MOTORSPORT: A new thunder about to erupt

Next week will be doubly important for Australian motorsport – not only will the Supercars Championship be decided but the country's new top open-wheeler category will take a big step forward.

S5000 – a modern incarnation of Formula 5000 – will be officially launched to invited guests (primarily potential competitors and media) at Sydney Motorsport Park, on Monday.

The first of the 5.0-litre V8 open-wheelers will be driven on the track by carsales.com.au tester and 2017 Bathurst 1000 winner Luke Youlden. A 560-horsepower Coyote Aluminator engine provides the power, bolted into an adaptation of an Onroak-Ligier carbonfibre monocoque chassis.

It will then go to the Supercars Championship finale, the Newcastle 500, where it will be demonstrated by two greats of Australasian motorsport, Greg Murphy (on the Friday, November 23) and John Bowe (on Saturday and Sunday, November 24-25).

The car will be demonstrated again at the Adelaide Motorsport Festival on December 1-2.

Bowe, who was an open-wheeler champion before his success in touring/Supercars, says the planned introduction of S5000 next year is the best news for Australian open-wheeler racing in almost 40 years.

"It will be awesome," he said.

The identical cars – intended to be raced by aspiring youngsters as well as experienced drivers – will have a six-speed Holinger sequential transaxle and the 'halo' cockpit protection already incorporated on Formula 1 cars.

More than 100 women have registered for the new W Series – a series of six races exclusively for females to be run next year in conjunction with Germany's DTM touring car series.

They will compete in Formula 3 open-wheelers with 1.8-litre four-cylinder engines.

NASCAR concludes its season this weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway in Florida. Four of the 37 confirmed drivers – there could yet be two more – can win.

Two of the contenders are driving Fords – Joey Logano for Roger Penske and Kevin Harvick for Tony Stewart – and two are in Toyotas – Kyle Busch for Joe Gibbs and Martin Truex Junior, the defending champion whose Furniture Row team is folding after this race.

Chevrolet, winner of 39 manufacturer titles in NASCAR's Cup division, is no longer top dog. Far from it. Its Camaro has won only four times in its debut season to the 18 of Ford's aged Fusion (to be replaced by the Mustang next year) and 13 by Toyota's Camry.

Harvick, Busch and Truex have been called the 'big three' this year, with the first two of them both winning eight races – as Truex did last year. All three are chasing a second title.

Penske's 28-year-old Logano is seeking his first championship and was the only driver to qualify for the grand final fight before the penultimate race at Phoenix, Arizona.

But Logano has enemies – especially Truex, who he nudged out of the way at Martinsville, Virginia, to guarantee his place in the 'championship four'.

Truex, who will join Joe Gibbs Racing next season, declared that Logano may have won the battle but that he won't win the war.

The highest placed finisher of the four at Homestead-Miami will claim the title. If it's Logano he will be the 33rd Cup champion; if it's one of the other three they will be NASCAR's 15th multiple champion.

The final will be run just days after the death at 83 of David Pearson, a three-time champion some regarded as better even than 'The King', seven-time champion Richard Petty.

Pearson won 105 times from 574 starts, Petty 200 times from 1184 starts.

The rivalry between the pair in the 1960s and '70s was the basis of NASCAR's phenomenal growth, overtaking Indy racing as America's premier motorsport.