OCTOBER 23, 2006

Here and there

It was a busy weekend for motorsport around the world with the Champ Car title being settled in Australia, F1 coming to a head in Brazil and the NASCAR boys turning their championship standings upside-down at Martinsville, Virginia.

Jimmie Johnson was back in the spotlight in NASCAR with victory in a crash-filled Subway 500. The victory jumped Johnson up to third in the title race, behind new leader Matt Kenseth, who finished 11th in the race. Also moving up is Kevin Harvick, who came home ninth in the race but is now just 36 points behind Kenseth. Moving to fourth in the title race is rookie Denny Hamlin, who was second to Johnson at Martinsville, while the big loser of the weekend was former points leader Jeff Burton who went out of the race with engine trouble and is now fifth in the championship ranking. There are still three others in the running for the Nextel Cup with Dale Earnhardt Jr, Mark Martin and Kasey Kahne all having a mathematical chance to win.

Over in Japan the Formula Nippon teams wrapped up their season at Motegi with champion Benoit Treluyer leading him team mate Tsugio Matsuda in a Team Impul 1-2 in their Toyota-powered cars, with another Toyota runner Tatsuya Kataoka third in his Team Le Mans entry.