MOTORSPORT: Stoner in, but cloud over DJR

In America, the sports car in which Marcos Ambrose was a co-driver has come back from seven laps down in the Daytona 24-Hour to finish third, within a minute of victory.

Juan Pablo Montoya drove the winning stint for Chip Ganassi’s team, the Colombian notching his third victory while one of his co-drivers, American Scott Pruett, equaled Daytona legend Hurley Haywood’s record of five successes in the classic.

While this author continually wonders whether Stoner will be any more successful in Australian four-wheel racing than fellow motorcycle superstars Wayne Gardner and Troy Bayliss, he is taking a sensible approach to it.

Stoner has committed to a full season in the development series, driving a Holden Commodore for dominant team owner, Triple Eight Race Engineering’s Roland Dane, who has Jamie Whincup and Craig Lowndes in the “main game”.

Just months after walking away from MotoGP, and the chance of earning $15 million a year, Stoner put an end to the fuss that had rumbled for a week after a story that emanated from the still unpublished Clipsal 500 official program by confirming he will start his car racing career there in Adelaide in exactly a month from today.

"It is a trial year to see how I go and how I like the sport," Stoner said.

"We are definitely making a commitment to it, but at the same time we don't want to go too deep in case it is not for us.

"I was going to do 75 per cent of the races, but I have decided to do them all.

"I want to get as much time in the seat as I can and try to understand what it is like to drive a V8."

Stoner has had an interest in V8 Supercars since childhood, did his first test with Dane’s outfit in 2001 and, after attending several races last year, has been doing laps in one of Paul Morris’ ride-day cars on a private track at the Gold Coast recently.

Depending on his progress there is the prospect of him becoming a co-driver in the “main game” endurance races late in the season, including the Bathurst 1000.

"I doubt anyone would want me at Bathurst, but I am not ruling it out," Stoner said.

"It is every Aussie's dream to drive there."

The seriousness of DJR’s woes has been emphasised by a Fairfax Media report that “an emergency meeting of the team’s board of directors will be held tomorrow afternoon to decide how – and if – DJR can survive”.

In recent times DJR has been a partnership between 67-year-old founder,  five-time national champion, three-time Bathurst 1000 winner but 13 years out of the driver’s seat, Dick Johnson, loyal sponsor Steve Brabeck of the Crimsafe company, and south-east Queensland car dealer and financier Maurie Pickering.

Pickering had hopes of DJR running Mazda bodyshells over the generic new “Car of the Future” chassis this year after DJR’s loss of financial support from Ford but that came to nought.

The team has been on the ropes several times since its heyday with Shell sponsorship, yet it was only in 2010 that it last won the V8 Supercar Championship – with James Courtney in the driver seat, and despite the obvious rift between Dick Johnson and then partner Charlie Schwerkolt.

Ironically, Schwerkolt returns to V8 Supercars this year as the entrant of a fourth Ford Performance Racing Falcon for Alex Davison, while DJR – Ford’s most famous, longest-running and most successful team – is in dire straits again.

While West Australian Karl Reindler has been in line for one DJR seat this season, yesterday’s Fairfax Media report touches on the whisper we had heard that Steve Johnson “may have to step down to make way for a driver who can bring substantial sponsorship to the team”.

The Fairfax report, by Auto Action editor-at-large Mark Fogarty, said that Dick Johnson “is reported to have sought assistance from V8 Supercars last week, warning officials that DJR didn’t have enough funding to be ready for the start of the series (the opening day of which is Thursday, February 28, in Adelaide)”.

“Not showing up would only exacerbate DJR’s financial woes, as teams are subject to a $150,000 penalty per car for every event missed,” it said.

“Further breaches would result in the team’s entries being reclaimed by V8 Supercars for resale.

“The construction of the cars (all-new under the ‘Car of the Future’ rules) is way behind because the team has struggled to pay suppliers for critical components.”

It mentioned “widespread suggestions that, at best, DJR, will only have one of its two new Falcons completed in time for the V8 pre-season test at Sydney Motorsport Park on February 16” and that it may need as much as $2 million in a hurry to make it to Adelaide for the Clipsal 500.

The Riley-Ford in which Marcos Ambrose was one of five drivers lost seven laps early in the race but he, last year’s victorious hero but now rehabilitated NASCAR substance offender AJ Allmendinger, British IndyCar driver Justin Wilson and GrandAm regulars John Pew and Ozz Negri fought back to take the lead.

At the final restart little more than 50 minutes from the end Portuguese driver Joao Barbosa in a Chevrolet Corvette hit the Riley with Allmendinger at the wheel.

Barbosa copped a 60-second penalty while Allmendinger had to pit for the Riley’s radiator to be cleaned.

He still finished within a minute of the victorious Ganassi team BMW-powered Riley driven by Montoya, Pruett, Memo Rojas and IndyCar driver Charlie Kimball, who was making his sports car debut.

Between them was the Chevrolet Corvette of Max Angelelli, IndyCar champion Ryan Hunter-Reay and Jordan Taylor.

It crossed the finish line 22 seconds after the winning Riley while the Ford-powered Riley was another 33 seconds back.

The first two cars both had to make late stops for a splash of fuel.

Angelelli complained that engine restrictions on the Chevy meant he and his teammates had been relegated to “another league” against the BMW-powered Ganassi Riley.

“It is an A class. We are B class. Just like driving with handcuffs,” Angelelli said.

The other Ganassi entry driven by Indy 500 winners Dario Franchitti and New Zealander Scott Dixon, NASCAR Daytona 500 winner Jamie McMurray and Joey Hand was a strong contender until McMurray put it into the wall early in the morning.

It was repaired by dropped out after 20 hours, with its mechanical failure perhaps the result of earlier steering damage.  

Audi notched its first win – indeed a one-two - in the Daytona 24’s GT class.

The lead driver in the victorious R8, which made a last fuel stop with seven minutes to go, was Portuguese DTM racer Filipe Alburquerque.

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