MOTORSPORT: Whincup v Tander and maybe Lowndes

Thursday motorsport reportNovember 29, 2007

Storm forecast for V8 Supercar finale
It's been quite calm on the V8 Supercar scene this week, but now comes the storm -- the championship finale at Victoria's Phillip Island.

Things like Mark Skaife's 200th touring car round, Russell Ingall's last race for Ford before a likely switch back to Holden next year, John Bowe's retirement from full-time V8 racing and the likely continuation of the hot form of the Ford Performance Racing Falcons of Mark Winterbottom and Steven Richards will be mere sideshows.

The main event is the fight between Ford driver Jamie Whincup and Holden's Garth Tander, and perhaps Whincup's Team Vodafone/Triple 8 colleague Craig Lowndes for the title.

Reigning champion Rick Kelly, Tander's Toll HSV Dealer teammate, is a mathematical chance too, but it's a long shot -- although odds of 100-1 being talked about him might be worth a punt.

Barring anything unforeseen in Saturday's first of the weekend's three 120km races, the tussle is likely to be narrowed even more to a Whincup-Tander shootout come Sunday.

But, as we have seen at Tasmania's Symmons Plains and in Bahrain in the past two rounds, anything can happen -- and often does.

It is almost incomprehensible now that Whincup could have had such a bad weekend in Bahrain, or that Tander didn't come away from Tassie with his third round victory there in three years after winning the Saturday race.

The enormity of what is ahead may have been getting to the rival Ford and Holden contenders -- teams and drivers -- this week.

We heard a story of telecaster Channel 7 teeing up to film a story of Whincup visiting a Brisbane beauty salon on Monday for what is apparently his regular pre-race spruce up, but the TV crew found itself stood up by the driver, who claimed to be unaware of the appointment, and the media operative claimed to have forgotten to make arrangements.

It quickly emerged that Triple 8 boss Roland Dane had imposed a media blackout for the week.

Perhaps some strings were fairly quickly pulled, or some heads kicked, because the next day the filming of the story as originally envisaged went ahead and the story went to air.

The media blackout was seemingly off -- at least on that story for that media outlet.

Generally, though, the build-up to this grand final has been low-key.

It could be said that has been the case with many of the rounds this year, but all the same it has unquestionably been a great championship.

The closeness of the main participants has been aided by the success of the Triple 8 pair in the Sandown and Bathurst endurance races and, while we have argued a couple of times here this year against those enduros with driver pairings being part of the championship, it has made for an enthralling finish.

To our way of thinking, Tander ought to become champion because he has won more races than any other driver, 13 -- indeed more than his Triple 8 rivals combined, as Lowndes has won six and Whincup five.

At 30 years of age, Tander is pretty generally acknowledged as the driver with the greatest sheer speed in a V8 Supercar these days and has done enough to deserve a title.

However, perhaps his indiscretion in running into Steven Richards' Falcon at Symmons Plains was a sign that Tander is not quite the complete champion -- or not necessarily capable of putting it all together to win the championship.

Whincup, on the other hand, is a remarkably mature driver for a 24-year-old and his performances, particularly in the enduros and Tasmania, are perhaps a clue that he is a man who can piece together a title.

Lowndes remains the most popular driver in the sport and, having done the hard yards for Ford for several years now, may just be the old -- or at least older -- bull in the paddock who can perhaps "consummate" a fourth title to add to the three he won in his Holden days.

Although he starts out less likely than either teammate Whincup or rival Tander, sitting 21 and 14 points behind them respectively with a maximum 72 points up for grabs, a Lowndes title may do more for the sport than either of the others winning.

Despite Mark Skaife's massive success over a longer period, Lowndes is perhaps the only driver today, despite the growth of V8 Supercars in recent years, who has anything like the public recognition and acceptance of a Peter Brock, an Allan Moffat or a Dick Johnson.

Drivers aside, there is also a teams championship to be decided this weekend.

Defending champion Toll HSV goes to the Island with a 57-point lead over Triple 8.

That battle might not be quite so important in the eyes of the spectators and TV viewers this weekend, but there's a lot riding on it.

As we said after Symmons Plains, despite it being a parity formula, after the way Holden started the season there is going to be a lot of egg on its face if its new VE Commodore doesn't end up ahead of an outdated Falcon.

An American appreciation of Ambrose
Spotted some interesting comments this week on ESPN.com about Aussie Marcos Ambrose's NASCAR career.

Columnist Terry Blount didn't think it right that David Ragan be adjudged rookie-of-the-year in the secondary Busch Series ahead of Ambrose when Ragan also drove in all 36 of NASCAR's premier Nextel Cup races -- and was runner-up to Juan Pablo Montoya among the rookies in that series.

Blount wrote: "Here's a thought: How about we say you can't compete as a rookie in two NASCAR series at the same time?

"The real Busch rookie-of-the-year was Tasmanian racer Marcos Ambrose, who finished eighth in the standings and had six top 10s.

"Speaking of Ambrose, he will compete in at least 12 Sprint Cup races next year (Sprint is the new naming rights sponsor in place of Nextel) for Wood Brothers Racing in the No. 21 Ford (as well as continuing in the No. 59 Ford Fusion in the secondary series which will be renamed Nationwide).

"Good for him. He deserves it. The bad part is he wasn't signed to drive the car full-time.

"And it's sad that the legendary Wood Brothers team gives up on making the Chase (the special contest between the top 12 drivers over the last 10 rounds) before the season starts."

Kalkhoven clear in insider trading case
The Australian co-owner of the Champ Car series, Kevin Kalkhoven, has been cleared in the big insider trading case against him in the US.

The case had been in court for the past month and, while he had been careful not to comment while it was on, Kalkhoven and his camp were quick to make a noise about the verdict when it came this week.

He and four others had been accused over activities in the shares of fibre optics parts provider JDS Uniphase, of which Kalkhoven was chief executive until May 2000.

"After five years of examining every email and employee at JDS Uniphase, he plaintiffs could not lay a glove on Kevin Kalkhoven," his lawyer Michael Shepard said.

"All the plaintiffs could prove was that Mr Kalkhoven is rich. We thank the jury for fairly reviewing the facts and appreciating the complete lack of evidence in the case.

"The trial proved that JDS Uniphase did great while Mr Kalkhoven was in charge and for a long time after.

"This verdict completing vindicates Mr Kalkhoven and proves that he always acted honestly and in good faith."

Australia's Formula 1 driver Mark Webber finished 12th in the world championship with 10 points.

Webber sometimes has rated quite high in annual assessments by observers who have noted that his driving has usually been better than the cars he's had to drive.

But one we came across this week by Eurosport ranks him 13th of the 26 who raced in F1 this year.

In placing him right in the middle of the field, Eurosport's Jamie O'Leary wrote: "A bit of a hit-and-miss year for Webber.

"Scored a well-deserved podium finish in Europe but was cruelly robbed of two more in Canada and Japan due to a bad strategy and Sebastian Vettel's brain-fade.

"Too often slipped down the order during races due to small mistakes when points were going begging, but did suffer from one of the worst finishing records in the field with seven DNFs -- none of which were his fault."

Webber was ranked ahead of GP winners (although not in 2007) Jarno Trulli, Giancarlo Fisichella, Rubens Barrichello and Ralf Schumacher, who came in second last on Eurosport's list.

Of Webber's teammate, David Coulthard, it said: "Coulthard was no match for team-mate Mark Webber in qualifying, but was always more likely to make the finish when points were available.

"Some would put that down to better reliability, but would Webber have backed off like DC did in Spain when his gearbox was playing up in a bid to safeguard a fine fifth place rather than go for fourth? Who knows.

"Points finishes in all three wet races boosted his championship position and proved his class is still there."

For the record, here is where Eurosport rated all the F1 drivers:

1. Lewis Hamilton -- McLaren (2nd in world championship, 109 points, 4 race wins)
2. Kimi Raikkonen -- Ferrari (world champion, 110 points, 6 wins)
3. Felipe Massa -- Ferrari (4th, 94 points, 3 wins)
4. Nico Rosberg -- Williams (9th, 20 points)
5. Fernando Alonso -- McLaren (3rd, 109 points, 4 wins)
6. Robert Kubica -- BMW Sauber (6th, 39 points)
7. Jenson Button -- Honda (15th, 6 points)
8. Heikki Kovalainen -- Renault (7th, 30 points)
9. Nick Heidfeld -- BMW Sauber (5th, 61 points)
10. Sebastian Vettel -- BMW Sauber/Toro Rosso (14th, 6 points)
11. David Coulthard -- Red Bull (10th, 14 points)
12. Adrian Sutil -- Spyker (19th, 1 point)
13. Mark Webber -- Red Bull (12th, 10 points)
14. Vitantonio Liuzzi -- Toro Rosso (18th, 3 points)
15. Takuma Sato -- Super Aguri (17th, 4 points)
16. Markus Winkelhock -- Spyker (unclassified, 0 points)
17. Scott Speed -- Toro Rosso (unclassified, 0 points)
18. Alex Wurz -- Williams (11th, 13 points)
19. Kazuki Nakajima -- Williams (unclassified, 0 points)
20. Jarno Trulli -- Toyota (13th, 8 points)
21. Giancarlo Fisichella -- Renault (8th, 21 points)
22. Rubens Barrichello -- Honda (unclassified, 0 points)
23. Anthony Davidson -- Super Aguri (unclassified, 0 points)
24. Sakon Yamamoto -- Spyker (unclassified, 0 points)
25. Ralf Schumacher -- Toyota (16th, 5 points)
26. Christjan Albers -- Spyker (unclassified, 0 points)

For what's it worth, I'd swap Massa and Alonso. Other than it looks pretty right to us.

McLaren and Hamilton made a mess of the last two GPs, but other than that the 22-year-old rookie was superb.

Raikkonen emerged champion and won 50 per cent more GPs than either of his McLaren rivals and twice as many as his teammate Massa, who had the advantage of already being settled in the Ferrari team while Raikkonen was new to the scuderia.

Not unexpectedly, Hamilton has cleaned up in British magazine F1 Racing's annual awards.

Readers voted him the winner in five categories, including the driver and man-of-the-year awards.

Hamilton also finished ahead of Raikkonen in the qualifier and personality-of-the-year categories. He was always going to run away with the rookie award.

Raikkonen picked up two F1 Racing awards, including drive-of-the-year for his British GP win.

How's a Honda seat feel, Fernando?
Finally there are some indications pointing in the direction of what we suggested here weeks ago would be best new home for Fernando Alonso -- Honda.

RaceFax, the excellent open-wheeler electronic newsletter from the US to which we have occasionally referred here, has reported that Alonso has had a seat fitting at Honda's F1 factory.

Here's the crux of what RaceFax has had to say on the matter:

"Ten days ago Flavio Briatore (boss of the Renault team with which Alonso won world titles in 2005 and '06) said he'd have a decision (on a return to Renault) from the Spaniard within three days, but that obviously didn't happen.

"We then assumed that Alonso was waiting to see if Renault would be dealt a crippling fine in their espionage case, to be heard by the FIA's World Motor Sport Council in Monaco on December 6.

"Now, it seems, something else has been afoot. According to our of our usually reliable sources, Alonso has had a seat fitting at Honda, and given his credentials, it seems unimaginable that the fitting would simply be in preparation for a test.

"Further, the source says that Rubens Barrichello was accompanied to Leafield by Ross Brawn (Honda's new F1 technical boss) so that he could have a seat fitting at Super Aguri, the de facto Honda B team.

"The Alonso-Honda story does make sense for both parties. But getting from where Honda was in '07 to where Alonso will want to be in '08 involves a road as long as it is steep.

"Further, Brawn's influence won't be felt in the design area until the '09 car rolls out.

"And, given the (F1) engine freeze being both tightened and extended, how will Honda address an evident lack of power?

"Indeed, there are a lot of questions -- and very few answers."

Toyota's German-based outfit is a monster that has never come together properly, while it is said to see Honda making such a mess of its F1 effort this time around, when you remember the benchmark they set in the 1980s and early '90s with Williams and then McLaren.

In a big interview with Michael Schmidt, probably the journalist closest to him, for Germany's Auto Motor und Sport, F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone says of these two teams:

"They are governed from Japan, which you can't do. They are happy to wait rather than be courageous. They are terribly conservative in their way of going on.

"I think in F1 you can't be conservative."

Customer car issue gets cloudier
In the same Schmidt interview, Ecclestone touches on the very touchy subject of customer cars in F1.

This is the issue, remember, that has delayed Prodrive's entry to F1 next year with what would have been McLaren-Mercedes cars similar to those of the factory team headed by Ron Dennis -- and which, by rights, should have been the world champion team for 2007.

Here's what Ecclestone told Schmidt on the topic:

"We know what a customer team is. I don't think it should be allowed to happen.

"When I go and buy a complete car from somebody else and race it because I am afraid to compete on my own against the manufacturers, then we will soon have four McLarens and four Ferraris on the grid.

"With all the problems such a situation provokes.

"If the championship is at stake, they are going to help each other.

"We should go back to where we started and have constructors. If you are not a constructor, you should not be in F1.

"You should be obliged to build and design your own car."

So why, Bernie, was Prodrive given the 12th franchise, having made known all along that its intention was to come in with customer cars.

Indeed, Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) president Max Mosley strongly encouraged the idea of such customer teams for a long time.

Even though it won't get its F1 team going for next year, mainly because of threats by Sir Frank Williams to take legal action, Prodrive must have already spent considerable millions of dollars -- and could justifiably claim to have been led up the garden path.

If the Prodrive project never gets off the ground, there is talk now that Germany's Mercedes-related HWA may enter F1 in 2009.

News magazine Focus has reported that HWA, which since 2000 has built Mercedes' cars for the DTM (German Touring Car Championship), could get involved in McLaren-Mercedes collaboration.

HWA is run by the former chief executive of Mercedes-Benz, Jurgen Hubbert.

And, it is said, that could heighten speculation that Mercedes, the biggest shareholder in McLaren, could be looking to take out the remaining British interests in the team -- primarily Ron Dennis, now in his 60s.

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