As predicted, Mohammed Ben Sulayem, 61, who owns a very large house on a very nice block between Al Khaleej and 4th Streets near the fish market in Dubai, and has a lovely collection of over 50 supercars and is current president of motorsport’s world governing body, the FIA, is working hard to avoid getting the flick.
Benny has got himself in the wars including: the Xmas party wars, fining Hamo for not attending the end-of-season piss-up at the Bologna Fiere; the jewellery wars (Bling Bling Hamo again); the calendar war (the FIA announcing the 2023 F1 without Liberty Media, holders of exclusive commercial rights to the FIA Formula 1 World Championship which made Liberty Media have a Nile attack – younger readers who now make up 5 per cent of our readership – Nile was a famous men’s handkerchief/hanky which males would shed a tear into during very tough times … like if your EH Holden 179 had a ding in the side or your kid wanted to play soccer); race director wars; the stock exchange wars (Benny saying F1 was overvalued); the free speech wars (Benny and his mates on the General Assembly, F1’s governing body, changing its rules to prevent drivers making “political, religious or personal” comments) and too many more wars to mention.
And speaking of the General Assembly and diversity, the governing body has 239 persons identifying as male and one or two others not identifying as male. Then again, many years back, Benny is alleged to have said on his website: “I don’t like talking about money, nor do I like women who are smarter than men, for they are not in truth.” He backs a lot of winners, the ol’ Benny.
When it was clear (duh) that his grandstanding (pun intended for once) approach was making everyone outside and inside the FIA cry into their Nile hankies, Benny resigned as hands-on FIA president and became non-hands-on FIA president.
Benny appointed the eminently well qualified Niko Tombazis to become hands-on something. In a letter to team bosses, Benny said: “My stated objective was to be a non-executive president via the recruitment of a team of professional managers, which has now been largely completed.
Can’t be too long till the “he will be stepping down to pursue other opportunities” press release.
Talking of high-performance racing, this week your team was out at Sydney’s Eastern Creek Resource Recovery Park and Racetrack for a bit of practice in the Phil Alexander-prepared BMW M3 with the WART signs on the doors.
Like any good gossip columnist, our camera (Box Brownie, and all film is sent to our local chemist for processing) and Spirax notebook were at the ready – and what a catch we got, well after the Beemer lost all its gears coming into turn one at 220kmh.
The highlight was our own Time Attack World Champion and owner of Australia’s largest and most versatile professional motorsport, team manager Garth Walden putting two of his black RAM Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT3s on to the track to stealthily creep up behind unsuspecting BMW drivers and scare last night’s meal out of them as they roared past at close to warp speed.
These are similar Mercs to the one that got the flag at Bathurst last weekend. Driven by a diverse threesome of Andorra’s Jules Gounon, Australia’s Kenny Habul and Germany’s Luca Stolz, Kenny’s Sun Energy Merc beat the Manthey EMA Porker by just a second with the AMG team Merc about a millisecond further back. Actually, there were seven Mercedes-AMG GT3s in the 12 hour. Yours for somewhere over $600k newish and less second hand but place a new body on an old one for $90k and no one will know what age the car or the driver is.
Kenny Habul is one of those rare Australians who has been very successful in US business and US racing. RAM Motorsport’s Sheargold Group boss, Mike Sheargold, only started racing in 2019 and is now winning too many races. Soap dodger and rally car collector Mike Bailey has moved from a Bentley to a Merc prepped by Waldo. If you want to get a more economical start in proper racing, I am loosely guided by Phil Alexander at raceawaytracktime.com.au where, of course, I pay full freight.
OK. Big reaction to last week’s rambling. Readers 13 and 14 said they might be at the Xmas Eve of their lives but are nowhere near dropping off the twig. Reader Matthew criticised me for leaving Colombian marching powder off the coke list. But best news is from JP, 16, of Perth, who shows the campaign to attract younger viewers is working. Despite his father “going on about the Liberal Party or watching the ABC 7:30 report, God help us,” JP says, “he saw your columns in the Weekend Australian and attempted to drip feed me your articles and it worked.” JP is now officially our young reader adviser despite his first recommendation being the old bloke and I go on Tik Tok. Mick is against us being on Tik Tok because he says people might think we’re having a bit of summer cabbage.
A few disappointing results from Bonhams’ Paris auction. Bonhams was looking for $6m for the very pretty 1932 Bugatti Type 55 Cabriolet Coachwork by Vanvooren but it was passed in. The 1948 Talbot-Lago T26 Grand Sport Coupe “Chambas” was well bought at $3.7m. This is the most famous of the 36 T26 Grand Sports, with a great race and rally history, including five consecutive Le Mans from 1949 to 1953. French shoemaker André Chambas bought the car new, had the Garth Walden of the time work it over, change the body a few times to make it faster and lighter, then had himself run over and killed by a car (not the Talbot) in the Paris suburb of Montlhéry.
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