MOTORSPORT: Whincup caught in sponsor tangle

Adelaide’s Clipsal 500 will continue into the next decade, the contract extended long-term without a peep about the stipulation departing V8 Supercars executive chairman Tony Cochrane put on it eight months ago that it become a night race to remain the championship’s opening round.

Rallying’s greatest driver, Sebastien Loeb, has ended his full-time career in the World Rally Championship the way he wanted – winning Rally Spain for the eighth straight time for his 76th WRC victory.

There was disappointment there for Australia’s Chris Atkinson and Brendan Reeves, although Atkinson salvaged seventh place in his last MINI outing after not completing the first leg.

Tony Quinn was a late starter for the second round of the Australian Targa Championship, Victoria’s Targa High Country, but he and co-driver Naomi Tillett won in a Nissan GT-R after the Lamborghini Gallardo that had won the previous five Targa events broke down.

Dodge is departing NASCAR racing in a week and may go with the Sprint Cup title. Roger Penske’s driver Brad Keselowski will take a 20-point lead over Chevrolet star Jimmie Johnson into the final round in Florida next weekend.

Another Chevrolet driver, Kevin Harvick, won the penultimate race in Phoenix today after Kyle Busch had dominated it in a Toyota – and Jeff Gordon and Clint Bowyer had a coming-together which sparked fisticuffs between their crews. Australia’s Marcos Ambrose finished midfield – 18th.

And Sir Jack Brabham’s teenage grandson Matthew has come close to winning a Formula Renault race in Britain, where he was racing under a scholarship for his success in America this year.   

Monster has sponsored Whincup for three years and his helmet sports its black and green colours.

Monster says it has Whincup under contract until the end of next year, which conflicts with his team owner Roland Dane signing rival energy drink Red Bull as his Triple Eight Race Engineering’s major sponsor in place of Vodafone from the start of next year.

Monster has used Whincup heavily in its promotions and insists it wants him to fulfill the final year of its deal with him.

“Monster Energy regards Jamie Whincup as one of Australia’s great sporting figures. We have a contract with him to the end of 2013. We expect Jamie to see it out,” Monster’s Australian chief Adrian Hunter said.

“Before bringing the proceeding we suggested a live-and-let-live approach so that Jamie can continue to represent us and at the same time drive for Triple Eight. That suggestion was rejected.”

Whincup, who will be champion ahead of this season’s finale – the Sydney 500 on the first weekend of December – if he outscores Ford Performance Racing’s Mark Winterbottom by more than six points at Winton, and Dane have not commented on the sponsorship tangle.

The dispute also involves the Monster Energy-sponsored Triple Eight Holden Commodore driven in the development series by youngster Scott Pye and which is earmarked to run in Red Bull livery next season.

Meanwhile, bourbon brand Jim Beam has confirmed that it’s ending its naming rights sponsorship of Dick Johnson Racing after six years.

“With the introduction of Car of the Future and Beam’s strategic direction we have decided to shift our focus and invest in engaging all motorsport fans through our official spirit partnership with V8 Supercars,” the brand’s Oceania boss Steve Inch said.

Cochrane is credited with having created the event, after Adelaide lost the Australian Formula One Grand Prix to Melbourne, and at this year’s Clipsal he made it known that he wanted it to become a night race.

Indeed, he said that if that didn’t happen he had another city wanting to take over the opening round of the V8 Supercar Championship and run it under lights.

“Anyone in Australian motorsport who doesn’t support it (Clipsal 500 at night) is a dill,” Cochrane said then.

He said it was the way for Australian motorsport to become live prime-time viewing.

“If they (Adelaide) want to retain the opening round they have to do it,” he said.

“I have another government that wants the opening round and they’ll pay for the lights, so the pressure’s on.

“And I have two out of three TV networks – and, to be honest, probably three out of three – who really want to do it, to put us on in prime time.”

An extension of the contract for the Clipsal 500 until 2021 was announced at Friday’s launch of next year’s Adelaide event, which again is the season opener on the first weekend of March, featuring the debut of Nissan Altimas and AMG Mercedes-Benz C63s against Holden Commodores and Ford Falcons – in broad daylight.

The South Australian Motor Sport Board investigated the idea of lighting the Victoria Park circuit and concluded it would need $12 million in capital investment and then cost $3 million a year to set up and dismantle the lights.

The SA government wasn’t prepared to foot those bills. Race sponsor Clipsal rather liked the night race idea but it wasn’t going to pick up the tab for the lighting either.

And there has been no evidence of any other city stepping forward prepared to stage a night race to start the championship.

Nor, still, of a new TV contract for the championship – a task the departing Cochrane has left in the lap of still relatively new V8 Supercar chief executive and former pay TV executive David Malone.

Although he has been a maestro on dirt for a decade, his performance in Catalunya may have been an omen of what’s to come when Loeb starts racing in the World Touring Car Championship in 2014.

Next year he will only compete part-time in the WRC while helping Citroen develop its WTCC car.

Finn Jari-Matti Latvala had his last Ford drive in Spain before joining Volkswagen next year and finished second to Loeb as the great Frenchman eased up, with the final margin only seven seconds.

Citroen’s Finn, Mikko Hirvonen, was third but more than 1:45 behind teammate Loeb, but holding off Norwegian Mats Ostberg, who had been the rally’s early leader.

Ostberg also lost third place in the championship behind the Citroen pair as Latvala took second place and won the final power stage.

Australian Chris Atkinson hit a rock on the first leg and damaged his MINI’s suspension. Allowed to resume on the second leg he came from 11th to seventh.

Having given the Motorsport Italia-run MINI team its best results and consistency over the final third of the season, and won the Asia-Pacific Rally Championship in a Skoda, Atkinson now has to explore his opportunities for next year.

So too does younger Australian Brendan Reeves, who lost second place in the WRC Academy for young drivers in identical Ford Fiesta R2s.

Reeves was in trouble early in Spain with mechanical issues and slippery conditions, then a puncture and broken valve springs in his engine – for which he took a 10-minute penalty.

Reeves and his co-driver sister Rhiannon Smyth ended up finishing sixth but Spaniard Jose Suarez’s victory gave him second place in the series to Welshman Elfyn Evans.

Reeves was fourth in the championship – one place better than last year – but still “really disappointed”.

Next year the Academy will be renamed the Junior World Rally Championship and be open to drivers up to 26, making Reeves eligible again.

He said competing in the junior WRC was “just one option” he would consider.

World Rally Championship final driver standings: 1. Sebastien Loeb (France, Citroen) 270 points; 2. Mikko Hirvonen (Finland, Citroen) 213; 3. Jari-Matti Latvala (Finland, Ford) 154; 4.  Mads Ostberg (Norway, Ford) 149; 5. Petter Solberg (Norway, Ford) 124; 6. Evgeny Novikov (Russia, Ford) 88; 7. Thierry Neuville (Belgium, Citroen) 53; 8. Ott Taenak (Estonia, Ford) 52; 9.  Martin Prokop (Czech Republic, Ford) 46; 10. Sebastien Ogier (France, Skoda) 41. Australia’s  Chris Atkinson (MINI) was 13th with 28 points.

WRC team final standings - 1. Citroen Total World Rally Team 453 points; 2. Ford World Rally Team 309; 3. M-Sport Ford World Rally Team 170; 4. Adapta World Rally Team 83; 5. Citroen Junior World Rally Team 72; 6. Qatar World Rally Team 71; 7. Brazil World Rally Team 28;  
8. Mini WRC Team 26.

Last year the Lambo won this event, crossing the finish line at Mt Buller in flames, and it had won five Targa events in a row, but this time it came to a halt on the final day’s second stage.
That handed victory to the Nissan GT-R of Tony Quinn and Naomi Tillett, who finished almost a minute ahead of Matt and Casey Close in an Audi TT RS, with Jim Richards and Barry Oliver another minute back in a Porsche 911 GT2 RS.

Quinn now leads the Australian Targa Championship with the next round being Targa Wrest Point in Hobart in February and the finale Targa Tasmania in April.

It was Harvick’s first win for 14 months and came on the weekend of news that he is to join reigning champion Tony Stewart’s team in 2014.

His Phoenix success was the first this season for Richard Childress Racing but the 14th for Chevrolet in the 35 Cup rounds so far.

Kyle Busch led more than two thirds of the race, which went longer than scheduled after the Jeff Gordon-Clint Bowyer crash, but Denny Hamlin outgunned Busch in the final two-lap sprint, which ended with another multi-car crash.

Brad Keselowski finished sixth in his Penske Dodge to regain the series lead and take a 20-point advantage into the Homestead-Miami final next weekend.

Five-time champion Jimmie Johnson lost 38 laps in the garage after his right front tyre exploded and put him into the wall.

Johnson was classified 32nd – his worst finish of The Chase to the title – and Keselowski now only needs to finish 15th in Florida to clinch his first Cup and give Dodge a glorious exit from the sport after it was unable to find a team to partner next season.

NASCAR Sprint Cup driver standings after 35 of 36 rounds – 1. Brad Keselowski (Dodge) 2371 points; 2. Jimmie Johnson (Chevrolet) 2351; 3. Kasey Kahne (Chevrolet) 2321; 4. Clint Bowyer (Toyota) 2319; 5. Denny Hamlin (Toyota) 2309; 6. Matt Kenseth (Ford) 2297; 7. Greg Biffle (Ford) 2293; 8. Kevin Harvick (Chevrolet) 2285; 9. Tony Stewart (Chevrolet) 2283; 10. Jeff Gordon 2281; 11. Martin Truex Junior (Toyota) 2260; Dale Earnhardt Junior (Chevrolet) 2211. Australia’s Marcos Ambrose (Ford) is 18th on 918 points.

Brabham, driving for Cliff Dempsey Racing, came from ninth on the grid to challenge Fortec Motorsport’s Aitken in the slippery conditions.

In keeping Brabham at bay Aitken almost drove the Aussie into a wall, later pushed him wide on to grass at the exit of a hairpin and then nudged him into a spin.

“Matt drove a fantastic race,” team boss Dempsey said. “The chief steward said that Matt deserved to win the race and probably would have won it if it had been a regular-season championship race.

“We could have protested but that’s not the way you like to win a race.  Everybody saw how well Matt drove. He made his point.”

Brabham was the only leading contender to opt for slick tyres and spun on the formation lap.

“We made a bit of a gamble and didn’t really have anything to lose so we decided to go for slicks instead of wets,” he said.

“The track was pretty much dry except for just a few areas where I had to be real careful.

“I got into a rhythm and started pushing to the limit. It was definitely different racing to what I’m used to!

“He (Aitken) really, really wanted to win, and I really, really wanted to win. It was definitely an eye-opener. I’ve never really seen that kind of stuff before.

“We touched a few times. It didn’t fall my way, but it was great to get on the podium.”

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