MOTORSPORT: U-turn on V8 Supercar qualifying

'Major reversal' imminent on V8 Supercar grids
A banquet of racing awaits this weekend -- Formula 1 again, this time in Malaysia; rallying in Western Australia and Portugal; NASCAR in Texas, and IndyCar and the American Le Mans Series in Florida -- but firstly some V8 Supercar news.

This week's Auto Action magazine reports on what it calls an imminent "major reversal" on V8 Supercar qualifying, contrary to earlier indications after the season-opening Clipsal 500 in Adelaide.

"V8 Supercar's controversial new qualifying format will be dumped before the next event (at Hamilton in New Zealand on April 18-19)," Auto Action editor-at-large Mark Fogarty reports.

"Following widespread opposition to the single session introduced at the Clipsal 500, individual qualifying for each race will be adopted for the Hamilton 400.

"Grid positions for both NZ rounds (each race is now a round) will be decided by separate sessions, overcoming complaints that the 'one-shot' system was a double penalty for a poor qualifying performance.

"Calls to restore the previous method of deciding the starting order of the second race according to results of the first were rejected on the basis that they are now standalone races.

"Following a review by V8SA operations staff and discussions with team bosses at (Melbourne's) Albert Park (during last weekend's Australian Grand Prix), it was agreed that individual qualifying sessions would be adopted from Hamilton onwards.

"The change requires the approval of the V8SA board, which will hold an emergency meeting to rush through the new procedure.

"AA understands the twin qualifiers will be run to the same format as the solo session, culminating in the Shootout.

"It is not clear whether the two qualifying periods will be staged on the Saturday before the first round or split over the weekend, with qualifying for Sunday's round held that morning.

"The move to determine the grids for each race separately is a major reversal by V8SA, which was adamant in the immediate aftermath of Adelaide that there would be no immediate review."

Got to say that, if this proves to be correct, we are surprised at the speed of the turnaround.

But there's nothing like fessing up to your mistakes, if indeed this was one, and doing something about them promptly.

Teams want Larry Perkins off V8SA board
Larry Perkins' place on the V8 Supercar board is under threat, according to another Auto Action article.

"Teams have called for Perkins to stand down from the V8SA board or face a revolt," AA reports, with the author again editor-at-large Fogarty.

"Initial concerns about the control of his (Perkins') two licences, which are being used under the Kelly Racing umbrella, have grown into broader objections to him continuing as a director.

"According to AA's sources, a majority of the teams have expressed dissatisfaction with Perkins staying on the board.

"A letter calling for his resignation was circulated among teams at Albert Park."

Perkins was re-elected last October for two years, but Fogarty writes that "since then there has been growing unease about his reappointment".

TV numbers on GP and Clipsal
Network Ten has announced -- based on OzTAM data -- a peak audience of 1.38 million viewers, and an average audience of 1.04 million, for last Sunday's Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix.

Ten claimed to have "decisively won its timeslot in all key demographics and total people during the race broadcast".

"Close to half of all people watching commercial television over the day tuned in to watch all the race-day action, setting Network Ten up for strong wins in all key demographics.

"In Melbourne, the F1 GP was Sunday's most watched program with 477,000 viewers and Sunday's No. 1 show in 25-54 (age group) with 251,000 viewers."

The Seven Network claimed -- also on OzTAM data -- that its telecast the previous weekend of Adelaide's Clipsal 500 outperformed its opposition, "surpassing the combined audience of Nine and Ten across the weekend".

"Across Australia -- including metropolitan and regional markets -- V8 Supercars on Seven delivered an average national audience of 674,000 viewers on Saturday and 894,000 viewers on Sunday," Seven said.

The average audience for capital cities Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth was 508,000 on the Saturday and 620,000 on the Sunday, with the peak audiences across those cities on the two days 643,000 and 782,000 respectively.

"In audience reach, two million Australians in the five major metropolitan markets watched all or part of Seven's coverage across Saturday and Sunday," it claimed.

It's early in these major motor racing championships and we'll endeavour to keep a tab on TV numbers throughout the year, but at first sight these appear to be pretty reasonable numbers.

What we will be looking for in the next few days is the first indications of how the first twilight GP telecast did overseas.

Monsoon threat clouds next twilight GP
Another twilight F1 race this Sunday amid growing safety complaints from the drivers.

Melbourne winner Jenson Button complained about the glare in the closing stages in Melbourne, but Nico Rosberg has been the most outspoken critic of the 5pm start time. And in Malaysia there is a distinct prospect of monsoonal rain during the race.

Rosberg said after Melbourne, where he set the fastest race lap -- 0.3 seconds quicker than Button's best -- and finished sixth, that twilight "just increases the danger so much".

"The visibility is so difficult you can't even see the edges of the track in some corners.

"I really hope they consider that. Even moving it forward by one hour or something will help us massively.

"It was the last part of the race that was the really problematic time."

All of this will only intensify the shadow boxing between F1 ringmaster Bernie Ecclestone and the Victorian government/Australian Grand Prix Corporation over going further to a night race and what the cost for that would involve.

Meanwhile, Williams' Australian technical director Sam Michael has said that in clear traffic the team's Toyota-powered car is as quick as any in the field.

And Ross Brawn, the hero leader of the team that was Honda and finished 1-2 on debut last weekend, has revealed that -- despite the enormous success he had at Ferrari and Benetton, where he won seven world titles with Michael Schumacher -- it is Williams, where he began his F1 career, that remains his measuring stick.

"I think the sort of team that Frank (Sir Frank Williams) and Patrick (Head) have had would be my ambition," Brawn said.

Although without a win since 2004, Williams has won nine constructors' championships and seven drivers' titles since 1980.

While Brawn expects other teams to improve, perhaps quite rapidly, he said: "We've got an upgrade for Barcelona (the fifth round of the world championship in May) which looks quite good, and there will be two or three more steps during the year.

"I've worked for some wonderful teams and this is as good as any."

It was revealed within a day of the Melbourne triumph that Brawn GP will cut its staff of 700 to 430 as part of the cost-cutting sweeping F1.

Team chief executive Nick Fry said the 270 job losses -- including the test team -- will return it to the size predecessor BAR (British American Racing) was in 2004.

Controversial British F1 business journalist Tom Rubython, these days editor of a subscription magazine SportsPro, has reported this week that Brawn GP has a budget this year of US$146.5 million, which he said was already fully-funded -- seemingly by the departed/departing Honda.

Rubython claimed Brawn's sponsorship by Sir Richard Branson's Virgin group is only US$250,000 a race for now.

"Whatever deal is eventually signed, it will be for a small amount of money thought to be less than US$10 million," Rubython said. "The team was earlier thought to be offering the title sponsorship free to any company that committed to sponsor it in 2010.

"Qatar Airways turned down the chance to sponsor the team for free in 2009."

Branson told Autosport: "I am a bit of a cheapskate when it comes to these things and make everything pay its way. So the idea of writing tens of millions of pounds or dollars for sponsorship is just something that Virgin has not done, or needed to do."

Rubython quoted Branson saying he would push to have the team renamed Virgin and that he does not like the Brawn name as "it is a waste to name on something that is not promoting anything".

However, having already been given clearance to change from Honda to Brawn, it may be difficult to get agreement on a second name change in one season -- particularly as the team has been instantly successful.

Looking forward to seeing whether Brawn GP can repeat its success in Malaysia, and how much its competitors can improve in a week.

Elsewhere on the F1 front, there have been reports -- now strongly denied -- that Abu Dhabi will not be ready to host the final round of the championship on the first weekend of November and that it may go to Montreal in Canada, dropped from the calendar this season.

Apart from any other complications, Montreal is already set for municipal elections that weekend.

And Bernie Ecclestone's Formula One Administration company and Universal Music have signed a deal to create a new global entertainment "platform" called F1 Rocks. More here and here here.

Might this again be Ecclestone getting in for a financial "killing" and squeezing the chances of the race promoters improving the state of their books?

And a post-Melbourne perspective on F1 by the Bloomberg business news agency, including an admission from the Albert Park race's chief executive that there was "some degree of reduction in extravagance", is here.

ARC round in the west, WRC goes to Portugal
It's round three of the Australian Rally Championship this weekend -- the Forest Rally at Busselton and around Nannup in Western Australia.

Former Ford factory driver Darren Windus will be in the second of four-time national champion Neal Bates' Super 2000 Toyota Corollas for this round.

This is the car previously driven by dual national champion Simon Evans, who is now a privateer again -- indeed there are no manufacturer entries these days -- in a Mitsubishi Evolution IX, while his younger brother Eli campaigns a Subaru Impreza WRX STi.

The all-new Evo X Mitsubishi of Queenslander Steven Shepheard is among the entries, while Dean Herridge and WA state champion and Busselton resident Leigh Hines, both in Subarus, carry the local hopes along with Windus.

There is a study underway into the viability of an endurance rally being added to the ARC next year -- perhaps between Sydney and Melbourne and taking in Canberra.

And good news from overseas this week that 20-year-old Sydney rally driver Molly Taylor, daughter of Neal Bates' co-driver Coral Taylor, won the first of the Suzuki Swift Sport Cup in Britain.

The fourth round of the World Rally Championship is in Portugal this weekend, but Australia's former full-time WRC campaigner Chris Atkinson is still in Australia chasing sponsorship to resume his career.

Out of a regular drive since Subaru closed its Prodrive-run WRC team, Atkinson impressed at the opening round this season in a Citroen junior team car but the expected further drives are yet to eventuate.

Ambrose holding his own in NASCAR
NASCAR's seventh Sprint Cup round this weekend is at the Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth.

Australia's Marcos Ambrose was 14th on the short oval at Martinsville, Virginia, last Monday, after his 10th at Bristol the previous week.

Driving a Toyota this year, his first full-time in the Sprint Cup, Ambrose is 21st in the championship on 616 points.

Jeff Gordon leads on 959 points from Clint Bowyer on 870 and Kurt Busch 827.

IndyCar and ALMS double bill in Florida
It's a big weekend for other Aussies in the US at St Petersburg, Florida. The IndyCar series kicks off there with 21 entries, including our Ryan Briscoe and Will Power in the Penske Racing cars.

They should be at the pointy end -- Briscoe coming off fifth place in the series last year, with three wins, and Power among the pacesetters in pre-season testing.

Power is substituting for regular Penske star Helio Castroneves who is embroiled in a big tax evasion case. Even if the Brazilian is cleared in that matter, Power is likely to be a Penske driver in this year's Indianapolis 500 at the end of next month -- perhaps as a third entry.

Chip Ganassi Racing's reigning champion Scott Dixon is again the man to beat this season, and has another former champion and Indy 500 winner, Dario Franchitti, as his teammate.

Newman-Haas-Lanigan, the best of the Champ Car teams that transitioned back to IndyCar last year, has Graham Rahal and Dutchman Robert Doornbos in its cars, while Brit Justin Wilson is out of a drive for now.

Ryan Hunter-Reay, perhaps the best of the American open-wheeler drivers, has joined Vision Racing, the team of Indy 500 promoter Tony George.

Aussie youngster James Davison is racing for Vision in the Indy Lights series.

The second round of the American Le Mans Series will also be held at St Petersburg over this weekend, with Aussie David Brabham in the new Honda Acura ARC-02a on a street circuit for the first time.

Brabham and co-driver Scott Sharp didn't finish the Sebring 12-Hour last month, but this will be a one-hour, 55-minute sprint.

Brabham's main mission this year though is the Le Mans 24-Hour in France with Peugeot.

A1GP passes the five-year milestone
An anniversary passed unnoticed this week -- the fifth birthday of A1GP.

It was on March 30, 2004, that the international open-wheeler series based on equal machinery and national teams was launched in Dubai.

It was September 2005 that the first A1 GP "World Cup of Motorsport" round was held at Brands Hatch in Britain -- and it has been a very rocky road since.

Founder Sheikh Maktoum Hasher Maktoum Al Maktoum departed the scene early but his business partner, diamond miner Tony Teixeira, has somehow kept the wheels turning -- and this year the cars are Ferrari-powered.

There is a round coming up in Portugal; another in Britain, and it has been confirmed that this season's finale will be in Mexico -- making just eight rounds for the series instead of what should have been 12.

The fifth season, with the Gold Coast SuperGP (replacing Indy) in October as one of the early rounds, won't come fast enough for the A1 troupe.

Image: jamiewhincup.com.au