a Lamborghini Murcielago.

For once the Porsche 911 GT3 RSRs do not have numerical superiority in the LM GT2 category, with just four cars from the Stuggart factory against five Ferrari F430GTs, while 2006 winner Panoz has two entries and there are two C8 Spyker spyders.

It's going to be a feast on the international racing scene in coming weeks, with the Monaco Grand Prix, the Indy 500 and then Le Mans… Bring it on.