Motorsport: Townsville needs extra $10m for V8 race

Passing the big bucks on street race
Townsville could still get a V8 Supercar street race, if either a business consortium or the Federal Government tips in $10 million. And now a push is coming from Perth for a street race in the West Australian capital from as early as 2008.

Queensland Sports Minister Andrew Fraser met key players wanting a race in the state's Far North city last Friday. The Queensland Government rejected the concept in early December as too costly, saying it was told the event -- proposed from '08 -- would require a one-off capital injection of about $11 million but finding that the initial capital works would cost $24.7 million and that the government and the Townsville City Council would then have to contribute $3 million a year each.

Fraser told the Townsville Bulletin after last Friday's meeting: "We don't oppose this race -- we support it. We just can't afford it as it is. It will require that extra (third party $10 million) effort to make the financials stack up."

Fraser says the Federal Government chipped in for the Mt Panorama track upgrade at Bathurst and "if it's good enough for Bathurst, then it's good enough for Townsville".

However, the Townsville lobby points out that the Queensland Government massively funds the Gold Coast Indy carnival. Townsville's heavyweights sought access to the details on which the Government arrived at its costings for a race at Townsville's Reid Park.

Fraser says these documents cannot be released because they contain commercially-sensitive information about V8 Supercars Australia and how it operates. "Companies need to be able to know that when they deal with the Government in good faith, as V8 Supercars did, that we are not going to release that information into the public arena," Fraser says.

"(But) one of the issues was that V8 Supercars indicated that they wanted the track to be longer and of a different format -- that obviously had an impact on costs. The reality is, without that (third party $10 million) the economics don't stack up and in the end this is about providing an economic event -- and if it's not economic then we won't do it."

Prominent Townsville car dealer Tony Ireland, chairman of the city's V8 Supercar steering committee, says the door is open to get the event off the ground after Friday's meeting. "I expect we will be meeting the Minister again, sooner rather than later," Ireland says. "I wouldn't say I was buoyed, but it's certainly not dead in the water."

Townsville Mayor Tony Mooney says the council would contribute up to $3.5 million and then up to $500,000 a year. "That is a very generous offer, we stand by that, (but) there is no more funding on the table from the council," Cr Mooney says.

"The Minister gave a very realistic assessment and I think the challenge is now there for Townsville Enterprise and the private sector to go away and work out how we can get additional funding into the event."

V8 Supercars Australia estimates that the Government would have to put in about $12 million as a one-off payment for road and infrastructure changes and then $3 million a year, according to the Sunday Times.

An earlier proposal for a street race at Fremantle fell through because the costs were not seen to justify the potential benefits, but Wayne Cattach of V8 Supercars Australia says of the Perth concept: "With the city in the background, the river at the front and the route of the proposed circuit, this event could be as good as it gets -- but it can't happen without Government approval.''

A team for Sydney to call its own
Sydney may have its own V8 Supercar team again soon. Walden Motorsport, based near Silverdale in Sydney's west and which ran an AU Falcon for Garth Walden at some championship rounds in 2004, bought a majority shareholding in Romano Racing last Friday. Walden Motorsport says it has "organised a car from a strong team (in Queensland) and will be making an announcement in January".

CAMS on hunt for new chief
CAMS, more formally the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport, will be looking for a new chief executive when the new year dawns. Dr Rob Nethercote, who has been in the position five years, will move to the new post in charge of the Australian Institute of Motor Sport Safety (AIMSS) from January 1, six months before his CAMS contract was to expire.

CAMS vice-president Bob Glindemann will act as chief executive until a replacement for Nethercote is found. Glindemann has been on the CAMS board since 2002 and was recently re-elected a vice-president but will not act in that capacity while he is interim CEO. Colin Osborne has been re-elected CAMS president for another two years.

French security services say rally participants risked being kidnapped or ambushed by Algerian rebels in Mali. The January 16 stage has been replaced by one around Nema, before the rally heads for Ayoun-el-Atrous in Mauritania. It will still pass through Mali on January 18.

Popular Australian motorcycle racer Andy Caldecott was killed in a crash on last year's Dakar. The rally starts for the second year in Lisbon, the capital of Portugal, on January 6 and ends beside Lac Rose, near Dakar, in Senegal on January 21. From Lisbon it heads south through Portugal and on towards Spain and the Mediterranean Sea, crossing to Morocco and deep into Africa, including across the treacherous Sahara Desert.

Mitsubishi is trying to become the first manufacturer to win seven straight Dakar rallies and clinch a record-breaking 12 overall victories in 25 years. It has not been beaten in the event since the millennium and has entered a team of four of the latest MPR13 versions of the Mitsubishi Pajero/Montero Evolution.

Mitsubishi's drivers are dual winners Stéphane Peterhansel of France and Hiroshi Masuoka of Japan, France's defending champion Luc Alphand, a former world downhill skiing champion, and Spaniard Joan "Nani" Roma. Peterhansel has won six Dakar titles, including four as a motorcycle rider, and is only the second man in the rally's 28-year history to win outright on two wheels and four.

The calendar for the '07 national championship has a much different look to normal, starting in Queensland at the end of March, with a new event -- the Rally of the Great Lakes -- at Forster in NSW in mid-September, Tasmania's Safari gone and doubts about the Rally of Melbourne, listed as the final event in mid-November.

Reigning champion manufacturer Toyota and Ford, which has now outsourced its rally program to Jason Bright's Britek, are building cars for the new Super 2000 category for two-litre, normally-aspirated four-wheel-drives. However, Subaru remains out of gravel competition for a second year after a decade of domination, while Mitsubishi has not announced its intentions and has shown an inclination for tarmac events.

All of this leaves drivers of the calibre of Dean Herridge, Scott Pedder and Steve Glenney (who won Rally SA as a privateer in his only '06 start) up in the air. Telecasts of '07 championship rounds are likely to be on Channel 10 early on Saturday afternoons, a week or two after the events are run. Amid all of this, the Australian Rally Commission (ARCom) founding chairman Garry Connelly is handing the baton to long-time driver Ed Ordynski.

The Rally of Canberra will be Australia's only international rally in '07 and is slated later than usual, in early June. Connelly has raised the prospect that the introduction of S2000 cars in Australian rallying may open the way for participation in the Intercontinental Rally Challenge (IRC), run for the first time in 2006 and expanding to nine rounds in '07.

Connelly -- now Australia's representative on the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), the world governing body of motor sport, following the death of John Large -- sees scope for the Rally of Canberra, already part of the Asia-Pacific Championship, or one of the other ARC rounds to become part of the IRC, in which S2000 cars are the main attraction.

Neal Bates Motorsport, which runs Toyota's rally program from Canberra, is intending to field an S2000 Corolla and one of its existing Group N prototype Corollas from the start of the new season. It makes sense for reigning champion Simon Evans to continue in the prototype and triple champion Bates to develop the S2000, which will be 200kg lighter.

Jason Bright has departed the Ford Performance Racing V8 Supercar team to spearhead his Britek, which on the rally front is building S2000 Fiestas for Michael Guest, who was at the wheel of the uncompetitive two-wheel drive Focus in the '06 championship, and Darren Windus, who has been a Subaru privateer. Britek is assembling an impressive crew, securing Barry Game and Paul Kane, who were with Subaru during the Possum Bourne era, and Gavin Selth, a former member of Ford's world rally team and who will be responsible for engines. Stewart Reid, a well-performed Queensland competitor, will manage the Ford team at events.

So there's lots happening on the rally scene. What it all amount to may take some months to become clear. In any case, here's the 2007 Australian Rally Championship calendar:

Mar 31-Apr 1 - Rally Queensland
Apr 28-29 - Forest Rally, WA
Jun 2-3 - Rally of Canberra
Aug 4-5 - Rally SA
Sep 15-16 - Rally of the Great Lakes, NSW
Nov 10-11 - Rally of Melbourne

"We have everything we need, and we will win in 2007," Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo says. "We have the means, the money and the motivation."

Amid the fuss about Raikkonen's arrival at F1's most successful and glamorous team, Montezemolo says Felipa Massa should not be under-estimated. "He won two races while Schumacher was in top form (in 2006), learned a lot from him, and is doing a very good job also in his physical game."

Mario Almondo, who becomes Ferrari's technical director with Ross Brawn taking a year off, says that, while it will be a different organisation in '07, "there is no magic".

Almondo says Ferrari has "a close group who will give 200 per cent". That group will include Schumacher. "With Michael's retirement a chapter has ended; we don't have a fundamental reference point anymore," Almondo says.

"We will take advantage of his experience to develop the F1 car and the road cars. We'll have a remote connection when he won't be at the GPs: he makes a difference even from home."

Audi keen on Villeneuve for DTM
Audi is interested in fielding Jacques Villeneuve in the German Touring Car Championship, or DTM. The 1997 F1 world champion has been wanting to get into NASCAR, and Jack Roush Racing has told him it will run a car for him if he comes up with US$18 million in sponsorship.

A DTM deal makes a lot more sense for Villeneuve, with one report speculating he could earn US$8 million a year racing for Audi, whose chief Wolfgang Ullrich says: "No question about it, big names are good for the DTM."

Joining Audi may also be a way for Villeneuve to fulfill his ambition to race in the Le Mans 24-hour sports car classic.

The Red Bull decision makers are showing themselves to be prepared to pick drivers from outside the vast Red Bull talent pool, as they did with Aussie Mark Webber. While Bourdais is contracted for another year with Newman-Haas in Champ Car, the Frenchman is to undergo an extensive fitness test for Toro Rosso soon and remains in its frame, even if not until 2008.

Meanwhile, Spyker -- which missed all three pre-season tests before Christmas -- won't make the first F1 test of '07 and will not be on track until the release of its new car in February. Spyker director Michiel Mol says its about the most efficient use of the team's resources. It may also be a sign the team is under-funded.