V8's returning to Puke - what a joke. There is no part of the facility that would meet the required standard to host the V8s in Oz - so how come it is allowed in NZ. Forget about the upgrades to the facilities for the fans, the Cockroach (as he is known to many Aussie race fans) is not interested in them. However the Teams will not accept 5 years of the crap facilities that are laughingly called 'The Pits' (or perhaps it is a very apt description) which will mean that in year 2 or 3 at the latest they will be rquired to be bulldozed and a complete new pit/race control/media area built. How much is budgeted for that? HD's non involvement - I would agree has more to do with the non kowtowing not totally overawed by the V8 'juggernaut' attitude of Tony and Chris. And Good on them!!

Re Hamilton's too cheap sell off of the infrastucture that was due to the apparently standard Bernie Jnr (the cockroach's other nickname) tactic of only giving council 48 hours to make a decision. Wondered at the time what his rush was as there was still 18 months to find a new round when he did it to Hamilton and at least 3 more months before he will have to finalise the 2013 calendar.

As the V8 show itself, will it actually be any good? There are two cars running this year with no spobnsorship. Apparently there are 19 cars with no major sponsor announced for next year - including both FPR cars an both T8 cars (though it seems fairly certain they at least have the sponsors but are just delaying the announcement)

/rant
Lee