Motorsport: Still a snag on HRT

Midweek motorsport reportMarch 28, 2007

New twists and turns in saga
Holden is dominating the V8 Supercar Championship but the fuss over the Holden Racing Team is not over yet.

The long-running story continues to unfold and, from today's edition of Auto Action magazine, we deduce that -- while some important paperwork was attended to before last weekend's WA round of the championship -- all is still not in order.

Mark Skaife has signed a deed of release, which was part of the settlement reached with the Touring Car Entrants Group on March 16, but Tom Walkinshaw, who had been revealed as a half-owner of Skaife Sports, the owner of HRT, has refused to be party to the agreement (or deed).

It is indeed very complicated, and we suspect there is still quite a lot more to this matter.

Skaife is quoted in Auto Action saying that the case is "behind us … settled … done".

Much as we admire Skaife as a racing driver, especially for his latest effort in Perth amid the pressure he has clearly been under throughout this saga, the above appears to us to be very wishful thinking.

It ain't over at all, perhaps by a long way.

The lead article in today's Auto Action, by Mark Fogarty and Rob Margeit, alludes to "the failure of a deal with Tom Walkinshaw to share team ownership".

"Despite Skaife's insistence at the Barbagallo (WA) round that the threat to his team has been lifted, AA has learned that the licence-saving proposal was rejected by Walkinshaw last week," they write.

The Walkinshaw deal is said to be linked to the top-secret terms of the deed of release, which in turn are said to be "onerous and restrictive".

"Walkinshaw refused to be a party to the agreement and withdrew his offer to settle Skaife Sports' debts to Walkinshaw Performance in return for shared ownership of the (TEGA) licences," the AA report says.

"Skaife's company owes a multi-million dollar payment dating back at least three years for services provided by Holden Motorsport and Walkinshaw Performance."

Holden Motorsport morphed into Walkinshaw Performance 15 months ago. It builds and owns the HRT and HSV Dealer Team cars and leases them to the teams, as well as providing engineering and management services.

According to the Auto Action report, the deed Skaife has signed is different to that drawn up by TEGA.

Skaife has reportedly been given three weeks by TEGA to meet "certain requirements" of the deed if he is to retain HRT's two licences to compete.

That means the matter should be fully and finally resolved before the New Zealand round of the championship at Pukekohe in mid-April.

"It is believed Skaife has promised TEGA he will find a solution to his financial plight within the deadline," Auto Action says.

Adding some perspective to the saga, Skaife told the magazine: "It was never an ownership issue. It's a control issue."

He says TEGA has been "pretty fair".

Indeed, it seems to us that TEGA has been exceptionally fair and commendably pragmatic, realising that a solution had to be found that kept long-standing Australian motor racing supporter Holden's factory team in the sport.

It is evident, though, that the solution is not yet complete.

It's getting a bit like Formula 1, in that there is more interest in what happens off the track than on it.

It's a definitive season for gravel rallying, which has not been in good health but may well get a boost from the introduction of Super 2000 cars -- 2-litre, four-wheel drive, normally-aspirated vehicles with supplied, six-speed sequential gearboxes.

Ford is fielding two S2000 Fiestas built by V8 Supercar ace Jason Bright's Britek for Michael Guest and Darren Windus, while Neal Bates' reigning champion team is handling Toyota's S2000 project.

Bates will drive an S2000 car with last year's Prototype Group N body until the third round of the championship in Canberra, when he will have an all-new S2000 Corolla completed, while his reigning champion driver Simon Evans will defend his title in one of the Group N Prototypes.

Mitsubishi Ralliart is missing from the ARC this year -- a serious blow after Subaru's pull-out a year earlier.

Dean Herridge is likely to be the top Subaru privateer but is struggling to find the budget for a full season.

Eli Evans, younger brother of Simon, returns to the ARC in a Subaru after a season in the Asia-Pacific championship.

Mitsubishi's absence deprives hard-charging Scott Pedder of a drive this season, but his cousin, Will Orders, driving a Subaru, is seeded No. 4 -- behind Evans, Herridge and Bates.

Former Ralliart driver Spencer Lowndes is back in the ARC as a privateer in an Evolution IX Lancer.

Sydney's Kevin Shaw is another top privateer in an Evolution VII Lancer, while Stewart Reid, in an ex-works Corolla Group N (P), is seeded seventh for this weekend -- the first Queenslander.

Rally Queensland has a new base this year at Marcoola and -- after a ceremonial start at Coolum Beach on Friday evening -- will begin with a Super Special Stage early on Saturday at Nambour Showground, from where the field heads to Imbil, near Gympie, for the arduous forest stages in the Mary Valley.

"No-one knows just how fast the S2000 cars will be," Neal Bates says.

"We think the S2000 Corolla is at least as fast as our Group N (P) from the testing we've done, but we won't truly know until we get it out there.

"Running the two cars side by side over the first two rounds should give us a good understanding."

Competition comprises 206km in 17 special stages over Saturday and Sunday. The classic car field will tackle a shorter course.

The rally will finish in the forest on Sunday for the first time rather than on the coast.

The previous Portuguese rally was in the country's north but this one will be in the south, based at the Algarve Stadium -- a spectacular sports venue near the city of Faro.

For the stages crews will travel into the hills of the Algarve, a popular destination for tourists and golf enthusiasts, and also head north across the border into Baixo Alentejo, a province famed for vast, undulating plains which are home to much of the country's agriculture.

There are 16 gravel stages comprising more than 350km, as well as a Superspecial inside the Algarve Stadium to start and finish.

Atkinson says ahead of his Portuguese debut: "Together with the engineers we've put a strong package together and we're confident our new approach will work well.

"It will take a little bit more testing yet to get the car on to top form, but we have some good ideas following the work we did in Mexico (on debut earlier this month).

"It is still early days for the new car and everything so far has been quite encouraging.

"On the gravel roads we might benefit from an advantageous road position."

Subaru World Rally Team managing director Richard Taylor says the target this weekend is to get Petter Solberg and Atkinson in the top five -- "and, if all goes well, to challenge for a place on the podium".

"The fact that the stages are unfamiliar for everyone will certainly level the playing field," Taylor says.

"Similarly, none of our rivals have any prior experience of competing with BFGoodrich tyres on the Portuguese stages, so tyre choice could have an influence on the result of the rally."

Subaru's operations director Paul Howarth says: "Leg one is very fast and flowing, with some wide roads that have a hard-packed base.

"Leg two is going to be very demanding -- there are a lot of narrow sections that could cut up quite badly.

"The first stage of leg two (Silves/Ourique) is 30km and will be a very important stage. It starts off very fast for 12km, but then gets twisty, rough and hilly. It will be very tough and I think the second leg, and that stage in particular, will be crucial to the outcome of the rally.

"There are more than 20 World Rally Cars on this event. If it is dry, a lot of road-cleaning will occur on day one, and the number of world rally cars also means that competition for points will be fierce throughout the order."

Webber will drive a Porsche 911 GT3 car around the 5km Singapore layout, under strict instructions to stick to the normal speed limit.

"We didn't have enough time to get clearance for a high-speed run," says Jyn Wee, the main man in Singapore for Red Bull -- whose F1 team Webber is now in.

Meanwhile, there is no sign of any organised public opposition to a night GP in Melbourne.

There have plenty of letters in the press and angry talkback callers, but nothing more.

We're hearing it's a done deal.

Ecclestone told magazine Autohebdo a GP in the French capital has been a long-time "dream".

"Paris is the number one tourist destination in the world," Ecclestone says.

Autohebdo tips Disneyland Park, about 30km from the centre of Paris, as a possible venue for a GP track.

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