MOTORSPORT: NZ fuss over V8 Supercars escalates

The V8 Supercar debacle at Hamilton is becoming a major New Zealand political issue, while from Abu Dhabi comes word on why the show could not remain a standalone event

Government minister threatens to oust Hamilton council
The council in New Zealand provincial city Hamilton has been threatened with the sack over the financial debacle surrounding the V8 Supercar event that has cost it almost NZ$40 million.

"Hamilton ratepayers deserve to have this matter fixed, so that we never see this type of failure again," NZ's Local Government Minister Rodney Hide has said.

Hide said he had asked Hamilton mayor Julie Hardaker to report to him on how the council intended to respond to the recent damning Audit NZ report on the event with a timeline for action. He raised the prospect of the council being dismissed and commissioners being appointed if the responses were not satisfactory.

The two street races in Hamilton next April 21 and 22 will be the city's last, with the prospect NZ's V8 Supercar round will move to a defence air base on the outskirts of Auckland beyond then.

Hide said Hardaker, who has only been Hamilton's mayor since last year, had assured him the council -- with a substantially different line-up to when it agreed to host V8 Supercars - was committed to remedying the practices which had created the mess and restoring the confidence of its ratepayers.

The Audit NZ report highlighted poor -- and in some case no - reporting by council executives to councilors and millions of dollars spent without authorisation.

It found that councilors had agreed to deals without seeing a business plan or copies of the contract and had made many decisions in meetings closed to the public.

Hide said the council had told him it would look at options "for pursuing any civil and criminal liabilities".

Michael Redman, a former Hamilton mayor who had become the city's chief executive by the time the V8 Supercars deal was done, has claimed he is being made a scapegoat for the financial fiasco.

Since the Audit NZ report Redman has resigned as the Auckland "Super City" tourism and events boss.

Only F1 stacks up for Abu Dhabi
Abu Dhabi's motorsport chief has given an explanation for why the V8 Supercars will be become a support category at the emirate's Formula One grand prix on November 2-4 next year rather than remain a standalone event.

Richard Cregan told Abu Dhabi's The National newspaper that, other than F1, international series such as V8 Supercars, the FIA GT series and the GP2 Asian Series had been poorly attended and would be "discontinued" (as separate events).

"We've shifted from the events that come in, take a fee, disappear and nobody knows any more about them," Cregan said. "That wasn't ticking the boxes for us."

Cregan said the other series had "delivered everything they said they would" but that greater emphasis would now be put on local events.

"We are prepared to put that effort instead into the local community, because we get a far better long-term result from local racing than bringing in big events where we pay large sanction fees," he said. "The business direction has changed slightly.

"F1 is still at the head of the business, but the train is taking a slightly different course and [with Yas Marina circuit cutting its costs by 35-40 per cent] it's delivering that commercial viability and that break-even.

"To continue the popularity of the F1, we need to differentiate to other F1 races around the world - that was why we decided to bundle the V8 Supercars as a support race."

Ticket prices held, even cut, for Clipsal 500
Most ticket prices for next year's Clipsal 500 in Adelaide, the opening round of the 2012 V8 Supercar Championship, have been cut or held at this year's prices.

Clipsal will be on March 1-4 and South Australia's new premier Jay Weatherill said at the event launch last Friday that "about half of all ticket prices have been reduced or remain the same and 60 per cent of all grandstand tickets have been reduced or remain the same".

A Top 10 Shootout has been reinstated for the Friday after qualifying, with the second qualifying session on the Sunday morning before the second of the weekend's V8 Supercars.

There will be seven support categories -- the Fujitsu development series cars, GTs, V8 utes, the Touring Car Masters, Carrera Cup, Formula Three and Aussie Racing Cars.

Weatherill claimed Clipsal generates annual economic benefit of $34 million.

Ferrari chief slams emphasis on aerodynamics
Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo has complained vigorously about the influence of aerodynamics in Formula One, renewed his call for the top teams to be allowed to run third cars and bemoaned the lack of F1 testing.

Montezemolo said it was "not good that 90 per cent of performance is now based exclusively on aerodynamics".

"Another negative is that ours is the only sport where no testing is allowed [during the season]... Sure we must not go back to the excesses of a few years ago."

And Montezemolo said it "would be nice one day in the future to see one of our cars running in American colors, or Chinese - or maybe those of Abu Dhabi [where the penultimate round of this season will be held this weekend]."

While Ferrari and Montezemolo are notoriously political, perhaps he is right on this.

The past two years have been a new golden era for F1 with 24 cars on the grid. Just imagine if the top four fielded third cars, run by privateers, to boost the grid to 28. That would make the show even better.

Montezemolo had another perspective too. "If F1 still wants Ferrari it must change and go back to being at the cutting edge of research, while always keeping an eye on costs. We are not in F1 as sponsors - we are constructors."

Ferrari's F1 team principal Stefano Domenicali was adamant at the weekend that Brazilian Felipe Massa would retain his seat next season despite the recent strong speculation that Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg was being lined up to fill it.

NASCAR's Chase set for thrilling finish
Marcos Ambrose ran up front for much of the third last race of NASCAR's Sprint Cup at Texas Motor Speedway but, after taking on only two fresh tyres late in the race, wound up 11th as Tony Stewart won again. It was Stewart's fourth win of the year -- and all have come during the eight races so far in The Chase for the title. The Chevrolet star has closed to within three points of Ford's series leader Carl Edwards, who was second in Texas.

There are two races to go -- at Phoenix, Arizona, next weekend and then the finale at Homestead in Florida the following weekend.

Firebrand Kyle Busch was suspended from the Cup and Nationwide Series races at Texas after punting Ron Hornaday into the wall during the pick-up truck series race at the start of the weekend. Hornaday was driving for Kevin Harvick, with whom Busch has had a season-long feud in the Cup.

The first Cup driver suspended from racing since Robby Gordon in 2007, Busch said the morning after he was banned that he accepted the punishment, took full responsibility for his actions and -- with sponsors of the Joe Gibbs Toyota team fuming -- he apologised.

Ambrose had a spirited battle with Stewart for the lead in the Cup race but only taking on two new tyres upset the balance of his Richard Petty Motorsports Ford.

"It really unsettled the car and made it very difficult to drive for a segment there," he said. "Still, there are plenty of positives … we ran near the front for a long time... I can't wait until Phoenix next weekend and finish off the season strongly."

NASCAR Sprint Cup standings after 34 of 36 races - 1. Carl Edwards (Ford) 2316 points, 2. Tony Stewart (Chevrolet) 2313, 3. Kevin Harvick (Chevrolet) 2283, 4. Matt Kenseth (Ford) 2278, 5. Brad Keselowski (Dodge) 2267, 6. Jimmie Johnson (Chevrolet) 2261, 7. Dale Earnhardt Junior (Chevrolet) 2237, 8. Jeff Gordon (Chevrolet) 2235, 9. Kurt Busch (Dodge) 2229, 10. Denny Hamlin (Toyota) 2217. Australia's Marcos Ambrose (Ford)  is 17th in the series.

Atkinson third in Asia-Pacific Rally Championship
Perth-based Scotsman Alister McRae has won the China Rally with his former WA police officer co-driver Bill Hayes -- and they become the Asia-Pacific rally champions.

McRae's Proton teammate, Australian Chris Atkinson, the winner of three of the championship's six rounds, was third in China and ended up third in the series. Atkinson won four of the six stages on Sunday after engine problems on Saturday. McRae held a 58.8-second advantage over Finnish driver Jari Ketomaa in a Mitsubishi on Saturday evening and stretched the gap to 1 minute 14.3 seconds by the finish.

Proton won the season's team and manufacturer titles.

Lambo fires up - literally - in winning Targa
Tasmanian Jason White has won Victoria's Targa High Country despite his new $600,000 Lamborghini being on fire for the last 10km. White raced on after the fear of Lambo caught fire half way through the final 18km stage up Mt Buller.

After finishing outside the ski resort's fire station he said: "We thought it was best to get up to the finish where there were more fire extinguishers, rather than trying to put it out with ours... It was a bit hard to concentrate with a fire ball hanging out the back but, man, what a dramatic finish!"

White had a see-sawing battle throughout the weekend with pre-event favourite, Queenslander Tony Quinn in a Nissan GTR, before finishing 10 seconds ahead. Matt Sims finished third in another Nissan GTR, with Matt Close fourth in an Audi TT RS.

Four-time Australian gravel rally champion Simon Evans won the showroom class in a Mazda3 MPS, while the TMR performance showroom 4WD class victory went to Ric Shaw in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X - by one second over fellow Mitsubishi driver Dean Evans, who had led from the start but suffered a puncture on the second  last stage.

Queenslander Donn Todd took the classic category in his 1971 Ford Capri Perana, finishing 2 minutes 49 seconds ahead of Jon Siddins in his 1970 Datsun 240Z. Siddins won the Shannons early classic handicap competition and Bruce Power the late classic battle in a 1979 Mazda RX7.

Targa High Country was the first of three rounds of the Australian Targa Championship. The next is Targa Wrest Point in southern Tasmania on the last weekend of January, with Targa Tasmania the final round in mid-April.

The course for the 21st Targa Tasmania will comprise 570 competitive kilometres -- 70km more than this year, 120km more than last year and 200km more than five years ago.

Competitors will spend an extra night on the state's west coast, with the event base at Strahan on the Friday and Saturday nights after the first five nights in Launceston. The traditional finish remains in Hobart on the Sunday afternoon.