Around the tracks January 23 2009

Brooke Tatnell has done it. For the seventh time he is the World Series Sprintcar champion, after running hard and fast through this year's summer speedway season for the Krikke Motorsport team out of Perth. The transplanted Sydneysider, who now spends most of his time in the USA, was only seventh in the WSS final in Sydney but it was good enough for the title and a championship which ties Max Dumsney's seven-win record in the series.

Chad Reed is leading the World-AMA supercross series after recovering from a first-lap crash to finish second in the latest round at Anaheim Stadium in Los Angeles. James Stewart won his second straight race for Yamaha but Reed tore through the field on his Suzuki and even made a last-corner pass to move up to second on the night.

Chris Atkinson has begun testing with Citroen ahead of his switch from Subaru in the first round of this year's World Rally Championship in Ireland. After completing 180 kilometres in an identical Citroen C4 to the one used by five-time world champion Sebastian Loeb, Atkinson says: "You can really get a lot more out of the harder you drive. It's amazing how aggressively you can attack corners, yet it all stays very balanced and straight."

The return of the World Rally Championship to Australia will include a special event for classic rally cars from the final week of August. The event has been put together by the veteran team of Bob Watson, Phil Bernadou, Tom Snooks and Phil Rainer and will start on August 30 in the NSW town of Forbes before reaching Tweed Heads to coincide with the start of the new Repco Rally Australia. The event is open to a range of historic rally cars, production rally cars and recreational four-wheel drives.

Followers of the A1GP championship, which comes to the Gold Coast for the first time later this year, can now follow the action with a new on-line view. A1GP has created a 'Dashboard' which allows fans to pick up everything from real-time position maps and a dashboard feed from any of the cars alongside its live television streaming at

Entries for the Phillip Island Classic Motorsport Festival from March 13-15 have already topped 400 cars with several weeks before the cut- off on February 13. Around 500 sports, racing and touring cars are expected for the 2009 event, which will include a range of milestones from the 100th anniversary of the Morgan car to the 50th anniversary of Elfin cars, the 50th birthday of the Mini and the 40th birthday of Formula Ford.

Drag racer Nino Cavallo has just upgraded to a Dodge Stratus which was run by the Chrysler factory team in the USA. Cavallo, the reigning Australian Super Stock champion, is planning a series of shakedown events with the car before stepping up to the professional Pro Stock class in Australia.

Honda Australia has withdrawn from Superbike racing. Despite winning last year's national title with Glenn Allerton on the all-new CBR1000RR the company has withdrawn because of the economic uncertainty in 2009, although Motologic boss Paul Free intends to continue racing with the team's existing sponsors.

Victorian kart star David Sera is making a splash in the USA after wins in Florida with his 125cc Rotax racer. He claimed a lead-up event before winning the opening round of the 11th annual Florida Winter Tour driving an Australian-made Arrow chassis.