MOTORSPORT: Variety the spice of Dakar

Frenchman Stephane Peterhansel, a nine-time winner of the Dakar when it was held in Europe and Africa, has taken the lead in this year's second running of it in South America in a BMW X3 after dominating the third stage, which included the first dune crossings and off-road sections.

Perhansel finished almost six minutes ahead of Spanish rally legend Carlos Sainz's Volkswagen Touareg on the 182km competitive stage from La Rioja to Fiambala in Argentina and now leads Sainz overall by more than 4½ minutes.

Sainz's Qatari teammate Nasser Al-Attiyah, the leader after two days of competition, has dropped to third overall after finishing over 10 minutes behind Peterhansel in third position on the third stage.

The first leader of this year's rally, Spaniard Joan "Nani" Roma, lost 15 minutes when he crashed his BMW on stage two and then damaged it again by driving into a hole on the third stage, lost a lot of time and dropped out of contention.

Last year's winner, South African Giniel De Villiers, suffered a severe engine problem with his VW 50km into the third stage, had to stop and wait for assistance and his chances of a repeat victory are already as good as gone already.

Peterhansel's latest stage win is a record 52nd for him in the Dakar -- his 19th in cars after his previous string of successes on motorcycles.

The conditions are as demanding as ever, with officials continually forced to modify the stages because of the tricky terrain and weather conditions as the competitors now climb through the Andes mountains.

Al-Attiyah, who was disqualified last year, said after his win on the second stage this time that it was "very, very difficult -- raining, muddy, slippery, foggy -- everything".

The first day of competition, after the ceremonial first stage south of Buenos Aires, saw the death of a woman spectator who was struck by the Desert Warrior of German driver Mirco Schultis.

The woman was in an area not designated as a safe viewing zone and several others around were injured and required hospital treatment.

The starting field this year comprised 362 entries -- 134 cars, 151 motorcycles, 52 trucks and 25 quad-bikes.

The 9030km route -- more than half of it competitive and reaching 4726 metres above sea level -- now takes the field into Chile for seven stages, including four through the Atacama Desert, which is reputedly 100 times drier than California's Death Valley and where several weather stations have never recorded rain.

The rally crosses back over the Andes on January 13 for four more stages in Argentina before the official finish in Buenos Aires on January 17.

Australia's Bruce Garland and his co-driver Harry Suzuki in an Isuzu D-MAX 4x4 ute built at Garland's Sydney workshop have moved steadily up through the field on each of the three stages so far to be classified 20th -- 2½ hours behind Peterhansel.

They have been 27th, 23rd and 19th on the stages so far. Last year the pair finished 11th outright and were the first "amateur" -- or non-factory -- team home. They earned bragging rights as the first diesel ute and first production chassis car.

The Isuzu's standard 3.0-litre turbo-diesel production engine has been slightly tweaked this year for better performance, especially for the high altitude sections. It has maximum torque of 600Nm -- up 66 per cent on the standard roadgoing D-MAX ute -- and peak power of 180kW, which is 50 per cent more than the standard vehicle. It competes in Class T1.2, which is for modified 4WD diesels.

Garland says the spectator support in South America has been incredible again, perhaps even better than last year.

"The crowds are huge -- amazing. You're in the middle of nowhere but there are people everywhere. Tens of thousands of people out on the stages. They just love the event," Garland said. "It's just fantastic the support they are giving us. You feel like a rock star!"

In the motorcycle section, Australians Rob Pollard (KTM 690 Rally) and Christophe Barriere Varju (KTM 660) are standing 55th and 67th respectively.

Leaders of Dakar's car section after three stages -- Stephane Peterhansel (France, BMW) 9 hours 14 minutes 28 seconds; Carlos Sainz (Sapin, VW) +4m33s; Nasser Al-Attiyah (Qatar, VW) +7m31s; Mark Miller (US, VW) +13m12s; Krzysztof Holowczyc (Poland, Nissan) +40m38s; Carlos Sousa (Portugal, Mitsubishi) +46m45s; Alfie Cox (Nissan) +47m58; Guilherme Spinelli (Brazil, Mitsubishi) +1h01m52s; Robby Gordon (US, Hummer) +1h04m52s; Mauricio Neves (Brazil, VW) +1h09m14s.

Rain can't dampen Sydney sprintcar sizzle
Sydney's sprintcar season over the holidays featuring American NASCAR superstar Tony Stewart has been disrupted by rain but has produced some fantastic racing at Parramatta City Raceway, with the fourth and final meeting tonight (Tuesday, January 5).

America's four-time World of Outlaws champion Donny Schatz won the Australian Sprintcar Grand Prix ahead of Australian champion Garry Brazier on Boxing Day night, with Stewart making his way from the tail of the field to finish seventh.

On December 30 Sydney driver Ian Madsen scored the biggest win of his career, beating Schatz and Marty Perovich, with Stewart fourth, in one of the best races at Parramatta for years -- a video of which has bobbed up on Youtube, see here.

Last night (Monday, January 4) Stewart set the fastest time in qualifying but local Glen Saville upstaged his more fancied rivals to claim victory on the opening night of the $50,000 Scott Darley.

Before claiming the first feature race of his career, ahead of Robbie Farr and Schatz, the Camden driver had been seeded 22nd for the two-night event, which is scheduled to conclude tonight.

Stewart, winner of 37 NASCAR Sprint Cup  races and two championships after an IndyCar series title, mastered the slick surface during qualifying and followed that up with second place in his heat before finishing sixth in the feature race and is looking forward to his final outing this trip in a 40-lap extravaganza with a $50,000 winner's cheque.
 

Briatore was banned for life last September by the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) over the so-called "Crashgate" scandal in which then Renault driver Nelson Piquet Junior was found to have been ordered to crash in the first Singapore night grand prix in 2008 to help teammate Fernando Alonso win the race.

Symonds was banned for five years. The 59-year-old Briatore is seeking 1 million euros in damages as well as the overturning of his ban.

An outcome favourable to him could help him remain a director of the English football club Queens Park Rangers, in which he invested along with his F1 supremo mate Bernie Ecclestone. However, Ferrari F1 boss Stefano Domenicali has said that Briatore would not be welcomed back to the GP paddock.

"People don't like reheated soup -- he will have to find another opportunity," Domenicali told Italy's La Stampa newspaper.

A sales perspective on the cost of F1
British journalists Christian Sylt and Caroline Reid, who have acclaim for writings on the business of F1, especially through their Formula Money reports, say that the five car manufacturers that owned F1 last year needed to sell more than 25,000 cars to break even on their spending on the sport -- Toyota 9701, Renault 8206, Mercedes 4154, BMW 3653 and Ferrari 153.

Of course, Toyota and BMW have now quit F1, although it seems the Sauber team may have to continue to carry the BMW name this season -- despite its cars having Ferrari engines!

Renault has taken in a major investor but will continue racing under its own name, while Mercedes has switched its primary allegiance from McLaren to the team that won world titles last year as Brawn and was previously Honda and originally British American Racing.

The article is here,by Sylt and Reid on why manufacturers have quit F1, published in London's The Telegraph.

Not everyone happy about Schumi comeback
The big F1 story over Christmas-New Year was the confirmation that seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher will come out of retirement this year to race for the team now controlled by Mercedes.

While Schumi fans and F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone are applauding the comeback, and Ferrari was happy to release him from his ambassadorial role with the Prancing Horse, not everyone is happy -- especially the works council at Mercedes' parent company, Daimler, see here.

And, it should be remembered, it is now six years since Schumacher last won a world championship. Not only has he been out of racing for three years but in his last two seasons on the track he was beaten to the title by Fernando Alonso -- who now occupies his old seat at Ferrari.

Here's how the line-up of F1 drivers is looking for this season, starting in Bahrain on March 14 (with Melbourne the second race on March 28), with six vacancies still:
Mercedes (formerly BrawnGP) -- Nico Rosberg, Michael Schumacher
Red Bull -- Sebastian Vettel, Mark Webber
McLaren -- Lewis Hamilton, Jenson Button
Ferrari -- Felipe Massa, Fernando Alonso
Williams -- Rubens Barrichello, Nico Hulkenberg
Renault -- Robert Kubica, other driver to be announced
Sauber (formerly BMW) -- Kamui Kobayashi, other driver to be announced
Toro Rosso -- Sebastien Buemi, other driver to be announced
Force India -- Adrian Sutil, Vitantonio Liuzzi
Campos -- Bruno Senna, other driver to be announced
Lotus -- Jarno Trulli, Heikki Kovalainen
Virgin (formerly Manor) -- Timo Glock, Lucas di Grassi
USF1 -- Neither driver announced

V8 Supercar field set for Middle East blast-off
And here is the V8 Supercar line-up for the season starting with the Middle East rounds in Abu Dhabi on February 19-20 and Bahrain on February 26-27:
Toll Holden Racing Team: Will Davison, Garth Tander
TeamVodafone: Jamie Whincup, Craig Lowndes
Dick Johnson Racing: James Courtney, Steve Johnson, Jonathon Webb
Garry Rogers Motorsport: Lee Holdsworth, Michael Caruso
Ford Performance Racing: Mark Winterbottom, Steve Richards
Kelly Racing: Rick Kelly, Todd Kelly, Jason Bargwanna, a fourth driver TBA
Stone Brothers Racing: Shane van Gisbergen, Alex Davison
Brad Jones Racing: Jason Richards, Jason Bright, Karl Reindler (tbc)
Walkinshaw Performance: Fabian Coulthard, Andrew Thompson
Paul Morris Motorsport: Russell Ingall, Greg Murphy
Rod Nash Racing: Paul Dumbrell
Tony D'Alberto Racing: Tony D'Alberto
Triple F Racing: Dean Fiore
James Rosenberg Racing: Tim Slade
Lucas Dumbrell Racing: Daniel Gaunt

Mansell to tackle Le Mans with sons
Nigel Mansell, the 1992 F1 world champion and 1993 IndyCar champion, is intending to race in the Le Mans 24 hour sports car classic this year with his two sons, Leo and Greg.

Mansell plans to enter a factory-backed Ginetta-Zytek Z09R in the LMP1 class for Beechdean Mansell Motorsport.

Mansell claims to have "full support from Zytek".

Beechdean boss Andrew Howard says he is relishing the link with Mansell and moving his team into prototypes, having previously raced in the GT category.

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