MOTORSPORT: Triple treat of Bathurst enduros

Now, a third endurance race a year at the mighty Mt Panorama – with expectations of 40 cars in the first one.

Apart from the V8 Supercar Bathurst 1000 each October and the 12-Hour predominantly-GT3 race each February, a Six-Hour production car event has been announced this week for Easter as the centrepiece of the already-established Bathurst Motorsport Festival.

It will be run by James O'Brien's Yeehah Events, which puts on the 12-Hour and the Easter festival at The Mountain.

This race will be more about competitor participation than the exposure the 1000 and increasingly the 12-Hour garner, although O'Brien and the man whose category will generate the bulk of the entries are harking back to the 1000's production-car origins.

Entrants will be allowed to field two or three drivers.

"Long-distance races for production-based cars form the bulk of the history of racing at Mt Panorama," O'Brien said.

"The competitor demand for a stand-alone production car race is high and the strong grid numbers for the NSW Production Touring Car races the last few years at the Bathurst Motor Festival [55 entries for each of two one-hour races] are an encouraging sign.

"We are working closely with key stakeholders, including the Production Touring Car Series organisers and CAMS, to make this new race a success from year one."

O'Brien has targeted a grid of 40 cars for the first Bathurst Six-Hour in late March next year, which is expected to run from noon until 6pm, with at least five other categories on the Easter program.

NSW Production Touring Cars category manager Gerry Murphy said the Six-Hour was sure to become the highlight of its state-based series.

He wanted to "firmly implant this event in the Australian motorsport calendar".

"To be involved in an event such as the Six-Hour at the most challenging track in the country, run to 3E Production Car rules, with strong representation from NSW Production Touring Cars, is a watershed moment for this category," Murphy said.

The Extreme Rallycross Championship being organised by Gold Coast marketer David Ridden has arranged a test day at Sydney Motorsport Park on May 1 with a Supercar Lite – the type of car in the second tier of the World Rallycross Championship that began last year.

Australian-based Scotsman Alister McRae, brother of late world rally champion Colin, already had agreed to test the naturally-aspirated, four-wheel-drive Ford Fiesta-bodied space-frame car which landed in Australia at Easter from manufacturer Olsbergs MSE in Sweden.

"At 310 horsepower and weighing a little over 1000kg this thing is a little weapon," Atkinson said.

"Rallying to me is the ultimate form of motorsport, so to combine it with circuit racing is going to be an amazing spectacle for fans.

"It's something I'm really keen to sink my teeth into."

"This is a really exciting opportunity to be taking part in the test day.

"I think the rallycross championship has the makings of one of Australia's most dynamic racing categories.

"Rallycross is growing massively around the world and we're looking long-term at the championship as I feel it has potential to become a huge spectacle for Australian sports fans."

Ridden has announced a seven-round calendar, with the first event on the Gold Coast at the end of August, with two support classes to the Supercar Lites – one for turbocharged four-wheel-drive machines and the other for naturally-aspirated two-wheel-drive cars.

Separately, rally great Bob Watson has announced two single-day rallycross events in Victoria this year, with plans for a six-meeting series next year.

Gore and his wife have been banned from involvement with financial products or services, including any enterprise related to superannuation or securities.

Federal Court judge Richard White found Gore to have been the "architect" of a scheme in which $4.75 million raised from more than 200 investors was misappropriated.

The judge ordered that several entities be wound up and the court will reconvene on May 8.

Gore owned the V8 Supercar team that raced more than a decade ago in the livery of a financial advice company he then had, Wright Patton Shakespeare (WPS). He also supported fellow Queenslander Will Power's early efforts in IndyCar through a wine-exporting business he had, Aussie Vineyards.

At the height of his financial difficulties Gore owed $495 million and was accused of operating "something akin to a Ponzi scheme".

Despite having had his wings clipped several times in recent years, Gore is reported to be working for a company, The Passage Holdings, said to have done a deal to buy the assets on Queensland's Hinchinbrook Island of the late Keith Williams, who was known in motor racing circles as the promoter of the old Surfers' Paradise International Raceway.

It has been an inglorious start to the IndyCar season, which has seen the introduction of aero kits from Chevrolet and Honda on the Dallara cars at St Petersburg in Florida and torrential weather at New Orleans.

Paul Tracy, the colourful Canadian who drove 281 Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) and IndyCar races and won 31 of them, is now a TV commentator on the series and remains as forthright as ever.

"I think the pace car has led more laps than any driver in the field so far this year," Tracy told autoweek.com.

"It's been actually quite embarrassing for IndyCar. They've had two really poor showings for races to kick off this new aero package.

"First race they had a lot of accidents – guys just running over the top of each other, hitting each other, and knocking wings off.

"This last race it was the same thing. The race got off to a nice, clean start in the worst conditions in the rain, and once the first yellow happened they could never get it going again. Not very good."

The past two of the six Formula E races already run were in the US and the next is in Monaco next month – two weeks before that principality's Formula One Grand Prix.

"There's a buzz everywhere we go in the world and it just keeps building momentum," Andretti said.

"It's been way better than I thought it would be and I'm quite excited about next year.

"I think this is here to stay. It's going to be around for a long time – and 10 years down the road it could be the premier series.

"It has that much potential in my opinion. I think they're doing everything right.

"Everything has been first-class. They're doing everything they need to do to grow it into a world-class series."

Formula E's Spanish chief Alejandro Agag has said that the racing and the quality of the drivers, many of them with F1 experience, has largely silenced critics and doubters.

"The races are very close, there's lots of overtaking, and the drivers need to be clever," Agag said.

"People have made fun of us, making some jokes, comparing our cars to hairdryers, those kinds of things.

"But after they see a race they are saying that the racing beat the silence [of the electric cars].

"The racing is so good that afterwards there is no controversy about the noise of the cars.

"I think fans are surprised with what they see. They expect not so much fun from quiet cars.

"But when you see a great race, and it's exciting to watch, the noise becomes sufficient."

Newman has now been docked 50 points rather than 75, moving him back up four places in the Sprint Cup to 20th ahead of this weekend's round at Bristol, Tennessee, and the fine on crew chief Luke Lambert reduced from US$125,000 to US$75,000.

However, the six-race suspensions on Lambert and other crew members remain.

NASCAR had been rife, before the Childress team was nabbed by independent checking of tyres following the March 22 race at California's Fontana Speedway, with talk that teams had been drilling minute holes in tyres or using bleeder valves to maintain constant pressures during races.