OK sport, which party gets your motor running?

The federal government is getting the subs message out by sponsoring a team in the NASCAR series. Picture: Getty Images

There is only one party that wholeheartedly supports Australia’s national sport.

Motor racing holds a special place in Australian society, influencing the nation’s culture, identity and daily life.

While Australia does not have an officially designated national sport, motor racing is widely considered to be the country’s de facto national sport due to its historical significance and immense popularity.

However, other sports like AFL, rugby league, tennis, underwater dominoes, beer pong (“you sink it they drink it”) and two up also play pivotal roles in the nation’s sporting landscape. This diverse and vibrant sports culture is a reflection of Australia’s passion for competition, outdoor activities, community spirit and petrol-driven engines (a lot of this unashamedly stolen and adapted from https://tpd.edu.au/).

Not only is the Australian Labor Party (current federal government) out there promoting car racing, it’s out there doing it in the biggest market in the world (Septic Land) helping small Aussie enterprises win multibillion-dollar contracts to build nuclear and un-nuclear vessels, and small and large arms and rockets.

And they’ve done it by sponsoring RFK Racing’s NASCAR team with a BuildSubmarines.com car and putting ads on the Superbowl – which is like the State of Origin except the players’ parents make them wear more padding than the Michelin man. The sport itself was stolen from rugby and soccer. And it’s working. Last month, the western state’s Austal Ltd was awarded a $670m contract to expand production capacity at its US shipyard in support of the navy submarine industrial base.

Nexletol Ford driver Chris Buescher speaks with RFK Racing founder and NASCAR Hall of Famer Jack Roush. Picture: Getty Images

Like other Australian companies, Austal is chasing a $17bn pot of money the US Navy is spending to step up its rate of production for Virginia-class subs to support the commitment to the Royal Australian Navy for nuclear submarines. Last month, at the Watkins Glen International dodgem race, Chris Buescher in the BuildSubmarines Mustang, muscled out our very own eastern stater, Shane van Gisbergen, in a Chev for a win.

Let’s hope our nuke subs muscle out the commies in the Asia Pacific power championships.

And in Septic Land politics good to see Kamala Harris endorsing Lewis Hamilton after Trumpy endorsed Leaping Lando. Trumpy was a guest in the McLaren team garage in Miami. When the British team was criticised for harbouring the orange elder statesman. a McLaren spokesman said: “McLaren is a non-political organisation however we recognise and respect the office of President of the United States.” Which Trumpy is not. Yet.

And good to see the Department of ITRDC and A in the people’s paradise of Canberra, the acting administrator of the Indian Ocean Territories and the special magistrate of the Jervis Bay Territory, is reading this column. Remember in September, we told you: “Hyundai and Kia issued a recall of 3.4 million vehicles in the US telling us to park our cars outside and away from buildings because they could catch fire even with the engines off.”

On Thursday, the Department of ITRDC and A (special hello to Minister Cath King – go the Bulldogs) said “a vehicle fire could increase the risk injury or death to vehicle occupants or bystanders and/or damage to property”.

But wait, there’s more!

Our very own Choice magazine tells us that not only are commie EVs reporting your movements straight back to CCP HQ in Zhongnanhai, Peking, but Kia, Hyundai and Tesla are listening into your convos!

But Musky is going one step further with Tesla taking “short video clips and images” from the camera inside the EV. Readers, I know most of you are too mature to get up to the old horizontal folk dancing caper in the front, back or on the bonnet of the car anymore but younger readers like JP from Perth, wear a mask.

Own a Toyota Tundra or a Lexus LX SUV? The Department of ITRDC and A won’t tell you but basically you’re stuffed because in the US, Toyota will have to replace the twin-turbo V6 engines in more than 100,000 vehicles – which are the same engines you have in your SUV.

The problem is a loss of motive (aka engine) power while driving at higher speeds can increase the risk of a crash. This comes as Toyota is thinking about re-entering F1 with Haas. Given Hass is running seventh in the constructor’s championship, swapping the Ferrari engine for a Toyota probably won’t make much difference.

More good news for Jeep owners. Consumer Reports tells us to avoid the Jeep Gladiator because it’s unreliable, has clumsy handling and awkward controls, and suffers from excessive wind noise.

Readers Helsie and Jerzza Chaberka’s know how crook the Jeep Grand Cherokee Trail Hawk is, after they bought one from Berwick Jeep – Berwick’s trusted Jeep dealer. Remember, if you buy a Stellantis product you only have yourself to blame.

And Jeep parent Stellantis’s CFO, Natalie Knight, is putting the company into the doghouse to curb spending and reverse falling profits. Shares in the owner of the Chrysler, Jeep, Fiat, Citroen and Peugeot brands have tumbled more than 55 per cent since March, and is the worst performance among European automakers. Naturally CEO Carl Taveres is planning a management reshuffle rather than give himself the flick.

Apart from the former home of the late prime minister Ben Chifley and his wife Elizabeth, and the Australian Fossil Museum featuring one M. McMichael, the other attraction at Bathurst this weekend is the 2024 Bathurst 1000 at Mount Panorama.

Our gang is taking a Premier Pit suite, a snip at $50k plus catering packages, offering pastries and pies. Of course there are dress regulations for an enhanced ambience. The recommended dress code is tank tops, midriff tops, low-cut shirts and Warwick Capper shorts with House of Darwin Thongs (celebrating the flora and fauna of Australia’s top end with six months’ warranty ($45 walk away, no more to pay).

Keep an eye on the Erebus Motorsport duo of Jack Le Brocq and Jayden Ojeda, and then Craig Lowndes and Cooper Murray in the Triple 8 car. No real reason except Craig is the oldest person in the race.

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