MOTORSPORT: Ups and downs for Indy Aussies

Briscoe wins in IndyCar but Power loses series lead
Ryan Briscoe (pictured) has turned around his IndyCar fortunes, notching his first win of the season at Texas Motor Speedway just a week after the disappointment of the Indianapolis 500, but fellow Australian Will Power has lost the series lead he had held all season.

And Marcos Ambrose's NASCAR woes continue, finishing 30th in the latest race at Pocono, Pennsylvania, still 30th in the Sprint Cup standings -- 490 points outside the top 12, which was his aim this year to make The Chase.

A Ford man when he won two V8 Supercar championships in Australia and initially in America but now driving a Toyota, Ambrose has been at the wheel of a Chevrolet recently -- but only fleetingly.

And some TV figures are out now for the Indy 500 and NASCAR's Coca-Cola 600 last week, with the stock car event at Charlotte, North Carolina, the longest race in the Sprint Cup, drawing a US audience of 6.547 million viewers and the openwheeler classic 5.793 million. That Charlotte number, incidentally, is almost 15 per cent down on what it was two years earlier (and last year's 600 was rained out and run on a Monday).

In Europe at the weekend Australia's Daniel Ricciardo narrowed the gap on the leader of the World Series by Renault championship, Russian Mikhail Aleshin, although an Argentinian, Esteban Guerrieri, won both races at the Brno circuit in the Czech Republic, has now won at his last three starts and come into title calculations.

But it was a bad weekend for another Australian youngster, Scott Pye, who had won four of the first six races in the British Formula Ford Championship but finished only 10th and 14th in the two rounds of that series run at Zandvoort in Holland.

Penske says Briscoe drove 'race of his life'
In Texas, Briscoe came back to win the seventh IndyCar race of the year, which he had started from pole position but in which the previous week's Indianapolis 500 victor 500 winner Dario Franchitti looked like making it two in a row.

Briscoe, a close third in the championship last year, earned 53 points at the weekend -- 50 for the win, a bonus point for pole (the 10th of his Indy career) and two for leading the most laps -- 102 of 228 of the high-banked 2.4km oval -- to jump from seventh to fifth in the standings, 38 points behind new leader Franchitti.

Briscoe's victory was Team Penske's sixth Indy triumph at Texas Motor Speedway -- including four out of the last five at the venue.

Briscoe has an odd historical record in Texas. He has finished in the same position he started in his four races there -- 12th in 2005, third in 2008, second last year and now first.

All three of Roger Penske's Indy drivers -- the others are Power and Brazilian Helio Castroneves -- have now won races this year.

Briscoe said it had been "a really difficult start to the season" for him.

"It's so competitive this year. It's not easy to run consistently in the top three or five," he said after beating Danica Patrick by 1.463 seconds in Texas.

"She gave us a real run for our money. It was fun racing side-by-side with her," he said.

Patrick started eighth but led her first lap of the season and posted her best finish since winning at Japan's Twin Ring Motegi in April 2008.

It was her first top five finish this season -- and her first since late last June -- after she was sixth in this year's Indy 500.

Another woman in the race, Switzerland's Simona De Silvestro, suffered burns to her right hand in a fire after hitting the outer safety wall in her third oval race.

One of Patrick's teammates, Marco Andretti, was third and New Zealander Scott Dixon fourth, followed by Ganassi teammate and Indy 500 winner Franchitti, who took over the series points lead from Power, who finished 14th after a late splash for fuel.

There is only three points between them and Power said: "We're still in good shape for the championship and we'll work hard to get the points lead back at Iowa in a couple of weeks (June 20)."

Dixon is third, only 11 points behind Franchitti.

Power's chances in Texas was harmed when a piece of debris from another car lodged under his and he was forced to pit several times before it was finally removed, dropping him as low as 18th. However, he climbed back to third in the late stages but had to pit again for fuel with four laps to go.

Early in the race Briscoe ran more than three seconds ahead of Power before the first pit stops. But he got caught in his pit box by a car in front of him and came out fifth.

Penske reassured Briscoe on the radio that there was nothing that could have been done to avoid it and said: "We've got a good car."

Later, as he congratulated the Sydneysider in Victory Lane, Penske said: "Briscoe drove the race of his life. He drove a race like that in Chicago and Homestead last year. It was a great show for us -- and we're back."

IndyCar series standings after seven of 17 rounds -- Dario Franchitti (Great Britain, Ganassi), 246 points, Will Power (Australia, Penske) 243, Scott Dixon (New Zealand, Ganassi) 235, Helio Castroneves (Brazil, Penske) 211, Ryan Briscoe (Australia, Penske) 208, Ryan Hunter-Reay (US, Andretti Autosport) 201, Justin Wilson (Great Britain, Dreyer & Reinbold) 179, Tony Kanaan (Brazil, Andretti) 179, Marco Andretti (US, Andretti) 169, Dan Wheldon (Great Britain, Panther) 164.

Marcos Ambrose tries a Chevrolet
Australia's NASCAR racer Marcos Ambrose swapped his Toyota for four-time series champion Jeff Gordon's Chevrolet at the Watkins Glen road course last week in a tyre test ahead of the upcoming Sprint Cup round at the famous upstate New York circuit.

However, in the weekend's Sprint Cup race on the 4km tri-oval at Pocono, Pennsylvania, Ambrose was classified 30th, a lap down, and he remains 30th in the series on 1196 points -- 867 behind leader Kevin Harvick and 490 points outside the top 12, which is the cut-off point for the end-of-season Chase.

Denny Hamlin beat Kyle Busch in a Toyota/Joe Gibbs Racing one-two at Pocono, followed by the Chevrolets of Tony Stewart, Kevin Harvick and Jimmie Johnson.

Rounding out the top 10 were Kurt Busch (Dodge), Jeff Burton (Chevrolet), Juan Pablo Montoya (Chevrolet), Clint Bowyer (Chevrolet) and AJ Allmendinger (Ford).

Hamlin's victory was his fourth this season, his fourth at Pocono and the 12th of his career -- elevating him to third in the championship.

Hamlin led five times for 88 of the 204 laps in giving Toyota its sixth Sprint Cup win this year and 27th since joining the series in 2007.

Joe Gibbs Racing has now won six of the past nine Sprint Cup races, with Kyle Busch taking two of those victories.

Ambrose was running within the top 20 at Pocono before a multi-car accident with only two corners remaining in the 800km race eliminated him. Despite heavy contact with the inside retaining wall Ambrose emerged from his twisted Camry unharmed.

"We just can't buy a break this season," Ambrose said after being released from the infield hospital. "We had to work hard today, the car wasn't brilliant, but we definitely had the pace at the end to have a strong finish.

"Once again we were in the wrong place at the wrong time when the accident happened ahead of us, and there was nothing I could do to miss it. We've got to keep positive, we're in Michigan next weekend, and we'll be looking to make amends there."

NASCAR Sprint Cup standings after 14 of 36 rounds -- Kevin Harvick (Chevrolet) 2063 points, Kyle Busch (Toyota) 2044, Denny Hamlin (Toyota) 1927, Matt Kenseth (Ford) 1905, Jeff Gordon (Chevrolet) 1839, Jeff Burton (Chevrolet) 1812, Kurt Busch (Dodge) 1804, Jimmie Johnson (Chevrolet) 1770, Carl Edwards (Ford) 1736, Mark Martin (Chevrolet) 1723, Greg Biffle (Ford) 1715, Clint Bowyer (Chevrolet) 1694. Australia's Marcos Ambrose (Toyota) is 30th on 1196 points.

Ricciardo closes on Renault leader, Pye slips a notch
Three weeks after the biggest win of his career in Monaco, Australia's rising international star Daniel Ricciardo has further narrowed the gap on the leader of the World Series by Renault championship in Europe.

Although the weekend's two races at the Brno circuit in the Czech Republic produced only 12th and fifth place finishes for the 20-year-old Ricciardo, from Perth, he cut Russian leader Mikhail Aleshin's series lead from seven to three points.

Aleshin was ninth in one of the Czech races but did not finish the other.

Argentina's Esteban Guerrieri won both the weekend's races. Guerrieri missed Monaco but has now won three times in a row and also becomes a strong title contender.

The next round of the series for Ricciardo, already the reserve driver for the Red Bull Formula One team, and the other aspiring F1 racers from around the world driving the Italian-made Dallara openwheeler cars with 3.5-litre, V6 Renault engines is at Magny Cours in France in two weeks.

In the British Formula Ford Championship rounds at Zandvoort in Holland, Scott Pye from Mt Gambier slipped from second to third after finishes of 10th and 14th in the two races.

Britain's series leader Scott Malvern has skipped 43 points clear, ahead of another Brit, Dam Cammish, 197-154.

Pye, who won four of the first six races in Britain and had been only three points off the lead, is nine points behind Cammish now -- but he's 38 ahead of teammate Josh Hill, son of 1996 F1 world champion Damon Hill, who is sixth.

Image: ryanbriscoe.com

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