Around the tracks…June 12 2009

A weekly wrap of motorsport from around the world.

A weekly wrap of motorsport from around the world.

PHIL Lamattina was the big winner from the Winternationals in Brisbane when he scooped both the Top Fuel championship and individual victory at the biggest drag race meeting of the season. John Zappia took Top Doorslammer, Aaron Hambridge won Top Alcohol as Gary Philips took his 14th national title, Shane Tucker won Pro Stock as Aaron Tremayne won the championship, and Athol Williams cleaned up in Top Bike.

CRAIG Lowndes showed what a V8 Supercar can do over a quarter mile in a series of match races with his TeamVodafone team mate Jamie Whincup at the Winternationals. Lowndes put his car down the strip in 10.81 seconds with a terminal speed of 134 miles-an-hour (215km/h).

CRASH magnet James Courtney will be back in his regular BF Falcon when the V8 Supercar championship continues in Darwin, despite another big smash in Tasmania. Courtney's car needed massive repairs after the opening round in Adelaide but this time around the work was less extensive than expected and he plans to stay out of trouble by running closer to the front in Darwin."I've been quick at every track in terms of car speed and lap times, so it's been frustrating my race results haven't been more consistent. My car is very competitive, so hopefully things will turn around in Darwin," says Courtney.

A performance product expo will be part of the program for the Sydney Telstra 500 when the V8 Supercar grand final runs from December 4-6.

The 'supershow' will be staged indoors at the Homebush dome and potential exhibitors should contact the organisers at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

MARCOS Ambrose was an excellent sixth in the latest Sprint Cup race on the Nascar tour, at Pocono Raceway in Pennsylvania. The result moved him up to 18th in the title standings with his Toyota Camry.

A single slow pitstop cost Ryan Briscoe an Indy Racing League win at Texas Speedway last weekend. The Australian still managed second behind his Penske team mate Helio Castroneves and leads the IRL pointscore from the defending series champion, New Zealander Scott Dixon.

DAVID Fellows and Andrew Kittle became repeat winners when they drove their Jimco-Toyota buggy to victory in the 2009 running of the Finke Desert Race. The pair had to recover from a broken throttle cable to beat out Mark Burrows and Colin Hodge in a Jimco-Honda, while the extreme two-wheel drive category went to Geoff and Lize Roe in a Chevy pickup.

Daniel Ricciardo still leads the British Formula 3 championship despite a pair of disappointing results in the latest round at Hockenheim in Germany. Ricciardo was fourth in the first of two heats but only eighth in the second, a significant drop from his early- season winning streak.

CODY Crocker stretched his lead in the Asia-Pacific Rally Championship in New Zealand last weekend in an event which exactly mirrored the results of the first event in Queensland. Crocker and Ben Atkinson were first in their Subaru Impreza, heading Katsu Taguchi of Mitsubishi and their Subaru team mates Emma Gilmour and Rhiannon Smyth at the end of the International Rally of Whangarei.