Standings: Rodrigo Sperafico 16, Giorgio Pantano and Sebastien Bourdais 14, Mario Haberfeld 8, Tomas Enge and Ricardo Mauricio 7, Antonio Pizzonia 6, Bjorn Wirdheim, Patrick Friesacher and Enrico Toccacelo 2

  CART

Junqueira Breaks Ford Motegi

For the four years that CART has visited Motegi in Japan, the Japanese engine manufacturers have been frustrated from victory as Ford Cosworth held a stranglehold on the event. It got to the point the Honda powered teams were offered massive financial incentives to win Honda's home race. Ford dominance of the Japanese Superspeedway was broken, but nobody claimed the Honda incentives.

Bruno Junqueira took the victory for the Target-backed Chip Ganassi Racing team, allowing Toyota to claim a major coup over its local rival in what will be Toyota's last appearance at Motegi before refocusing its efforts on the IRL for 2003. Junqueira was able to finish the race when other quicker drivers didn't.

Paul Tracy and Tony Kanaan made the race's early running, indeed Junqueira didn't hit the lead for the first time until lap 101. Tracy and Kanaan dominated the race. Kanaan took the lead at the flagfall leading until the first yellow when Jimmy Vasser caught fire just past the pit exit. With the first pit cycle just completed several teams took the option at the yellow to take a top up. Michael Andretti, Dario Franchitti and Cristiano da Matta hesitated a lap before pitting.

A precaution after the dreadful accident to Alex Zanardi at Lausitzring last year saw the pit lane speed limit extended all the way to turn 2, effectively lengthening the pits by a huge amount. With three drivers pitting as the race went green, da Matta dropped a lap, and Franchitti was lapped by his Team Kool Green teammate a lap later. With Andretti most of a lap down, he'd need another yellow to get back to pace.

The yellow didn't come and the second pit cycle was completed under green. Shortly after Tracy's second stop the Lola-Honda ground to a halt with bearing failure. Carpentier dropped from the lead battle after being ordered by race officials to take penalties for pit lane infringements. Twice.

Kanaan now led from Junqueira, Townsend Bell, Alex Tagliani and Kenny Brack with Brack out of the pit cycle. Brack took his stop but retired shortly after. Cars dropped from the lead lap with monotonous regularity. Junqueira took the lead for good on lap 199. Within two laps Kanaan was gone with engine failure.

As the fourth pit cycle began Townsend Bell started to have problems. Less than ten laps later Bell twitched on the run into turn 3, partially recovered then spun and slammed the outside wall. He was fifth at the time and as high as second only a few laps earlier in a vastly impressive drive for Patrick Racing's rookie. Bell sustained nothing worse than bruises in the accident.

This reduced the effective opposition to Alex Tagliani. Junqueira started smoking and pitted on schedule for his fifth stop. After the stop Junqueira hunted down Tagliani and took the lead on lap 167. Six laps later Tagliani found he couldn't stay with Junqueira. The Chip Ganassi team was able to comfortably pit Junqueira, relinquishing the lead to Dario Franchitti, who was due for a stop.

Junqueira took the win having lapped all bar Tagliani. The survivors came in dribs and drabs after that.

Result of FedEx CART World Series, Round 3, Motegi, Japan:

Pos  Driver                Car
 1.  Bruno Junqueira       Lola-Toyota
 2.  Alex Tagliani         Reynard-Ford
 3.  Dario Franchitti      Reynard-Honda
 4.  Patrick Carpentier    Reynard-Ford
 5.  Michel Jourdain Jr    Lola-Ford
 6.  Oriol Servia          Lola-Toyota
 7.  Adrian Fernandez      Lola-Honda
 8.  Toranosuke Takagi     Reynard-Toyota
 9.  Scott Dixon           Lola-Toyota
10.  Shinji Nakano         Lola-Honda

Standings: Dario Franchitti 34, Michel Jourdain Jr 32, Cristiano da Matta 27, Alex Tagliani 26, Bruno Junqueira 23, Michael Andretti 22, Max Papis and Patrick Carpentier 18, Jimmy Vasser 17, Christian Fittipaldi 15 etc

  IRL

Next Stop: Indianapolis

The month of May has begun, and that means the Indianapolis 500 is here. It's a quality entry field this year, headed by the Marlboro-backed Team Penske. Helio Castroneves and Gil de Ferran will line up in the team's two Dallara-Chevrolets. IRL series leader Sam Hornish Jr will be fronting the factory Chevrolet effort, Panther Racing. Meanwhile, Beck Motorsports has glamour signing Johnny Herbert aboard its Dallara.

Chip Ganassi Racing will be fronting a three car team for their now usual one-off IRL appearance. The team's two CART drivers, Bruno Junquiera and Kenny Brack lead the team with Jeff Ward drafted in to drive the third Target GForce-Chevrolet. Last start winner Scott Sharp has former winner Al Unser Jr alongside him at Kelley Racing.

Other CART outfits racing include Team Rahal whose Dallara-Chevrolet will be driven by regular driver Jimmy Vasser, while Mo Nunn has a car for Tony Kanaan and another for Felipe Giaffone, and finally Team Green has its full three car team of Paul Tracy and Dario Franchitti in the Team Kool Green cars and Michael Andretti in the Motorola car.

IRL stalwart A.J. Foyt has a collection of Dallara-Chevrolets for Greg Ray and Airton Dare, with Dare wearing A.J.'s beloved #14. Carrying the banner for Nissan-Infiniti is the Red Bull-backed Cheever Racing. Former winner Eddie Cheever will drive his car again along with regular teammate Tomas Scheckter, whilst Max Papis has been drafted in to drive the team's third car.

Team Menard will race with Robby Gordon and PJ Jones. Jones is substituting for the injured Jaques Lazier, and Buddy Lazier leads the Hemelgarn Racing team.

The Indy 500 will be held on May 26.

  NASCAR

Jimmie Johnson First at Fontana

Winston Cup rookie Jimmie Johnson won his first Winston Cup race in just his thirteenth start in the series at the event at California Speedway. Johnson's Chevrolet just edged out Kurt Busch's Ford as the two fastest cars on the day finished the race in the top two positions, showing youth triumphing over experience.

Polesitter Ryan Newman just failed to lead the first lap, Kurt Busch just edging him out, Newman leading the second a few laps before Dale Jarrett took the lead from him. As Jarrett led, the field behind him shuffled positions but couldn't run with Jarrett, until lap 18, when Michael Waltrip took the lead just as Shawna Robinson spun in turn 4 bringing out the first caution.

Rookie Jimmie Johnson took the lead after the pit stops, and pulled out a lead over the field as they ran until the next round of pit stops beginning on lap 65. After the pit stops, the top two drivers swapped position, Kurt Busch leading from Jimmie Johnson, Busch extending his lead to over 6 seconds by lap 100. At this point only 18 of the 43 starters remained on the lead lap. The next round of pit stops began at about lap 110, with Busch maintaining and then stretching his lead.

By lap 140 the top twelve cars were the only ones remaining on the lead lap as Busch extended his lead to over 14 seconds. Ricky Craven then brought out the yellow as he hit the turn two wall. After the pit stops Dale Jarrett took the lead for the second time, with Kurt Busch dropping to second during the stops. Matt Kenseth brought out the next caution soon after as he kissed the turn two wall. Places shuffled at this point as some cars took two tyres, some took four tyres and some didn't even make a pit stop, including Dave Blaney, who became the new race leader.

Despite his older tyres, Blaney held onto the lead and moved clear of the field, as Busch soon returned to second place and Jimmie Johnson moved up towards the front again. After closing in on the leader, Busch passed Blaney for the lead with just under 70 laps remaining. With 60 laps remaining Jeff Gordon was forced to pit early from fifth as some plastic covered the air intake, putting him a lap down, a lap he would get back provided everyone else pitted before a further yellow came out.

Unfortunately for Gordon, within a couple of laps Jeremy Mayfield rolled to a stop, bringing out the caution. After the pit stops Jarrett led once again, ahead of Busch in second again. Busch retook the lead just after the restart, but as the leaders diced with the cars trying to stay on the lead lap, Jarrett took the lead back from Busch. Jarrett continued to lead as he tried to lap Johnny Benson, allowing Jarrett's teammate Ricky Rudd closed on to his bumper, Busch on Rudd's tail, and Blaney moving on to Busch's tail. With 36 laps to go Jimmie Johnson made it a five way battle for the lead, a Chevrolet moving onto the tail of four Fords. The next lap Johnson moved to fourth.

With 31 laps remaining it became a battle of four cars, Busch edging ahead of Jarrett, and Johnson moving up to third, which became second a lap later, Busch and Johnson making it a two-way battle for the lead. With 21 laps remaining Kevin Harvick and Dale Earnhardt Jr made contact as Harvick attempted to turn in to pit lane, sending Earnhardt Jr into the wall at over 200 km/h, bringing out the caution.

This saw drivers take the opportunity to take on some fuel to take them to the chequered flag. Most took two tyres, at least one took four tyres while Johnson just took fuel, keeping him in second behind Bill Elliott who took the lead by not stopping at all! Elliott's lead didn't last long, with Johnson and Rudd passing him as they headed down the back straight on the first lap after the restart. Busch, who dropped down to fourth at the caution, was soon back up to third as Johnson and Rudd fought up front.

With ten laps to go, Busch zoomed onto Rudd's tail, but Busch's superior corner speed was being offset by Rudd's straightline speed, Busch finally making it though to second with three laps remaining. Three laps wasn't long enough for Busch to get close enough to Johnson to threaten him, let alone pass, and so rookie Jimmie Johnson took his first Winston Cup win in just his thirteenth start in the category.

Points leader Sterling Marlin finished seventh, chances of a better finish dashed when he kissed the wall exiting turn four with less than 100 laps to go, while Matt Kenseth dropped from second to third in points, finishing 20th after hitting the wall during the race. 2001 series champ Jeff Gordon finished 16th after losing the lap at the second last caution.

Result of NASCAR Winston Cup, Round 10, Fontana; California, United States:

Pos  Driver             Car
 1.  Jimmie Johnson     Chevrolet Monte Carlo
 2.  Kurt Busch         Ford Taurus
 3.  Ricky Rudd         Ford Taurus
 4.  Bill Elliott       Dodge Intrepid
 5.  Mark Martin        Ford Taurus
 6.  Dale Jarrett       Ford Taurus
 7.  Sterling Marlin    Dodge Intrepid
 8.  Rusty Wallace      Ford Taurus
 9.  Dave Blaney        Ford Taurus
10.  Michael Waltrip    Chevrolet Monte Carlo

Standings: Sterling Marlin 1515, Kurt Busch 1372, Matt Kenseth 1363, Rusty Wallace 1354, Jimmie Johnson 1352, Mark Martin 1292, Jeff Gordon 1283, Ricky Rudd 1279, Dale Earnhardt Jr 1233, Tony Stewart 1214

  V8 Supercars

Skaife's Eastern Creek Elation

At Eastern Creek, there were signs that HRT's dominance over the series may be ending as Holden and Ford drivers ran with the HRT cars. Unfortunately, this didn't stop HRT's Mark Skaife winning all three races of round three, extending his mammoth lead even further as he won the event for the fourth year in succession. His points tally is now exactly double that of second place in the championship, Greg Murphy, while Skaife's teammate Jason Bright languishes in ninth after a weekend that was not the best for reasons beyond his control.

The first race of the weekend was a twilight sprint race, held the day previous to the two other 150 km long races, these races featuring a compulsory stop for tyres. Polesitter Mark Skaife led the field away as the top three held their position, Marcos Ambrose in second and privateer John Faulkner in third, his highest ever qualifying position, and much higher than in recent times. Up front Skaife held off Ambrose who made a break on Faulkner, who had Greg Murphy and Russell Ingall close behind.

Further back, Bright was running in tenth after a relatively poor qualifying session saw him start the race in eleventh when he suffered a rare HRT failure, his engine failing and putting him out of the race and to the back of the grid for race two. Up front, Skaife edged away from Ambrose to take the win ahead of Faulkner in third, while seventh to twelfth fought hard, finishing the race separated by under three seconds.

Race two saw a great start by Murphy from fourth on the grid, going around Ambrose and challenging Skaife for the lead into the hairpin at turn two. The move was too ambitious however, Murphy running wide into the dirt and dropping down to thirteenth. At the back of the field, Bright made his compulsory stop on lap four in an attempt to pass cars by running on clear track, while up front it was Skaife edging away from Ambrose, with Ingall taking third from Faulkner into turn one on lap seven. Murphy pitted at this time, losing time as the rear right wheel nut didn't want to go on, while on the track Garth Tander passed Steve Ellery, moving Tander up to sixth.

Lap nine saw race leader Skaife in the pits, Ambrose taking over the lead before pitting next time around, resuming as before just behind Skaife, the lead now being held by Ingall ahead of Tander, Besnard and Lowndes, while those who pitted sat outside the top ten. Lap twelve and Besnard and Lowndes were in, Besnard holding on after the stop but was immediately penalised for a wheel going out into the fast lane during the stop. Lap 17 saw second place holder Ingall make his stop, handing the lead to Tander, who by lap 19 was the only car still ahead of Mark Skaife, who just like in race one had Marcos Ambrose menacing but unable to get close enough to think about making a pass.

Lap 22 and Tander pitted, returning the lead to Mark Skaife less than two seconds ahead of Ambrose, as Tander resumed in sixth. This became fifth three laps later when Ingall lost his right rear wheel, dropping him almost to the rear of the field. On lap 28 this became fourth when Tander passed Todd Kelly on the entry to Corporate Hill around the back of the circuit. Lowndes like Tander had benefitted by the pit stops, as Lowndes was now running in third place, well behind Ambrose but clear of Tander.

Over the remaining ten laps, Ambrose ran close to Skaife but never really threatened him, Skaife taking the win ahead of Ambrose and Lowndes. Jason Bright moved up to finish race two in 13th after starting 30th, while Ingall who ran as high as fourth after the pit stops were over finished in 29th. Qualifying and first race hero Faulkner slipped slightly down the field to sixth.

The final race saw the most exciting start of the weekend, with Ambrose beating fellow front row starter Skaife away, while Lowndes and Tander from the second row made even better starts, Lowndes taking the lead from Ambrose as they entered turn one, while Skaife and Tander entered the corner side by side before Skaife's inside line forced Tander to relent. Lowndes opened a small gap over Ambrose, while Skaife returned the favour from the earlier races, sitting right on Ambrose's rear bumper, while Tander closed in on Skaife and dropped away several times as Ambrose and Skaife battled.

On lap nine Skaife got alongside Ambrose but couldn't pass, while at the end of the lap the top three of Lowndes, Ambrose and Skaife all pitted, Tander becoming the new leader as none of the three that pitted managed to improve position relative to each other, although Murphy slotted between Lowndes and Ambrose, Murphy benefitting from his early tyre stop. Two laps later and it was Tander's turn to pit, returning to the track behind Skaife as Bright, Besnard, Wilson and Longhurst all took time at the front before making their pit stops. Lap fourteen saw Ambrose make his way past Murphy at the exit of the hairpin to move into the top ten, Skaife making his way past on the next lap.

Skaife's attack on Ambrose resumed once he passed Murphy, getting alongside Ambrose at the hairpin on lap 19 but unable to pass, allowing Tander to close in on Skaife once again. Lap 21 and Skaife tried at the hairpin again, and this time was successful, setting off after Lowndes who had pulled a couple of seconds clear of the battle. Later on lap 21 Tander also made his way past Ambrose, who slowly fell into the clutches of Murphy.

As the laps rolled on, Skaife closed in on Lowndes by a tenth or two or three per lap, which meant that Skaife would close right onto Lowndes's bumper in the last couple of laps, though whether Skaife would be able to make it past would be another matter. This all meant nothing when at the turn two hairpin on lap 33 Lowndes entered the corner too fast and ran off into the dirt, handing the lead to Skaife, before resuming in second about as far behind Skaife as he had been in front of him before the off.

That was how it remained, with Skaife taking the win from Lowndes, Tander, Ambrose and Murphy. Jason Bright continued his recovery through the field, finishing in 7th place, while Greg Ritter in his first solo race in the series finished in 11th after starting in 32nd place after failing to finish race two. However, John Faulkner's good weekend ended on a bad note, as he failed to finish the race.

Three rounds down, and all three to Skaife. Although HRT and Skaife were not as dominating at Eastern Creek as they were expected and feared to be, three wins from three is a pretty good result. The round did show that HRT and Skaife could be beaten, as other cars led races and matched the HRT's pace, but the real question is, will it actually happen? Will someone else win?

Result of V8Supercar Championship Series, Round 3; Eastern Creek, New South Wales, Australia:

Race One

Pos  Driver              Car
 1.  Mark Skaife         Holden Commodore VX
 2.  Marcos Ambrose      Ford Falcon AU
 3.  John Faulkner       Holden Commodore VT
 4.  Greg Murphy         Holden Commodore VX
 5.  Russell Ingall      Holden Commodore VX
 6.  Steve Ellery        Ford Falcon AU     
 7.  David Besnard       Ford Falcon AU     
 8.  Garth Tander        Holden Commodore VX
 9.  Craig Lowndes       Ford Falcon AU     
10.  Steven Richards     Holden Commodore VX

Race Two

Pos  Driver              Car
 1.  Mark Skaife         Holden Commodore VX
 2.  Marcos Ambrose      Ford Falcon AU
 3.  Craig Lowndes       Ford Falcon AU     
 4.  Garth Tander        Holden Commodore VX 
 5.  Todd Kelly          Holden Commodore VX 
 6.  John Faulkner       Holden Commodore VX 
 7.  Greg Murphy         Holden Commodore VX 
 8.  Steven Johnson      Ford Falcon AU      
 9.  Paul Radisich       Ford Falcon AU      
10.  John Bowe           Ford Falcon AU      

Race Three

Pos  Driver              Car
 1.  Mark Skaife         Holden Commodore VX
 2.  Craig Lowndes       Ford Falcon AU     
 3.  Garth Tander        Holden Commodore VX
 4.  Marcos Ambrose      Ford Falcon AU
 5.  Greg Murphy         Holden Commodore VX
 6.  Todd Kelly          Holden Commodore VX
 7.  Jason Bright        Holden Commodore VX
 8.  John Bowe           Ford Falcon AU     
 9.  Paul Radisich       Ford Falcon AU     
10.  Cameron McConville  Holden Commodore VX

Standings: Mark Skaife 820, Greg Murphy 410, Garth Tander 408, Marcos Ambrose 374, Craig Lowndes 355, Todd Kelly 341, Steven Richards 284, Steven Johnson 231, Jason Bright 217, Tony Longhurst 216

  Briefs

• The world of motorsport has been saddened by three deaths during the last week:

  - Bob Dorricott, owner of Dorricott Racing, a leading American racing team. In recent years Dorricott has been the dominant force in Indy Lights, and is presently the leading team in Toyota Atlantics, the lead support category of the CART support program. Dorricott has guided the careers of several drivers through the US support programs in recent years, including Oriol Servia, Casey Mears and Townsend Bell. The team is currently running Alex Gurney, Jon Fogarty and Luis Diaz.

  - Bob Akin, 66, died on Tuesday from severe spinal injuries after crashing last Friday. Dual Sebring 12 Hour winner Akin crashed his '88 Nissan GTP ZX sportscar at Road Atlanta after touching another car just past turn 2. He finished fourth at Le Mans in 1984. He was driving the Nissan in preparation for a historic event at Road Atlanta.

  - Liam Magee was killed when he fell from his superbike and struck a wall while trying to qualify for the Australian Superbike event at Mallala near Adelaide, Australia. The teenager had been spotted as a future star. Magee was the nephew of former factory Suzuki 500cc rider and Grand Prix winner, Kevin Magee.

• CART has brought in a rule change for 2003 which will limit the opportunities teams will have for testing. For the 2003 season teams will only be allowed eight days of testing per driver/car combination. Only two of those test days will be free for the team to decide where and when, with the other six to be at organised CART testing days.

• Harri Rovanpera won the Mexican Rally by almost an hour, the event being a non-championship event. It's possible the event may join the WRC next year however, and it also gave Peugeot a chance to run Rovanpera as a lead driver away from the pressures of the world championship. Carlos Izquierdo was second in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo V.

• Stefan Johansson has signed with ORECA. The 1997 Le Mans winner will join the 1991 Le Mans-winning team to run the Judd-powered car at the June classic. Johansson signed with ORECA after his own Audi R8 was denied an entry.

• Eric van de Poele had a massive shunt at Paul Ricard last week while testing a Bentley EXP Speed 8. The Bentley flipped over in a straight line while running down the Mistral Straight in a replica of the dramatic Mercedes accidents at Le Mans three years ago. Van de Poele walked away from the accident but was taken to hospital as a precaution.

  Upcoming Events Calendar

• May 3 - Asia-Pacific Rally Championship, Round 1; Rally of Canberra, Australia
• May 3 - FIA GT Championship, Round 2; Silverstone, Great Britain
• May 3 - European Touring Car Championship, Round 2; Silverstone, Great Britain
• May 4 - NASCAR Winston Cup, Round 11; Richmond International Raceway, Virginia, United States
• May 5 - Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters, Round 2; Zolder, Belgium
• May 5 - World Motorcycle Championship, Round 3; Jerez, Spain
• May 5 - British Formula 3 Championship, Round 3; Silverstone, Great Britain
• May 6 - British Touring Car Championship, Rounds 5 and 6; Thruxton, Great Britain
• May 11 - International Formula 3000 Championship, Round 4; A-1 Ring, Austria
• May 12 - World Superbike Championship, Round 5; Monza, Italy
• May 12 - British Formula 3 Championship, Round 4; Knockhill, Great Britain
• May 16 - World Rally Championship, Round 6; Rally Argentina, Argentina
• May 18 - NASCAR Winston Cup, The Winston; Lowe's Motor Speedway, Charlotte, North Carolina, United States
• May 19 - World Motorcycle Championship, Round 4; Le Mans Bugatti, France
• May 19 - Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters, Round 3; Donington, Great Britain
• May 19 - American Le Mans Series, Round 2; Sears Point Raceway, California, United States