MOTORSPORT: Hooray for new stars

"This is huge. I'm at the pinnacle of Australian motor racing ... I probably haven't come to terms with how big it is," 26-year-old second-year V8 Supercar driver Caruso said.

Refreshing too to see Alex Davison storm through the field on soft tyres at the end of the race to take second place, ahead of Craig Lowndes, who was celebrating his 35th birthday and recovered from an off that he admitted was a "dumb mistake".

So one win for Holden in Darwin, that was Caruso's on Sunday, and one for Ford, by championship leader Jamie Whincup on Saturday -- although he could do no better than 10th Sunday. However, Whincup's series lead was stretched to 144 points as the Team Vodafone/Triple 8 Race Engineering star's main rival, Holden Racing Team's Will Davison, was only 18th in Sunday's race. Davison's HRT teammate Garth Tander has moved to third on the championship ladder.

Like Caruso, Davison's result Sunday was his best in V8 Supercars - his previous best was eighth at Bathurst in 2007.

"I was sort of written off for a while and it's a pretty hard field to get back into when you've been booted out once, so I couldn't be happier," said the 29-year-old Davison, older brother of Will.

"Today was the first time I qualified in the top 10 but also the first soft-tyre race I've had where we haven't had a problem. It was really good fun carving through when you're going so much faster than everybody else. It's sort of like stealing candy from a baby."

The V8 Supercar show now moves east across the Top End for the new Townsville event on July 10-12.

V8 Supercar Championship after 10 of 26 races: Jamie Whincup (Ford) 1272 points; Will Davison (Holden) 1128; Garth Tander (Holden) 954; Craig Lowndes (Ford) 906; Lee Holdsworth (Holden) 897; Steven Johnson (Ford) 873; Rick Kelly (Holden) 807; Mark Winterbottom (Ford) 765; Shane Van-Gisbergen (Ford) 729; Russell Ingall (Holden) 728.

Webber notched another excellent second for Red Bull Racing in the British Grand Prix, beaten only by his young German teammate, Sebastien Vettel.

The German reminded us of the great Jim Clark -- and his countryman Michael Schumacher -- as he raced away from the field in the early laps. Such a contrast to Lewis Hamilton, who a year ago won at Silverstone by 68 seconds, yet now is regularly a lap down in a shockingly uncompetitive McLaren-Mercedes -- this time in 16th place.

Still only 21, Vettel has now won three GPs (one last year with Scuderia Toro Rosso and now two this season for Red Bull Racing) but this was his first on a dry track.

The Red Bull cars were perfectly suited to Silverstone's high-speed corners, however, Webber's chances were hurt by Ferrari's 2007 world champion Kimi Raikkonen coasting on the racing line during the Aussie's final qualifying run, causing him to miss a front-row start.

But there was no way he was going to beat Vettel after the start, although he and Red Bull did all the best they could -- especially a slick pitstop that vaulted Webber ahead of Rubens Barrichello.

The Brawn cars weren't the force they have been at other races, and Barrichello upstaged his championship-leading teammate, Jenson Button. Felipe Massa gave his all for Ferrari, coming from 11th on the grid to finish fourth, ahead of Nico Rosberg in his Williams-Toyota and Button's rapidly-closing Brawn.

Here's Webber's take on the race: "It's a great day for the team. I'm disappointed not to take the win, but I think I lost my chance for victory during qualifying. I should have been on the front row and, if so, I would have tried to make Sebastian work a bit harder in the first stint when I was behind Rubens.

"I saved a lot of fuel in the first stint, which meant we were able to jump Rubens at the first pit stop. I don't think I could have done much more today and congratulations to Sebastian, he did a good first stint, which is what laid the foundations for his win.

"And the team? Well, the guys have buried themselves recently with night shifts and the attention to detail that they go to is a credit to them. They're being led very well and they're responding to that. Results help and it's an incredible injection for them to get the top result, a one-two on local turf.

"I enjoyed it today. Silverstone is an amazing track and it's incredible to go through that first sector, lap after lap. It's a great place to drive a Formula One car and the British fans are always fantastic, so it was great."

Formula 1 drivers' world championship after eight rounds: Jenson Button (Great Britain, Brawn-Mercedes) 64 points; Rubens Barrichello (Brazil, Brawn-Mercedes) 41; Sebastian Vettel (Germany, Red Bull-Renault) 39; Mark Webber (Australia, Red Bull-Renault) 35.5; Jarno Trulli (Italy, Toyota) 21.5; Felipe Massa (Brazil, Ferrari) 16; Nico Rosberg (Germany, Williams-Toyota) 15.5; Timo Glock(Germany, Toyota) 13; Fernando Alonso (Spain, Renault) 11; Kimi Raikkonen (Finland, Ferrari) 10; Lewis Hamilton (Great Britain, McLaren-Mercedes) 9; Nick Heidfeld (Germany, BMW-Sauber) 6; Heikki Kovalainen (Finland, McLaren-Mercedes) 4; Sebastien Buemi (Switzerland, Toro Rosso-Ferrari) 3; Sebastien Bourdais (France, Toro Rosso-Ferrari) 2; Robert Kubica (Poland, BMW-Sauber) 2.

F1 constructors' world championship: Brawn 105 points; Red Bull Racing 74.5; Toyota 34.5; Ferrari 26; Williams 15.5; McLaren-Mercedes 13; Renault 11; BMW-Sauber 8; Toro Rosso 5.

Ryan Briscoe meantime has finished second for the third straight race in the IndyCar championship, but still leads the series – by just 3 points.

Dario Franchitti beat Briscoe by a little more than 5 seconds in the latest round on the short oval in Iowa.

Briscoe, who led the race for 85 laps, said: "We had a great battle at the end with Dario, but we didn't have enough for him. I was hoping that with the traffic coming up on him at the end that we'd be able to catch him. But he got the luck of the draw and was able to catch them at the right time."

IndyCar championship after seven rounds: Ryan Briscoe (Penske) 241 points; Dario Franchitti (Ganassi) 238; Scott Dixon (Ganassi) 226; Helio Castroneves (Penske) 212; Danica Patrick (Andretti Green) 189.

And our Aussie in NASCAR, Marcos Ambrose, went for gold at Sonoma in California but had to settle for bronze.

Third place on the road course was still an excellent outcome and equaled his previous Sprint Cup best finish. It was all the better for the fact he had started at the rear of the field because of the need for an engine change in his Toyota after qualifying third.

Kasey Kahne scored his first road course victory, holding off Tony Stewart on a late-race restart. Kahne had started from pole position but had not finished in the top 10 in his previous 10 road-course starts. It was the 10th Sprint Cup win of his career, while Stewart kept the series lead.

NASCAR Sprint Cup after 16 of 36 rounds: Tony Stewart (Chevrolet) 2364 points; Jeff Gordon (Chevrolet) 2280; Jimmie Johnson (Chevrolet) 2207; Kurt Busch (Dodge) 2084; Carl Edwards (Ford) 2051; Ryan Newman (Chevrolet) 2046; Denny Hamlin (Toyota) 2009; Greg Biffle (Ford) 1992; Kyle Busch (Toyota) 1962; Matt Kenseth (Ford) 1957; Mark Martin (Chevrolet) 1926; Juan Pablo Montoya (Chevrolet) 1917. Australia's Marcos Ambrose (Toyota) is 18th on 1704.

The statement was more an airing of matters that are "in play" rather than an announcement of decisions and can be viewed in full here.

We'll keep an eye on how things develop. And while it would be easy to be cynical, especially about Cochrane boasting V8 Supercars will be bigger than rugby league in three years (not as grand as Ron Meatchem claiming years ago the 2.0-litre touring car racing was going to be as big as the Olympics), it is positive to see V8SA preparing to plot its way forward.

Our recollection of the recent edict of the CAMS 'high court' was that the matter be heard promptly. Yet almost another two weeks has gone by and still it's not settled.

And an announcement belatedly came about V8SA's safety and course cars, following the departure of Nissan after just four rounds of a two-year deal. What the announcement was noticeably missing was mention of any car manufacturer's involvement in the safety and course car arrangements.

We gather the two vehicles used at the weekend, Holden Comodores, were rented. They were emblazoned with beer brand XXXX Gold's "Know When to Slow Down" slogan and were supplied by suspension company Pedders, with promise from V8SA of a further announcement in coming weeks.

We'll stay tuned for that, as we will for what we understand to be investigations of the way the safety car was sent out towards the end of the Darwin racing.

Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) president Max Mosley claims that, despite his immediate threat of legal action against FOTA for alleged "serious violations" of contracts, agreement between the warring parties is "very close".

"It will all be back to normal, it's just a question of when. We are very close. What divides us and the teams is minimal and really is something we could sit down and iron out very quickly," said Mosley on the weekend.

We're not convinced it's that easy. Nor are we convinced it is as easy as F1 commercial tsar Bernie Ecclestone paints it in saying that the proposed budget cuts can be forgotten if the existing F1 teams simply agree to stay in the sport until 2012.

There are huge issues with television contracts (the BBC is saying it reckons it can walk away from its mega deal with Ecclestone that is barely six months old) while there could be all kinds of complications with circuits deciding which championship they want to be part of -- and getting sanctioning, or losing other motorsport events.

This tussle has gone the crucial step beyond that of several years ago, with the manufacturers declaring they will start a new series -- not just threatening it.

Australian Grand Prix Corporation chairman Ron Walker and chief Drew Ward have been dimissive of the threat.

"We've got a contract so we're safe," Walker said.

"Not concerned in the least," said Ward.

A split like, indeed much bigger than, was seen in North American open-wheeler racing 15 years ago would be a disaster for world motorsport. Hopefully it can be averted, but Walker and Ward will have plenty to worry about if it does come. Imagine trying to sell tickets to an event already losing $50 million a year without Ferrari, seven other established F1 teams and without Aussie driver Mark Webber, world champion Lewis Hamilton and likely new world champion Jenson Button, and a host of other stars.

As Australia's last F1 world champion Alan Jones said at the weekend:

"If Ferrari and McLaren-Mercedes refused to race next year Melbourne shouldn't bother holding a race. They're established names with a huge following. If they don't turn up people are just going to say, 'Well what's the point'.

"It's all very good for Mosley to invite entries for people that come in with new teams but they're names and teams that people have never heard of. It think it's a tragedy what's going on in Formula One, I think they're disappearing up their own backsides."

More on this sad state of affairs later in the week.

We also have come across mention that Brabham will celebrate the 50th anniversary of his legendary father Sir Jack's first of three F1 world titles in Britain this coming weekend. See here.

Pity so little acknowledgement has been given to Brabham senior's feats in his own country… Especially at this year's Australian Grand Prix!

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