MOTORSPORT: Young Brabham's star rises in US

And the grandson of Australia’s triple Formula One world champion Sir Jack Brabham, and son of Le Mans 24-hour sports car winner and multiple American racing champion Geoff, could soon be racing on a broader international open-wheeler stage – representing the US!

The latest Brabham is under consideration to be selected for a fully-funded drive representing America at the Formula Ford Festival  — that category’s unofficial “world championship” — at Brands Hatch in Britain at the end of October and in the Walter Hayes Trophy at Silverstone a week later.

The teenager grew up on Queensland’s Gold Coast, competed in Australian Formula Ford, and having completed his schooling last year is in his first year of international competition. Born at Boca Raton in Florida when his father was competing in America, he is now based at Manalapan, also in Florida, and is racing for Cape Motorsports with Wayne Taylor Racing. At the US F2000 Championship’s first three-race round at the famous Road America course at Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, Brabham had two wins and finished third in the final race despite severe understeer.

He has a 14-point lead in the series over American teammate Spencer Pigot with four races remaining – two on the streets of Baltimore, Maryland, in a fortnight and then at Virginia International Raceway in mid-September. Brabham already had one win in the previous seven races of the championship but was “really, really happy with how the weekend went” at Road America.

“It is really fantastic to be back in front in the championship and I am planning to stay there for the rest of the year,” he said.

Brabham, who has dual Australian/American nationality, has ambitions to race in F1 and to win the Indianapolis 500 – the American classic in which Sir Jack Brabham started the switch from front-engined roadsters to nimble rear-engined cars and in which Geoff Brabham raced 10 times, finishing fourth in 1983. The latest racing driver in the dynasty is among several youngsters being considered for Team USA Scholarships for the two British Formula Ford meetings at which rising stars from around the world will compete.

The US F2000 Championship, in which the cars are Van Diemens, is the bottom rung of several development series supported by Mazda as part of its “Road to Indy” program. Apart from possibly getting a fully-funded drive at the British events, Brabham also could earn a scholarship to step up to America’s Star Mazda Championship next year.

Brabham’s first victory at Road America at the weekend came after he started from the second row of the grid. That gave him pole position for the second race, in which he romped clear and was never seriously challenged. However, he felt his car was not set up properly for the third race and he “had a bad understeer that got worse as the race went on”, finishing behind victor Scott Anderson and teammate Pigot.

“It was a little bit disappointing, but it is hard to say that when I was on the podium again,” Brabham said. “Overall I am very happy with how things have gone this weekend. It was good to get those two wins under my belt. I had been struggling a bit to get to that top step of the podium.”

Ambrose has now strung together three consecutive top 10 finishes, equaling his best in the Cup, but still sits 17th in the points. He has finished in the top 10 both times this season at Michigan, where he set a pole position lap at more than 200mph (320kmh) in June. However, team owner Richard Petty’s contract with Ford has not yet been renewed for next year. Ford reportedly is unhappy that Petty was considering a switch back to Dodge the manufacturer with which he was connected in his heyday as NASCAR’s most legendary driver.

Dodge recently decided to withdraw from NASCAR, unable to identify a suitable partner team, after spending two years developing a new Charger race car. Petty has admitted that his team will be relegated on Ford’s priority list next year with Roger Penske’s team switching from Dodge to the Blue Oval. Roush Fenway Racing will remain Ford’s No. 1 NASCAR team.

“When the Penske deal came about, then we were kind of shuffled around a little bit with Ford,” Petty said. “I don’t think we’re shuffled out, but we’re kind of shuffled around, so we’re just going to have to renegotiate our contract with Ford is, I guess, the way it’s going to be.”

Roush Fenway has delivered Ford its fourth Cup race victory this year, with Greg Biffle winning at Michigan. Biffle became the sixth multiple race winner of the season and has taken the series lead after Chevrolet driver Jimmie Johnson’s engine blew six laps from the finish. Biffle now leads Roush Fenway teammate Matt Kenseth by 20 points, with Dale Earnhardt Junior (Chevrolet) third, another two points back, and Johnson dropping to fourth, a further six points away.

Penske driver Brad Keselowski finished second for the second week running, this time by 0.416 seconds, and has now had seven straight top 10 finishes. How ironic will it be if Keselowski, fifth in the points, wins the Cup for Dodge ahead of its exit?

Veteran Mark Martin had pole position at Michigan in his Toyota but had a terrible accident at one-third race distance, slamming the end of the pit road wall as he spun avoiding a crash in front of him.

Johnson’s engine failure was his second of the weekend and forced him to start from the rear of the field, yet he made his way to the front and seemed destined for his first Michigan victory. His teammate Jeff Gordon and reigning series champion Tony Stewart also blew Chevy engines in the race.

Formula One “refugee” Brazilian Nelson Piquet Junior scored his first win in NASCAR’s pick-up truck series at Michigan — a 60th birthday present for his F1 triple world champion father, Nelson Senior. The younger Piquet described American racing as “something totally new” after having been driven out of F1 for revealing shenanigans by former Renault team boss Flavio Briatore at Singapore’s first Grand Prix in 2008.

Villeneuve on the receiving end
Jacques Villeneuve is flying from Canada to Sydney this week for the revived V8 Supercar Championship round at Eastern Creek, re-christened Sydney Motorsports Park, having missed out on a win in his hometown, Montreal, in NASCAR’s second-tier Nationwide Series.

In only his second Nationwide start of the year, 1997 Formula One world champion Villeneuve led more than half the Montreal race driving a Dodge for Penske Racing but was bumped out of the lead by American Justin Allgaier in another Dodge.

“He took me out,” Villeneuve complained. “We were the quickest car out there. When you run in the front all day like that and you get taken out on the last lap it’s just frustrating, but I guess that’s life. When it’s a mistake you let it go, but when it seems to be done on purpose that gets a little bit annoying.”

Earlier in the race Villeneuve had spun fellow Canadian polesitter Alex Tagliani out of the lead. Villeneuve wound up third, behind Allgaier and Penske teammate Sam Hornish Junior. It’s unlikely Villeneuve will be similarly competing at the pointy end of the V8 Supercar field in Sydney, unless there is a massive reversal from his recent outings at Townsville and Queensland Raceway as the substitute for injured Greg Murphy in one of the Kelly Brothers’ Holden Commodores.

Danica Patrick, punted by Villeneuve in his previous Nationwide start a few weeks ago, also led 20 laps of Montreal’s Nationwide race but her Chevrolet rear-end was damaged after she hit a shoe thrown on to the street circuit by a spectator.

“I ran over a shoe … what can you do about luck?” asked Patrick, 11th in the series. “Hopefully it can turn right sometime soon. That would be nice.”

“We didn’t even open the bonnet or change the tyres,” Richards said.

Richards and Oliver also won Targa West in 2007. Runners-up this time were WA’s Jamie and Mandy Lister in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VI, with Franz Esterbauer and Ivan Tan third in an Evo X Lancer.

In the late 1960s, ’70s and ’80s the entire Formula One grid other than the Ferraris at times ran Ford Cosworth DFV engines mated to Hewland gearboxes.

Hewland Engineering was founded in 1957 but Mike Hewland retired 21 years ago, handing the running of the business to his son William.

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