Motorsports

According to Renault F1 chief designer Pat Symonds, ground-effects aerodynamics and turbocharging, both of which were banned in the 1980s, could return. Writing in F1 Racing magazine, Symonds sees the 2020 F1 car also having low-profile tyres on bigger wheels, Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems (KERS) that produce 185kW and a standard, non-downforce rear wing. His vision of a future F1 car takes into account the likelihood of future rules on fuel consumption and CO2 emissions. F1 teams have already been instructed to reduce fuel consumption by 35 per cent, while a more environmentally-friendly 1.6-litre turbo engine will be introduced in 2013. "Taking into consideration all the variant motivators that drive regulations, I expect that the F1 car of 2020 will demonstrate much more change than has been seen over the past 10 years," he says.

MARCOS Ambrose says he has come "full circle" returning to Ford this year in the NASCAR Sprint Cup after driving for Toyota. Ambrose joins the famous Richard Petty Motorsports team alongside AJ Allmendinger this year with the first race at Daytona on February 20. "I started my professional racing career with Ford Australia and now here I am in the heart of my NASCAR career and come straight back to the Ford family." Ambrose says there is "a lot of prestige" about being associated with Richard Petty Motorsports and he expects to win races this year.TWO iconic names in Australian motorsport will join this year when Allan Moffat's son, James, races for old sparring partner Dick Johnson in the Jim Beam Racing team in the V8 Supercars Series. Moffat joins other team driver Steven Johnson and will be in the #18 FG Falcon of current champion James Courtney who has switched to the Holden Racing Team. Moffat has been driving in the support series where he finished third last year. He also raced in the V8 endurance rounds with Ford Performance Racing at Phillip Island and Bathurst where he finished 11th with Steven Richards.SECOND in 2009, HRT driver Will Davison dropped to 22nd last year in the V8 Supercar standings. This year he switches factories from Holden to Ford to drive for FPR, joining Mark Winterbottom and Paul Dumbrell. "I am tremendously excited about my move to Ford and FPR - they are the `coming team' without doubt, I have thought for some months that they are on the verge of great success, and I am delighted that I am going to be a part of that," he said. His first drive in his Trading Post FPR Ford Falcon will be at the official season-opening V8 Supercar test Day, at Eastern Creek, Sydney, on Saturday, January 29.YEARS of vehicle refinement have given Tasmanian Tony Warren a competitive edge to deend his 4WD Showroom title in this weekend's Targa Wrest Point. (JANUARY 29 to 30) Warren and co-driver Natasha Deniese won the class last year with theirm 2006 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX. Their main competition will come from new, but less proven vehicles such as the Lancer Evolution X models of Scott Millar and Christopher Dean and Queenslanders Greg and Rhonda Burrowes and the only non-Mitsubishi in the category, the Volkswagen Golf R32 of Tasmanian Dave Watson and co-driver Victorian Stuart Lister.MILDURA'S Josh Waters has scored a wild card for the World Superbike Championship at Phillip Island next month. (FEB 25-27) He will ride for the Yoshimura Suzuki team and test the bike at the final pre season test at Phillip Island on Febrauary 21-22. He will join fellow Australians Troy Corser (BMW) and Chris Vermeulen (Kawasaki) in the season opener. Waters, 24, is a multiple Australian road racing champion, and in 2009 won the premier Superbike category as a rookie.SOME of the top names in Australian off-road riding will compete in the inaugural indoor "enduro cross" event in Melbourne next month. Reigning Off Road Champion Toby Price, desert racing expert Ben Grabham and four-time world champion Stefan Merriman are among the line-up at Broadmeadows motocross track on Saturday February 5. Riders will negotiate a course that includes rocks, boulders, logs, sand, mud, water holes and special obstacles such as giant tyres and wooden sections. FLOOD damage in the Mary Valley north of Brisbane will be assessed ahead of the International Rally of Queensland in May. Organisers expected the rally to be unaffected as they will use more "weather-proof roads" and alternatives to ensure a full-distance international event. The rally is expected to attract competitors from Malaysia, Britain, Japan, India, New Zealand, Indonesia and New Caledonia.AUSTRALIAN Supercross star Chad Reed came from from three quarters of a lap down to finish seventh in the third round of the AMA Supercross in Los Angeles at ther weekend. He is now fifth in the FIM World Championship with his new, self-funded TwoTwo Motorsports Honda team. Kawasaki rider Ryan Villopoto won the event and leads the championship.RALLY ace Dean Herridge is hoping to be third time lucky when he drives for Subaru in the production car section of the Bathurst 12 Hour next weekend. (FEB 4-6) The 34-year-old four-time Australian Privateer Rally champion finished second in the enduro event in 2007 and crashed into actor Eric Bana's car last year while in contention for a win.A BIG field is set to grid up in five racing and two regularity `against the clock' categories at Bathurst this Easter. (April 22-24) Racing categories confirmed are Aussie Racing Cars Super Series, Commodore Cup National Series, Production Sports Cars, Saloon Cars and the return of Formula Ford 1600 to the Mountain.Visit: www.bathurstmotorfesival.com.au

Mark Skaife will again come out of retirement to partner Craig Lowndes in a pursuit of his seventh Bathurst victory.  Between them, they already have 11 Bathurst wins to their name. Lowndes said the early announcement of the enduro pairing would give them more time to prepare.  "This year we'll be much better prepared and with Skaifey at every round for his TV commentary duties, we'll be able to get him in the car much more often," he said. "That means we'll be able to keep him sharp and on the pace which is important because each year the competition gets tougher and tougher.  Also, Skaifey should be able to help us develop the car throughout the season." Lowndes and Skaife partnered for the first time in 10 years in 2010 and won the Philip Island and Bathurst enduro double.  Skaife described the pairing with Lowndes last year as "an absolute pleasure". "I could not have predicted that we would walk away with two enduro wins," he said.  "The team is extremely professional in every aspect and I feel privileged to be returning to the endurance race co-driver role in what is sure to be a very strong car come September." Skaife said he did not retire too soon and could not be tempted back to full-time racing. "I'm not in a position now with TV contracts and to be honest I wouldn't want to," he said.  "I'm not looking for a full-time gig, I'm happy having the best part-time gig." Lowndes said the problem with the pairing was that he would not be able to equal Skaife's Bathurst tally of wins.  "But hey, I wouldn't be too disappointed if after Bathurst this year I've got six and he's got seven," he said. Team Vodafone also announced that Andrew Thompson who finished 30th in the series last year will partner Jamie Whincup in the endurance races. "It's a huge opportunity for me and I feel extremely lucky to have been given this chance," Thompson said.  "I have a lot of work to do to repay the faith but I am really looking forward to getting the year underway and proving what I can do."

I hadn't driven with Mark Skaife for 10 years when we paired up last year for the enduros and what a pairing that turned out to be, winning Philip Island and Bathurst.  Now we're back again for the enduros this year, but with a distinct advantage of time.Last year we announced the pairing much later in the season, giving us little time to prepare.  This year we'll be much better prepared and with Skaifey at every round for his TV commentary duties, we'll be able to get him in the car much more often.That means we'll be able to keep him sharp and on the pace which is important because each year the competition gets tougher and tougher.Also, Skaifey should be able to help us develop the car throughout the season.I'm absolutely delighted. Skaifey was always my first choice as co-driver.  He's also rapt and looking forward to the challenge.He says the surroundings are familiar and the car is the one he wants to be in.  Of course, the only problem is that with him on six Bathurst wins and me on five, if we keep drving together on the mountain, I'll never be able to catch up or beat his wins.But hey, I wouldn't be too disappointed if after Bathurst this year I've got six and he's got seven.  We have a whole new team structure and some new people this season so it'll be interesting to see how the new team dynamic shapes up.Our first test will be at Eastern Creek in Sydney this weekend when all the V8 Supercar teams will be present for a shake-down and fan day.  It should be a very special occasion, even though we don't race at Eastern Creek in the V8 calendar. That should make it a neutral base for all the teams, no matter what manufacturer or where the team is based.We have to use the hard tyre up until lunch time, then we swap to the soft tyre in the arvo so we get an opportunity to test both set-ups on the one track.  Because we are returning this year with basically the same car as last year plus a few minor tweaks made over the break, we will just be sorting out the plumbing and working on any problems that arise.There won't be any testing for lap times or speed as the track is not relevant for that.  Apart from giving the teams a chance to set up their cars for the year, it will also be a great opportunity for the fans to see all the new liveries and get some autographs.The event should attract a huge crowd as we don't get to Sydney on a permanent track throughout the year.  I'll also be making a mental note of who is driving what and the new colour schemes so I can pick them out in the rearview mirror.I'm sure the drivers will also be happy to get in behind the wheel again after a long break and shake out some of the cobwebs before we get to Abu Dhabi in a couple of weeks.In the meantime, I'll get another hit-out in the driver's seat when I compete in an Audi R8 in the Bathurst 12-Hour.  I couldn't be in a better team. The Audi Sport Team Joest is the most successful Le Mans team of all time with 11 wins under its belt.Even though the car will take some getting used to, at least I know the track very well and should make a good impression.  Could it lead to something else? Who knows?This is just a first step for me and we'll see what we can deliver.  Hopefully I can forge a relationship with the team that could lead to something bigger and better like a Le Mans 24 Hour race.Roland was good enough to allow my race engineer, Jeromy to come down to observe the race.  It will be a great learning experience for him to see how one of the world's greatest motorsport teams operates.He'll also be able a help to me in the sense that it will be a familiar face and he might also be able to interpret any problems I have with car setup to the other engineers.  He may also be able to give them an insight into how we operate.I spent Australia Day picking up my neighbour and motocross training partner, George Knight, from the hospital after he crashed his dirt bike.  It's a good sport to help me train for racing, but his crash is a warning. Crashing is one of those things I'm always very conscious of.I always thought it would be me having an accident not him with all his experience.  I wish him a speedy recovery as well as V8 driver Jason Richards.I got an email to say he's seeking treatment in the US for his cancer.  You hear about people getting cancer, but when you get someone fairly close to you in the industry it hits home pretty hard.  I'd love to see him back on track for the sake of his family, but also because he's a great competitor.

After it's global unveiling at the 2010 Paris Motor Show followed by some rigorous testing, the DS3 WRC is ready for action.  The car will make its racing debut in February at the Swedish Rally, part of the 2011 World Rally Championship (WRC), covering a variety of conditions, climates and terrains.  Australia will finally get a glimpse of the car in September when it will visit to compete at Rally Australia in Coffs Harbour.The DS3 WRC is the third rally car entered by Citroen in the 2011 World Rally Championship (WRC) after the Xsara and C4. Five DS3's in total will be seen over the course of the championship, with two crews entered by Citroen and three from privateers. Citroen Racing is taking no chances when it comes to retaining their driver and manufacturer titles, recruiting a top-tier team including eight-time WRC champion drivers Sebastian Loeb and Daniel Elena. Two-time WRC champions Sébastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia will drive the No.2 car.See the Citroen DS3 WRC at Rally Australia at Coffs Harbour, NSW from 8 to 11 September 2011.

VOLKSWAGEN has won its third straight Dakar Rally with another treble. Victor was Qatar skeet shooting gold medallist Nasser al-Attiyah, followed by 2009 victor South African Giniel De Villiers and last year's winner, Carols Sainz of Spain sidelined by broken suspension. American Mark Miller gave the VW Touareg four top 10 finishes in the South American rally. BMW was next best with three X3s. Australian Bruce Garland pulled out in the first week with a bad back after a heavy crash landing in his Isuzu D-Max ute. The bike section was won by Spain's Marc Coma on a KTM, the first to win back-to-back titles since 2002. The quad section was won by Agentinian Alejandro Patronelli on a Yamaha and the truck winner was Russian Vladimir Chagin in a Kamaz. SYDNEY racer Daniel Erickson, 23, has been invited to drive in the iconic Daytona 24-hour sports car race next week. He will co-drive a Primus Racing Crawford-Chevrolet in the 49th January 29-30 Florida classic race alongside current NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson, Indy 500 champion Buddy Rice, IndyCar drivers Ryan Briscoe and Ryan Hunter-Reay, former F1 drivers Martin Brundle, Mark Blundell and Ricardo Zonta, and US all-rounder Scott Pruett. Erickson is the 2008 Australian Formula Ford champion and 2010 American F2000 Championship Series Rookie of the Year. WORLD, American and Australian supercross champion Chad Reed has scored his first win as an independent rider. His TwoTwo Motorsports team won a heat race in Phoenix last weekend and finished fourth in the main event to be fifth in the AMA Supercross standings after two rounds with 15 to go. The series is led by Ryan Villopoto. The third round is in LA this Saturday. (JANUARY 22). TWO young Australian women are set to debut in the World Rally Championship in March. Molly Taylor, 22, of Sydney, won her place through the Pirelli Star Driver Shootout in Spain last year along with Victorian Brendan Reeves. Taylor's co-driver will be Queenslander Rebecca Smart, 24, who was second outright last year in the Australian Rally Championship, as co-driver to her brother Ryan. The all-female team will compete in six WRC rounds and selected rounds of the British and European rally series. V8 Supercars champion James Courtney and personal sponsor Jeld-Wen Australia have donated $25,000 to Queensland flood victims. The new Toll Holden Racing Team driver also donated a driving suit for a raffle and HRT donated two V8 Supercar "hot lap" passenger rides with either Courtney or team-mate Garth Tander. TOP female drag racer Debbie Reed, 51, of Brisbane, is recovering at home after a high-speed crash during qualifying for the Top Alcohol category at Willowbank Raceway's New Year Series. The incident after Reed crossed the line in her first qualifying pass in a time of 5.980 seconds at about 360km/h. Her Top Alcohol dragster then hit the barrier wall, bounced into the opposite barrier and flipped several times.

I was away in Melbourne with the family visiting dad when the floods hit.  We got back last Saturday and ever since I"ve been busy cleaning up the mess, helping neighbours transport vehicles over washed-out gullies and bridges and getting petrol. The town has nearly run out what with all the generators running to keep power going.It's been a sad start to the year.  V8 Supercar drivers, race teams and staff have helped with various methods of raising money for the victims, many of which are avid V8 supporters. Team Vodafone is auctioning off some hot laps with me and Jamie Whincup.  It was also great to see a lot of other sporting codes contributing manpower to the clean-up and keeping the morale up.But it was devastating to hear that Peter Champion's museum of Brock race cars at Yeppoon is closing because of what the floods have done to the state's tourism industry.Peter's done a wonderful job of resurrecting Brocky's cars and historical memorabilia and displaying them in a single area. I spoke to him at Homebush at the last round and he was thinking about relocating. I certainly hope so.From a team perspective, the floods have had very little impact. We had no flood waters at the Banyo workshop and minimal disruption to staff.Our first outing is at Eastern Creek next weekend for the mandatory test day for all V8 teams.  It's a track I love and it's a real shame we don't have it on our race calendar any more.However, that makes it the perfect neutral place for al the teams to test and for the fans to have their first look at the new livery cars and driver line-ups.  Usually there's a bit of change with drivers moving between teams in the off-season, but this time there has been a team merry-go-round, mainly among race engineers.Happily, I still have Jeremy Moore as my race engineer and while some teams like DJR have been broken up, ours has stayed together. We've even expanded with Williams F1 engineer John Russell now heading up the team.I can understand race engineers changing teams with the drivers, because you develop an important relationship and bond.  If I was to move, I would want to take my engineer with me just like Valentino Rossi did with Jeremy Burgess.It's like a marriage. You develop an understanding of what you want from the car and how you translate that to your engineer and how he translates that into changes on the car.At the moment most of my planning is going into the Bathurst 12 Hour race next month.  Unfortunately, we don't get a chance to test  the Audi R8 race car before the event, so it will be a matter of going to Bathurst - which we know fairly well - and trying to get to know the car and its traits as quickly as possible.The car will have different aero to what I'm used to in a V8 Supercar and a totally different feel being mid-engined, so there is a lot to get my head around very quickly.  We're lucky to have co-drivers like Warren Luff and Mark Eddy who are also veterans of the Mt Panorama circuit, but it remains to be seen how quickly the German team come to terms with the mountain.Still, I reckon we're in with a good chance to challenge the favoured Porsche 911s for outright honours.  I didn't get to watch any of the recent Dakar Rally, but after competing in and winning my first Australasian Safari I was obviously very interested and kept up with progress on line.My Safari co-driver, Kees Weel, also kept me up to date with the rally because his company supplied the radiators to the VW Touraegs that finished 1-2-3.  I heard about Bruce Garland dropping out with broken vertebrae. That's a shame as he was running quite strongly and had a really good shot at the top 10.Hopefully one day I'll get to compete in the Dakar, but I was quite happy to have a break over Christmas.  It's been the first Christmas in a few years the whole Triple Eight team has been able to shut up shop, have a break and not build a race car.We're all heading back into HQ this week to go through the changes we've made and Jeromy tells me the car has more finesse.  Because we've had so few changes, the team is much better prepared than we were this time last year when we were scrambling to finish off the new Holdens.Having said that we hit the ground running with a 1-2 in the first race in the Mid East, so we really can't do much better than that this year.

Hankook chief financial officer Hyun Bum Cho last year said he had held talks with F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone about supplying tyres to the premier motorsport category.  However, the first major motorsport category to be running on Korean rubber will be the German touring car series, DTM.Hankook has previously focused on long-distance sports car events, last year finishing second at the Nurburgring 24-Hour race with a Ferrari F430 GT2 co-driven by Bathurst 1000 invitee Allan Simonsen.Now the company has announced an exclusive three-year contract with DTM, including Audi, Mercedes and the new BMW teams. The DTM series is based in Germany but also races in Austria, China, England, Netherlands and Spain.The seventh-biggest tyre manufacturer in the world plans to move into other major racing categories in the next few years.  Cho, who launched the South Korean company's motorsport program 10 years ago, said the company, which spends about 3 per cent of its sales revenue on marketing, needed to become involved in the "top categories" of world motorsports."Right now we have a little Le Mans team and some rally teams here and there," he said.  "The worldwide motorsport market is about two million (tyres) a year, which is quite profitable because motorsport tyres are quite expensive."So we need to be in WRC, F1 or the top end of Le Mans.  In future we need to be in those but it will cost a lot of money."Hankook Tyre Australia marketing assistant William Ng says DTM "will form the core of Hankook's motor sport activities".  "Other forms of motorsport may be entered into if they are in line with our strategic goals," he says.Their tyres have been used in the Bathurst 12-Hour race, but when asked if the V8 Supercar series is in their sights, he replied: "No comment at the moment."Hankook Tyre Australia managing director Paul Park says Hankook is well poised to be in premium motorsport categories because most of the bigger companies are either "old or disinterested" and the Japanese brands do not have the money to participate."So it is quite obvious that in the motorsport field we are emerging as a new rising star," he said.

The hybrid fight comes as Lexus uses the high-profile event to introduce its compact CT200h to local buyers, as well as the drivers who will compete in the 2011 celebrity challenge.Hybrids have run in Formula One, as well as major sports car races and some touring car events, but only in contests open to normal petrol-powered cars.No-one in a CT200h will be going for all-out efficiency at Albert Park, or running the car on pure battery power, but Lexus believes the AGP is an ideal way to change the green focus away from the efficiency of the Prius to the potential driving enjoyment of the CT."We want to show that hybrids can be sporty and they can be fun. This is a world first," says Lexus executive, Peter Evans. "We also think this is the single biggest bang-for-your-buck opportunity to launch a new car in Australia. It's an amazing platform with 4.6 million people at the peak television viewing and 310,000 spectators over four days."Evans avoids discussing the potential on-track carnage with the cars but promises a field with far more genuine celebrities than recent AGP celebrity contests."Our target is to try and get a new group. Not so much new faces, but different faces. So not someone like Guy Leech," he says."We want high-profile people. We're targeting a 50:50 mix of male and female and we're going for people who match the intended buyer profile, so younger and almost half will be women. Most will be under 40. We're still working to finalise the list and we'll announce that in Melbourne next week. We don't want a repeat of 2008 when the motocross racer Robbie Madison cleared out and won by half a lap."The celebrity race commitment will gobble the early supply of CT200h cars, although they will head to dealerships afterwards for promotional work and likely sale.Evans also promises a record number of chances for non-celebrity drivers to take part in the race."There will be 30 cars, 27 on track and three reserves. They will be made up of 24 cars representing our dealer sites, plus three competition cars. There will be a consumer competition, a dealer competition and a buyer's competition. If you sign a contract to buy a CT200H then you go into a draw to win a drive. There will also be two winners in the race, an outright and an index-of-efficiency prize."The celebrity race program will be run by retired Australian rally champions Neal Bates and Coral Taylor, who drove for Lexus in Targa Tasmania with an IS200. They will be responsible for everything from car preparation at Bates' race base in Canberra to the training and licensing of the celebrity drivers, although Lexus technicians will also be involved in maintenance of the cars during the AGP meeting.

CRAIG Lowndes leads a surprising Audi attack on the Bathurst 12-Hour race over easter with a pair of race-prepared R8 coupes. Rule changes for the endurance event at Mount Panorama have opened the event to sports cars and Audi has a pair of R8s coming from Europe - V8 Supercar racer Warren Luff will share with Lowndes - to take on the Porsche 911s that are expected to fight for victory.THE struggling Australian Rally Championship is headed for a revamp and improvement to its relevance under new chairman Scott Pedder. The retired driver intends to make the series more appealing to carmakers from 2011 and move it away from the reliance on the Subaru WRX and Mitsubishi Evo contenders that dominate entry lists.THE full-scale renewal of the V8 Supercars field will take place in 2013 when the category's Car of the Future will become compulsory. There was talked of an optional phase-in for the change in 2012 but V8 Supercars bosses now say the transitional year has been dumped in favour of a single switch at the start of 2013.CITROEN stalwart Dani Sordo, who was superstar Sebastian Loeb's sidekick for five years at Citroen, is moving to Mini for this year's World Rally Championship. Mini is only planning a limited program against Ford and Citroen before a full-scale season in 2011, but has signed Sordo the Spaniard as lead driver alongside Chris Meeke of the UK.FORMER champion Chad Reed made a tentative return to AMA Supercross racing in the USA last weekend riding a Honda for his own team for the first time. The Aussie was fifth at Anaheim Stadium in Los Angeles as Ryan Villopoto won on the Monster Kawasaki he used to ride.