MOTORSPORT: The $20 million motor race

Thursday motorsport reportFebruary 14, 2008

European racing has been pretty pure, traditional road racing, while most of America's racing is on ovals.

Not everyone finds oval racing compelling, although we must say that for the past 15 years or so we have enjoyed European and American racing fairly much equally.

But there's one little thing about American racing that can't be said about European racing, especially Formula 1.

That thing is transparency.

We were reminded of that this while scrolling the pages of Auto Action magazine.

On page 12 we found a single paragraph that told us something that greatly interested us.

Here's what it said:

"NASCAR has posted the awards for the Daytona 500 at $18,689,248, which, of course, is a record. The February 17 race is the 50th running of the event."

That monetary figure is US dollars, so it equates to more than A$20 million.

So the prize money for the Daytona 500, one of NASCAR's crown jewels, if not its major crown jewel, is out there for the whole world to know.

The prize money for America's -- and the world's -- biggest open-wheeler race, the Indianapolis 500, is also made public, although in a rather quaint way.

The Indy 500 purse is only made known the day after the great race, and is totally and entirely at the discretion of the Hulman and George families that have long controlled and run the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

From our pretty clear recollection, the total prize money at last year's Indy 500 was about $15 million.

Again, no secret.

But don't expect to hear, read or be given any clue about how much whichever driver or team wins next month's Australian F1 Grand Prix gets.

Oh no, that's a very different matter to the way they do things in the US.

We have dug out today one of our favourite press clippings, from Wheels magazine of May 1998.

Someone at Wheels had been wondering about what prize money GP winners got and faxed a query to F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone in London.

The little chap with the very big empire replied: "I am sorry but I cannot help you with the information you have requested as this is of a confidential nature, but you should assume that the income of a team from direct race participation is between 20-40 per cent of a team's budget."

More recently we noted that esteemed American motor racing journalist and commentator Chris Economaki wrote in National SpeedSport News last year:

"When F1 first arrived at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway several years ago (in 2000), during a sit-down press conference I raised my hand and asked Bernie Ecclestone, as head of FOM (Formula One Management), 'What is the total purse of this race and how much will the winning team receive?'

"Brusque Bernie refused to answer, asking instead, 'Would I want one and all to know how much money I made?'

"After years of probing -- but no confirmation -- it appears there has long been no prize money, as such, in F1.

"It is generally believed that, under terms of the Concorde Agreement, which binds all teams with FOM, each team gets a predetermined (not necessarily equal) percentage of the overall revenues each race generates, regardless of where its cars finish.

"Drivers are then paid on whatever terms they negotiated with their team owners. That's why there are never prize money listings published after an F1 event."

So there you have the picture from the F1 corner.

Quite a different view to that from America.

We're sure that after the Daytona 500 next Monday morning, Australian time, there will be reams of detail about the prize money paid out.

But for now, just a little historical perspective we picked up from nascar.com

"As the size and scope of the Daytona 500 have changed over the years, so has attendance and prize money. A crowd estimated at about 42,000 witnessed the first Daytona 500.

"At least 185,000 were in attendance for Kevin Harvick's win last February.

"Lee Petty's share of the prize money in 1959 was US$19,050. The total 2007 Daytona 500 purse was more than US$15 million, with Harvick receiving a check for US$1,510,469.

"In fact, Tony Stewart -- who finished last -- earned US$334,931, or roughly what Dale Jarrett was paid for winning the 1996 race."

Fox, of course, has been showing such races for years now, while 10 says it will show all 35 races of the Nationwide Series -- formerly the Busch Series -- on TEN-HD.

Ambrose is racing the full Nationwide Series in the No. 59 Ford Fusion for JTG Racing and is booked to drive about a dozen races in the premier Sprint Cup series.

TEN says it will telecast five Sprint Cup races, starting with the Daytona 500.

Webber has topped the F1 testing timesheets a couple of times in Spain in Red Bull's new Adrian Newey-designed, Renault-powered RB4 car with its unusual flat-topped "shark-finned" airbox.

Webber headed the field in testing at Barcelona last week, and then last night at Jerez he was out in front again, more than 0.5 seconds clear of the Williams-Toyota of Nico Rosberg.

Conditions were windy and to outsiders there is no clue on what fuel loads the different cars had when clocking their best times.

Webber's teammate, David Coulthard, has been quick to caution against trying to read much into the timesheets, which may be more than convenient for him as he was almost 1.3 seconds slower than Webber overnight.

Webber is not getting carried away about his pace either, but is quietly pleased with what now appears, after the initial stutter with the RB4, to be much improved reliability -- and heaven knows he needs that.

"We've had a few Renault (engine) issues, but as far as gearbox and a lot of the achilles heels that we had last year, we're very encouraged," Webber said.

"All things being equal we should have at least the most reliable car that we've had for a long time coming into the season."

That sounds promising for him, and provides some hope of a decent crowd for the mid-March, season-opening Oz GP which has been copping a pounding in the Australia media, with increasing doubts about its future beyond 2010.

Webber has said that while the RB4's new airbox looks very different its aerodynamic effects are quite subtle and still being measured.

It should also be pointed out that Red Bull and Williams have been at Jerez a day longer than other teams, so the RB4 may well be better acquainted with that track than most of the new cars.

While Ferrari has been testing in Bahrain recently, what has been evident in Spain is that BMW is struggling to maintain its place as the third quickest outfit behind the Italian machines and the McLarens, while Renault is perhaps as not as far away from the front end as might have been thought.

Nick Heidfeld has admitted that BMW is not getting any closer to Ferrari and McLaren, while teammate Robert Kubica says the new BMW is too unstable.

Meanwhile, Will Power has admitted -- amid the fallout from the demise of Craig Gore's V8 Supercar team -- that he is in no man's land and that the future of the Gore-sponsored Team Australia for which he has driven in the Champ Car series the past two years is up in the air.

"As it is I don't have a contract with anyone for 2008," Power told Auto Action magazine.

"I just want to start driving.

"At the end of last season I was in the best form of my life. I'd won races, won poles and, more often than not, taken the fight to Sebastien Bourdais (the four-time Champ Car champion now in F1 with Scuderia Toro Rosso).

"I was geared up -- and the team was geared up -- to challenge for the Champ Car title this year, and now they're having to sit around and wait as well."

Derrick Walker, who has run Team Australia with Gore's funding, revealed this week his grave doubts about Champ Car's future, with strong indications the company that owns the series was headed for immediate bankruptcy as speculation of a merger with the Indy Racing League bubbled on but hit a couple of hurdles.

"I think Champ Car is going to shut down," Walker said.

This tallies with him turning around a transporter on its way to Champ Car's recent Sebring test and announcing that he's concentrating on putting together an IRL campaign.

Walker's defection to the IRL and that of the much bigger and more important Newman Haas team would be the last nails in Champ Car's coffin.

Australian Paul Stoddart's Team Minardi USA is also said to be eyeing a switch to the IRL after just one year in Champ Car, in which it won two races.

Even Champ Car's Australian-born co-owner Kevin Kalkhoven's PKV is now thought to be in the IRL camp.

Kalkhoven and Champ Car's stoutest advocate and co-owner, Canadian Gerry Forsythe, appear to be at loggerheads over the future of the series that is only a shadow of what it was in the early 1990s.

Intriguingly, we note that Walker has made mention that some of his sponsors had defaulted on payments last season.

Like other Champ Car teams, he has also had trouble extracting prize money for last season.

The main stumbling block to a reunification of American open-wheeler racing remains the clash of Champ Car's showpiece race, the Long Beach Grand Prix in California, on April 20 with the IRL round scheduled at Honda's Motegi track in Japan the same weekend.

Champ Car teams joining the IRL will have only two months to acquaint themselves with the Dallara chassis used there, as well as work out what to do with the Panoz cars they already had for this year.

Carl Haas alone is said to have $2 million worth of parts for the Panoz chassis.

While the Gold Coast's Champ Car race could easily become part of a reshaped IRL, but rounds scheduled in Belgium, Spain and Holland would be lost.

This is yet another blow for the ARC, which is left with a Toyota team without any significant opposition.

Herridge's only major Australian rally confirmed for this year is in Canberra, which is a round of the Asia-Pacific series, although there is some chance he will do the ARC season opener in his home state, Western Australia, in April, as well as tarmac events Targa Tasmania and Targa West.

"The ARC is in some trouble at the moment with some serious problems which made it difficult pulling together backing to run our car here and that really pushed us overseas", Herridge said.

Meanwhile, in news from overseas, the 2009 Dakar Rally will be staged in South America!

This year's running of the famed event was cancelled because of security concerns in Africa and organisers said it would take place in Argentina and Chile from January 3 to 18.

It is to start and finish in Buenos Aires.

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