MOTORSPORT: The times they are a-changin'

Jamie Whincup will become the V8 Supercar champion again officially this weekend in Sydney as Holden Commodores and Ford Falcons compete exclusively against other one last time.

There has been excitement late this week about whether Sebastian Vettel overtook under caution early in the Brazilian Grand Prix and whether he should get a 20-second penalty, which would drop him two places in the race results and make Fernando Alonso the triple world champion instead - but it won’t happen. Instead, F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone has called Ferrari’s letter of complaint “a complete joke … utterly and completely wrong” and the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile has no more sympathy for it.

Among the changes this week are a new Commodore race car – not in Australia but America.

It’s the VF Commodore that will be sold in the US as a Chevrolet SS and which will race as a NASCAR at Daytona in February coinciding with the launch of the American road version – the first time in 17 years that Chevrolet will offer a rear-wheel-drive sedan there, with it arriving in showrooms in August.

Chevy was the last of the three manufacturers participating in NASCAR’s Sprint Cup to unveil its 2013 race car - Ford and Toyota are the others, with Dodge having withdrawn after its Cup victory this year.

The mighty Hendrick Motorsports and Richard Childress Racing will field three SSs each, Stewart-Haas Racing two and Earnhardt Ganassi Racing one, with the drivers including Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt Junior and Tony Stewart.

Chevy teams are set for a big test at Charlotte Motor Speedway on December 11-12 with the focus expected to be on weight distribution and rear suspension set-up of the SS.

In Sydney the first of the Nissan Altima V8 Supercars built by Kelly Brothers under next year’s Car of the Future rules will be demonstrated on the streets of Homebush this weekend, along with a Triple Eight’s first new Commodore and Ford Performance Racing’s first new Falcon. All will be on display – along with an AMG Mercedes-Benz road car -- in the pit pavilion at Homebush throughout the weekend when not on track.

The entry of two more brands in V8 Supercars is coming with a shake-up of the driver line-up that may still not be finalised for some weeks.

The plum seats are the new, fourth FPR Ford to be entered by returning team owner Charlie Schwerkolt and the one becoming vacant with the exit of Shane Van Gisbergen from Stone Brothers Racing (which is merging with Erebus Motorsport and preparing to field AMG E63s).

Other than Rick and Todd Kelly, the drivers for Nissan Motorsport are yet to be confirmed. They are, however, expected to be Michael Caruso and James Moffat.

Dick Johnson Racing and Garry Rogers Motorsport are also have to finalise their line-ups.

On the F1 driver front, a new Finn, Valterri Bottas, has taken the place at the Williams-Renault team of Brazilian Bruno Senna. Senna has been dumped after just one season despite having scored world championship points in twice as many races at Venezuelan, Pastor Maldonado (although the latter’s massive sponsorship and surprise Spanish Grand Prix victory weighed in his favour).

In the meantime there is the question on the home front of whether something else will change at Homebush over the next two days.

Jamie Whincup, so dominant in V8 Supercar racing the past five years (although James Courtney snuck one title away from him when with Dick Johnson Racing), has never won on the Sydney street circuit. Instead, the winners of the six Sydney races so far have been Garth Tander, Courtney, Jonathon Webb so memorably, Lee Holdsworth (who has had three pole positions, with Garry Rogers Motorsport before his move to Stone Brothers this season), Craig Lowndes and Mark Winterbottom.

Whincup has crashed twice at Homebush, did not finish one time and has an average finishing position of only 10.4.

While he could well break his Sydney 'duck' this weekend, he has declared his priority to be assisting Triple Eight teammate Lowndes in overhauling FPR’s Mark Winterbottom’s 63-point advantage in the race for second place in the championship.

“The best thing I can do is run to plan – and that’s Lowndesy out in front and me to run second to him,” Whincup said.

However, in the hurly-burly of the 250km street races at Homebush on Saturday and Sunday, the door may open for there to finally be another victor this season other than the four drivers in the Triple Eight and top two FPR cars.

Whatever the outcome though, there can be little change to Holden’s dominance over Ford for the past two decades. Of the 566 championship races in that time Holden has won 349 to Ford’s 217 – or 62 per cent by the General and the other 38 per cent by the Blue Oval.

Though Whincup has the main championship in the bag, the development series title is still a tight tussle between New Zealand teenager Scott McLaughlin (Ford), Nick Percat (Holden), Chaz Mostert (Ford) and Scott Pye (Holden). The four are blanketed by 82 points with a maximum 300 to earn this weekend, as in the “main game”.

McLaughlin (who clinched NZ’s new V8 SuperTourer series last weekend -- in a Holden), has a 32-point edge on Percat.

It is now year four of the controversial five-year Homebush contract and tourism and major events agency Destination NSW is doing a study this weekend as the coalition state government considers whether to keep the event.

It has long been felt that this government would ditch the Sydney 500 but, while not giving any assurances, NSW tourism minister George Souris said midweek, after a meeting with V8 Supercars chief executive David Malone and racing great and powerbroker Mark Skaife, that the government wanted three rounds in the state.

The other venues are Bathurst, home of the category’s 1000km October crown jewel, and Sydney Motorsport Park, formerly Eastern Creek – which hosted its first round in four years at the end of August after V8 Supercar Australia’s plans for a new Korean race fell through.

“We [will have] had three events this year and that was successful, so that’s a portent for the future,” Souris said.

Just what Souris is basing that judgment on is not clear, with whispers this week that the Sydney Motorsport Park round three months ago lost the Australian Racing Drivers Club $500,000. Malone and Skaife meantime have been reported by the Daily Telegraph newspaper to have flagged to the government already that $4 million a year will be needed under any contract extension at Homebush.

Malone said the early talks with Souris about continuing the street race had been “positive and promising”, with “a desire for the event to continue … as the value to our sport and the state is very significant”.

As things stand there will be only two NSW rounds next year, with government-owned and recently upgraded Sydney Motorsport Park not on the calendar other than to host the pre-season launch and test day in mid-February.

The future of V8 Supercar racing in Australia’s biggest city is not the only big-picture uncertainty hanging over the sport this weekend.

It appears the season will end without an announcement of a new television deal, although the Seven network remains the favourite – and perhaps the only free-to-air contender – for the telecasts (again) from next year.

More worrying in the context of the attempts to expand the championship internationally though is what is happening television-wise in America, where a round is scheduled at the new Circuit of the Americas in Texas in the middle of next May.

V8 Supercar racing has been screened on America’s Speed TV subscription channel the past couple of years, although on delay – this weekend Americans will get to see the Winton round from two weeks ago.

Leigh Diffey, the Australian TV presenter who has been working on Speed (but will join NBC Sports next year to cover Formula One and IndyCar), was asked on Twitter this week whether Speed would be airing V8 Supercars in 2013.

“Don’t think so,” Diffey responded.

America is already a tough frontier for V8 Supercars to conquer, but if Diffey is right (and he’s well-placed to know) it will be even harder without telecasts on Speed to promote the category and try to entice American motorsport fans to the Texas event.

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