MOTORSPORT: Thin fields both sides of Tasman

Ambrose won’t return until the NASCAR season is over in the US in mid-November and he and a Penske-Johnson car won’t race until next season, although the wheels already are in motion on that union.

There is great anticipation about it all. It is a terrific boost for the series, although it ought not be seen as a panacea for V8 Supercars.

As wonderful as his career has been, Penske’s involvement in IndyCar racing has not ensured big TV audiences for that series and its crown jewel, the Indianapolis 500 (which Penske has won a record 15 times), has been overtaken in TV terms by NASCAR’s Daytona 500.

And Penske’s emergence at the top of the NASCAR tree – with his drivers Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano winning the first two races in this season’s Chase for the Sprint Cup title, two years after Keselowski delivered ‘The Captain’ his first Cup – has come after American stock car racing peaked several years ago.

Penske is 77. Johnson is 69. And Ambrose 38 – seven years older than Jamie Whincup, who may have a record sixth V8 Supercar title by the time the pair start racing against each other next season. Ambrose is, however, two years younger than Craig Lowndes.

All those drivers have plenty left in them and the competition between them, and others, from next year will be fascinating.

In the immediate future, though, there’s an unfortunate negative in touring car racing in this part of the world – too few cars in the endurance events for V8 Supercars in Australia and the V8 SuperTourer category in New Zealand.

The introduction of new-generation cars in the premier series either side of the Tasman in the past couple of years has not met the cheaper cost objectives espoused in the lead-up to the changes, especially in Australia, and has left the grids for these enduros too thin.

The Sandown 500 two weeks ago had only the regular 25-car field of a V8 Supercar Championship sprint round.

The Bathurst 1000 in a fortnight will have 26. The addition will be an NZ wildcard – a Ford Falcon prepared by Ford Performance Racing for Kiwi businessman Tony Lentino’s new Super Black Racing.

It will be driven by a couple of accomplished Kiwis, Andre Heimgartner and Ant Pedersen.

Super Black has hopes of racing full-time in the V8 Supercar Championship but it appears those ambitions have been delayed, for now at least, by legal action that effectively has frozen the three Racing Entitlement Contracts sitting on the shelf at V8 Supercar headquarters.

Two other wildcards were granted by V8 Supercars for this year’s Bathurst 1000, to Melbourne businessman Tony Klein’s Dragon Motor Racing, which had intended to run two new-generation Holden Commodores raced last year by Garry Rogers Motorsport (now known as Volvo Polestar Racing and racing a pair of Volvo S60s).

Dragon also intended to run one of those Commodores at Sandown. Not only did that not eventuate, but both the team’s Bathurst entries have evaporated.

That leaves just 26 cars for The Great Race – barely half what the field was at Mt Panorama in the event’s halcyon days. And also barely half the likely field for the Bathurst 12-Hour next February and with which the V8 Supercar pre-season test weekend now so controversially clashes.

The 12-Hour will have the more exotic machinery but many of the best drivers (those who race full-time in V8 Supercars) will be otherwise engaged (or detained) at Sydney Motorsport Park.

Now, if the fields for the V8 Supercar enduros in Australia are too thin, things are even worse across the Tasman Sea.

The first of the NZ SuperTourer endurance rounds at Taupo this weekend has just 13 cars entered – two less than at the category’s last sprint round.

Those SuperTourers are Holden Commodore and Ford Falcon lookalikes in the same way as V8 Supercars, but they have a generic powerplant based on a Chevrolet Corvette engine.

The format for Taupo is more akin to a V8 Supercar sprint round – a 30-lap or 45-minute race on Saturday and two 46-lap or 70-minute races on Sunday. At least 10 of the 26 drivers racing there are to participate in the Bathurst 1000 two weeks later.

Headlining the Taupo field is Kiwi legend Greg Murphy, the reigning SuperTourer champion and runner-up at Sandown recently with James Courtney in a Holden Racing Team Commodore. NZ’s younger folk hero, Shane Van Gisbergen, is the other headline act.

Murphy and Van Gisbergen are sharing Commodores at Taupo with Aussie Jack Perkins and New Zealander Simon Evans respectively.

The meagre field comprises seven Holdens and six Fords.

Two other endurance rounds are scheduled in the NZ series – at Hampton Downs and Pukekohe in November.

While the fields are small on both sides of the Tasman, hopefully the too few competitors on the tracks nonetheless can produce some memorable racing.

A 14-year-old West Australian, Jake Kostecki, had hoped to compete in the Kumho V8 Touring Car Series at Victoria’s Phillip Island last weekend but the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport said he had not met its requirements for a licence.

Next Friday a Dutch lad, Max Verstappen, may take part in the first practice session for the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka if he gets clearance from the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA).

Verstappen, son of ex-F1 racer Jos and who will turn 17 on Tuesday, already has been given a race seat next year with Red Bull’s second F1 team, Toro Rosso, and recently drove almost 400km at a test in Italy.

He is set to become F1’s youngest driver – by about two years.

While seven-time F1 world champion Michael Schumacher continues his recovery from severe head injuries after a skiing accident nine months ago, his 15-year-old son Mick last weekend was runner-up in the KF-Junior category at the karting world championships.

The young Schumacher usually races under his mother’s maiden name, Betsch, but at the karting titles at Essay in France he was entered as Mick Junior.

He won four heats to make the final then finished 6sec behind Britain’s Enaam Ahmed, but he displayed plenty of his father’s determination in saying: “My goal is to be world champion … this is just the beginning of my career”.

Another youngster with a famous surname making his way in the sport is Pietro Fittipaldi, 18.

The grandson of Brazil’s dual F1 world champion and later successful IndyCar racer Emerson Fittipaldi, he has won this year’s British Formula Renault Championship.

A 23-person panel decided this week there was not enough evidence for triple Sprint Cup champion Stewart to be charged over the death of 20-year-old Ward at Canandaigua Motorsports Park in New York State on August 9.

Ward had climbed from his wrecked sprintcar and walked down a damp dirt track gesturing at Stewart, whose car hit and killed the youngster.

County sheriff Philip Povero revealed at this week’s court case that Ward had been under the influence of marijuana and that he had not seen any evidence that Stewart acted in a criminal manner.

Stewart said Ward’s family and friends “will always be in my thoughts and prayers”.

Ward’s family hinted at civil action against Stewart.

“Our son got out of his car during caution when the race was suspended,” a family statement said.

“All the other vehicles were reducing speed and not accelerating except for Stewart, who intentionally tried to intimidate Kevin by accelerating and sliding his car toward him, causing the tragedy.

“The focus should be on the actions of Mr Stewart. This matter is not at rest, and we will pursue all remedies for fairness to Kevin,” a statement said.