Pitstop: Team Kiwi decision soon

A1GP driver Jonny Reid is one of three drivers testing for a seat in Team Kiwi Racing for the 2009 Australian V8 Supercar Championship. Two other drivers are also vying for the drive - Steve Owen, who won the Fujitsu V8 Supercar Development Series in 2008, and Dean Fiore, who finished second in the Australian Carrera Cup last year. An announcement is expected next week.

Mud could be decider

The third round of the World Rally Championships starts this weekend on the gravel and tarmac roads of Cyprus. Rain has been forecast and could play a huge part in who comes out on top. Five-time WRC champion and three-time Cyprus Rally winner Sebastien Loeb says gravel roads become almost impossible to drive on when it gets muddy.

Rally's testing times

The FIA-instigated Pirelli Star Driver programme, the WRC's first global young driver development scheme, is under way. Five of the most talented and promising rally drivers in the world, and their co-drivers, have begun their training and testing in Scotland and Italy and Kiwi driver Mark Tapper is one of them.

Firing on sugar cane

There are growing concerns that fuel may be the overriding factor when the V8 Supercars fire up in Adelaide on Thursday for their opening round, the Clipsal 500. No one is quite sure what mileage they will get from the new CSR-supplied E85 ethanol fuel. Switching to the richer mix, 85 per cent, of the sugar-caned based fuel has already started to present problems for teams.

$2.5b divorce settlement

Formula One head honcho Bernie Ecclestone may not be fully focused on the opening round of the F1 season. His former wife, Slavica, has been awarded a $2.5 billion settlement after 25 years of marriage. Ecclestone placed $5 billion of his $6.4 billion fortune in overseas trusts in his ex-wife's name for tax purposes 10 years ago.Eric Thompson