MOTORSPORT: Two-wheel champ for V8 Supercars

Triple superbike world champion Troy Bayliss is to drive in the V8 Supercar endurance races -- the L&H 500 at Phillip Island on September 12-13 and Super Cheap Auto Bathurst 1000 on October 10-11.

Great news -- on the surface. Bayliss is a prize recruit for V8 Supercars. Apart from talented young drivers, he is precisely the kind of recruit the sport needs. But does this make something of a mockery of the V8 Supercar development series?

Bayliss will drive at Bathurst next month and Bathurst in October with no car racing experience, let alone V8 Supercar racing experience. Sure he has tested with three V8 Supercar teams, and indeed he's having a run at Queensland Raceway today ahead of this weekend's round there.

As much as we applaud the entry of someone of Bayliss' (two-wheel) experience, maturity and personality to V8 Supercar racing, is it wise that his car racing debut be in two of the category's biggest events -- one of them its ultimate event? And particularly in these days of V8 Supercars having limited the size of its field?

Surely the development series was created for the development of drivers for the V8 Supercar "main game".

The deal for Bayliss to race with Dean Fiore in a Triple F Racing Holden Commodore prepared by Paul Morris Motorsport has been helped by sponsorship from the Kitten car care brand. Such sponsorships are a reality of drivers breaking into a category like V8 Supercars.

But isn't Bayliss, on the back of his outstanding motorcycle profile, effectively being allowed to jump the queue into V8 Supercar racing's "main game" without having gained a solid grounding, and proving his driving ability, in the development series?

Even if it had only been half a season in that Fujitsu series. And ideally a couple of the "main game" sprint rounds, like this weekend.

Imagine the situation in reverse -- if a leading car racer fronted up wanting to race in the superbike world championship or MotoGP.

Or, say, the American Superbike Championship, which is perhaps a more appropriate two-wheel equivalent of the V8 Supercar Championship.

Would the car racer automatically be given a "licence" to race in those two-wheel categories?

No way, without serving an appropriate "apprenticeship" in some lower form of motorcycle racing.

The three V8 Supercar teams Bayliss has tested with have been the category's benchmark, Triple 8 Race Engineering/Team Vodafone, the new Kelly Racing of the now vastly-experienced brothers Todd and Rick Kelly, and Triple F -- which is the new incarnation of the Team Kiwi that became quite infamous.

Clearly it is the third best option for Bayliss, although the Morris connection gives it some engineering muscle. But, as much as we are pleased to see Bayliss in V8 Supercar ranks, we query whether he is going to be grossly under-prepared for these endurance races. So too Fiore, in our opinion.

Sure Bayliss knows his way around Phillip Island from motorcycle racing, but Bathurst is something else. In our opinion, it deserves more thought, respect and preparation.

'Something I've longed to do,' Bayliss says
For the record, here's what Bayliss has had to say about his move into V8 Supercars.

"It has been a long time coming and now the deal has been put together," he said. "I am really excited to be making my debut in the V8 Supercar Series.

"It's going to be a huge challenge, but it is something that I've longed to do for some time. It's going to be a massive test for me, especially at Bathurst, where my first priority will be to finish - and then we'll see where it may lead to for next year.

"I know the Phillip Island track quite well, I have had a lot of success there on a bike, but it's going to be different when I go there next month in a V8 Supercar.

"I have watched Bathurst on the couch since I was a kid. I can't believe I am actually going to be there driving the mountain."

Fiore, in his debut season in V8 Supercar's main game, is obviously and understandably thrilled to have Bayliss on board.

"To race alongside Troy is an absolute honour," Fiore said. "While he is fairly green to the world of V8 Supercar racing, the way he conducts himself with such professionalism is certainly something which I draw on and learn from.

"Troy has achieved so much throughout his career and in a short time he is showing signs that he will be a great co-driver."

We just cross our fingers that this experiment ends well.

V8s, F1 storm back after the 'lull'
It dawned on us over the past couple of days that there was supposed to have been something of a lull in the main forms of car racing of interest to Australians -- Formula One and V8 Supercars (perhaps in reverse order) -- but news of Team Vodafone's switch to Holden next year, Michael Schumacher's F1 comeback that suddenly wasn't and BMW's pull-out more than filled the vacuum the calendars created.

Anyway, it is back to full throttle this weekend, even if the circuits on which F1 and V8 Supercars will be racing, Valencia in Spain and Queensland Raceway, have little appeal to drivers and fans.

Incidentally, it's the 10th anniversary of Queensland Raceway, passions are still running high over Craig Lowndes and Jamie Whincup's switch/return to Holden, and -- if nothing else -- this round is a lead in to the enduros.

Looking at the points table though after 14 of 26 races -- so just beyond mid-season -- we wonder whether yet another tweak of the scoring system is going to be needed at the end of the year.

Whincup is 117 points ahead of Holden Racing Team's Will Davison, but the gap between Whincup and HRT's third-placed Garth Tander is already 375 points.

The schedule for Queensland Raceway this weekend is a 33-lap race Saturday and 65 laps Sunday. While it's been three weeks since the last V8 Supercar round, it's four weeks since the last F1 race.

In case the memory is a bit hazy, BrawnGP's Jenson Button won six of the first seven GPs but Red Bull Racing has won two of the past three -- including Aussie Mark Webber's first victory in Germany. Button's lead in the drivers' championship has been almost halved, although he still leads Webber by 18.5 points and Sebastian Vettel by 23.

Little has been heard of or from Webber lately, but there is a nice interview with him here. Clearly he doesn't like the Valencia street circuit and can't wait to Monza for the Italian GP and Spa for the Belgian GP.

Reigning world champion Lewis Hamilton produced the first victory of the year for McLaren-Mercedes, and by a car with a Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS) in Hungary last month, and  reckons that is going to be a major asset now.

"As our car gets better KERS is going to become more and more valuable," Hamilton said. "I think we are now just as fast as Red Bull."

Ferrari too may be on the improve if it can get its KERS working properly. But it will be relying pretty much solely on disappointing 2007 world champion Kimi Raikkonen, who at least was second in Hungary, for a while as injured Brazilian Felipe Massa's replacement, Italian Luca Badoer, in lieu of Michael Schumacher, is going to be of little value not having raced in a GP for a decade.

McLaren has pointedly told its Finnish driver Heikki Kovalainen he needs to lift his game to retain his seat for next season.

BMW's imminent departure puts two fine drivers, Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld, on the market and either would be suitable replacements for Kovalainen at McLaren. Heidfeld had previous connections with McLaren and its engine supplier Mercedes and has the experience that could be handy there, while Kubica is younger and more talented.

It came to light midweek that four teams -- Red Bull, McLaren, Ferrari and Toyota -- wrote to the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) supporting Renault's appeal against suspension from this European GP.

The success of that appeal not only allows the Spanish fans to see the country's dual F1 world champion Fernando Alonso in action this weekend but also the debut of Frenchman Romain Grosjean for Renault.

With the expansion of the F1 field to 26 next year, the FIA has announced changes to the 2010 regulations.

And it has been confirmed overnight that YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley is putting some of his fortune into F1 as the main investor in the new US team next season. See here for a perspective on his video and social media plans.

While on the technology/media front, we have have spotted news of a new application for fans -- an iPhone software program providing real-time race data on every driver.

Finally on F1 today, the details on the injuries which scuttled Michael Schumacher's comeback are reported here, from his doctor.

IndyCars in California, NASCAR goes to Tennessee
In America this weekend the IndyCars are racing at the Sonoma road course in California and NASCAR is at Bristol, Tennessee.

Came across an interesting and informative Bristol preview from Aussie Marcos Ambrose's JTG Racing.

During the week we noticed that Ambrose tested a Grand-Am sports car and wondered what it was about, especially as we would have thought he ought to be devoting his energies totally to conquering NASCAR's oval tracks now as his road racing expertise is well proven in the US.

What Ambrose's "minders" haven't yet told the Australian motorsport public is what we discovered at SceneDaily -- that Ambrose and Roush Fenway Racing's NASCAR ace Carl Edwards will share a Dallara-Ford Grand-Am car in Montreal tomorrow week (August 29) -- the day before NASCAR's Nationwide Series round there.

Rally Australia entry - one plus, one big minus
The revival of Rally Australia is drawing close now -- on September 3-6 in NSW's Northern Rivers region -- and the entry list is finalised.

The disappointment is that Australia's leading rally driver Chris Atkinson is not among the entry. However, multiple Australian champion Neal Bates will have official Toyota backing again when he and co-driver Coral Taylor compete in a Super 2000 Corolla.

Images: Bayliss, Dane and Bayliss, Whincup - teamvodafone.com.au

Read the latest Carsales Network news and reviews on your mobile, iPhone or PDA at www.carsales.mobi