MOTORSPORT: WRC beautiful but potentially ugly

Monday motorsport reportSeptember 3, 2007

Sheer brilliance and tons of indifference
Good and bad news on the world rally front today.

Rally New Zealand, the 11th round of this year's WRC, produced the closest finish in the history of the championship -- just 0.3 seconds between Marcus Gronholm's Ford Focus and Sebastien Loeb's Citroen C4 after three days, 18 stages and 353km of competition.

And Australia's Chris Atkinson, in a Subaru Impreza, was the only driver apart from that pair, with five world titles between them, to win a stage of the rally.

Yet this WRC round has barely created a ripple this side of the Tasman Sea.

The WRC won't be back in this part of the world until the next Rally NZ on August 29-31 next year. That is to be followed by a revived Rally Australia on September 12-14.

The lack of public and media interest in this year's Rally NZ in Australia is cause for concern about how Rally Oz is going to be accepted in south-east Queensland and northern NSW. That's if it goes ahead.

We have doubts that it will, although we hope our fears are unfounded.

Loeb and Gronholm, provided the Flying Finn continues next year, are every bit as good as the best drivers in Formula 1 -- and several classes above many of those who come to the Gold Coast Indy from overseas each year.

And Atkinson, whose future is in the melting pot at the minute, has shown himself to be near, perhaps even at, their level.

If "Atko" does not continue with Subaru's factory WRC team next season in all probability he will be with new entrant Suzuki.

And it would be a great pity if Australia did not get to see him, Loeb, Gronholm if he goes on another year, and co. next September. But if Rally Oz is happening in 2008 there will need to be some serious signs of it -- and soon.

The last we heard of the project, those purporting to be putting the event on had not even acquired all the land at Norwell, on the Gold Coast, that is central to the plan.

And the organisers seemed to be trying to stage the event without government assistance -- i.e. government financial assistance.

That's a nice idea, and many would applaud that. But events like that are hard enough to run successfully with government money, let alone without it.

The chances of such an event making money, or attracting enough sponsorship to come anywhere near breaking even, are negligible.

Even if the organisers harbour dreams of enticing government money, the difficulty of that will be compounded by an event that will straddle two states -- Queensland and NSW -- and therefore need to involve two state governments.

Perhaps the organisers have some announcements planned in the wake of the weekend's Rally NZ.

Unless there is a detailed update on the plans by the middle of this month, a year before the event that ran in Western Australia for two decades is scheduled to make a new life on the east coast of the continent, the doubts will only increase.

For years it was said that Rally Oz needed to be on the east coast. The arguments were that it would be in a better timezone to capture the interest of more of the Australian public, that manufacturers that compete in rallying wanted it in the east, that there would be a stronger fan base closer to the event, and that the chances of attracting sponsorship would be much greater.

A little more than a year out, things are looking -- to us -- grim. Indeed very grim.

Let's see what the immediate future holds, in terms of announcements. And what substance there is to any announcements.

Gronholm had battled flu throughout the rally, but reckons that the intensity of the competition sweated the fever out of him.

There was never more than 14.9 seconds between him and Frenchman Loeb, and that was after just two stages on Friday.

Loeb may have lost this event by opting to start on too soft a tyre compound, but he maintained the pressure to the very end, beating Gronholm by 0.4 seconds on the 3.1km final stage.

"This was the closest and best battle of my career," says Gronholm, who won eight stages in the event to Loeb's nine.

Loeb, world champion the past three years and who started the final day 1.7 seconds ahead which he then increased to 2.9 seconds, says: "Marcus won. What can you do? I was pushing hard."

Gronholm leads the championship by 10 points with five rounds remaining -- the next being Rally Catalunya in Spain, starting on October 5.

It will be the third sealed surface event of the season and is the quickest asphalt rally on the calendar.

Just when Subaru has to decide whether it is going to keep the Aussie -- and pay him a salary commensurate with his performance, rather than him bringing money to the team or moving to new WRC entrant Suzuki -- he won a weekend-long battle with Jari-Matti Latvala's Ford Focus.

Atkinson dropped behind the Finn on Saturday but wound up 4.6 seconds ahead at the end to finish fourth -- less than 50 seconds behind Mikko Hirvonen's third-placed Ford factory Focus.

Atkinson outpaced his Subaru team leader Petter Solberg all weekend and the gap between them at the finish was 82.5 seconds, with the Norwegian former world champion in seventh place.

Apart from winning the final stage on the first day, Atkinson was joint second-fastest on one stage on Sunday, setting the same time as Loeb and Hirvonen.

And Subaru team boss Richard Taylor was mightily impressed with Atkinson on the penultimate stage, saying he was "right behind Gronholm and Loeb -- who were both going absolutely flat-out".

Atkinson, who is seventh in the championship and has now won 12 stages this season, says: "It shows we (Subaru, which has not won a WRC round since 2005) are getting closer all the time.

"It would have been nice to be on the podium, and hopefully that's not far away.

"I think we've had enough fourths now - we want some thirds, seconds and firsts!

"It's back to asphalt next - and I'm certainly looking forward to that." Corsica, the round after Catalunya, is another asphalt rally.

Meanwhile, Scott Pedder, who has sat on the sidelines of the Australian Rally Championship following Mitsubishi Ralliart's withdrawal, had an accident early in Rally NZ and missed five stages Friday but set some impressive Group N times on the other two days in his borrowed Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX. He was classified 41st.

"I'm working pretty hard on a few options to return to the ARC next season, but I've also been making good inroads into potentially contesting the Production WRC," Pedder says.

World rally championship driver standings after 12 of 17 rounds - Marcus Gronholm 90 points, Sebastien Loeb 80, Mikko Hirvonen 69, Petter Solberg 31, Daniel  Sordo 31, Henning Solberg 28, Chris Atkinson 25, Jari-Matti Latvala 17.

World Rally championship manufacturer standings - BP-Ford 159 points, Citroen 113, Subaru 60, Stobart M-Sport Ford 55, OMV Kronos Citroen 35.

Our understanding is that Ferrari can only display this association at three of this year's 17 F1 races -- the already-run Bahrain and Monaco and the upcoming China GP. There is some possibility it might also be seen at the Japanese GP.

On the few occasions that the Marlboro connection is visible it is screened, via the F1 broadcasts, into countries that have totally outlawed cigarette sponsorship (Australia's final prohibition kicked in from September 30 last year). 

The European Union's Health Commissioner Markos Kyprianou has asked Ferrari to end the Philip Morris deal.

"The situation is not satisfactory as it undermines the objectives of the EU legislation," Kyprianou says in a letter to Ferrari.

"I am certain that finding alternative sponsorship will not constitute a great challenge for such a successful enterprise as Ferrari, whose image would no longer be associated with a killing habit."

Kyprianou intends to ensure the tobacco sponsorship ban is followed to the letter of the law in the EU and push for a suspension in countries that still allow tobacco advertising or do not enforce their bans.

He intends speaking with the Chinese government in early September.

"Of course the best solution would be that Ferrari and Philip Morris proactively decide to end the sponsorship agreement immediately -- a gesture that would be greatly appreciated," he says.

Spyker to Indian good-times tycoon
An Indian tycoon known as the "King of Good Times" is taking control of the Spyker F1 team, in league with the team's latest Dutch director, Michiel Mol.

Spyker -- whose parent company, the Dutch sports car maker of the same name has run into financial strife -- has agreed to a US$109 million takeover by the pair.

Spyker Cars NV acquired the team, originally Jordan, from the Russian-owned Midland group for close to US$107 million a year ago.

Spyker Cars, founded in 2000, posted a net loss of 29.9 million euros in the first half of this year, up from a loss of 1.1 million euros a year earlier. The F1 team's loss in the first half of the year was 13 million euros.

India is due to get a GP from 2009 and Mallya is chairman of the Federation of Motorsports Clubs in India (FMSCI) and Motorsport Association of India (MAI). His Kingfisher airline already sponsors Toyota's F1 cars.

India has two drivers around the fringes of F1. Narain Karthikeyan drove a full season for Jordan in 2005 and is now a test driver for Williams. Karun Chandhok races in the GP2 series that supports F1 at European GPs.

Bridgestone apologises to Hamilton
F1 tyre supplier Bridgestone has apologised to world championship leader Lewis Hamilton for the failure of his right front tyre of his McLaren-Mercedes at the Turkish GP.

Bridgestone's head of track engineering operations, Kees van de Grint, reportedly walked into the McLaren garage at last week's F1 testing at Monza in Italy, ahead of this weekend's Italian GP, and told Hamilton that Bridgestone accepted responsibility for the delamination that dropped Hamilton from third to just fifth with 15 laps to go in Istanbul.

Following detailed examinations back in Tokyo, Bridgestone determined that excessive "chunking" contributed to the failure, as well as a so-far unexplained extra force impacting the damaged surface of the tyre.

"It could have been a stone or the edge of a kerb that he unfortunately hit," Dutchman van de Grint told Germany's Auto Motor und Sport.

Kidney dialysis for Sir Jack Brabham
Australia's triple F1 world champion, Sir Jack Brabham, is now 81 and has recently started kidney dialysis.

"It's restricted his travel," says Sir Jack's youngest son, David. "His spirits are fine but he has always been very active.

"It's difficult because he can see his body is starting to deteriorate."

David was talking to the Detroit Free Press during the weekend's American Le Mans Series and Indy Racing League round in Motor City.

Our information is that Sir Jack has dialysis twice a week and, while it may mean he will never travel outside Australia again, he will be at this weekend's Speed on Tweed at Murwillumbah on the far North Coast of NSW, accompanied by his legendary car designer Ron Tauranac.

This year's Speed on Tweed will pay homage to the history of the Australian Grand Prix. Visit speedontweed.com

ALMS a mixed bag for Aussies
David Brabham finished fifth, with Stefan Johansson, in the ALMS race in Detroit in an Acura ARX-01a.

Fellow Australian Ryan Briscoe took pole position in one of Roger Penske's Porsche Spyders, led the race early, copped a drive-through penalty for spinning while trying to lap Mika Salo, got back in the lead by 24 seconds but wound up ninth after the Porsche lost its rear wing when clipped by a spinning Acura.

Briscoe's Penske teammates, Romain Dumas and Timo Bernhard, took their fourth consecutive ALMS win, overtaking the leading Audi three minutes from the flag.

Dixon loses Indy Racing League lead
Brazilian Tony Kanaan won the IRL round in Detroit -- the Belle Isle Grand Prix -- as the championship contenders, New Zealander Scott Dixon and Italo-Scotsman Dario Franchitti -- collided on the second last lap.

Franchitti is now back into the series lead heading into this week's finale at Chicagoland Speedway.

Dixon had been running third and Franchitti fourth when the drama started as Brisbane-born Dixon tangled with out-of-fuel Buddy Rice.

Franchitti crossed the finish line sixth but Dixon's engine had died and he was classified eighth.

Franchitti's team owner, Michael Andretti, accused Dixon of bad sportsmanship.

Assen was a farcical race on a track too narrow for the cars and made more so by Bourdais finding that when he pressed his power-to-pass button on the first lap it instead triggered his pitlane speed limiter.

Swiss driver Neel Jani is thought to have had a similar problem to that which dropped Bourdais down the field on the opening lap.

The Frenchman spent most of the race catching back up from stalling in the pits -- a problem Australian Will Power also had and finished only 14th.

Dutchman Robert Doornbos, driving for Australian Paul Stoddart's Team Minardi USA, had to make a last-minute stop when the race went a lap longer than he expected.

Doornbos, second in the series to Bourdais, finished 13th in front of his home fans.

Only two races remain now -- the Gold Coast on October 21 and Mexico on November 11 -- following the cancellation of the finale in Phoenix in early December due to lack of sponsorship.

Along with the cancellation of the China round, what was meant to be a 16-race series will end up being only 14 rounds.

NASCAR struggling to replace Busch
NASCAR is reportedly struggling to secure a replacement title sponsorship for its second-tier Busch series in which Australian Marcos Ambrose has been racing this year.

Brewer Anheuser-Busch is withdrawing after this season and NASCAR chiefs had been hopeful of snaring a big deal with Subway.

Its asking price is said to have been US$30 million a year but that has reportedly now been halved.

Ambrose qualified 16th (first of the non-Nextel Cup "double duty" drivers) and finished 13th in the weekend's round at California Speedway.

That moves him back up to eighth in the series and he remains second in the rookie-of-the-year standings.

"We thought we could have run top 10 - we were there with four or five laps to go, but just couldn't hold on," Ambrose says. "I didn't have enough experience to hold them back at such a big (3.2km) speedway.

"They just snookered me and got runs on me that I couldn't stop."

Busch Series standings after 27 of 35 rounds - Carl Edwards 3828 points, Kevin Harvick 3174, David Reutimann 3171, Jason Leffler 3042, David Ragan 2975, Bobby Hamilton Junior 2804, Stephen Leicht 2691, Marcos Ambrose 2677, Greg Biffle 2652,  Mike Wallace 2597.

Holden Rodeo wins Aussie Safari
John Hederics and John Williams have won the revived Australian Safari in Western Australia in the Holden Rally Team Rodeo.

It was the pair's third straight win in the Safari -- and the ninth for Hederics, who has won the motorcycle division six times before switching to four wheels.

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