Around the tracks May 29 2009

Power play

Will Power was the best-placed Australian in the Indianapolis 500, finishing fifth for Penske as his team mate Helio Castroneves took his third victory at the Brickyard. Power was in contention for a while but faded like Ryan Briscoe, who only managed 15th after a tyre problem ten a late fuel stop for the third Penske car dropped him way back in the pack.

Latvala bests Loeb

CRASH-prone Jari-Matti Latvala finally ended Sebastian Loeb's winning streak in the world rally championship with victory in Sardinia last weekend. Latvala was helped when Loeb lost a minute changing a tyre then another four with a penalty, but still came home on top in his Ford Focus with his team mate Mikko Hirvonen second and Petter Solberg third in his private Citroen.

Kelly joins 100 Club

RICK Kelly becomes the youngest member of the '100 Club' this weekend in Tasmania when he makes his 100th V8 Supercar start with Jack Daniels Racing. Ironically, the former champion will be taking the 'youngest' title from his older brother, Todd.

Castroneves wins pitstop challenge

HELIO Castroneves got an early victory in Indy 500 week when he and his Penske team won the pitstop challenge. The team took just 7.962 seconds to change four tyres in the final, when they beat Marco Andretti of Andretti-Green Racing, but they needed to set a record of 7.636 seconds in the semi-final to beat their Penske team mates on Ryan Briscoe's car.

Davison improves

JAMES Davison was sixth in the Indy Lights curtain-raiser to the Indy 500, four places better than his starting spot for the event. "A sixth-place finish is definitely nothing to be ashamed of," Davison says.

Finke practice for Dakar team

BRUCE Garland and Harry Suzuki begin their build-up to the 2010 Dakar Rally next month with a start in Australia's biggest off-road event, the Finke Desert Race at Alice Springs. The Isuzu D-Max crew will be out to better their 11th place in this year's Dakar and, as one of the favourites for the Finke, intend to test new go-fast parts during the Northern Territory sprint.

Martin solid in Monaco

Australia's A1GP regular John Martin took a solid 12th at Monaco in his first Renault 3.5 race. The youngster is looking for more openwheel experience and took up a guest drive in one of the supporting races at the biggest F1 event of the season.

FIA GT and DTM on TV

THE motorsport content on the new ONE HD channel has been boosted by coverage of two classes not previously seen in Australia. The FIA GT series, for road-going sports cars, and the DTM, or German touring car championship, have just been added to the channel for their 2009 seasons.

GT race joins V8 Supercar rounds

GT sports cars have joined the support race program for the two biggest V8 Supercar events of 2009. The Australian GT championship will now run on the undercard at the Bathurst 1000 and the new Telstra 500 at Homebush in Sydney.