MOTORSPORT: New Schumacher an instant success

Michael Schumacher's 16-year-old son Mick won on his first weekend of car racing, but he was fortunate not to be pipped by an Aussie – Joey Mawson from Sydney.

Great success though for one of the Davison clan, James, winning a race in America flag-to-flag in a Nissan GT-R like that which won the Bathurst 12-Hour in February.

However, the weekend wasn't so good for Anton De Pasquale on his debut in the Formula Renault 2-litre Eurocup and Will Power in IndyCar, with a rare American one-two as Josef Newgarden scored his first victory – in a Chevrolet-powered Dallara – ahead of Graham Rahal (with Honda Power). New Zealander Scott Dixon was third and Power, fourth despite a drive-through penalty. IndyCar has had four winners in four rounds so far this year, but Power has not been among them – although he picked up a place to fifth in the championship at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Alabama.

It was another Chevrolet weekend in NASCAR, with the first four cars across the finish line sporting the bowtie badge – the first of them driven by Kurt Busch, who missed the first three rounds of the Sprint Cup because of allegations of domestic violence against him. Series leader Kevin Harvick was second while Penske-Ford driver Joey Logano, who is second in the series, led the first quarter of the race but finished fifth.

The new Volkswagen team in the World Rallycross Championship won the opening round of that series in Portugal with a debutant driver, Swede Johan Kristoffersson, beating last year's inaugural champion Petter Solberg.

But oddly there was no VW in the top 10 of the World Rally Championship round in Argentina. Instead the WRC saw its first British winner since the late, great Colin McRae 13 years ago – Northern Irishman Kris Meeke in a Citroen DS3, ahead of his Norwegian teammate Mads Ostberg for the French manufacturer's first one-two since 2012. Another Brit, Welshman Elfyn Evans, was third in a Ford Fiesta. Six spectators in a prohibited area were injured, one seriously, when New Zealander Hayden Paddon rolled his Hyundai i20 at a jump.

Rally Australia in September is to get a short night stage among changes that will include visiting the famous Pub With No Beer.

Mick Schumacher, runner-up in last year's junior karting world championship, has entered the German Formula 4 Championship and in three races at the Oschersleben circuit at the weekend he finished ninth, 12th and first.

For the third race the organisers reversed the order on the grid of the top 10 from the first race, putting the new Schumacher on the front row.

And he led the entire 30-minute race, but Aussie Joey Mawson was closing hard on him before a late safety car that ultimately led him across the finish line 0.518 seconds ahead of Mawson.

Both drive for Dutch team Van Amersfoort Racing, through which Dutch 17-year-old Max Verstappen has graduated on the way to F1 this year.

Schumacher had won a rookie award on Saturday for coming from 19th on the grid to ninth in his first race and is fifth in the championship after his Sunday victory over 34 other drivers from 13 countries.

F4 is the wings-and-slicks category that the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) is promoting now as the starting point in open-wheeler car racing rather than Formula Ford, which doesn't have the aerodynamic wings and slick tyres.

There will be nine F4 championships around the world this year, with the Australian series starting in July at the Townsville round of the V8 Supercar Championship.

Mawson, 19 and part Peruvian, raced in the French F4 Championship last year, winning his first race and finishing the season fourth despite missing the last three races.

American-based Davison delivers for Nissan
James Davison described his Saturday in Alabama as perfect after he won the sixth race of the Pirelli WorldChallenge from pole position and with the Lamborghini Gallardo of Dutchman Nick Castburg never more than two seconds behind his Nissan GT-R in the 50-minute race.

"It doesn't get much better," he said 28-year-old Davison. Cousin to Will and Alex Davison, James has based himself in the US for about a decade and now lives in St Petersburg, Florida.

"When you get an opportunity like this with a manufacturer as a driver you're expected to perform ... you have to perform.

"A win and a pole six races into the year ... it adds some confidence.

"We had a number of restarts that bunched up the field and gave the guys behind me a chance to pass, but we were able to stay up front and bring it home for the win.

"I'm extremely pleased to get the GT-R GT3 its first win in North America."

It was Nissan's first win in the Pirelli WorldChallenge with its new factory-backed team.

Davison's margin at the chequered flag was 0.92 seconds.

There were 35 cars in Saturday's race and 40 in Sunday's seventh race of the series, in which Davison finished 11th.

Queenslander Power was also warned for blocking in the race at the Birmingham circuit where he had won in 2011 and '12.

While he is winless so far in his title defence, he gained a place in the championship while Penske teammates Juan Pablo Montoya and Castroneves who are first and second in the points finished only 14th and 15th in Alabama.

Josef Newgarden's victory was the first for the 24-year-old from Tennessee in 55 IndyCar starts.

He drives for CFH Racing, a merger of Ed Carpenter Racing and Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing.

Graham Rahal overtook Kiwi Scott Dixon on the final lap and finished 2.2 seconds behind Newgarden for his first podium in almost a year – and gave engine supplier Honda some joy after Chevrolet-powered cars were the top seven qualifiers.

Dixon's third place gave him his sixth podium in as many years in Alabama.

Now the series moves on to Indianapolis, firstly for a road race and then the Indy 500.

Now driving for Barcelona-based but Finnish-owned Korainen GP which helped propel Valtteri Bottas, Daniil Kyvat and Carlos Sainz Junior to F1, the 19-year-old from Melbourne was third fastest in first practice at Spain's Aragon Motorland and then struggled through the rest of practice and in the three races.

He finished 21st, 16th and 20th in the field of 29.

Volkswagen Team Sweden and driver Johan Kristoffersson made a dream debut with a Polo RX Supercar.

A winner of the Scandinavian Touring Car Championship and Porsche Carrera Cup Scandinavia, Kristoffersson seized the lead in the final on the fourth of the six laps from the Citroen DS3 of Norway's reigning champion and last year's winner in Portugal, Petter Solberg – also the 2003 World Rally Champion.

"I nearly stalled the engine on the start line [where he was alongside Solberg on the front row] and the whole circuit was unbelievably slippery, but I drove a clean race," Kristoffersson said.

"I couldn't see out of the side windows, so it was more about survival than actual racing."

Solberg had not felt 100 per cent all weekend and said he lost his gear lever in the final, "so it certainly wasn't easy – but I'm happy with second".

Third-placed Timmy Hansen, another Swede and in a Peugeot, said the final had been like "driving on soap".

"There was no grip and then I lost my power steering," Hansen said.

Austrian Mattias Ekstrom, the multiple DTM (German Touring Car Championship) and Race of Champions title winner and a star of the 2013 Bathurst 1000, was classified seventh in Portugal in his Audi and countryman and former WRC competitor Manfred Stohol placed ninth in a Ford.

"This one is for Colin," Meeke said after becoming the first Brit to win a WRC round since McRae in 2002.

The Northern Irishman survived a puncture, a spin and an alarm scare to do it.

Meeke's Citroen teammate Mads Ostberg finished 18.1 seconds behind in the event around the Villa Carlos Paz resort near Cordoba, 700km north-west of Buenos Aires.

Welshman Elfyn Evans' third place in a Ford, his first WRC podium finish, came despite breaking his rear suspension on the last stage.

Dual world champion Sebastien Ogier was classified only 14th for Volkswagen after a retirement on the opening day due to engine problems ended his hopes of a sixth successive victory in world rallying.

Argentina is the only WRC round the Frenchman has never won but he collected three points for winning the final Power stage and still has a big lead in the championship.

Ostberg is now second in the standings after VW's other two drivers, Finn Jari-Matti Latvala (fuel supply) and Norwegian Andreas Mikkelsen (suspension) failed to score in Argentina.

It was the first time since Germany's WRC round in 2013 that Volkswagen had performed so poorly.

The best-placed Hyundai i20 was Spaniard Dani Sordo's in fifth.

The five stages at the end of the Saturday (September 12) in the 24th Rally Australia – and 23rd as a WRC event – will end with a stage of slightly less than 8km in darkness.

"We're introducing a traditional night stage instead of the usual city-based super special stage to give spectators a taste of real rallying as the cars roar through the forest with their lights blazing" Rally Oz clerk of course Adrian Stafford said.

The Saturday competition will be longer and the Sunday shorter this year, with the final Power Stage to start at noon.

Three new stages to be run twice will constitute Friday's leg.

They are about 80km south of Coffs Harbour, in the same area as the long (49km) Nambucca stage so liked by the WRC drivers.

"Nambucca remains in the itinerary on Saturday, but the new stages [Utungun, Bakers Creek and Northbank], although shorter, will be an even bigger test for drivers," Stafford said.

"They are fast, technical, set in magnificent countryside and truly are some of the best roads in the rally world."

Stafford said a bonus for spectators would be two regroups (stopovers) by competitors on the Friday (September 11) at Taylors Arm, the hamlet that is home to the hotel made famous by late country singer Slim Dusty as The Pub With No Beer.

A brewery at the pub now ensures there won't be any shortage of the amber fluid.