THE FUTURE’S SO BRIGHT

When Jason Bright left a factory Holden drive to join Ford with his own race team there were plenty of detractors ready to claim the boy from Moe had gone completely mad. Now with Ford withdrawing their factory support for several teams, including Jason's you'd expect he might have joined them. But no. Despite all the knocks, the struggle and a lack of outright wins, Bright is ploughing on although he admits the Ford decision has had an effect.

RICCIARDO THIRD AT NURBURGRING, MERHI WINS HIS FIRST

Australian Daniel Ricciardo has finished third in the latest race in the Eurocup Formula Renault series at the Nurburgring. Young Spanish driver Roberto Merhi (Epsilon Euskadi) led from start to finish beating Valtteri Bottas (Motopark Academy) with Ricciardo (SG Formula) third.

SPEEDtv.com ACURA WINS DETROIT ALMS

ANDRETTI- GREEN’S ACURA PARK PARTY

Acura celebrated their announcement of a P1 entry in 2009 with an outright win at Detroit's Belle Isle Park as James Rossiter and Frank Montagny took the chequered flag for Andretti Green Racing. Rossiter and Montagny took the lead in pitlane with 69 minutes left with Montagny holding on to beat Patrón Highcroft Racing's David Brabham across the line by 3.985 seconds.

ACURA TO P1, HYBRID FOR PETITE LE MANS

The announcement just about everybody was expecting has come at the ALMS round at Detroit with the news that Acura will move up to the LMP1 class for 2009. DeFerran Motorsports and Paton Highcroft Racing will each field cars next season in a big boost to the class which is currently dominated by Audi. The two teams will each field an Acura ARX-02a prototype sports cars, currently being developed by Honda Performance Development (HPD), in the most advanced and technically challenging class of the American Le Mans Series.

BRISCOE BACK TO PORSCHE

Australian IRL racer Ryan Briscoe will compete in the remaining three rounds of the American Le Mans Series (ALMS) in the LMP2 Penske Porsche RS Spyder. He will replace Sascha Maassen. Briscoe was scheduled to compete only in the two endurance rounds of the ALMS, but was told overnight that he was required to add the sprint ALMS rounds in Detroit this weekend and Laguna Seca on October 18 to his schedule.

SPEED’S VICTORY BY DESIGN FERRARI 312 PB

AUDI TO JOIN GT3, COULD WE SEE IT DOWN UNDER?

The move by the Australian GT Championship to align themselves with FIA GT specs could pay off in the appearance of one of the world's newest and most spectacular sportcars the new Audi R8 GT3.For the first time, Audi Sport will offer a racing sports car specifically developed for customer use in the form of the powerful 500 hp plus GT3 version of the Audi R8 which will be available from late 2009. The logistics and factory space required for the AUDI AG customer programme will be created over the next few months in Ingolstadt, Neckarsulm and Györ.

MONARO MANIA TO HIT HISTORIC SANDOWN

The 40th anniversary of the first major race win by a Holden Monaro will be celebrated at the VACC Historic Sandown race meeting on November 8-9 this year. Around 40 Monaros of all models are expected to be on track or on display at the meeting to mark the historic victory at Sandown on September 15, 1968 of the then-new HK Monaro GTS 327 in the Datsun 3 Hour production car race.

THE BIGGEST GO!

The return of Australia's Drag Racing Nationals to Australia's biggest city, Sydney, seems to have paid off with a massive entry of 450 cars and bikes for the event at Western Sydney Dragway, September 12-14. Ten spectacular Top Fuel Dragsters head the line up with defending champ and second generation racer Phil Read starting favourite on his home strip.