KEY POINTS:
Compared to some 20-year plus veterans of motorsport reporting, I'm a mere neophyte. But I have to say, the rumours that fly around preceding an international motor racing event, and during it, warrant a four-page spread in some weekly women's gossip magazine.
My mobile phone never stopped ringing
over the A1GP weekend with folk wanting to know if such and such was true, or, that such and such was really happening.
Mind you, I should take it as a backhanded compliment. The odd person must think I'm relatively interesting enough to warrant a call.
But the whole, "My friend's best friend is a friend of the friend of one of mechanics mates and he says... or, my girlfriend's sisters brother-in-law on my second cousin twice removed father's side says..." is too much.
God - talk about six degrees of separation. In motor sport it's more like 10 times to the power of seven.
Me, I'll go straight to the people involved and ask them.
It all started when I received a message from a passionate fan who wanted to tell me the reason why half the Porsche GT3 Cup class wasn't going to be racing at Taupo.
He had some interesting points including how much it costs to sponsor a team and so forth. But when I mentioned he should get on the internet and check out a story I had written for the Herald, he said he couldn't use his computer to access various sites.
I may be wrong, but it was an interesting comment from someone who kept using the word "we" a lot when talking about the amount of money required to run a race car.
I went and found the bloke who runs the out fit that turned up and he said he wanted to go racing and wasn't concerned about what the others did.
Early on the race weekend the rumour mill was at full tilt saying the series was doomed and this would be the last race to be held, full stop. Again it was the "I know someone who knows someone who heard that..." Wrong.
Next up it was hinted the Ferrari engines were all about to explode and that's why the factory had put a cap on how high they could rev. Me personally, I couldn't see any merit in that one, and why on earth would a manufacturer involved in a new series want all their engines lunching themselves in the early rounds. Doh.
More importantly, and a key fact skipped by most, was all the teams had the same bloody engine anyway, so who cares if they're all a bit down on grunt. Just get on with the racing.
There was a myriad of others but I'll only mention one more. I had a phone call telling me the new circuit being built at Hampton Downs had hit the wall and it was all over, kaput, no money etc.
I thought that was a little unlikely and decided to call in on my way back to Auckland to ask the powers to be in person. Well it turned out to be a rumour, funny that, and all was in hand. In fact, managing director Tony Roberts was kind enough to take me for a spin around the entire track to get a first hand (please note use of 'first hand') impression of what it was going to look like. At the moment it would make a good stage for the Dakar Rally as the tarmac's not down yet.
I now know what's going on at Hampton Downs, so stay tuned to the Herald to find out the facts, not some make-believe Shortland Street plot.
The only information I heard and acted on was the statement from New Zealand A1GP seat holder Colin Giltrap who told me Ferrari was testing on the Monday following the race weekend. I duly took note and everyone was able to read about in the Herald the next morning.
Eric Thompson
Pictured above: The rumours were flying quicker than Black Beauty at the weekend's A1GP in Taupo. (A1GP.com)