Pitstop: One way to beat boredom of Ferrari's dominance

Michael Schumacher is getting set to win yet another championship for Ferrari. Picture / Reuters

With 39 days to go before the opening race of the Formula One season, fans could be excused if their enthusiasm is waning.

When the cars roar into serious action at Melbourne on March 6, Michael Schumacher will be favoured to win yet another championship and his Ferrari team's dominance seems likely to continue.

Despite all the tinkering with the rules, racing will depend more on pit strategy than brave overtaking moves and the loyal fans will be kept segregated from their heroes.

Little wonder that fewer people are glued to their TVs when the multimillion-dollar show rolls on.

Aucklander Michael Clark, one of New Zealand's most avid fans of Formula One, says the racing has changed very little, but in the past we read about the action rather than watched it on our screens.

He prescribes a cure for Formula One boredom - Martin Brundle's new book, Working the Wheel, which combines the British driver's experiences on the track with his expertise as a TV commentator to flesh out what continues to be one of the world's most popular sports.

Brundle devotes a chapter each to 18 tracks, describing his own experiences as a driver and the dramas that happened around him. He incorporates a lot of what the ordinary spectator or viewer misses in the protected community of the sport.

Two highlights for me, because I was there as a spectator, were his descriptions of his horrific crash at the first Melbourne Grand Prix in 1996 and the 1989 race at Adelaide, which was contested in a downpour.

In Melbourne, Brundle barrel-rolled at more than 200km/h out of turn three, crawled out of his mangled Jordan unhurt, ran back to get a clearance to drive the spare car, had a minor prang in that and laconically radioed his pit: "I think I've had enough for one day".

At Adelaide, where Alain Prost had the good sense to pull out after one lap, Brundle spun in a cloud of spray but didn't hit a wall.

He set off again and "as I accelerated through the gears, a dreadful thought began to dawn on me. I could be going the wrong way".

Not until he sighted a marker board facing him was he sure he wasn't going to meet another car.

The book supports the view that just as Murray Walker was more interesting than the races he described, Brundle can almost make it worthwhile to stay up late to watch Schumacher win again.

Another V8 tilt

Aucklander Mark Porter, who has finished third in the last two second-level V8 Supercar championships in Australia, will try for the title again in a Ford from the Steve Ellery team.

Last year Porter ran in a Team Kiwi Holden and shared the drive with Craig Baird in the endurance races of the main series at Sandown and Bathurst. The Ellery team provided the car in which Luke Youlden finished second in the second-level series last year.

Team Kiwi are not running a second-level car this season, preferring to concentrate on their car development with Paul Morris Racing for new driver Paul Radisich.

Dixon off test pace

Scott Dixon and the rest of the Indy Racing League drivers began their new season with a novelty - turning right as well as left on a road course at Homestead-Miami in Florida.

The IRL has added two road courses and a street race to its 14 oval races and the two-day test at Miami on the road followed by a day on the oval gave the drivers and mechanics time to adjust.

Dixon had a modest start. He was 13th with a best lap of 1m 11.0180s on the 3.5km road course in his Toyota-powered car.

Dario Franchitti was best with 1m 10.1748s with Honda power and Dixon's new Aussie team-mate, Ryan Briscoe, managed 1m 10.4423s.

On the 2.3km oval another Honda driver, Buddy Rice, was quickest with 24.9185s. Dixon was 16th with 25.2272s. The first race is on the Miami oval on March 6.

Karter on podium

Kiwi karters Earl Bamber and Jared Carlyle impressed at the Rotax Max challenge grand final in the Canary Islands at the weekend, Bamber finishing third in the junior final, Carlyle 11th in the senior one.

The senior final was another South African benefit with Wesleigh Orr winning from countryman Cristiano Morgado. Third was Britain's Tristram Oman.

The junior category was dominated by final winner Benjamin Salvatore from France. He set the fastest lap in timed practice then put together a 2-2-1 run through the heats before winning the pre-final and the final.

Celebrity race auction

You'll have to cough up megabucks but you, too, could drive at the grand prix meeting at Melbourne in March.

A drive in the BMW Celebrity Challenge is for sale - to aid the tsunami relief appeal.

The chance-of-a-lifetime drive is being auctioned on eBay and the winning bidder will join 27 celebrities in the field in Melbourne's Albert Park on March 3-6.

Additional bonuses for the buyer will be 10 corporate hospitality tickets for all four days of the Grand Prix and two tickets to the glittering Grand Prix Ball, the annual highlight of Melbourne's social calendar.

As a benchmark, Melbourne businessman Danny Wallis paid A$60,000 at a charity event organised by Australia's Formula One driver, Mark Webber, for a drive in the 2004 BMW Celebrity Challenge.

Baird in charge Queensland-based Kiwi Craig Baird is back at the top of the Porsche GT3 cup series point standings after another dominant performance at Ruapuna, where he won all three races.

His main rival, Matt Halliday, failed to complete the first race, finished 10th in the second after a drive-through penalty for a yellow flag infringement and drove through the field to finish second in the last race.

Changes to Group N

Rally New Zealand in April is likely to have a slightly reduced contingent of drivers from the World Production Car championship.

Eighteen drivers from 12 countries have signed up for the eight-round contest in Group N specification rally cars.

Drivers can elect to miss two rounds and five of the entrants have chosen not to include New Zealand.

They may still compete but cannot score WPC points.

Reigning champion Niall McShea, runner-up Jani Paasonen and leading Briton Alister McRae have not entered, but former champions Karamjit Singh and Toshi Arai will be coming here.

Wigram trophy

The new Toyota single-seater series has won another accolade.

From next season its competitors will contest the Lady Wigram Trophy at Ruapuna.

In more than 50 years of competition the trophy has been won by some of the greats such as Jim Clark, Jackie Stewart and Bruce McLaren.

The last winner was Aucklander Daniel Gaunt in an Australian Formula Three last year.