When the new generation of the 2012 Ford Ranger’s Japanese sibling, the Mazda BT-50 pickup truck, goes on sale in Australia later this year, it will be available with a wide variety of locally designed and built genuine accessories, the company said today. Read more »

Italian sports carmaker Ferrari has set its eyes on the North American Grand Am series, which it plans to compete in with the new 458 Italia Grand Am that was given its track baptism today at the Fiorano circuit completing several laps in the hands of Maurizio Mediani and Jaime Melo.

Developed in cooperation with Michelotto Automobili, the racing model is based on the European GT3 version of the 458 Italia but features less efficient aerodynamics as well as a detuned V8 delivering 500-horses due to the different regulations in the American series.

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Lotus’ most recent new sports car, the Evora, will stay into production until at least 2017, when it will be replaced with the new Elan according to the company’s boss Danny Bahar. This changes the initial plan that called for the Evora to be replaced as early as 2012. Read more »

Spring in Richmond means 2 things. The azaleas blooming at Augusta National and Kyle Busch celebrating his birthday with another dominating victory at Crown Royal 400.

Undoubtedly Kyle Busch's Bristol and Richmond winning traditions, makes him every statistics fan favorite driver, but Kyle Busch in his 3rd consecutive victory at Richmond International Raceway had to dominate over his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin who has also won the past two fall races. Although he led 235 of the 400 laps, including the final 84, Busch’s victory came this time, right in the fuel edge as both Joe Gibbs teammates conserved fuel since their pitstop on lap 293/400 but Kyle was found unable to complete his post-race celebration burnout.
“We were late to the celebration. This is pretty awesome. We had a really good car, and we knew that if we could play through traffic a little bit better than the 11 [Hamlin] that we had a shot at the win, and we did that [Saturday night]. I learned from Denny Hamlin last fall -- and I'm not going to say what I learned, but he might know. We did a good job of doing what we needed to do early in the run, and once we got out [front] and had to go through traffic, the traffic kind of fell our way, so we were able to pick our way through there."

Kasey Kahne finished third, followed by David Ragan and series points leader Carl Edwards. Clint Bowyer, A.J. Allmendinger, Jimmie Johnson and Tony Stewart claimed positions 6-9 as the last cars on the lead lap.

Although Hamlin was also determined to win on his home track, a second place was a complete salvation after struggling during the Spring races without logging any top five finish. Hamlin also confirmed that he helped Busch by sharing his short tracks secret but claimed that it was a fair exchange for what he had learned from Busch about running intermediate speedways.
"Yeah, I opened my mouth -- I never should have told him. That's the thing. If I don't tell him the things I know on short tracks, and the crew chiefs don't relay information, then it's not a good team. We got paid back on the bigger intermediate tracks. I learned so much from him. Yeah, it might cost me a race here or there because he outruns me, but I think, in the grand scheme of things, it makes me an overall better driver."

The race featured a rerun of ill tempers in the Ryan Newman and Juan Pablo Montoya camps, where there is a history of trouble. Tight racing between the pair produced the race’s first caution on lap 108 as the right rear of Montoya’s car slapped the wall and scattered debris on the track. Montoya lost two laps in the pits. About 100 laps later, the two cars met again, this time Montoya initiating the contact by bumping Newman from the rear and sending him spinning, causing another caution. Newman visited the NASCAR hauler after the race to discuss the incidents with officials. Montoya left the track hurriedly without comment. NASCAR officials eventually warned both drivers for their behavior on track.

Yet, race’s biggest crash occurred with 100 laps to go with much of the field bunched for a restart. The wreck began as a traffic incident when Matt Kenseth and Clint Bowyer made contact. Kenseth’s car shot to the right and hit Gordon, sending Gordon into a wild slide and hard into the inside wall. Mark Martin, David Reutimann and Bobby Labonte were also unlucky to be involved.

The victory was Busch’s second of the year, enabling him to join Kevin Harvick as a multiple winner and significantly boost his chances to get a spot in the Chase for the Sprint Cup.

Even though it’s not as famous as its Frankfurt, Paris, Tokyo or Detroit counterparts, this year’s edition of the Australian Motor Show, which takes place in Melbourne from July 1 to 10, has some interesting debuts including the Mad Max Concepts pictured above as well as a number of new production and prototype models from the local divisions of General Motors (aka Holden) and Ford.

You can take a look at all the vehicles in our comprehensive photo gallery right after the break. For those of you interested in learning more about the Ford-badged Mad Max Interceptor prototypes, check out our previous post here.

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The ninth generation Civic hatchback for the European market will soon make its world premiere at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September but Honda has provided us with a sneak peak of the five-door model with photos of a camouflaged prototype and a video explaining the changes under the body.

The Civic hatchback has been designed exclusively for Europe and will continue to be a separate model from the North American four-door sedan and two-door coupe variants with which it shares the same name.

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Get excited DTM fans because there’s a new kid coming to town. We’re talking about Audi’s freshly revealed A5 Coupe racecar, internally named “R17,” that will replace the four-door A4 with which Audi has conquered the DTM title four times since 2004.

Ingolstadt’s new touring model is based on the facelifted A5 Coupe that was presented earlier this week and it complies with the new technical and safety regulations that will come in effect in the German touring model championship next year.

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If you happen to live or are planning to travel in Europe and would like to move around in a Lotus Evora but can't afford the expense of buying one, you'll be happy to know that Hertz may have a solution to your problem.

The U.S.-based car rental company has just introduced the Lotus Evora for hire in key European markets as part of its Adrenaline Range in the Hertz Fun Collection of Germany, Spain and the UK, and as a special car in the Fun Collection in France.

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Jeff Gordon ended his 66-race winless streak by scoring a convincing victory at the Subway Fresh Fit 500 at Phoenix International Race. Gordon’s first since Texas Motor Speedway in April 2009, gave him 83 career Sprint Cup wins, tying him with Cale Yarborough for fifth on NASCAR’s all-time list.

Jeff Gordon's first victory with his new primary sponsor, "Drive to End Hunger" AARP's programm, wasn't an easy task. To do so, Gordon had to overcome initially a poor 20th qualification -just like the rest of Hendick Chevrolets, and to avoid all big early crashes during the race including a 13-car pileup on the backstretch that blocked the track with crippled cars and stopped the action on Lap 67.

Crash took place after a slight contact between Matt Kenseth's No. 17 Ford and Brian Vickers' No. 83 Toyota cut Vickers' left rear tire and ignited a wild wreck that damaged the cars of Clint Bowyer, Jeff Burton, Jamie McMurray, David Reutimann, Casey Mears, Travis Kvapil, David Gilliland, Bobby Labonte, Regan Smith, Andy Lally and Robby Gordon.

Still the ultimate and most difficult task that guide Gordon back to the Victory Lane was to beat Kyle Busch at his best, turning the clock back 15 years, when it was the Intimidator and the Golden Boy going nose-to nose every racing week. Busch had already won the Truck race. He never gave up the lead in Saturday's Nationwide race. And when he battled the lead away from Tony Stewart on a restart with 21 laps to go, it seemed that Busch was destined to sweep all three races at Phoenix. But Gordon had other plans to end his racing hunger.

"He's tough. I respect his talent, that team, and he's aggressive. I think everybody knows, you don't want to have to restart up against him. He's just won a lot of stuff lately. And to be quite honest with you, to me, there's nothing cooler. I think he was on a mission [Sunday], that's for sure. And when Jeff Gordon has a good car and he has the opportunity to beat you, he's going to beat you," Busch said. "There's no doubt about that. He's my hero and I've always watched him and what he's been able to accomplish over the years. It's no surprise that he beat us."

Gordon passed Stewart for second on Lap 292, but was still more than a half-second behind Busch with the laps counting down. But as Gordon's No. 24 Chevrolet began to hunt Busch's No. 18 Toyota -- stealing away precious hundredths of a second with every lap -- everyone began to believe that the gap between the two cars will close soon. And on Lap 304, 8 laps from the checkered, Gordon found himself in a long-familiar spot. And unlike 2010, when it seemed like everything that could go wrong, Jeff Gordon was determined to grab the chance to finish his winless drought.

"Man, what an awesome, awesome, feeling it is when you've got the car right like that. And they give you 20 [laps] to go and it's your job to go get it done, you've got what you need to go do that and then you pull it off. I thought, 'Even if I catch him, what am I going to do with him?'...We caught him, he got loose, I got underneath him and I didn't know what to expect. I got into [Turn 1], he was right on my door. I got loose, got up into him, they said 'clear' and I went. Because I knew I'd need to get away from him as fast as I could."

Busch could see Gordon coming fast for him, but even the "new Kyle" realized that there was little he could do to halt Gordon's charge.
"He was gaining on me really good and I knew he was going to get to me eventually and this place is so flat and it's one groove that we all run the bottom. He got so tucked up behind me in [Turns 3 and 4], he got me loose and I could not put the gas down. I mean, he was so far up underneath me that I could not go forward.
So I was loose, and he was just waiting for the exit of the turn to turn underneath me and get alongside of me and then once we got down into Turn 1, we both drove off in there pretty deep and I had enough where I could slow down and kind of run on what I thought would be the second lane. And he just drifted up a little bit into me and knocked me out of the way."

Five-time defending Cup champion Jimmie Johnson finished third after starting 28th. Kevin Harvick came home fourth, a substantial improvement on his 42nd-place result at Daytona 500, and Ryan Newman claimed fifth.
Kasey Kahne, Tony Stewart, Kurt Busch, A.J. Allmendinger and Dale Earnhardt Jr. completed the top 10.

Carl Edwards won the 2011 Sprint All-Star Race at Charlotte Motor Speedway after finishing 0.443 seconds ahead of runner-up Kyle Busch and collected a whole million dollar prize for his victory. Moreover, Edwards became the eighth different winner of the event in the past eight years. David Reutimann ran third, followed by Tony Stewart, Greg Biffle, Matt Kenseth, Denny Hamlin, David Ragan, Kevin Harvick and Ryan Newman completed the top 10 but only Edwards became millionaire after the event.

When NASCAR officials called the scheduled caution after 90 laps, signaling a 10-minute break before the final 10-lap dash, Edwards had already cleared Busch for the lead in Turn 3 on Lap 86 and hold the top spot for the last segment of the race while Busch, Biffle, Stewart and Hamlin were also chasing the million dollar prize.
However, Edwards victory was the result of a flawless work during the mandatory 4-tyre pit stops before the final 10-lap shootout.

Carl Edwards commented about his achievement:
"The key to winning this race are the guys behind me. [Crew chief] Bob Osborne and my guys -- especially the guys on pit road -- they could have dropped the ball. That's all the pressure in the world on those guys.
They performed a flawless pit stop, and we got out in front of Kyle. He is a bear on those restarts, and if we had started behind him, I think it would have been really tough. It's unbelievable. I feel so bad about tearing up the car, but Bob says he has a faster one for next week [for the Coca-Cola 600], so I'm pretty excited."

The only thing that went wrong during the All-Star race was Edwards' slide through the frontstretch grass while he has been celebrating his victory. Edwards hit the infield sod and destroyed the front end of his No. 99 Ford. Although he thought he hit a drain, track officials denied his claim, by saying there was nothing but grass there.

Edwards continued:
"I had no idea that drain was there. I guess NASCAR's mad, because they think we're hiding something with that car."
When told there was no drain cover Edwards explained with huge surprise:
"Really? Wow, so it just dug in the splitter and I didn’t expect that. Bob has been doing a really good job of keeping the splitter down. It helps on the race track and it doesn’t help in the grass."#

Busch, who had fallen out of four of five previous All-Star Races, was happy to finish and conceded that he was just beaten by a faster car.
"A few more laps and maybe I would have got him, but all we had was 10 [in the final segment]. He was just so good through the corner. Once he got his car turned, he didn't even have to finish turning his car. It would kind of turn, and he would hammer the throttle, and it would just continue to turn and just drive up off the corner. ... Tonight we just flat got beat."

IZOD IndyCar Series driver Simona de Silvestro was involved in a horrifying crash during a practice session ahead of the centennial Indianapolis 500 race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

De Silvestro was on her 7th lap of the session when sparks were seen trailing the No. 78 HVM Nuclear Clean Air Energy car entering Turn 3 of the 2.5-mile oval speedway, caused probably by a suspected mechanical failure of its rear suspension. As a result the car while being in full speed, crashed heavily twice with the catch fence in Turn 4 before becoming airborne twice and landed inverted while on fire.

The Swiss driver managed to get out of the car on her own without major injuries but she has been transported to the nearby Methodist Hospital for evaluation and treatment for the second-degree burns on her right hand and light burns on her left hand.

HVM team owner Keith Wiggins reported:
"I'm on my way to the hospital to see Simona. She's got some burns. It was obviously a nasty crash. There's nothing left of it. You can basically put the whole thing in a trash container."

De Silvestro was released later in the afternoon, and commented:
“It is my goal to get back in the car as quickly as I can. For any race car driver it’s important to get right back in the car. If you step out of it, you’ll always think about it and think whether it was the right decision. I think when I go out there again I’ll enjoy it. It will be (INDYCAR’s medical team’s) decision and also mine because it’s pretty shocking...
Something broke on the rear suspension and when that happens you’re just a passenger. You can’t really do anything about it, especially when you’re going about 220 mph. I hit the wall and it took forever to land it seemed, and then it started getting pretty hot out there (because of flames). It was pretty shocking actually, especially to be on fire. It’s kind of weird because the fuel is splashing on you and you don’t really know what to do. A lot of things go through your head, but you want to get out of the car as quickly as possible.
I was pretty shocked, but I can say I’m lucky to be here. It just shows how safe the car is. I don’t think a crash like that in any other car I would be standing here... I can move my hands, but it is pretty tight because it pulls the skin. It will hurt a lot. Luckily, on an oval it’s not as physical as a road course.”

The 2010 Chase Rookie of the Year for the Indy 500 is actually lucky to survive after such impact and although the strict safety standards of Dallara chassis, her accident was a strong reminder to all the Indy 500 competitors how much dangerous the track is and a reminiscent to Tony Kanaan's unabated Turn 3 crash in 2009 and Takuma Sato's and Mike Conway's accidents during the 2010 Indy 500.