Holden pressure for aero adjustment goes up another gear
Despite having won last weekend's Phillip Island 500km race and Garth Tander stretching his championship lead after having been joint winner, along with Ford's Jamie Whincup and Will Davison of the previous round at Winton, Holden is still harping on about wanting a parity adjustment in V8 Supercar racing.
Fearing that Ford's BF Falcons will have a high-speed aerodynamic edge on its VE Commodores on the long straights at Bathurst on October 9-12, Holden has demanded that parity be addressed much earlier than October 22 -- the Wednesday of Gold Coast Indy week -- when V8 Supercars Australia had next listed it for discussion.
Auto Action editor-at-large Mark Fogarty has reported in this week's edition of that magazine that the timing of a parity investigation is now "under review".
Fogarty has quoted a V8SA insider saying that category technical manager Andy Bartley would be directed to make that investigation a priority and "encouraged to present his findings as early as next week" -- meaning, importantly, before Bathurst.
Fogarty said Holden had been "outraged" at the V8SA board's decision to delay a ruling until October 22.
"We want it now," Holden motorsport manager Simon McNamara said. "They (V8SA) have got the numbers, so just sit down and work it out.
"We want it in time to be resolved for Bathurst."
Holden claims to have "irrefutable data" that the BF has a high-speed aerodynamic advantage over its VE.
"Holden teams are concerned that the BF's smaller frontal area will accentuate its straightline advantage at Bathurst and Bahrain (November 6-8)," Fogarty wrote.
McNamara claimed that Tander and Mark Skaife's victory for Holden Racing Team at Phillip Island "doesn't change a thing".
"We were still being done in a straight line," he said.
Ford and its top teams are still insisting that there is no parity issue, that they simply have been doing a better job this year than Holden's reorganised factory-backed HRT and HSV Dealer Team, whose cars are prepared by Walkinshaw Performance.
Even if Ford does have a slight edge on fast straights, Tander's results indicate that there is great competitiveness in the category.
Holden's reigning champion is leading the championship again, with seven race wins this year.
At Phillip Island there were five Holdens and five Fords in the top 10 finishers.
At Winton four of the top seven point-scorers for the round were in Commodores.
Behind Tander in the championship are Ford's Mark Winterbottom and Jamie Whincup. Next is Rick Kelly, albeit more than 300 points adrift.
But that's because Kelly doesn't win races. Even in his 2006 championship season he didn't win races (although we greatly admired the way he put that successful title campaign together; and the points system has been revised since to give greater reward for race wins).
Rather than pushing this parity barrow -- and being seen to be a poor loser, even when winning! -- Holden would be much better off getting to the bottom of why other drivers in Commodores can't win when Tander does so often.
Perhaps the drivers in the Holden fold aren't as good as those on the Ford side. Or perhaps the preparation of the cars from the red corner is not as good as that from the blue.
Perhaps a combination of both. And they're not matters that a parity review can address. They're matters for Holden to address.
New NSW premier non-commital on Homebush race
The Sydney street race idea remains in the news, with new NSW premier Nathan Rees refusing to commit to the plan for Sydney Olympic Park/Homebush that looked to have won the favour of his predecessor, Morris Iemma.
"Despite a government review finding the event will inject a massive $130 million into the state's economy and bring more than 14,000 visitors to the city, Mr Rees said he could not guarantee it would go ahead," said a report yesterday in Sydney's Daily Telegraph newspaper, written by Joe Hildebrand and carrying an "EXCLUSIVE" tag.
The Daily Telegraph has strongly supported the Homebush plan while the rival Sydney Morning Herald's coverage has been much more about opposition to it.
Hildebrand balanced yesterday's article a little by quoting Rees saying: "We're not ruling anything in or out until after the mini-Budget."
But he quickly added: "The review by 10 government departments and agencies was 'passed with flying colours', according to a source, despite obstacles thrown up by the government's own major events unit.
"It is understood the much vaunted Events NSW chairman John O'Neill had attempted to oppose the project, despite widespread bi-partisan support."
Now that we found interesting, because we had been wondering whether Events NSW, and particularly O'Neill, may have been the reason the pendulum suddenly swung so much in favour of the street race idea two or three months ago.
Clearly not.
Hildebrand quoted an "insider" saying: "NSW Events under John O'Neill failed to find a way to stop the enormous momentum for this across many ministers and the state opposition.
"NSW Events placed uncommercial KPIs (key performance indicators) in its path but even these have been met."
Later in yesterday's article Hildebrand added: "The event has also received strong support from the Sydney Olympic Park Business Council, ANZ Stadium, the Royal Show and ACER Arena."
Little reference was made to opposing views, and then only dismissively.
And Telegraph readers were assured that "V8 Supercars Australia would underwrite the race each year in case it lost money".
The nitty-gritty of any such guarantee was not explained (nor how the certainty of the $130 million injection into the state economy was arrived at), and nor how cast-iron the guarantee was.
We here can already envisage the bunfight over who pays for what when the muck starts seriously hitting the fan in years three, four or five years -- if not in one or two.
The powerbrokers in Sydney don't need to go far, especially with modern communications, to source the financial track records of other street races.
Denyer out of racing for rest of year
TV personality Grant Denyer is out of the Bathurst 1000, and indeed all racing for at least the rest of this year, after his monster truck accident this week at Dapto on the NSW south coast.
Denyer was to have partnered Michael Patrizi in the Ford Rising Stars Falcon at Bathurst, and team principal Jim Morton says he will now work through a list of potential replacements.
Denyer is in a stable condition in Sydney's St Vincent hospital after being transferred from Wollongong Hospital.
He has back injuries but has full movement in his legs and arms.
End surely must be nigh for Team Kiwi
Team Kiwi is in disgrace with Ford, CAMS and V8 Supercars Australia after its premature exit from last weekend's Phillip Island enduro.
Ford is unhappy that the team's poor presentation of itself reflects badly on the blue oval brand, CAMS has fined the team a token amount for not adhering to the protocols that come with entering a race meeting, and V8SA -- which has been generally supportive, even appreciative, of an NZ team in the category -- is now left with little option but to steer the outfit out the exit gate with a don't-come-back notice.
Sebastien Vettel is very much his own man
Almost a week after his sensational Italian Grand Prix victory, in the wet, in only his 22nd F1 race, and for the Toro Rosso team that not so long ago was Minardi, which couldn't jag a podium in 340 GPs, 21-year-old German Sebastien Vettel is the centre of all F1 talk.
It has come to light that Vettel has no manager and no plans to get one. Apparently he does everything himself and intends to keep doing so.
He resisted overtures from Willi Weber, the man who managed Michael Schumacher through the most successful career in F1 history.
Vettel is reported to be the third lowest paid F1 driver this year, with even Kazuki Nakajima getting more than him at Williams.
However, the young German star's salary will more than double next season to 1.5 million Euros when he slots in alongside Mark Webber at Red Bull Racing.
The kid ought to be able to live on that, but any top team along pitlane surely would pay him many times that now.
Massa reveals frosty relationship with Raikkonen
Inevitably reigning F1 world champion Kimi Raikkonen is going to have to assist, if and when and where possible, his better-placed Ferrari teammate Felipe Massa in his battle with McLaren's Lewis Hamilton over the remaining four GPs of the season.
Raikkonen, who made up 17 points in the final two races last year to claim the title ahead of Hamilton, has so far been reluctant -- despite being 21 points behind Hamilton, 20 behind Massa and seven behind BMW-Sauber's Robert Kubica -- to commit to a "bridesmaid" role.
And Massa has let it be known that, while they are teammates, there is no friendship between him and Raikkonen; the relationship is strictly professional.
Although Ferrari chiefs will want co-operation to get the best results for the team and have another world champion driver, Massa is not counting on favors from Raikkonen.
He said the title fight was "my game".
"We work with each other and want Ferrari to be world champion, but we are not friends," Massa said. "We have no private relationship. If we are together in a meeting, when it is finished he opens the door and is gone."
Massa is much closer to his former teammate, Michael Schumacher, who he describes as being "like an older brother".
Mosley's weird and wonderful idea of the week
Controversial world motorsport chief Max Mosley now wants every F1 team using the same engine.
The Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) president told the French sports daily newspaper L'Equipe such a move would put a lid on costs and make F1 teams' research more relevant to road cars.
Calling the spending on technology by teams "irrational", Mosley said he also favored standard suspensions, tyres and gearboxes.
He said the main challenges facing F1 are rising costs and public awareness of environmental problems.
Just on Mosley's standard engine idea, a few thoughts:
>> In a sense this would take F1 back further than the days when every car other than the Ferraris had a Ford DFV engine.
>> If Mosley genuinely wants a common-engine formula, perhaps he ought turn his attention more to A1 GP, which already has that (Ferrari motors for the upcoming fourth season, if A1's financial woes don't cripple it first). IndyCar too has only one engine (Honda) at the moment.
>> A standard, officially-controlled F1 engine may avert the situation this year, where some teams (particularly Renault) feel that others (especially Ferrari) are sidestepping the spirit of the five-year development freeze. Modifications seemingly are allowed for fuel-saving or cost reasons, but it's obviously a very grey area. The problem, though, may be more the rules and the enforcement of them than anything else.
>> Surely a standard engine removes one of the great incentives for manufacturers to compete in F1 -- to design, build, race and showcase their technology, particularly against their competitors.
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