Around the tracks August 21 2009

CHAD Reed can almost taste the victory champagne as he closes on an AMA outdoor motocross series victory in the USA. He rode his 450cc Suzuki to another 1-1 result at Unadilla in California last weekend, his fourth win of the season, and now has an almost unbeatable lead with just three races to run.

CODY Crocker will come to Repco Rally Australia fresh from a dominant win in the Rally of Malaysia with Ben Atkinson alongside in his Subaru WRX. The Aussie crew continued their clean sweep of the Asia-Pacific championship series and were helped when their two closest rivals, Katsu Taguchi and Karamjit Singh, both crashed into retirement and left Crocker's team mate Emma Gilmour to follow him home last weekend.

DANIEL Ricciardo is closing fast on the prestigious British Formula 3 championship after his fifth win of the season, this time at Silverstone, last weekend. He backed the victory with third place in the other heat at the home of the British Grand Prix to extend his series lead in his Carlin Motorsport-run Dallara-VW.

WORLD touring car champion Andy Priaulx will be passing on tips to youngster David Reynolds when they share the Bundaberg Rum-backed Commodore at Phillip Island and Bathurst. Their pairing is part of the Walkinshaw Motorsport attack on the V8 Supercar classics which sees pairings of Garth Tander-Will Davison and Paul Dumbrell-Craig Baird at the Holden Racing Team, with Steve Owen-Shane Price in the Autobarn entry.

Marcos Ambrose rebounded from his dominant form on the road course at Watkins Glen with a disappointing 35th place in the latest round of the Nascar Sprint Cup at the high-speed Michigan International Speedway. Ambrose could only qualify 26th and battled a poor handling car all day, although he is still 17th in series points.

RISING star Daniel Erickson added a second, fifth and sixth to his results in the British Formula Ford championship at Silverstone last weekend. He actually qualified on pole position for the first of three races and scored enough points to be second for the weekend and is sixth in the series.

CHRIS Wootton remains second in the Formula BMW Asia championship despite a disastrous weekend at Sentul. He was quick in practice and qualifying but had two mechanical failures before a seventh and a sixth place from the four races held in Indonesia.