Results of World Motorcycle Championship, Round 15, Sepang, Malaysia:

Pos  Rider                     Motorcycle
 1.  Valentino Rossi           Honda NSR500
 2.  Loris Capirossi           Honda NSR500
 3.  Garry McCoy               Yamaha YZR500
 4.  Shinya Nakano             Yamaha YZR500
 5.  Tohru Ukawa               Honda NSR500
 6.  Alex Criville             Honda NSR500
 7.  Alex Barros               Honda NSR500
 8.  Sete Gibernau             Suzuki RGV500
 9.  Noriyuki Haga             Yamaha YZR500
10.  Carlos Checa              Yamaha YZR500

500cc standings (after Malaysia): Valentino Rossi 300, Max Biaggi 203, Loris Capirossi 199, Alex Barros 169, Shinya Nakano 148, Norick Abe 127, Carlos Checa 117, Sete Gibernau 115, Alex Criville 111, Tohru Ukawa 107 etc.

250cc standings (after Malaysia): Daijiro Katoh 297, Tetsuya Harada 263, Marco Melandri 174, Roberto Rolfo 169, Fonsi Nieto 154, Jeremy McWilliams 130, Emilio Alzamora 127, Roberto Locatelli 118, Naoki Matsudo 105, Franco Battaini 69 etc.

125cc standings (after Malaysia): Manuel Poggiali 230, Youichi Ui 207, Toni Elias 204, Lucio Cecchinello 156, Masao Azuma 133, Gino Borsoi 130, Simone Sanna 105, Daniel Pedrosa 100, Steve Jenkner 94, Noboru Ueda 91 etc.

  CART

Mad Max's Laguna Surprise

Max Papis did his chances of securing a ride for 2002 no harm by winning the Shell 300 at Laguna Seca. Superior pit strategy early in the race from Papis's Team Rahal pitcrew put the Italian in the right place at the right time when the race was declared early after numerous yellow flag periods slowed the race so much that the two hour limit came in to force. In coming from 25th on the grid, Papis also equalled the CART record for overcoming a poor qualifying position to win.

Oriol Servia was lucky to escape injury after a clash with Mo Gugelmin stood Servia's Lola-Ford on its nose before landing right way up. Servia sustained only bruises in the relatively low speed but very spectacular accident.

Second place went to Memo Gidley in the Chip Ganassi Lola-Toyota, while third place moved Gil de Ferran into an enviable position in the championship. De Ferran's podium finish effectively eliminated Michael Andretti and Penske teammate Helio Castroneves from the championship race. De Ferran now has a 26 point break over Kenny Brack with only two races left in the series. Brack's first lap collision with Gugelmin and subsequent retirement certainly helped the Penske driver's cause. Andretti finished a lap down after a day full of drama.

Fourth went to the unbelievable rookie from PacWest, Scott Dixon. Dixon has the Rookie competiton all sewn up, and another top five finish has seen the young New Zealander establish himself a long term future in CART. Jimmy Vasser was fifth an excellent result in what has not been a stellar season for the 1996 series champion.

The race resulted in somewhat of a crash-fest, with Roberto Moreno, Michel Jourdain Jr, Dario Franchitti and Paul Tracy all retiring from contact related incidents, in addition to the Servia/Gugelmin clash.

The next and penultimate round in the series is the Honda Indy 300 in Queensland, Australia.

Results of FedEx CART World Series, Round 19, Laguna Seca, California, USA:

Pos  Driver                Car
 1.  Max Papis             Lola-Ford
 2.  Memo Gidley           Lola-Toyota
 3.  Gil de Ferran         Reynard-Honda
 4.  Scott Dixon           Reynard-Toyota
 5.  Jimmy Vasser          Reynard-Toyota
 6.  Helio Castroneves     Reynard-Honda
 7.  Bruno Junqueira       Lola-Toyota
 8.  Tony Kanaan           Reynard-Honda
 9.  Christian Fittipaldi  Lola-Toyota
10.  Adrian Fernandez      Reynard-Honda

Standings: Gil de Ferran 179, Kenny Brack 153, Helio Castroneves 141, Michael Andretti 125, Dario Franchitti 105, Cristiano da Matta 100, Scott Dixon 98, Max Papis & Patrick Carpentier 86, Tony Kanaan 83, etc.

  Rally

Citroen & Puras Score Debut Win in Corsica

Back in the heyday of Formula Two, the major World Rally teams used to dread the tarmac rallies because Citroen (and Peugeot), with their bitumen-optimised wide-track Maxi kit cars, thinly-disguised circuit racers, had a performance advantage over the heavier four wheel drive WRC cars. Now Citroen again have the car to beat on the blacktop, as Jesus Puras won his first rally in a Citroen Xsara WRC.

Citroen's triumph was overshadowed however by a rollover which removed the lead Mitsubishi. Tommi Makinen clipped a cliff face, flipping the new Lancer WRC onto its roof, leaving the car balanced on the edge of one of Corsica's famous drops. Risto Mannisenmaki was taken to hospital with back injuries. Mannisenmaki underwent surgery this week to correct a back injury from the accident. He is expected to make a full recovery, but will be replaced by fellow Finn Timo Hantunen for the next round in Australia at least.

After losing teammate Philippe Bugalski to an accident on the first stage, Puras had to spend the entire rally fending off the Peugeots and the weather. Bugalski wrecked his Xsara's front suspension against a wall, while Puras ran away from the field on Leg One, consolidated it on Leg Two and still held the lead at the end.

Citroen's cup runneth over when Sebastien Loeb secured the new FIA Super 1600 Cup with another class win in the Citroen Saxo. Andrea Dallavilla (Fiat Punto) made Loeb work for this victory though. Citroen have been impressed with Loeb though, and a Xsara should be in Loeb's future.

For Peugeot, it may as well have been a win. With their chances of retaining the drivers' crown seemingly remote, a win for the non-manufacturers' title entered Citroen gives Peugeot a 1-2 finish for the rally in the manufacturers' standings for Gilles Panizzi and Didier Auriol, and so Peugeot has closed the gap to Ford in the manufacturers' race. Panizzi tried to push harder but was slightly intimidated by the varying weather conditions. Marcus Gronholm matched the pace of his silver-liveried brethren but went out after spinning into a wall. Harri Rovanpera drove a Grifone privateer 206 WRC, taking seventh.

Subaru also had a good rally. Richard Burns was happy to finish fourth after being delayed when he hit a rock on Leg One. Petter Solberg was originally fourth, but took a time penalty when checking in at the final control, allowing team leader Burns to move past Solberg, making a mockery of the FIA's rules against team orders. Markko Martin also impressed, bringing the third Impreza home in sixth after a consistent run. Toshihiro Arai flipped his car over on the first stage, ending his rally.

Ford struck all manner of problems which dropped their three challengers from contention. Carlos Sainz lost oil pressure on Leg One, Colin McRae clipped a wall and lost power steering, as well as being delayed by a puncture, while Francois Delecour had severe brake problems which dropped him out of contention.

Mitsubishi had a miserable rally. After losing Makinen on the fifth stage, Freddy Loix struggled back through the order after multiple punctures dropped him down field on Leg One. This did however give the team a chance to carry out development work on the Lancer WRC with Loix well out of contention for points.

Hyundai got both its cars to the finish, working steadily through the field, with both cars making the top ten, collecting some manufacturers' points along the way. Skoda however had opposite fortunes, losing Bruno Thiry to transmission difficulties on Leg One, and Armin Schwarz to power steering difficulties on Leg Two.

Result of World Rally Championship, Round 12, Rallye Corsica, France:

Pos  Driver                Car
 1.  Jesus Puras           Citroen Xsara
 2.  Gilles Panizzi        Peugeot 206
 3.  Didier Auriol         Peugeot 206
 4.  Richard Burns         Subaru Impreza
 5.  Petter Solberg        Subaru Impreza
 6.  Markko Martin         Subaru Impreza
 7.  Harri Rovanpera       Peugeot 206
 8.  Piero Liatti          Hyundai Accent
 9.  Alister McRae         Hyundai Accent
10.  Francois Delecour     Ford Focus

Standings: Tommi Makinen and Colin McRae 40, Richard Burns 34, Carlos Sainz 33, Harri Rovanpera 27, Gilles Panizzi 22, Didier Auriol 19, Marcus Gronholm 16, Francois Delecour 15, Petter Solberg 11 etc.

Manufacturers Standings: Ford 83, Mitsubishi 67, Peugeot 60, Subaru 48, Skoda 15, Hyundai 10

Silly Season Update

Four times World Rally Champion Tommi Makinen has been snatched up by Subaru to lead the Prodrive-run operation into 2002 and 2003. Makinen has taken an equal record number of WRC victories (except one win with Ford) and all his world championships in Mitsubishi Lancers. Makinen has had some disagreements in recent years over the direction of development of the Lancer, in particular Mitsubishi's insistence on building its car to Group A regulations, rather than the looser World Rally Car regulations. This has left Mitsubishi without a clear team leader to run the new Lancer Evo VII WRC next season.

Within a day, Peugeot Sport announced its new signing. Richard Burns will join the squad replacing the 1994 World Champion, Didier Auriol. Peugeot will race a four car team in 2002 at all rallies, with Burns joining 2000 World Champion Marcus Gronholm, former Formula Two hot shoe Gilles Panizzi and ex-SEAT driver Harri Rovanpera. Both Burns and Gronholm have been signed through to the 2003 season. However, Subaru team principal David Lapworth says Burns is still under contract to Subaru for 2002, and intends to make Burns stay at Subaru.

Meanwhile at Ford, Francois Delecour announced Rally Australia will be his last rally with the team. Ford have announced that his drive at the final round will be taken by British Focus driver Mark Higgins, who has spent time this year testing and developing the Focus WRC. Ford also have announced that rising young Belgian star Francois Duval will tackle all six rounds of the FIA Super 1600 category in a Ford Puma 1600, as well as five rounds of the WRC in a Focus WRC.

Finally, Mitsubishi have announced that their drivers for the next two seasons will be Alister McRae and Francois Delecour. Interestingly, Mitsubishi have made no comment either way about the future of Freddy Loix, however it seems likely that he will be somewhere other than Mitsubishi next year, possibly taking his Marlboro sponsorship with him.

  Briefs

• Yvan Muller (Alfa Romeo 156) and Matthew Neal (Nissan Primera) took the two race wins at Estoril for the final round of the European Touring Car Championship. With two outsiders taking the race wins, Gabriele Tarquini (Honda Accord) was unable to catch the series leader, and so Fabrizio Giovanardi (Alfa Romeo 156) is the new ETCC Champion. Alfa Romeo Team Nordauto secured the teams' championship, while in the Super Production division, a black flag after a collision with title rival Duncan Huisman (BMW 318i) couldn't stop Peter Kox (BMW 318i) from taking the title.

• After CART's recent announcement regarding engine regulations for the 2003 season, Honda has confirmed it will be withdrawing from the series after next season, blaming a lack of trust in CART and lack of engine rule stability for their decision. Meanwhile, Ford has confirmed that a naturally-aspirated formula will also see them depart the series; however, Ford has suggested a detuned version of their current engine as a 'spec' engine to the whole series from 2003 onwards as an alternative to CART's proposed engine formula.

• Jason Plato has led a clean sweep of the British Touring Car Championship for Vauxhall as he and factory Vauxhall Astra teammates Yvan Muller, James Thompson and Phil Bennett finished 1-2-3-4 in the championship. Dan Eaves in a Peugeot 406 was the first non Astra. Simon Harrison (Peugeot) narrowly won the Production section by seven points from James Kaye (Honda) and Roger Moen (Peugeot).

• The Asia-Pacific Round of the American Le Mans Series scheduled for Sepang has been rescheduled in the wake of the terrorist incidents in the US, and also due to a poor entry. It will now launch the 2002 sports car season on January 13. The ALMS series itself will be a 10 round series.

  2002 ALMS Series calendar:

  Date           Venue
  March 16       Sebring International Raceway, Florida
  April 7        Miami Downtown Street Circuit, Florida
  May 19         Sear's Point Raceway, California
  June 30        Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, Ohio
  July 7         Road America, Wisconsin
  July 21        RFK Stadium Circuit, Washington DC
  August 3       Le Circuit Trois-Rivieres, Quebec, Canada
  August 18      Mosport International Raceway, Ontario, Canada
  September 22   Mazda Raceway at Laguna Seca, California
  October 12     Petit Le Mans, Road America, Georgia
  

  Upcoming Events Calendar

• October 28 - FedEx CART World Series, Round 20; Surfer's Paradise, Australia
• November 1 - World Rally Championship, Round 13; Rally Australia
• November 4 - World Motorcycle Championship, Round 16; Jacarepagua, Brazil
• November 4 - FedEx CART World Series, Round 21; Fontana, California, USA
• November 18 - Intercontinental Cup, Formula 3, Macau
• November 22 - World Rally Championship, Round 14; Rally of Great Britain