MOTORSPORT: Ward's whopper fine stands, pretty much

CAMS tribunal affirms Ward's big penalty
Big fines are in vogue in motor sport at the minute. A week ago the McLaren Formula 1 team was fined US$100 million -- or almost A$120 million -- in the "Spygate" scandal. More on that later.

Almost a month ago we reported here on the $30,000 fine imposed on veteran Sydney motor racer Phil Ward.

Unlike the McLaren penalty, Ward's fine pretty much escaped media attention, which struck us as rather curious.

It seemed to us that had he been a footballer or cricketer a penalty of that magnitude would have attraced much more attention -- and interest in what prompted it.

Anyway, the Ward case -- which involved a run-in between Ward, the Aussie Racing Cars series co-ordinator, and officialdom at Oran Park in mid-August -- has now been to a CAMS (Confederation of Australian Motor Sport) appeals tribunal.

The stewards at Oran Park found Ward in breach of national competition rule 183 parts VIII (failing to obey the directions of CAMS or an official), X (using or offering violence by any means towards any person), and XII (any act prejudicial to the interests of motor sport generally).

Apart from imposing the $30,000 fine on him, Ward was excluded from that Oran Park meeting.

The evidence was reviewed and submissions heard by a CAMS appeal hearing on September 6 -- and the $30,000 fine has now been affirmed -- although $10,000 of it has been suspended for a year.

We take this to mean that Ward has to pay $20,000 but, unless he offends again in the next year, gets off paying the last $10,000.

Announcing the findings of the tribunal -- comprising a leading barrister, Lex Lasry, and Garth Wigston and Robert Dyer -- CAMS says it "reinforced the serious nature of these rule breaches, in that they have a strong ability to bring motor sport into disrepute -- and that such acts will not be tolerated".

"The tribunal also noted Mr Ward's genuine regret for the incident and his subsequent apology to the relevant parties," it says.

That is perhaps almost enough said on the matter.

Despite the prospect that Ward will escape paying one-third of the original financial penalty, $20,000 is still a whopper fine in domestic motor sport.

We continue to be amazed that so little media attention has been paid to this case and note that, in the curious way of motor sport and its judicial processes, the precise details have not found their way into the public domain.

Equally, we regret that -- due to other commitments -- we were unable to attend the appeal hearing, at least to speak to the parties in person.

Ward has not returned our most recent telephone message regarding the case, but we take that to mean that he is accepting his "medicine" and moving on.

In three Aussie Racing Cars races at Sandown last weekend he recorded two DNFs and a 15th, although we note that his sons, Brad and James, head the series points table with the seventh and final round to be fought out on the streets of Surfers' Paradise at the Gold Coast Indy on October 18–21.

Enduro aces eye new Falcon for 1000
Reigning Bathurst 1000 champions, and the winners of last weekend's Sandown 500, Craig Lowndes and Jamie Whincup may be racing a new Ford Falcon when they head to Mt Panorama in a fortnight to defend their Peter Brock Trophy.

Triple 8/Team Vodafone is building three new BA Falcons at its Brisbane base, with the first to be completed this week and tested at Willowbank Raceway soon, according to this week's Auto Action magazine.

"The car will be evaluated by both Lowndes and Whincup at the test -- and back-to-back against the Sandown-winning Falcon -- so the team can make a decision after that about whether it makes its competition debut in the biggest race of the season (the Bathurst 1000 on October 7)," Auto Action editor Andrew MacLean reports.

MacLean quotes Lowndes saying, "We are not going to rush out and run it just for the sake of it. (But) There's no reason why it won't be as good, or better."

Lowndes says that last Sunday's Sandown victory is "pretty confidence-inspiring for us heading back there (Bathurst)".

"I think we proved that having two lead drivers in the car will give us the ultimate speed we need -- at any point in the race -- to take out that race again," Lowndes says.

The HSV Dealer Team has confirmed today that it will pair its star drivers -- reigning V8 Supercar series champion Rick Kelly and Garth Tander -- at Bathurst.

The pair -- first and second in this year's championship, with Kelly 9 points ahead of Tander after Sandown -- will share Kelly's VE Holden Commodore.

New Zealanders Paul Radisich, who was an impressive second with Kelly at Sandown, and Craig Baird, who co-drove with Tander last weekend, will share the Tander's regular Commodore.

Robby Gordon, the wild man who punted Ambrose out of a likely victory in NASCAR's Busch Series street race in Montreal a few weeks ago, had again offered the Aussie a Ford Fusion to race in the big league on the "Monster Mile" at Dover, Delaware.

However, Ambrose says he has passed up the chance because his wife, Sonja, is expecting their second child in North Carolina on Sunday.

He will race his own -- or his regular team Wood Brothers/JTG Racing's -- Fusion in the Busch race at Dover, where he has previously achieved his best Busch results, a sixth- place finish after qualifying third.

Wood Brothers/JTG Racing was supposed to have fielded Ambrose at Nextel Cup road races at Sonoma, California, and Watkins Glen, New York, already this year -- but both neither happened.

Gordon first offered Ambrose a Cup drive for Watkins Glen, but rain during qualifying denied him a start.

Now, after this week's cancellation, Ambrose says, "We'll try and hook up down the road."

"The Cup deal would have been great but as much as every driver want to make it to Nextel Cup, you have to make sure you don't rush into it," Ambrose says.

"Robby is a guy that is true to his word. He was doing everything in his power to make this deal work for me. After we missed Watkins Glen because of the qualifying rain-out he offered me a shot for Dover.

"We even entered the car -- it got that close -- but in the end I told Robby that I really appreciate his offer, but at this stage it is best for all of us if we concentrate on our own deals for this weekend and he agreed.

"I've developed a lot of respect for Robby over the past month or so. We are both proud to be Ford drivers, I respect the way he goes about his racing and his business, and we will keep the communication channels open and see what happens down the line."

Of his Busch prospects for the weekend, Ambrose says, "We've got a different front-end suspension set-up on the car (to when he last raced at Dover). We've got a different body on the car -- a different car completely.

"We've got a lot of confidence with our direction that we are heading down, as far as car handling."

Ambrose is seventh in the Busch championship and second in its series rookie-of-the-year standings.

A good finish this weekend could push his season's prizemoney past the A$1 million mark.

Elsewhere on the NASCAR front, Sam Hornish Junior -- and Indianapolis 500 winner and Indy Racing League series champion for Roger Penske -- failed to qualify for his Nextel Cup debut at New Hampshire last weekend.

And Jacques Villeneuve, former Formula 1 and Indy champion, and another Indy 500 winner, Buddy Lazier, make their NASCAR debuts this weekend in the third-tier pick-up truck series round at Las Vegas.

Spygate ... it's all coming out in the wash
The mountain of reading material on F1's 'Spygate' is reaching Everest proportions, with the release of the transcripts of last Thursday's World Motor Sport Council hearing in Paris and the commentary it has sparked.

Most interesting in all that has been said in recent days is the suggestion that Nigel Stepney -- the Englishman who was working for Ferrari and has been at the centre, along with McLaren designer, Mike Coughlan, of the espionage row -- has joined, or will be joining, Aston Martin.

Now Aston Martin was bought from Ford recently by a syndicate headed by David Richards, the head of Prodrive -- which runs Ford Performance Vehicles and Ford Performance Racing in Australia, Subaru's world rally team, and is set to field F1's 12th team next year.

And that new F1 team is likely to be running McLaren-Mercedes cars! There has even been speculation that the team might carry the Aston Martin name.

Word of Stepney linking up with Aston Martin came first in Italy's Gazetta dello Sport newspaper, but we note the suggestion has now been dismissed by grandprix.com

It will be a major sensation if Stepney is appointed to any position by Aston Martin, either in its racing or road car operations, as he and Coughlan are effectively on notice from that FIA that they could be banned from motor sport for a very long time.

The World Motor Sport Council documents reveal that the communication between Stepney and Coughlan was much more extensive than previously thought -- and certainly a lot more than McLaren had the world believe.

Italian police have told the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) that they have traced at least 288 text messages, 35 phone calls and 23 emails between Stepney and Coughlan from March 1 to July 3.

Having already withdrawn its appeal against the loss of constructor points at the Hungarian, because of Fernando Alonso delaying teammate Lewis Hamilton in the pits, it now seems that the team is unlikely to pursue an appeal against its US$100 fine and loss of all constructor points this year.

With so much at stake in a business sense, this amounts to an amazing admission by McLaren.

Confirmation that it will not appeal is expected tonight (Thursday), Australian time.

McLaren principal Ron Dennis has talked already of wanting "closure" and of being prepared to take "a hit" for the benefit of the sport, despite feeling the fine is disproportionate.

Indeed, he reckons it can pay the fine without any reduction in its budget for next year.

It has been suggested any appeal could have been strung out for two years.

Dennis has been massively outpointed in this whole affair by his long-time foe, FIA president Max Mosley.

While that pair posed for pictures together at last weekend's Belgian GP, relations between Dennis and Alonso are now non-existent.

Dennis calls the relationship "extremely cold" -- and says "that is an understatement".

"We are not on speaking terms. He does not speak to anyone much. He is a remarkable recluse for a driver."

The pair have not spoken since the Hungarian GP. It was there, the morning after the pitlane kerfuffle, that Alonso threatened Dennis that he would reveal emails that showed McLaren had Ferrari secrets.

Dennis did not believe such information existed and, curiously, went running to Mosley, telling him of Alonso's threat -- but painting it as an empty threat.

In any case, much of the detail was bound to come out before long from the Italian investigations.

Renault spying suggestions lack legs
As if the McLaren-Ferrari spying story is not enough, talk persists in F1 of another scandal involving a former McLaren engineer working at the Renault team.

McLaren sources have been hinting at a "bombshell" for some time.

Design engineer Phil Mackereth reportedly took three computer disks of technical data with him when he changed teams.

Renault team chief Flavio Briatore insists the case is different to "Spygate".

"If somebody tells me it's the same, I sue," Briatore says. "Secondly, it's not an investigation regarding myself and the team.

"Third, we have given all the information to the federation, at least when we found out something. This is it. It's as simple as that. And I have given the evidence as well to McLaren."

And, again, Max Mosley is making life difficult for Ron Dennis.

"We haven't had the complaint or the detail we have been promised from McLaren about that," Mosley says. "We've had a dossier from Renault which doesn't look particularly damning."

Alonso more political than Prost, says Lauda
Fernando Alonso has been portrayed, particularly in the British press, as the bad boy of much that is happening in F1.

But perhaps the most stinging of all attacks has been from triple world champion Niki Lauda, who claims Alonso is even more political than the great -- and four-time world champion -- Alain Prost.

"There are the drivers who see nothing more important than being the best only on the track -- I was one of them," says Lauda.

"On the other hand there are drivers who use politics to try to strengthen their position, and Alonso is like that.

"Alain Prost was like this too, but Alonso is even worse. Instead of trying so hard to achieve number one status, he should just drive quicker."