MOTORSPORT: Briscoe, Brabham win in America

Briscoe's lightning Indy start, Brabham's ALMS history
While Australia's Formula 1 driver Mark Webber got his first world championship points of the season in the shortened Malaysian Grand Prix, bigger and better news from the US -- where Ryan Briscoe won the opening round of the IndyCar series and David Brabham the second round of the American Le Mans Series, both at St Petersburg in Florida.

Will Power -- like Briscoe, driving for the mighty Penske Racing in the absence of Brazilian Helio Castroneves, who is embroiled in a big tax evasion case -- finished sixth in the Indy race.

Marcos Ambrose ran as high as sixth in the seventh round of NASCAR's Sprint Cup in Texas but his Toyota engine failed.

Only 12 of the 22 starters in the Indy race finished after seven cautions marred the event.

Briscoe beat American Ryan Hunter-Reay by 0.4619 seconds, while Briton Justin Wilson was third, and within a second of Briscoe, after a late deal that secured him a drive with long-established but luckless Dale Coyne Racing.

Briscoe grabbed the lead from Wilson in the closing stages then fended off Hunter-Reay.

It was Briscoe's fourth Indy victory, although last year's Gold Coast race did not count towards the championship. He has won on an oval, a road course and street circuits.

The Sydneysider said this victory came by remembering that the St Petersburg streets were "all about restarts, keeping heat in the tyres and getting grip out of the last turn".

"This win was much like Milwaukee last year (his first with Team Penske in the IndyCar series)," Briscoe said. "I had never raced well here (or at Milwaukee), so I needed that to change.

"I thought second would be a great finish, but I saw the opportunity and went for the win.

"Racing with Justin and Ryan was extremely clean racing. It was good, fun racing with those two."

Hunter-Reay's second place was the best result for Indianapolis Motor Sport chief Tony George and wife Laura's Vision Racing.

Wilson's deal with Dale Coyne was never announced; his name just appeared on the entry list.

For much of the race it looked like Wilson would take Coyne's first victory in 23 years of Champ Car and IndyCar competition.

Dario Franchitti finished fourth in his first official drive for Chip Ganassi Racing after his familiarisation run at the Gold Coast last October.

Brazilian Tony Kanaan was fifth, ahead of Australian Power, while young American Graham Rahal was seventh after starting on pole position for Newman-Haas-Lanigan.

Reigning series champion, Brisbane-born New Zealander Scott Dixon, fought with Japan's Hideki Mutoh at a restart and the two locked wheels, leading to suspension damage and a crash into the Turn Three wall that ended Dixon's race.

Next up, in a fortnight, is the round at Long Beach in California -- which was the marquee event in the former Champ Car series which reunited with IndyCar last year.

"I like Long Beach. I raced there in the ALMS and it's a fun challenge, somewhere between Surfers Paradise and St Pete," Briscoe said.

"It's got that crown in the road, some fast corners, long straight down in the front.  It's going to be tough.

"I think we're going to see a lot of these guys that have Champ Car experience from the past really doing well in Long Beach, maybe even more so than here (at St Petersburg), because at this race, the IndyCar guys probably had more experience."

Brabham gives Honda's Acura major ALMS victory
David Brabham and co-driver Scott Sharp gave Honda's new Le Mans Prototype category 1 Acura ARX-02a its debut victory in the second round of the ALMS which was the other half of the St Petersburg double-header.

It was the eighth outright ALMS victory for Brabham -- and his 17th class win in the series. However, it was his first LMP1 victory since 2002.

He races in ALMS for Highcroft Racing and said the amount of work that it has put into the ARX-02a program is "probably double the workload we had last year" in LMP2.

And the street circuit had been "incredibly slippery".

Delighted team principal Duncan Dayton pointed out that Highcroft had been third at St Petersburg two years ago, second last year and had now taken victory.

"As good as our drivers were in the race in very difficult circumstances, I think the key to the race for us was the calls in the pits that the guys on the engineering stand made," Dayton said.

Sun setting on twilight GPs already?
Formula 1's first two twilight races, within the space of eight days, have probably provided enough ammunition to kill them.

After the glare that drivers complained about in Melbourne, monsoonal rain -- accompanied by bad light -- saw the Malaysian Grand Prix stopped after barely half-distance.

It became only the fifth race in F1 history, dating back to 1950, to end with half-points awarded.

The others were the Spanish and Austrian GPs in 1975, Monaco in 1984 and the Adelaide race in 1991, which was stopped on just the 14th of 81 laps.

This year's Australian and Malaysian GPs began at 5pm local time to make the telecasts more European-audience friendly.

But expect F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone to be telling the Melbourne and Sepang promoters that the past few days only proves that they should go to full night races, like Singapore -- with those promoters, rather than Ecclestone's F1 empire, bearing the lighting costs, of course.

That idea is sure to meet resistance from the Victorian government, which still has a year to run on its existing race contract with Ecclestone before the start of another five-year deal signed last year.

Cynics will suggest that any argy-bargy between Victoria and Ecclestone could see Melbourne hosting its last race in 2010, although we doubt that -- despite the burgeoning costs.

Brawn GP's winner of both races so far this season, Jenson Button, and Williams-Toyota's young star Nico Rosberg have been strongly critical of the 5pm starts, and now Ferrari's Felipe Massa and Button's teammate Rubens Barrichello have joined the chorus after Malaysia.

Although it ended very prematurely, the Sepang race was quite entertaining and provided further proof that there is indeed a new world order in F1.

While Brawn has won both races and leads the constructors' championship just a month after it was "born" out of the old Honda team, McLaren has just one point and Ferrari none yet -- the first time since 1992 that it has not had a point after the first two GPs of the season.

Toyota is a big improver, third and fourth in both races so far this season , and Timo Glock was flying on intermediate tyres until the red flag, while Williams has the same power and Rosberg has been lightning quick at times in both races -- especially the opening laps in Malaysia.

Red Bull's competitiveness also was confirmed in Malaysia and Australian driver Mark Webber was perhaps unlucky not to be classified higher than sixth, which earned him 1.5 points.

Webber was quite brilliant racing world champion Lewis Hamilton wheel-to-wheel when the rain came -- and Hamilton's McLaren had the advantage of KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery System), that gave him up to 80 extra horsepower in bursts.

Webber has started in the top 10 at both races, but both times has been outqualified by new teammate Sebastian Vettel, although the young German was penalised 10 places on the Sepang grid after his crash with BMW's Robert Kubica in Melbourne.

Vettel made up a lot of ground in the Sepang race but spun out of contention by the time the race was red-flagged.

Kubica was out on the opening lap in Kuala Lumpur after stalling on the grid, but teammate Nick Heidfeld jagged a lucky second place -- after making only one tyre change while some other drivers had four changes.

The row over the rear diffusers on the Brawn, Toyota and Williams cars rumbles on, with BMW becoming the fourth team to protest -- joining Ferrari, Renault and Red Bull.

Lewis Hamilton has been under enormous pressure after confessing to telling lies to the Melbourne stewards, which led to his disqualification from the opening race and loss of a podium -- and the suspension of long-time team sporting director, New Zealander Dave Ryan.

However, reports that Hamilton had thoughts of quitting McLaren and even F1 are exaggerated.

But the controversy has provided an opportunity for Fernando Alonso, the dual world champion who had such an unhappy season at McLaren in 2007, to sink the slipper into the sport's second most successful team.

"It is not the first time they have lied to the stewards, so sooner or later they had to be caught and punished," Alonso said.

Bernie Ecclestone has said that Ryan is a "scapegoat" in the affair, while Germany's Bild newspaper photo-shopped a picture of Hamilton to give him a Pinocchio-style nose.

F1 drivers' world championship standings -- Jenson Button (Brawn) 15 points, Rubens Barrichello (Brawn) 10, Jarno Trulli (Toyota) 8.5, Timo Glock (Toyota) 8, Nick Heidfeld (BMW-Sauber) 4, Fernando Alonso (Renault) 4, Nico Rosberg (Williams-Toyota) 3.5, Sebastien Buemi (Toro Rosso) 2, Mark Webber (Red Bull) 1.5, Lewis Hamilton (McLaren) 1.

Loeb yet again, but new winners in ARC
French great Sebastien Loeb continued his domination of this year's World Rally Championship in Portugal at the weekend.

It was his fourth victory in his Citroen C4 in as many rounds this season and the 51st of his career -- extending the record he also already held.

The early leader in Portugal, Finland's Jari-Matti Latvala, crashed out of the rally in spectacular style on the first day after somersaulting the barrier and flipping his Ford Focus almost 20 times before coming to rest against a tree.

As has become the norm, Ford's No. 1 driver Mikko Hirvonen finished runner-up to Loeb, with Spaniard Dani Sordo third in the second Citroen works car.

Petter Solberg was fourth at the weekend in a Citroen Xsara.

Meanwhile, brothers Glen and Matt Raymond, driving a Group N Toyota Corolla, won their first round of the Australian Rally Championship in WA's Forest Rally.

The Raymonds won the first heat after reigning champion Neal Bates broke the steering rack in his Super 2000 Corolla and Simon Evans broke the gearbox in his Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX.

Bates and Evans were first and second in the second heat, ahead of the Raymonds, while Eli Evans was second and fifth in the two heats in his Subaru Impreza WRX STi.

WA hero Dean Herridge had a clutch problem on day one but was fourth on Sunday, while fellow West Australian Darren Windus, third in his first outing in Bates' spare S2000 Corolla on Saturday, had a huge crash on Sunday after catching a tree stump. He was then hit by the Raymonds as they came through.

Justin Dowel also rolled his Evo IX Lancer on Sunday after he was fourth in the first heat.

Good to see some young talent still shining through in the troubled ARC though.

WRC manufacturer standings -- Citroen Total WRT 64 points, BP Ford Abu Dhabi WRT 40, Stobart VK M-Sport Ford 27, Citroen Junior Rally Team 11, Munchi's Ford WRT 7.

WRC driver standings -- Sebastien Loeb (Citroen) 40 points, Mikko Hirvonen (Ford) 30, Dani Sordo (Citroen) 23, Henning Solberg (privateer Ford) 14, Petter Solberg (privateer Citroen) 14, Matthew Wilson (Ford) 8, Jari-Matti Latvala (Ford) 6, Chris Atkinson (Australia, Citroen junior team) 4 (from only one round), F. Villagra (privateer Ford) 4.

Australian Rally Championship after three of six rounds -- Neal Bates/Coral Taylor (Toyota) 199 points, Simon Evans/Sue Evans (Mitsubishi, previously Toyota) 186, Glen Raymond/Matt Raymond (Toyota) 174, Eli Evans/Chris Murphy (Subaru) 116, Justin Dowel/Matt Lee (Mitsubishi) 112, Dean Herridge/Glen Weston (Subaru) 75.

Tough luck for Ambrose as Gordon ends drought
Good and bad news on Marcos Ambrose in the latest NASCAR Sprint Cup round in Texas -- he ran as high as sixth but was forced out by engine failure in his Toyota.

Four-time series champion Jeff Gordon won after going 47 races -- since October 2007 -- without a victory.

It was Gordon's 82nd Cup win since 1994 and he is now only one behind the fifth most winning driver in NASCAR history, Cale Yarborough.

Gordon beat Hendrick Motorsports/Chevrolet teammate Jimmie Johnson, the series champion the past three years.

Then came Greg Biffle, Tony Stewart, Matt Kenseth, Mark Martin and Juan Pablo Montoya.

Gordon has now won at every Sprint Cup track except Homestead-Miami.

'The King' tackles the Indianapolis 500
Richard Petty, still "The King" of NASCAR although long retired from the driving seat, is to enter an open-wheeler in next month's Indianapolis 500 -- for John Andretti.

Andretti, nephew of the great Mario and winner of the original Gold Coast Indy in 1991, has had quite a long association with Petty. He drove for Petty Enterprises in NASCAR from 1998 until 2003.

Andretti has driven nine Indy 500s, including the last two, and 10 Brickyard 400s. His best finish in the 500 was fifth in 1991.

The Petty entry will be run in association with Dreyer & Reinbold, but George Gillett, now The King's partner in Richard Petty Motorsports, is not expected to be involved.

Ex F1 champ's fortunes on downhill slide
And, finally today, a headache for the winner of Melbourne's first F1 GP and 1996 world champion Damon Hill.

Hill is facing the risk of substantial financial losses after the collapse of a supercar club he founded. More here.

Images: Briscoe - Shawn Payne for IndyCar.com; Brabham - highcroftracing.com