In brief, September 2009

Former Grand Prix and Le Mans winner Johnny Herbert tested a British Touring Car Championship contender in July. Herbert didn’t rule out racing in the BTCC after trying out a Team Dynamics Honda Civic at Rockingham.

Peugeot will contest the Petit Le Mans enduro at Road Atlanta in September. The French manufacturer, which will confirm its plans for the penultimate round of the American Le Mans Series soon, is also expected to take part in the Laguna Seca championship finale.

Tin-top stalwart James Thompson returned to the World Touring Car Championship with Lada at the Porto round in July (above). The Briton will race the factory Lada Sport team’s new Priora for the rest of the season.

Former Champ Car racer Frank Perera returned to the GP2 ranks at the Nürburgring with the DPR squad. Perera raced in the Formula 1 feeder series in 2006.

Next year’s IRL IndyCar Series looks set to kick off in Brazil. A deal with a South American promoter to host the event at an undisclosed venue is 90 per cent done, according to series officials.

The new GP3 one-make single-seater has been unveiled. The new formula, set up by GP2 boss Bruno Michel, uses a Dallara-built chassis and a Renault 2-litre turbo engine.

Allan McNish has been awarded the Royal Automobile Club’s Segrave Trophy for his 2008 Le Mans 24 Hours triumph. The trophy, whose previous winners include Malcolm Campbell and Sir Jackie Stewart, is awarded in memory of land and water speed record holder Sir Henry Segrave for “outstanding demonstration of transport by land, air or water”.

Sir Henry Segrave’s life and achievements have been honoured with an English Heritage blue plaque at St Andrew’s Mansions, Dorset Street, London, where his motoring career began. Segrave won four Grands Prix and set three world land speed records as well as a world water speed record. He was the first person to hold the two titles simultaneously, but was killed in a water-based record attempt in 1930.