March 30, 2009
Published on tags: Superleague
While the focus of attention for most of the GPVWC world has surely been the Australian Grand Prix, one shouldn't be fooled into thinking that on-track operations were the only issue to keep busy the league's managers.

Indeed, there has been plenty of action on the contract side, with a flurry of new deals being signed in the few hours before the opening race and a few others shaping up in the horizon.

Dave Carr-Smith's new involvement with Woods Racing as a stand-in racer, and a substitute for the stricken Juha Tanskanen, was obvious with the Briton clinching a podium in Melbourne; so was Mark Stanton's promotion to race driver due to the retirement of Jyri Lylykorpi at Evans Blue Racing.

However, there is much more to this issue. Platform Michelangelo were notable for their absence in Melbourne, due to Jeroen Jansen being under surgery and Michelangelo Manrique being unable to take part. The team, whose test driver Eurico Marques is not available for racing yet, is rumoured to be looking for a new driver to be able to stand in for the two leading ones.

But the story that surely caught the media eye regards Irishman Phil Cullen. The man from Kildare competed for Synergetic in Australia, ending his race early due to a first-lap crash, but was positively impressed by the Mal McKee-run team and is currently considering an extension to the one-month contract he's on.

Cullen was spotted, after the race, consoling himself for his early exit with a box of crushed chocolates and a bottle of cheap wine. Rather mysteriously, sources report the table he was sitting at also had a knife and fork, a dessert spoon, a napkin and an unlit candle sitting on it.

Whatever the contract requirements of Cullen, which GPVWC understands are pretty demanding, it will be worth checkign out for the young driver in a few days' time at the Chinese Grand Prix.