Aussies close at Qatar, California...

Australia's Casey Stoner won pole position and led the Qatar Grand Prix for ten laps but as the chequered flag fell it was the maestro Valentino Rossi who crossed the line first.

After a disappointing opening round to the season Rossi rode a masterful race despite a late race challenge from Honda rider Nicky Hayden. Rossi again proved that he is the class act of contemporary motorcycle racing to beat Hayden and Loris Capirossi on a Ducati.

Stoner proved that he's worthy of the chance he's been given in the top echelon of the sport with a strong pole position and an early race lead. But by mid race the young Australian was having serious rear tyre problems and he eventually fell back to fifth.

After the race, a clearly delighted Rossi paid tribute to his team for their work in making the Yamaha a competitive package again.

"Together with my mechanics we fought a lot, we had a lot of problems, but today the bike was OK," he said.

Capirossi leads the series on 47 points from Hayden and Daniel Pedrosa who finished sixth at Qatar.

In the 250cc race Spain's Jorge Lorenzo held out Italian Andrea Dovizioso in a thrilling finish to take his second win in two races this season.

The lead changed hands twice on the final lap before the 18-year-old Aprilia rider pipped Honda's Dovizioso by only 0.077 seconds.

Roberto Locatelli of Italy was third on an Aprilia, almost a full 20 seconds behind the first two riders. Australia's Anthony West retired from the race on lap six after being slowed by gearbox problems.

Spain's Alvaro Bautista, also on an Aprilia won the 125cc race at Qatar.

Bautista beat KTM rider Mika Kallio of Finland by a comfortable 6.765 seconds. Bautista's team mate Sergio Gaeda was third.

Citroen driver Sebastian Loeb delighted French rally fans with an all-the-way victory in the Rally of Corsica. It was his second successive win in the event.

Ford driver Marcus Gronholm was forced to settle for second after winning only two stages.

Young Spanish star Dani Sordo also driving a Citroen was third in another impressive performance for a WRC rookie.

Australian Subaru driver Chris Atkinson gained more valuable tarmac experience finishing the weekend in 13th position.

Loeb continues to lead the 2006 championship by nine points from Gronholm with Sordo third on 14 points.

World Rally Championship photos courtesy of

French driver Sebastian Bourdais has started his defence of his Champcar World Series title in perfect fashion with a win in the opening round through the streets of Long Beach, California.

The Newman/Haas driver crossed the line ahead of England's Justin Wilson and Canada's Alex Tagliani in the Team Australia car.

"We're (Team Australia) there," said Tagliani after the race. "We know there's a lot of work to do to catch the strong teams. Now it's going to be up to us in the next month to make some changes and to try to see if the budget allows us to get some additions on what we know we're behind. From there, try to get closer and closer..."
 Queensland driver Will Power came home ninth.

Melbourne driver James Davison finished in 13th place in the debut of the new Formula Atlantic Series, also at Long Beach. German driver Andreas Wirth was the winner.

Bridgestone Champ Car World Series photos courtesy of USA LAT Photographic

English driver Ben Clucas and Melbourne's Michael Trimble shared a win each in the second round of the Kumho Tyres Australian Formula Three Championship at Tasmania's Symmons Plains raceway.

Clucas, driving for the South Australian-based Team BRM led home young NSW driver Chris Alajajian and Trimble to win race one.

In race two Trimble took the victory from Alajajian as Clucas could only manage third place. All three drivers were driving the Italian-built Dallara chassis.

Falcons dominated the second round of the Australian Production Car Championship, also held at Symmons Plains.

David Ryan in a BF XR6 Turbo won two races but he was excluded from the weekend's second race after a technical problem with a data logger that couldn’t download critical data to category officials leaving the Falcon XR8 of John Houlder to take the win.

Class B was won by Ric Shaw in his Toyota Celica while Darren Best in a Ford Focus won all three races in Class C.

Dodge has won the latest round of the NASCAR Nextel Cup at Texas Motor Speedway with Kasey Kahne leading home the Ford of Matt Kenseth. Defending series champion Tony Stewart in a Chevrolet was third. Chevy driver Jimmie Johnson, 11th in the race at Texas, leads the series ahead of Kenseth and Kahne.