Johnson boosts challenge with road course win

Jimmie Johnson moved back up to fourth place in the Castrol Rankings as the NASCAR Sprint Cup Champion took the first road course win of his life at Sears Point last weekend.

The Hendrick Chevrolet driver, who had tried for a decade to claim a road course victory, looked set for a fine second place.

But that became victory with six laps left when leader Marcos Ambrose struggled to re-start his Toyota after switching the engine off to save fuel behind the pace car.

Johnson's win moved him ahead of World Rally Champion Sebastien Loeb in the Castrol Rankings, meaning he now lies behind only Formula 1 drivers Sebastian Vettel, Mark Webber and Lewis Hamilton. Ambrose, meanwhile dropped three spots to 71st.

Road course ace Robby Gordon finished second and gained 40 spots to lie 221st, while series leader Kevin Harvick, third at Sears, retained his 21st place.

Tony Kanaan broke a two-year winless streak in the IndyCar Series at Iowa, the Andretti Autosport driver moving up three places to 37th in the Castrol Rankings.

Helio Castroneves' second place moved the Penske driver up five places to 25th while his team-mate Will Power re-took the series lead by finishing fifth and climbed nine spots to 28th.

There was bad news for Chip Ganassi team-mates Dario Franchitti and Scott Dixon, with the defending champion suffering gearbox gremlins and Dixon finishing only sixth.

That meant that both dropped behind F1 World Champion Jenson Button and Penske's Ryan Briscoe to ninth and 10th in the Castrol Rankings.

Andy Priaulx's (74) third World Touring Car Championship victory of the season for BMW at Zolder moved him up five places, while Gabriele Tarquini, despite winning the first race, dropped two spots to 53rd as the World Champion failed to match his overall results from the corresponding round last year.

Two wins went the way of Honda driver Gordon Shedden (292) in the British Touring Car Championship at Croft, allowing the Scotsman (pictured) to gain 77 places. Andrew Jordan's maiden series win moved him up to 363rd.

Australian V8 Supercar Champion Jamie Whincup got back to winning ways at Hidden Valley, the Triple 8 Holden man climbing up six places to 93rd. Mark Winterbottom's (133) first win of the year in the first race ensured the Ford Performance Racing driver climbed 21 spots.

Franck Montagny made up for his Le Mans heartbreak by taking his maiden Superleague Formula win at Jarama and moving up 24 places to 214th, while his Peugeot sportscar team-mate Sebastien Bourdais' best finish of the weekend - seventh - could not improve the Lyon driver's 96th place. John Martin (197), won the first race for Beijing Guoan.

There was a first F2 win for Benjamin Bailly (579) in front of his home crowd at Zolder, the Belgian making a massive 261-place gain. Title contender Dean Stoneman (341) won race one.

Mikhail Aleshin's (130) third Formula Renault 3.5 win of the year at Magny-Cours moved the Russian up 18 places. Nathanael Berthon (500) took his first series win in race two, while Esteban Guerrieri's pair of seconds continued his rise up the rankings. He climbed 17 places to 140th.

A Super GT win at Sepang for Impul Nissan crew Tsugio Matsuda (498) and Ronnie Quintarelli (589) moved each up over 20 places while a fifth Grand-Am win of the year for Ganassi crew Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas kept them comfortably in the top 100 in equal 79th.

Victory for Sebastian Saavedra in the Indy Lights race at Iowa moved the Colombian up 38 places to 277th, while Sprint Cup regular Carl Edwards could not avoid a one-place drop, despite winning the NASCAR Nationwide race at Road America.

Former F1 World Champion Jacques Villeneuve looked on course for victory on what was his first race for almost a year. Despite dropping back to 25th with a broken alternator, he still climbed 75 places to 1320th.