Ford still in WRC fight

Motor racing wrap...

It was a good weekend for Ford with Ford Performance Racing driver Jason Bright winning Saturday's first race and ending up second overall. Rick Kelly was one of the few bright lights for Holden, his consistency saw mim finish third overall.

The controversial reverse grid format for Sunday's first race once again produced plenty of chaos with several top runners crashing out or sustaining serious damage.

WPS driver Jason Bargwanna was one if the victims, his run in with Warren Luff spilling over to the pitlane where crew members and officials were forced to separate the two drivers after a heated exchange. Bargwanna's actions earned him a suspended fine of $5000 while Luff was given a 27-second penalty.

Jason Richards in the Tasman Commodore won the reverse grid race and finished the weekend in 12th place.

Lowndes win in race three came after a great dice with Bright and Holden Racing Team leader Mark Skaife who finished third in the race but fifth overall.

Garth Tander had another consistent weekend: fourth place overall gives him the lead in the series with 1042 points ahead of Rick Kelly on 1029 and the rapidly closing Lowndes now in third on 1012 points. The next round of the series will be at Darwin's Hidden Valley Raceway on July 1-2.

ALMS/Le Mans
The 2006 Le Mans 24 hour race is shaping up as a battle between the new diesel Audi R10s and the Pescarolo Judds. The two teams swapped fastest times in Sunday's first test session for the famous race which gets underway in two weeks' time.

The first of the two four-hour sessions on the test day featured the two Audi R10 entries at the top the timesheets. The R10 of Capello/Kristensen/McNish lapping the 13.65km circuit in 3:35.037, almost a second faster than team-mates Biela/Pirro/Werner.

They were followed by the two Pescarolo/Judds of Helary/Montagny just ahead of the Bouchut/Collard/Comas sister car. The leading LMP2 entry was the RML Lola AER of Erdos/Newton, in eighth overall.

The GT1 fight between the American Chev Corvettes and the British Aston Martins will probably gain as much attention as the outright contest. With up to 60 per cent of the crowd at the circuit from across the channel the Astons will have plenty of support. First honours went to Aston Martin, with the Enge/Piccini/Turner DB9 over two seconds clear of nearest rival, the  Corvette C6R of Gavin/Beretta/Magnussen.

In GT2 The Flying Lizard team Porsche 911 GT3 RSR of van Overbeek/Nieman/Lieb heads the field. The large Porsche contingent is expected to dominate this class despite the presence of the American-based Panoz Elans and the Anglo-Dutch Spyker machine powered by a 4.2-litre Audi V8.

Race fans not able to make it to the event can keep abreast of the weekend's action via the famous Radio Le Mans service available at www.radiolemans.com

But Rossi again showed his genius with a stunning ride that helped him regain the lead to take the chequered flag ahead of Capirossi and championship leader Nicky Hayden aboard a Honda.

Australian rider Casey Stoner was in contention for a podium position early before a major crash on lap nine. Stoner was thrown over the handlebars of his Honda as his bike cartwheeled through the air, but was not seriously injured.

In the smaller-capacity categories, Jorge Lorenzo riding an Aprilia led home Alex De Angilis also on an Aprilia and Honda's Andrea Dovizioso.

Italian Mattia Pasini took out a close three-way fight for the 125cc honours. Pasini's Aprilia beat Spain's Alvaro Bautista also on an Aprilia with Derbi rider Lukas Pesek taking third place.

WRC
The winning run of French rally star Sebastian Loeb has finally been broken. Ford's Marcus Gronholm won the Rally of Greece ending Loeb's run of five straight wins.

Loeb in a Citroen finished second with Mikko Hirvonen in another Ford Focus finishing third.

Despite his second place Loeb still leads the World Rally Championship from Gronholm but the Frenchman is not counting another title just yet.

"... there are still eight races left and a lot can happen. It's going to be a dogfight because Marcus is a very competitive. It's not won yet," he said.

Australian Will Power had a disappointing end to his weekend. The Queensland driver surprised onlookers by qualifying fifth in his first-ever oval track race, but a broken CV joint on lap 155 ended his race.

"I was making adjustments as the race went by in the cockpit and got used to traffic, but unfortunately once I left the pits our drive shaft broke," he said. "Luckily it happened there, because if it broke on the track we would have crashed into a wall, so at least that’s one positive way to look at it.

IRL
As the Champ Cars made a rare visit to the oval the rival Indy Racing League was making its annual pilgrimage to the famous Watkins Glen road circuit outside New York. Former Formula Holden driver New Zealand's Scott Dixon took the win ahead of Victor Meira and Australian driver Ryan Briscoe.

The event was a one-off drive for the young Australian who will return to his home country to race V8Supercars with the Holden Racing Team at the Sandown and Bathurst endurance events.