Standings: Vitantonio Liuzzi 10, Enrico Toccacelo 8, Robert Doornbos 6, Raffaele Gianmaria 5, Tomas Enge 4, Jeffrey van Hooydonk 3, Yannick Schroeder 2, Alan van der Merwe 1

  IRL

Dan The Man

Brit Dan Wheldon became a full-time IRL driver just under a year ago at the Indy 500 before he became Michael Andretti's replacement at Andretti Green Racing. One race short of his first anniversary, the Brit 2001 Indy Lights runner-up took his first major open wheel race victory at the Indy Japan 300 at the IRL's contractual obligation visit to Japan's Twin Ring Motegi.

Wheldon led all bar eight laps of the Indy Japan 300, completely dominating proceedings. The British driver led home AGR teammate Tony Kanaan and Team Penske's Helio Castroneves and now holds a six point lead in the series over his Brazilian teammate. It was Honda's first victory on the circuit it owns after having to endure years of Ford dominance during CART visits as well as being beaten by Toyota more recently when the IRL took over the event.

The Chip Ganassi team finished fourth and fifth, Manning leading home his team leader and defending champion Scott Dixon. The gritty New Zealander was competing with a fractured ankle after sustaining an injury in practice. The good news for Dixon is it will be a month before he has to race again at the Indianapolis 500.

In what has become his retirement race, Robbie Buhl retired from the race with handling problems, while the only series frontrunner to strike trouble, Sam Hornish Jr, crashed out of the event.

Wheldon now leads the championship by six points over Kanaan with Castroneves seventeen points behind Wheldon. But all championship considerations have been but aside until June as the month of May has begun and all eyes turn to the world oldest active racetrack and the Indianapolis 500.

Result of Indy Racing League, Round 3 of 16, Indy Japan 300, Twin Ring Motegi, Japan:

Pos  Driver              Team
 1.  Dan Wheldon         Andretti Green Racing Dallara-Honda
 2.  Tony Kanaan         Andretti Green Racing Dallara-Honda
 3.  Helio Castroneves   Team Penske Dallara-Toyota
 4.  Darren Manning      Chip Ganassi Racing GForce-Toyota
 5.  Scott Dixon         Chip Ganassi Racing GForce-Toyota
 6.  Buddy Rice          Team Rahal GForce-Honda
 7.  Dario Franchitti    Andretti Green Racing Dallara-Honda
 8.  Kosuke Matsuura     Super Aguri Fernandez Racing GForce-Honda
 9.  Scott Sharp         Kelley Racing Dallara-Toyota
10.  Tora Takagi         Mo Nunn Racing Dallara-Toyota

Standings: Dan Wheldon 123, Tony Kanaan 117, Helio Castroneves 106, Darren Manning 90, Scott Dixon 82, Sam Hornish Jr 77, Tora Takagi & Buddy Rice 76, Alex Barron 64, Kosuke Matsuura 62 etc.

  NASCAR

Gordon One, Crowd Nil

After leading both of the previous rounds before suffering strange problems that ultimately prevented him from winning, it was somewhat ironic that Jeff Gordon won at Talladega. Had the race restarted, or not gone yellow to begin with, one would have expected another DEI restrictor plate victory to be added to the list for Dale Earnhardt Jr. But a late caution came just at the right time for Gordon who took his first victory of 2004 in a shower of debris from an angry crowd who appeared to disagree with either NASCAR's decision not to restart the race or the order they finished. Despite Dale Earnhardt Jr's late race 'setback', he stretched his lead in the points significantly, with Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon his nearest pursuers.

For whatever reason, the race at Talladega was somewhat of a lottery, with many drivers taking the lead at one point or another, while restarting near the back of the field didn't mean you couldn't be leading the race ten laps later. As with most Talladega races, there were several cautions as cars blew up, crashed or bumped into each other or suffered flat tyres after making 'light' contact. Most of these incidents involved jsut one or two cars, with Matt Kenseth one of those out after losing an engine before one third distance.

The worst of these incidents involved several more, which took place on lap 83 entering turn three. Kurt Busch and Tony Stewart were in the top ten, running nose to tail, when Stewart decided to dive inside Busch into turn three - just as both cars turned in for the sweeping banked turn. Except he seemed to forget he was at Talladega, and consequently barely made it to Busch's rear bumper before the gap disappeared, but he got far enough to spin Busch, sending Kurt into the oncoming horde, collecting nine other cars, including Ryan Newman, Kasey Kahne and Martinsville winner Rusty Wallace, most cars suffering heavy damage with some of them out on the spot.

Every time the race restarted everyone hoped the race would stay green, but it never really happened, with the field not making green flag stops due to the continual caution periods. These cautions weren't much hindrance to the DEI teammates of Dale Earnhardt Jr and Michael Waltrip, who always seemed to make their way back to the front no matter where they restarted. In fact it was Chevrolets in general that seemed favourites to win the race.

When the race restarted with 17 laps remaining in the 188 lap event it began to get really serious. Dale Earnhardt Jr led at the restart and was able to stay there until the caution came out on lap 177 after Stewart decided he'd like to go for a ride too, turning down on Jimmie Johnson as they exited turn four, spinning through the apron and the grass but not hitting anything along the way!

Back to green with nine laps remaining, Earnhardt Jr leading the way but soon under attack, Harvick taking the lead at the end of the backstretch. Seven to go and Earnhardt Jr moved from fourth to first from turn three to the start/finish line with some help from teammate Waltrip, though Waltrip got caught out high when Earnhardt Jr took the lead and dropped out of the top ten. Down the backstretch Jeff Gordon got a great run thanks to some help from his own teammate Jimmie Johnson and dived to the inside, beating Junior's block to go initially to the lead before running side-by-side with Earnhardt Jr. Coming off turn four Earnhardt Jr thought he was clear again but nearly did what Tony Stewart had done a few laps earlier when he came down on Gordon, Junior saving the sideways moment and maintaining his lead.

As they began lap 184, five to go, Earnhardt and Gordon were side by side again, but another push down the backstretch, this time from Kevin Harvick, pushed Gordon back in front. Earnhardt Jr was beginning to edge back up, getting past Gordon's rear bumper through turns three and four when Brian Vickers spun after getting loose between two cars, Ricky Rudd making glancing but relatively light contact with the spinning Vickers. The caution came out, and with less than five laps remaining it was too late in the race for the red flag to make an appearance.

Would we go back to green? With the caution coming out with four laps remaining, history was not on side. The only two caution periods of three laps during the race didn't involve a car spinning or making glancing contact on the racing surface: Ricky Craven's engine problem and Tony Stewart's spin onto the apron and through the grass. Though there was contact between Johnson and Stewart, it would not have produced debris while the contact between Rudd and Vickers, though light, may have.

Actually, there was another question that needed to be answered first - who was leading? Earnhardt Jr's move around the outside meant that by the start/finish line he was back in front of Gordon. Up until late last year that would have been no problem, but thanks partly to a move by Robby Gordon at Sonoma, the race order is the order the field was in when the caution was thrown. So whether Gordon backed off as he reached the line wasn't clear, nor did it matter, it mattered who was where when it went yellow.

With less than three laps remaining that decision was made, with Gordon moving back to the lead ahead of Earnhardt Jr. One question was now answered, but the other still remained. To go green again the field would need to get the 'one to go' signal with two laps remaining. They didn't get it. When the crowd realised, there were cheers and boos as they went down the backstretch. When they got back to the frontstretch to begin the final lap, it was different, with the booing becoming more prominent. Coming down the backstretch the crowd were chanting.

By the time they got back to the frontstretch it had descended further, with fans throwing plastic and glass bottles, cans, with some empty and some not, as well as food containers on to the frontstretch, some drivers driving on to the apron to avoid the flying debris. Interestingly, something similar post race happened in 2002 at the Pepsi 400, when Michael Waltrip won under caution just after teammate Earnhardt Jr had attacked for the lead and lost out just before the caution flew with three laps remaining, Junior finishing in sixth place... The field did make it to the finish line, with Jeff Gordon taking the win ahead of Dale Earnhardt Jr, with Kevin Harvick, Jimmie Johnson and Robby Gordon completing an all Chevrolet top five.

Result of NASCAR Nextel Cup, Round 9 of 36, Talladega Superspeedway, Alabama, United States:

Pos  Driver              Car
 1.  Jeff Gordon         Chevrolet Monte Carlo
 2.  Dale Earnhardt Jr   Chevrolet Monte Carlo
 3.  Kevin Harvick       Chevrolet Monte Carlo
 4.  Jimmie Johnson      Chevrolet Monte Carlo
 5.  Robby Gordon        Chevrolet Monte Carlo
 6.  Mark Martin         Ford Taurus
 7.  Jeff Burton         Ford Taurus
 8.  Casey Mears         Dodge Intrepid
 9.  Jamie McMurray      Dodge Intrepid
10.  Bobby Labonte       Chevrolet Monte Carlo

Standings: Dale Earnhardt Jr 1347, Jimmie Johnson 1253, Jeff Gordon 1236, Kurt Busch 1222, Matt Kenseth 1192, Kevin Harvick 1173, Tony Stewart 1169, Elliott Sadler 1153, Ryan Newman 1129, Bobby Labonte 1110 etc.

  Le Mans

Once More Around The Clock

The traditional April lead-in test day for the Le Mans 24 Hour was held over the April 24/25 weekend with Audi Sport UK laying down the gauntlet to their rivals. By the end of Sunday, both cars had set times in the 3:32 bracket, two seconds ahead of the Champion Racing Audi. The fastest time was set by Audi's returning ALMS champion Allan McNish in the car he will share with Frank Biela and Pierre Kaffer with a 3:32.615, scarcely a hundredth of a second faster than teammate Johnny Herbert (who will share his car with Jamie Davies and Guy Smith).

Triple Le Mans victor Emanuele Pirro leads the Champion car in the 3:34 bracket with the fourth Audi, the Team Goh car led by Dindo Capello, just tenths away. The surprise packet has been the form of the Zytek 04S prototype with David Brabham fifth fastest, just a second away from the Audis. Previously the car has been racing away from the spotlight in the FIA Sportscar series. Andy Wallace and an unnamed third driver will co-drive. The Dome-Mugen of Kondo Racing is next another second away, along with Jan Lammers Racing For Holland's Dome-Judd. Henri Pescarolo's two Courage-Judds and the second Dutch Dome-Judd complete the ten fastest competitors.

The factory Courage-JPX of Christophe Tinseau leads the newly reclassified P2 class well ahead of the similarly equiped cars of Paul Belmondo Racing and the second factory car.

GTS is led by old stagers Chevrolet, their Corvettes first and second with Max Papis fastest, ahead of Larbre Competicion's Ferrari 550, while Porsches sit first through fourth in GT, Jorg Bergmeister fastest in the White Lightning car.

The first qualifying session for the race commences on Wednesday evening of the 9th of June with the 71st running of the Le Mans 24 Hour commencing 4pm Saturday June 12.

  FIA GT

Maranellos in Spain

The podium at Valencia changed little from the podium at the FIA GT Championship's first round at Monza. Scuderia Italia again put on a 1-2 finish, or 2-1 if you prefer as the #2 car of Luca Cappellari and Fabrizio Gollin took their second victory of the year from teammates Matteo Bobbi and Gabriele Gardel. Ominous tidings perhaps was the third placed car, the brand new Lamborghini Murcielago of Peter Kox and Oliver Gavin, which at one stage looked to have the race won.

After qualifying Saleens ruled the roost with the Vitaphone car taking pole position for Michael Bartels with the Konrad car of Walter Lechner Jr alongside ahead of the intimidating presence of Scuderia Italia on the second row, Fabrizio Gollin ahead of Matteo Bobbi. An encouraging fifth fastest sat the purposeful looking black Lambo of Peter Kox. Saleens filled the next two places with Ferraris completing the top ten

Under overcast skies the safety car peeled off into the pits and Alzen led the thundering herd towards turn one with Lechner, Bobbi, Gollin and Oliver Gavin in the Lambo leading the pursuit. It was not to last as before the race reached double figures in the lap count, the leading Saleen ground to a halt after a comprehensive clutch failure.

The Saleen fragility was affecting its drivers as Lechner pitted early, getting poor service from an unwarned crew as a result. Gollin, having passed Bobbi, now led until the Italia cars stopped. With the stops completed Peter Kox had become an unlikely race leader in the Bologna bullet. The Ferraris were now second and third, and losing touch with Kox rapidly, but a long stop traced to a dislodged fuse put the reigning champion team back on top with Lechner third in the Saleen.

Kox charged past the leading JMB 575 Ferrari into fourth and took third from Lechner, just before the Saleen slowed with driveshaft dramas. The Ferraris were too far up the road however. Fourth was taken by Robert Lechner in the JMB Ferrari while Jamie Campbell-Walter's Lister took fifth from Thomas Erdos Saleen as it ran out of fuel.

In N-GT Sascha Maassen would start a row clear of Emmanuel Collard with the best Ferrari, Fabrizio de Simone another row away. Maassen and Luhr just drove away with the race in the end, snapping at the heels of the GT cars. De Simone and Christian Pescatori took second in class, three laps down on the Freisinger Porsche with the second Freisinger Porsche or Stephane Ortelli and Emmanuel Collard in third.

With only two results in so far Scuderia Italia have skiiped away in the points race, its #2 on 20 points, the #1 on 16. From there the leader board log jams. The standings are even less clear in N-GT. Magny-Cours next week will be needed to break the deadlocks.

Result of FIA GT Championship, Round 2 of 11, Communitat Valencia, Spain:

Pos  Driver                                   Team
 1.  Luca Cappellari/Fabrizio Gollin          Ferrari 550 Maranello
 2.  Matteo Bobbi/Gabriele Gardel             Ferrari 550 Maranello
 3.  Peter Kox/Oliver Gavin                   Lamborghini Murcielago R-GT
 4.  Karl Wendlinger/Toto Wolff/              Ferrari 575 M Maranello
     Walter Lechner
 5.  Jamie Campbell-Walter/Jamie Derbyshire   Lister Storm
 6.  Thomas Erdos/Mike Newton                 Saleen S7-R
 7.  Sascha Maassen/Lucas Luhr                Porsche 996 GT3-RS
                                              (1st N-GT)
 8.  Bert Longin/Ian Khan/Thomas Bleiner      Ferrari 575 M Maranello
 9.  Antoine Gosse/Andrea Garbagnati/         Ferrari 575 M Maranello
     Stephane Daoudi
10.  Christian Pescatori/Fabrizio de Simone   Ferrari 360 Modena
                                              (2nd N-GT)

Standings: Luca Cappellari & Fabrizio Gollin 20, Matteo Bobbi & Gabriel Gardel 16, Fabio Babini, Oliver Gavin, Peter Kox & Phillip Peter 6, Mike Hezemans, Walter Lechner Jr, Emanuele Naspetti, Karl Wendlinger & Toto Wolff 5 etc

N-GT: Emmanuel Collard, Fabrizio de Simone, Stephane Ortelli & Christian Pescatori 16, Lucas Luhr, Sascha Maassen, Maciej Marcinkiewicz, Christian Ried & Gerold Ried 10 etc

  F3 Euroseries

Neato Nico

Nico Rosberg followed in the footsteps of the inaugural Formula 3 Euroseries champion Ryan Briscoe by taking a double header victory at the first weekend of the year at the home of the German Grand Prix, Hockenheim.

In the first race Rosberg outlaunched polesitter Alexandre Premat while just behind, Jamie Green and Nicolas Lapierre clashed, sending both to the grass. This allowed rookie Frenchman Frank Perera of the Prema Powerteam into third position pursued by ASM Mercedes's Eric Salignon. Salignon would drop to fifth place late in the race as Green charged back up the order, while the top three remained unchanged. Robert Kubica claimed sixth place ahead of Bruno Spengler in the Mucke cars while the recovering Lapierre claimed the final point.

For the second race, Rosberg was confined to the second row behind Green and Premat, with Green leading the field towards turn one. The top three race away from a jostling pack. Rosberg waited patiently and when Green and Premat touched and slowed, Rosberg took the lead and ran away to win with Green recovering best. Fourth was eventually taken by rookie Giedo van der Garde ahead of Salignon, Lewis Hamilton, Kubica and Alexandros Margaritis.

Rosberg sits five points clear of Premat who holds a single point on Green who has a six point buffer on Salignon and the rest. The series now travels to the Adria facility in Italy for round 2.

Result of Formula 3 Euroseries, Round 1 of 9, Hockenheim, Germany:

Race One

Pos  Driver                  Team
 1.  Nico Rosberg            Team Rosberg Dallara F304 Spiess Opel
 2.  Alexandre Premat        ASM F3 Dallara F304 AMG Mercedes
 3.  Frank Perera            Prema Powerteam Dallara F304 Spiess Opel
 4.  Jamie Green             ASM F3 Dallara F304 AMG Mercedes
 5.  Eric Salignon           ASM F3 Dallara F304 AMG Mercedes
 6.  Robert Kubica           Mucke Motorsport Dallara F304 AMG Mercedes
 7.  Bruno Spengler          Mucke Motorsport Dallara F304 AMG Mercedes
 8.  Nicolas Lapierre        Team Signature Plus Dallara F304 Spiess Opel
 9.  Giedo van der Garde     Team Signature Plus Dallara F304 Spiess Opel
10.  Maximilian Gotz         TME Dallara F304 Tom's Toyota

Race Two

Pos  Driver                  Team
 1.  Nico Rosberg            Team Rosberg Dallara F304 Spiess Opel
 2.  Jamie Green             ASM F3 Dallara F304 AMG Mercedes
 3.  Alexandre Premat        ASM F3 Dallara F304 AMG Mercedes
 4.  Giedo van der Garde     Team Signature Plus Dallara F304 Spiess Opel
 5.  Eric Salignon           ASM F3 Dallara F304 AMG Mercedes
 6.  Lewis Hamilton          Manor Motorsport Dallara F304 AMG Mercedes
 7.  Robert Kubica           Mucke Motorsport Dallara F304 AMG Mercedes
 8.  Alexandros Margaritis   Team KMS Dallara F304 Spiess Opel
 9.  Daniel la Rosa          HBR Motorsport Dallara F304 Spiess Opel
10.  Charles Zwolsman        Manor Motorsport Dallara F304 AMG Mercedes

Standings: Nico Rosberg 20, Alexandre Premat 15, Jamie Green 14, Eric Salignon 8, Frank Perera 6, Giedo van der Garde and Robert Kubica 5, Lewis Hamilton 3, Bruno Spengler 2, Nicolas Lapierre and Alexandros Margaritis 1

  British F3

Rossiter's Rain

Rain again struck the British Formula 3 championship, this time the rain was heavier and round four of the championship was completely washed out. Earlier in the day, Fortec Motorsport's James Rossiter demonstrated his mastery of the conditions to lead home Will Power and Nelson Piquet Jr in round three.

Rossiter was the force all weekend at the International version of the Silverstone circuit, fastest in Friday practice, before taking his first pole position of the year for round three. Danilo Durani spoiled Saturday for Rossiter with the round four pole position.

The track was damp but not raining when the race started. Rossiter got the best of Durani off the line, with Will Power and a fast starting Adam Carroll next ahead of the slow away Piquet. Durani spun before the first lap was completed and Rossiter began pulling a gap over Power. Piquet steadied and started to run back towards the leaders again, taking third from Carroll on lap 12. But the laps ran out and the Brazilian had to settle for third place as the Australian Power fought hard to keep Piquet behind.

Carroll was untroubled for fourth, while fifth was taken by the field's odd man out, Danny Watts in the Promatecme Lola-Dome, proving in the wet at least the Lola-Dome can match the all-conquering Dallara. First-up race winner Clivio Piccione took sixth in a damage limitation run in the treacherous conditions. Ernesto Viso, Alvaro Parente, Marko Asmer and Will Davison completed the points finishers.

The rain returned and intensified before the second race could be run and race officials had little choice but to cancel the race, denying Durani the chance to avenge his round three spin. Piquet now leads by 9 points over Rossiter with Carroll a further four points away in what quickly becomes a very hard fought series. The cars are back in action this weekend at Croft.

Result of British Formula 3 Championship, Rounds 3 and 4 of 24, Silverstone International, Great Britain:

Round Three

Pos  Driver             Team
 1.  James Rossiter     Fortec Motorsport Dallara F304 Spiess Opel
 2.  Will Power         Alan Docking Racing Dallara F304 Mugen-Honda
 3.  Nelson Piquet Jr   Piquet Sports Dallara F304 Mugen-Honda
 4.  Adam Carroll       P1 Racing Dallara F304 Mugen-Honda
 5.  Danny Watts        Promatecme F3 Lola-Dome F106-4 Mugen-Honda
 6.  Clivio Piccione    Carlin Motorsport Dallara F304 Mugen-Honda
 7.  Ernesto Viso       P1 Racing Dallara F304 Mugen-Honda
 8.  Alvaro Parente     Carlin Motorsport Dallara F304 Mugen-Honda
 9.  Marko Asmer        HiTech Racing Dallara F304 Sodemo Renault
10.  Will Davison       Menu F3 Motorsport Dallara F304 Spiess Opel

Round Four was rained out

Standings: Nelson Piquet Jr 44, James Rossiter 35, Adam Carroll 31, Clivio Piccione 26, Will Power 25, Ernesto Viso 20, Will Davison 13, Andrew Thompson 12, Danilo Dirani 10, Marko Asmer and Danny Watts 8 etc.

  Upcoming Events Calendar

• May 2 - NASCAR Nextel Cup, Round 10 of 36, California Speedway, United States
• May 2 - World Motorcycle Championship, Round 2 of 16, Jerez, Spain
• May 2 - Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters, Round 2 of 10, Estoril, Portugal
• May 2 - European Touring Car Championship, Round 3 of 11, Magny-Cours, France
• May 2 - FIA GT Championship, Round 3 of 11, Magny-Cours, France
• May 2 - British Formula 3 Championship, Rounds 5 & 6 of 24, Croft, Great Britain
• May 2 - All-Japan Formula Nippon Championship, Round 2 of 9, Sugo, Japan
• May 2 - European Formula 3000 Championship, Round 1, Brno, Czech Republic
• May 2 - V8 Supercar Championship Series, Round 3 of 13, Pukekohe, New Zealand
• May 7 - Asia Pacific Rally Championship, Round 1 of 6, Rally of Canberra, Australia
• May 8 - International Formula 3000 Championship, Round 2 of 10, Catalunya, Spain
• May 9 - Le Mans Endurance Series, Round 1 of 4, Monza, Italy
• May 9 - British Touring Car Championship, Round 3 of 10, Silverstone, Great Britain
• May 14 - World Rally Championship, Round 5 of 16, Cyprus Rally
• May 15 - NASCAR Nextel Cup, Round 11 of 36, Richmond International Speedway, Virginia, United States
• May 16 - World Motorcycle Championship, Round 3 of 16, Le Mans Bugatti, France
• May 16 - Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters, Round 3 of 10, Adria, Italy
• May 16 - FIA GT Championship, Round 4 of 11, Hockenheim, Germany
• May 16 - European Touring Car Championship, Round 4 of 11, Hockenheim, Germany
• May 16 - European Formula 3 Championship, Round 2 of 9, Adria, Italy
• May 16 - British Formula 3 Championship, Rounds 7 & 8 of 24, Knockhill, Scotland, Great Britain
• May 16 - World Superbike Championship, Round 4 of 11, Monza, Italy