Formula Holden Revamp!!!

[Vandas]

Well with word that the Tasman Series is almost certainly got going to be run anymore for Formula Holdens, the question must be asked. Will this class of noisy, silastic riden, leaky, cable tie vehicles survive the new onslaught of Formula 3s and other more inexpensive forms of racing, or will they shine through the tough times as always and prosper with new engines and chasis'.

I'd love to know your feelings.

[formula-3000net]

This has been debated quite heavily recently in aus.sport.motor

My personal view is that they need to give the sport a higher profile - it needs to have races supoprting the Australian GP and Cart race at Surfers. The races need to be longer...certainly longer than F3 races and perhaps around the 1h15 that we see in F Nippon.
They need to get more modern engines - the problem is the major motorsport engine companies are all in Europe (Judd, Cosworth, Renault, Ilmor, etc).
The chassis seem to be mainly the 94 model F3000 chassis, which are still very good..and certainly good enough for F Holden.
They need more cars...a field of 11 is a bit of a joke really. Try 20 or more, with mandatory two cars per team.
And they should use the standard FIA 10-6-4-3-2-1 points system.
Finally, run it between October and March, so that the European/Japanses drivers can go and take part during their closed season.
...and once you've got a decent series, perhaps it will attract decent Australian drivers - the sort of thing Ryan Briscoe would be doing in two years time (although more likely he'll want be in his second year in Italian, German or British F3 in 2 years time...)

[redback]

I agree with formula-3000net.

Once upon a time in Australia "open-wheelers" ruled but now it is all V8's (public opinion has changed). I don't think the media give enough credit to our open wheel drivers. Sure they mention that the current V8 winners came from them previously but they have made V8s the pinnacle of Australian motor sport rather than something to fall back on if the open wheel career fails, which is what it really is for some drivers. I'm sure Bright, Ambrose, Murphy, Besnard, Ingall etc. would all have continued on in open wheelers if they had the chance/cash.

I think open wheel racing is a little dead in Australia in general. It is too expensive for the media coverage that it gets. The exchange rate makes FF, F3 and F3000 cars expensive, so we get a very wide age gap between cars. I have also heard that the engines are highly strung in both F3 and F3000. We also still have 1600 carby engines in FF while Europe gets 1800 injected. Ford are supposed to be announcing the new one-make FF series for 2003 soon. I applaud Courtney for by-passing Australia and heading straight to Europe for his race car career as I believe the Oz series are dead money.

I hope that F3 makes it but I think it has to attract some real drivers before it will. As Dick Johnson would say, too many PHD kids.

[Crash Test]

I don't know if F3 will kill FHolden, I think FHolden would be more likely to kill themselves.

1.15h races for FHolden? Not a chance, at least in current form. These are the most unreliable cars in the land, in a race over an hour would probably destroy most of the cars out there

As far as the GPs go, that isn't going to happen. Those meetings require a certain number of entries, otherwise massive (we're talking 6 figures here) penalties have to be paid on top of the bill that the categories already have to pay. Who's going to fork out this sort of money?

As far as introducing new engines, you must remember that cost has been a major factor in the class's demise. Also moving to a summer program- in theory its a great idea, and its something that the FHolden association is striving for, but it would bring the class down quicker than the Titanic. The only race series that runs through the Summer months is the TOCA program (that aint a good starting point) but then have a look at the tracks they race at- 2xLakeside, 2xWakefield Park, 2xOran Park (South Circuit I would imagine) and also at Symmons Plains....none of those tracks suit FHolden...

How to fix FHolden? Make them more reliable, then hopefully the cost of racing them would drop. Raise its profile- how? With money, and lots of it... and whatever they do, make them more appealing to crowds, make them sound like race cars.