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Being
starved of decent motorsport action during
the traditional off-season, us motorsport
tragics tend to get a little edgy. So I
jumped on Jetstar and headed to Sydney for
the fledgling A1 Grand Prix round at Eastern
Creek.
I
have mostly held the view that only Formula
One and V8 Supercars are capable of drawing
any kind of crowds these days. Everything
else (that's us) can hope to attract to
our race meetings only wives, kids and dedicated
pit-crew mates with no other life to speak
of.
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Even
the Indy Car event occasionally lucks out as half
the crowd are probably university students who think
they're at a drive-in for underground grunge music
they heard on Triple J.
This
may all be true. But the makers of A1 Grand Prix
look like they may just be on to something.
The
category and series was conceived and partly bankrolled
by an Arab Sheik who, like most Arab Sheiks, had
way too much money and was probably bored with
the humdrum of buying islands and gold-plated
Audis. His name was Sheikh Maktoum Hasher Maktoum
Al Maktoum. Yes, we will be testing you on it
later. I remember his opening speech to investors
in Dubai, after his introduction, speaking in
the best Oxford- taught English; "I suppose you
were all expecting me to ride up on a camel with
some barrels of oil under each arm" to masses
of laughter.
Yes, Sheik Maktoum. Aren't we all such naughty
Arab-stereotyping rednecks. Anyway, his vision
was of an elite motor racing series where each
car represented a nation, hence the slogan "World
Cup of Motorsport".
| Actually,
it was quite a good idea. Keep it simple.
Country versus country. Cheer for your nation.
Not some British-owned, New-Zealand named
race car chassis builder powered by a privately
developed engine funded by Germans, driven
by a Fin. Or a Japanese owned, European-based
team using old chassis purchased from a British
Lord powered by engines which began life in
a South African sewing machine factory ...you
get the idea. |
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I
may as well ask our patriach Karl Lagler if he would
consider diversifying from floor sanding machines
to Formula One cars. It's worth a try.
So,
without even having to sell any of his palaces or
gold-plated cars, Sheikh Maktoum Hasher Maktoum
Al Maktoum Abdul Omar Shariff teamed with South
African Tony Teixeira. They enlisted Pommy company
Zytek Engineering to design the car for the one-make
series, and devised a system of racing that was
unique.
Any
motor racing series with a team from Lebanon
must be special |
Each
team nominates up to three drivers to represent
the nation and the team can literally decide
on the fly which one will qualify and race,
however they must have completed at least
one of the three Friday practice sessions.
There is also a rookie session for drivers
under 25 or drivers from "developing nations",
whatever that means. Perhaps it means a team
from Bolivia can give their driver extra time
to get used to the fact that the wheels are
made of metal, they all have rubber tyres
instead of wood and it's not powered by a
donkey.
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Okay, so maybe I am a stereotyping redneck.
Qualifying is four x 15 min sessions with
a single lap sudden-death format. The two
fastest times count towards the grid positions
for the first of two races, the Sunday morning
sprint race. It's a 20 minute rolling start
dash. The top 6 are points positions, and
similar to V8 Supercar the result counts towards
the grid for the 70 minute feature race, with
a standing start and CPS (Compulsory Pit Stop
for the uninitiated).
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The
cars don't have numbers, only the same three-letter
code as used in Olympic Games results (for
Australians it matters little if you cannot
pick the country code- our car has a huge
FOSTERS logo on the side- the beer which
no self-respecting Australian ever drinks).
The commentators are trained to use the
country name more than the drivers' name
when calling a race. On the podium the drivers
are given trophies but also gold, silver
and bronze medals a-la Olympic games.
So
the emphasis is clearly on national "team"
representation. The drivers, as good as
some are, seem to be an afterthought. I
expect, however, that the drivers will be
recording their wins in their personal resumes.
Having said that, some of the drivers are
trash. I won't name them. They come from
"developing nations" and that wouldn't be
nice.
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Okay,
so it's well-promoted and exploits national pride
by whipping fans up in a frenzy of parochialism.
But what about the cars?
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The
Lola chassis is reasonably F1-looking but
without the excessive bulging and sharp curves
resulting from gazillion-dollar wind tunnel
testing. The aero has been designed to allow
cars to follow closely without losing downforce.
It seems to work- they have loads of mechanical
grip. I don't think much of the '96 Benetton
"droopy-mo" style front wing. But
what you've got to love are the good, old-fashioned
BIG FAT racing slicks, not like those spindly
delicate grooved things on F1 cars. |
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The
engine is badged Zytek but sounds suspiciously
Cosworth-like: 3.4 Litre V8, quad cam etc
revving to about 12,000rpm and putting out
520bhp. There is an extra 30bhp available
for the taking with a "power boost" button,
much like the Champ-Car push-to-pass principle.
You only have so many cracks at it.
The
more than adequate power buzzes through
a six-speed tranverse sequential with paddle
shift.
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This
is all impressive stuff on paper, but the whole
reason I trekked to Eastern Creek, like any good
fan-boy, was to find out what it felt like.
It
felt spectacular. The cars might not be as sophisticated
as F1 but they are beautifully fast, with that
dose of lethal, angry mix of attitude and adhesion.
And
they are loud. Very, very loud.
The
usual suspects. Team Germany and Nico Huelkenberg
clean swept the weekend. The German seat holder
is Willi Weber- the man who got rich off Michael
Schumacher.
Tourism
value
Good
support program. This was Jacques Laffite's
1980 AGP Ralt
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More
importantly, the fan-friendliness makes
F1 look like snob central (which it is).
To get into the paddock, you don't need
to be a supermodel or Flavio Briatore's
girlfriend (generally the same thing). You
just need 20 bucks, and you can get more
close-up car piccys and autographs than
you can poke a Canon at.
The
usual suspects in this international game
rise to the top: Germany, Great Britain,
France, Brazil. New Zealand were impressive,
Australia was not. Certainly reflections
of Formula One are there. But then, here
is an international motorsport series with
a team from Lebanon and Pakistan. I didn't
think Lebanon even had a race track. If
they did, it would probably have a few holes
in it now.
And
if you really think about it, Switzerland
is an unusual entrant since motorsport is
actually banned there. But there they are.
The
promo states ".....there are no driver
points. A1GP is a team effort and a team
sport. The Winner is the driver, team and
most importantly the Nation."
-Okay,
some questions. The rules dictate that the
driver and owners must be proveably a national
of the seat-holding country. There is obviously
some intersting criteria for measuring this,
since Christian Murchison drives for Singapore
and I thought he was Australian. Alan Jones
is one of the Aussie seat-holders. Brazil's
is Emerson Fittipaldi and soccer gigastar
Ronaldo.
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But
are they mostly names on contracts, bankrolled
by OPM (Other People's Money).That being the case,
where does that investment come from? It should
logically be from within the seat-holding nation
and knowing international finance (which I don't)
that can be impossible to police.
Also,
I couldn't help but notice the team managers and
engineers didn't need to be from the seat holding
country. So, "developing nations" can ring-in
a superstar engineer from across the globe, and
this can make all the difference. As a purist
I would question whether they can effectively
create a series which truly reflects a nations'
motorsport capabilities.
Team
China surprised everyone with a first podium.
Little Ho-Pin Tung stormed past the more fancied
Netherlands around the outside of the
ultrafast turn 1 to take third. |
Canada
was not so lucky, tangling with Singapore
and barrel rolling on lap 1. |
Still, when I see Eastern Creek awash with
crowds and national flags, and hear a huge
cheer from the grandstands when announcing
the Australian driver (in this case, a young
up-and-comer with the Germanic name of Karl
Reindler!), I suspect most people don't really
care about all those piddly details. More
importantly, neither do the promoters.
Nor should they worry about those little details.
They're definitely on to something here. |
Pakistan
may not have realised that something was missing
here |
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