MOTORSPORT: Atkinson and Martin star abroad

Chris Atkinson has just scored his third win of the year in the Asia-Pacific Rally Championship, driving a Super 2000 Proton Satria Neo, and he leads that series. At 30, former World Rally Championship ace Atkinson remains Australia's top rally driver, yet there is still no word of him getting a drive in the new Rally Australia on NSW's Coffs Coast in September.

Another Queenslander, John Martin (pictured), is now the outright leader in the Superleague Formula after the second round of that somewhat curious, confusing but nonetheless surviving openwheeler series.

At the weekend's second round at Zolder in Belgium the 27-year-old Martin won one race in a field that included several ex-F1 drivers by almost 5.5sec; finished second in another and seventh in another.

"Another €50,000 would have been nice, but points make prizes," Martin said. "I tried my best to overtake Frederic on the last lap but there was nothing I could do and I did not want to crash into him.... When the rain started, the circuit became very slippery, so I decided to be careful and see what happened. Then I caught him, but he did a good job to keep me behind."

The other drivers in that thrilling finish were Switzerland's Neil Jani, a former champion in the now-defunct A1 GP series and representing Belgium, and German Max Wissel, representing South Korea.

Martin was the 2006 Australian Formula Ford Champion, went to Europe and ended up representing Australia in A1 and now does the same in Superleague Formula, driving a car prepared by long-time expatriate Australian Alan Docking, who also played a part in the careers of Webber, Ambrose and Power.

Superleague Formula was established on the basis of teams representing soccer clubs but that has been scaled back and now the emphasis is on representing countries.

The identical cars have 750bhp V12 engines, there are two 40-minute races and the five-lap "dash-for-cash" Super Final at each round.

Eight rounds on four continents are scheduled this season, with the next at Goiania in Brazil on October 8-9. Among drivers in the field of 16 are Dutchman Robert Doornbos, who raced in F1 for Minardi when it was owned by expatriate Australian Paul Stoddart and later they combined in CART racing in America, and Brazilian Antonio Pizzonia, who was Webber's F1 teammate at Jaguar for part of 2003.

Russian Mikhail Aleshin, who beat Ricciardo to last year's World Series by Renault title by two points, is in Superleague now.

Superleague Formula standings after two of scheduled eight rounds -- 1. John Martin (Australia) 158 points, 2. Robert Doornbos (Japan) 136, 3. Frederic Vervisch (Luxembourg) 134, 4. Yelmer Buurman (Holland) 130, 5. Neel Jani (Belgium) 125, 6. Craig Dolby (England) 124, 7. Chris van der Drift (New Zealand) 113, 8. Antonio Pizzonia (Brazil) 102, 9. Filip Salaquarda (Czech Republic) 95, 10. Duncan Tappy (Turkey) 88, 11. Max Wissel (South Korea) 71, 12. Mikhail Aleshin (Russia) 56, 13. Tristan Gommendy (France) 52, 14. Ho-Pin Tung (China) 34, 15. Andy Soucek (Spain) 28.

"To get the overall win as well as the Asia Pacific Rally Championship points is fantastic," Atkinson said. Another Kiwi, Richard Mason, finished third, driving a Mitsubishi Lancer EVO X rather than his usual Subaru STI and retains the lead in the NZ Rally Championship.

Atkinson's Proton teammate, Perth-based Scotsman Alister McRae, brother of late world champion Colin McRae, started the second day in third place but wound up seventh, almost 4min behind Atkinson.

Young Victorian Brendan Reeves, who is also competing on the world scene this year, was sixth in a Mitsubishi Lancer EVO IX, 14.2 seconds ahead of McRae, and less than 16sec behind fifth-placed New Zealander Emma Gilmour.

The International Rally of Whangarei was the fourth round of the Asia-Pacific Rally Championship, which continues in Japan at the end of September and ends in China in November.

Asia-Pacific Rally Championship standings after four of six rounds -- 1. Chris Atkinson (Australia) 109 points, 2. Alister McRae (Great Britain) 88, 3. Gaurav Gill (India) 63, 4. Rifat Sungkar (Indonesia) 48, 5. Brian Green (NZ) 42.

A loose wheel forced a late change of strategy for Ambrose and Richard Petty Motorsports crew who prepare his Ford Fusion.

Several cars ran short of fuel in the closing stages and Ambrose got by Kurt Busch after the final corner. Ambrose called the ninth place "a solid result".

SceneDaily, which covers NASCAR extensively, issued its mid-season gradings of the Sprint Cup drivers before the New Hampshire round and gave Ambrose a C. "Ambrose has been slightly better with Richard Petty Motorsports than with his former team, but only slightly," it said.

Stewart-Haas Racing teammates Ryan Newman and Tony Stewart finished first and second at New Hampshire in Chevrolets. Stewart's second place equalled his best finish of the season.

Newman became the 13th different race winner in 19 races this season. Last year there were 13 winners in the full 36-race season. Newman's latest victory was the 15th victory in his 351-race Cup career and ended a 47-race winless streak since April last year.

Kyle Busch finished 36th after blowing a tyre, slamming into the Turn 2 wall and losing 76 laps while his Toyota was repaired. Busch dropped from first to fifth in the series standings, 20 behind leader Carl Edwards, who finished 13th at New Hampshire. Jimmie Johnson is second ahead of Kurt Busch and Kevin Harvick. Newman is up to eighth while Stewart has advanced from 12th to 11th.

The series has a weekend off now before heading to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the 18th running of the Brickyard 400.

MWR is suing Coghlan for breach of contract and Williams for interference with his contract. Coghlan only joined the American outfit last October on what was supposed to be a two-year deal. MWR has struggled this season with its Toyotas driven by Martin Truex Junior and David Reutimann. They are both behind Ambrose in the Cup standings.

Coghlan was banned from F1 for two years, and McLaren fined $100 million, after he was found to have had Ferrari files that were alleged to have been passed to him by another Englishman, Nigel Stepney, who had been chief mechanic at Maranello. Coghlan is in line to become technical director at Williams after Australian Sam Michael departs at the end of the season.

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