In brief, July 2008

The remaining assets of Champ Car are due to be auctioned off on June 3 in Indianapolis. Gallivan Auctioneers of Indiana has been charged with the liquidation. The sale will include pace cars, race car transporters, race cars, shop equipment, and scoring and timing equipment.

Arthur W ‘Art’ Graham III, the director of timing and scoring for the Indianapolis 500 from 1978-97, died on Sunday May 11 aged 67. Graham was employed by IBM for 30 years and introduced many of the timing procedures now used in American single-seater racing.

Veteran Newman/Haas crewman Davey Evans was murdered in Indianapolis on May 3, the night before practice began for the Indy 500. British-born Evans had worked for Carl Haas since 1970 when Jackie Stewart and Peter Revson raced Lolas in Can-Am. Three men were detained by police in connection with Evans’s death.

Ex-DTM driver Alex Margaritis will make his Le Mans 24 Hours debut in the Vitaphone-entered Aston Martin DBR9. The car will be run by the British Strakka Racing team and the 23-year-old will be teamed with its regular drivers Peter Hardman and Nick Leventis.

Porsche specialist Sascha Maassen will team up with former Le Mans winner John Nielsen and Casper Elgaard in the Team Essex Porsche RS Spyder in this year’s 24 Hours.

The classic mid-Wales stages, Hafren, Myherin and Sweet Lamb, look set to form part of the route for this year’s Rally GB for the first time since 2000. The stages have been re-introduced in an attempt to boost the spectacle for fans. The final route for the December rally is due to be made public on June 4.

An event exclusively for vehicles that don’t use fossil fuels took place at Santa Pod Raceway for the first time on April 25. A mix of alternative fuel and electric vehicles battled it out on the drag strip, with a bio-ethanol Triumph Daytona 675 bike heading the table at the end of the day with a top speed of 128mph in 10.8 seconds.