DARREN Manning finished ninth in the Indianapolis 500 at the weekend C his best finish in four starts.

Manning started the race from the middle of the fifth row, and worked his way through to sixth when he made contact with another car while exiting a pit stop.

Im a bit frustrated with myself for making a mistake on the pit stop, Manning said. Larry (Foyt, team manager) was telling me to stop but I was going. I wanted to go because we were in sixth place and running comfortably up there.

We just knocked the front wing off and had to borrow Anthony (Foyt)s front wing because (team-mate) Jeff (Simmons) had already broken one of our spares. So, at least its good to have another Foyt out there in the race.

The mistake set the Englishman back to 24th, but he was able to make his way back through traffic for his first topten finish at Indianapolis.

New Zealands Scott Dixon dominated Sundays race, following up his first Indy pole by leading the most laps and earning his first Indy 500 victory in six starts.

ö Shane Byrne powered to a fourth-round winning double in the Bennetts British Superbike Championship at Donington Park to tighten his grip on the title chase.

The Airwaves Ducati rider moved ahead of James Ellison in the third lap of the opening race to take the victory by 2.5 seconds from Leon Haslam.

Newcastles Chris Burns, meanwhile, came off his bike during lap three of the second race. Although he walked away from the scene, the Newburn rider was taken to hospital for safety reasons.