MOTORSPORT: V8, F1 teams on skids?

There are doubts about whether either will make it to the track -- at Barbagallo and Istanbul respectively.

Despite many grave predictions about Team Kiwi, indications today (Monday) are that it will make it to WA, while Super Aguri's fate perhaps hinges most on a meeting with Honda chiefs in Japan tomorrow.

German automotive components company Weigl -- a supplier to General Motors, Daimler, Volkswagen, Audi, BMW, Porsche, Volvo and Jaguar -- has emerged as a possible savior of Super Aguri.

Although it claims to have interested partners, Bavarian-based Weigl may not be able to muster the resources for the bailout that is needed, seemingly including US$100 million of Super Aguri debt to Honda.

There are also suggestions again that Spaniards Alejandro Agag, reputed to be very close to F1 tsar Bernie Ecclestone, and Adrian Campos, a former F1 driver and former manager of Fernando Alonso, may yet rescue Super Aguri with Telefonica and Repsol perhaps prepared to bankroll a Spanish team.

Last week there were reports Super Aguri's cars had not been ferried to Turkey along with the rest of the F1 field, and instead were transported to the Honda factory team's British base.

Now there are suggestions that the Super Aguri trucks and motorhome have arrived in Istanbul but are not being allowed into the circuit.

Meanwhile, four V8 Supercar drivers will be in new cars (three Fords and a Holden) at WA's BigPond 400 -- Jamie Whincup in Triple 8/TeamVodafone's chassis 14, James Courtney in Stone Brothers Racing's sixth BA/BF Falcon, Jason Bright in the first all-new car built by his Britek Motorsport, and Todd Kelly in a Jack Daniel's VE Commodore that is the 47th car produced by Perkins Engineering since it was established in 1986.

Team Kiwi's problems have been prominent in motorsport news reports on both sides of the Tasman for more than a week now, with team owner David John angrily denying the gravity of its troubles as "total bullshit".

Leading New Zealand motorsport reporter Bernard Carpinter reported today in Wellington's Dominion Post newspaper that Team Kiwi "might not be able to contest" the Perth round.

Carpinter wrote that "at least one creditor is beginning court action trying to recover money it says it is owed".

"Driver Kayne Scott, when asked if he was confident the team would be racing at Perth, replied simply: 'No comment'," Carpinter reported.

"If the team does not get to Perth, it will incur a fine of A$150,000 from the series organisers."

There have been reports that a consortium of investors and enthusiasts, led by Tauranga driver and businessman Bernie Gillon, is looking at taking over the team, which has been around since 2000 but been under intense pressure since the 2006 Bathurst crash from which Paul Radisich emerged badly injured and a Holden Commodore had to be written off.

Swiss driver Neel Jani's fourth place in the sprint race at Britain's Brands Hatch -- behind Britain's Robbie Kerr, American Jonathan Summerton and Ireland's Adam Carroll -- sealed the title before the main race.

Jani then finished third in the feature race, behind India's Narain Karthikeyan and Kerr.

The irony of Switzerland's success is that there has been no serious motorsport in the country since 1955 after the crash at the Le Mans 24-hour sports car race in France that killed more than 80 spectators and Mercedes driver Pierre Levegh.

The Swiss ban was formally lifted last year but there is no permanent circuit in the country and the environmental lobby remains strongly opposed to the prospect of any motor racing there.

However, Switzerland has a proud international motor sport history from the brilliant performances of F1 drivers Jo Siffert and Clay Reggazoni and Sauber in sports car racing in the 1960s, '70s  and '80s and subsequently in F1.

Swiss A1 team boss Max Welti said: "To represent Switzerland all over the globe and to actually do it [win the A1 title] is fantastic. I dedicate our victory in the Nations' Cup to the unforgotten Jo Siffert, who won his first F1 race here at Brands Hatch 40 years ago and lost his life at the same venue in 1971."

Switzerland's A1 winning margin of 41 points was more than Germany's 35 last season and almost as dominant as France's 51 over Switzerland in the first season.

Apart from the title, for which the team earned US$1 million, 24-year-old Jani won two sprints and two feature races, worth US$100,000 and US$200,000 each respectively.

The Swiss car was on pole position six times, Jani set the fastest race lap five times and scored five podium finishes.

Jani only missed finishing in the top 10 in the two New Zealand races at Taupo, the home track of his main rival Jonny Reid, and at the second Mexican race.

Twelve drivers and ten countries won races this season.

NZ was runner-up for the second straight season and just one point ahead of Britain.

Kiwi driver Reid finished only eighth in each of the weekend's two races.

Australia's John Martin qualified 12th and 19th for the two races and finished 14th in the first and then he and Pakistan's Adam Khan collided on lap two of the feature race, which put them both out and brought out the safety car for six laps.

The first round of A1's fourth season, when Ferrari-engined Dallaras will be raced, is set for Italy's Mugello circuit September 19-21, with talk of F1 veterans David Coulthard and Giancarlo Fisichella heading teams.

Incidentally, Red Bull has denied that Coulthard will be replaced as Aussie Mark Webber's teammate at this week's Turkish GP.

Final standings in third A1 GP series -- Switzerland 168 points, New Zealand 127, Britain 126, France 118, South Africa 96, Ireland 94, Netherlands 87, Germany 83, Canada 75, India 61, Portugal 59, US 56, China 55, Brazil 44, Malaysia 25, Mexico 22, Australia 20, Italy 12, Czech Republic 10, Pakistan 1, Indonesia 1.
 

He turned a lap of the 4km track at 220.694mph.

The only other two rookies over 220 mph were E.J. Viso and Power's KV Racing teammate Oriol Servia.

Power did 93 laps and Servia 94.

"We were first out and last in," Power said.

"It was a good day. Initially when I went out I thought, 'How the hell do you go flat here?' But we crept up through it, we had a pretty safe car there at the end -- it was pretty solid.

"I was happy to get flat all the way around because that takes you to the next level and now we start trimming out.

"We did plenty of mileage because we're a bit wary of what the weather's going to be like later in the week, so I'm very happy."

The other Aussie in the May 26 Indianapolis 500 is Ryan Briscoe with Team Penske.

Briscoe finished fifth last year in a car entered by Roger Penske's son.

Here's Team Penske's record in the Indy 500:

* 14 victories
* 14 pole positions
* 76 starts with 19 different drivers
* 10 different winning drivers
* 6 wins from the pole
* 34 front row starts
* 1835 laps led in competition

Indy racing's recent woman winner, Danica Patrick, has said she would like to do an F1 test.

"I was asked to do a demonstration lap at Indy in 2005 (the year of the infamous six-car US GP), and I said, 'No way. You're making me a show. That's embarrassing'," she said.

"But I would say that a real test is absolutely something I would do."

Subaru's factory world rally team, including Aussie driver Chris Atkinson, has tested the manufacturer's first hatchback rally car, dubbed the S14, on the Italian island of Sardinia in recent days.

Team boss Richard Taylor confirmed that Petter Solberg and Atkinson each completed two days of testing.

The team's full-time test driver Markko Martin was also there.

Subaru has not won a WRC rally since Rally Great Britain in September 2005, making the last 25 months its longest winless streak since its first victory in 1993.

It is not clear yet when the new car will be introduced to competition.

Although Atkinson has had three successive WRC podiums he said after the recent new rally in Jordan: "We're five minutes behind the winner. We still have work to do."

Former Rally Australia winner Francois Duval will return to the WRC for the remaining asphalt rounds of this year's series in the Stobart-backed Ford Focus RS WRC07 he drove to fourth on the season-opening Monte Carlo Rally.

Multiple Australian rally champion Cody Crocker starts his quest for a third straight Asia-Pacific title at this weekend's Rally of Canberra.

Crocker's Singapore-based MotorImage team skipped the first round of the Asia-Pacific series in New Caledonia, won by Indian Team MRF's Japanese driver Katsu Taguchi.

Among four-time Canberra winner Crocker's rivals will be Taguchi's new teammate, Aussie Scott Pedder, in an Evo IX Mitsubishi Lancer, and West Australian Dean Herridge in a Subaru like Crocker.

It is the 21st "birthday" of the Rally of Canberra, which doubles as the second round of the Australian Rally Championship with a healthy 82 entries all up, including British champion Guy Wilks in a factory-prepared Honda Civic.

Canberra is the home of Neal Bates, the three-time Australian champion and leader of this year's ARC after victory in the opening round in WA last month.

His main rival is certain to be teammate and champion of the past two years, Simon Evans, both of them in Super 2000 Toyota Corollas.

The recent Central European Rally -- the replacement event for this year's cancelled Dakar Rally -- was won by Spanish legend Carlos Sainz in a Volkswagen Race Touareg 2, breaking Mitsubishi's domination of the endurance rally.

The 1670-mile route started and finished in Hungary, via demanding terrain in Romania, and ran for six days.

Sainz and his co-driver Michel Perin beat Stephane Peterhansel and Jean-Paul Cottret in a Mitsubishi Pajero Evolution by a little more than 2 minutes.

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