Formula One
ING Belgian Grand Prix, August 28-30
Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, Spa, Belgium

Giancarlo Fisichella - who knew you had it in you?

In what seemed like a surreal wrinkle in the 2009 F1 narrative, the Force India pilot pulled his team from out of obscurity and into the spotlight of the podium at the Belgian Grand Prix in Spa on Sunday. Fisichella finished in second behind Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen and ahead of Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel after claiming an improbable P1 in qualifying a day before. Raikkonen crossed the finish line 0.9s ahead, with Vettel 2.9s behind Fisichella.

Fisichella made an excellent start to lead the field through the first hairpin turn and round the first lap, but an accident further down the field called for a safety car to be deployed.

Jenson Button's hopes of adding to his points tally in the Brawn GP ended at Les Combes on the first lap when he was spun out by Romain Grosjean's Renault, while in a separate incident Lewis Hamilton's McLaren tagged Jaime Alguersuari's Toro Rosso while trying to avoid the melee.

After the safety car intervention, Raikkonen, who had sped up to second behind Fisichella on the opening lap, lost no time using his KERS to slingshot by the Italian on the run up Raidillon to Les Combes on the fifth lap, but Fisichella pushed him all the way.

Red Bull's Mark Webber looked strong initially until an unsafe release from his first pit stop nearly put rival BMW Sauber's Nick Heidfeld in the pit-lane wall. A drive-through penalty subsequently dropped him to ninth.

Renault's Fernando Alonso also seemed on course for a healthy helping of points after running the longest opening stint, but a brush with Force India's Adrian Sutil in La Source on the opening lap had damaged the left front wheel, and after a disastrously long pit stop on Lap 24 he had to come in again to retire a lap later when the left front wheel could not be secured satisfactorily.

Vettel was able to vault past a fast-starting Robert Kubica after his second stop on the 35th lap and said his Red Bull was perfect thereafter, but the Pole brought his BMW Sauber home fourth ahead of closing team mate Heidfeld. The German has passed Toyota's Jarno Trulli for second at the start but ran wide and lost ground, allowing Kubica to nip down the inside to run third initially.

Besides Alonso and the first lap crashers, the other retirement was Trulli, whose front wing was damaged when he made contact with Heidfeld's BMW Sauber on the opening lap. That ruined the Italian's race, as did a later refuelling problem, similar to Glock's. He ultimately retired with a brake problem.

Raikkonen became the sixth different victor in six races after putting Ferrari back in the winners' circle for the first time in 2009. In the title stakes, Barrichello took two more points off Button, who still has 74 to the Brazilian's 56. Vettel moves back ahead of Webber with 53 to the Australian's 51.5.In the constructors' championship Brawn have 128 points, Red Bull 104.5, Ferrari 56 and McLaren 44.

Next for F1 is the Santander Italian Grand Prix, September 11-13 at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza in Monza, Italy (MFL photography provided by Force India F1 and Red Bull Racing).

ING Belgian Grand Prix
Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, Spa, Belgium

www.formula1.com

American Le Mans Series
Mobil 1 Grand Prix of Mosport, August 28-30
Mosport, Bowmanville, Ontario, Canada

The fastest circuit in the American Le Mans Series yielded another one for the history books on Sunday. David Brabham and Scott Sharp drove their Patrón Highcroft Racing Acura ARX-02a to an overall victory at the Grand Prix of Mosport and clinched the LMP1 manufacturer championship for Acura, the maker's first in the ALMS.

Luis Diaz and Adrian Fernandez won in LMP2 for the seventh time in eight races to wrap up the class' drivers title in their Acura ARX-01b.

And Corvette Racing's Johnny O'Connell and Jan Magnussen won the team's first race in GT2 with their three-race-old Corvette C6.R in O'Connell's 100th Series start.

Brabham and Sharp drove a trouble-free race to beat the de Ferran Motorsports Acura of team boss Gil de Ferran and Simon Pagenaud by two laps. The de Ferran XM Acura led the first half-hour before losing gearbox oil, an issue that plagued the Pagenaud-de Ferran duo throughout.

Brabham and Sharp won for the second straight year at Mosport; they were LMP2 victors last season.

The sixth 1-2 finish for Acura in P1 was more than enough to wrap up the chassis and engine crowns. But there is more at stake for the two Acura teams. Brabham and Sharp extended their driver's championship lead to 17 points with 55 points remaining over the next two events.

Intersport Racing's Jon Field, who battled for the overall lead early with Gil de Ferran, and Clint Field placed third in P1 and fourth overall in their Lola B06/10-AER.

Fernandez and Diaz grabbed the class driver championship after a fantastic battle with Dyson Racing's Marino Franchitti and Butch Leitzinger. The Dyson Lola B09/86-Mazda coupe led by less than a second with 12 minutes left before the engine let go and forced Leitzinger to pull the car off track and to a stop at Turn 2.

Franchitti had led the race overall early in his stint. The Lola-Mazda and the Acura went back and forth in the last hour, battling through slower - and faster - traffic. The victory (and championship) appeared in doubt after Fernandez was penalized for speeding in pit lane at the 2:10 mark.

Both the Dyson cars led in class during the opening stint. Chris Dyson pitted from the lead at the 48-minute mark but crashed hard at Turn 1 a couple laps later. That put the focus on the remaining Dyson coupe and the Acura.

Johnny O'Connell and Jan Magnussen scored a historic victory for Corvette Racing with the team's first in GT2. Magnussen crossed the finish line in his Corvette C6.R 0.331 seconds ahead of Risi Competizione's Pierre Kaffer, who teamed with Jaime Melo but began the race from the rear of the grid after the car missed qualifying Saturday.

The win at Mosport was the third straight for the O'Connell-Magnussen pairing and fourth in their careers. O'Connell won for the seventh time at the circuit, the most of any driver at any venue in the American Le Mans Series. He made his 100th start Sunday.

The GT2 battle was the most hotly contested on the day. BMW, Corvette and Ferrari each led with the top four cars circling the track in a line for the better part of 20 minutes. Corvette's quick final pit stop with slightly less than 30 minutes to go allowed Magnussen to re-enter the track just in front of Kaffer, who had pitted four minutes earlier. The two cars were side-by-side for one-third of the lap and even touched going through the Turn 5 hairpin before Magnussen pulled ahead for good.

The new Corvette GT2 car won in just its third race start, having debuted earlier this month at Mid-Ohio.

The second Corvette C6.R of Olivier Beretta and Oliver Gavin placed third in class.

The next round of the 2009 American Le Mans Series is the 12th annual Petit Le Mans powered by MAZDA6 on Saturday, September 26. The Series' cornerstone event at Road Atlanta in Braselton Ga., is a 1,000-mile/10-hour endurance classic (MFL photography provided by Acura).

Mobil 1 Grand Prix of Mosport
Mosport, Bowmanville, ON, CA

*Qualifying Driver (Starting Driver)
Margin of victory: 1 Laps / Time of race: 2:45:03.171
Car 19 excluded - 5.4.3.e of the 2009 ALMS SSR (stall test)

www.americanlemans.com

Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series
Montreal 200, August 28-29
Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Montréal, Québec, Canada

Battling ever-changing and sometimes treacherous weather conditions, Robin Liddell passed Andy Lally for the lead and then led the final 18 circuits to give the No. 57 BryanMark Financial/Stevenson Automotive Pontiac GXP.R its second consecutive Montreal 200 Acxiom GT victory and third triumph of the 2009 campaign.

Lally and NASCAR Camping World Series regular Brendan Gaughan took second in the No. 66 TRG Porsche GT3. Taking third were Crown Royal 200 at The Glen co-winners Emil Assentato and Jeff Segal in the No. 69 FXDD SpeedSource Mazda RX-8.

The competitive GT race had eight different drivers and seven cars taking turns in the lead. Leh Keen led 17 laps from the pole in the No. 87 Farnbacher Loles Racing Porsche GT3, with Dirk Werner getting caught out in the changing conditions to finish sixth.

Despite their worst 2009 result since taking eighth in the Rolex 24, the four-time winners padded their lead to 35 points over Kelly Collins, who took 10th in the No. 07 Drinkin' Mate Pontiac GXP.R shared by Paul Edwards. The victory allowed Davis to move into third, 43 points behind the leaders.

Tom Sutherland led a race-high 20 laps in the No. 30 Click-Away Computers/3Dimensional.com Mazda RX-8, but finished eighth after co-driver Dane Cameron was forced to stop to avoid hitting the spinning car of Charles Espenlaub late in the race. Espenlaub led a lap and finished fourth in the No. 40 Dempsey Racing Mazda RX-8 started by Joe Foster, matching the team's best result of the season.

Montreal-born Sylvain Tremblay and Nick Ham both led in the No. 70 SpeedSource Mazda RX-8, but finished 12th after a late-race incident. Also leading the GT race was Eric Lux, who placed fifth in the No. 86 Farnbacher Loles Racing Porsche GT3 shared with Bryan Sellers.

Max Angelelli cruised to a one-minute victory in Saturday's race - breathing new life in the battle for the 2009 Daytona Prototype championship in the process.

With only two races remaining, Angelelli - who led the final 12 of 67 laps at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve - and co-driver Brian Frisselle are tied for second with Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas, five points behind leaders Alex Gurney and Jon Fogarty (274-269).

It was the second victory of the season for the No. 10 SunTrust Ford Dallara, and second triumph at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve for both Frisselle (who won in 2008) and Angelelli (2007).

Romain Dumas and Timo Bernhard combined to lead 38 laps in the No. 12 Penske Racing Verizon Wireless Porsche Riley and finished second, 1:01.264 behind Angelelli. Prior to Saturday, the combined margin of victory for nine 2009 Rolex Series races was 57.851 seconds.

Angelelli credited SunTrust Racing strategy with giving him the gap on the rest of the field. While many of the contenders were pitting for slick tires on the drying track, Angelelli was told to stay out despite the conditions.

Gurney took the final podium position from Ricky Taylor on the final lap in the No. 99 GAINSCO Pontiac Riley started by pole winner Jon Fogarty.

Despite the on-and-off rain, there was only one brief full-course caution, when Ozz Negri spun on Lap 41 after contact with Rob Finlay. The race's average speed fell to 89.526 mph (144.078 mph).

The biggest incident occurred before the green flag, when NASCAR Sprint Cup Series regular Carl Edwards spun into a guardrail in Turn 11. He and fellow NASCAR star Marcos Ambrose planned to make their Daytona Prototype debut in the Doran Racing No. 77 Aflac/iRacing/Au Vineyards Ford Dallara.

Only two races remain in the season - Sept. 19 at Miller Motorsports Park and Oct. 10 at Homestead-Miami Speedway (MFL photography provided by Grand-Am Media).

Montreal 200
Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Montréal, Québec, Canada

www.grand-am.com

IndyCar Series
PEAK Antifreeze and Motor Oil Indy 300, August 28-29
Chicagoland Speedway, Joliet, Illinois

Ryan Briscoe edged Scott Dixon by a slim 0.0077 of a second to win the PEAK Antifreeze & Motor Oil Indy 300 at Chicagoland Speedway on Saturday night. The victory, the third of the season for Briscoe, was the fourth-closest finish in IndyCar Series history, and helped the Team Penske driver increase his championship points lead to 25 over Dario Franchitti, who finished fourth in the 200-lap race on the 1.5-mile oval.

Dixon, who was runner-up at Chicagoland Speedway for the fourth year in a row, is 33 points back with two races remaining. Mario Moraes finished third, his career-best finish in the IndyCar Series.

This is Briscoe's fifth win of his IndyCar Series career, his most recent win coming at Kentucky earlier this month. For Team Penske, it's their 35th win in the IndyCar Series, the most of any entrant in IndyCar Series history.

Late in the race, fourth in points and Briscoe teammate Helio Cartoneves in the No. 3 Penske car had a suspension issue and wound up in the wall. He was checked, released and cleared to drive later that evening.

The 25 point difference between first and second place in driver points is the fourth closest in IndyCar Series history with two races remaining. Four points separated Dixon and Franchitti in 2007, Hornish led Castroneves by seven in 2006, Castroneves led Dixon by 12 in 2007 and Castroneves led de Ferran by one point in 2002 with two races remaining on the schedule.

Furthermore, the 33 point differential between first and third place is the fourth closest in IndyCar history with two races remaining. In 2006 Hornish led third-place Wheldon by 24 points, Castroneves led Kanaan by 14 in 2003 and Castroneves led Hornish by 8 in 2002 with two races left.

The top three drivers in points are the only drivers still mathematically alive for the 2009 IndyCar Series championship with two races remaining. The driver leading the championship point race with two races remaining went on to win the title five times since 2001.

The 2009 IndyCar Series season continues Sept. 19 with the Indy Japan 300 at Twin Ring Motegi (MFL photography provided by IndyRacing.com).

PEAK Antifreeze and Motor Oil Indy 300
Chicagoland Speedway, Joliet, IL

www.indycar.com

Redline: Time Attack! Series
Round 6, August 29-30
Old Bridge Township Raceway Park, Englishtown, New Jersey

Mark Daddio and the AMS Performance NOS Energy Drink EVO X took home Unlimited-AWD gold on Sunday at the Redline: Time Attack! Round 6 at Raceway Park, and with it the overall event victory. His time of 1:07.222 was untouchable among anyone in his or any other group - some three seconds faster than the next closest competitor.

After a Saturday drenched in rain, Sunday cleared up beautifully for the sixth event of the eight-race 2009 campaign. Joining Daddio as a class leader was Jeffery Rica in his 240SXmotoring.com Nissan, who led a tight U-RWD field with a 1:12.821 hot lap through the 1.35-mile circuit.

In the Modified categories, Ryan Gates in the AMS Gates311.com Nitto Tire EVO X clocked an impressive 1:09.156 to win in AWD, while in RWD Thomas Hiromoto had the time to beat, registering a 1:14.717 in the Fuji Racing Miata. Ross Miller in his PTuning Listine Scion tC took M-FWD with a 1:15.744.

The fastest around E-Town from the Street groups was Tony Wiesenhahn in the AWD Turn In Concepts WRX; Wiesenhahn put in a 1:12.643 to take the division. In S-FWD, Doug Wind in the Forced Performance Continental Tire SRT-4 led the field with a 1:16.206, while not too far behind was S-RWD's Jeff Bender in the Tri-State Racing 350Z, clocking a 1:16.299.

Redline: Time Attack! heads next to Spring Mountain Motorsports Ranch in Pahrump, Nevada for Round 7, September 26-27 (MFL photography provided by Dan Jenkins).

www.redlinetimeattack.com

Coming up:

NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series
Mac Tools U.S. Nationals, September 2-7
O'Reilly Raceway Park at Indianapolis, Indianapolis, IN
www.nhra.com

World Rally Championship
Repco Rally Australia, September 4-6
Northern Rivers, New South Wales, Australia
www.wrc.com

D1GP USA
Round 4, September 5
Old Bridge Township Raceway Park, Englishtown, NJ
www.d1gp.com

Super Lap Battle Time Attack
Qualifying Round 4 (w/NASA Nationals), September 10-13
Miller Motorsports Park, Tooele, UT
superlapbattle.com

Formula One
Santander Italian Grand Prix, September 11-13
Autodromo Nazionale Monza, Monza, Italy
www.formula1.com

National Guard American Drag Racing League
ADRL Flowmaster Dragstock VI, September 11-12
Rockingham Dragway, Rockingham, NC
www.adrl.us

Grand-Am KONI Sports Car Challenge
KONI Challenge at Miller Motorsports Park, September 18-20
Miller Motorsports Park, Tooele, UT
www.grand-am.com

Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series
Miller Motorsports Park, September 18-19
Miller Motorsports Park, Tooele, UT
www.grand-am.com

IndyCar Series
Indy Japan 300, September 18-19
Twin Ring Motegi, Motegi, Japan
www.indycar.com

American Le Mans Series
12th Annual Petit Le Mans powered by MAZDA6, September 23-26
Road Atlanta, Braselton, GA
www.americanlemans.com

SCCA SPEED World Challenge Touring Car Championship
12th Annual Petit Le Mans, September 23-25
Road Atlanta, Braselton, GA
www.world-challenge.com

Redline: Time Attack! Series
Round 7, September 26-27
Spring Mountain Motorsports Ranch, Pahrump, NV
www.redlinetimeattack.com

Battle of the Imports
Round 5: BOTI Oregon, September 27
Woodburn Dragstrip, Woodburn, OR
www.battleoftheimports.com

Formula DRIFT
Round 7: Judgment Day, October 16-17
Toyota Speedway at Irwindale, Irwindale, CA
www.formulad.com