MOTORSPORT: Weekend of the big crunches

Hooray! Wildcards go some way to boosting enduro fields
The Darwin round of the V8 Supercars, the British Formula 1 Grand Prix, the last at Silverstone, and NASCAR on the road course at Sonoma in California on Monday, Australian time. It should be a good weekend on the (TV) box.

As so often, the lead-up to the racing has been massively overshadowed by politics. We'll come to some of that a little later, as the Splittergate case may finally be decided (probably not settled!) today (Friday) and it's Doomsday for F1 tonight, but first a positive we noticed this week.

Four teams have been selected from the V8 Supercar development series to boost the fields for the Phillip Island 500 in September and Bathurst 1000 in October.

Ideally, it should mean 34-car grids at both enduros. Now that's an improvement on last year, and we reckon there ought to be more still. Around 40 would be ideal at Mt Panorama for the Great Race. Perhaps even 44.

Some of the fields of yesteryear were too big, and last year's was too small. Even with 34 entries the field can quickly be reduced towards 30 if there are a couple of big incidents during practice and qualifying. But, credit where credit is due: the four "wildcards" for this year is a step in the right direction.

For the record, the development series teams given the wildcards this year are Seiders Racing Team, Matthew White's MW Motorsport, Greg Murphy Racing and Sonic Motorsport. Sonic's appearance gives the legendary Allan Moffat's son James a start, perhaps with Rodney Jane, son of the also legendary Bob Jane, as his co-driver.

There may only be a handful of development series teams worthy of these wildcard entries, so to get the field up to bigger numbers may be going to need the big Main Game teams to field extra entries for international stars.

Perhaps that's something that can be worked on over two or three years, if economic circumstances allow.

We said recently that the only doors open to him were at Tasman Motorsport and the Kelly Brothers team, and we gather Tasman is the more likely.

A returning, part-time Skaife paired with Greg Murphy at the mountain would be a great combination. But that leads us to something else ...

Skaife is also returning to the V8 Supercars Australia board, supposedly as an independent director. His comments in Auto Action about it are almost statesmanlike.

Now he has been a hugely successful racer, is retired from full-time race driving, and has various skills and views and an abundance of enthusiasm that make him a logical V8SA board member -- now, because he did have to bow out once before, during the wrangle over Holden Racing Team ownership (as Tom Walkinshaw clawed it back from Skaife in less than transparent circumstances).

Among Skaife's busy "retirement" schedule, he's a commentator on the 7 Network telecasts and he's heading V8SA's investigations of/planning for a "Car of the Future". And he is an ambassador for Holden -- and supposedly 90 per cent set to drive a Holden at Phillip Island and Bathurst again.

So how on earth can he, or anybody else, claim he's an independent director? We're not saying he needs to be independent, but Skaife and others seem to have been at pains to say he is or will be.

As with lots of things with Skaife, it's starting out with the best of intentions but has the potential to get messy -- certainly if there is any need for him to be independent.

It's not hard to envisage anyone wearing a Ford hat in that V8SA inner sanctum questioning his "independence". And then there are potential conflicts with the Holden ambassadorship. Unless that doesn't amount to anything much.

We understand Holden doesn't want a bar of the "Car of the Future" idea, and we're not sure Ford does either, so there's a hot potato in the fire already.

Anyway, there are bigger boardroom and management issues for V8SA in the immediate future -- like finding a new CEO to replace Cameron Levick after his early exit and technical director Cameron Little, if Little indeed is going. A report in Auto Action quotes him saying he's had quite a few requests to reconsider his resignation.

Little's resignation came, of course, over the Splittergate row -- the question of the legality of flexible mounts on the front air dams on the Falcons built by Triple 8 Race Engineering for its own Team Vodafone and its customer teams. The matter goes back to the stewards' room in Darwin this morning.

Tony Cochrane, now V8SA's executive chairman -- meaning hands-on, day-to-day - with Levick on the way out the door, has been quoted this week -- on V8Supercars.com.au/BigPond Sport - saying Splittergate had been handled poorly and that "new measures" are needed to avoid a repeat.

"A number of people handled it badly," Cochrane said. "If it had been handled correctly in the first instance it would have been a mere grassfire and it was turned into a bushfire unnecessarily."

Cochrane talked of "poor decisions of various people" and it being "wrong to ladle all that on one person".

"The structure's wrong. And if the structure's wrong, you'll keep making the same error. The structure needs to be changed and I'm here to change it.

"It would be premature for me to tell you what I'm thinking but ... I've got my yellow pad out."

Now what on earth does any of that mean? Hope any decisions that are made/announced come with a lot more clarity than that gibberish.

Awaiting official word on XXXX 'safety' car
Oh yes, it's official now that Nissan is no longer providing the V8 Supercar safety and course vehicles -- because it wouldn't cop having its GT-R splashed with XXXX Gold beer sponsorship.

We haven't heard or sighted any announcement on a replacement arrangement since V8SA spokesman Cole Hitchcock informed us on June 5 that "in the near future we will be unveiling our plans for both the safety car program, the vehicles involved, drivers' education program and responsible drinking messaging".

We've had a report of a couple of yellow Holdens in Darwin that may be the replacements for this weekend, although we gather Holden and HSV declined "invitations" to provide vehicles to carry the XXXX Gold livery.

Heat's right on FPR in Darwin
On the racing front, the Darwin round is being painted as crucial for Ford Performance Racing -- Ford's No. 1 of only two teams that receive factory funding.

It is only fifth in the teams championship, behind not only Team Vodafone -- the Ford team that the factory no longer dishes out dollars to but which still does all the winning -- but Team Vodafone/Triple 8 customer team Jim Beam/Dick Johnson Racing as well as two Holden teams, second-placed Holden Racing Team and fourth-placed Gary Rogers Motorsport.

And only one of FPR's drivers is in the top 10 in the drivers' championship -- Mark Winterbottom in 10th -- the sixth-placed Ford driver!

Winterbottom has less than 60 per cent of the points of series leader, and Ford driver, Jamie Whincup this year. And FPR has little more than 60 per cent of the points of Team Vodafone.

In times of tight wallets at car companies, these are not the kind of numbers FPR needs to stay on the "payroll" at Broadmeadows.

Leader Whincup reckons Darwin's Hidden Valley is a bit of a hoodoo circuit for him.

"It's one track that I've had good speed at but never a good result," he said. "I haven't even been on the podium.

"It's one of those remaining tracks I'm yet to conquer. It's my Everest and that gives me great motivation."

Come Sunday night expect Whincup to be a fair way up that Everest, if not at the summit.

"But if it goes on any longer then we'll become more worried about what we (drivers) are doing internally (the sport) than moving forward."

Perhaps what he's saying is it's time for clear direction, and expression of that direction, from the now hands-on chairman.

Go to it, Cocho.

Perhaps the most crucial day in F1 history
We're only hours away now from what may be the most momentous moment in F1 history -- the final decision on which teams are accepted to race next year.

And a couple of days away from the British GP. Certainly, or so it seems, the last at Silverstone. A race at which Jenson Button, dominating the world championship for BrawnGP (nee Honda), is on home ground, in front of an army of patriotic fans. Another race in which Australia's Mark Webber may have a better chance than ever before to pull off that elusive first GP win.

Webber's latest column for BBC Sport is the best snapshot of his thinking at the minute -- about the race, his tussle with Red Bull teammate Sebastian Vettel and F1's politics -- and it's here.

The row over which teams get a start on the F1 grid next year is about rules and budget restrictions -- and Max Mosley, and to a lesser extent now, Bernie Ecclestone's running of the sport.

Webber makes one brilliant point in this latest column of his: "It's now got to the point where 80 million pounds (almost A$163 million) is paid for one player (Manchester United's Cristiano Ronaldo) to play football but you're asked to run a whole F1 team and travel the world for 40 million pounds."

The F1 teams know that the spending that's been going on is no longer sustainable in the greatly changed world economic conditions, but the resistance is to the cap Federation Internationale de l'Automobile president Mosley has tried to impose -- that it is just too big a cut, certainly instantly.

The situation is very fluid as tonight's deadline looms.

A week ago the FIA named 13 two-car teams for next year -- the existing 10, plus newcomers Campos from Spain, Peter Windsor's USF1 and Manor -- whose cars will be built by Nick Wirth, who created the Simtek F1 car that David Brabham drove in 1993-94.

All three newcomers will be powered by Cosworth engines. For a backgrounder on Cosworth, see here.

Of the existing 10 teams, Williams and Force India broke ranks with the others and entered next year's world championship unconditionally, so they are definite starters.

The FIA listed three teams as already contracted -- Ferrari, Red Bull and Toro Rosso -- although each of those teams claims the contractual terms have been breached and they are only conditional entrants, like McLaren-Mercedes, BMW-Sauber, Renault, Toyota and BrawnGP.

The eight -- that is, those other than Williams and Force India -- have continually muttered, through the Formula One Teams Association, about running in an alternative championship if a compromise is not reached.

There is also the prospect -- more likely, in a hurry, and in light of the difficulty in setting up a rival world championship in a hurry, getting tracks to race on, and the blessing of the FIA (near impossible while Mosley remains in charge) -- many of those manufacturers will go to/return to sports car racing, particularly the Le Mans 24-Hour showpiece.

The F1 picture at the minute is too complex to even attempt to explain here today.

However, here is the nub of Mosley's position:

"FOTA, made up of participants who come and go as it suits them, has set itself two clear objectives -- to take over the regulation of F1 from the FIA and to expropriate the commercial rights for itself. These are not objectives which the FIA can accept. ... Without technical innovation, F1 will wither and die. Without real cost constraints, F1 will lose its teams. This is why the FIA is insisting on cost restraint."

The views of many of the other key players are excellently summarised in a series of quotes on the Planet-F1 website, see here. And Planet-F1 poses 10 pertinent questions for Mosley, see here. It's easy to see that Planet-F1 is taking a very strong anti-Mosley stance.

And Sir Jackie Stewart, the strongest critic of Mosley and Ecclestone, although he professes to admire much of what the latter has done for F1 while still loudly lamenting that the former did not go a year ago when embroiled in a sex scandal, has also had plenty to say in a big interview on his 70th birthday.

This article, in the London's Evening Standard newspaper, makes the point that it is this month that Mosley is to make/announce his final decision on whether he will seek another four-year term as FIA president, with Stewart pointing out that "nobody is prepared to stand against him".

This author, while certainly not always agreeing with them, greatly admires the brilliance of Mosley and Ecclestone, but we also admire the courage of Stewart in speaking his mind about them. That big Stewart interview is a compelling read, and it's here.

That's our say on the situation until news of the FIA's decision and the FOTA reaction.

A few extra miles of reading on Le Mans
We're still marvelling at the enormity of that Le Mans race last weekend, even if there was little reflection of it -- or acknowledgement and celebration of David Brabham's success -- in Australia's mainstream media.

Among the global coverage of it we've seen through the week, three items stood out to us -- and they're here, here and here.

Ambrose going for gold in California
Australia's NASCAR racer Marcos Ambrose reckons he's got "a genuine shot" at winning his first Sprint Cup race on the road course at Sonoma in California this weekend.

He has a brand new Toyota for this event and declared himself "looking for gold".

Ambrose's road racing experience, including V8 Supercar championships in 2003 and '04, stands him in good stead, and we'd love to see him win a Cup race, but those NASCAR boys can play very, very rough -- as Ambrose found out against Robby Gordon a couple of years ago in Montreal in a second-tier Nationwide Series race.

Ambrose's propaganda machine claimed during the week that the 60 Minutes segment on him last Sunday night was watched by 1.431 million viewers in the five key metropolitan markets -- and that the total would have been considerably more because Oztam's figures did not include his home state, Tasmania.

Ambrose himself claimed that Australia is now the third biggest NASCAR market outside North America. (Bob Jane better get that Calder Park Thunderdome open again, as well as some other stock car racing venues!)

Increasingly it seems that IndyCar darling Danica Patrick is headed for NASCAR next year, and this is Ambrose's take on that.

"I've had the privilege of knowing Danica from our previous racing days over in Europe. We raced each other in Formula Fords in the late '90s. I know she's a very good driver, but if she does choose to come to NASCAR racing it's going to be a big adjustment for her. If she does come to NASCAR it would be great for our sport."

A couple of other NASCAR matters:
>> General Motors, in bankruptcy protection in the US, is cutting back its support of Chevrolet in the Nationwide and third-tier pick-up truck series. The hugely popular Dale Earnhardt Junior is among those already affected, and the cuts are likely to expand to Chevrolet's Sprint Cup efforts as well.
>> Suspended NASCAR owner-driver Jeremy Mayfield tested positive to methamphetamine, according to

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