MOTORSPORT: Bridesmaids to the fore

Monday motorsport report

Briscoe, Holden, Ford (in WRC) and privateer Mitsubishi prevail
Australia's Ryan Briscoe has won the latest IndyCar round in Kentucky in one of the closest finishes in American open-wheeler history, regaining the championship lead and giving Team Penske its second Australian race winner in two weeks.

Meantime closer to home, Holden Racing Team won the weekend's V8 Supercar Championship races at Melbourne's Sandown circuit as Will Davison narrowed Jamie Whincup's series lead. And the Splittergate row is finally settled plus superbikes are to join the program for the Phillip Island 500 next month -- in a return to the past rather than a "unique dual format" that V8 Supercars Australia is trying to claim.

On the dirt Ford won the World Rally Championship round in Finland -- and has now won four events straight after Citroen's Sebastien Loeb won the first five. Mikko Hirvonen, who joined the list of great Finns to win his home rally and has won three events in a row, will come to the new Rally Australia in NSW's Northern Rivers region at the start of September with a three-point lead over Loeb and a big chance of denying the French great a sixth straight world title with only two rounds after Oz.

Locally on the loose stuff, Simon Evans has become the first driver to win the Australian Rally Championship in a Mitsubishi since Ed Ordynksi, driving a Galant VR4, in 1990 -- and, ironically, a couple of years after the factory's withdrawal from the championship.

Lots going on in Formula 1 too, with Felipe Massa to be released from hospital after his skull was fractured at the Hungarian Grand Prix; Michael Schumacher has been testing a 2007 Ferrari ahead of his return to racing at the European GP in Valencia, Spain, in three weeks; and a new Concorde Agreement has been signed by the 12 teams that will participate once BMW departs.

Briscoe and Carpenter battled side-by-side for the lead during the final 10 laps before Briscoe flashed across the finish line 0.0162 seconds in front in the seventh closest finish in IndyCar Series history. It was Briscoe's second victory of the season and the fourth of his IndyCar career (fifth if you include last year's non-championship Gold Coast win).

"It was getting tougher and tougher (in the closing laps), and I was just jumping in my seat trying to get in front of him across the finish line," Briscoe said.

"[Team owner] Roger [Penske] was in my ear saying 'harder, harder'.

"Ed would get a little bit in front of me in the middle of turns three and four, but with my momentum on the outside I was able to edge him down the back straight. I would time my push-to-pass button so I would get the extra power through turns three and four."

Briscoe won the season-opener in April at St Petersburg in Florida but had finished second in five of the last seven races before Kentucky.

"Briscoe needed this one: he's been second, second and second, so it was a great day for us," team owner Roger Penske said.

Carpenter's second place was the best finish of his 94-race IndyCar career. He had led only four laps before the Kentucky race but ran in front for 35 laps at the 1.5-mile (2.4km) oval for the Vision Racing of former Indianapolis Motor Speedway chief -- and Indy Racing League head -- Tony George.

Brazilian Tony Kanaan rebounded from his fire at Edmonton, Canada, the previous week to finish third for Andretti Green Racing, ahead of Penske's Brazilian Helio Castroneves, with Graham Rahal fifth for Newman-Haas-Lanigan.

Dario Franchitti finished sixth, while his Chip Ganassi Racing teammate and defending series champion, New Zealander Scott Dixon, was seventh after dominating the first half of the race.

Andretti Green's Danica Patrick, Australian Will Power who won for Penske at Edmonton, and Marco Andretti (Andretti Green) completed the top 10.

Briscoe now has an eight-point lead in the series over Dixon and an 11-point advantage over Franchitti.

IndyCar standings after 12 of 17 rounds: Ryan Briscoe (Penske) 416 points, Scott Dixon (Ganassi) 408, Dario Franchitti (Ganassi) 405, Helio Castroneves (Penske) 341, Danica Patrick (Andretti Green) 309.  (All cars Dallara-Hondas)

Holden hits straps but Whincup not far away
The Holden Racing Team's performance at Sandown at the weekend -- Will Davison winning Saturday's race and Garth Tander and Davison finishing one-two on Sunday -- was just what the factory was looking for when it signed Triple Eight/Team Vodafone for next season and extended the HRT deal for another three years.

Davison has trimmed Team Vodafone's Jamie Whincup's series lead to 177 points, with Tander another 258 back.

But Whincup was still sixth and third in his Hogster-badged Falcon in the Sandown races, and -- although he admitted "we haven't quite been on our game this weekend" - they were results most V8 Supercar drivers would be delighted to achieve most weekends.

Worrying for the Ford factory was another woeful round for the major of its two funded teams, Ford Performance Racing, with Mark Winterbottom and Steven Richards struggling again. Changes surely cannot be far off at Prodrive/David Richards-controlled FPR.

The midweek news of Team Vodafone's switch to fielding Commodores next season cannot have had such a sudden motivating influence on HRT, but a defiant Tander said after Sunday's win: "HRT has been the No1 Holden team for the last couple of years, and I think it will continue to be, going forward."

Davison was content with second place Sunday without access to fresh tyres.

"Second was the absolute perfect race for me then. We had no soft tyres, had to fight pretty hard and lost out a little bit with a safety car," he said.

Meanwhile, Holden teams have withdrawn a complaint against Whincup's contentious flexible front splitter after a peace deal was brokered at Sandown. The Holden teams were protesting Whincup's Falcon had an unfair aerodynamic advantage.

The issue twice went before stewards and was dismissed but was set for another protest hearing until the complaint was withdrawn.

Team Vodafone had lodged a complaint with stewards about the legality of Davison's HRT Commodore after his Saturday win, but that protest also has been withdrawn.

Announcing that two 10-lap superbikes races will be run at the Phillip Island 500 meeting in mid-September, the V8 Supercar chief operating officer Shane Howard reckoned "it's been an idea that we have been working on for many years".

It hardly needed years of thought, as having four and two wheel racing at the same event was once part and parcel of Australian motorsport -- especially at the Surfers' Paradise Speedweek, at Australian Touring Car Championship rounds in the early 1990s and the Winfield Triple Challenges in Sydney (which also had drag racing).

Australian Superbike Championship promoter Yarrive Konsky had a clearer recollection of history, saying: "In the past, bikes and cars have raced together on the same bill and the format was very well received. I'm glad we are again able to give fans of both racing disciplines the chance to enjoy a weekend of world-class motor racing."

Yes, indeed. Looking forward to it.

V8 Supercar Championship standings after 14 of 26 races: Jamie Whincup (Ford) 1791 points, Will Davison (Holden) 1674, Garth Tander (Holden) 1416, Craig Lowndes (Ford) 1350, Steven Johnson (Ford) 1194, Lee Holdsworth (Holden) 1116, Mark Winterbottom (Ford) 1083, Rick Kelly (Holden) 992, Russell Ingall (Holden) 989, Michael Caruso (Holden) 984.

Hirvonen joins the list of Finnish greats
Finland's Mikko Hirvonen has won his home World Rally Championship round for the first time and will come to Australia with a three-point lead over France's Sebastien Loeb as he strives for his first world title and to deny arch-rival Sebastien Loeb a sixth straight.

It was Hirvonen's third straight win following Poland and Greece, and - on top of his countryman and teammate Jari-Matti Latvala's success in Sardinia - it was Ford's fourth consecutive victory. Ford has therefore narrowed Citroen's lead in the manufacturers' title fight to 14 points,

"Since a small boy I have read the list of legends who have won here (in Finland), and now we have a victory in our pocket too - great to be an extension to that list," Hirvonen said after his 25.1-second victory and having turned 29 last Friday.

"This is the rally all Finnish drivers want to win the most.

"It is a long way to the title still - there are difficult events left."

The WRC concludes with the new Rally Australia in early September followed by rounds in Spain and Wales in October.

Loeb, who has won the past five WRC titles and last year's Rally Finland, said: "It was not a win for us (this weekend), but it was good to score some points (after three rallies without any)."

Hirvonen won 10 of the 23 special stages, Loeb seven, Hirvonen's countryman and Ford teammate Jari-Matti Latvala five and promising Frenchman Sebastien Ogier one for the Citroen Junior Team. Another Finn, Matti Rantanen, was one of the sensations of the weekend's round, finishing fifth for Munchi's Ford on only his second outing in a WRC car.

And Ferrari's 2007 Formula One world champion, Kimi Raikkonen, made his WRC debut driving his own Abarth Grande on home soil and was running third among the Super 2000 cars when he rolled out on Saturday.

World Rally Drivers' Championship after 9 of 12 rounds: Mikko Hirvonen (Finland, Ford Focus RS) 68 points, Sebastien Loeb (France, Citroen C4) 65, Daniel Sordo (Spain, Citroen C4) 44, Jari-Matti Latvala (Finland, Ford Focus RS) 31, Henning Solberg (Norway, Stobart Ford Focus RS) 27, Petter Solberg (Norway, PS Citroen Xsara) 25, Matthew Wilson (Great Britain, Stobart Ford Focus RS) 20, Sebastien Ogier (France, Citroen C4) 16, Federico Villagra (Argentina, Munchi's Ford Focus RS) 14, Conrad Rautenbach (South Africa, Citroen C4) 8.

World Rally Manufacturers' Championship standings: Citroen 119 points, Ford 105, Stobart Ford 62, Citroen Junior Team 32, Munchi's Ford 23.

Three cheers for Mr and Mrs Evans
Simon and Sue Evans are now three-time Australian Rally Champions after winning the final round, Rally South Australia, in a privateer Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX after Toyota withdrew its full backing of its Neal Bates-run factory team early in the year.

The husband-and wife combination, previously champions in 2006 and '07, won Saturday's SA heat by 72 seconds but lost half a minute with a puncture early in Sunday's second heat and had to charge hard to get back to second behind the Subaru of Simon's brother Eli and his co-driver Glen Weston.

"Driving the Mitsubishi was great because it was something new to me -- I had to adapt to the car, which was a challenge -- but it's worked so well," Simon Evans said.

The Super 2000 Toyota Corolla of Bates and his longtime co-driver Coral Taylor had an alternator failure Saturday and the car would not start in Parc Ferme on Sunday. That enabled brothers Glen and Mathew Raymond, second and third in the SA heats in a Group N-P Toyota Corolla, to snatch second place in the championship.

Young star Brendan Reeves had a big crash in his Subaru WRX which has left his co-driving sister Rhianon Smyth with two broken legs and a suspected fractured pelvis.

Brack's winning return
And in other rally news former Indianapolis 500 winner and IndyCar champion Kenny Brack made a successful return to racing on the weekend too. The Swedish star won the Rally competition at the X Games held in Los Angeles, beating American star Travis Pastrana (Subaru) in the head-to-head final held in and around the Home Depot Centre.

Brack was part of a three-car line-up in the Ford Fiesta Rallycross cars imported especially for the event alongside American Drift champion Tanner Foust (who took the bronze medal) and motocross star Brian Deegan. He hasn't competed fulltime since he suffered extensive injuries in a horiffic IndyCar crash at Texas Motor Speedway in 2003.

Webber takes a licking
Australia Post has issued a set of three stamps to commemorate Mark Webber's F1 victory in the German Grand Prix. The images are a close-up of his helmet, Webber on the grid next to his Red Bull RB5 and one of him celebrating that famous victory on the podium. The set sells for $15.95.

But not all news around F1 is positive… Here's four articles that will catch you up on the latest goings on and one of review.

• F1 signs new deal to seal future, more here.
• New deal ends F1 breakaway fears, more here.
• Peter Sauber working on team rescue deal, more here.
• F1 facing anti-bias probe, more here.
• A race odyssey -- F1's action-packed year, more here.

And don't miss out separate round up of all the Australasian Safari news. The event is now in full swing in Western Australia, finishing in Perth this weekend.

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