MOTORSPORT: V8-A1 GP bunfight brewing?

Below the surface, though, we suspect the mother of all rows is brewing between V8 Supercar Australia chairman Tony Cochrane and A1 Grand Prix, which is the replacement on the Gold Coast for IndyCars -- and the face of which in Australia is our last Formula 1 world champion, Alan Jones.

We'll return to this second matter in a few moments, but first the positive.

Jamie Whincup may clinch the V8 Supercar title at Tasmania's Symmons Plains this weekend. Otherwise he'll have to wait another two weeks to do it at Sydney's Oran Park in what will be the final V8 Supercar round at that great track.

Whenever he wraps it up it will emphasise what a dominant season this has been for Ford.

It won the manufacturers' championship with three rounds of the series to go, four of the top five teams in the sport this season field Fords, seven of the top 10 drivers are in Falcons, and Ford drivers have had 26 race wins this year to the nine of those in Holden Commodores -- a ratio in favor of the Blue Oval of almost three to one.

Of the 26 Ford victories, Whincup has taken 13 of them.

On the Holden side, reigning champion Garth Tander has won seven, leaving only two others that have been won by Commodore drivers.

Ford has won nine of the 12 rounds to date -- five of them by Whincup (one them, Bathurst, shared with Triple 8/Team Vodafone teammate Craig Lowndes).

Holden's three round victories have all come from Tander (one of them, the Phillip Island 500, shared with the retiring Mark Skaife).

The picture is very clear -- it's been Ford's year in a big, big way.

Going into this weekend's penultimate round Whincup leads Ford Performance Racing's Mark Winterbottom by 187 points and Tander by 292.

Whincup has said he will be taking a cautious approach from now on, trying to qualify to the best of his ability but content to pick up whatever points he can and stay out of trouble in the remaining six races.

If by late Sunday he is more than 300 points clear of Winterbottom and Tander he will be champion. More likely is that the tussle will continue on to Oran Park, if only between the two Ford drivers, and that would be the best thing.

It just depends on Winterbottom and, to a lesser extent, Tander not having a shocker this weekend, even if Whincup does.

The points-scoring system has been refined over the years -- on an old NASCAR-type model -- to try to ensure the title fight goes to the wire, but the mere fact that Whincup could clinch it this weekend only further emphasises how dominant he has been this season.

Whenever it's settled it will be done on the track -- and deserved.

The Queensland government confirmed our very strong suspicions that the IndyCars would not be coming back to the Gold Coast next October -- and that they would be replaced by the A1 GP series.

Now quite a coup that is for A1, in its fourth season and still struggling to make serious headway.

On the one hand it is now in the first year of a six-year deal with Ferrari for engines, while on the other its financial landscape is ugly, with the value of the series reported by the Financial Times of London to have been written down to next to nothing.

As far as we can see the series is still owned by RAB Capital, a London-based private equity fund that is effectively the third owner it has had.

The first was an Arab sheik from Dubai, the second (if only effectively) was a South African diamond dealer of Portuguese origin, then RAB.

Now Alan Jones, Australia's 1980 F1 world champion and what is called the seat holder for A1 Team Australia, reckons it is "common knowledge" that RAB handballed A1 back to the diamond merchant, Tony Teixeira, in September.

That's the first we've heard of that, and indeed it's difficult to find any confirmation of it.

We note that V8 Supercars Australia, which provides the other main act (it would say THE main act) on the Gold Coast program, has so far refrained from public comment on the announcement of A1 as the replacement for the IndyCars.

However, we gather that V8SA chairman Tony Cochrane is not happy about it. Indeed, we have heard reports of Cochrane having been spotted around the corridors of Queensland government power this week, perhaps registering his opposition to A1.

Just what Cochrane's precise problem with A1 is we're not sure. But certainly he's on the record a couple of times having unmercifully dumped on the A1 series.

It's not hard to find things to criticise about A1 -- that the drivers, in the main, are little known, that the concept of competition between countries rather than individual drivers has hardly caught on, that the first round this season had to be cancelled because the new Ferrari-engined cars weren't ready, that the number of countries in recent races had been well short of the intended 25 or 26, and, of course, the embarrassing financial picture.

Early this year, indeed at the opening round of the V8 Supercar Championship in Adelaide, Cochrane bagged A1 for being $320 million in debut, said the figures from its rounds at Sydney's Eastern Creek the past three years were "terrible" (there is no Oz round this season), that he couldn't see the Queensland government would, or should, have a bar of it, and that "V8 Supercars will never, ever race, anywhere with A1 GP".

So we can understand that Mr Cochrane is not happy that the Queensland government has opted for A1 GP as the Indy replacement, even if we can't fathom why he should be so unhappy.

Auto Action magazine reports this week that it "understands that V8 Supercars Australia's contract (at the Gold Coast event) says that the category must be agreeable to the share category it is to race with".

"If it does not agree, it is possible that the terms of V8 Supercars' involvement in the Surfers' Paradise contract could be renegotiated," Auto Action says.

Cochrane is quoted by the magazine saying: "We're in discussions with the government and we won't be making any comment until these discussions have concluded."

Now a few points here …

Firstly, while A1 has been announced as the replacement for Indy and that was to have been followed by the signing of a contract to confirm all that within a week of the announcement, there has been no word of such contract being signed. A1 is racing in Malaysia this weekend, so perhaps the A1 chiefs will venture on to Queensland early next week for that contract signing -- and announcement of it.

As we saw with the fiasco over the Indy "contract" that turned out to be nothing more than a meaningless memorandum of understanding, this is important -- indeed vital – detail.

Secondly, and more importantly, we wonder whether Tony Cochrane has as much sway with the Queensland government as some of our informants tell us, and -- if so -- we question whether it is appropriate that he does.

On the surface the fact that the Queensland government announced A1 as the Indy replacement indicates that it is prepared to make up its own mind on such matters, even if such decisions do not sit well with Cochrane.

But if it is allowing Cochrane to meddle now, perhaps to thwart A1 running at the Gold Coast (provided its financial predicament allows it to survive until next October), that will raise further questions -- firstly about the government's independence, and secondly about, purely and simply, why Cochrane should be allowed to stick his oar in on this matter.

The Gold Coast event began in the early 1990s without V8 Supercars, or touring cars as they were then known, and long before Tony Cochrane was around in motorsport.

The Queensland government has always made it known that it wants an international open-wheeler category as a major feature of the Gold Coast carnival, and indeed for a long-time that was enshrined in legislation.

We wonder if Cochrane's dislike of A1 is because he may have had a particular preference for another form of racing if a replacement for Indy was ever going to be needed.

And, obviously, whether Cochrane may have pushed a barrow for an alternative, and indeed perhaps still be trying to do that, perhaps because it may have some advantage for him and/or V8SA to do that.

We must stress that his hostility to A1 seems to be pretty much his alone within the V8 Supercar community.

Indeed, we note that Will Davison -- one of the bright young stars of V8 Supercar racing these days -- has said, from the experience of driving in A1 in 2005-06, that "it's as fast and loud as IndyCars, so the public will love it".

More than that, the A1 cars now, we are sure, sound better -- because of their Ferrari engines -- than IndyCars, and they are expected to be 3-4 seconds a lap quicker around the streets of Surfers' Paradise.

While it hasn't proven to be a challenger to F1 in terms of global popularity, A1 claims to be the most competitive form of open-wheeler circuit racing in the world -- a claim it can make because of the paucity of credible alternatives.

But just why Tony Cochrane's opinions carry such weight in Queensland, if in fact they do, is a mystery to us.

Unquestionably the guy has chalked up some achievements in 12 years at the helm of V8 Supercars Australia, but he is far from being the fountain of all wisdom.

As we were reminded recently, on opening an old file, Mr Cochrane ran the Indy event on the Gold Coast at the time it signed up a sponsor that infamously went bust before the race.

Early last year he vowed that, if and when V8 Supercars returned to Melbourne's F1 Grand Prix, he wouldn't allow them to be screened on the 10 network (because of a spat between 10 and the Seven Network in South Australia). That turned out to be a completely hollow threat.

And under Mr Cochrane's leadership, Australia's greatest race -- the Bathurst 1000 -- these days has a field of half the number of cars it once did in what many would regard as that Great Race's heyday.

Also, under Mr Cochrane, the V8 Supercar TV audience in Australia is now in decline -- to the tune of 12-15 per cent on a lot of rounds this year.

The world is in the grip of a serious financial crisis, and even the mighty NASCAR's viewing figures in the US have gone soft, but more in the 5-6 per cent range than the 12-15 per cent that V8 Supercars have lost.

In the bigger picture, despite attempts to create an impression that 830-850 million people around the world are watching Australian V8 Supercar racing, there is no solid evidence that even a couple of million people worldwide are viewing it.

Apart from the Australian TV figures for the recent Bahrain round being horrible, as we mentioned here a week ago, word has now reached us that a 2pm Sunday telecast in Britain of that Bahrain round, on Motors TV, had an audience of 9000 viewers.

Coincidentally, an A1 GP telecast from China on Sky Sports in Britain at precisely the same time had an audience of 44,000 viewers.

Now the numbers for both are woeful (especially against an average British audience for F1 of 3.8 million to 4 million and a peak 13 million for the recent Brazilian grand prix at which Lewis Hamilton thrillingly won the world title), but the A1 audience was almost five times that for V8 Supercars on that afternoon.

These kind of perspectives ought be borne in mind, especially by people in and around the Queensland government if and when they cop a gee-up on behalf of V8 Supercars and at the same time an attempt to belittle A1 as a replacement for Indy.

And it is precisely on that ground that we can see Tony Cochrane and Alan Jones coming into open conflict before too long. Both are head-strong characters and we are pretty sure there is already no love lost between them, especially in light of Jones' comments some months ago to the effect that V8 Supercar racing is a place for real -- read open-wheeler -- drivers to go as a last stop on the road to retirement.

Now that was a bit cheeky, even inflammatory -- but certainly it was the case with A.J. himself in the '90s. Jones was a great F1 driver in his prime, and it is a pity in many ways that he is not always remembered most for that prime.

Not everything else he has tackled since has been with the same midas touch, including fronting Australia's A1 effort. But his opinion still carries public weight and in any stoush or slanging match with Tony Cochrane he would be more than capable of landing more than his share of point-scoring blows.

We've seen a few signs already that A.J. might be getting ready for a big fight, with his vigorous defence of A1 against what he has called "malicious rumours" and "false headlines".

While those comments were not in response to anything Cochrane said, because the V8SA chief appears to have been unusually careful of late not to fire any "bullets" publicly, we have a feeling that a big row is not too far off -- if it hasn't already begun behind the scenes.

Perkins and Kellys may be winning combination
Indications are that an announcement is imminent on Larry Perkins providing the engineering services to the new Kelly family V8 Supercar team next year.

Indeed, it seems that Perkins may end up building four or even five cars next year. Now we like the sound of this.

Although Perkins has never won a V8 Supercar or Australian touring car championship as a driver or constructor, we have always greatly admired his approach to the endurance events -- and the success he had before the dominance of the British-owned teams that have come into the sport in recent years.

Now, provided Perkins goes into any new arrangement with the Kelly family with full zest rather than as a superannuation package before retirement, we reckon this "marriage" may just have the ingredients to produce a home-grown team to challenge the foreigners -- Triple 8/Team Vodafone, Ford Performance Racing and Walkinshaw Performance. And that's something we'd love to see.

Already we applaud the reuniting of Stone Brothers Racing and Jason Bright that will see a three-car, Ford-supported Australasian team (the Stone Brothers are New Zealanders but have been based in Oz a long time).

And Australasian is fine by us, because the Ford Falcons and Holden Commodores on which V8 Supercars are based are still a big feature of the car markets on both sides of the Tasman.

We'd also like to see teams like Tasman/Sprint Gas more competitive against the foreigners. And Jim Beam/Dick Johnson Racing and Garry Rogers Motorsport, which have felt that technical ties with the foreigners have been essential to stay in the race.

We're not advocating that the foreigners be excluded from competing in our premier national championship, but we'd like to see local teams doing a whole lot better against them -- a whole lot more often.

If the Kelly family's fortune, the driving talents of Rick and Todd Kelly, and the engineering expertise of Larry Perkins can be rolled into a new Aussie superteam to take on the invaders that will be just terrific.

Power is highly regarded for what he's done in a couple of seasons of Champ Car racing and this year IndyCar, but if Gold Coast entrepreneur Craig Gore is withdrawing from motorsport sponsorship it raises a huge question mark over Power's future with KV Racing.

Briscoe's future looks rosy with Team Penske -- after three victories this year, including at the Gold Coast -- but there is a dark cloud over his teammate, Brazilian Helio Castroneves.

The case against Castroneves for allegedly avoiding US$5.5 million in tax has been set for early March, just a month before the start of the new Indy Racing League season.

Two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Castroneves, runner-up in the IRL this year to New Zealander Scott Dixon, could be jailed if convicted.

Penske, while supportive of the Brazilian, may have to bite the bullet and stand him down.

In the running for the seat are American Ryan Hunter-Reay and Brit Justin Wilson.

Sam Hornish Junior, a Penske favorite son now tackling NASCAR with little success, has ruled out a sudden return to Indy racing.

Since then we've come across a feature on him that reads very much like PR propaganda but which still gives some more perspective to just how good this guy is. It's here

Incidentally, the only other man to achieve the NASCAR hat-trick, Cale Yarborough, declined to attend the Homestead-Miami Speedway to see Johnson equal his record.

Seems he didn't want Johnson to do it. Sounds unfortunately churlish.

While Australia's Mark Webber is in Tasmania on his annual adventure with a host of other top athletes, his new Red Bull Racing teammate Sebastien Vettel -- the 21-year-old German who won the Italian GP for Scuderia Toro Rosso -- set the pace in Barcelona.

Japan's Takuma Sato, out of F1 since Super Aguri's demise early this year, was among the leaders in his return outing with Toro Rosso.

Spaniard Pedro de la Rosa, the long-time McLaren test driver, tested with Force India, which now has a tie-up with McLaren -- which, it seems, may have some say in the minnow squad's driver line-up for '09.

That could be ominous for Italian veteran Giancarlo Fisichella or German youngster Adrian Sutil.

Bruno Senna, nephew of Brazilian legend Ayrton, has been in a Honda for his first F1 test, while France's five-time world rally champion Sebastien Loeb tried a Red Bull-Renault and outpaced Renault factory driver Nelson Piquet Junior.

Image: jamiewhincup.com.au
 

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