After a relatively timid showing in Austin, Texas, business got back to normal last weekend as the V8 Supercar Championship hit Darwin – lots of biff-and-bash on-track and more intrigue off-track than an Agatha Christie novel.
Of most interest at the Hidden Valley circuit for the Skycity Triple Crown event was the arrival of Polestar Managing Director Christian Dahl in the Garry Rogers Motorsport garage. Polestar runs motorsport campaigns for Swedish giant Volvo (including currently the Scandinavian Touring Car Championship).
Volvo confirmed today it will join the V8 Supercar Championship from next year with a full-on factory team a collaboration between Rogers’ local team and Polestar. CarShowroom will be with Volvo later this week to drive the road-going S 60 Polestar high-performance sedan at the national media launch.
Speculation has been massive since V8 Supercars commission boss Mark Skaife let slip in Texas (ironically at a Nissan media event) that a fifth manufacturer was close to signing-up – leading one Sydney-based insider to comment that just about every automotive brand except Studebaker (which ceased production in 1966) has been touted as joining the V8 Supercar ranks under the ‘Car Of The Future’ regulations!
It seems intense speculation until now linking Rogers with American brand Chrysler may have been a ‘smokescreen’. Fiat Chrysler Australia has consistently denied any plans to go racing locally and in North America its Dodge brand has recently ended motorsport programs.
While Volvo may have been one of the last names thought of to go V8 Supercar racing, in fact the brand has raced here before in the Group A and 2.0-litre era - New Zealand great Robbie Francevic (who is now a hugely successful property developer in Orewa, north of Auckland) won the 1986 Australian Touring Car Championship and Jim Richards teamed with Swede Rickard Rydell to win the 1998 Bathurst 1000 in a Volvo run by Tom Walkinshaw Racing.
Unlike the privately-run Mercedes-Benz E63 AMGs racing for the first time this year, Volvo’s first foray into V8 Supercar racing appears complex. For starters Volvo does not have a V8 engine currently in production and secondly the turbocharged V6-powered S60 Polestar is front-wheel-drive.
V8 Supercars insiders have told Car Showroom, the Volvo racer will use a modified version of the old Volvo 4.4-litre V8 engine (previously fitted to the XC90 SUV), reconfigured to be fitted ‘north-south’ in the engine bay and driving the rear wheels via the normal V8 Supercars transaxle arrangement (although V8 Supercars offers a ‘generic’ Chevrolet V8 to ease the entry of manufacturers into the category). There is also expected to be substantial changes to Volvo S60 Polestar’s bodywork to fit the standard ‘Car Of The Future’ dimensions (2013 newcomer Nissan was extremely fortunate its U.S.-sourced Altima - in standard form - was very close to the required dimensions and needed little modification).
Meanwhile, on-track in Darwin, the biggest incident came in the final race when the two Benz’, James Moffat’s Nissan, Alex Davison’s Falcon and the Commodores of Tim Slade, David Wall and Alex Premat tangled in a big way while avoiding a bumping dual between Scott McLaughlin and Jason Bright. In taking evasive action, Dean Fore’s Commodore was rotated and slammed into a tyre wall.
But there was agro all weekend really with even Red Bull driver Craig Lowndes handed a 15-point penalty for his role in a shunt with Garth Tander and Will Davison.
So as the teams head to the next championship race in Townsville, the Red Bull duo of Jamie Winchup (1423 points) and Lowndes (1264) lead the way from the improving Pepsi-Max FPR Falcon of Will Davison and the remarkable VIP Petfoods Commodore of Kiwi youngster Shane Van Gisbergen.
Big signs of improved pace too from the new Nissan and ‘Benz teams in Darwin (both Rick Kelly and Michael Caruso finished in the top 10 in Saturday’s 60/60 race). At this stage, Nissan driver James Moffat has accrued the most points and he sits 14th in the title chase with 702 points.
