A1GP: AND NOW THE END IS NEAR ?

Just days after confirming October's Gold Coast street race as the opening round of the 2009-2010 season the future of A1GP is in doubt again after its British arm collapsed last Wednesday.   According to the British newspaper the Telegraph the British operation has been wound up leaving several suppliers unpaid and a staff of about 40 looking for new jobs. A spokesperson for the company A1 Grand Prix Operations Limited said: “Like many other companies in today's difficult economic environment, we had cashflow problems and we haven't been able to pay them (the suppliers).“ 2009 is the fourth year of the A1GP which was founded by Sheikh Maktoum Hasher Al Maktoum. He left the group as a part of a major financial restructuring which was to have included floating the company on the London Stock Exchange. Unattributed sources said that current A1GP CEO, South African businessman Tony Teixiera. had said that it was possible that current British workers could be reemployed through other arms of the organisation. The collapse of the British Operations division, who are responsible for the day to day running of the series is just the latest in a long line of financial concerns regarding the series. Just where this may leave the promoters of the “Nitro” Super GP is anybody's guess as the Queensland Government has previously said that it was not interested in supporting the event unless it had a substantial International component. V8 Supercar boss Tony Cochrane has suggested openly on several occasions that he believed the event would soon become a V8 Supercar only affair.

NO SPLIT IN F1, MOSLEY GONE! IT’S GOOD NEWS WEEK!

The great Formula One breakaway crisis is apparently over with FIA President Max (hurts so good) Mosley finally falling on his sword and doing what he should have done this time last year. Mosley announced to the World Motorsport Council meeting in Paris today that he would not be standing for re-election. Mosley told reporters after the meeting that there will be no split. "We have agreed to a reduction of costs," he said. "There will be one F1 championship in 2010 but the objective is still to get back to the spending levels of the early nineties within two years." It is believed that Mosley's position became untenable after meeting with long time supporter Bernie Ecclestone and [FOTA] chairman Luca di Montezemolo. It is believed that Ecclestone warned Mosley that if he did not stand aside then Ecclestone would join with FOTA in staging an alternative World Championship. The new agreement means that the teams must call off the breakaway series and sign up to a new Concorde Agreement until 2012. A unified Formula One, and we get rid of Mosley. all in all a job well done. I think Champagne is called for.

IMG LINK RAISES THE STAKES IN F1 BREAKAWAY

Website Grand Prix.com is suggesting that global sports management juggernaut IMG could be the people behind the promotion of an "alternative F1" series. IMG is one of the World's largest sports promotion and management companies and if anybody can rival Bernie Ecclestone for professionalism and global reach then it's IMG. IMG has a global portfolio that includes many of the worlds biggest sporting events and the company has plenty of motorsport experience including running a number of major street races including the Surfers Paradise Indy race and several Champcar rounds in the USA. It also has run Bathurst and the Sandown enduros here in Australia. Currently they are responsible for the media and marketing rights to events including the LeMans Series, NASCAR, NHRA Drag Racing and The World Speedway Grand Prix. Interestingly IMG is also a media partner of the Williams F1 racing team, one of only two current F1 teams to commit themselves to the traditional FIA series next year. FOTA is scheduled to meet tomorrow to discuss the planning for their series, certainly, if as rumoured IMG is involved, then the chances of it happening and operating successfully just got a whole lot better.

FOTA’S RUMOURED CALENDAR. EMERALD CITY GP MISSES OUT, WIZARD SAID TO BE FURIOUS

Several media outlets including "The Guardian" in England are reporting an alleged calendar for FOTA's break away Formula One series. Of most interest to Australian fans is the inclusion of Adelaide as the series finale in November. Adelaide's end of year bash was always a highlight of the International F1 year and many GP regulars would be thrilled to see it's return. However the listing of Surfers Paradise as an alternative clearly shows the true nature of this calendar. There is about as much chance of Surfers ever hosting any kind of serious F1 standard race as there is of me hosting the Oscars. The track is seriously narrow, there is no run off area and the area seriously lacks much of the major infrastructure need to host a GP type event. The track already struggles to cater for the previous Champcar/IndyCar event so how they would cope with something five times as big is anybody's guess.... More

KASEY KAHNES THEM AT SONOMA

How strange was it for Kasey Kahne to win a road-course race? The driver of the No. 9 Richard Petty Motorsports Dodge had to ask his crew chief for directions to victory lane after taking the checkered flag in a green-white-checkered finish in Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Infineon Raceway. Kahne held off road-course ace Tony Stewart through a succession of four late-race double-file restarts, the final time after Scott Speed’s spin on Lap 108 caused the seventh caution of the day. After starting from the rear because of an engine change, Marcos Ambrose chased the top two finishers to the line to claim third place, matching the best result of his Sprint Cup Series career. “Awesome—not too bad for a dirt-tracker from Washington!” Kenny Francis, Kahne’s crew chief, radioed after his driver crossed the stripe on Lap 113, three laps beyond the scheduled distance at the 1.99-mile road course. “Unreal,” replied Kahne, who gave owner Richard Petty his first victory since John Andretti in 1999. “Gosh, we had to hold him (Stewart) off for a while. We won a road-course race! Oh, my God, I can’t believe this.” Jimmie Johnson recovered from a pit-road speeding penalty to finish fourth. Denny Hamlin, who led 33 laps—second only to Kahne’s 37—came home fifth. Juan Pablo Montoya, AJ Allmendinger, Clint Bowyer, Jeff Gordon and Elliott Sadler completed the top 10....

AMBROSE THIRD AS KASEY CANES ‘EM

VALE: STUART HUMPHREYS

The cast and crew of In Pit Lane would like to pass on their condolences to the Friends and Family of Stuart Humphreys. Stuart was a partner in Picture Framing of Bay Road who sponsored In Pit Lane late in 2008. Stuart was a passionate supporter of the sport and a former manager of racing at both Winton and later with the Light Car Club of Australia at Sandown. Stuart raced and rallied in an Escort and most recently had built a wicked 68-69 Mustang which ran a complete Falcon XR8 running gear. He had also recently purchased a Lotus 7 which was run by his great friend and business partner Haas. Stuart was a regular viewer of In Pit Lane  and came on board as it's main sponsor in late 2008 thus keeping the show on the air. He also donated several pieces of Grand Prix memorabilia which were auctioned on the show to assist the Flag marshals and Fire marshals. Despite his long battle with cancer and other health issues he was never one to let it slow him down and as recently as two weeks ago he was still planning various motorsport related projects. I saw Stuart early last Thursday to give him some DVDs after he'd rung me asking for stuff to watch while he was in Hospital. It was obvious then that he was fading fast but he still managed a smile as I gave him the discs. Sadly he never got to see them. Stuart was a wonderful raconteur regaling me with many wonderful and usually libellous stories about the sports greats. He was a large but gentle man and the affection he held for his beloved Cockatoo Rex was most touching. When we featured Rex in our TV ad for the Framing business he was delighted. On behalf of all of us on In Pit Lane and the Victorian motorsport community we say farewell Stuart and thank you for everything.

SPEED TV BRITISH GP WRAP UP

LAST LAP AT ROLEX GRAND-AM MID OHIO

PERCAT TOPS THE TOP END

Nick Percat has taken his third round win for the season in the Australian Formula Ford Championship at Hidden Valley Raceway in Darwin. In a repeat of race two, Percat was beaten off the line by Sonic teammate Mitch Evans who briefly led the 12-lap race before Percat used the long Hidden Valley straight to slipstream himself back into the lead. “Three from three ... can’t do much better than that!” Percat exclaimed. “Apart from my dodgy starts I’m happy with the way things turned out. Credit to Mitch too – he really had some pace this weekend and pushed me pretty hard,” he added. “Hopefully I can carry this form onto Sandown (round five) next month and redeem my performance there last year.” Evans did his best to hang on to the tail of Percat, but his efforts were in vain as his teammate stretched his lead to over two seconds by the final lap. “I’m happy with second for the round but I think I probably could have looked after my tyres more for a better showing in this final race.” Evans said. “Keeping up with Nick is hard work and for my first time here I’m happy with the result ... a few more laps around here and I would be less prone to some of the mistakes I made which all part of the learning curve I guess.” Ryan Simpson was able to hang onto third place after a great battle with Borland Racing’s Scott Pye and Team BRM’s Richie Stanaway. The trio pushed each other for the duration of the race and were joined by Synergy Racing’s Chaz Mostert who also hustled for a place on the podium. “ Again I made a meal of the start ... the clutch was slipping off the line and I just got bogged down. A shame because I think I had the pace to run with Nick and Mitch which was reflected in the lap times,” Simpson said. “After the start I got caught up with Scott and Richie which provided for some good racing but I would have preferred to be fighting for the lead. I’m looking forward to Sandown now knowing I can run at the front and hopefully will be able to go one or two better.” The next round of the Championship will be round five at Sandown International Raceway in Victoria on July 31 – August 2. Source: Australian Formula Ford Media Release