MOTORSPORT: Formula E beckons for young Brabham

Brabham, 20, grandson of Australia's triple Formula One world champion, the late Sir Jack, recently tested one of the Spark-Renault Formula E cars in Britain for Andretti Autosports, the team he is racing for in America's Indy Lights series this year.

He described the test at Donington Park as "an amazing opportunity" and "great for building my experience".

"The Formula E car is very interesting and complex and I think it has a great future," Brabham said. "The series [starting in Beijing in mid-September] is littered with accomplished engineers and drivers."

Many of the drivers already named by the 10 teams participating have raced in F1, with Italian Jarno Trulli a Monaco Grand Prix winner.

Andretti Autosports is the only American team in the series and its first driver is Frenchman Franck Montagny while its second seat is still vacant.

Andretti has not given any indication of Brabham filling it, but there may be good reason for it to install him there.

The Brabham name may help draw sponsorship to Andretti team – primarily an Indy racing outfit – for its entry into Formula E, which will have races in its first season at central locations in 10 major world centres, including London and Los Angeles – but no Australian city for now.

Brabham has won two junior open-wheeler titles in America in the past two seasons – the USF2000 and Pro Mazda championships – and huge scholarships from that success largely funded his entry this year to Indy Lights, in which he is running fourth.

However, with the likelihood that there won't be similar finances available next year unless he somehow can win the Lights title this season, it may now make sense for Brabham's career to be steered towards the broader international scene – and Formula E.

Andretti team boss and former Indy racing and F1 driver Michael Andretti said Brabham "has a bright racing future ahead of him" and "we look forward to being a part of his developing career".

Having spread his team's wings beyond America by creating one of the foundation teams in the Formula E series, Andretti is well-placed to take Brabham on to the wider international scene – and perhaps tap into global sponsorship potential to do it.

Lowndes excels in Ferrari at Spa 24-Hour
Craig Lowndes' return to Europe after almost two decades can be classified a success.

Lowndes drove a double stint through night and then the last stint to guide a Ferrari 458 to eighth outright in the weekend's Spa 24 Hours in Belgium.

That gave Lowndes and his three co-drivers – Australian Steve Wyatt and Europeans Andrea Piccini and Michele Rugolo – third place in the event's pro-am class.

They completed 519 laps of the revered Spa-Francorchamps circuit in the Ardennes mountains – one lap less than a sister Ferrari that won the class.

Lowndes previously raced in Europe in 1997 – in the old Formula 3000 open-wheeler series with Juan Pablo Montoya as his teammate.

Audi claimed its third Spa 24-Hour victory in four years, with its R8 LMS ultras also filling third and fourth positions.

The victorious R8 – in which one of the three drivers was a one-time Australian Grand Prix starter, German Markhus Winkelhock – beat a BMW Z4 by seven seconds.

Those two cars had swapped the lead throughout the night but the BMW's fuel efficiency and better brake wear appeared to favour it. However, the Marc VDS team opted not to change the Z4's tyres at its last stop 40 minutes from the finish.

The Belgian WRT team's change of front brake discs and pads on the R8 in the second last hour, plus the worn tyres on the BMW and late ABS and traction control problems, swung the balance in its favour in the dash to the chequered flag.

Those two cars finished eight laps ahead of the Lowndes Ferrari.

It was a disastrous event for the three MP4-12Cs entered in the pro class, with all of them out soon after half distance – and the one young New Zealander V8 Supercar star Shane Van Gisbergen was to drive destroyed in the second hour.

Van Gisbergen did not get a lap in the race when one of his two British co-drivers, Tim Mullen, crashed the Von Ryan Racing entry heavily.

A Ferrari in which Australian Liam Talbot was a driver was crashed heavily too by Brit Marcus Mahy, who was in a coma for some hours after that incident which caused a long red-flag period.

The Lamborghini Gallardo with four Australian drivers – Steven Richards, Steve Owen, David Russell and Roger Lago – retired with electrical problems a little beyond half distance.

Young Australian GT Championship leader Richard Muscat was in a Mercedes SLS AMG that ran in the pro-am class and finished 34th outright, entered by Europe's renowned Black Falcon squad.

Ambrose grumpy as Gordon takes fifth Brickyard 400
Marcos Ambrose was tetchy at the weekend when asked at Indianapolis whether he was staying in NASCAR next year or returning to Australia if Roger Penske has a team in the V8 Supercar Championship as early as then.

While any Penske entry here now looks unlikely before 2016, Ambrose – described before the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis as irritated – said: "If I had something to say, I'd already have said it."

Ambrose's NASCAR team owner Richard Petty said it was largely up to Ambrose to decide what he wanted to do, but he raised the prospect of the dual V8 Supercar champion racing part-time in the Sprint Cup in future – obviously including the two American road course events at which he has excelled, Watkins Glen and Sonoma.

"It's going to be basically a decision of what does he want to do," Petty said.

"Does he want to run all the races [36 a year], just part of the races, [or] does he want to go home?" Petty said. "That's going to be up to him."

Ambrose finished 22nd in his Ford at the Brickyard 400 and remains 20th in the Sprint Cup points.

Chevrolet star Jeff Gordon won at Indianapolis for the fifth time – equaling the F1 feat there of Michael Schumacher.

A.J. Foyt, Al Unser senior and Rick Mears have won its major race, the Indianapolis 500, four times each in the venue's 105-year history.

Kasey Kahne dominated this year's Brickyard 400 in another Chevrolet but Gordon, hugely popular at Indy as he grew up in Indiana, blasted clear at the last restart 17 laps from the finish.

Gordon won the first NASCAR race at Indianapolis two decades ago but had not been to Victory Lane in the event since 2004.

This was the 90th victory of his Cup career and increased his lead in the series as he chases a fifth title.

NASCAR Sprint Cup standings – 1. Jeff Gordon (Chevrolet) 717 points; 2. Dale Earnhardt junior (Chevrolet) 693; 3. Brad Keselowski (Ford) 666; 4. Matt Kenseth (Toyota) 661; 5. Jimmie Johnson (Chevrolet) 628; 6. Kyle Busch (Toyota) 609; 7. Ryan Newman (Chevrolet) 606; 8. Carl Edwards (Ford) 603; 9. Joey Logano (Ford) 591; 10. Clint Bowyer (Toyota) 577; 11. Denny Hamlin (Toyota) 572; Kevin Harvick (Chevrolet) 565. Australia's Marcos Ambrose (Ford) is 20th on 532 points.