MOTORSPORT: Sweating on TV deal – and The Giz

As Australia experiences some of its hottest weather, the heat is on in V8 Supercars for a TV deal for what will be a four-make championship – with Nissans and AMG Mercedes competing against Holdens and Ford, all with a generic chassis – starting in Adelaide  just 55 days now.

Indications now are that while the series will remain on the Seven network any deal could be for only a year or two – and for less money. There is a whisper that Seven is prepared to pay only $17 million a year, considerably less than what it shelled out over the past six years, variously estimated at between $25 million and $32 million annually.

Another whisper is that, while the driver line-up is largely in place for the new season, young Kiwi star Shane Van Gisbergen may not be lost to the championship after all.

We hear that “The Giz” and Jonathon Webb’s Tekno Autosports are exploring the possibility of combining for him to drive a Triple Eight-built Holden.

They will need to be sure though that he won’t run into any legal obstacles, having walked away from the long-time Ford team Stone Brothers Racing that is in the process of being taken over by Erebus Motorsport to field three AMGs.

Over the festive season there has been another odd story – the prospect of a Brabham racing team being revived.
David Brabham was quoted by Brazil’s Totalrace saying there was “the possibility” of resurrecting the F1 team his triple world champion father, 86-year-old Sir Jack, started more than half a century ago.

Just why is not clear, although Sir Jack’s teenage grandson Matthew is rising up the open-wheeler ranks in the US and has F1 ambitions.
The snag is that a German company, Formtech, seemingly may have some hold over the Brabham name as a team entrant.

F1 team Force India is reportedly keen on switching from Mercedes engines to Ferrari power, although the Italian constructor may be wary of a repeat of its experience in supplying engines to the ill-fated A1 GP series.

Force India owner Vijay Mallya’s Kingfisher Airlines, with debts of $1.4 billion, has just lost its permit to fly after a deadline to renew its suspended licence expired. The airline has made losses five years in a row and its planes have been grounded since October.

Mallya already has had to offload a large part of his liquor empire to Diageo, maker of Johnnie Walker whiskey and Smirnoff vodka.

In America the man who survived one of the Indianapolis 500’s most horrendous crashes in 1973, Salt Walther, died two days after Christmas, aged 65.

All-action American Travis Pastrana has been signed by Ford NASCAR powerhouse Roush Fenway Racing for a full season in the second tier Nationwide Series in which Australian dual V8 Supercar champion Marcos Ambrose cut his teeth in stock car racing before graduating to the Sprint Cup.

Ambrose, meanwhile, is testing this week with reigning Daytona 24-hour winning sports car team Michael Shank Racing with the prospect of a start in that classic this month before he begins another Sprint Cup season with Richard Petty Motorsports.

Alex Zanardi, the 46-year-old Italian former F1 and Champ Car racer now with prosthetic legs and winner of two gold and a silver medal in handbiking at the London Paralympics, has ruled out a full-time return to either the World Touring Car Championship or DTM (German touring car series), but he is interested in one-off events.

In particular Zanardi has mentioned the Indianapolis 500, from which he was precluded during the great split in American open-wheeler racing, and the Daytona 24-Hour.

It starts tomorrow (Saturday) with a record Australian entry and competitors in the 8000km, two-week torture test will find themselves in desert dunes almost immediately and for the first time will reach heights of 5000 metres.

Nine Australians are entered on motorcycles but our main interest here will be in the car category in which we have three entries – veteran Bruce Garland and navigator Harry Suzuki in an Isuzu D-MAX, Geoff Olholm of Cairns in a Toyota Hilux for his third start with British co-driver Jon Aston, and rookie Adrian Di Lallo of Perth with experienced Victorian Steve Riley alongside him in the Isuzu in which Garland drove in 2009. Other Aussie entries are Paul Smith in the quad category and Richard Hayes in the trucks.

Almost 460 machines are entered in the four categories this year, with 53 countries represented.

The Dakar is unique and competitors include Italian ex-F1 driver Alex Caffi and his world rally championship countryman Miki Biasion. France’s nine-time world rally champion Sebastien Loeb has declared he wants to tackle the Dakar in future, while Spanish dual world champion Carlos Sainz has won it and is back again this year – in an American-designed buggy as teammate to another former winner, Qatar’s Nasser Al-Attiyah.

The favourite is Stephane Peterhansel, last year’s victor and 10-time winner on two and four wheels, leading a strong team of MINIs prepared by the X-Raid team.

Its main opposition should come from Toyota Hilux drivers Giniel De Villiers, a South African and another former winner (and third last year) and Argentinian Lucio Alvarez (fifth last year), while American Robby Gordon is likely to be a strong contender again in a Hummer.

While four-wheel-drives have won the Dakar the past 12 years new rules give two-wheel-drive cars a better chance this time.

Larger air intakes will give the buggies extra power and they will be allowed to use automatic tyre inflating and deflating systems to tackle the sand dunes, unlike 4x4s.

Aussie Garland, now in his mid-50s, missed the Dakar last year after breaking his back in the event in 2010 and then having a heart attack – which was followed by five bypass operations.

He and Suzuki were 11th outright and the first diesel ute to finish in 2009. “This time we want to be in the top 10,” Garland said. “Our car isn’t that different, but with the new rules the speeds will be lower and the gaps will be smaller.”

Olholm, in the top 50 last year in a RABE prototype but now in the T1 diesel class with the Overdrive-prepared Hilux, is eyeing the top 20. “In 2012 I suffered two major breakdowns – turbo and drive shaft. That’s why I’ve switched to the Hilux. I tested it in the Morocco Rally and it’s fantastic,” Olholm said.

Newcomer Di Lallo’s Isuzu has been repaired after hitting a camel in WA last year. “The car is in good condition and I’m not too worried about the long days ahead, but I know this is the Mt Everest of races,” Di Lallo said. “My main concern is the navigation and altitude. There aren’t any high mountains in WA. Driving in the dunes will be challenging too.”

The best ways to follow the Dakar are SBS’s television and internet coverage – sbs.com.au/Dakar – and it also has an app for iPhones and iPads – and the event website, Dakar.com. 

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