Motorsport: VW early leader in Dakar Rally

Monday motorsport reportJanuary 8, 2007

Volkswagen mounts challenge to Mitsubishi in Dakar
Volkswagen is the early leader in the Dakar Rally that began at the weekend. Portugal's Carlos Sousa won the first stage in his homeland and Spain's Carlos Sainz the second in his country -- both in VW Touaregs. The German manufacturer is trying to break Mitsubishi's strangehold on the event this century.

While VWs filled the first five places on the first stage, the Mitsubishi Pajeros of Spaniard Nani Roma and Frenchman Stephane Peterhansel moved into the top five, behind South African Giniel de Villiers' VW, on the second stage.

Sousa is the overall leader, 45 seconds in front of Sainz, as the field now crosses the Mediterranean by ship to Morocco and then travels deep into Africa, including across the Sahara Desert, to the finish at Dakar in Senegal on January 21.

In the motorcycle section, Portugal's Helder Rodrigues is the leader from his countryman and fellow Yamaha rider Ruben Faria, with Spain's Isidre Esteve on a KTM third.

Reid drove the car nicknamed "Black Beauty" in some lanes of the bridge that had been closed for resurfacing and which reopen to public traffic this week. Two cars had a nose-to-tail on the bridge as motorists tried to get a glimpse of the A1 car in action. The 3.4-litre, V8 was reportedly clocked at about 160km/h, but that was as it slowed on the southern side of the bridge.

Police, perhaps conveniently, were said to have had trouble getting low enough with a speed radar to pick up the car's electronic signature because of its low profile. Its potential top speed is about 300km/h.

Reid won both the sprint and feature races in "Black Beauty" at the fifth round of the A1 series in Indonesia late last year and that form has created great interest in NZ ahead of Taupo. The success at Indonesia's Sentul track hoisted NZ from 12th to fifth in the country standings.

Germany and its 19-year-old star Nico Hulkenberg lead the standings by 12 points from Britain after five of the 12 rounds in the second season of A1. NZ, with 31 points, is only five points off second place, behind Mexico and debut season champion France.

"Black Beauty" and the German car are both engineered by British-based Super Nova, which fielded the Formula 3000 car Mark Webber raced in Europe in 2001. Australia is standing 13th of 21 countries in the series, with Sydney to host the seventh round at Eastern Creek on February 2-4.

A capacity crowd of 33,000 is being tipped for Taupo, with estimates of up to NZ$30 million in economic benefits for the country. A naming rights sponsor is to be announced this weekend, while Coca-Cola, Heineken and Samsung are already corporate partners in the event. The Taupo circuit, near Rotorua, has recently been given a $2 million upgrade.

Gaunt is great in Wigram
Daniel Gaunt led from start to finish to win NZ's prized Lady Wigram Trophy for the second time at the weekend. The 25-lap race was the last of four at Christchurch's Ruapuna Park that are part of the country's Toyota Racing Series.

Gaunt, who previously won the trophy driving a Formula Three car in 2004, finished less than 2sec ahead of Ben Harford, who had won two earlier, and shorter, races. Australian-based Brit Ben Clucas, the reigning Aussie F3 champion, was third, ahead of 17-year-old Kiwi Shane Gisbergen. The next round of the Toyota series -- which will be the second of three in the international series, held within the eight-round national championship -- will be during the A1 meeting at Taupo.

Gaunt is now one of eight drivers to have won the Lady Wigram more than once in its half-century history. Kiwi great Graham McRae won it four times, the legendary Jim Clark and Craig Baird three times each, and Sir Jack Brabham and the late Bruce McLaren twice each. Sir Jackie Stewart, Stirling Moss and Paul Radisich have also won it.

Kiwi Falcon on thank-you tour
Team Kiwi Racing has taken its new Ford Falcon V8 Supercar on an eight-day tour of NZ to show supporters who helped fund it. Team Kiwi bought the Falcon from Ford Performance Racing with donations from Kiwi fans after its previous Holden Commodore was destroyed in Paul Radisich's crash at Bathurst last October. The Falcon's tour will take it from Auckland to Invercargill and back via NZ's west coast.

"Ferrari is the best place to be in F1," Alesi told Germany's Auto Motor und Sport, adding that "a paradise awaits" Michael Schumacher's replacement, Kimi Raikkonen. "I remember signing autographs for a whole hour on an Italian freeway -- just because I drove for Ferrari. It's like being a doctor -- you are respected for it all over the world."

Nobody has loved racing more for the Scuderia than Alesi, even though he copped a US$200,000 fine over an outburst early in Jean Todt's reign as team principal. Only the incomparable Gilles Villeneuve has been more spectacular in the red machines.

Nurburgring burns bright for F1
Germany's Nurburgring circuit says it won't surrender its right, under a new deal, to host the country's grand prix every second year after reporting losses of about A$30 million for 2004-05.

"Our lights are not going out," says Walter Kafitz, managing director of Nurburgring -- which saw crowds at its former European GP dwindle by 25 per cent over the past four years and then its local star, Michael Schumacher, retire after dominating the sport for more than a decade.

"We have a (F1) contract until 2011 (including this year's German GP) and in the interest of the region we want to keep F1 here. Our problems are no different to those of any other (GP) circuit -- we all make losses." Kafitz says the race fee to Bernie Ecclestone's F1 empire increases 10 per cent a year and is hurting Nurburgring.

Day of reckoning near at Brickyard
Indianapolis has only a one-year contract for its grand prix, and Indianapolis Motor Speedway president Joie Chitwood is to make a statement on "the future of F1 in the US" later this week.

When the 2007 US GP deal was done last August, IMS chief executive Tony George said "there are too many unanswered questions to commit any longer than that".

The Brickyard has the horrible memories of the GP with only six cars in 2005, but it has invested so much in staging F1 event it is hard to imagine it now pulling the plug. Incidentally, George crashed a sports car in Florida at the weekend while testing for the upcoming Daytona 24-hour. He was not injured.

Racers caught in internet fraud
A Scotsman who defrauded two racing drivers out of £16,000 (about A$40,000) has been ordered to do community service after his parents paid back the cash, the Glasgow Daily Record newspaper reports.

Customer service representative William Robinson placed ads on the Race Cars Direct website claiming he could supply parts for F1 racing cars that persuaded Swedish racer Johan Rajamaki to pay him £10,000 for a chassis and conned Danish driver Kim Soerensen out of £6000 after promising him a chassis that was never delivered.

A court was told that mounting debts led Robinson to perpetrate his scam from his home computer. Robinson told Soerensen he could supply a McLaren-Mercedes F1 chassis for £6000 and Rajamaki transferred £10,000 to the Scotsman's bank account after he was promised a chassis would be sent to him in Sweden.

Appeal likely in Thompson murder case
Michael Goodwin, the creator of supercross who was convicted in California at the end of last week of ordering the murders of land speed, drag racing and off-road legend and Indianapolis 500 entrant Mickey Thompson and his wife, Trudy, almost 20 years ago is expected to appeal and seek a new trial. Goodwin's lawyer, Elena Saris, says Goodwin is "a jerk, an egomaniac and a braggart" but not a murderer.

Two men who fled the Los Angeles murder site on bicycles have never been identified, let alone found. Thompson's sister, Collene Campbell, says: "We still want these people. They're killers. We got one out of three. We got the main one." She is now distributing fliers with sketches of the two bicycle-riding gunmen and is asking the public for help in identifying them.

Saris says the long-running case has been given the "Hollywood treatment". While Goodwin's supporters claim there is little hard evidence against him, 15 people testified that they heard him threaten Thompson's life or those of his associates after a short motorsport business partnership disintegrated.