MOTORSPORT: Young Brabham races into American record books

The third generation of the Brabham dynasty begun by Australia’s triple Formula One world champion won both the 11th and 12th rounds of the series at the weekend – the second of them luckily after Venezuelan rival and race leader Diego Ferreira ran off the Mid-Ohio circuit and into a gravel trap under a caution flag.

Driving for Andretti Autosport, Brabham – American-born but who grew up on the Gold Coast - now leads the championship by 65 points with four races remaining and a maximum 33 points in each.

The winner of last year’s US Formula 2000 Championship, which carried a “scholarship” prize of about A$400,000, is now poised to collect another big “scholarship package” to advance next season to Indy Lights – just one step below IndyCar racing.

He has F1 ambitions beyond continuing to compete in North American open-wheel racing.

Apart from the legend he became in F1, Sir Jack Brabham – now 87 – started the revolution in Indy racing that introduced rear-engined cars that replaced the traditional front-engined Offenhausers when he took a nimble little Cooper variation of a GP car to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in the early 1960s.

Sir Jack’s eldest son, Geoff, who is Matthew’s father, drove in Indy races for almost a decade and won several American GTP championships for Nissan as well as a CanAm title before a Le Mans 24-Hour sports car victory with Peugeot 20 years ago and eventually settling in Australia.

Sir Jack’s second son David twice briefly was an F1 driver and also won Le Mans with Peugeot.

The latest Brabham is Australia’s brightest rising star on the international scene other than 24-year-old West Australian Daniel Ricciardo, who has raced in F1 for more than 2½ years and is a contender for the seat in world champion team Red Bull Racing being vacated by Mark Webber at the end of this season.

The young Brabham won the first of the weekend’s Mid-Ohio races convincingly from pole position after what he said had been a tough previous weekend in the series at Canada’s Mosport circuit, where his grandfather had won the 1967 Canadian GP.

“It is always good to bounce back and we did that in this race,” Brabham said. “We were fast straight out of the box. We had put the car back together after that last race and we had no issues.”

It seemed Brabham would have to settle for second place in the 12th race of the series until caution flags were waved for an oil spill after two cars further down the field collided.

Then he inherited the lead – and victory, behind a pace car – as leader Ferreira slid off into the gravel trap.

The Venezuelan complained that Brabham passed him under caution, which officials agreed – but they ruled that was legitimate as the Australian had remained on the track, unlike his rival.

“I had a good start but Diego had a better start and managed to get me on the outside going into turn four,” Brabham said. “At the start of the race I was mainly focused on keeping (American) Spencer Pigot behind me than trying to keep up with Diego.

“I managed to get a little gap and really put my head down to try to catch Diego. I had a really quick car in the middle of the race and I pulled up and Diego and I had a little fight for the lead for a couple of laps. I dropped back a bit and, as soon as that happened, the yellow flags came out for an incident in turn four.

“I came into that corner and thought I lost the whole rear wing because the whole thing was sliding around and I almost spun out. There was oil and I just managed to gather it up and get around the corner, but I saw Diego go shooting off into the gravel.

“We were under yellow and then, I am not sure what the rules are, but I was given the honours of crossing the line in first. I feel bad for Diego. I don’t like to win like that. It is never sweet.

“In a way, it is a victory by default. Diego was flawless all race and driving really well out front.”

In the IndyCar round at the same circuit this morning, Australian time, American Charlie Kimball became the fourth first-time victor of the season – and the ninth winner in 14 races this year.

Kimball, a 28-year-old Californian who had started fifth, led a Honda-engined clean sweep of the podium for Chip Ganassi Racing, heading home teammates Simon Pagenaud and Dario Franchitti.

Australian Will Power started from the front row in his Chevrolet-powered Penske car but finished fourth, while fellow Aussie James Davison started 16th and finished 15th – on the lead lap – in his IndyCar debut in a Honda-powered car entered by Dale Coyne Racing.

Power remains winless this season and is outside the top 10 in the championship – 11th on 305 points compared with the 453 of his series-leading teammate Helio Castroneves, who finished sixth – behind reigning champion Ryan Hunter-Reay – after starting 14th.

Brazilian Castrovneves stretched his lead over New Zealander Scott Dixon to 31 points with five races remaining – the next of them at Sonoma in California on August 25, when Aussie Ryan Briscoe should be back from a broken wrist to drive for Panther Racing. Hunter-Reay is third in the championship, ahead of fellow American Marco Andretti and Frenchman Pagenaud.

The latest NASCAR round on the tri-oval at Pocono, Pennsylvania, was a Chevrolet walkover, with the first five finishers carrying the bowtie badge.

Kasey Kahne notched his second win of the season ahead of Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jeff Gordon, with Kurt Busch third, followed by Ryan Newman and Dale Earnhardt Junior.

Brad Keselowski, who won last year’s Sprint Cup for Roger Penske in a Dodge but is now driving a Ford, was sixth, ahead of teammate Joey Logano, Kyle Busch in a Toyota, Tony Stewart in another Chev and Greg Biffle in a Ford.

Australian Marcos Ambrose finished 12th in his Ford Fusion and is 22nd in the series – 272 points behind leader Jimmie Johnson.

Five-time Cup champion Johnson finished a frustrated 13th at Pocono after a blown tyre and contact with the wall but stretched his lead over Toyota driver Clint Bowyer from 75 to 77 points, with another five races before the field for The Chase – the top dozen drivers who vie for the title – is set.

Meanwhile, Sebastien Ogier in a Volkswagen Polo R won Rally Finland – his fifth victory in eight rounds of the World Rally Championship, with Australia’s round on NSW’s Coffs Coast now less than 40 days away on September 13-15.

Amazingly there was no Finnish driver on the podium, which Belgian Thierry Neuville in a Ford Fiesta RS in second and Norwegian Mads Ostberg in another Ford – which went off the course on the second last stage - shared with Ogier.

Ogier’s 181 points tally is now almost double that of the second driver in the championship - his VW teammate, Finn Jari-Matti Latvala, on 91.

Four drivers led during the early stages before Ogier established his dominance with a string of stage wins to become the fifth non-Nordic driver to win Rally Finland.

Mikko Hirvonen, the Finn who won the last Rally Australia two years ago, finished fourth in his home event this time in his Citroen DS3.

Two Australian drivers, Adrian Coppin, from Canberra, and Molly Taylor, of Sydney, will drive Ford Fiesta R2s against the WRC field in next month’s Coffs event, which also will host a round of the Australian Rally Championship.

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