MOTORSPORT: Rally Oz takes shape but chairman in storm

Stages for relocated Rally Australia to be known soon, but the event's chairman makes headlines for other reasons; Warwick Farm remembered; an audit on NZ's V8 cost blowout; and a new push for an extra F1 Ferrari

WRC planning in top gear but Fountain ousted from day job
Australia will have a World Rally Championship round at a new NSW location next year, Coffs Harbour, and preparations are stepping up now -- but the event's chairman has been at the centre of a storm this week.

While meetings have been held with many authorities lately, property owners along the proposed route are being contacted and the stages should be finalised early in the new year, Rally Australia chairman Graham Fountain has been forced to quit his regular job.

Fountain, who for three years was the chief executive of the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport, (CAMS), yesterday quit as the chief of Melbourne's Metropolitan Fire Brigade after allegations of unfair treatment by a colleague. Fountain had only been in the MFB post since April.

Fountain became chairman of Rally Australia recently and a statement on its website says: "good governance, community engagement, public safety and logistics form part of his day-to-day priorities and he will use this experience in his Rally Australia role", see here.

Meanwhile, meetings with authorities and community officials in the Coffs Harbour area were held midweek -- led by the NSW Premier's Department and the Homebush Motor Racing Authority, whose other responsibility obviously is the Sydney Telstra 500 V8 Super car games event.

Australia's WRC round was held in and around Perth, WA, for almost 20 years but last year it was resurrected in NSW's Northern Rivers region and run amid considerable community opposition.

It was announced several months ago that Rally Australia, which now rotates on the WRC calendar with New Zealand, would move to the Coffs Harbour region and be held next year on September 8-11.

The area has previously hosted Australian Rally Championship rounds and the old international Southern Cross Rally.

Homebush Motor Racing Authority chief executive Bryan Hardman said this week stages for the 360km of competition would be held in four shires -- Clarence Valley, Coffs Harbour, Bellingen and Nambucca.

Rally Australia operations manager Ben Raggatt said the stages should be made known in January or February. The service park will be at the Coffs Harbour airport, without any effect on flight schedules.

Hardman said 300 letters had been sent by Rally Australia to property owners near the proposed routes.

"So far all the feedback we have received has been 100 per cent positive, with no objections," he said. "Given there was a groundswell of opposition to the rally in the Northern Rivers last year we don't want to see rumour and innuendo impact on the Coffs Coast event, so we're hoping to meet with concerned environmental groups, if there are any, sooner rather than later."

He said the next major meeting planned in the area would be on January 19 to allow any specific concerns about the event to be aired.

>> Golden memories of Warwick Farm
Tomorrow (Saturday, December 18) will be the 50th anniversary of the opening of Warwick Farm in Sydney as a race car circuit.

The Farm's motorsport days ended in 1973, with the venue exclusively for horse racing and training since then.

A big "Memories of The Farm" lunch is being held today (Friday) at the Austrian Club in Frenchs Forest, remembering a golden era for the sport in Australia's major city and the circuit run by the energetic Geoff Sykes and the hard-working members of the Australian Automobile Racing Co.

Audit on NZ's huge V8 Supercar costs
An external audit is to be done in Hamilton, New Zealand, of the cost blowouts on the staging of the V8 Supercar Championship round in the provincial city the past three years.

A move to have NZ's auditor-general do the review was overruled -- the local Waikato Times newspaper reported "by other councillors who thought it might reflect badly on the city, council and former staff".

Hamilton mayor Julie Hardaker confirmed this week that the cost of the event to date had been $27.4 million -- almost three times the amount councillors said they had been told earlier.

That figure comprised $17.98 million in set-up, $2.9 million for "related costs", $5.1 million on operations and $3.5 million to "transition" the event from the failed local promoters to V8 Supercars Australia for the next seven years.

>> Ferrari plays third-car card again
Ferrari has started a fresh push for top Formula One teams to be allowed to run three cars.

The Italian manufacturer and F1 centrepiece says that would be better than having allowed new teams into the sport this year -- none of which scored a world championship points, and which recently were labeled "cripples" by F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone.

Ferrari president Luca Di Montezemolo said it would be "better to have a third car with a competitive team than teams that would struggle even in GP2".

He told Autosprint the possibility of third cars for 2013 was being discussed with the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA).

"It would be nice to see a third Ferrari fielded perhaps by a private American team -- I'm thinking of a team like Ganassi or Penske, with an American driver," Montezemolo said, claiming that Williams team principal Sir Frank Williams had dropped his previous opposition to the idea.

Montezemolo also wants testing allowed again during the season.

"F1 is the only sport in which there is no chance to train," he said. "It is like asking Real Madrid, Milan or Inter to play with smooth-soled boots in the rain or not to warm-up before a Champions League game."

And Montezemolo echoed FIA president -- and former Ferrari F1 chief -- Jean Todt's call for more emphasis on overtaking in new grand prix circuits.

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