Friday motorsport report
June 1, 2007
Shaking and moving the top 10
Moping around the internet this week we came across an article about the most powerful people in V8 Supercar racing.
It's from a magazine called V8X, which has been around a few years now. Can't recall ever buying it, and have only flicked through it a couple of times when killing time in a newsagency.
While we don't necessarily agree with V8X's rankings, we found the piece we stumbled across on the net to be food for thought towards the end of week in which not a lot seems to be happening - of great consequence anyway.
Here's who V8X rated the 10 most powerful people in V8 Supercar racing at the minute:
1. Tony Cochrane - V8 Supercars Australia
2. John Hewson - new Touring Car Entrants Group (TEGA) chairman and former federal Liberal Party leader (and once almost prime minister).
3. Saul Shtein - head of sport at V8 Supercar telecaster Channel 7.
4. Roland Dane - owner of Triple 8/Team Vodafone and TEGA board member.
5. Wayne Cattach - V8 Supercars Australia chief executive.
6. Simon McNamara - Holden motorsport manager.
7. Ray Price - Ford motorsport manager.
8. Kelvin O'Reilly - TEGA general manager.
9. Murray Lomax - V8 Supercars Australia TV executive producer.
10. Craig Lowndes - Ford/Triple 8/Team Vodafone driver.
It seems this is the third time that V8X has undertaken such assessment of the powerbrokers in Australia's premier form of motor racing.
It refers to a "perceived weakening in the power of the team owners and drivers" in its latest rankings.
Only three of its top 10 from its previous rankings in 2004 are still on its list.
"There has also been debate on whether Ford and Holden retain any power, but in the end we decided money talks and so they were in," says the article's author, Andrew Clark.
Strangely, it nominated the guys it described as the "foot soldiers" for the manufacturers, the motorsport managers, while we think Denny Mooney - soon to be replaced by Chris Gubbey - as Holden chief executive, and Tom Gorman in the top slot at Ford Australia, should have been the nominees on behalf of the car companies because they are the men controlling the purse strings, irrespective of how often they go to the tracks.
Tony Cochrane has apparently topped all three of V8X's rankings over seven years, and as the head honcho of V8 Supercars Australia has to be right up there.
Whether he should necessarily be numero uno on the list we're not so sure.
Cochrane is the man who did the new telecast deal with Channel 7, and that network's head of sport, Saul Shtein, comes in at No. 3.
Perhaps whoever prevails in the inevitable head-butting that must be going on over the shoving of the Winton telecast into a late-night spot in South Australia, and the scheduling of a similar 10.30pm slot in Queensland for next week's Eastern Creek round, and in SA for the Oran Park round, might be a decisive factor in whether the Cochrane and Shtein rankings should be reversed next time.
Quiet, unassuming but efficient executive producer of the telecasts, Murray Lomax, is at No. 9, which we think is one of the most accurate of V8X's rankings.
Can't understand how former top politician John Hewson comes straight in at No. 2, especially as we're not sure that TEGA is on top of things - although it clearly has a difficult juggling act to perform.
Our overwhelming feeling about these rankings is that they grossly underestimate the power and influence now of the British team owners who have marched into V8 Supercar racing.
OK, Roland Dane is in there at No. 4, but how can Tom Walkinshaw (pictured), in particular, and David Richards not be in the top 10, even if they are rarely in the country?
From our reading of the situation, admittedly from a distance, this trio has pretty much blocked the implementation of the Total Racing and Expenditure Cap (TREC), for starters.
By our estimation, Walkinshaw ought be close to the top of the rankings, if not at the very top, for the way he has re-emerged in Australian racing in the past two years and wiped the floor - whether you like it or not - with the HSV Dealer Team and, to a lesser extent, Holden Racing Team Commodores.
In terms of power and influence, however it is exerted, there should be no doubting that Walkinshaw is very much the key player in the V8 game.
So who should make way for Walkinshaw and Richards, head of Prodrive which runs Ford Performance Racing?
We question whether there ought be two V8 Supercar executives (chief executive Wayne Cattach as well as Tony Cochrane) in the top 10, and certainly can't see how two TEGA bods make it - especially as one has just taken up his post.
There's a distinction between potential power and real clout.
Craig Lowndes, as the only driver in V8X's top 10, made it because "he simply controls the driver market by being numero uno in the popularity stakes". Fair enough.
The notable tumbler from that charts has been Mark Skaife in the wake of the HRT ownership saga and his exit from the TEGA board.
For the record, here are V8X's earlier top 10s.
2004
1. Tony Cochrane - AVESCO (predecessor of V8 Supercars Australia)
2. Mark Skaife - driver, team owner, and then TEGA board.
3. David White - Network 10 (previous telecaster).
4. Wayne Cattach - AVESCO.
5. Stephen Kruk - then Ford motorsport manager.
6. Mark Larkham - former team owner and TEGA board member.
7. Ray Borrett - former Holden motorsport director.
8. Garry Rogers - team owner and then TEGA board member.
9. Tim Schenken - CAMS motorsport director.
10. Roland Dane - team owner and TEGA board member.
2000
1. Tony Cochrane - AVESCO.
2. Ross Brodie - then series sponsor Shell's motorsport manager.
3. David White - Network 10.
4. Geoff Jones - IMG sports marketing and event management.
5. Tim Schenken - CAMS.
6. John Crennan - then Holden Special Vehicles/Holden Racing Team chief.
7. Wayne Cattach - AVESCO.
8. John Stevenson - then Holden motorsport manager.
9. Howard Marsden - then Ford motorsport manager.
10. Garry Rogers - team owner and then TEGA board member.
Bell tolls in Canberra changeover
The ACT government has had enough of bankrolling the Rally of Canberra and is handing it over, after this weekend, to long-time event organiser Mike Bell, who reckons he can continue to run it, irrespective of whether he lands a major sponsor for it next year.
And, according to a report in today's Canberra Times newspaper, CAMS (Confederation of Australian Motorsport) will collect $300,000 on the way through.
"The ACT government has been the major backer of the rally for the past two years, committing $750,000 of ACT taxpayers' money to support Canberra's premier rallying event, but had been considering abandoning the event due to low visitor numbers," the Canberra Times says.
"Bell said yesterday while he would seek a major sponsor for the event, finding one was not a pre-requisite for the 2008 rally to go ahead.
"Absolutely not (we don't need a sponsor)," Bell said. "With the funding model I have it's not an issue."
ACT Sports and Tourism Minister Andrew Barr announced the government had cut ties with the rally, but said it would give CAMS a $300,000 payout plus intellectual property such as the event's website.
Bell has been the rally's key organiser for years and wants to increase competitor and spectator numbers.
He and CAMS say the event will remain a round of the Australian Rally Championship and, they hope, the Asia-Pacific championship - which, unfortunately, is an inferior series to our national championship.
FIA officials will decide after this weekend's event whether Canberra remains in the Asia-Pacific series, of which it has been part since 1999.
Rallying lights back up
This year's Rally of Canberra kicks off tonight, with a 10.33km forest stage -- the first at night for a decade -- after the ceremonial start in the centre of the national capital.
The event promises to be a tussle between Australia's top rally drivers of the past couple of years -- Cody Crocker, a triple national champion with Subaru who is defending the Asia-Pacific title he won last year, and Simon Evans, Toyota's reigning Australian champion.
After driving for Tasmanian-based Les Walkden Rallying last year, Crocker is now with Singapore's Motor Image and still in a Subaru.
Evans has won the two ARC rounds so far this year, in Queensland and Western Australia, and is looking for a hat-trick in the same Group N prototype Corolla in which he and co-driver wife Sue took last year's national crown.
They are particularly looking forward to tonight's stage in the dark.
"I think there should be more night stages," Evans says. "Night rallying has always been a big part of rally's heritage -- I just hope it's not too dusty!"
Heat one will continue Saturday in the forests around Canberra, with seven stages for the day. The second heat on Sunday comprises eight stages.
The third round in the ARC also sees the return to the national title of former Mitsubishi works driver, Spencer Lowndes. Along with co-driver Chris Randell, Lowndes has spent the early part of 2007 building the first of a pair of Evo IXs for a tilt at the privateers title.
The Melbourne-based pairing had initially planned to join the title chase at the Perth round. Lowndes says given the late start to his season, he'll spend the remaining events getting himself and the Access Hardware Evo IX up to speed with a view to challenging for series honours in 2008.
However, all eyes this weekend will be on the all-new Super 2000 Toyota of Canberra-based triple national champion, Neal Bates.
Bates won in Canberra last year in a sister Corolla to that of Evans, outclassing the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX of Scott Pedder -- who has been sidelined in Australia this year by Ralliart's withdrawal, although he has stitched together a deal to drive an Evo IX at the world championship Rally New Zealand.
Ambrose a half-million-dollar man
Marcos Ambrose has already earned US$361,585 (A$581,914) from 13 NASCAR Busch Series races this season.
This weekend he's racing at Dover International Speedway in Delaware, known as "The Monster Mile".
Ambrose this week had his first full test day in a Nextel Cup "Car of Tomorrow" - at Virginia International Raceway, in preparation for his attempt to qualify for his first Cup start at California's Infineon Raceway, the road course also known as Sonoma, on June 24.
The dual Aussie V8 Supercar champion, who is 13th in the Busch standings, will also try to race in the Nextel Cup round at Watkins Glen, New York, the former home of the United States Grand Prix, on August 12.
McLaren's Monaco tactics 'entirely legitimate'
So the McLaren Formula 1 team has been cleared of any wrongdoing in its 1-2 finish at the Monaco Grand Prix.
The governeing Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) found that McLaren's actions in telling Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso to hold positions "were entirely legitimate".
"McLaren were able to pursue an optimum team strategy because they had a substantial advantage over all other cars. They did nothing which could be described as interfering with the race result," the FIA says.
We agree. The distinction between Monaco last weekend and what Ferrari did at the 2002 Austrian GP and McLaren in the 1998 Australian GP is that a driver did not surrender position to let a teammate win.
Australia's 1980 world champion, Alan Jones, was quoted at length on the subject of team orders in London's Guardian newspaper this week.
Here's some of what he had to say:
"A ban on giving team orders is unworkable. If the owner of the team wants to get the best possible result for the team then it should be up to him.
"Driving to team orders was commonplace even in the old days. When Juan Manuel Fangio was racing in the 1950s, if he had a mechanical problem he would go back into the pits and his teammate would have to hand his car over so Fangio was able to continue.
"Team orders and strategies have been going on since Big Ben was a wristwatch."
Damon Hill, who won the world title 16 years after A.J., takes a different tack.
"There is an implicit contract between F1 and the millions who want to watch a race. That contract is broken when the contestants are asked not to compete against each other," Hill says.
Max Mosley's new wonder world
FIA president Max Mosley is not everyone's favourite person, but - whether you agree with him or not - you couldn't find anyone more eloquent when talking about motorsport.
Mosley is on a crusade to see F1 become greener, more efficient, more competitive and more relevant to road car development.
Here are some of his thoughts, extracted from an interview on formula1.com:
"We have to adapt to reality.
"The existence of F1 is at stake.
"Cars that need 75 litres per 100 kilometres are no longer cool.
"We have to cut cost; we have to respect the public's opinion and we have to set a clear signal.
"The issue is how much energy an engine needs and not how big its capacity is. In the future we will try to get the maximum out of a limited energy potential. The equation reads: whoever wants to have the strongest engine must find out how to best use the limited energy.
"One of the teams uses one-time wheel bolts that cost US$1200 per piece. At a consumption rate of 1000 pieces per year that means $1.2 million only for wheel bolts!
"The idea is to directly connect the development in F1 to road car production. The bigger the overlap, the bigger the economisation - and the better for the protection of our climate!
"F1 has a very short development cycle and this will speed up the technical improvement of the consumer cars.
"From 2011 on there will be a fuel limitation for racing and testing, and bio-fuel will be added to the conventional fuel. Over the years the percentage of the bio-fuel shall increase - with a power-enhancement at the same time. F1 technology with its budget could become the dray horse for the engine development for road cars."
Asked whether it is really possible to race with "eco-cars", Mosley says: "Absolutely! With a system that traps and reprocesses the energy set free when braking, and re-circulates it into the engine as a new source of energy, our evaluation estimates that a 2.2 litre V6 turbo engine could provide 750 horsepower."
And there's more from mighty Max:
"Do you have any idea how much energy is wasted and CO2 pollutes the air when the top teams have their two wind tunnels run 24/7?
"Hundreds of thousands of tonnes and more - with the unfortunate result that at the end of the day F1 races become boring.
"The extremely sophisticated aerodynamics inhibit overtaking. With a new regulation we want to make overtaking possible again. The 'new' F1 should be like this: the manufacturers deliver engines, gearboxes and electronic units that last five races - and the teams build the respective chassis."
Beautifully spoken, Mr Mosley.
Schumacher brother faces eviction
Just months after Michael Schumacher's retirement from F1 with seven world titles, younger brother Ralf may be bowing out soon too - but not by choice.
European reports suggest that Ralf has the two upcoming North American races - in Montreal on June 10 and Indianpolis a week later - to lift his game or Toyota will flick him.
If not mid-season, word is highly paid Ralf will be gone by the end of the year.
Monaco was a shocker for him - he qualified at the back of the grid and was 16th of 18 finishers.
He has just one championship point this season. Teammate Jarno Trulli has four.
"Ralf has got himself into a downward-sprial. His position at Toyota is becoming dangerous," says Niki Lauda, the triple world champion who briefly ran Ford's Jaguar team and is now a TV commentator.
F1 already has midnight racing
Complaints about delayed motorsport telecasts are common in Australia, whether of V8 Supercars or Formula 1.
Last Sunday the Monaco GP began on Channel 10 at almost precisely the time the chequered flag was being waved in Monte Carlo.
But we Aussies are not alone in our grumbles.
From Malaysia we read an admission from F1 host broadcaster RTM's head of sports Albert Kho that it no longer broadcasts F1 live.
"We show the races at midnight on race day," Kho says.
"We show it delayed because we have several important programs that take priority over F1 races.
"The races in Europe clash with our prime time news at 8pm, and at that time we have to air the Mandarin and Tamil news.
"According to RTM policy, news must be given priority during prime time and we have several dramas to be shown after 9pm which are sponsored by various companies.
"At the moment, we haven't got a sponsor for the F1 races.
"We also have another news slot at 10pm and other sponsored programs after that, which we need to give priority."
700 DNFs from Bahrain GP
The Gulf News Daily newspaper reports that a hunt is on for about 700 people living illegally in Bahrain after entering the country on F1 visas.
It says more than 9000 visas were issued for visitors to the Bahrain GP in mid-April.
Those who have overstayed their welcome are reported to be from 45 countries.
"We are confident we will find and deport them," an official says.
To comment on this article click here