Pitstop: Rally NZ hoping for May date

Morrie Chandler

Rally New zealand organisers would like a May date for next year's round of the world championship, but they may have to settle for September or October.

The world controlling body, the FIA, has confirmed Monte Carlo, Sweden, Mexico, Catalunya, Corsica and Argentina for the first six events between January 18 and April 23, ruling out New Zealand for another April rally.

The Propecia-sponsored New Zealand event's scheduling on what has become a 16-event championship will probably not be confirmed until October. Rally chairman Morrie Chandler would prefer a May date, but says New Zealand has shown it can organise a round at any time of the year.

Chandler, who is also chairman of the world rally championship organisers' committee, says there has been pressure to cut costs by grouping events regionally.

This year New Zealand came after Mexico and before Italy, making it one of the most expensive for travel costs. The Australian round this year is in November in Perth. Next year it will move from Western Australia to either Canberra or Queensland.

The New Zealand organisers see one big advantage in moving from April: there will be no clash with the Aussie V8 meeting at Pukekohe, which followed a week later this year and complicated the organisation of both events.

Dithering over dates is nothing new for the rally championship.

Perhaps a more important question from fans is whether the championship will be worthwhile with the planned withdrawal of Citroen and Peugeot in 2006.

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Ford favoured

Ford has the record but Holden has the form going into the seventh round of the Australian V8 Supercar championship at Queensland Raceway near Ipswich on Sunday.

Ford has won the past four rounds at the circuit, with Steven Johnson and Paul Radisich in 2001, David Besnard and Simon Wills in 2002, Russell Ingall in 2003 and Marcos Ambrose in 2004.

Since 2002 the Queensland 300 has been a single-driver event over 280km with compulsory tyre and fuel stops. It is the first round of the year with a one-race format.

With defending champion Marcos Ambrose heading the standings in his Stone Brothers Falcon, Ford should be favoured again.

But Todd Kelly in his Holden Racing Team Commodore has won the last two rounds in Darwin and Shanghai and is driving full of confidence.

Should he complete the hat-trick of wins this weekend, he would be the first driver to achieve the feat since Ambrose in 2003.

Kelly's team-mate and boss Mark Skaife has his own personal hat-trick in sight, having taken pole position in the past two rounds. As for consecutive wins, he managed five at the start of the 2002 season.

Skaife believes the paper-clip shape of the Queensland Raceway and its long straights should favour his team, benefiting from its superior engine development.

On the other hand, the track is "home" for several teams, including Stone Brothers.

Although Paul Radisich now lives in Melbourne, Team Kiwi's Australian base is in Queensland. Results so far have shown that the one-car team can compete with much bigger outfits in the top 10.

How they stand:

After six rounds of the championship, the standings are:

Marcos Ambrose (Ford) 980 pts, 1;
Steven Richards (Holden), 893, 2;
Russell Ingall (Ford), 877, 3;
Todd Kelly (Holden), 870, 4;
Mark Skaife (Holden), 828, 5;
Craig Lowndes (Ford), 720, 6;
Steven Johnson (Ford), 705, 7;
John Bowe (Ford) and Paul Radisich (Holden), 699, equal 8;
Garth Tander (Holden), 679, 10.

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F5000s racing in UK

Nine New Zealand-based Formula 5000 racing cars from the 1970s are due to race this weekend at the first of two big historic motor racing meetings in England.

The cars were shipped to Britain for the Brands Hatch Superprix and the Silverstone historic meeting the following weekend and were joined by their drivers and crews this week.

The British Lola company is the best represented with five cars, Kerry Anderson's T142, Poul Christie's T190, the T332s of Murray Sinclair and Stan Redmond and the T430 of David Abbott. There are also two McRae GM1s owned by Stuart Lush and Redmond.