MOTORSPORT: Holden spending less on V8 Supercars

Chief vows Lion's passion strong on smaller budget
Despite luring Team Vodafone/Triple Eight Race Engineering to the red side, Holden says it is spending less on V8 Supercar racing this year.

And it has vigorously denied that it directed any Federal Government subsidies during the economic downturn to its racing program.

The season starting in little more than two weeks now -- in the Middle East -- will be the first of three in which Triple Eight will have Holden factory backing, on top of the manufacturer's funding of the official Toll Holden Racing Team, which has been extended to 2013.

Holden chairman and managing director Alan Batey is reported in today's edition of Auto Action magazine saying that, despite having V8 Supercar racing's two top teams now, Holden has cut its V8 Supercar budget in line with the decline in large car sales.

"I won't go into what the amounts are, but I can tell you that we are spending less than we have historically spent," Batey has told Auto Action editor-at-large Mark Fogarty. "However, our passion, commitment for the sport is not diluted one dollar.

"It is just that our business has changed dramatically and we need to make sure that we have a viable business as well as a viable motorsport business -- and that's where it's at."

Holden's critics have had suspicions that some of Canberra's funding during the economic downturn may have been ending up in teams racing Commodores.

Holden motorsport manager Simon McNamara has stoutly denied that, and claims that the company's racing program is almost paying for itself.

"We've structured our business so that our motor racing program almost pays for itself," McNamara said. "The net cost ... is minimal.

"Through what we do with the merchandise and other stuff, our motor racing basically pays for itself. We're not using taxpayer money. We just have a way of making our business work better than perhaps others, and we have the teams that are going to go and do the job for us."

Team Vodafone yesterday unveiled its first Commodore in Sydney, and announced Mark Skaife and Steve Owen as its co-drivers for the endurance races in September-October.

Skaife will be reunited with Craig Lowndes, almost a decade after they were teammates at HRT, while 2008 V8 Supercar development series champion Owen will partner Jamie Whincup, national champion of the past two years, in the Phillip Island and Bathurst enduros.

A rule change this year prevents teams pairing their regular full-time drivers in these long-distance events now.

HRT paired Lowndes and Skaife for the enduros in 1998 and 2000, but they never won Bathurst together and Lowndes switched to the Ford camp in 2001.

Skaife, statistically Australia's most successful touring car driver, was squeezed out of full-time racing at the end of 2008, when Tom Walkinshaw regained full control of HRT.

Last year he co-drove in the enduros with Greg Murphy in the now-defunct Tasman Motorsport team, finishing fourth at Bathurst.

Triple Eight chief Roland Dane said Skaife and Owen were the standouts to be chosen to partner Lowndes and Whincup this year.

"I don't see that there's anyone else in the same league," Dane said. "Steve Owen is a Fujitsu (development series) champion and has shown that he's every bit as quick as the regular drivers when he drove at Dick Johnson Racing a couple of years ago. He's still a spring chicken and he's got plenty of miles under his belt.

"Skaife's record is second to none in the modern era -- in terms of Bathurst wins, championship and race wins. I couldn't think of two better people to pair up with."

Lowndes claimed that his return to the Holden fold had given him "a new spark" and that, when the enduros roll around, Skaife's experience would outweigh his limited track time these days.

Skaife said he was comfortable with Lowndes being the main man in the car for those races and reckoned he "can still do this for the next four or five years".

Whincup said he was intent on chasing a third straight series title, especially as he never won a race in his previous short life in the Lion camp.

"To win a championship with both manufacturers is a huge motivation," Whincup said.

Of Owen as his enduro co-driver, Whincup said: "I had to make a list of my top five (preferred partners) and Steve was No. 1."

Sundays solely on soft tyres at four more rounds
Changes to the use of V8 Supercar racing soft, sprint tyres have been announced this week.

At the Queensland Raceway, Darwin, Tasmanian and Sandown rounds of the championship competitors will have to use the soft tyres throughout the 200km Sunday races. They will be given only one set of the rubber for the day.

The Winton and Perth rounds will be totally sprint tyre-only rounds -- with the dangers of track damage that entails, although it assures better racing.

Jack Daniel's/Kelly Brothers team driver Todd Kelly told BigPond Sport this week the two sprint tyre-only events were "a bloody good idea".

"You don't have an artificial race winner in the history books (as with drivers on mixed different compounds) -- who wins the race deserves it," Kelly said. "The racing will be potentially a fair bit better."

Ferrari early pacesetter in F1 testing
Formula One teams have had two days of testing new cars at Valencia in Spain, with Ferrari's Felipe Massa -- fully recovered from last year's nasty eye injury -- the pacesetter both days.

Michael Schumacher drove for Mercedes on the first day, was third quickest, and showed no signs of discomfort from the neck injury that prevented him making an earlier comeback with Ferrari last season -- although he did have his own doctor present.

Seven teams have taken part in the testing -- the others have been McLaren, Renault, Sauber, Williams and Scuderia Toro Rosso.

Tonight, Australian time, will be the final session of this first of four scheduled pre-season tests, ahead of the championship starting at the Bahrain Grand Prix in mid-March.

Three world champions will be on track at Valencia tonight -- Fernando Alonso in the Ferrari F10 for the first time, reigning champion Jenson Button making his debut with McLaren, and Schumacher back in the Mercedes after Nico Rosberg had it last night.

Todt promises greater effort on WRC
New Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) president Jean Todt has vowed to make the World Rally Championship more successful.

While Todt's comments in their raw form may appear little more substantial than those of Ford Australia president Marin Burela on V8 Supercar racing in his Auto Action interview two weeks ago (that have sparked outrage from Ford fans), Todt was a top rally co-driver and team manager before his glory years in F1 at Ferrari and says his passion for rallying is one of the reasons he sought the FIA presidency.

"Rallying is very strongly implemented in my heart," Todt said at the WRC launch in Paris. "Rallying is among my priorities. It's important we are very enthusiastic about the start of new season. We have some great cars, manufacturers and drivers and co-drivers.

"But we must be unsatisfied about the present situation. We have certain rallies as part of championship distributed around the world where there are limited numbers of manufacturers. This needs to be addressed.

"We are in a strong economic crisis and we need a strong effort to promote the heart of our championship.

"You can be sure of my personal commitment and we have created a rally working group to address the situation of rally all over the world. The WRC is the pinnacle, but we have to address rallying around the world.

"I'm very optimistic we will have a great 2010 championship, but I'm even more optimistic about the future of rally.

"A lot has to be improved. We must create a much bigger interest from the manufacturers, the privateers and the media. I am excited and I have the passion for this job."

Rally fans will be thrilled to hear it -- and hope that those words translate into results.

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