There has been a lot of doom and gloom for the motor racing fan since the end of last season.

First Seat announced an abrupt withdrawal from the British Touring Car Championship – just as it finally seemed to be on the cusp of success with its diesel Leons.

Honda canned its Formula 1 team, and the World Rally Championship lost Subaru and Suzuki within a couple of days of each other. Audi, which enjoyed massive success with its sports car programme in 2008, announced it would be bring its new R15 to the Le Mans 24 Hours and Sebring 12 Hours, but not the wider American and European Le Mans Series.

This grim news was received with sighs of acceptance and many words written about the dismal state of the world economy. But in the past week, two manufacturers have revealed new motor racing programmes, something we fans can take heart from.

Aston Martin had been tipped to launch a full-scale attack on the Le Mans 24 Hours prototype class this year, which has been confirmed. Last year’s GT1 category winners are building LMP1 prototypes which, enticingly, will take on Audi and Peugeot’s turbodiesels with V12 petrol power. And the timing is just perfect, coming 50 years since Aston Martin first won the French classic.

Good news for BTCC fans, too. Fears that it would have just one manufacturer entrant in 2009 – series stalwarts Vauxhall – have been laid to rest, as Volvo has announced a race programme for its bioethanol-powered C30 hatchback.

These are both manufacturers that have suffered from falling sales and tighter margins. But there is still market share to be won and cars to be sold. Aston and Volvo’s votes of confidence in Le Mans and the BTCC show that motor racing remains a valuable way for car makers to exhibit their products and technologies to the public, as long as it can be made cost-effective.

Croft in Yorkshire is the latest British motor racing circuit to have its future threatened by a stunningly unjust piece of lawmaking.

The Yorkshire circuit, which re-opened in 1994, will have to pay almost £1m after losing an appeal against local residents who complained about the amount of noise at the circuit. It will also have to reduce the number of days the track can be used.

In an unusual twist, the people who brought about the complaint are related to the company who restored the circuit in the mid-1990s. Derek and Julia Watson live close to the circuit and their daughter Jill Wilson was previously married to Jimmy Wilson, owner of Croft Classic and Historic Motor Sports.

It doesn’t take a great leap of imagination to suppose there might be an element of vindictiveness to all this.

The judgement passed down not only leaves Croft open to future complaints, but it could open the way for people to bring similar complaints against other tracks – even if those circuits were in operation before the complainants moved into the area.

Croft now faces severe restrictions on the number of days it can be in operation. It goes without saying that in such grim economic times such restrictions could be a death sentence for a circuit.

The depressing fact is, Croft is far from being the first circuit to have its activities cut in this way. Many British racing circuits have to comply with onerous noise restrictions purely because housing developments have encroached on the surrounding land. Brands Hatch hardly ever uses its full length Grand Prix circuit because of houses nearby. Even 87 year-old Monza in Ferrari-mad Italy cannot escape the restrictions.

I fully understand why someone would not want to live next to a noise circuit if they have no interest in motor racing. What I cannot understand is why they would choose to live there in the first place. And what makes me furious is that the judiciary chooses to side with the people, who can move, over the circuits, who cannot.

Two drivers are side-by-side down a straight at speeds pushing 150mph. Then one driver swerves across and pushes the other straight off the track.

Surely he was disqualified? Had his licence ripped up? Massive fine? Not in GP2 Asia, where a worrying lapse in stewarding has taken place.

The video above shows Rodolfo Gonzalez running off the track at Bahrain. As he returns to the track he deliberately cuts across from one side of the circuit to the other to push Sakon Yamamoto clean off the circuit. Yamamoto, inevitably, slows down and loses the position. Had Yamamoto not chosen to go off the track there likely would have been a very nasty collision.

Earlier on in the same race Sergio Perez tried the same move on Javier Villa:

Villa stood his ground and the two brushed wheels. These two were moments away from a huge shunt.

I cannot understand why race stewards allow such incredibly dangerous driving. Touring car drivers may be able to get away with deliberate contact because their cars’ wheels are enclosed. Doing the same in open-wheeled races can be lethal.

And when the FIA demands such incredibly high safety standards of circuits and cars, it is mystifying why they allow drivers to push each other off the track.

GP2 racers are supposed to be the Formula 1 drivers of tomorrow (although, in Yamamoto’s case, he’s a Formula 1 driver of yesterday). They and F1 drivers should be held to a much higher standard than this.

Everyone wants to see close, exciting racing. But allowing single seater racers to bang wheels and force each other off the track is dangerous and will end with someone getting hurt - or worse.

Adam Carroll converted pole position into victory in the A1GP sprint race at Taupo in New Zealand, increasing Ireland’s lead in the championship. Video highlights from the sprint race can be viewed above.

He was followed home by Switzerland’s Neel Jani - who then reversed the positions in the feature race, leading Carroll home. It was a truly impressive performance by Jani, who is recovering from a serious virus. See below for video from the feature race.

It was a largely processional pair of races in New Zealand. Carroll only lost the lead in the second race because a problem with his car’s anti-stall device during a pit stop. A late safety car period caused by Clivio Piccione spinning might have given Carroll the chance to attack, but Taupo’s final sequence of bends could scarcely have been better designed to prevent chasing drivers getting a run at the leader.

This is not to take anything away from Jani, who bounced back brilliantly having been seriously ill in the days prior to the race. He even had to have a needle inserted into his spine to remove fluid for testing.

His and Carroll’s wins mean Ireland leads last season’s champions Switzerland with 65 points to 52. Following the cancellation of the round at Lippo, Indonesia, there are now ten races left in the shortened 18-race calendar, two of those at a yet-to-be-announced venue.

A1 Grand Prix resumes at Kyalami in South Africa in one month’s time.

Sergio Perez took his first victory in GP2 Asia with a straightforward lights-to-flag drive from pole position at the Bahrain International Circuit.

The Campos driver was chased to the flag by Davide Valsecchi, whose second place moves him up to second in the drivers’ standings. Kamui Kobayashi, who won yesterday’s feature race, was sixth and maintains the championship lead at the halfway point in the season.

Third place went to Jerome d’Ambrosio, who lunged past Nico Hülkenberg on the final lap. Javier Villa was fifth.

Roldan Rodriguez, who was Kobayashi’s closest championship rival going into the race, retired on the last lap with brake failure. He has fallen to third in the championship.

The next race is GP2 Asia’s first race at Losail in Qatar, which will also be the championship’s first night race. It takes places on February 6th and 7th.

GP2 Asia championship standings after six of 12 races

1 Kamui Kobayashi 34
2 Davide Valsecchi 24
3 Roldán Rodríguez 22
4 Jérôme D’Ambrosio 17
5 Javier Villa 12
6 Sergio Pérez 10
7 Nico Hülkenberg 10
8 Earl Bamber 8
9 Vitaly Petrov 8
10 Sakon Yamamoto 7
11 Giedo van der Garde 7
12 Edoardo Mortara 6
13 Chris van der Drift 5

Image (C) GP2 Media / Andrew Ferrari

Fresh from his Formula 1 testing duties in Portugal, Kamui Kobayashi turned up in Bahrain and won the GP2 Asia feature race with ease.

Nico Hülkenberg, making his GP2 Asia debut, qualified on pole position and kept his lead through the first corner.

But Kobayashi was quickly on his tail and while the two pulled away from the rest it was clear the Japanese driver had the pace to pass. Hülkenberg was locking tyres, missing apices and visibly losing time to his DAMS rivals.

Their absorbing duel continued for 13 laps, when Kobayashi suddenly sprang an attack. He launched down the inside of Hülkrnberg’s ART car at the first corner from some distance back, cleanly taking the lead of the race.

Four laps later Hülkenberg made his compulsory pit stop but ran into problems as his left rear wheel stuck. That cost him second place to Jerome d’Ambrosio and third place to Edoardo Mortara.

Further back Javier Villa and Sergio Perez were duelling frantically. First they touched wheels on the back straight as Perez employed some rather over-robust tactics in his attempts to keep Villa behind. A few laps later Perez hit back, and lined Villa up neatly for a pass down the back straight.

Hülkenberg caught Mortara and set about trying to pass, but Mortara appeared to have borrowed all of Perez’s defensive tactics and added a few of his own. That gave Roldan Rodriguez the chance to attack Hülkenberg, but the status quo was maintained until the end of the race.

Kobayashi and d’Ambrosio made it a one-two for DAMS, with Mortara completing the podium. Hülkenberg took fourth, with Davide Valsecchi passing Rodriguez for fifth. The final points scorers were Giedo van der Garde and Perez.

Kobayashi therefore extends his championship lead and now has 33 points, with Rodriguez on 22.

The sprint race at Bahrain follows tomorrow, with Perez on pole position courtesy of his eighth place.

This follows notification this morning from the FIA that certain aspects of the track construction project, undertaken by the local promoter and organisers of the event, have failed to meet the requisite completion deadlines.

As a result, the FIA is not able to issue the necessary circuit licence on time for the event to proceed, and has removed the event entry from its International Series calendar.

This information was given to A1GP CEO, Pete da Silva, today and his comment was: “Obviously it is extremely disappointing for all concerned and not the news any of us wanted. The bottom line is, for safety reasons, A1GP cannot race on a circuit that does not meet or has not received the necessary licence from the FIA, so we have no other option but to cancel all plans to bring the A1GP show to Indonesia in three weeks’ time”.

This is another blow for A1GP which kicked off its fourth series last year with a depleted field due to insufficient cars being delivered by Ferrari.

The next round of the championship is at Taupo in New Zealand next weekend. After that, with the Indonesian race now missing, the next race will be at the former F1 venue Kyalami in South Africa.

There is still one empty slot on the calendar between the Mexican and Portuguese rounds which is yet to be filled. That race may now be in jeopardy as the organisers have moved the Mexican race date back to the 20th-22nd April to avoid a clash with a concert.

It’s a clear sign the fledgling series still has organisational problems and is lacking in popular support.

Di Resta, who needed to beat Scheider to win the championship, finished just a couple of seconds behind his Audi rival.

Scheider started third on the grid but shot past di Reta to lead at the start. Scheider’s team mate Mathias Ekstrom spent the first lap trying to hold up di Resta and in doing so damaged the front of his rivals Mercedes - for which he was later handed a penalty.

Scheider led at the end of the first lap from Jamie Green, who shortly moved aside to let di Resta through. Di Resta cut Scheider’s lead to two seconds during the first stint but a slow pit stop by the Mercedes team lost him precious time.

But even without that it’s doubtful he could have got on terms with his title rival. Scheider coolly won his third race of the year - giving him as many victories as di Resta - and claimed the title by four points.

It’s the second consecutive drivers’ title for Audi, after Ekstrom won last year.

Mercedes’ Bernd Schneider, who last won the title in 2006, drove his final race. The DTM veteran has four titles to his name, from 2000, 2001, 2003 and 2006, all with Mercedes. His final victory this year came at the Nürburgring.

Javier Villa was third ahead of Chris van der Drift, Jerome D’Amrosio and Roldan Rodriguez. Rodriguez holds the lead in the championship having won yesterday’s race, with Kamui Kobayashi failing to score after retiring with damage.

James Jakes impressed with a strong drive from the back of the grid to claim 11th.

But he took the lead back five laps from the flag as Kobayashi ran wide at turn one.

Kobayashi has been favourite for the championship after being dominant in pre-season testing. But Rodriguez, who moved to Piquet Sports for the Asian series, nicked pole position and converted it into a victory.

There were two safety car interruptions in the way but the race was otherwise fairly uneventful.

Sakon Yamamoto finished third for ART while team mate Nelson Philippe, making his GP2 debut, stalled at the start then broke his front wing while leaving the pits.

Javier Villa moved finished fourth in his first appearance for Arden, ahead of Vitaly Petrov. Earl Bamber was fourth, the rookie making an impressive start by weeping around at least one car on the outside of turn one.

Another rookie, Formula Master champion Chris van der Drift, was seventh, ahead of Davide Valsecchi. Valsecchi, who won the final race of the GP2 main series, starts tomorrow’s sprint race from pole position.

Jerome d’Ambrosio finished out of the points after his pit stop went disastrously wrong, and World Series by Renault champion Giedo van der Garde was tenth.