MOTORSPORT: WRC hits the great wall

The World Rally Championship has had a second false start in the market its competing manufacturers see as the most important frontier – China.

Rally China was included in this year’s WRC calendar as the 10th round, on September 8-11,  with Rally Australia moving from that slot to the season finale on November 17-20, but the event near Beijing was cancelled this week.

It won’t be replaced this season.

The roads in the Huairou region were ravaged by storms and floods in July, and the official reason for the cancellation is that they cannot be repaired in time, although there are whispers of financial problems.

China was to have been the second of three straight tarmac rallies, with the series in Germany’s Mosel wine region this weekend and going to Corsica in France for its 11th round on September 29 to October 2.

There was a WRC round in China in 1999 but the next year’s event was cancelled – five months before it was to be held -- for financial reasons and it took until late last year for it to be resurrected.

Manufacturers – Volkswagen, Hyundai and (via M-Sport) Ford are the WRC’s full-timers at the top level, with Citroen part-time this season but back fully next year, when Toyota returns after almost two decades away – have been keen to get China back in the championship because of the enormous market the Asian powerhouse’s massive population has become for car sales.

“We all want to go to this event. Everybody accepted China [being added to the calendar], understanding what an important market it is and we all made a huge investment in the event,” said Rich Milliner, who runs M-Sport’s customer program.

Jost Capito, head of Volkswagen’s triple world championship team but joining the McLaren in Formula after Rally Germany, said: “We greatly regret that the intensive preparation put in by the organiser, promoter (the Red Bull-backed company WRC Promoter), FIA (Federation Internationale de l’Automobile, the world governing body of motorsport) and teams, who have worked together to promote the return of the WRC to China will go unrewarded.

“We would obviously have liked to start in China and to compete in what is an enormously important market.

“Everyone was prepared and happy to go to China.

“We will now focus on the WRC returning to China next year.

“There is no reason not to go next year. I think it should stay on the calendar.”

The WRC’s safety delegate Michele Mouton, a former top driver, and a representative of WRC Promoter spent two days in Beijing last week trying to salvage next month’s event.

Veteran WRC correspondent Martin Holmes has reported that there was dispute in China over who should pay for repairs to the roads, with the local council relucant to foot the bill.

“A major storm about the circumstances in which the FIA promotes the concept of WRC rallies in countries such as China, and the damaging effect this [cancellation] news will have on the sport, is sure to erupt,” Holmes said.

David Evans, rally correspondent for Britain’s Autosport, said there was a feeling that the Huairou region was not the best place for a Chinese round.

“The Asia-Pacific Rally Championship round which ran earlier this month in Zhangye on the edge of the Gobi Desert was reckoned to be the preferred option,” Evans said.

Wheels still turning for rallycross renaissance
Efforts are persisting to revive rallycross in Australia.
An event will be held at Raleigh near Coffs Harbour this weekend, following one at Brisbane’s Lakeside two weeks ago.

The organisers are said to be in talks for venues in Sydney and Melbourne to continue what they are calling Australian Rallycross.

Two attempts to revive the sport – a short form of rallying on courses combining gravel and tarmac – from the Gold Coast and Melbourne last year failed.

Among participants at Lakeside and entered again for Raleigh are Justin Dowel, an Australian Rally Champion five years ago, and Will Orders, another ARC regular and cousin of another champion, Scott Pedder.

Orders is driving the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VIII in which South Australian Steve Glenney won the New Zealand International Rallycross event at Tauranga early this year.

Dowel is competing in his Hyundai i20 Proto and claims rallycross “has the potential to be bigger than V8 Supercars”.

Power all-out to regain IndyCar title
The IndyCar series resumes in the US this weekend, with Australia’s 2014 champion Will Power needing to overhaul the 58-point lead of one of his Penske teammates, Frenchman Simon Pagenaud, over four rounds in a month.

The first of them is on “The Tricky Triangle” at Pocono in Pennsylvania where British driver Justin Wilson had a fatal accident last year, then it’s on to Texas Motor Speedway for the round postponed earlier in the season, followed by road-course races at Watkins Glen in upstate New York and Sonoma in California.

Pagenaud, a four-time winner this season, has 488 points to the 426 of second-placed Power, who has had three victories since missing the first round in Florida with an ear infection.

The Toowoomba star goes into the Pocono round claiming to have “a lot of momentum” after clawing his way back into the title fight, with a maximum of 52 points to score each round until the finale, which carries double points.

“We’re in the championship hunt and that’s all I could ask at this point after missing the first race,” Power said.

“The whole team has worked so hard to get us back in it. We just need to finish strong.”

The top six drivers in the standings drive Chevrolet-powered cars.

Young open-wheeler Aussies go Dutch
Three young Australians are at Zandvoort, the famous Dutch circuit that for a long time hosted a Formula 1 grand prix and this weekend stages the 26th Formula 3 Masters.

Thomas Randle and Ricky Capo are among 17 drivers from a dozen countries entered for the Masters.

Late deals came together for both of them to race Mercedes-powered Dallara cars for British teams, with Randle driving for the Double R outfit part-owned by Kimi Raikkonen and Capo for Fortec Motorsport in his international debut.

Randle was runner-up in the first Australian Formula 4 Championship last year and is third in this season’s BRDC British Formula 3 Championship with one round to go.

Capo won six Australian F3 races last year but has only had one open-wheeler outing this year, at Sydney Motorsport Park, as he has concentrated on the Australian GT Championship in a BMW.

He is counting on his experience with Kumho tyres compensating for his lack of “match practice”.

F1 sensation Max Verstappen won the F3 Masters two years ago, while previous winners have included Lewis Hamilton, Nico Hulkenberg and Valtteri Bottas.

Australians Ryan Briscoe, James Courtney and Mark Webber were top 10 finishers there and Daniel Ricciardo and Will Davison also have raced in the Masters.

A round of the German F4 Championship also is being held at Zandvoort.

That series is being led by Aussie Joey Mawson by 46 points from German Mick Schumacher, son of the great Michael.
It is a home event for Mawson’s Dutch team, Van Amersfoort Racing, and he said “it’s going to be pretty special”.

“It’s probably the best circuit we have in the championship this year,” said Mawson, who tested there recently.

“It’s a real old-school circuit with not much run-off. You get a lot of satisfaction when you put in a good lap.

“It’s a very difficult track to overtake on. It’s basically like a street circuit. Qualifying will be the absolute key … being up the front for the [three] races will be vital.”