MOTORSPORT: Brabham and Peugeot score Le Mans glory

It was the French manufacturer's first Le Mans win since 1993, when Brabham's eldest brother, Geoff, was one of its victorious drivers.

And the youngest Brabham became the fourth Australian to win Le Mans outright. The first was often-forgotten Bernard Rubin in a Bentley in 1928 (only the sixth running of the race) and the next Vern Schuppan in a Porsche 956 in 1983.

David Brabham's success comes in the year of the 50th anniversary of his legendary father Sir Jack's first of three F1 world titles. It caps David's own fabulous career that has included a British Formula 3 title, two brief F1 campaigns, wins in the GT1 class at Le Mans for Aston Martin Racing in 2007 and 2008, and a Honda Acura ARX-02a drive with Highcroft Racing in the American Le Mans Series, which he leads this year with teammate Scott Sharp.

Unless Mark Webber wins an F1 grand prix this year, Ryan Briscoe the IndyCar championship or Marcos Ambrose an oval race in NASCAR's Sprint Cup, it's going to be hard to top Brabham as our No. 1 man in international racing.

Latest Flying Finns on top at F3 Masters
The other international event of particular interest to Australian motorsport fans at the weekend, the Formula 3 Masters at Zandvoort in Holland, didn't produce a similar joyous result for Australia. Perth teenager, Daniel Ricciardo, who is leading the British F3 Championship with three wins from the first eight races, didn't get to complete a lap of the race. Indeed, in a field of 36 the best of the six entries from Carlin Motorsport which Ricciardo drives for was 15th.

The Masters was dominated by drivers from the European F3 series more familiar with the Kumho tyres.

Details are still sketchy, but Valtteri Bottas -- the Finn who beat Ricciardo to the Formula Renault Eurocup last year -- won the Masters for the ART team of Nicholas Todt -- the son of former Ferrari team chief Jean Todt. It was ART's sixth straight victory at these Masters!

Bottas became the first Finn to win the event, dominating from start to finish after starting from pole position. He withstood the challenge of fellow Finn Mika Maki, driving for the Signature team. Third was Stefano Coletti of Monaco driving for Italy's Prema Powerteam for which Ryan Briscoe raced (and won the F3 Euroseries) earlier this decade.

Another Finn - and Ford - mount WRC challenge
Ford has now won two rounds of the World Rally Championship in a row after Citroen superstar Sebastien Loeb crashed spectacularly out of the Acropolis Rally in Greece at the weekend. Even though Loeb won the first five rounds of this year's WRC, Finn Mikko Hirvonen has narrowed his lead to just seven points after winning the Acropolis in his factory Focus.

French youngster and Citroen junior team driver Sebastien Ogier took a stunning second place.

Hirvonen's teammate and countryman Jari-Matti Latvala recovered from a mistake that cost him the lead on the opening day to finish third and give Ford an 18-point haul towards the manufacturers' title as Ogier was not registered to score for Citroen.

Loeb had a huge crash on the second day while running third, then his Spanish teammate Daniel Sordo broke his suspension while pressing Hirvonen for the lead. Norway's Petter Solberg held second in his privateer Citroen Xsara at one point before the suspension broke.

Hirvonen's first victory of this year (and eighth of his career) was Ford's 70th WRC success.

"We're back in the game again," Hirvonen declared.

Ogier's his first podium, after striking a cow and damaging the front end of his C4, will have greatly helped his position in the Citroen junior team -- and may work against a return for Aussie Chris Atkinson.

2010 F1 entries still a bunfight
The Formula 1 entry fight has been prolonged for at least another week -- perhaps much longer.

The Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) announced a list of 13 teams for next year on Friday -- the existing 10 plus newcomers Campos from Spain, US F1 and Manor from Britain. Another dozen new players had submitted entries -- including David Richards' Prodrive, Lola and groups seeking to use the famous names Lotus, Brabham and March -- but they are out in the cold, although some of them may yet be accepted.

Williams and Force India are the only certain starters among the existing teams, with the other eight refusing to make their entries unconditional until they get agreement from the FIA on rules and budget constraints.

The FIA, and commercial tsar Bernie Ecclestone, claim Ferrari and sister teams Red Bull and Toro Rosso are locked in because of contracts they have signed previously, but those three terms argue that those contracts have been breached.

ACEA said it "has come to the conclusion that the FIA needs a modernised and transparent governance system and processes, including the revision of its constitution, to ensure the voice of its members, worldwide motorsport competitors and motorists are properly reflected".

"The ACEA members support the activities and objectives of the Formula One Teams Association to establish stable governance, clear and transparent rules which are common to all competitors to achieve cost reductions including a proper attribution of revenues to the F1 teams, in order to deliver a sustainable attractive sport for the worldwide public," it said.

"Unless these objectives are met, the BMW, Ferrari, Mercedes, Renault and Toyota along with the other teams are determined to find an alternative way to practice this sport in a manner which provides clarity, certainty of rules and administration, and a fair allocation of revenues to the competing teams."

There is a lot more reading material on the subject on the Autosport website, here but the situation is still very fluid and we will take another look at it later in the week.

Martin the man again at Michigan
Veteran Mark Martin won today's NASCAR Sprint Cup round at Michigan after Jimmie Johnson and Greg Biffle ran out of fuel on the last lap. Traditionally a Ford driver but now in a Chevrolet, it was Martin's third victory of the season and his fifth at Michigan.

Australia's Marcos Ambrose finished two laps down in 31st.

Bayliss tests Falcon, but no race schedule
Multiple world superbike champion Troy Bayliss had a V8 Supercar test in a Triple 8/Team Vodafone Falcon last Friday and from all accounts it went well. But there is no word on a confirmed debut program for Bayliss.

"I have the bug, I definitely want to do more laps and try to get out there in either the development series or the endurance races," Bayliss said.

The wheels will need to start turning quickly on those plans because of his age. More on the test here.