MOTORSPORT: Spare a thought for Brocky

So lots brewing on the motorsport scene.

But, all of the above aside for the moment, we expect that the minds of many Australians will reflect over the next couple of days on the first anniversary of motorsport's favorite Aussie, Peter Brock.

How quickly the third Targa West has come around, since that tragic day that the Daytona Coupe veered off the road in Western Australia and struck a tree, killing Brocky instantly.

The event's prologue is this afternoon (Thursday), and three days of serious tarmac rallying follow around Perth.

Jim Richards, eight-time winner of Targa Tasmania and seven-time Bathurst 1000 winner, is competing in the WA event for the first time, in a Porsche GT3 RS.

Home-town icon Ross Dunkerton has won both previous Targa Wests and is after a hat-trick, again in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX.

While Dunkerton will relish the battle with Richards, and another former touring car ace, Tony Longhurst, in the Honda-powered Skelta, "Dunk" has a special rivalry with fellow West Australian and another former national rally champion Rob Herridge -- father of modern-day gravel rally star Dean Herridge -- in a Subaru Impreza WRX.

Friday's first leg will be dedicated to celebrating Brock's life -- and his partner Julie Bamford, brother Lewis, and co-driver on that fateful day, Mick Hone, will be part of that.

Tragic as Brock's death was, and as much as it is a pity that the permanent memorial to him at Bathurst won't be finalised until after next month's 1000km V8 Supercar race there, it is fitting that the anniversary falls at the outset of spring -- the season of hope and optimism that Brock so embodied.

A court of appeal was due to hear Ferrari's case next Thursday after the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile's world council decided some weeks ago against punishing rival McLaren despite finding it in breach of the sport's rules by its design chief Mike Coughlan having obtained a dossier of Ferrari files -- supposedly from disgruntled Ferrari team executive Nigel Stepney.

Suddenly the appeal case is off, but the 26-member world council is to reconvene at the appointed hour to consider fresh evidence.

The most pertinent commentary we have read on what's happening is the following from grandprix.com:

"It seems that the FIA may have received a tip-off from somewhere alleging that other evidence existed and where it could be found.

"We hear that the F1 teams have all received a fax in recent days from the FIA pointing out that it is their duty to report any information they may have with regard to information relating to the case, told to them by any of the drivers.

"This seems oddly specific and suggests that drivers are now involved in this affair.

"Whatever it was that emerged from the FIA questions was obviously sufficiently convincing for the federation to cancel its own appeal and bring the matter back before the WMSC (world council).

"The question that no one will answer is who is involved and what they know.

"One can speculate that there are teams out there who might have information which came from McLaren drivers and that they are entirely capable of using such information if it serves their purpose.

"It is no secret, for example, that at least one team would like to have (dual world champion) Fernando Alonso in 2008 but he is under contract to McLaren.

"If McLaren is punished it is almost inevitable that there is a clause in his contract which would free him next year.

"The hows and the whys are not, however, the problem.

"They are merely tawdry details in an utterly unsavoury affair.

"The question that the world council must answer is what to do about whatever it is that has come to light and what punishment would be used if there was evidence to justify penalising McLaren."

A little later grandprix.com says: "The FIA knows that it must be incredibly careful in its dealings with the case because McLaren has long felt victimised, and if there is any hint of anything untoward the team might consider launching a civil case against the FIA for damaging the team's reputation."

McLaren chief Ron Dennis has made no secret of his fears that McLaren's success this year, and possibly a world title for rookie driver Lewis Hamilton, could be tainted.

To date, McLaren has denied any use of the Ferrari information and distanced itself from the suspended Coughlan.

There is a history of strained relations between FIA president Max Mosley and Dennis.

Mosley is a brilliant lawyer and master motorsport politician, while Dennis was a mechanic on a Formula 2 car raced by Sir Jack Brabham in the 1960s who rose to become an outstanding team chief and businessman, and -- despite having more than his share of critics -- is seen as a model of propriety.

Dennis has made McLaren into a business that is much more than an F1 team and will not countenance any unfounded tainting of its reputation, so an unfavorable outcome from next week's hearing (there is speculation it could face disqualification from the 2007 and 2008 world championships) could well spark massive legal action.

It will be intriguing to see how the powerbrokers of the F1 paddock line up.

This is essentially a dispute between Italo and Anglo minds, being arbitrated on French territory (Paris) by a very cosmpolitan mix of officials who traditionally dance to Mosley's drum.

If things go against Dennis, he and his supporters in F1's inner sanctum may well find themselves rueing that Aussie Paul Stoddart did not succeed in his quest, in his final year (2005) owning the Minardi team (now Scuderia Toro Rosso), to oust Mosley.

F1 lives on this kind of this kind of fodder.

While there are fears that the espionage issues could do great damage to the sport, the controversy that it triggers will ensure that F1 is front and centre in the minds of countless millions of people over coming weeks.

Combined with having four drivers from the two key constructors (and those at the heart of this matter) within 16 points vieing for the world title as it nears its conclusion, it's a utopia for F1 ringmaster Bernie Ecclestone.

Isn't it strange how that is so often the outcome?

Here are some excerpts:

McLaren's Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso and Ferrari's Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen have all won three races this season.

Hamilton, 22, leads Alonso by five points with five races remaining.

Hamilton is only the fourth driver to win three times in his first F1 season.

The others were Argentine Juan-Manuel Fangio, Italian Giuseppe Farina (both 1950) and Canadian Jacques Villeneuve (1996).

Alonso has scored points in his last 15 races.

The Spaniard is the only driver to have scored in every race this year.

Ferrari's retired champion Michael Schumacher holds the record for most successive races in the points - 24 from 2001 to 2003.

Ferrari has won four of the last five races at Monza.

David Coulthard and Rubens Barrichello are the only current drivers to have won at the circuit.

Schumacher five times at Monza - more than any other driver.

Brazilian Nelson Piquet won four times, while the late Fangio is the only one to win there three times in a row.

The last Italian to win at Monza was Ferrari's Ludovico Scarfiotti in 1966.

The last Italian to stand on the podium at Monza was Renault's Giancarlo Fisichella, when he finished third in 2005.

Monza is F1's oldest and fastest circuit, with cars reaching speeds of more than 360kmh and averaging more than 240kmh a lap.

It takes a heavy toll on brakes and engines.

No other circuit has hosted more GPs. The first race there was in 1922.

Our comment: Most F1 cars are built in Britain, but Italy is the spiritual heartland of GP racing.

HarperCollins, owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, has reportedly paid him US$2 million for his story.

Briatore says they have a four-year plan to return QPR to the Premier League, of which it was a founding member in 1992.

A lower-profile partner in the takeover is apparently Spanish entrepreneur Alejandro Agag, who has been linked to a financial rescue of the Japanese-controlled, Honda-associated Super Aguri F1 team.

"This makes business sense because of India.

"Can you imagine how much the TV ratings are going to go up?

"Every Indian kid will tune into F1 because they now have ownership in it as a country.

"Bernie (Ecclestone) should be very happy that the viewership in India will grow by leaps and bounds."

Mallya is being seen as giving India's international image a makeover, projecting it as advanced rather than a poverty-stricken country.

Renowned circuit designer Herman Tilke has been in India this week looking at three prospective sites for a GP that could start as soon as 2009.

Indeed, it may be just two weeks away.

Plans for Ambrose to start two Nextel Cup races for his regular Busch series squad, Wood Brothers/ JTG Racing, fell through, while the surprise offer to drive for Robby Gordon at Watkins Glen just a week after Gordon punted Ambrose out of a shot at Bush victory in Montreal was scrambled by rain.

Now we hear that Gordon is entering a Ford Fusion for Ambrose to drive in the Cup race at Dover in the state of Delaware on September 23.

Maybe this time it will happen.

Meanwhile, this weekend at Richmond, Virginia, Ambrose makes his 50th NASCAR start.

It will be his 28th Busch race, on top of 22 in the pick-up truck series last year.

He's qualified in the top 10 nine times this year, finished in the top 10 four times, and is nearing A$1 million in prizemoney for the season.

His best finish this year was at Dover -- perhaps a good omen if he's going to be driving a Nextel Cup race there soon.

Dixon was leading the series until dramas at the end of last weekend's race in Detroit, over which Andretti Green Racing co-owner Michael Andretti accused the Brisbane-born New Zealander of hampering Franchitti -- who scrambled to the chequered flag two places ahead of Dixon.

At least Dixon, the 2003 IRL champion, can count on a stout defence from his team owner, Chip Ganassi, if there are fireworks with the Andretti Green camp in Chicago.

Perhaps the best outcome for everyone this Sunday will be if Danica Patrick wins her first IRL race.

She inherited second place in Detroit and Chicago's 2.4km oval is her home track.

With the cancellation of the series finale in Phoenix, Arizona, due to lack of sponsorship, Frenchman Sebastien Bourdais only needs 12th at Surfers' Paradise to seal his fourth straight title before his move to Toro Rosso in F1 next year.

The last Champ Car round is now the Mexican race in November.

Outright honors will remain a battle between rear-wheel-drive performance cars such as the BMW 335i, Holden Commodore SS, HSV, Falcon XR8, FPV Typhoon and the 4-cylinder turbocharged, all-wheel-drive Subaru WRX STi and Mitsubishi EVOs.

Category manager Craig Denyer says recent changes have included refinement of the lower classes to better represent vehicle capacity and price, and to ensure that cars of similar performance and specification are grouped together.

"The growth in the range of ‘hot hatch' type models over the past year has prompted us to split the category into an under 3-litre production sport class and an over 3-litre performance hatch class," Denyer says.

"There are some exciting new models in these classes that will provide great on-track action, giving potential entrants some real manufacturer choice.

"We have added a class specifically for 6-cylinder production cars to represent the number of V6 and straight 6-cylinder cars on the market, as well as an over 5-litre production sedan class for V8s and Turbo 6s."

New classes include a category specifically for automatic and semi-automatic cars, a V8 ute class and a significant increase in the number of models eligible for the eco/diesel category.

"The philosophy of the race is to represent the mass road going market, and with the increase in the numbers of performance models only made with auto transmissions, the growing interest in diesel cars, and the fact that a quarter of all Commodore and Falcon sales are utes, these new classes ensure our key objectives are met," Denyer says.

"The number of manufacturers directly inquiring about models for the diesel class is very encouraging, and we have also had a Melbourne competitor lodge an expression of interest to run a Lexus GS 450 Hybrid."

For further information on the classifications, click here.

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