MOTORSPORT: Two Aussies in US at crossroads

Marcos Ambrose is at New York's famous road course Watkins Glen this weekend, a place where he has had great success in the past.

Another win there in NASCAR's Sprint Cup could secure him a place in The Chase – the contest for the title over the final 10 races.

On the other hand, a poor result could move him a step closer to coming home to the V8 Supercar Championship he won twice a decade ago, especially if legendary American team owner Roger Penske enters the Australasian series.

Matthew Brabham, who has won junior open-wheeler titles in the US the past two years, has had a second test of one of the cars for the new all-electric single-seater Formula E World Championship and increasingly looks headed in that direction.

Brabham is fourth in the Indy Lights series in America but, most likely without the scholarship money he has collected in winning the US Formula 2000 and Pro Mazda titles the past two years it may be difficult for him to retain his place in Andretti Autosports' Lights team.

He is a 20-year-old grandson of Australia's late triple Formula One world champion Sir Jack Brabham and his surname may be a better lure for sponsorship with the Andretti team in the more international Formula E, starting in Beijing in mid-September.

Most of the 10 Formula E teams have selected their two drivers, but Andretti has named only Frenchman Franck Montagny so far.

The field includes nine former F1 drivers, including a Monaco Grand Prix winner – Italian Jarno Trulli.

Brabham's second visit to Britain in recent weeks to test one of the Spark Renault SRT-01E Formula E cars is an indication he may be headed to that series, which will race in the centre of many major world cities.

However, the second round in Malaysia has already been postponed, leaving a two-month gap between the first two races.

Brabham and Australia's IndyCar drivers, series leader Will Power (Team Penske) and Ryan Briscoe (Chip Ganassi Racing), have a weekend off before their next races at the Milwaukee Mile.

Road course glory one thing, but Ambrose needs oval success
While Ambrose says that this weekend's Watkins Glen race meeting won't influence his decision on his future, the reality is that it most likely will.

He has proven to be a road-racing specialist in NASCAR, which has only two road races a year – with the rest of ovals ranging from 800 metres to 4km.

A win in the Cup at the Glen on Sunday would give him a berth in The Chase, expanded to 16 drivers this year for the "playoffs" for the title over the final 10 rounds.

However, all The Chase races are on ovals.

While Ambrose has twice won the Cup race at the Glen, and three times been victorious in the second-tier Nationwide race there, he has not won a Cup race on an American oval in more than 200 starts.

He is driving in both categories this weekend and while a win in either or both would be great for him it would only confirm that he is essentially a road racer in a predominantly oval series.

Americans call such road specialists "rangers".

Richard "The King" Petty, for whom Ambrose has driven in the States in recent years, raised the prospect recently that Ambrose could become a part-time NASCAR driver if he returned to Australia – obviously contesting the events at Sonoma in California and Watkins Glen.

Petty has said, diplomatically, that it is Ambrose's call on what he wants to do beyond this year, but – even if he wins at the Glen this weekend – his commercial appeal must be limited to NASCAR sponsors if he cannot break through for a victory on an oval.

He has been quoted at 5-1, and even 4-1 in one place, to win on Sunday, with Penske's 2012 Cup champion Brad Keselowski, second the past three years at the Glen, and Toyota driver Kyle Busch at 7-1.

Shannons Nationals at Ipswich – with huge claims
The sixth round of the Shannons Nationals is at Ipswich's Queensland Raceway this weekend, with seven categories on the program.

There will be 20 races over the two days for sports sedans, the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge, production cars, two classes of touring cars and Formula Three and Formula Ford.

The series organisers have made some bold statements this week about the TV audience for the Shannons Nationals, claiming it now "compares favourably with the V8 Supercars coverage on Channel 7 (split between Channel 7 and 7mate)".

"The Shannons Australian Motor Racing Nationals will be watched by more than five million people on national TV this year, following the release of broadcast audience figures gained across the first half of the 2014 season," the organisers have claimed.

"Metro and regional Nielson TV ratings data supplied by SBS show that a combined audience of 2.76 million people have watched an episode of long-running motorsport TV show Speedweek containing Shannons Nationals coverage so far this season.

"An average of 345,000 people per show (207,000 people in metro areas) have tuned in this year across nine episodes broadcast on SBS One and SBS 2 – covering the first five rounds of the season."

The Shannons Nationals organisers said last weekend's V8 Supercar coverage from Queensland Raceway drew 229,000 viewers on Saturday and 300,000 on Sunday in metro areas.

Will be interested to see the verification of these claims.

The company, WRC Promoter, is in the second year of a decade-long contract.

Richards said he had left a meeting with WRC Promoter's Oliver Ciesla with "real concerns for the future" of the championship.

"There appears to be a lot of playing around with the peripheral issues, but not much focus on those which sit at the core of the WRC's problem – a lack of visibility," he said.

"I'm totally unconvinced that the promoter has the right solutions for the championship or indeed a clear vision of what's required."

Richards may well be right, but he had his chance to improve the WRC's exposure and hardly covered himself in glory.

Rallycross World Championship goes to North America
The new Rallycross World Championship is outside Europe for the first time this weekend – in Quebec, Canada.

Nineteen cars and drivers are entered in the premier Supercars category for the seventh round of the series at Trois-Rivieres, 135 km north-east of Montreal and the venue from which the late, great F1 driver Gilles Villeneuve emerged.

The 1.35km course is almost 60 per cent asphalt, with the rest gravel and dirt – and three jumps on each lap. All four heats, the semi-finals and the final will be run on the one day instead of the usual two-day format.

Jacques Villeneuve, the 1997 F1 world champion and son of Gilles, will compete for Scottish team Albatec Racing. He did not make the semi–finals in his earlier outings.

Canadian former IndyCar and NASCAR racer Patrick Carpentier is another starter in Quebec.

Norway's 2003 world rally champion Petter Solberg leads the series in a Citroen DS3 ahead of 18-year-old Latvian Reinis Nitiss in a Ford Fiesta.

Subaru Rally Team USA has entered three-time European rallycross champion Sverre Isachsen, another Norwegian.

VW Marklund Motorsport has four entries this time, including Carpentier.