Motorsport: Sydney street race still a chance

Midweek motorsport reportFebruary 14, 2007

For most of last year the idea of a race on public roads at Homebush, venue of the Sydney Olympics in 2000, looked to be dead. Too costly, it was said.

Then in mid-December, with the sniff of the election in the air, the NSW Opposition pledged its support for a V8 Supercar event at Homebush.

Now NSW Premier Morris Iemma, having already rejected a proposal from V8 Supercars Australia, says a Homebush street race could still happen.

"If they have other propositions they want to put to us the door is always open," Iemma is quoted as saying in today's edition of Auto Action magazine. "The government's got an open mind when it comes to supporting these events."

Perhaps the government is hinting that it might approve the idea if there is a company prepared to bear most of the financial risk, rather than it having to pick up the whole tab.

NSW governments have already pumped a lot of money into the construction of Eastern Creek and more recently the upgrading of Bathurst's Mt Panorama circuit.

If a Sydney street race gets the green light it would mean all of Australia's most populous states would have events on temporary circuits.

Melbourne has the Formula One Grand Prix, the Gold Coast the Champ Car and V8 Supercar carnival, and Adelaide the Clipsal 500 event that is the start of this year's V8 Supercar Championship on the first weekend of March.

All these street races have something in common. While they provide an enormous amount of enjoyment for many hundreds of thousands of fans, governments are forking out many millions of dollars on them.

There are always claims of enormous economic benefits from these events though, and the fact that the races continue as losses balloon gives some credence to those claims. governments must see value in them.

However, plans for Homebush, Townsville and Fremantle have all run into difficulties because of the initial infrastructure and set-up costs and then the ongoing costs associated with such events.

Governments have clearly been fearful of getting lumbered with costs that can spiral out of control -- especially as only a fraction of the benefits or revenues end up directly in their coffers.

Apart from the V8 Supercar proposal for Homebush, the A1 Grand Prix international open-wheeler series that has held two events at Eastern Creek has been lobbying for a long time for an event there at Olympic Park.

The A1 concept's survival is a matter of conjecture, let alone a more expensive race on a temporary circuit.

However, Auto Action reports that A1 officials haven't given up hope. Indeed, A1's two most senior officials, chief executive Pete da Silva and chief operating officer David Clare, are reported to have been continuing talks with the NSW government.

Auto Action quotes Clare saying: "We're working closely with the government. They're very supportive and we really want to do what is good for everybody, so I wouldn't say that anything is impossible. There's an election coming up, so after the election things will become a lot clearer."

Da Silva says, again in Auto Action: "I want a race that's going to be very well attended. I would like to see a race where people will come to it. If it's a street race, then so be it."

Da Silva admits though: "It's one thing leasing a circuit; it's something else building a street circuit.

"There are environmental impact things and all things have to go through that. If a street race came about and we had investment partners for a street race, we would consider it extremely seriously... definitely."

A third A1 round is already being scheduled for the first weekend of next February, but Clare says that, while Sydney is its preference, the race does not have to be in the Harbor City. It wants a major upgrade of Eastern Creek to go back there.

Premier Iemma has reaffirmed his general commitment to A1, but has not pledged further government funding until the figures from the recent round have been studied.

"We'll sit down with them (A1) and analyse the results in terms of activity, numbers and interest, and then start talking to them about the longer term," Iemma says.

Regarding V8 Supercars, he says the previous proposal for Homebush was "just not feasible".

"It was not feasible logistically in closing down a major precinct like that for up to 16 weeks; and cost-wise. The cost, when we subjected it to detailed examination, was way above what was originally proposed."

Late last year he estimated a street race would cost the government $20 million in start-up and $10 million a year, adding: "Thirty million dollars is about 70 hospital beds - that's the size of a small metropolitan hospital."

These numbers were similar to those of the Queensland Government on a Townsville street race.

Supercars costly loss to GP
While on the cost of street races, Auto Action has another report today that the absence of V8 Supercars from Melbourne's Albert Park in mid-March is going to add around $5 million to the Australian Grand Prix's losses, which last year topped $20 million.

"Without the V8s on the support race program, demand for corporate hospitality packages from companies associated with Supercars has plunged," Auto Action says.

"A well-connected source has revealed an internal AGPC estimate puts the cost of the V8 no-show at around $5 million in lost corporate sales and, to a lesser extent, gate receipts."

Sun rises on V8 season Thursday
The V8 Supercar season launch will be on new host broadcaster Channel 7's Sunrise program tomorrow (Thursday).

It will be followed in the evening by a function at Sydney's Star City Casino.

The Holden Racing Team launch, postponed last week because of what Auto Action says was a problem of conflicting arrangements at Holden's Melbourne headquarters, will now be this Friday at Melbourne's Crown Casino.

Like sister team HSV Toll, HRT has two new VE Commodores ready to hit the track next week when the testing ban is lifted next week.

Auto Action reports that the race debut of Ford's "Orion" -- the Blue Oval's answer to Holden's VE -- won't be until the start of the 2009 season.

The launch of the road version of the new Ford has been delayed until the middle of next year. It is being described by insiders as "a very new car".

V8 Supercar's parity "police" should ensure close competition between the BF Falcon and VE Commodore until the new Ford arrives on the racetrack.

But the former world touring car champion is now back to full fitness and raring to go in the BF MkII Falcon that Team Kiwi has acquired from Ford Performance Racing to replace the Commodore destroyed at Mt Panorama.

"It took a lot longer to recover than I expected and to be frank, up to even a couple of weeks ago I was unsure if I should continue or give it away," Radisich says.

"But I made it through an army-style boot camp with the FPR drivers (Steve Richards and Mark Winterbottom) last week and came through well."

Of his new Ford car, 45-year-old Radisich says: "It's a bit like coming home -- all of my major successes have been in Ford race cars. This package is by far the best one I've had in V8 Supercars and I'm really excited about this year."

Indeed, so sluggish is the Renault-powered, Adrian Newey-designed car that cynics are suggesting that RB stands for Renault B team!

This week the F1 teams are in Barcelona -- and it's the final European hit-out before the season starts at the Australian GP on March 16-18.

Between now and Melbourne the teams will be in Bahrain for several days trying Bridgestone compounds for especially hot weather.

The Ferraris of Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen set the pace in Barcelona last night after electrical problems the day before. Raikkonen was more than half a second slower than Massa but completed the equivalent of two GPs.

Webber and teammate David Coulthard were 15th and 16th of 18 drivers on the track. Webber was 1.735 seconds slower than Massa, with Coulthard more than 2 seconds off the Brazilian's pace. The only slower cars last night were Anthony Davidson's Super Aguri and Christijan Albers in the new Spyker.

The first day in Barcelona the Red Bulls were 14th and 15th of 18, with Coulthard a little more than 0.2 seconds quicker than Webber but more than 1.6 seconds off the pace.

McLaren tester Pedro de la Rosa was fastest that day, ahead of BMW Sauber's Robert Kubica.

Dual world champion Fernando Alonso, who has moved to McLaren from Renault, says his Mercedes-powered MP4-22's handling isn't right yet and that it needs more traction and more power.

The times Alonso and rookie teammate Lewis Hamilton have been turning for weeks indicate though that the "Macs" are right back in business after not winning a race last year.

Atkinson aiming for more points
The second snow-bound Scandanavian round of the World Rally Championship is looming this weekend in Norway, in forests of the agricultural region of Hedmark, barely 200km from where last weekend's Swedish rally was run.

This will be a much tighter and twistier course -- and Australia's Chris Atkinson is in a good frame of mind after being in the points on the season-opening Monte Carlo Rally and in Sweden.

He has set fastest stages on both events so far, although an "off" on the last day in Sweden cost him a possible fifth-place finish and instead he was eighth.

Norway will be the final event for the updated 2006 Subaru Imprezas that Atkinson and Petter Solberg drive, with Subaru's WRC2007 to be ready for the fourth round in Mexico next month.

Atkinson has outshone his former world champion teammate  so far this season, but Norway -- a new addition to the WRC calendar -- is home ground for Solberg.

Atkinson says: "I have some idea what to expect because we did the recce for Rally Norway last year (when it was a non-championship event getting its final approval for elevation into the WRC), although many of the stages we drove have been reversed this time.

"I think it is going to be a pretty exciting rally, because the stages were great last year, although a lot more technical than those in Sweden.

"There was a lot of snow and ice and some of the snow banks lining the stages were as much as two metres high, so it was like driving through a tunnel.

"We were quite happy with our pace in Sweden against some drivers who have a lot more experience of that event.

"In Norway everyone should be on the same level in terms of knowledge of the stages.

"Our approach to this rally will be the same as in Sweden: we'll start steadily and gradually build our pace. Hopefully we'll get the fifth or sixth place we should have had there."

Although the 24-year-old Californian remains favorite for the second seat in Red Bull's second team he may not know for sure until the week of the Australian GP.

Suspect Toro Rosso boss Gerhard Berger is holding out on Speed bringing sponsorship to the team, formerly Minardi.

That may see Rossi out of motorcycle racing and he may then be too old to move to F1. In any case, he prefers rallying.

But Bahrain GP organisers have lavished praise on its for its promotion of F1 in the Arab-speaking world.

"Al Jazeera has helped us take the Bahrain GP to thousands of new homes. They (Al Jazeera) have played an admirable role of introducing this sport to the Arab world through their analysis and commentary in Arabic," says Samer Al Shaikh, marketing manager of the Bahrain International Circuit.

Toyota 15th on Daytona grid
New NASCAR entrant Toyota's best qualifier for this Sunday's Daytona 500 is Jeremy Mayfield in 15th. Mayfield's best lap of 48.820 seconds compares with pole man David Gilliland's 48.304 in a Ford. Juan Pablo Montoya, in a Dodge, is fourth in the field for the start of his first full stock car season. Sixty one drives were on the high-banked super speedway in qualifying, but one-third are going to miss a start.

Evernham's team has won races and his driver, Kasey Kahne, is one of the favorites for this year's Nextel Cup.

Evernham is best to concentrate on that, because he need not expect a reply from retired F1 world champ Schumacher.

Andretti still chasing 500 win
Michael Andretti will line up for his 16th Indianapolis 500 start in May, chasing that elusive victory after finishing third behind Sam Hornish Junior and 19-year-old son Marco Andretti last year. Despite never making it to Victory Lane at The Brickyard, Michael has won more than US$3.5 million there.

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