MOTORSPORT: Big NASCAR finish for Ambrose

It was Ambrose's first finish in the top 10 in his past 12 Cup starts and he called it "a great day" and declared "it is going to be a great year".

"There was a ton of good energy out here today - I am really happy with the finish," he said.

Fords were strong again in Las Vegas, finishing first – with Carl Edwards the victor – and fourth, with Ambrose, after occupying the first four starting positions with new FR9 motors built by Roush Yates Engines.

However, Tony Stewart led the most laps in the race in his Chevrolet before ending up second.

Juan Pablo Montoya held on for third in another Chevrolet, although Ambrose came within a few car lengths of him on the 1.5-mile (2.4km) oval in the closing stages.

After being classified only 37th at the Daytona 500 and 16th at Phoenix in his first two starts with RPM, Ambrose has jumped 10 places in the Cup standings to 17th as the series now heads for Bristol, Tennessee, where he scored his best oval-track finish in the series – third in 2009 driving a Toyota for JTG Daugherty Racing.

"I think I've kept my job for another couple of weeks," a buoyant Ambrose said after the Vegas race.

"We were a little tight. We fought all day and it was a great result - great pit stops and a top crew."

Ambrose had been edged out of pole position by Matt Kenseth in another Ford.

"Can't complain about someone beating you on speed," Ambrose said.
"It's not like he lucked into it. I've been second (in qualifying) a few times now in my Cup career, so I've been the bridesmaid plenty of times — it doesn't feel any nicer.

"But I was really pleased this time. Can't complain. Matt did a great lap."

In the race third top qualifier Edwards, who was second in the Daytona 500 but had his pole-winning car knocked into the fence at Phoenix, held off a late comeback from Stewart to score his 19th Cup win.
Stewart had dominated the race but fell to 24th when penalised for dragging an air wrench from his pit after a stop.

He got back to the lead after taking only two fresh tyres at his next stop but he dropped to third in the last round of stops when he had to change four tyres while other frontrunners took on just two.

While Stewart reclaimed second from Montoya he could not catch Edwards.

Kyle Busch, who returned to his hometown leading the series, had his Toyota engine blow before half distance, while his brother Kurt finished ninth after a spin in his Dodge and is now the joint series leader with Stewart.

Meanwhile, Robby Gordon has been placed on probation by NASCAR after an altercation in a garage last Friday with Cup driver Kevin Conway. Conway - last year's top rookie, driving seven races in a car provided by Gordon – has made a complaint to police about Gordon. The pair are suing each other, with Gordon claiming a Conway sponsor owes him about $700,000, while Conway is claiming about $30,000 in prizemoney from Gordon.

NASCAR Sprint Cup standings after three rounds – Tony Stewart (Chevrolet) 113, Kurt Busch (Dodge) 113, Carl Edwards (Ford) 106, Juan Pablo Montoya (Chevrolet) 106, Ryan Newman (Chevrolet) 103, Paul Menard (Chevrolet) 96, Martin Truex Junior (Toyota) 95, Denny Hamlin (Toyota) 95, A.J. Allmendinger (Ford) 94, Dale Earnhardt Junior (Chevrolet) 91. Australia's Marcos Ambrose (Ford) is 17th on 76 points.

V8 Supercars says new majority owner only weeks away
V8 Supercars Australia chairman Tony Cochrane reckons the organisation should have its new majority owner by the end of April.
Cochrane claimed in an interview in Sydney's Sunday Telegraph newspaper that 22 potential buyers, foreign and Australian, had shown interest but that the field had been narrowed to three.

Sports & Entertainment Ltd's 25 per cent stake in V8SA as well as more than a third of the other 75 per cent owned by the competing teams is on the market.

Cochrane said the teams want to sell part of their stake "to help themselves to re-finance ahead of the Car of the Future program" – which is meant to be going to reduce the cost of V8 Supercar racing.

"The two (Car of the Future) prototypes will be on show mid-year and we will be presenting new costing to the teams next week," he said.

"We will be bringing savings to the teams and we are heavily engaged with several manufacturers. I believe we will have one or two new manufacturers announced at the end of the year.

"We are only a couple of weeks away from announcing a new international sponsor and our international television is going great. In the last 10 races, we have had eight different winners."

Cochrane said V8SA's sale process had "flushed out" that the world's premier motor racing championships were, in order, Formula One, NASCAR, and V8 Supercars.

That suggests that V8SA's potential new controlling partner is unlikely to be European if the Australian series is ranked ahead of the German (DTM) and British touring car championships.

Cochrane predicted the V8 Supercar Championship would have five overseas rounds by 2014.

"I don't accept the criticism (of adding international races) because (V8 Supercar) racing goes to every corner of Australia," he said.

"Most of our fans watch the sport on TV. Some states you could argue have too many rounds. Racing overseas keeps us vital. Each team operates on a budget of $12 million and they need injections of cash which international racing provides."

Ogier, countryman of French superstar Loeb and his Citroen factory teammate, went off the road 13 km into the 20th stage, badly damaging the front left of his DS3. Loeb had to overcome a 50-second penalty on Saturday, when he arrived late for the start of the 15th stage due to a gearbox problem, and started the final day 10.5 seconds behind Ogier.

"It was a very difficult weekend - the fight with Ogier was fierce," Loeb said. I'm happy with the new car - it's very fast."

Loeb finished 1 minute 38.40 seconds ahead of Ford's Mikko Hirvonen, who still leads the World Rally Championship after his opening round victory in Sweden, with another Ford Fiesta RS – and Finnish – driver, Jari-Matti Latvala, in third.

It was Loeb's 63rd victory in the WRC.

Hirvonen ended the Mexican event, in Guanajuato state, by winning the Power Stage to collect three bonus points. The rough stages, high altitudes and hot temperatures made it a rally of attrition. Norwegian Petter Solberg recovered to fourth after losing seven minutes with an electrical glitch on his privateer Citroen on the first leg.

His rookie countryman Mads Ostberg rebounded from a puncture to take fifth for Stobart Ford, with his teammate Henning Solberg sixth.

This year's Dakar Rally winner, Nasser Al-Attiyah of Qatar, was excluded from victory in the Mexican event's Super 2000 category six hours after the finish when his Ford Fiesta was found that the valve in its fuel cell ventilation system broke the rules.

Al-Attiyah, originally classified seventh overall, had won the S-WRC category by 13.5-seconds from Czech driver Martin Prokop in another Fiesta.

World Rally Championship driver standings after two rounds - Mikko Hirvonen (Finland, Ford) 46 points, Sebastien Loeb (France, Citroen) 37, Jari-Matti Latvala (Finland, Ford) 31, Mads Ostberg (Norway, Ford) 28, Petter Solberg (Norway, Citroen) 23, Sebastien Ogier (France, Citroen) 15, Henning Solberg (Norway, Ford) 8.
 
WRC constructor standings - Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team 73 points, Citroen Total WRT 47, M-Sport Stobart Ford WRT 36, Petter Solberg World Rally Team  12, Ice 1 Racing 8, Team Abu Dhabi 6, Munchi's Ford WRT 6, Monster World Rally Team 6, Ferm Powertools WRT 4.

Ford claimed a month ago that Ferrari had improperly used the name F150 for its car that will race in the world championship starting in Melbourne in less than three weeks.

Ferrari promptly said it would drop the F150 name and logo and would only use the F1 car's full name - Ferrari F150th Italia.

But now Ferrari has dropped the F and the "th" has been replaced with the Italian symbol ° - making the car the 150° Italia.

The "Horse Whisperer" column on Ferrari's website has said: "It might seem like a Kafkaesque scenario, but the affair relating to the name of the car with which Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa will tackle this year's Formula 1 World Championship saw its final and decisive episode played out these past few days with the concomitant withdrawal by Ford of the summons. Therefore common sense has prevailed.

"In order to avoid the slightest risk of anyone confusing a Formula 1 car with a pick-up truck, for their part, the men from Maranello have decided that the car will lose the F that precedes the number 150 and which stands for Ferrari, as it has done on numerous occasions when it's come to giving a car a code name, be it for the race track or the road.

"It appears that this could have caused so much confusion in the minds of the consumer across the Pond that, at the same time as losing the F, the name will be completely Italianised, replacing the English 'th' with the equivalent Italian symbol.

"Therefore the name will now read as the Ferrari 150° Italia, which should make it clear even to the thickest of people that the name of the car is a tribute to the anniversary of the unification of our country.

"Let's hope the matter is now definitely closed and that we can concentrate on more serious matters, namely ensuring that our car that already seems to be pretty good out of the box, becomes a real winner."

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