Bourdais out to make up for Le Mans heartbreak

Sebastien Bourdais will be itching to regain ground in the Castrol Rankings when Superleague Formula heads to Jarama this weekend.

After taking pole position for last weekend's Le Mans 24 Hours, the former F1 driver saw his hopes of a victory fall to pieces when his Peugeot 908 HDi retired with suspension problems in the third hour.

That dropped the Frenchman to 96th in the Castrol Rankings - his lowest ever position - thanks in no small part to his 2009 Turkish Grand Prix score being discarded in the same week as his points from Le Mans last year.

Bourdais has not had a good race since winning at the season-opening round at Silverstone, and his Lyon squad lies only 13th in the Championship.

Currently leading the standings is the Tottenham Hotspur entry driven so far this season by Craig Dolby (150), while the AC Milan car of Yelmer Buurman (135) is chasing him hard.

The IndyCar Series moves onto Iowa Speedway as it nears the halfway point in its season with defending champion Dario Franchitti leading the standings and seventh in the Castrol Rankings.

His Chip Ganassi team-mate Scott Dixon won the corresponding race last year, but needs a repeat performance if he is to avoid dropping back behind Jenson Button to ninth.

Will Power, however, is due another big jump from his 37th place as the Penske driver, second in the championship, did not take part in the corresponding race last year.

Indy Lights supports the event. Series leader Jean-Karl Vernay was unable to repeat his road course form at Indianapolis and has slipped to 176th in the Castrol Rankings.

James Hinchcliffe (342) and Charlie Kimball (407) will be right on the pace, and Indianapolis pole-sitter Pippa Mann (578) could be a contender for a maiden series win too.

The highest-ranked driver in action this weekend is NASCAR Sprint Cup Champion Jimmie Johnson, who lies fifth in the Castrol Rankings.

With the series heading to Sears Point for the first of its two road course events of the year, there are opportunities for the likes of Marcos Ambrose (68) and Juan Pablo Montoya (22) to spring a surprise or two against the regular front-runners.

The Nationwide Series also has a road course event this weekend, but at Road America. Among the big names making a one-off appearance are 1997 F1 World Champion Jacques Villeneuve (1395), who has competed only sporadically in the past two years.

Mikhail Aleshin (148) and Daniel Ricciardo (130) continue their battle for the Formula Renault 3.5 crown at Magny-Cours with the Russian Carlin driver marginally ahead in the standings.

Italian Formula 3 Champion Daniel Zampieri (22) though, has been a surprise contender for victories - despite a lowly championship position and the Pons driver may fancy his chances in France.

The rival Formula 2 series heads to Zolder in Belgium with Jolyon Palmer (218) looking strong, especially as his Castrol Rankings position has improved by over 200 places since the start of the year.

Chasing him for the series lead are Dean Stoneman (504) and Philipp Eng (197), both of whom have won races this year.

F2 shares the Zolder bill with the World Touring Car Championship, which heads to the track for the first time.

Yvan Muller leads the championship by a comfortable margin, but the Chevrolet driver lies only 78th in the Castrol Rankings - significantly lower than defending champion Gabriele Tarquini (51), of SR-Sport SEAT.

Alain Menu is due a good result, having dropped over 20 places to 152nd during the last few weeks, but the Chevy man may have his work cut out if he doesn't qualify up-front.

The British Touring Car Championship continues at Croft with Chevrolet's Jason Plato highest-ranked at 164th, but trailing Honda rival Matt Neal (275) in the Championship.

The quickest cars at the last few rounds though have been the Arena Fords of Tom Chilton (300) and Tom Onslow-Cole (430), the latter having gained over 450 Castrol Rankings positions since the start of the season. Both should be right on the pace again.

Right on the pace is exactly the scenario Jamie Whincup will be expecting as V8 Supercars head to Hidden Valley on the northern tip of Australia.

The double series champion has won six of the 12 races so far in his Triple 8 Holden and lies 99th in the Castrol Rankings.

However, he finds himself behind DJR Ford's James Courtney, who has taken the last four victories and climbed to 143rd - an all-time high for him.

Fresh off the back of his second place at Le Mans, Super GT Champion Andre Lotterer (198) returns to his day job at Sepang in Malaysia looking to build on the series lead that he and his TOM's Lexus co-driver Juichi Wakisaka (537) have built.

Grand-Am is, as ever, led by Ganassi duo Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas (equal 89), who have won four of the six races so far in their Ganassi Riley.

British driver Ryan Dalziel (184) though is hanging in contention and lies third. He will be desperate to conquer the field at Mid-Ohio and make up for the disaster of his Le Mans 24 Hours, which lasted only four laps.