According to the latest car racing news, as of October 23, 2009, former Scuderia Ferrari CEO F1 team principal Jean Todt will be taking his position to become the new president of the Federation Internationale de I’Automobile or FIA. It will be a four year term for him and he assumed office immediately. He will be replacing Max Mosley who just recently announced his retirement. Mosley was the elected president of FIA since 1993. Todt received 135 votes in favor of his candidacy. It can be considered a landslide win since Ari Vatanen, his rival, only received 49 votes for the said poll. Mosley was said to be all out supporting Todt on his candidacy, which may have great effect on the outcome of this election. Vatanen was reported upset with it, saying that he is questioning the legality of what the former president has done and possibly take his case to court.

In other car racing developments, it was reported that Ryan Newman was able to grab the top spot in the Martinsville pole, laying down a lap time of 19.563 in the 32nd qualifying round of this year. He was able to earn a record-tying career pole on the 0.526 mile oval in Martinsville, Virginia, and his 45th series pole placed him on the 11th spot on the all time pole winners’ list, sharing the spot with Buck Baker. Newman is currently racing with his Chevrolet team and hopes that he can bag the title on the race itself. However, it would not be an easy task as Newman would have tough competition with Jeff Gordon and Mark Martin being able to qualify in the same race. Although as per Newman’s crew chief Tony Gibson, they were really glad that they had to qualify after the two racers have done theirs because it gave them a goal, resulting to Newman being able to top the poles and get the psychological advantage.