MOTORSPORT: Aussies excel in US

POWER DELIVERS FOR PENSKE AND CHEVROLET IN MOTORCITY
Australian Will Power has regained the IndyCar series lead he lost at last week's Indianapolis 500.

The 33-year-old from Toowoomba scored first and second places over the two race days of the Indy Dual in Detroit, the city that is the headquarters of his team owner Roger Penske and engine supplier Chevrolet.

Power won the first race from 16th on the grid, taking the lead from fellow Australian Ryan Briscoe with 10 laps remaining and holding off American Graham Rahal by 0.3308 seconds.

In the second race Power notched his fifth top-five finish in seven races this season despite an early drive-through penalty, following – and choosing not to challenge – Penske teammate Helio Castroneves across the line.

Also in America at the weekend Australian drag racer Richie Crampton scored his first professional victory, winning the premier top fuel category at the National Hot Rod Association Summernationals at Englishtown, New Jersey.

At only the ninth start of his pro career, Crampton, also 33 and from Adelaide, covered the sport's traditional quarter-mile (402.336 metres) in 3.819 seconds at 320.51mph (515.81kmh) to defeat the series points leader Doug Kalitta by 0.009 seconds.

Crampton qualified No. 2 in the 16-car field and averted disaster in the opening round of eliminations after his right front wheel went flat as he backed up from his warm-up burn-out.

He beat J R Todd and reigning world champion Shawn Langdon in the quarter and semi-finals.

In Australia, five V8 Supercar teams are testing today at Winton in northern Victoria – Ford Performance Racing, Volvo Polestar Racing, Walkinshaw Racing, Brad Jones Racing and Nissan Motorsport. Two others will test at Queensland Raceway on Wednesday – Triple Eight Race Engineering and Erebus Motorsport. These teams will not only be trying improvements for the next rounds of the V8 Supercar Championship in Darwin on June 20-22 and Townsville on July 4-6, but giving many endurance race co-drivers some practice.

Formula One teams are preparing to go to Canada for next weekend's seventh round of the world championship. Mercedes has won all six rounds so far but is having to manage tensions between drivers Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg. Hamilton, the 2008 world champion who lost this year's championship lead to Rosberg in Monaco eight days ago, has played down the frictions, tweeting: "We've been friends for a long time, and as friends we have our ups and downs. We're cool, still friends #no problem."

Toyota confirmed it has the fastest sports car ahead of the Le Mans 24-Hour classic on June 14-15 by topping a day-long test at the French circuit at the weekend, ahead of long-dominant Audi. The Porsche 919 Hybrid that Australian Mark Webber is sharing with German veteran Timo Bernhard and young New Zealander Brendon Hartley in the German marque's return to Le Mans was seventh fastest – almost 1.9 seconds a lap slower than the best Toyota and a little more than 0.2 seconds behind the other Porsche.

THREE SPECTATORS KILLED AT BRITISH RALLY, SEVERAL OTHERS INJURED
It was a terrible weekend for rallying, with three spectators killed during the second round of the British Rally Championship and several others injured in accidents involving two competing cars.

The rally, named after Scotland's late and great all-round driver and dual F1 world champion Jim Clark, was cancelled after the fatalities on the Swinton stage near Coldstream and Kelso in the Scottish Borders.

The three were pronounced dead at the scene while one of two others injured at that spot was taken to an Edinburgh hospital in a critical condition.

Two hours earlier five spectators were injured in another incident and one of those is in a serious condition in hospital. That incident was believed to have been the result of a steering failure.

PENSKE'S MEN 1-2 IN INDYCAR CHAMPIONSHIP
Will Power leads the IndyCar championship by 19 points from Brazilian teammate Helio Castroneves after the Dual in Detroit where they gave Roger Penske – the iconic American team owner eyeing entry to Australia's V8 Supercar Championship next season – the hometown success he had sought for so long.

American Ryan Hunter-Reay, who had headed the series after winning the Indianapolis 500 a week earlier, had a horror weekend in Motor City and has dropped to third in the points.

Hunter-Reay, the 2012 series champion, had incidents in the Detroit qualifying sessions that left him 21st on the grid for both races. He was classified 16th and a lap down on Saturday and an electrical issue put him out and saw him classified 19th on Sunday.

Power scored his 23rd IndyCar victory – and second this season – on Saturday but had to fight hard after the final restart to stay ahead of Graham Rahal.

Power said it was "a massive win for me, massive win for the team and especially for Roger [Penske] and for Chevy".

"They've been trying to win here for a long time [13 years] and we finally did it with a Honda[-engined car] trying to charge by," Power said.

"Rahal was fast. I was worried but I just kept executing good laps."

Brazilian Tony Kanaan finished third in that race, ahead of Englishman Justin Wilson, Castroneves and Canadian James Hinchcliffe, while Aussie Briscoe wound up 15th – almost a minute behind his countryman.

Power felt he could have won again on Sunday if not for his drive-through penalty for contact with American Josef Newgarden.

Power had lunged inside his regular foe – and former teammate – Frenchman Simon Pagenaud at a turn but decided to ride the kerb and try to pass Newgarden as well. He made contact with the American, spinning him into the path of Rahal, who was rear-ended by Wilson.

"I have a feeling we could have won it if we didn't have the drive-through, but I'll definitely take second," said Power, who has been runner-up in the series three times without ever winning it.

"I wasn't going to attack Helio hard [at the finish, after safety cars eroded the Brazilian's lead of almost 10 seconds].

"A one-two [finish for Team Penske] is better than two in the wall."

One of Penske's great rival Chip Ganassi's four drivers, American Charlie Kimball, finished third on Sunday from 20th on the grid, with the other three Ganassi entries in the top 10 – Briscoe in 10th.

Penske's third driver, Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya, was 12th and 13th in the two races, while New Zealander Scott Dixon was 11th and fourth for Ganassi.

Castroneves' victory on Sunday was his 29th in IndyCar and came a week after he missed out to Hunter-Reay by 0.0600 seconds on what would have been a record-equaling Indy 500 victory.

There have been five winners in the seven IndyCar races this year, and the series continues next weekend at Texas speedway.

Australian James Davison, 16th on debut in the Indy 500, finished fourth in the sports car support race at Detroit in an Aston Martin.

And Australia's NASCAR racer Marcos Ambrose was 16th in his Ford but within seven seconds of victory – and the last driver on the lead lap – in the weekend's 13th Sprint Cup round at Dover, Delaware.

Six-time Cup champion Jimmie Johnson scored his second victory in two rounds, his Chevrolet holding off the Ford of 2012 champion Brad Keselowski entered by Roger Penske.  

IndyCar standings after seven races (all chassis are Dallara) – 1. Will Power (Australia, Team Penske, Chevrolet) 326 points; 2. Helio Castroneves (Brazil, Team Penske, Chevrolet) 307; 3. Ryan Hunter-Reay (US, Andretti Autosports, Honda) 299; 4. Simon Pagenaud (France, Schmidt Peterson Hamilton Motorsports, Honda) 247; 5. Marco Andretti (US, Andretti Autosports, Honda) 227; 6. Carlos Munoz (Colombia, Andretti Autosports, Honda) 210; 7. Juan Pablo Montoya (Colombia, Team Penske, Chevrolet) 187; 8. Scott Dixon (New Zealand, Chip Ganassi Racing, Chevrolet) 184; 9. Justin Wilson (Great Britain, Schmidt Peterson Hamilton Motorsports, Honda) 173; 10. Sebastien Bourdais (France, KV Racing, Chevrolet) 170. Australian Ryan Briscoe (Chip Ganassi Racing, Chevrolet) is 13th on 157 points.

Will Power image: Fox Sports