2003

"We had a great racecar. You win 'em sometimes like that, although I don't know if I've ever won one like that, but I've sure lost 'em. I'm proud of the guys. We've done an awesome job this year. We finished in the top 10 in the points.

Dale Earnhardt Jr and the No.8 Budweiser DEI team never got a handle on the new high banks of the 1.5-mile Homestead-Miami Speedway and finished 24th in Sunday's Ford 400.

They call him the King of the Mountain, and with good reason. Australian racing legend Peter Brock first raced at Bathurst's legendary Mt Panorama circuit in 1969 in a Monaro GTS 350, and has taken on the Bathurst 1000 a total of 30 times for an unparalleled nine wins.

Sheffield Tigers have completed the signing of Andre Compton in a new two-year deal. Compton, who ended 2003 on the injured list, will have surgery to repair metalwork in his foot before Christmas and insists he will be fit for the start of next season.

Full unofficial results from Sunday's Ford 400 at the 1.5-mile Homestead-Miami Speedway.

1. Nicolas Lapierre FRA Signature Plus Dallara-Renault 25 laps 2. Fabio Carbone BRA Signature Plus Dallara-Renault +05.416s 3. Katsuyuki Hiranaka JPN Prema Powerteam Dallara-Opel +15.382s

James Courtney secured victory in an exciting opening leg to the 50th Macau Grand Prix, but many of his main rivals fell foul of incidents and accidents in a race punctuated by crashes and safety car periods.

The annual Macau F3 Grand prix looked set to bring some end-of-season cheer for Robert Doornbos, until two unexpected mechanical failures ended the Dutchman's hopes of a podium finish.

Frenchman Nicolas Lapierre won one of the most dramatic Macau Grands Prix in recent times, while Japanese F3 champion - and leg one winner - James Courtney was left heartbroken when a puncture saw him crash out of the lead with just four laps to go in the second heat.

Toyota announced today that it has reached agreements with Bang Racing, Bill Davis Racing, Innovative Motorsports Inc., and Waltrip Racing Inc. to campaign Toyota Tundra race trucks in the 2004 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series.

Brian Vickers became NASCAR's youngest ever champion when he clinched the Busch Series crown at the final round at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Saturday night.

Actor-racer Jason Priestley has finally decided to abandon his on-track ambitions, but admits that it was not his own massive smash that finally convinced him that his future lay away from racing.

If the California Department of Transportation had Jesse James and his band of renegade car builders from the Discovery Channel's mega-hit series Monster Garage on their staff, every highway line in the entire Golden State could be re-done in about two days.

In order to streamline the future stages of the 2004 race car build process, and optimise the reliability of the R24, a full-scale chassis is already being replicated at Renault F1's factory in Enstone.

It had been expected for weeks, but last Monday became a reality: Valentino Rossi has turned his back on Honda to lead Yamaha's MotoGP campaign in 2004 and 2005.

Raybestos Rookie of the Year points leader Jamie McMurray became the 15th different driver to win a Winston Cup Bud Pole Award in 2003 as he easily broke the existing track record around the newly banked Homestead-Miami Speedway ahead of Sunday's season-closing Ford 400.

Mid Ohio and the EuroSpeedway Lausitz are the only two 2003 Champ Car World Series venues to be left off the struggling series' first incarnation of what will form the 2004 schedule although the status of Brands Hatch, Fontana and several other venues is still seemingly up in the air.

Former Formula Three Grand Prix winner Ralph Firman made a successful return to Macau today [Friday], when he smashed the street circuit's lap record at the wheel of his regular Jordan-Ford EJ13.

Kyle Busch, the 18 year-old younger brother of current Winston Cup star Kurt Busch will not make his NASCAR Winston Cup Series debut in this weekend's Ford 400 at the Homestead-Miami Speedway after pre-race scrutineering revealed that his Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet did not conform to NASCAR'

Sarah Fisher was named the 2003 IRL IndyCar Series Most Popular Driver for the third straight year earlier this week while Arie Luyendyk Jr. received the same honour for the Menards Infiniti Pro Series.

This year's National ICA karting champion Robbie Pecorari has won the annual Champ Car Stars of Tomorrow Scholarship Award for the 2004 Skip Barber Formula Dodge National Championship Presented by Racer.

Ducati Fila's new line-up of Regis Laconi and James Toseland had their first ride on the full factory spec 999s that they will race in the 2004 World Superbike championship, during a three-day Pirelli test at Valencia.

Dale Earnhardt Jr may have lost out to Matt Kenseth in the chase for the 2003 NASCAR Winston Cup Championship but his #8 Budweiser DEI pit crew could emerge victorious from this weekend's Ford 400 at Homestead after moving into a tie for the lead of the inaugural McDonald's Drive-Thru Pit Champio

Russell Ingall's turbulent V8 Supercar season continued in the days following the penultimate round in New Zealand, as the Stone Brothers Racing driver was slapped with a 20-point deduction after an on-track incident.