Race Rap: Monday, March 10

It's AGP week. There is no track action for the grand prix cars until Friday practice, but the Formula One drivers will be out and about this week as they prepare for the start of the 2025 season. Homegrown heroes Oscar Piastri and Jack Doohan will open the new F1 Melbourne Fan Festival on Wednesday from 3pm. The location is Melbourne Park Oval.

Lowndes did it. Craig Lowndes added another trophy to his vast collection when he topped the times in the Ten of the Best Shootout at the Adelaide Motorsport Festival. He was driving a Pagani Huayra R and Tim Slade in Brabham BT62 by one-hundredth of a second. The Ten Best competition was new for 2025 and created to feature sports cars, hypercars and touring cars.

Loeb is The Champion. Chaz Mostert ran him close in the final, but it was the nine-times World Rally Champion Sebastian Loeb who swept the Race of Champions at Accor Stadium in Sydney. Loeb was the individual champion for the fifth time and combined with open-wheel drive Victor Martins to claim the Nations Cup. Loeb's win in the individual RoC was his fifth, one better than Frenchman Didier Auriol and Mattias Ekström from Sweden.

Kenny Mac staying with Chevy. A tempting offer from Ford was not enough to lure Ken McNamara away from the Chevrolet side of Supercars racing. His company, KRE, has been twinned with Triple Eight Race Engineering during its time as Homologation Team for General Motors and he also has a huge business in Chevy engines for Sprintcar racing. But he will not follow T8 to Ford in 2026.

Young talent time: Tabitha Ambrose, daughter of two-time Supercars champion Marcos, is taking her first step into professional motorsport in Formula Ford with backing from her father's long-time supporters at Pirtek.

MotoGP generosity. Thai grand prix winner Marc Marquez converted his first MotoGP victory of 2025 into a success for orphans in the country. He donated his first-place winnings, more than $525,000 to orphan charities in Thailand.