Surfers Paradise SuperGP is safe — at least for this year — after a deal to secure the short-term future of the A1GP.

Amid persistent speculation over the financial stability and future of the A1 series, Australia’s team seat holder and racing legend Alan Jones told The Bulletin A1 bosses had stitched together an end-of-season deal guaranteeing the future of the series.

“According to (A1GP chairman) Tony Teixeira he has just undertaken a deal that will financially secure A1 the next season and the season after,” said Jones from Britain yesterday.

“I can guarantee we will be on the grid in Surfers Paradise … otherwise I am moving to Darwin. He has assured me he has secured funding and is very bullish about the future of it (A1GP).”

The news came on the same day a stinging motorsport editorial in New Zealand media cast serious doubts over A1 even reaching its fifth season — to be kicked off with the Surfers event in late October.

Motorsport journalist Eric Thompson told The Bulletin he would be surprised to see A1 make it into the 2009-10 race year after sponsorship woes, failing teams and cancelled races.

“I would probably hazard a guess nobody will be getting a visit next year,” said Thompson. “I certainly can’t see us (NZ) getting another race.” He said the ‘once-mighty 11-round series’ had ’staggered, lurched, stumbled and fizzled’ its way to a seven-round series in 2009, with the first and final rounds in Italy and Mexico cancelled this season.

Thompson speculated that the swine flu epidemic had dealt the A1GP the perfect excuse to cancel its Mexico race later this month and save the series vital money.

“It’s gone from 11 races, to 10, then eight and we have ended up with seven — well over a third of it just gone,” he said. “And remember they only had 14 cars (out of 22) at the first round this year.”

Thompson said NZ’s January race was saved only by NZ seat holder Colin Giltrap who paid to ship the cars to NZ from Malaysia.

“He (Giltrap) bankrolled everyone’s car to get here.

“Then there was a drama in leaving NZ and getting the cars to South Africa, with the cars only getting there three days before the race there.”

But Alan Jones said those hurdles were ultimately irrelevant as the season had reached its conclusion at the weekend at Britain’s legendary Brands Hatch.

“At the end of the day we did New Zealand, at the end of the day we did South Africa and from South Africa we did Portugal,” said Jones.

But Thompson said in four years the series had still failed to secure a major naming rights sponsor, and A1GP bosses continued to be frustratingly evasive about the series’ finances, with chief executive Pete da Silva dodging questions about finances at the NZ event.

Further doubts emerged about the health of A1GP late last year when reports suggested A1GP owners RAB Capital were in trouble and lost big money on the series.

Last month, the British team went into administration, but was propped up by investors including Mr Teixeira.

SuperGP communication manager Brett Murray said the event was full steam ahead and assured the Gold Coast of ‘one of the best motor racing events in the world’.

[source: goldcoast.com.au]