MOTORSPORT: Street race costs mount

The annual report of the Australian Grand Prix Corporation has confirmed that the annual Formula One event on the streets of Melbourne’s Albert Park has cost Victoria’s state coffers more than $50 million for the third straight year.

Victorian taxpayers have now paid $300 million to stage the race since 1996, according to Melbourne’s Herald Sun newspaper. It said those taxpayers now pay “about twice as much” to make up the shortfall on the event as they fork out buying tickets to it. AGPC chairman Ron Walker at least acknowleged the state’s “continued generous contribution” in the annual report.

Across the Tasman, a long-awaited report by the Audit New Zealand office has catalogued the woes of the Hamilton street event that has been that country’s round of the V8 Supercar Championship for four years – although next year’s will be the last there, with a move to the Whenuapai air base in West Auckland now tipped.

Hamilton’s Waikato Times newspaper has reported that Audit NZ made “30 damning conclusions”, with the provincial city’s former mayor and chief executive Michael Redman copping the harshest criticism. Redman is now head of Auckland’s tourism, events and economic development unit.

The Whenuapai air base in West Auckland is tipped as a future venue for the V8 Supercar round after next April’s fifth and final Hamilton event. The Waikato Times said the costs to Hamilton were now anticipated to be almost $39 million after “the race was initially touted to cost ratepayers about $7 million”. The Hamilton City Council has been given the Audit NZ report and briefed on it, but the document has not been publicly released yet.

Barry Harris, the council’s chief executive now, has said some figures and company names in it will need to be removed to avoid breaches of confidentiality agreements. However, the Auckland-based NZ Herald newspaper reported that Audit NZ’s key findings were that:

The Waikato Times reported that “there was never a business case prepared, and no due diligence carried out on the initial promoters [Caleta Streetrace Management] who subsequently went broke owing local businesses and the city millions of dollars”.

“The audit report reveals there were signs those promoters were in trouble even before the contract with them was signed,” it said.

V8 Supercars Australia ran this year’s Hamilton event following the collapse of Caleta and will stage the last there on April 20-22 next year. The NZ Herald reported that Audit NZ director Peter Davies and consultant Rod Titcombe told Hamilton councillors they were “surprised and disappointed” about the inadequate processes regarding the first three events and that they had never seen anything like it before.

“Right from the early days the V8 event was off on the wrong footing because the estimate (of costs) wasn’t very good,” Mr Davies said.

Former Hamilton mayor and CEO Redman has claimed the audit report is full of inaccuracies and that he is being made a scapegoat. Whoever has been at fault, it is a huge tale of woe. Today’s NZ Herald report is here and yesterday afternoon’s Waikato Times report here.

The fuller list of international co-drivers at Surfers’ Paradise last weekend did not increase local viewing - the average audience in the five major capital cities (Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth) was down both days on last year.

The Saturday figure the past two years has been higher than in 2009, the year of the infamous A1 GP no-show and the late concentration on V8 Supercars and a legends component, but this year’s Sunday audience was 200,000 below what it was for the final race of the ’09 Gold Coast carnival.

Three-year Gold Coast TV audience comparison

* An earlier race on the 2009 Sunday averaged 475,000.

This year’s Gold Coast races were screened live on Speed TV in the US and it will be interesting to see any results.

A report in the Gold Coast Bulletin last Saturday quoted V8 Supercar chief Tony Cochrane claiming an “actual figure” for Speed’s live Bathurst telecast of 495,000, without mention of whether that was viewers or households (the US standard) – or the source of that figure.
 

The Australian is fourth in the championship – on 209 points, 13 behind McLaren’s Jenson Button and three behind Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso – with three races remaining, the first of them the new Indian Grand Prix at the $400 million Buddh International Circuit in Delhi.

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has said: “We will do everything we can to help Mark from a team perspective.”

However, Webber’s teammate Sebastian Vettel, who has already clinched his second world title, has said it is far too early yet to consider surrendering a place in a race for Webber if required.

And Horner said: “I am not sure Mark would like to achieve the result that way, so I think it is probably just a better approach to let the guys race and get on with it - and that is the approach that we are going to certainly adopt.

“If there was a situation at the last race where a position could make a difference then that’s different. But for the time being we are going to let them race and get on with it. I am sure Mark would want to achieve it (runner-up in the world championship) under his own merit. I am not sure he would like to be given something, but I am quite sure if asked the question, Sebastian would be willing to do that. More importantly it would be nice to see him win a race before the end of the year.”

Webber has gone winless in 16 races this year after six wins in the past two seasons.

Meanwhile, the young Aussie in the F1 field, Daniel Ricciardo, attributes his recent improved form with small Spanish team HRT to getting to grips with the Pirelli tyres.

“I’ve worked the tyres a bit better in the past couple of races and given them a bit more life and performance,” 22-year-old Ricciardo said. “It’s always nice to be as quick as possible in qualifying, but we’re sacrificing a bit for the race – which has been good.”

Ricciardo, lining up for his ninth GP this weekend with Indian Narain Karthikeyan in the other HRT, told Autosport that competing with the Virgin cars was his priority for the final three races of his debut season.

“The last two races have gone quite well and if I can continue like that then I will be pretty happy with the season,” he said. “The Virgins generally have a bit more pace than us, so if we can mix it with them in the race it’s normally a sign of a good result. I was particularly happy with Korea, where we had only nine dry laps coming into the race but we still gave the Virgins a really good fight. When I see them not getting away in the race it puts a smile on my face! “

It is expected to be the second fastest in the championship – slower only than Italy’s Monza but faster than Silverstone.

The top speed is expected to be 315kmh on the main straight, with the fastest corner – turn 12 – likely to be taken at 255kmh and Vettel predicting a lap average of about 235kmh.

Vijay Mallya, the Indian liquor and aviation tycoon who owns the Force India team placed sixth of 12 in the constructors’ world championship, said the new GP was “a major step forward for Indian motorsport and for sport generally in our country”.

Plenty of Bollywood stars are sure to attend and cricket great and Ferrari lover Sachin Tendulkar is to wave the chequered flag at the end of Sunday’s race.

Meanwhile, the Russian government plans to spend $200 million building the circuit at Black Sea resort Sochi to host that country’s new GP. The first race in a seven-year contract is intended to be held there in 2014, the same year Sochi hosts the Winter Olympics.

F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone has said he won’t renegotiate the contract for the Korean GP, leaving it in doubt after just two years. The promoter of the Yeongam event, Won-Hwa Park, had said he was seeking a cut in the race hosting fee because of the huge losses faced. For now Korea remains on the 2012 calendar in mid-October as the 16th of 20 GPs.

Australia’s Marcos Ambrose will be chasing his 25th top 10 finish in his time in the Cup, while Carl Edwards is 14 points ahead of fellow Ford driver Matt Kenseth in The Chase for the title.

Dodge driver Brad Keselowski is another four points back, with Tony Stewart one behind him in a Chevrolet.

An update on the dozen drivers in The Chase is here.

Hendrick Motorsports could capture its 200th Cup victory this weekend, making it only the second team in that “club”. The other is Petty Enterprises, predecessor of Richard Petty Motorsports for which Ambrose races. If Hendrick reaches the double century at Martinsville it also will equal Petty Enterprises' record 19 wins there.

The couple will be in a works Mazda 3 MPS at the Targa High Country tarmac rally at Victora’s Mt Buller on November 4-6. The following weekend they will drive their own Subaru Impreza WRX in the final round of this year’s ARC, Rally Victoria in the Baw Baw forests of the Gippsland region. That is the only event on the ARC calendar now in which they haven’t been victorious.

“I won every stage bar one last year and lost the rally so I desperately want to win this event,” Simon Evans said.

Evans said he had had approaches from “a number of manufacturers” about possible ARC campaigns.

“I can’t say whether these approaches will translate into a full-time works drive in the future - you will just have to wait and see,” he said.

This year’s ARC title is a tight battle, with young Queenslander Ryan Smart in a Toyota Corolla Sportivo three points ahead of Victorian Justin Dowel in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX, while Victorian Mark Pedder in another Evo IX and Queenslander Steven Shepheard in an Evo X retain outside chances.

Photo courtesy Wilson Security Racing

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