MOTORSPORT: Young Brabham a $1 million winner

Will Power has won an IndyCar race – in which Dario Franchitti escaped serious injury in a crash that evoked memories of the Dan Wheldon fatality two years ago – and teenager Matthew Brabham’s scholarship winnings have topped US$1 million in just two years and he’s set for Indy Lights next season. At this rate he could be in IndyCar in a couple more years – and ultimately he has F1 ambitions.

Brabham, grandson of triple F1 world champion Sir Jack and son of accomplished racer Geoff, finished the Pro Mazda open-wheeler season in America with two more race wins – making a record 13 for the season, 15 podiums and 13 fastest laps. His latest successes came at Reliant Park in Houston, Texas, where Power won the second leg of the IndyCar double-header weekend ahead of New Zealander Scott Dixon, who has snatched the series lead from Power’s Penske teammate Helio Castroneves, with just one round remaining.

On the F1 front, Sebastian Vettel’s fourth straight victory of the season in Korea yesterday means he could win a fourth straight world title at Suzuka in Japan next Sunday (about the time the Bathurst 1000 concludes) if he’s first again and Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso finishes no higher than eighth. If not there then probably in India two weeks later.

Volkswagen’s Sebastien Ogier won Rally France after having clinched the WRC drivers’ title on the opening day and VW can seal the manufacturers’ title at the next round in Spain to top off its glorious debut season.

Aussie Marcos Ambrose has had a top 10 finish (ninth) in his Ford at the crashfest round of NASCAR’s Sprint Cup at Kansas Speedway, where Chevrolets swept the top three spots and Jimmie Johnson (sixth) narrowed Matt Kenseth’s lead as there was no Toyota in the top finishers.

But the best news out of the US for Australia has been the presentation to 19-year-old Brabham of a US$636,000 scholarship as Pro Mazda champion to advance to Indy Lights next year. It is only two years since Brabham raced in the Australian Formula Ford Championship and he doesn’t turn 20 until late next February.

His latest ‘Road to Indy’ scholarship comes on top of the US$375,000 that he collected a year ago for winning the US Formula 2000 Championship and progressed him to the Pro Mazda series this year with Andretti Autosport, which is run by Michael Andretti – son of Mario, a contemporary of Sir Jack Brabham. Matthew Brabham's total US scholarship winnings in two years now total US$1.011 million – or A$1.07 million.

“My season with Andretti has been incredible – I can’t describe the job they have done this year,” Brabham said.

“Every single session we have been 100 per cent on top of our game and it translated into results. I can’t thank them enough. It was such a fun year. I am looking forward to continuing on the Mazda ‘Road to Indy’.”

Meanwhile, Will Power said after winning the second IndyCar race of the weekend in Houston that Dario Franchitti’s crash on the last lap – in which the Scotsman’s car climbed over Japan’s Takuma Sato and into the high fencing, injuring 13 spectators and an official – reminded him of that which claimed Englishman Dan Wheldon’s life at Las Vegas two years ago.

“I hate seeing that – we try to keep these cars on the ground,” Power said of the new-generation, wide-bodied IndyCars.

Franchitti was taken to hospital with two fractured vertebrae, a broken right ankle and concussion, while only two of the spectators needed hospital treatment.

Power held off Saturday winner Scott Dixon in that second race, but the Kiwi has gone 25 points clear in the championship as he prepares for what would be his third IndyCar title at the final round at Fontana Speedway in California in a fortnight.

Helio Castroneves led by 49 points before the Houston races but, after a weekend of gearbox troubles, finds himself 25 points behind Dixon and facing an uphill battle to take the title for the first time.

Dixon only needs to finish fifth or better at Fontana to become champion and deliver team owner Chip Ganassi’s engine supplier Honda a title before he switches to Chevrolet next year, while Castroneves likely will incur a 10-place grid penalty if he requires a new Chevy engine change for that race.

Castroneves and Power’s team owner Roger Penske are looking at being the IndyCar bridesmaid for the fourth year in a row.

Power, runner-up the past three seasons, improved two places to seventh in this year’s series with his Houston victory.

Swiss racer Simona De Silvestro was runner-up in Saturday’s race, becoming only the third woman to make an IndyCar podium – and Danica Patrick remains the only winner.

Marcos Ambrose moved up a place to 20th in NASCAR’s Sprint Cup with his sixth top 10 finish of the year at Kansas. He’s two places ahead of Ganassi’s Juan Pablo Montoya but two behind Richard Petty Motorsports teammate Aric Almirola.

The top three Chevrolets at Kansas were driven by Kevin Harvick, Kurt Busch and Jeff Gordon. They were followed by the Fords of Joey Logano and Carl Edwards, then the Chev of five-time champion Jimmie Johnson, who now is just three points behind Toyota’s series leader, Matt Kenseth, who finished 11th.

In F1, Mark Webber’s Red Bull RB9 ended in flames for the second race in a row – and he’s furious about Pirelli’s tyres, while Daniel Ricciardo was on course for a top 10 finish in a Toro Rosso until his Toro Rosso had a left front brake failure three laps from the chequered flag.

Webber had started 13th because of the 10-place grid penalty carried over from Singapore but (despite an extra pitstop after a puncture) might have made the podium – certainly fourth – if Adrian Sutil had not spun his Force India car into Webber’s right sidepod, causing an oil fire. Webber and his friend Fernando Alonso were highly critical of Pirelli’s rapidly-wearing rubber throughout the weekend, although the tyre maker pointedly suggested to the Ferrari star that he look at how well Sebastian Vettel looks after his.

Ricciardo, who had qualified 13th and started 14th after Webber moved back on the grid, said he had been “hanging on nicely to ninth” until a repeat of the failure he had in Korea last year.

“I was really pleased with my performance in the car,” Ricciardo said. “Maybe we didn’t have a top 10 car, but I was able to fight in the top 10. It’s frustrating to get no reward.”

Vettel’s victory ahead of the Lotus-Renaults of Kimi Raikkonen (from ninth on the grid) and Romain Grosjean was his eight of the year, fourth in a row and third straight in Korea. He’s now 77 points clear of Alonso and set to join the late Juan-Manuel Fangio and Michael Schumacher as winners of four consecutive world titles – and he’ll be much younger, at 26, than either of those were.

The other star of the Korean race was German Nico Hulkenberg, who gave Swiss team Sauber its best finish of the season with fourth place – just weeks after the team appeared in danger of collapse – by holding off Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes and others pressing him.

Meanwhile, Sebastien Ogier and co-driver Julien Ingrassia’s victory in Rally France was Volkswagen’s eighth of the WRC season – seven of them by that pair, the other by Finns Jari-Matti Latvala and Miika Anttila, who were third in France.

The Citroen DS3 of Spaniard Dani Sordo split the VW Polo Rs in France, while nine-time world champion Sebastien Loeb’s WRC finale ended when he crashed his Citroen.

It was the first all-asphalt WRC round since 2005 not won by a Citroen, and VW now leads the manufacturers’ championship by 80 points and in all probability will clinch that title at the next event in Spain.

The Polo R has won 119 of 200 WRC stages this year.

IndyCar Championship driver standings after 18 of 19 races – 1. Scott Dixon (New Zealand, Chip Ganassi Racing, Dallara-Honda) 546 points; 2. Helio Castroneves (Brazil, Team Penske, Dallara-Chevrolet) 521; 3. Simon Pagenaud (France, Schmidt Hamilton HP Motorsports, Dallara-Honda) 491; 4. Justin Wilson (Great Britain, Dale Coyne Racing, Dallara-Honda) 460;  5. Marco Andretti (US, Andretti Autosport, Dallara-Chevrolet) 457; 6. Ryan Hunter-Reay (US, Andretti Autosport, Dallara-Chevrolet) 446; 7. Will Power (Australia, Team Penske, Dallara-Chevrolet) 443; 8. Dario Franchitti (GB, Chip Ganassi Racing, Dallara-Honda) 418; 9. James Hinchcliffe (Canada, Andretti Autosport, Dallara-Chevrolet) 417; 10. Charlie Kimball (US, Chip Ganassi Racing, Dallara-Honda) 406.

World Rally Championship driver standings after 11 of 13 rounds
1. Sebastien Ogier (France, Volkswagen Motorsport, VW Polo R) 238 points; 2. Thierry Neuville (Belgium, Qatar World Rally Team, Ford Fiesta RS) 143; 3. Jari-Matti Latvala (Finland, Volkswagen Motorsport, VW Polo R) 125; 4. Daniel Sordo (Spain, Abu Dhabi Citroen Total World Rally Team, Citroen DS3) 117; 5. Mikko Hirvonen (Finland, Citroen Total Abu Dhabi World Rally Team, Citroen DS3) 111; 6. Mads Ostberg (Norway, Qatar M-Sport World Rally Team, Ford Fiesta RS) 81; 7. Sebastien Loeb (France, Citroen Total Abu Dhabi World Rally Team, Citroen DS3) 68; 8. Evgeny Novikov (Russia, Qatar M-Sport World Rally Team, Ford Fiesta RS) 57; 9. Martin Prokop (Czech Republic, Jipocar Czech National Team, Ford Fiesta RS) 49; 10. Andreas Mikkelsen (Norway, Volkswagen Motorsport II, VW Pol R) 40; 11. Nasser Al-Attiyah (Qatar, Qatar World Rally Team, Ford Fiesta) 30; 12. Robert Kubica (Poland, Lotos Dynamic Rally Team, Citroen DS3) 16. Australia’s Chris Atkinson is 16th with 8 points for Abu Dhabi Citroen Total World Rally Team; New Zealand’s Hayden Paddon (Skoda Fabia) is 21st on 4 points; Australia’s Nathan Quinn (Mini) is 26th, also on 4 points.