IRL – PODIUMS AT THE GLEN

  Another pair of podium finishes at Watkins Glen for the down-under duo now has Dixon and Briscoe at the top of the IRL championship ladder with Scott Dixon now leading by 19 points from Briscoe and Franchitti who are tied for second place 

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  Ryan Briscoe of Team Penske worked hard to earn a second-place finish behind surprise winner Justin Wilson. Briscoe, who won his second consecutive pole at Watkins Glen on Saturday and the fifth straight pole at the venue for Team Penske overall, said the difference in Sunday's race came down to tires. Wilson was using the Firestone red tires - a softer compound that's usually faster than the black tires - while Briscoe was on the typically longer-lasting black tires in the final stint of the race. 

   "We opted for the black tires at the end, and we knew from qualifying that Justin had another set of reds," Briscoe said. "It looked like I had the advantage as the tires got older, because I was definitely catching him. I was trying to line him up to pass him when we got that last yellow (flag), and when that happened, the tires cooled off. We definitely saw the difference between them on the last restart." 

   Wilson was able to pull away in the final stages, winning by nearly five seconds to claim the first-ever Indy car victory for longtime team owner Dale Coyne.

    Briscoe was engaged in a tough battle with Dixon at the end of the race, holding off the defending series champion over the tense final laps for the second-place result. "I had my hands full defending my position against Scott, who was also on the softer tires," Briscoe said. "But it was a great day. It was very hard-fought." 

  Scott Dixon said "It was definitely pretty tough. We lost a spot at the start when I didn't shift down enough gears and (Mario) Moraes got by us. It was a tough first stint. We had about 8-10 laps on them (tires) from qualifying and they wore out pretty quick. We got caught out on strategy and we didn't have enough. Congratulations to Justin (Wilson). He drove a fantastic race and was unstoppable today. Ryan (Briscoe) and I had a great race at the end and thanks to the Target boys we had a good day." 

   Dixon now leads the title race on 313 points from Briscoe and Franchitti on 294 and in other IRL news, Will Power will be making his return to the Team Penske outfit for the next round in Toronto. Penske has announced that Power will get at least 5 more outings this year after filling in for Castro-Neves at the start of the season.

   The Toronto race is one of five in which Power will compete this season. He's also scheduled to race at Edmonton (July 26), Kentucky Speedway (Aug. 1), Infineon Raceway (August 23) and Homestead-Miami Speedway (Oct. 10), joining Briscoe and Castroneves to create a formidable three-car lineup.

F3 – RICCIARDO STRONG AT SNETTERTON

  British F3 championship leader, West Australian Daniel Ricciardo has extended his points lead after a pair of 2nd place finishes at Snetterton. As the series nears its half-way point the Red Bull Carlin driver leads Austrian Walter Grubmuller by a handy 23 points.  

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   After a mildly disappointing qualifying session Ricciardo started 4th in race one and 5th in race two and his two second placings extended his title lead over both the weekends race winners. A good start in race one saw Daniel in third place dicing with Henry Arundel behind race leader Renger van der Zande. Arundel suffered a gear selector problem at two-thirds distance which saw the young Aussie sweep by into second but he was unable to close the gap to van der Zande who took a comfortable 3.8 second win.

   Ricciardo made another excellent start to the second race to move into 3rd early on and when race leader Grubmuller tried unsuccessfully to defend his place from Fortec driver Riki Christodoulou it put him on the wrong line for the next corner and Ricciardo was able to snatch second place from him down the back straight on lap 3. Unable to do anything about Christodoulou in front Ricciardo had to fend off the determined efforts of Grubmuller for the rest of the race crossing the line just 0.7 seconds ahead of the Austrian. 

  Ricciardo now has 119 points with Grubmuller 2^nd on 96, ahead of van der Zande with 85 and

Christodoulou on 81.

EASTERN CREEK HISTORICS

  Over the first weekend of May the HSRCA put on another superbly organized historic      motor racing event and with almost 200 cars in action it seemed as if it was a minor version       of their Tasman Revival meeting. With everything from Production Touring cars to pedigree      F1 open wheelers there was something for everyone. If old pre and just post war racers        with their spindly wire wheels are your thing, you got it. If Formula Vees give you a buzz,       then   a buzz you got. If you like more musscle get get ripped by the sound of a Falcon GT        or a Torana A9X, or you just wanted to see one of the only just slightly insane 1000 plus horsepower turbocharged F1 cars of the mid eighties, then you got that as well.

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 Saturday was divided as usual into practice in the morning and races in the afternoon, but            in an unusual twist, the main race of the weekend, a 25 lap enduro for production sports       cars, including a driver change, was held on the first day. With a huge field that included       almost a dozen Porsche 911s it was no real surprise that one of the German cars ended on      pole in the hands of John Smith. It was another 911 that won the race however, with Terry   Laylor and Wayne Seabrook coming home just five seconds ahead of the Datsun 240Z of    James Flett and Wayne Potts while David Withers held onto third with John Smith in the         pole winning Porsche.

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   In an equally packed Production Touring Car tussle Allan Reid took out all three 8 lap         races in his thundering 1971 Ford Falcon GT while back in the pack there was some       ferocious scrapping between an adventurously driven Ford Cortina piloted by Kerry          Hughes and at least one equally determined Hillman Imp in the hands of David Roberts.It        may have only been for 22^nd place but it was great fun to watch.

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   Even if you are a regular at such meetings there is almost always something that you have       not seen for a very long time and in this case for me it was one of the enormous Ansett sponsered Elfin MS7s in the hands of Rob Tweedie. This 5 litre beast from the early 70’s       took an easy pole in the sports car race and won both of the first 2 races out of three. Rob       did not start the final race of the meeting. 

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   There are also some enormously important cars being given a good run at these meetings,     such as the 1959 Cooper T51 used by Alec Mildren to win the 1960 Australian Grand Prix although it now has a Coventry Climax engine in the back. In period, Mildren was powered      by a Maserati. Also in use was Alan Jones second last Grand Prix car, the Lola THL-1          with its 1.5 litre Hart turbo engine. Not what you’d call a front-runner at the time as it rearly finished but with the turbo wound down it still looks and sounds very much the business.

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    In all, a wonderfully relaxed and fun weekend. The HSRCAs next meeting should be a      biggie with the clubs last outing on the full Grand Prix circuit at OranPark before that super    venue closes it’s doors. That is set down for June 27-28 and if you want to have one last        look at some of the great cars that ran on that great circuit, I guarantee it will be worth the      very small admission price.

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Sam Snape   

F3 - RICCIARDO 3 FROM 4

  WA’s Daniel Ricciardo continued to dominate the British Formula 3 championship at Silverstone last weekend. Daniel has now scored three wins from the first four races to cement his position as title favorite. 

  After dominating the practice session on Friday Ricciardo had an accident in qualifying for race one and started only 11th. He was pipped by Carlin Team-mate Max Chilton for pole in race two but still lined up second on the grid for the third time this year. 

  Starting race one in 11th was always going to be a handicap however Ricciardo got a flyer of a start to run sixth early on and once he got past Daisuke Nakajima on lap 3 he quickly closed on Riki Christodoulou and the pair battled for fourth place for the rest of the race. Ricciardo was unable to find a way past the Fortec driver and had to settle for fifth place. The race was won by Dutchman Renger van der Zande from Chilton and Adriano Buzaid.   

                   Normal service was resumed in race two as the two Carlin drivers stormed away from the field running in grid order. As the race wore on Chilton began to suffer from oversteer and Ricciardo pulled of a ballsy move, overtaking his team-mate around the outside of Stowe corner with a few laps to go. A lap later Chilton was also passed by Riki Christodoulou and he struggled home in third place.

A1GP - Ireland Wins A1GP Title in Style

Brands Hatch, Great Britain – A1 Team Ireland lifted the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport trophy high above Brands Hatch today after the perfect weekend for the team and its driver, Adam Carroll. They completely dominated the weekend from the time they took to the track on Friday.  Two poles, victory in the Sprint race and then another lights-to-flag win in the Feature race was the perfect end for them to the 2008/09 championship.

After an aborted start when South Africa’s Alan van der Merwe stalled on the grid, the race finally got underway with Carroll getting off the line to lead into Paddock Hill Bend. As the field came through the first corner an incident involving China, USA and India left China and India in the gravel and out the race and brought out the Safety Car as the cars came round to complete the first lap. USA’s John R Hildebrand Jr limped back to the pits for a new nose cone but rejoined the race.

The order behind the Safety Car was Ireland from Monaco, Netherlands, Switzerland, Portugal, New Zealand, Australia, France, Great Britain and Italy.

Ireland had a good run out of the final corner on the restart to come across the line 0.653-seconds ahead of the chasing pack. Further down the field Mexico’s Salvador Duran took tenth from Italy’s Vitantonio Liuzzi.

By the end of lap five Carroll had a 1.424-second lead before New Zealand’s Earl Bamber spun Black Beauty into the gravel and out of the race at Westfield.

As the pit window opened for the first round of stops race-leader Ireland was the first to dive in, closely followed by Portugal. Another slick pit stop from the Irish crew saw Carroll safely back out in the lead. Switzerland and Netherlands came in a lap later with Monaco opting to stay out a lap extra. The strategy didn’t work, however, as Clivio Piccione fell to fifth after the stops.

Mexico had a good stop to get out in front of Australia with the order on lap fifteen now Ireland 6.956-seconds from Netherlands, Switzerland, Portugal, Monaco, Mexico, Australia, Great Britain, Italy and Lebanon.

Great Britain’s Dan Clarke was flying on home soil placing his car perfectly on the inside of Paddock hill Bend to take seventh from John Martin. He then began attacking Mexico for sixth while Netherlands started to close the gap to Ireland up ahead.

On lap 26 Germany’s Michael Ammermüller rolled to a halt bringing his season to an early end. Ireland was now being held up by USA’s Hildebrand as Carroll came round to lap the American car.

Malaysia Aaron Lim ran wide and crashed out at druids bringing a disappointing end to his weekend just as the second mandatory pit window opened.

Ireland was first to come in again to get a new set of tyres along with South Africa, Lebanon, Indonesia and Mexico. Great Britain and the Netherlands made their stops a lap later with orange car remaining in second despite Ireland having a slightly slower stop this time around.

John Martin was flying in Jackeroo giving Australia the fastest lap, with a 1m 12.754s, which he beat a couple of laps later recording a 1m 12.698s. 

Ireland was in control at the front but there was a great battle for third with Switzerland holding off Monaco and Portugal. Great Britain’s’ Dan Clarke was also putting pressure on Mexico for sixth.

With five laps to go the order was Ireland from Netherlands, Switzerland, Monaco, Portugal, Mexico, Great Britain, Australia, Italy and France.

Carroll held his nerve to bring the Celtic Tiger across the line to take victory by 10.156-seconds from the Netherlands and Switzerland, and with it sealed the team’s maiden A1GP title. Irelandhad been in control all weekend, claiming two pole positions yesterday which were both converted into wins today.

After an amazing season of A1GP racing the title went right down to the final race with A1GP Chairman, Tony Teixeira, presenting A1 Team Ireland’s seat holder Mark Gallagher and an elated Adam Carroll with the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport trophy in front of the cheering crowds. Neel Jani’s third place finish secured the runner-up spot in this year’s championship. Portugal’s Filipe Albuquerque came home in fifth to give them third place in the final championship rankings.

Ireland’s Adam Carroll said: “It was a perfect weekend for us, it’s what we needed to come here to do, it was the plan so it really did come through. We knew by the pace we set in Portugal that if we came here and everything worked out ok we would be really hard to beat, and that was the way it worked out so it couldn’t have been better.

“I didn’t get a great start again, it’s really hard to start from pole, but I knew if I stayed where I was there wouldn’t be any bumping in to each other.

“In the second pit stop the team were nothing to do with why we were slow, the guys did their job but had to hold me because Switzerland was coming in and if they had let me go it would have been very dangerous so we lost some time.

“The team are just unbelievable, they are the best team on the face of this earth in motorsport and I believe that fully. Their commitment is second to none and we are the best in this pit lane. These guys left on Friday night after 29 hours in the pit lane, that says it all.”

Jereon Bleekemolen, who came in second today said: “We started working together with Ireland this season and obviously they are very strong, but I think we have a great group of people too. It was great working with them and I think we both took advantage of that. We have had some bad luck and I’ve been sharing a car with Robert Doornbos. If it goes your way you are fighting for the championship, but we’ve had a few races that didn’t go our way although we can be happy with the season.”

Switzerland’s Neel Jani said: “It was bad luck in the Feature, but on the other hand I am happy because we finally found some pace this weekend as we have been struggling since Friday. This morning we were way too slow to win any championship in the world so I am really happy that in the end this afternoon we were somewhere around even though we had a broken exhaust.

“It had been interesting, lots of close battles, especially within the points. I knew it would be hard to win the title here against Ireland because last year they were very quick and we struggled. I would have liked to have come here with a bigger points lead and I think one of the biggest mistakes was in Malaysia in the Feature race when I spun it. Ireland did a great job though, they had a fantastic year and if I don’t win, I don’t mind if they win.”

Feature Race Results

Fastest lap: A1 Team Australia set the fastest lap (1m12.698s) of the Feature race with a speed of 183.4kph on lap 36.

Final 2008/09 A1GP World Cup of Motorsport points standings