We are in quite excellent motorsport times for these isles - by which I mean Britain and Ireland.

Adam Carroll and Team Ireland took the A1GP title at Brands Hatch at the weekend. After missing the first meeting, Team Great Britain made a good start to the year with a couple of podiums, but rapidly went downhill and indeed into administration, kept afloat only by the series organisers.

But it’s been fantastic to see Carroll finally have fortune on his side with Team Ireland, following years of promise but bad luck in GP2, and not quite getting into Formula 1. That might change though, as he has been “talking to a few teams” about opportunities for 2010. That could be current teams, or potential new teams - we know Prodrive, iSport, Lola and USGPE are all thinking about it. How about a Prodrive F1 team with Adam Carroll and Anthony Davidson? Sounds good to me.

Over in Spain, James Toseland endured another mediocre MotoGP race, but Bradley Smith took a superb 125cc win. It’s all the more remarkable because it came only a week after he smashed his throat on the screen of his bike during the race at Motegi - which he finished nonetheless, and in 10th place. His account of it on Crash.net is well worth reading. He’s now a close second in the championship.

There are Brits going well in the Superbike World Championship - particularly Leon Haslam, currently third in the standings. But the Supersport World Championship is where it’s really at: Ireland’s Eugene Laverty is second overall, having won two of the four races; Britain’s Cal Crutchlow is top, albeit with only one win.

Remarkably, the big imported stars are being beaten in the national championships too: Sylvain Guintoli was overtaken by Leon Camier in British Superbikes at the weekend; both Matt Neal and Colin Turkington are ahead of Fabrizio Giovanardi in the BTCC.

It’s remarkable, too, that Jenson Button’s place at the top of the Formula 1 championship is so normal now, that I mention it only as a footnote to the things we have to celebrate. Hooray for everyone!