MOTORSPORT: Atkinson, Briscoe on podiums overseas

While Frenchman Sebastien Loeb won a record fifth Monte Carlo Rally -- and a record 37th World Rally Championship round -- in his Citroen C4 with ever-present co-driver Daniel Elena, Atkinson -- in a factory Subaru Impreza -- won a thrilling battle for third against Belgian Francois Duval in a Ford Focus.

In the US, Briscoe shared Penske-Taylor Racing's third-placed Pontiac-Riley at Daytona with Brazilian Helio Castroneves and NASCAR racer Kurt Busch.

It was 35 years since Roger "The Captain" Penske had competed in the sports car classic and the car prepared by Wayne Taylor's outfit had a flat tyre in the first hour and then overheating problems in the second half of the race, finishing six laps behind the Lexus-Riley that gave Chip Ganassi Racing its third straight win in the event.

Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya, Scotsman Dario Franchitti, the reigning Indianapolis 500 and Indy Racing League champion now moving into NASCAR stock car racing, American Scott Pruett and Mexican Memo Rojas shared the winning car.

The victors led 252 of 695 laps and finished two laps ahead of a Pontiac-Riley run by Bob Stallings Racing and driven by Alex Gurney, Jon Fogarty, the NASCAR champion of the past two years Jimmie Johnson, and Jimmy Vasser, a former champion in CART (Championship Auto Racing Teams series, a forerunner of today's Champ Car series).

The race saw 60 lead changes among 15 cars and 25 drivers.

It was Briscoe's second start in the classic, but his main job this year is driving for Penske in the IRL, including the Indy 500 -- at which Penske has been the winning entrant 14 times.

Meanwhile, Loeb's success in the 76th Monte Carlo Rally extended his phenomenal unbeaten run in tarmac rallies.

His last defeat on tarmac was two years ago in the Monte Carlo to Finn Marcus Gronholm, who retired at the end of last season as championship runner-up as Loeb took his fourth straight world title.

Some would say Loeb has won the Monte Carlo Rally six times, because in 2002 he finished first but was penalised because his Citroen team changed his Xsara's tyres in what was supposed to be a limited service area.

When Citroen withdrew its appeal, Finnish great Tommi Makinen collected his fourth straight Monte Carlo victory -- a feat Loeb is yet to equal.

Loeb's teammate, Spaniard Daniel Sordo, had turbocharger problems with his C4 at the weekend but resumed under the "Super Rally" rules to earn an extra manufacturers' championship point for Citroen.

That gave the French manufacturer the championship lead over Subaru, with Ford and the Stobart Ford outfit for which Duval drove tied in third.

Ford's new main man, Finn Mikko Hirvonen finished second, 2 minutes 34 seconds behind Loeb, with Atkinson another 24 seconds back -- and almost 2 minutes ahead of his Norwegian former world champion teammate Petter Solberg in fifth place.

It was Atkinson's second WRC podium -- the first was in Japan in 2005. The only other Australian to score a WRC outright podium was Ross Dunkerton at Rally New Zealand in 1992.

Atkinson won the 13th stage of the rally on Saturday, breaking Citroen's monopoly, and the 19th and final stage that took in parts of Monaco's famous Formula 1 circuit.

Atkinson had led Duval by 20 seconds at the end of the second leg of the event, but the Belgian won three stages on the final day to narrow the gap to just 1.1 seconds by the last stage.

The Aussie withstood the pressure as he and Duval shared the honors on the final stage.

Atkinson has excelled in all three starts in the Monte Carlo Rally and this year's result was an improvement on last year's fourth place.

"To finish third is fantastic for me and the team," Atkinson said. "The pressure on the last day was huge. We just had to drive flat out and do everything we could to stay ahead.

"Duval is such a fast guy and I always knew it would be really tough up against him.

"I lost a few seconds in the second last stage with a half-spin, and after that I was just going for it.

"The same thing happened last year when I was fighting (Hirvonen) for position going into the final stage, but this year is so much more important as I was fighting for a podium.

"I'm so happy for the team -- all the guys have done such a great job and we deserved this. It's a fantastic start to the year and we're going to celebrate!"

The new Suzuki WRC team did not feature prominently, with Toni Gardmeister out with an overheated engine on the 14th stage.

The next WRC round is in a fortnight in Sweden. The snowy conditions there always favour Finns and Swedes. However, in 2004 victory went to none other than Sebastien Loeb.

Incidentally, while the Monte Carlo event was being run Subaru's new test driver, Estonian  former WRC driver Markko Martin did 1000km in the new Impreza WRC2008 in Sardinia and described it was "promising".
New circuit for WA's Wheatbelt
Western Australia is to get a new circuit -- in its Wheatbelt region east of Perth.

A report in the West Australian newspaper said the circuit would be longer and wider than Barbagallo Raceway, or what began life as Wanneroo -- and which is on "death row" with the V8 Supercar series organisers.

Project promoter Greg Ross said the Wheatbelt Motorplex at Dowerin, 157km from Perth, would host club racing for cars and motorcycles, driver training courses and agricultural field days, but would not have the infrastructure to host V8 Supercars.

It will be WA's third major circuit after Barbagallo and a 1.6km circuit using the roads of a decommissioned coalmine at Collie, while there is no word of progress on the one planned for Bunbury -- for which international races were being mooted.

The West Australian report put the cost of the new Wheatbelt track at only $3 million but said the State Government had already rezoned the land at Amery Acres, 5km east of Dowerin, from agricultural to recreational.

"Funding has yet to be formalised but Mr Ross indicated it would come from the Federal Government's Wheatbelt Area Consultative Committee, local shires and private investors," the report said.

"Mr Ross said the State Government had promised support for the project as long as it catered for motorcycle racing with safe run-off areas and included facilities for driver training.

"Two link roads have accordingly been included in the track design to provide two shorter loops, plus intersections necessary for safety courses."

Mr Ross said: "We'll certainly get a good track laid and it won't take long. Our target for opening is February 2009 but I'd like to think the Wheatbelt community will get it built by November.

"The plan is for the local community to use the centre during the week and the racing crowd to use it at weekends. Race tracks are good business and the Motorplex will create a lot of jobs in the Wheatbelt."

Thompson, Patrizi step up to V8 Supercar Championship
A couple more young drivers have gained seats in this year's V8 Supercar Championship -- one of whom has had a grounding in the development series, while the other has never driven a V8.

Andrew Thompson who has had experience with Dick Johnson Racing in the Fujitsu series and the endurance races, has been given a drive in a Holden Commodore by PWR Racing, which was going to fold but still has a V8 "main game" franchise it needed to use this season or face heavy fines.

PWR will run its single-car entry with technical assistance from Walkinshaw Performance, which already builds the Holden Racing Team and Toll/Holden Special Vehicles Dealer Team Commodores, as well as now assisting Garry Rogers Motorsport and Brad Jones Racing.

Eighth in his Bathurst 1000 debut last year with Alex Davison in a DJR Falcon, Thompson will get his first taste of his Commodore at next week's V8 Supercar pre-season test at Victoria's Winton track.

The other new arrival in the series is Michael Patrizi in Jim Morton's Ford Rising Stars Falcon.

Patrizi is straight out of open-wheeler racing -- he drove in European Formula 3 last year -- and has never driven a V8 supercar.

Patrizi also will get to test next week.

Yet more grim news on Champ Car
Is there no end to tales of woe out of the Champ Car series?

Long-time American open-wheeler correspondent Robin Miller has reported that, with testing due to get underway in the US, no prizemoney has yet been paid for last year and only three drivers have been formally announced for this season.

Miller has written that Frenchman Simon Pagenaud - who was Will Power's Team Australia teammate last season, with the benefit of a $2 million bonus for winning the 2006 Indy Lights series, and "did a splendid job", according to Miller -- has no drive yet for this year.

Yet again there is talk of the two camps in American open-wheeler racing getting back together, with Miller saying that Champ Car's lynchpin team owner Carl Haas has admitted having talks with IRL founder and Indianapolis Motor Speedway boss Tony George about switching series.

"It may not happen this year, but it's highly probable we'll do it in 2009 because there needs to be one series," said Haas, who has had a long partnership with movie star Paul Newman and more recently Mike Lanigan.

Jimmy Vasser, the 1996 CART champion who co-owns PKV Racing with Australian-born Champ Car series co-owner Kevin Kalkhoven, has said: "We've got to find a way to make a deal with Tony George."

A big stumbling block will be Miller's reference to Kalkhoven and his series co-owners, Gerald Forsythe and Paul Gentilozzi wanting George to pay them as much as US$100 million for five races that might be absorbed into the IRL.

Another gong for Sir Jack Brabham
Almost 40 years after his retirement from serious racing, the honors keep coming for Australia's triple F1 world champion Sir Jack Brabham.

Now 81, he was made an Officer of the Order of Australia in the latest Australia Day honors, complementing his Order of the British Empire in 1966 and knighthood in 1979.

While motorcycle racing is outside our usual sphere here, congratulations are in order to Australia's MotoGP world champion Casey Stoner, who was named Young Australian of the Year.

F1 number plate worth a million
Entrepreneur and Formula 1 fan Afzal Kahn has paid a whopping £440,625 -- more than A$1 million -- for the number plate "F1" in Britain.

"I have spent years chasing it,'' said Kahn, 37, who is reported to have amassed a £75 million fortune through his car customising business in Bradford.

"I cannot believe I've finally got it. It was worth every penny. It's every man's dream to have his perfect car with a number plate like this."

Kahn bid £375,000, beating previous highest price for a British number plate - £331,000 for "M1" in July 2006.

Value Added Tax then took the price Kahn paid beyond £440,000.

The "F1" plate was first registered in 1904, when it belonged to the Essex county surveyor.

It was sold this month by Essex county council to raise money for training young drivers.

Kahn has fitted the plate to his black McLaren SLR sports car but apparently plans to switch it to his company Kahn Design's Range Rover Cosworth to be launched soon.

Ex-Arrows man still making headlines
Malik Ibrahim, a Nigerian claiming to be a prince, appeared in Australia at the opening round of the 1999 F1 world championship masquerading as a part-owner of the Arrows team, which a couple of years later went to an ignominious death -- and earned team principal Tom Walkinshaw a fierce rebuke from a British judge in the process.

It seems that Ibrahim, 44, has lived at least part of the time in the US the past 23 years and we learn that this month he escaped conviction on charges of stealing US$750,000 from Robert Richardson, the father of a driver of the same name in Ibrahim's NASCAR team, Maverick Motorsports.

Ibrahim was arrested last May on charges of theft and deception and, despite the recent court verdict, remains in custody in Texas on seven charges of perjury.

A Collin County court heard Richardson Senior paid Ibrahim US$625,000 towards a third-tier Craftsman truck series drive and then followed with US$31,250 each month for the next four months.

The agreement was that the monthly payments would continue until he had paid US$1 million.

Prosecutor Chris Milner called Ibrahim a "manipulator of men" and said his objective had been "to steal money from his victim to support his jetset lifestyle".