MOTORSPORT: Sydney gets double dose of stars

In the Pitt St Mall in the CBD will be half a dozen men billed as "superstars of gravel grand prix" - World Rally Championship drivers ahead of next week's new Rally Australia to be staged in and around Coffs Harbour. The six in the Mall near the Corner of Market St signing autographs from noon on Sunday will be France's seven-time world champion Sebastien Loeb (pictured) and Norway's 2003 world champion Petter Solberg, both Citroen drivers, and four Ford stars - Finns Mikko Hirvonen and Jari-Matti Latvala, Solberg's brother Henning and Englishman Matthew Wilson.

The notable absentee is new French star Sebastien Ogier, who - like Loeb - has won four WRC rallies this year, including the German round a fortnight ago, and is just 25 points (the equivalent of an event win) behind his legendary countryman and teammate in the tussle for the title with four rounds remaining.

Rally Australia, the country's first WRC event since the controversial one-off in NSW's Northern Rivers region two years ago after almost two decades of WA hosting the round, starts with a special stage at the Coffs Harbour jetty on Thursday night. The next three days of competition, comprising almost 370km of competition, will be on roads in the Coffs, Bellingen, Clarence Valley and Nambucca Heads shires. The Coffs jetty stage will be repeated Friday and Saturday nights, while the service park is at the town's airport.

The 27-year-old Ogier's German victory made Citroen the most successful manufacturer in WRC history with 78 wins - one more than Ford.

The 100-car field includes 24 from overseas, but cult figure 2007 Formula One world champion Kimi Raikkonen withdrew his privateer Citroen entry.

The top-seeded Australian in the WRC field is 23-year-old Victorian Brendan Reeves, who is third in this year's WRC Academy Cup for the world's top young rally drivers. Instead of the Ford Fiesta he drives in that six-round series Reeves and his co-driver sister Rhianon Smyth will be competing at Coffs in a Subaru Impreza.

Rally Australia is also doubling as the fourth round of the Australian Rally Championship, with 43 entries, and a 27-car classic rally.

Out at the Creek the Muscle Car Masters will feature touring cars from the 1960s, '70s, '80s and '90s and many of the renowned drivers of those decades. Among them is 1993 and '97 national champion Glenn Seton, who has said: "I often feel that we have lost the 'sport' in motorsport in the modern era. The Muscle Car Masters showcases how it used to be, when race cars had poor brakes and slid sideways through corners. That's very appealing to me - and to the punters too."

Other great names attending include Allan Moffat, Bob Jane, Harry Firth, John Harvey, Colin Bond, Allan Grice, John Goss, Kevin Bartlett, Fred Gibson, Jim and Steve Richards, John Bowe, Bob Morris, John French, Brian Foley, Murray Carter, Leo Geoghegan, Frank Matich, Robbie Francevic, Des West, Tony Edmondson, Garth Wigston, Peter McLeod, Garry Rogers, Charlie O'Brien, Andrew Miedecke, Bryan Thomson, Don Holland, Bob Holden, John Leffler, Graham Moore, Trevor Ashby, John Cotter, John Smith and Phil Brock.

It's one of the best days on each year's Australian motorsport calendar.

The line-ups in the other 28 cars are:

If next year's championship goes down to the wire Australian fans will be in for a couple of interrupted nights with 3am starts on successive Mondays. The penultimate race will be the new United States GP at the yet-to-be-completed Circuit of the Americas in Texas on November 18 and the finale the Brazilian GP at Interlagos, Sao Paulo, on November 25.

Australia's Marcos Ambrose, who turned 35 yesterday (five days after Mark Webber), is one of four drivers - courtesy of his historic Watkins Glen victory last month - who could land the bonus, but he has to win at Atlanta on Monday morning, Australian time.

The other drivers in the running for it are series leader Kyle Busch, hot man of the moment Brad Keselowski and Brickyard 400 winner Paul Menard. By winning at Atlanta any of the four will earn $1 million for himself and his team, $1 million for a charity of the driver's choice and $1 million for a nominated fan. It's all explained here.

The Chase will consist of the top 10 drivers in Sprint Cup points after 26 races, with two other places going to the drivers with the most race wins between positions 11 through 20. Ambrose is making his sixth Cup start at Atlanta and his best finish there has been a 10th place last season, although it is a 1.5-mile (2.4km) oval - the kind of track on which he has scored half his eight top 10 finishes this year. Ambrose is 22nd in the championship and NASCAR bulletin Scene Daily this week called his chances of making The Chase "grim", see here.

Power's next win will bring him equal on the Penske list with Danny Sullivan and Al Unser Junior. It could well come this weekend as the team has had seven wins on temporary street circuits since the start of the 2009 season - and 30 of its 158 victories have come on street courses. The three Penske drivers who swept the podium in Calfornia a week ago - Power, Brazilian Helio Castroneves and the team's other Australian, Ryan Briscoe - have 12 street circuit wins between them. Power has had six, Castroneves five and Briscoe one.

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