MOTORSPORT: Aussies on international podiums

Our boys close again but short of winners' circle
It's been another good weekend for Australian racing drivers on international stages, but again a case of close but no cigar.

Ryan Briscoe has finished second in the IndyCar round at Watkins Glen in upstate New York, James Davison had pole position for the Indy Lights round there, led the race and finished second, while Marcos Ambrose was sixth in the year's second NASCAR Sprint Cup round at Daytona in Florida.

Across the Atlantic, Daniel Ricciardo has consolidated his lead in the British Formula 3 Championship with two podium positions at Snetteron -- one of the UK's fastest circuits, in Norfolk.

Formula 1 resumes this week with the German Grand Prix at Nurburgring, where Mark Webber will continue his quest for that elusive first F1 victory -- but it will be an uphill battle on his German teammate Sebastian Vettel's home ground and perhaps a rebound by the Brawn cars after they were outpaced at the British GP.

This is the week that Townsville hosts its debut V8 Supercar Championship round.

That's something we'll look at later in the week, but suffice to say that taking the V8 Supercar show to a regional city like that is a move we massively applaud -- although we remain skeptical about street races and wonder already what the reaction will be to Townsville's short track once the inevitable hype has died down.

Also on the V8 Supercar front, the Symmons Plains circuit near Launceston has been sold, by the Youl family to Motorsport Tasmania, which paves the way for its extension and redevelopment.

Good news over the weekend too with confirmation that Will Power will return to the IndyCar series this week with Penske Racing for five more races.

Australia's former World Rally Championship star Chris Atkinson remains hopeful of having a car to drive at the reborn Rally Australia in Northern NSW at the start of September but has said "there is nothing confirmed yet … it would be disappointing to miss out".

Volkswagen, Porsche, Fiat and Audi, as well as incumbent Honda, reportedly have expressed interest in supplying engines for Indy racing.

Motorsport is never without controversy, and there has been plenty of that too over the weekend, with Formula 1 commercial tsar Bernie Ecclestone's comments about Hitler and complaints from those who missed out about the way the three new teams for F1 next year were chosen.

And there is a suggestion that the new US F1 entry involving TV commentator Peter Windsor may come with YouTube sponsorship.

Regarding the latest problems of A1 GP to which we alluded at the end  of last week and which could have implications for the Gold Coast's October motorsport festival, previously Indy, we read that the 40 people in the British company that controls the Ferrari-engined open-wheeler cars are now working for free in the hope that things will be righted, see here and here.

Note that A1 GP spokesperson Ann Bradshaw says A1 is hopeful of paying its creditors and has "absolute confidence" the series -- due to start its fifth season with its Gold Coast debut -- will not be affected.

Now to the racing from the weekend just gone.

Briscoe runner-up to Justin Wilson at Watkins Glen
Ryan Briscoe was second for the fourth time in the IndyCar series this season.

Justin Wilson won at the Watkins Glen road course, giving team owner Dale Coyne his first victory after 25 years of trying. It was Coyne's 558th entry as a driver or owner.

Penske driver Briscoe was warned for blocking Wilson early in the race and finished almost 5sec behind the big Brit. Penske and Ganassi drivers had won all eight previous races this season and, dating back to last year, 10 straight and 15 of 16.

It was Wilson's second IndyCar win -- the first was at Detroit last year, so he is the only driver to break the Penske-Ganassi juggernaut in recent times. He led 49 of the 60 laps at Watkins Glen.

When Hideki Mutoh brought out the fourth caution of the race with seven laps remaining Briscoe had his final chance to haul in Wilson, but he could not match the Brit on sticky tyres.

In the same way as we've been seeing in V8 Supercar racing this year, the use of a soft compound tyre in Indy road races has brought different strategies into play and improved the racing -- something IndyCar desperately needed after the previous week's abysmal show on the oval at Richmond, Virginia.

Scott Dixon was third for Ganassi and took the series lead, while Penske's Helio Castroneves and Andretti Green's Marco Andretti were fourth and fifth.

Dixon's teammate Dario Franchitti was involved in an early crash and finished 15th, costing him the championship lead. He is now tied in second place with Briscoe -- 19 points behind Dixon.

The series now moves on to Toronto in Canada next weekend, with Will Power in a third Penske entry. He will also race at Edmonton in Canada, and Kentucky, Sonoma and Homestead-Miami in the US, so he will be in all but three of the remaining eight rounds.

Power, aged 28, substituted for Castroneves at the start of the season while the Brazilian was embroiled in a tax evasion case and finished second at Long Beach, California.

Power also was fifth at the Indianapolis 500 as a third Penske entry and Roger "The Captain" Penske has said he "earned the opportunity to compete in more races".

Power has repeatedly said his best option this year was to remain within the Penske organization, even if he did not compete at every race, than to chase a full-time driver elsewhere.

IndyCar championship after nine rounds -- Scott Dixon (Ganassi) 313 points, Dario Ryan Briscoe (Penske) 294, Franchitti (Ganassi) 294, Helio Castroneves (Penske) 257, Danica Patrick (Andretti Green) 238.

Davison a quick young man with Vision
Vision Racing is the IndyCar/Indy Lights team owned by Tony George, the man who until last week ran the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the Indy Racing League -- and 22-year-old Aussie James Davison gave Vision its first pole position and first podium at the weekend and came close to winning the Lights round at Watkins Glen.

Davison led the first 12 of the 30 laps before he was passed by J.R. Hildebrand, but he finished second and jumped two places in the series standings -- from seventh to fifth. He has 206 points for the season -- 73 points off the lead.

Vision recruited 18-year-old Brazilian Felipe Guimaraes for this round and he finished an excellent third on debut.

Guimaraes also is the youngest driver to have scored a podium in A1 GP -- he was second for Brazil at this year's South African round at Kyalami.

Vision is operated by George, a member of the Hulman George family that has long controlled the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, along with his wife Laura, 18-year-old daughter Lauren who is Davison's girlfriend and now the Lights team chief, and actor Patrick Dempsey of Grey's Anatomy fame.

The team has a technical alliance with Bryan Herta Autosport.

Davison had a Lights pole position with Sam Schmidt Motorsports at Nashville Superspeedway last year and won for that team at the Mid-Ohio road course. He was close to having pole position at the previous round this year at Iowa Speedway.

Davison is a cousin of V8 Supercar racers Will and Alex, another grandson of the late four-time Australian Grand Prix winner Lex, and son of former Sandown circuit promoter Jon.

He remains 18th in the championship in his first full-season at the top level of American stock car racing, but a creditable 218 points outside the cutoff to make The Chase -- the separate runoff among the top 12 drivers over the final 10 rounds of the season.

He also is ahead of two drivers who made The Chase last year, including Dale Earnhardt Junior -- who is 21st.

Ambrose has had five top 10 finishes this year driving a Toyota for JTG Daughterty under a technical tie-up with Michael Waltrip Racing.

As we mentioned late last week, there has been speculation of him driving a third Chevrolet for Tony Stewart's Cup-leading team next season, or a fourth Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing -- while there is still every chance of him remaining under the Waltrip umbrella.

Ambrose has been 17th, fourth and sixth in the three restrictor-plate races on superspeedways this season. He battled a heavy cold at Daytona this time which had required intravenous fluids in the lead-up to the 400-mile race.

"This sixth-place makes me feel 100 per cent better," Ambrose said. "There was a lot of action on the track and it was intense, but we were able to keep out of trouble."

There was a violent wreck on the last lap as Kyle Busch in a Toyota tried to grab victory ahead of Tony Stewart, who ultimately won the summer Daytona race for the third time in five years -- and increased his lead in the standings in his first season as a team owner -- while Busch was classified 14th.

Between Stewart and Ambrose at the end were the series champion of the past two years Jimmie Johnson, Busch's Denny Hamlin, Carl Edwards in a Ford and Busch's brother Kurt in a Dodge.

For the explanation of the finish, we'll draw on the report by Jenna Fryer of the Associated Press, who wrote:

"Stewart usually takes every win any way he can. But after wrecking Busch in the frantic finish, he wasn't in the mood to gloat. Busch passed Stewart right before the final lap to take the lead, but Stewart chased him down and calculated his next move. He closed in on Busch's bumper, and slight contact sent Busch drifting up the track.

"Busch slid back down to maintain his lead, then tried to slide in front of Stewart to block Stewart's next move. The cars were too close together and Stewart hooked Busch's right corner to send Busch sailing into the wall.

"It triggered a multiple crash behind them, but Stewart sailed through for his second points win of the season.

"I went where I had to go, and he went where he had to go," Stewart said. "You hate seeing a guy that's been up front all day, especially a guy that's helped me the whole race, wreck like that. You're kind of forced in that position. But I made my move to the outside and he went to block us and we were already there.

"It still doesn't mean you like it. That's not the way to win these things. If I did something wrong, I'm sorry."

NASCAR Sprint Cup standings after 18 of 36 rounds - Tony Stewart (Chevrolet) 2719 points, Jeff Gordon (Chevrolet) 2539, Jimmie Johnson (Chevrolet) 2525, Kurt Busch (Dodge) 2414, Carl Edwards (Ford) 2317, Denny Hamlin (Toyota) 2302, Ryan Newman (Chevrolet) 2235, Kyle Busch (Toyota) 2234, Greg Biffle (Ford) 2215, Matt Kenseth (Ford) 2201, Juan Pablo Montoya (Chevrolet) 2187, Kasey Kahne (Dodge) 2166. Australian Marcos Ambrose (Toyota) is 18th on 1948 points.

Ricciardo notches two podiums in Britain
Daniel Ricciardo, the rising open-wheeler star from Perth who only turned 20 last week, has stretched his commanding lead in the British Formula Three Championship with two more podium finishes.

Ricciardo had qualified fourth and fifth for the two races at Snetterton in Norfolk, one of the fastest circuits in the UK, but made up ground to finish second in both.

"If someone had told me this morning that I would take 30 points from today I wouldn't have believed them," Ricciardo said. "We (Carlin Motorsport) don't have winning pace at the moment, but when you can't win you have to try to bag good points, which is what we've done."

After three wins early in the season, Ricciardo now has a 25-point lead over Austrian Walter Grubmuller after 10 races and is 34 points ahead of Dutchman Renger van der Zande.

The driver who occupied Ricciardo's position with Carlin last year and won the British F3 Championship, Spaniard Jaimie Alguersuari, is now the reserve driver for the Red Bull Formula One team for which Australian Mark Webber races as well as its sister team Toro Rosso.

Alguersuari and Ricciardo are among eight youngsters from around the world in Red Bull's program to unearth more F1 stars.

Van der Zande dominated the opening F3 race at Snetterton, darting away from pole position and leading until the chequered flag for his second victory of the season for Hitech Racing.

Ricciardo made up a place early in the race and another later to finish 3.87sec behind the Dutchman and almost 7sec clear of his third-placed Carlin teammate Henry Arundel.

Van der Zande made a terrible start in the second race, allowing British driver Riki Christodoulou to take charge and win by 1.152sec from Ricciardo, who began making his way through the field by gaining a place on the back straight on the first lap.

The Australian had Grubmuller of the Hitech team in his mirrors throughout the race but finished 0.65sec clear of the Austrian, with van der Zande  Hitech another 1.2sec back in fourth place.

The next round of the F3 championship is at Donington, future home of the British F1 Grand Prix, on July 19.

Ecclestone at the eye of new storm
Now to the latest fuss created by F1 commercial supremo Bernie Ecclestone.

In an interview with The Times of London, Ecclestone has praised Adolf Hitler for his ability "to get things done", claimed democracy "hasn't done a lot of good for many countries" (including Britain), and that controversial -- and supposedly retiring -- Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) president Max Mosley would make a good British prime minister.

Jewish communities are outraged by Ecclestone's remarks. While they are not totally surprising, in that they are an extension of previous comments he has made about the value of dictatorship, they are a shock at this time, especially in light of what we believe to be Ecclestone's own Jewish origins and Mosley's parents having been known close friends of Hitler.

For the record, The Times story is here, and the fuller interview is here and, in light of all this fuss, another piece from The Times on the supposed 10 most influential people in F1 is here.

Still on F1, there are some disgruntled people who missed out on an entry for next year, with the fuss centering on stipulation that they would have to use Cosworth engines. The Telegraph reported on the situation here.

New US F1 team co-owner Peter Windsor has alluded to a "21st century" sponsor package amid suggestions that the team will have YouTube among its backers, see here.

The prospect of new European engine suppliers in Indy racing which we mentioned earlier was raised in an article on a mid-season update by IRL leaders in the wake of Tony George's ousting, see here and for a transcript of that "update" see here.

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