MOTORSPORT: Almost a perfect 10 for Holden

General delivers Ford a crushing at the mountain
Bathurst 2009 was more -- much more -- than a clean sweep of the podium for Holden. Nine of the top 10 cars to finish were Holdens. And the team fielding the one that wasn't will be in the Holden camp next year.

The pendulum has well and truly swung back the General's way after three straight years of the successes of Triple Eight Race Engineering/TeamVodafone.

Holden Racing Team yesterday delivered what Holden the car manufacturer wants in return for the money it pumps into its factory team. And it now heads the V8 Supercar teams championship.

Love him or loathe him, Tom Walkinshaw has returned HRT -- and Holden -- to where they believe they belong.

Having crossed from the Ford side over the summer, Will Davison had already shone in his debut season with HRT, although Garth Tander asserted himself as the team's main man at the mountain. They made a fine combination though.

Next year Holden will be represented by both HRT and Triple Eight and we had already predicted here that V8 Supercar racing will become a whitewash for the General. Judging by yesterday's Bathurst 1000 that's happening already.

Huge kudos goes to Brad Jones Racing, Garry Rogers Motorsport and Sprint Gas Racing, other teams running Holdens that finished ahead of the previously all-conquering Jamie Whincup-Craig Lowndes Falcon.

Credit to Jason Richards and Cameron McConville of BJR, Lee Holdsworth and Michael Caruso of GRM and veterans Greg Murphy and Mark Skaife of Tasman Motorsport/Sprint Gas.

And hard luck for Jason Bargwanna and Mark Noske in the other Sprint Gas car, Rick and Todd Kelly in their Jack Daniel's Commodore and David Besnard and Greg Ritter all of whom were unlucky not to finish higher up in the top 10.

Ford's decision to back two teams other than Triple Eight has blown up on it in a big way -- and it's hard to see that changing in a hurry.

Ford Performance Racing is only fifth in the V8 Supercars teams championship and the other Ford-backed team, Stone Brothers Racing, is eighth, while Team Vodafone and Dick Johnson's Jim Beam Racing sit second and fourth, sandwiching the Garry Rogers outfit that consistently punches above its weight.

Bathurst felt quite different this time around. It wasn't a great race before half distance, but the afternoon rain spiced it up. The closing laps were as thrilling and gripping as we've come to expect and it wound up every bit a Great Race.

Organisers announced a four-day attendance of 179,492. With well over 50,000 supposedly at Mt Panorama on race day, the average attendance on the three previous days would have had to average 40,000 or more -- which makes the total totally unbelievable.

Channel 7's telecast was simply the worst in this author's memory of the event. While we've been critical here of the outlandish propaganda V8 Supercars Australia has uttered about its national and global TV audiences in the past, the quality of its productions has generally been excellent. Not this time.

It also has been noticeable today that neither the Seven Network or V8SA was crowing before midway about the enormity of Sunday's audience. We are hearing reports of a national average audience of a modest 1.89 million viewers. We shall take a look at the OzTAM numbers over the next couple of days and compare them with other years.

V8 Supercar Championship points after 18 of 26 races -- Jamie Whincup (Ford Falcon) 2476 points, Will Davison (Holden Commodore) 2383, Garth Tander (Holden) 2038, Craig Lowndes (Ford) 1947, Steven Johnson (Ford) 1656, Mark Winterbottom (Ford) 1574, Lee Holdsworth (Holden) 1568, Rick Kelly (Holden) 1516, Russell Ingall (Holden) 1484, James Courtney (Ford) 1436.

V8 Supercar teams championship standings -- Toll Holden Racing 4111 points, TeamVodafone 4055, Garry Rogers Motorsport 3008, Jim Beam Racing 3002, Ford Performance Racing 2737, Jack Daniels Racing 2603, Brad Jones Racing 2465, Stone Brothers Racing 2394, Walkinshaw Performance 2318, Supercheap Auto 2213, Wilson Security 2016, Sprint Gas Racing 1895, Kelly Racing 1451, Fujitsu Racing 1047, Rod Nash Racing 847.

Brabham the Le Mans king both sides of Atlantic
David Brabham has won the American Le Mans Series. Brabham and American co-driver finished second in their Highcroft Racing Acura at the final round at Laguna Seca in California to clinch the driver, team and manufacturer titles.

Brabham, who won the Le Mans 24-hour sports car classic in France this year with Peugeot, said Highcroft was "probably the best team I've been a part of in my career".

"When the Acura program was launched, it was a rejuvenation. It's been a special time in my life. I felt like I've improved a lot as a driver."

Sharp said of Brabham: "David is easily the best teammate I've ever had. He really helps everyone on the team raise their game to a new level."

Briscoe bridesmaid in IndyCar finale
Sydneysider Ryan Briscoe led more than half the final round of the Indy Racing League at in Florida at the weekend but finished second for the eighth time this season and a narrow third in the championship.

Scotsman Dario Franchitti won the race at Homestead-Miami Speedway and clinched the title -- this time for Chip Ganassi Racing, two years after he won it for Andretti Green.

Franchitti's teammate and the 2009 champion, New Zealander Scott Dixon, and Briscoe had been more than 20 seconds ahead of Franchitti before they had to pit in the final 10 laps for fuel.

Franchitti, who returned to open-wheeler racing this season after a horror attempt at NASCAR racing last year, cruised by to take chequered flag.

Franchitti finished the championship with 616 points, Dixon 605 and Team Penske driver Briscoe -- paying the price for a mistake at the second last round at Japan's Motegi track -- 604.

"It's pretty frustrating," Briscoe said. "This was one of the best races I've ever run. I just hate that it came down to fuel strategy. I thought it was going to be between Scott and me ... but Dario had the advantage."

Melbourne's James Davison started from pole in the final round of the Indy Lights series and another top five finish for Vision Racing saw him finish runner-up in that championship.

Johnson takes lead in The Chase
Triple champion Jimmie Johnson won today's fourth round of The Chase in NASCAR's Sprint Cup by 1.6 seconds from Jeff Gordon, followed by Juan Pablo Montoya, Mark Martin, Tony Stewart and Carl Edwards.

The win at California's Fontana Speedway gave Johnson the lead in the Chase by 12 points over veteran Martin while Formula One refugee Montoya is third in his third full season in American stock car racing.

Australian Marcos Ambrose finished 23rd at Fontana and is 17th in the championship.

Next weekend's round is at Charlotte, North Carolina.

Meanwhile, a grandson of NASCAR founder Bill France Senior has been charged with possession of cocaine and driving under the influence -- and banned from NASCAR's Grand-Am series.

J.C. France, 43, was stopped after driving too fast over a bridge in Daytona Beach, Florida, in a Lamborghini.

He failed a sobriety test, refused to take a breath test and was found in possession of 2.3 grams of a white cake-like substance that tested positive for cocaine, according to a police report.

The incident is a huge embarrassment for NASCAR in light of its vigorous pursuit of Sprint Cup owner-driver Jeremy Mayfield over alleged drug use.

Another A1 blow for the Gold Coast
Now that the Gold Coast's SuperGP is less than two weeks away, another worry about the A1 GP category that is the open-wheeler replacement for the IndyCars.

The Malaysian team is reportedly going to miss the Surfers' Paradise street race raising further concerns about how many cars will be on the grid.

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