MOTORSPORT: Ambrose to fore in 'insane' NASCAR

Aussie notches best Cup result on NASCAR oval
Australia's Marcos Ambrose has scored his best oval track finish in NASCAR's premier division, the Sprint Cup, after one of the most spectacular finishes in the history of American stock car race.

Video of that finish from Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama where the leading Ford of Carl Edwards spun, was hit, took flight and hit the catch fencing high up on the outside of the track, injuring eight spectators (none seriously, it seems, although two were flown to hospital) is here. Ambrose and his Toyota wound up fourth in the race.

Fellow Aussie Ryan Briscoe is unlucky not to be leading the IndyCar series again after the round at Kansas, where he also finished fourth as Brisbane-born New Zealander Scott Dixon won the first oval race of the season in that open-wheeler series. Now it's on to the Indianapolis 500.

Mark Webber drove a neat Formula 1 race in yesterday's Bahrain Grand Prix, making up a lot of ground early after he was "screwed" in Saturday's qualifying, blocked by Adrian Sutil.

But Webber had to settle for 11th place as his Red Bull teammate Sebastian Vettel finished second to Jenson Button and Brawn, which have now won three of the season's four GPs.

And the great Sebastian Loeb has won the Rally of Argentina for the fifth straight time and six straight WRC rounds, and all five this year.

'Insanity on four wheels' in Alabama
While today's result at Talladega was his best Sprint Cup oval finish, Marcos Ambrose called the race and venue "insanity on four wheels."

"That was a wild finish. It was the most spectacular thing I've ever seen in my life coming across the finish line looking at a car upside down like that," Ambrose said.

"This is crazy racing, it really is. We can try and legitimise it as much as we'd like but it's insanity on four wheels."

While NASCAR racers usually find other drivers to work together with in drafting on the oval tracks, Ambrose said he hadn't done that at Talladega.

"I probably made three good choices all day to get myself up there and from that point I was just hanging on," he said. "I've just got to thank my crew. We've got a brand new bunch of people together and we're really just gelling."

The Ambrose crew member disciplined by NASCAR for chasing a rolling tyre across pit road a month ago at Atlanta Motor Speedway was back from a four-race suspension.

But Jimmy Watts, the "gas man" in the crew, is still on probation until the end of the year.

Ambrose's fourth place on the daunting 4.1km (2.66-mile) oval was one place lower than he finished on the Sonoma road course in California last year.

He featured in an article in the New York Times, here, before this event and he ran in the top 10 for much of the race, won by Brad Keselowski, a protégé of Dale Earnhardt Junior making only his fifth Sprint Cup start.

Keselowski, driving a Chevrolet, became the eighth driver to get his first Cup win at Talladega.

A multiple car crash on the back straight in the closing stages set up a four-lap sprint to the finish, with Ambrose in seventh on the restart.

It was Keselowski who made contact with drafting partner Edwards, setting of the incident that reminded NASCAR stalwarts of the legendary Bobby Allison's scary crash at the same venue 22 years earlier.

As Edwards became airborne he was hit by Ryan Newman and catapulted into the catch fencing, catching fire as it came to a halt.

Keselowski took the chequered flag ahead of Earnhardt, Newman, Ambrose and former F1 driver Scott Speed.

Edwards was classified 24th and had no gripe with Keselowski, who held his line to avoid dropping below the track's yellow line as Edwards tried to defend his lead.

"Brad was doing everything he was supposed to be doing to win," Edwards said. "NASCAR puts us in this box and we"ll race like this until we kill somebody and NASCAR will change it.

"Talladega is short for, 'We're going to wreck... we just don't know when'."

Earnhardt had his first win since last June within his reach with four laps left and followed leader Newman on the final restart. That pair led the way until Edwards and Keselowski stormed past them on the outside as the white flag waved with one lap to go.

Ex-F1 star Juan Pablo Montoya scored his first Sprint Cup pole position but was caught up in the second big pile-up of the day. The first, on lap seven, involved 13 cars.

Keselowski, who only led only the last 100 metres, was one of 25 drivers who swapped the lead 57 times.

The early exit of Jeff Gordon from the race meant he surrendered the series lead to Kurt Busch.

NASCAR Sprint Cup -- Kurt Busch (Dodge) 1299 points, Jeff Gordon (Chevrolet) 1294, Jimmie Johnson (Chevrolet) 1235, Tony Stewart (Toyota) 1232, Denny Hamlin (Toyota) 1193, Kyle Busch (Toyota) 1124, Carl Edwards (Ford) 1119, Clint Bowyer (Chevrolet)  1098, Jeff Burton (Chevrolet) 1092, Greg Biffle (Ford) 1081, David Reutimann (Toyota) 1077, Matt Kenseth (Ford) 1063. Marcos Ambrose (Australia, Toyota) is 19th on 937 points. Next round: May 2, Richmond, Virginia.

Brawn still the F1 benchmark, big teams playing catch-up
The Bahrain Grand Prix was the dullest F1 race this season, but still an improvement on a lot of the "racing" of previous years.

What this race told us is that the Brawn car is still the season's benchmark.

Toyota had both its cars on the front row but Jarno Trulli and Timo Glock finished third and seventh respectively.

So the Toyota is not quite there yet over a race distance, while the Red Bull RB5s of Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber are near the mark, and right on it in the wet, even though they don't have the "double-decker" diffuser, KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery System) or front wings adjustable during a race.

While KERS has given the drivers using extra horsepower for getting off the grid and for overtaking, or avoiding overtaking, there is a groundswell of opposition to it -- including from Webber.

However, F1 ought to feel an obligation to persist with it as it is something that can have important benefits for everyday motoring. And, in any case, we can't see the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) abandoning it in a hurry.

KERS seems to have been a major distraction for Ferrari this season, with the extra weight creating problems for designers and engineers.

However, Ferrari's 2007 world champion Kimi Raikkonen at least opened his scoring account in Bahrain, although teammate Felipe Massa, and BMW-Sauber's Robert Kubica, remain pointless after four races.

BMW-Sauber has been a huge disappointment after all the anticipation that this would be the year it got on terms with Ferrari and McLaren.

We expect the competition will start to even up now that the championship heads into its European races, with the first in Barcelona on May 10, but the three big teams of recent years have a lot of catching up to do.

In the meantime, McLaren has the "Liargate" inquiry to face at the FIA this week, although there has been a hint from F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone that the penalty for the untruths told to the stewards after the Australian GP in Melbourne on March 29 will be small.

McLaren has already tried to minimise the damage by sacking team manager Dave Ryan and long-time team chief Ron Dennis is no longer attending GPs.

Meanwhile, Ecclestone continues to make lots of news, including with an interview on the state of the sport in the New York Times, here, an article on his private equity partner CVC, here and attack on the British government amid the latest fuss over the future of the British GP, here. Also, mention that his fortune has diminished by almost 1 billion quid in the past year, here.

And F1's staunchest F1 fans, who have been enjoying the increased live coverage on OneHD, were not happy about Bahrain qualifying playing second fiddle to the Indian Premier League cricket (in South Africa), see here.

F1 drivers" world championship after four rounds -- Jenson Button (Great Britain, Brawn-Mercedes) 31 points, Rubens Barrichello (Brazil, Brawn) 19, Sebastian Vettel (Germany, Red Bull) 18, Jarno Trulli (Italy, Toyota) 14.5, Timo Glock (Germany, Toyota) 12, Mark Webber (Australia, Red Bull) 9.5, Lewis Hamilton (Great Britain, McLaren) 9, Fernando Alonso (Spain, Renault) 5, Nick Heidfeld (Germany, BMW-Sauber) 4, Heikki Kovalainen (Finland, McLaren) 4, Nico Rosberg (Germany, Williams) 3.5, Kimi Raikkonen (Finland, Ferrari) 3, Sebastien Buemi (Switzerland, Toro Rosso-Ferrari) 3, Sebastien Bourdais (France, Toro Rosso-Ferrari) 1.

F1 constructors' world championship -- Brawn-Mercedes 50 points, Red Bull-Renault 27.5, Toyota 26.5, McLaren-Mercedes 13, Renault 5, Toro Rosso-Ferrari 4, BMW-Sauber 4, Williams-Toyota 3.5, Ferrari 3.

Briscoe, who had led a stretch of the race, had been heading into the pits when Dixon's Ganassi teammate Dario Franchitti crashed into the pit entry wall.

Race control forced Briscoe to delay his stop, meaning he had to drive through. He lost too many positions to challenge for the lead again, although he still finished fourth -- to move back up to second place in the standings that he previously headed after the opening street race in Florida.

Dixon was only 16th and 15th in the opening two rounds because of technical problems, but he flew on the 2.4km (1.50-mile) Kansas oval, which was hit by strong winds -- indeed, a tornado -- on Saturday.

Dixon's victory was the 17th of his IndyCar career and his 11th on an oval track, ahead of his defence of his Indiapolis 500 crown on May 25.

In his last 12 oval races Dixon has won six and has never finished lower than fourth. He headed home Brazilian pair Helio Castroneves and Tony Kanaan at Kansas.

Kanaan is the new series leader, one point ahead of Briscoe, while second round winner Franchitti is four points behind Kanaan and Dixon has moved up to fourth.

Castroneves and Franchitti had to start from the back of the field for dropping below the bottom line of the track during qualifying.

Newman-Haas-Lanigan suprised when its drivers Graham Rahal and Dobert Doornbos filled the front row, but they finished seventh and 12th.

Australian Will Power missed the Kansas round but will rejoin Team Penske for the Indy 500.

IndyCar Series after 3 rounds -- Tony Kanaan (Andretti Green Racing) 100 points, Ryan Briscoe (Team Penske) 99, Dario Franchitti (Ganassi) 94, Scott Dixon (Gansassi) 81, Ryan Hunter-Reay (Vision Racing) 74, Danica Patrick (Andretti Green) 74, Marco Andretti (Andretti Green) 73, Graham Rahal (Newman-Haas-Lanigan) 72, Will Power (Penske) 69, Helio Castroneves (Penske) 66, Dan Wheldon (Panther) 66, Justin Wilson (Dale Coyne Racing)  65, Robert Doornbos (Newman-Haas-Lanigan) 59, Hideki Mutoh (Andretti Green) 51, Vitor Meira (Foyt Racing) 50.

Another high five from Loeb
Sebastien Loeb's latest victory in the Rally of Argentina in his Citroen C4 came by more than a minute ahead of his Spanish teammate Dani Sordo, while third-placed Henning Solberg of Norway in a Ford Focus was four minutes behind the Frenchman in third place.

Petter Solberg, the 2003 world champion and former Subaru factory teammate of the now-sidelined Aussie Chris Atkinson, was running a comfortable third on the final day when his privately-entered Citroen Xsara lost fuel pressure.

Finn Mikko Hirvonen, who has been Loeb's main rival since the retirement from full-time WRC competition of fellow Finn Marcus Gronholm, was forced out when the engine in his Ford Focus overheated.

Meanwhile, Chris Atkinson will drive the official "0" car -- a Subaru Impreza -- ahead of a field of more than 70 competitors at the international Rally Queensland on May 8-10.

Rally Queensland, in the Imbil State Forest south-west of Gympie, will be round two of the Asia-Pacific Rally Championship, round four of the Australian Rally Championship and rounds two and three of the Queensland Rally Championship -- all series Atkinson contested before graduating full-time to the WRC in 2005.

He was fifth in his sole outing in the WRC this year, at the opening round in Ireland, but is still hoping to find the backing to return, most likely with the Citroen junior team.

He was second in the Mexico and Argentina rounds of the WRC last year.

Drivers' World Rally Championship after 5 of 12 rounds -- Sébastien Loeb (France, Citroen) 50 points, Dani Sordo (Spain, Citroen) 31, Mikko Hirvonen (Finland, Ford) 30, Henning Solberg (Norway, Ford) 20, Petter Solberg (Norway, Citroen) 14, Matthew Wilson (Great Britain, Ford) 12, Jari-Matti Latvala (Finland, Ford) 9, Federico Villagra (Argentina, Ford) 9, Sebastien Ogier (France, Citroen) 5, Chris Atkinson (Australia, Citroen) 4.

Manufacturers' WRC -- Citroën Total World Rally Team 82 points, BP-Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team 43 points, Stobart VK M-Sport Ford Rally Team 37, Citroën Junior Team 13, Munchi's Ford World Rally Team 12.

Image: Ambrose - BAM Media