MOTORSPORT: Expat Aussies on the cusp

Our international racers just seconds from glory
What a weekend for Australian racing drivers abroad -- Mark Webber second in the Turkish Grand Prix, Ryan Briscoe second in the latest IndyCar round, Marcos Ambrose sixth in NASCAR's latest Sprint Cup race, a brilliant performance by young rally star Brendan Reeves at New Zealand's Asia-Pacific Rally Championship round as fellow Aussie Cody Crocker stretched his lead and headed towards a fourth series title.

Not so good for rising open-wheeler star Daniel Ricciardo at the British Formula 3 Championship round at Hockenheim (yes, in Germany!), fourth and eighth in the two races there, but now he has the F3 Masters coming up next weekend.

And, on the bigger stage, David Brabham is preparing for the Le Mans 24-Hour sports car race next weekend -- as a factory Peugeot driver with a chance of outright victory, which would emulate eldest brother Geoff's feat 16 years ago, in the classic in which he's already been a multiple class winner.

We must also acknowledge here that Garry Connelly, who ran Rally Australia in WA for most of its almost two decades there and is heading the revival of that World Rally Championship round in NSW's Northern Rivers area in little more than three months now, has received a gong in today's Queen's Birthday Honors.

The citation is "for service to motorsport through a range of executive roles, including delegate to the  Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA)".

Although we disagree with Connelly on various things, especially him not telling the Australian public -- and motorsport public in particular -- how he cast his Australia's FIA delegate vote on Max Mosley a year ago, congratulations to him nonetheless on this award.

Webber second but Button on 'another planet'
Jenson Button has joined Jim Clark and Michael Schumacher in the F1 record books as the only drivers to have won six of the first seven races of the season after his victory last night in the Turkish Grand Prix.

Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel had started from pole position and got away well enough but made a mistake within the first 10 corners and Button's Brawn-Mercedes was past him in a flash. And, as veteran F1 correspondent David Tremayne wrote in London's The Independent, "the punishment he meted out was merciless".

Once in front Button never seriously looked seriously to be beaten, although Vettel closed on his tail mid-race.

Aussie Mark Webber wound up second, ahead of his teammate Vettel, as Red Bull botched the young German's strategy -- keeping him on three stops instead of switching him to two, although he still doubted he could have beaten Button.

This was Webber's third podium of the year and his second second place -- within 7sec of Button, although all the podium finishers were easing up at the end.

The bad news for Red Bull was that Button reckoned they had been on his pace in recent races but that BrawnGP has now gone another step ahead.

Button told his crew over the radio on his cool-down lap: "You have built me a monster of a car, an absolute legend!"

And later he said: "This is the first race really where the car has been just absolutely perfect for me.

"I could have kept on driving another 200 laps because I was enjoying myself so much in that car.

"This car is outrageous. Previously it's been a bit loose and not really suited my style, but today it was immense. In Bahrain and Barcelona, Red Bull were on our pace but today we were a step ahead.

"To beat these Red Bull guys fair and square was a great victory for us."

Next up, on June 21, is the British GP -- the last at Silverstone, where there will be huge support for Button and Brawn GP, who the Red Bull drivers declared to be "on another planet" in Turkey.

"We got caned today," Webber said, despite the pleasure of another second place -- and the fifth podium of his career.

"It was a very good afternoon for me. I knew that I had to hang on as long as possible in the first stint. It worked out pretty well and I managed to go a lap longer and save fuel, which helped me gain some time.

"I knew Sebastian's strategy so there was a chance to get another position. It was just a question which of us would get second.

"My second stint was crucial, I had to push really hard, and it turned out well for us. I did enough damage then to be able to jump Sebastian, and towards the end we just turned the engine down and brought the car home."

Vettel was man enough to admit his mistake but clearly was annoyed at how the race panned out, which left him as the only driver to have started from the pole in Turkey and not won the race.

"I'm not so happy overall not to have made it on the top step of the podium," he said. "I left from pole. But I did not last more than one lap. It was my mistake and I almost lost the car in the opening lap.

"It was very windy today with tail-wind. I lost the rear and went wide and lost a bit of speed.

"Later on, I knew that I was lighter than Button. There were chances for me to pass him, but it was risky to pass him on turn 1, and Jenson was just too quick today.

"I was hoping that the team would switch to two stops, but they did not.

"The three-stop strategy was not as good as I hoped. We lost because of the strategy. I was not too happy with that."

Button said he was very surprised when he realised Red Bull had Vettel on a three-stopper.

In the closing stages, with Vettel looking anxious to overtake Webber for second, the youngster got a message over the radio from the Red Bull pit wall: "Save your car, Mark is faster."

Vettel reluctantly eased off.

Toyota had both its cars in the points, with Jarno Trulli fourth (after heading Webber briefly at the start), and Timo Glock eighth.

Nico Rosberg got some reward for his speed, with fifth place for Williams.

Felipe Massa -- a Turkey specialist, having won there the previous three years -- was the better of the Ferrari drivers, in sixth place -- but almost 40 seconds behind Button.

BMW-Sauber's Robert Kubica earned his first points of the season by finishing seventh.

But Lewis Hamilton, McLaren-Mercedes' defending world champion, finished 13th, more than 80 seconds behind Button with a similar engine -- but at least not lapped this time.

McLaren has now gone eight races without finishing in the top three, while Brawn had its first retirement of the season with Rubens Barrichello suffering gearbox problems -- the only retirement apart from Force India's Giancarlo Fisichella.

Formula 1 drivers' world championship standings after 7 of 17 rounds -- Jenson Button (Great Britain, Brawn-Mercedes) 61 points, Rubens Barrichello (Brazil, Brawn-Mercedes) 35, Sebastian Vettel (Germany, Red Bull-Renault) 29, Mark Webber (Australia, Red Bull-Renault) 27.5, Jarno Trulli (Italy, Toyota) 19.5, Timo Glock (Germany, Toyota) 13, Nico Rosberg (Germany/Finland, Williams-Toyota) 11.5, Felipe Massa (Brazil, Ferrari) 11, Fernando Alonso (Renault) 11, Kimi Raikkonen (Finland,  Ferrari) 9, Lewis Hamilton (McLaren-Mercedes) 9, Nick Heidfeld (Germany, BMW-Sauber) 6, Heikki Kovalainen (McLaren-Mercedes) 4, Sebastien Buemi (Switzerland, Toro Rosso-Ferrari) 3, Robert Kubica (Poland, BMW-Sauber) 2, Sebastien Bourdais (France, Toro Rosso-Ferrari) 2.
 
F1 constructors' world championship standings -- Brawn-Mercedes 96 points, Red Bull-Renault 56.5, Toyota 32.5, Ferrari 20, McLaren-Mercedes 13, Williams-Toyota  11.5, Renault 11, BMW-Sauber 8.
 
Webber backs FOTA and free tickets for fans
An over-abundance of F1 politicking in Turkey, not surprisingly. This could be crunch week, with the FIA set to announce -- or at least decide -- on Friday which entries have been accepted for next year.

Force India has now joined Williams in lodging an unconditional entry, while the other eight existing teams have submitted only conditional entries -- wanting more say in next year's rules, budgetary restraints not as restrictive as FIA president Max Mosley has tried to impose, and the signing of a new Concorde Agreement.

The drivers and team bosses had a meeting over the weekend in Turkey, and the drivers have declared they are strongly behind the teams -- that is, opposed to Mosley and, perhaps, F1 commercial tsar Ecclestone.

We expect a compromise as the clock ticks down. It probably will need to be engineered by Ecclestone, and be assured that he will be a financial winner from it. Ecclestone may yet again entice Ferrari to break ranks with the other teams.

Or Mosley may have the teams only conditionally entered snookered anyway because of the number of new entrants who want to come into the sport -- including some keen to revive the great names Lotus, Brabham and March.

While there is no way new, lesser teams would have the appeal of the traditional outfits, particularly Ferrari, the existing teams have too much invested and at stake to be exiled. And, in reality, there is no way they could establish a rival series, certainly in time for next year -- because they would need the FIA's permission -- that is, Mosley's blessing.

Mosley is approaching 70 and set to run again for another four years as FIA president while Ecclestone is nearing 80. They are two elderly men desperate to keep control of what they have. If we were punters, our money would still be on them, this time at least.

Mark Webber has bought into the politics, saying: "Our (the F1 drivers') position is totally to support FOTA (the still relatively new, and already splintered, Formula One Teams Association.

"We hope there is a compromise where they can work with the FIA so we can all have a great championship next year.

"The teams are so strong together, and we are trusting them."

More controversially, Webber said Turkish fans should have been allowed into Sunday's race for free in light of the woeful attendance at the Istanbul circuit.

Only 36,000 three-day tickets were sold for a showpiece circuit with a capacity for 130,000 people. Most of the grandstands were empty, with some of them covered with big black cloths.

Webber said the tickets were too dear for the Turks.

"We should have let them in for free at the end. It would have been nice for the show to let people in. I'm sure there's a lot of people that would want to come to the Turkish GP but can't afford to because it's very expensive."

Nice thought by Webber, but impractical -- because it would "burn" those who had paid for tickets.

He ought to concentrate on racing, especially now that he is getting closer to a win -- even if that Button/Brawn combination is getting better.

Luck against Briscoe but he leads Indy series
Second place for the second week in a row, this time behind Penske teammate and Indianapolis 500 victor Helio Castroneves, was a bitter pill for Ryan Briscoe after dominating the IndyCar round under lights at the Texas Motor Speedway.

But Briscoe has now taken the series lead from the previous week's victor at Milwaukee, New Zealander Scott Dixon, and is the only driver to have completed all 1038 laps of the six races so far this season.

Briscoe had lapped everyone up to seventh place by half-distance but lost out on the last round of pitstops to Castroneves, who motored to his 16th IndyCar win.

Briscoe said his chances were "killed" by a late-race caution.

"I didn't see any debris (from the crash that brought out the yellow flags)," Briscoe said. "That's what killed us.

"We got beat by Helio in the pits. I didn't have enough speed to get around Helio at the end.

"It was frustrating knowing I was going to come in second. It's bitter when you come so close and it falls away."
 
Indy Racing League standings after six rounds -- Ryan Briscoe (Penske) 199 points, Scott Dixon (Ganassi) 196, Dario Franchitti (Ganassi) 188, Helio Castroneves (Penske) 186, Danica Patrick (Andretti Green) 167. All cars are Dallara-Hondas.

Came across a perspective on Aussie Will Power's future at Team Penske, here and a video interview with Danica Patrick, under the heading NASCAR & motor sports, here.

Stewart on top in NASCAR but Ambrose up there
Tony Stewart today became the first owner-driver winner of a NASCAR Cup round for more than a decade at the tricky Pocono tri-oval in Pennslyvania -- in his first year as an The final laps were a balance of racing while conserving fuel.

Stewart's victory in his back-up Chevrolet Impala, after being forced to start at the rear of the 43-car field, increased his series lead to 71 points over fellow Chevy driver Jeff Gordon.

Despite General Motors being in bankruptcy protection, Chevrolet has won half the 14 Cup races this season, the top four drivers in the series are in Chevys, and the brand leads the Manufacturers' Cup.

Ambrose said Pocono had instantly become one of his favourite US tracks.

"The place is insane how hard it is -- like no place I've ever been in my life," Ambrose said. "A great day for our team ... we had a fast car regardless of fuel strategy.

"It's the first time I've had to save fuel at this level, so I didn't know what to do so I was very conservative. And I've got to work on my elbow strength, because my elbows are worn out.

"I've been working them all day. So it's a tough place. I think it's one of my favorite tracks I've ever been too. It's really tough to get around."

Next weekend's Sprint Cup round is at Michigan International Speedway.

NASCAR Sprint Cup standings after 14 of 36 rounds -- Tony Stewart (Chevrolet) 2043 points, Jeff Gordon (Chevrolet) 1972, Jimmie Johnson (Chevrolet) 1940, Ryan Newman (Chevrolet) 1840, Kurt Busch (Dodge)  1819, Carl Edwards (Ford) 1762, Greg Biffle (Ford) 1753, Matt Kenseth (Ford) 1745, Kyle Busch (Toyota) 1731, Jeff Burton (Chevrolet) 1725, David Reutimann (Toyota) 1701, Denny Hamlin (Toyota) 1679. Marcos Ambrose (Toyota) is 18th on 1469 points.

Aussies - young and older - star in rallying
Cody Crocker extended his lead in the Asia-Pacific Rally Championship by collecting maximum points in his Singapore-owned MotorImage Subaru Impreza at the International Rally of Whangarei in New Zealand at the weekend.

But Kiwi Hayden Paddon was the outright winner and NZ championship victor in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX ahead of Crocker and co-driver Ben Atkinson.

And young Aussie Brendan Reeves, in a Subaru Impreza with Glen Weston as his co-driver, was a brilliant third -- little more than 90sec behind Paddon.

Crocker also won the APRC round in Queensland last month and is now on top of that series' points table, 11 clear of Japanese Mitsubishi driver Katsu Taguschi.

New Zealander Emma Gilmour, now Crocker's MotorImage teammate in another Subaru, is third with 16 points.

While Crocker was the pacesetter on both days at Whangerei, scoring the bonus six points on offer, Gilmour beat Taguchi on the second day by 0.01 seconds.

 "We now go to Japan, Subaru's home event (in Hokkaido on July 11-12), in good shape," Crocker said.

Asia-Pacific Rally Championship points after 3 of 7 rounds -- Cody Crocker (Australia, Subaru) 32 points, Katsu Taguchi (Japan, Mitsubishi) 23, Emma Gilmour (New Zealand, Subaru) 16.

Support for $27m expansion of WA's Barbagallo Raceway
Western Australia's sport and recreation department is backing a $27 million upgrade of Perth's Barbagallo Raceway, according to a report in The West Australian newspaper.

The report says the upgrade will ensure Perth retains its annual V8 Supercar Championship round as well as enabling it to stage international events.

Consultancy firm GHD had proposed three alternatives for the circuit and the newspaper report said the department had backed the most extensive and expensive of those.

Provided it is ticked off by the WA government in its August budget,  the upgrade would involve extending the track from 2.4km to 4.3km,  widening it from 9m to 12m, building new pits and control tower -- and the track would be lit.

The WA Sporting Car Club would remain in control of the circuit.

Sounds like a pretty good solution for Barbagallo, even if V8 Supercars has been "rolled" on its push for a street race up in the WA capital.

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Images: Webber - Photo4; Briscoe - Steve Swope for ryanbrisoe.com; Ambrose - Photo4