MOTORSPORT: Valentino Rossi to race V8 supercar

MotoGP legend in Ferrari - a 458 at Monza
A couple of years ago there was an attempt to hype the possibility of Valentino Rossi driving a V8 Supercar. Well this weekend Rossi not only will drive but race a V8 supercar. Not a Holden Commodore (or Ford Falcon) but a Ferrari 458.

No longer the supreme force he was for so long in MotoGP, and struggling to come to grips with the latest Ducati, it may be the start of the great Italian's transition to four-wheel racing. He's already done a little -- mainly rallying [Rossi pictured in WRC Ford Fiesta], and a couple of Ferrari Formula One tests -- but this time it is GT racing -- in the Pro-Am Cup class of the opening round of the Blancpain Endurance Series at Italy's famed Monza circuit.

Rossi has been entered by Kessel Racing and his co-driver will be his lifelong mate Alessio "Uccio" Salucci, so often seen on TV at the centre of celebrations of Rossi's motorcycle triumphs.

"We really decided on the last minute to participate in the event in Monza and to race in partnership with my friend Uccio is a very big pleasure," Rossi said. "The event has attracted 60 sportscars from 11 makes -- Audi, Aston Martin, BMW, Dodge, Ferrari, Jaguar, Lamborghini, McLaren, Mercedes, Nissan and Porsche.

Australia's David Brabham -- a Le Mans winner and former Formula One driver -- will compete in a McLaren MP4-12C, while other ex-F1 drivers Mark Blundell and Karl Wendlinger are in the field.

Series promoter Stephane Ratel said of the coup in having Rossi on the entry list that he was "the ultimate motorsport hero and we hope he will consider joining our championship on a more regular manner at some point".

While Rossi showed courteous interest in Australia's V8 Supercars when the subject was broached, and he had some enthusiasm for a drive of one if it coincided with a trip Down Under, he has said he wouldn't make a special flight half way around the world to do it. He has had a private run in a Mercedes DTM (German Touring Car Championship) car and is believed to be keen on a guest drive in that series.

Enhancing the chance of that is that Mercedes' tuning arm AMG is a sponsor of Ducati.

Injunction threat hangs over Hamilton finale
There may be some fun and games in New Zealand next week ahead of the last scheduled V8 Supercar event on the streets of regional city Hamilton.

A Hamilton family living on a corner of the circuit is threatening to seek a NZ High Court injunction, claiming it has been short-changed by V8 Supercars Australia since it took over the running of the Hamilton 400 from the failed original promoter, Caleta Street Race Management.

The Smart-Haitana family said they were given travel expenses to escape the noise and inconvenience of the event in its early years but that now Archer Capital-controlled V8 Supercars has offered it six three-day passes to something that "incarcerates" them and makes them feel like "caged animals".

"What do I need a pass for? The race happens six metres from my front door," said Paul Smart. "They are going to barricade us inside our home for five days… I will literally not be able to get out my driveway. It is blocked.

"My floor vibrates when the cars go past… These millionaire investors are effectively putting us under house arrest.

"I face a four-day siege in my home with my partner (Odette Haitana) and two children. We have lived here for 20 years.

"I don't hate the race. I know a lot of people love it and it's great for the local economy, but this is my home and that should count for something.

"I can't invite 20,000 people to the street of these Archer Capital people without asking their permission."

Smart said the family had not been given travel expenses since V8 Supercars took over promotion of the Hamilton event in mid-2010, that it had been deprived of its privacy and that he was concerned for the safety of his children.

The family's property had been showered with glass and a large rock landed over its hedge when a car crashed at the corner last year.

Smart told Fairfax Media that V8SA had been allowed too much clout in NZ.

"The V8 Supercars can't do this in Australia -- people have too many rights," he said. "We [NZ] open our arms and they walk in and walk all over you and they're not answerable to anybody.

"We have [NZ prime minister] John Key and [V8SA chairman] Tony Cochrane walking down the pitlane while we're incarcerated in here by a locked gate."

The family said V8SA legal and commercial general manager Adam Firth had dismissed the effects of the event on it as "very mild and certainly not actionable or warranting legal remedy". They said he had told them "harm was less likely to befall" the family's cats.

The injunction threat against V8SA comes after unsuccessful action in NZ's Disputes Tribunal against the Hamilton City Council. It is unlikely the April 20-22 race meeting will be stopped -- the family's lawyer Kate Hay has held out an olive branch if the travel compensation is provided -- but the threat of an injunction is just another twist in the fiasco that has cost Hamilton $40 million.

Meanwhile, V8SA continues to pursue a long-term return to the Pukekohe permanent circuit on the southern outskirts of Auckland where V8 Supercars raced in front of capacity crowds from 2001 to 2007. Pukekohe already has been announced as the venue for a 500km international event in NZ's new V8 SuperTourer series.

That event -- on October 26-28, a week after V8 Supercars' Gold Coast 600 -- has been switched from Christchurch's Ruapana circuit, where the SuperTourers raced over Easter and will return for the series finale on November 24-25 --  the week before V8 Supercars' Sydney 500.

Fabian Coulthard -- deputising for Greg Murphy, who is recovering from surgery on a back injury -- won the Easter round, taking victory in two races in a Holden Commodore and tailing John McIntyre's Ford Falcon all the way to the flag in the third race. McIntyre outgunned pole position starter Coulthard off the start line in that final race while Jonny Reid and Craig Baird were promptly off the track.

The next round of the V8 SuperTourers is at Manfeild Park Raceway near Palmerston North in three weeks, while Coulthard is set to partner Murphy in the endurance races of the series.

New Zealand V8 SuperTourer standings after two rounds -- John McIntyre (Ford) 1034 points, Jonny Reid (F) 965, Kayne Scott (Holden) 930, Ant Pedersen (F) 877, Andy Booth (H) 815, Craig Baird (F) 812, Fabian Coulthard (H) 757, Greg Murphy (H) 625, Steven Richards (F) 606, Scott McLaughlin (H) 585.

Bathurst lap record falls - to F3 driver
The return of winged openwheeler racing cars to Bathurst after almost 40 years during Easter's motor festival produced the fastest lap recorded at the Mt Panorama circuit.

Australia's Formula Three champion Chris Gilmour, driving a 2-litre, four-cylinder Dallara Mercedes, clocked 2 minutes 4.6187 seconds -- an average 178kmh -- for the 6.213km track, despite not winning (that honour went to James Winslow, whose best was 2:4.6187). Queenslander Gilmour replaced Allan Simonsen in the record book.

Simonsen had lapped Bathurst in a Ferrari 458 in 2:4.9560, which had already surpassed the best of any V8 Supercar at the Mountain.

Fun and games as F1 resumes
The Formula One World Championship resumes with the Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai this weekend and that is due to be followed a week later by the Bahrain GP, although there is growing speculation that Middle East race may not go ahead because of civil unrest.

The Lotus team -- powered by Renault engines and previously the French manufacturer's factory squad -- has severed sponsorship ties with Group Lotus but will happily continue to call itself Lotus. Group Lotus and its Malaysian parent, Proton, were recently acquired by Malaysian conglomerate DRB-Hicom.

The Lotus F1 team is owned by European investment company Genii Capital, whose head Gerard Lopez is thought to want to eventually buy Group Lotus. As part of the termination of the F1 sponsorship arrangement, Proton has given up an option to buy half the Lotus team. Lopez has big ambitions in GP racing and already reckons that this year's Lotus E20 is "just a little bit behind McLaren, but probably as good as everyone else -- if not slightly in front of them".

Meanwhile, world champion team Red Bull Racing continues to question the governing Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) about the legality of the Mercedes W03s driven by Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg.

Mercedes is thought by F1 insiders to be using a system of air ducts from the rear wing of the WO3 that changes the airflow around the front wing when the DRS (drag-reduction system, or driver-adjustable rear wing) is activated, reputedly reducing drag and producing straight-line speeds far faster than other F1 cars.

Red Bull's loss of dominance to McLaren is thought to have been caused partly by use of a smaller and lighter KERS (kinetic energy recovery system) unit than its rivals.

Meanwhile, Ferrari is expected to have a new rear-end soon on its F2012 cars similar to that of the Sauber car in which Mexican Sergio Perez challenged Ferrari's Fernando Alonso for victory in Malaysia last month. Italian magazine Autosprint said the new Ferrari design was so similar to the Sauber that the revised F2012 should be christened the "Ferrauber". Incidentally, the head of aerodynamics at Sauber again now is Dutch-born Australian Willem Toet.

Meanwhile, a poll in Italy has suggested Rubens Barrichello as the ideal replacement for fellow Brazilian Felipe Massa if he continues to underperform against Alonso at Ferrari. Barrichello is now in IndyCar after 19 years in F1 but has said that if the team where he partnered Michael Schumacher for several seasons called him he would return in a flash. Barrichello said that while there were "some spicy episodes" in the days when Schumacher reigned it was "the best team I've ever driven for in terms of support, of creativity".

Perez is increasingly likely to become a Ferrari driver in the near future but he has indicated he would prefer to stay at Sauber than change teams mid-season.

In this era of next to no testing during the championship that is probably a very wise decision.

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