MOTORSPORT: Will Power back at crash scene

The 29-year-old Toowoomba driver is back at the Sonoma circuit in northern California where he broke his back a year ago. Nelson Philippe, winner of the Gold Coast Indy in 2006, had spun and stalled in the middle of the track during practice as Power came down the blind Turn 3A at high speed.

Power's car struck Philippe's and both suffered serious injuries -- the Australian several fractured vertebrae, chipped front teeth and concussion, the Frenchman a broken leg and concussion. Both drivers were sidelined for the rest of the season but Power made a remarkable recovery to take up the seat that iconic team owner Roger Penske reserved for him.

Despite the horror of a year ago, Power says he loves Sonoma's Infineon Raceway. And, irrespective of where he finishes this time, Power will receive the new Mario Andretti Road Course Champion trophy in Victory Lane after the race -- from the great Mario Andretti. The pair unveiled the trophy at Union Square in San Francisco yesterday.

This is the last road course round of this year's IndyCar series, with the last four races on ovals -- the finale at Homestead in Florida on October 2. Power, with a record-equaling seven pole positions this season and four wins so far for Penske Racing, leads the Chip Ganassi team's Dario Franchitti by 41 points. Many of the IndyCar teams tested at Infineon last week, with Power setting the pace.

"It's nice to be back at Infineon actually," Power said. "I was a little nervous heading up over that hill (at turn 3A) the first couple of times, for sure, when we tested here recently. But the track has done a fantastic job of making sure that everyone is aware if someone does spin.

"If there is a car sitting up and over the top, there are a lot of lights and plenty of warning before you get there now.

"I love this track. It's very technical, one of the better road courses we come to, a real driver's track, so I'd love to win."

Fellow Australian Ryan Briscoe, one of Power's two Penske teammates, has finished second at Infineon the past two years. Briscoe is fourth in the championship, 27 points behind Ganassi's New Zealander Scott Dixon, who is 82 points behind Power.

It was here that the dual Australian V8 Supercar champion achieved his best Sprint Cup oval finish a year ago -- third, behind Kyle Busch and Mark Martin. He has had a couple of other good finishes there. The racing is under lights at night, with 160,000 fans packed around the track.

"Night racing at Bristol Motor Speedway is the epitome of NASCAR," Ambrose said. "It's a short-track concrete oval with high-banking, high-speed and an amazing crowd. I like to call it NASCAR's pizzazz event."

Although it's now official that Ambrose is joining Richard Petty Motorsports next season he's keen to notch his first Cup victory before he departs JTG Daugherty Racing.

Brabham and French teammate Simon Pagenaud have a 23-point lead in the championship, driving a Honda Performance Development factory-backed Acura ARX-01c. They have scored three wins and three second place finishes in the six ALMS races so far this year.

They have been second at the past two rounds, but Brabham has won at Road America the past two years. It is the longest circuit in the series at more than 6.4km, with speeds of more than 320kmh on the long front straight.

The Acura will run a special low-downforce kit from Wirth Research, headed by Nick Wirth -- designer of the Simtek car that Brabham raced in Formula One in the early 1990s and now technical director of the Virgin team that has made its debut in F1 this year.

This weekend's ALMS race, the third last of the season, will be two hours and 45-minutes, with the next round the following weekend at Mosport, near Toronto, in Canada.

Cars spend three quarters of the lap at Road America on full throttle and the circuit has the highest G forces of any track in the series - more than 3.3Gs under braking in Canada Corner.

"Aerodynamics are now the lifeblood of an F1 car," Berger told Germany's Auto Motor und Sport ahead of the resumption of the world championship in Belgium next weekend. "This is why I see Red Bull being at the front for the next few years."

Berger said he had long advised his countryman and friend, Red Bull tycoon Dietrich Mateschitz, to hire Newey from McLaren.

"At first (when Newey joined Red Bull) I was a bit nervous, because it didn't work out immediately," he said. "I think at the start he was too distracted with management matters. Since he has concentrated on his speciality he has shown he is in a class of one."

Berger said that, because the RB6 car was "that good", Red Bull "can make mistakes and still be ahead".

"Actually they should be leading the world championship much more clearly," he said.

Red Bull has taken pole position at 11 of the 12 GPs so far and had six wins -- four of them by Australian Mark Webber, who leads the drivers' championship, and two by German youngster Sebastian Vettel.

Berger considers Vettel "generally" better than Webber, saying his errors are still down to his inexperience -- and that he, and others, had under-estimated the Aussie.

"Sebastian continued on the route he was already taking when he was with Toro Rosso."

Berger was co-owner of Scuderia Toro Rosso when Vettel scored his first GP win -- and became F1's youngest victor -- in Italy less than two years ago.

"He has matured incredibly," Berger said. "It is true that he is still making mistakes, but those mistakes are still occurring because of a lack of experience. His biggest problem is maybe underestimating Mark Webber, but it's a problem he is sharing with others that did not expect Webber be so fast this year. Mark is a very good man, but in general I would say Vettel is stronger."

On the question of whether there ought to be team orders, Berger said: "If I was the team boss of Red Bull I wouldn't do anything differently -- because it suits the brand."

But 50-year-old Berger -- whose career included long stints with Ferrari and McLaren -- said he understood why Ferrari gave preference to Fernando Alonso at the German GP.

"Let's not kid ourselves. Alonso is clearly the better man [than Felipe Massa] at the team. They can win the title -- but only with Alonso [who is fifth in the championship, 20 points behind Webber]."

Berger said Nico Rosberg may be just as fast as Vettel but that he had not had the machinery to win in F1 or show his capabilities fully.

"He has never had the right car," Berger said. "This year Nico has shown that he is only making a few mistakes and most of the time he is ahead of (Mercedes teammate) Michael Schumacher. If Rosberg and Vettel were in the same team I would not know who I would bet on to win."

When Schumacher came out of retirement Berger thought he would win an eighth world title but now cannot see it happening.

"Michael is trying to counter Nico Rosberg's youthfulness by pulling tricks out of his bag of experience, but it's not working," he said. "His teammate is faster, and he has to learn how to deal with it."

Berger said another German, Force India's Adrian Sutil, had been a big surprise this season.

"Last year I was laughing at Sutil," he said. "I would never have believed he has this much potential. His speed is tremendous and his mistakes have reduced dramatically. For me, with Rosberg, he is the surprise of the season."

"What he showed again in the Budapest qualifying in terms of sheer speed outclasses everybody -- especially as team mate and race winner Mark Webber has the same material," Lauda told formula1.com

"Behind him I see, of course, Mark and the other usual suspects in this year's championship -- Hamilton, Alonso and Button. Webber has surely had a cheerful summer break [because he's leading the championship, with twice as many wins as any of his rivals] and Vettel will be fretting for a while. But that is something that he has to go through. But he is young enough to put things like this behind him quickly.

"I am not sure if this is any consolation for him, but the championship is getting more and more exciting with every race and I think that millions of fans are interested to see if after so many unhappy situations he can still win the title."

And on the issue of team orders, Lauda said: "You have two models of how to race in Formula One as a team. If you approach it politically then you are in the Ferrari mould.

"Or you try to give both your drivers equal opportunities and the fans an exciting sport, as Red Bull are doing in letting their drivers compete with each other. That is what makes this sport a crowd puller because they see the best guys in the best cars racing each other with a 'may the best man win' philosophy -- and not mocking the fans with a collusive result. But I am aware that this is a topic where opinions differ."

The full Lauda interview is here

Picture courtesy Shawn Gritzmacher

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