Around the tracks November 27 2009

JASON Bargwanna has locked down a drive for the 2010 V8 Supercar season, joining Kelly Racing in one of the family team's Holden Commodores. Bargwanna loses his drive soon with the closure of Sprint Gas Racing but becomes the third Bathurst winner at the Kelly team alongside brothers Rick and Todd. His current team mate Greg Murphy is now expected to move to Super Cheap Racing in 2010 alongside Russell Ingall in a Commodore sponsored by Castrol.

KEVIN Weeks and Bec Crunkhorn did it again in the tragic Classic Adelaide rally last weekend, scoring their third straight victory in a Porsche 911. The pair considered withdrawing after the fatal crash of Glen Tierney and David Carra, but carried on to the finish as Allan Simonsen won the modern category in a Mitsubishi Evo and Rob Devenish took the classic category.

Gabriele Tarquini clinched his first World Touring Car Championship in Macau on Sunday driving a Seat, defeating his team mate and defending champion Yvan Muller. Tarquini was only fifth for the weekend but the one-time Bathurst V8 racer, who competed for TeamVodafone in 2008, picked up enough points to edge Muller - who has also raced at Bathurst with Triple Eight Racing - in the battle for the driver's championship.

CHAD Reed took the lead in the Super X motocross championship with a clean sweep of the second-last round at Waikato in New Zealand last weekend. He heads to the grand final in Brisbane on December 5 with a 14-point lead over Dan Reardon after dominating on his Monster Kawasaki, taking 80 points in NZ from Tye Simmonds on a KTM and Reardon on his Honda.

JUNIOR go-kart racers will get an elite championship series in 2010 when the baby class is returned to the four rounds of the official Australian CIK Championship. The KF3 category, formerly Junior Intercontinental, will be added to the KF2 and KZ2 titles in the championship program as karting officials look for a junior to succeed the likes of Ryan Briscoe, Michael Caruso, Tim Slade and Andrew Thompson as previous winners of the championship.

THE Alannah and Madeline Foundation, set up following the massacre at Port Arthur in 1996, is the official charity of the 2010 Australian Grand Prix. The Foundation will received the proceeds from the official auction at the grand prix ball, to be held at Crown on Friday, March 26 next year.

FORMER V8 Supercar team boss John Briggs has called time on his motorsport career because of a health problem. Briggs had just returned to the Australian GT Championship as a driver and agent for the Mosler sports car brand.

V8 Supercars will race under lights for the first time at Yas Marina in the Middle East at the start of the 2010 championship season. The format for the meeting on February 18-20 will follow the successful pattern of the Abu Dhabi grand prix last month, with a day-night competition that will see the Falcons and Commodores blazing through dusk and into a fully-lit after-dark finale.