MOTORSPORT: All set up for Sydney finale

After an action-packed penultimate round at Melbourne's Sandown, including massive damage to both Holden Racing Team cars, the series goes to Sydney's Homebush street circuit for the final two races on December 4-5 with Ford driver James Courtney and Holden star Jamie Whincup 53 points apart -- and 300 points to contest.

Sandown produced a new race winner, Paul Dumbrell in a Ford on Saturday, and he followed that up with pole position for Sunday's longer race, all just days after he had announced he was going to retire at the end of the season but then promptly reversed that decision.

Ford factory driver Mark Winterbottom remains a mathematical chance of becoming champion after podium finishes in both Sandown races but is 203 points behind Courtney and 150 behind Whincup. He will need disaster to strike both Courtney and Whincup in Sydney to take the title.

Both ran strongly both days at Sandown -- Whincup on the podium each day, and Courtney just one place away from it Saturday and victorious Sunday. It was Courtney's fifth win of the season -- and again on the soft-compound tyres.

While Courtney and Whincup have been the standout drivers of the season there is irony in the position of both on the championship table.

Dick Johnson/Jim Beam Racing has been in turmoil for months, with its ownership dispute -- between legendary former racer Dick Johnson and forklift king and half owner Charlie Schwerkolt -- still unresolved, and Team Vodafone/Triple Eight Race Engineering making uncharacteristic mistakes.

In Tasmania a week earlier Whincup did not have enough fuel in his Commodore and had to make a late stop for a splash-and-dash, while at Sandown his tank was overfilled on Saturday, costing him valuable seconds.

Yet he goes to Homebush in contention for a third consecutive title, after taking the championship the past two years in Triple Eight Falcons.

And NASCAR's final Sprint Cup round this morning provided evidence that championships can be won despite pitstop slip-ups.

Jimmie Johnson came from behind to win a record fifth straight Cup in a Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, while Denny Hamlin -- who went into the final race of the 36-round series 15 points clear in his Joe Gibbs Toyota -- wound up third for the season, behind another Chevy driver, Kevin Harvick.

Carl Edwards won the finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway from Johnson and Harvick, with Hamlin 14th and Australian Marcos Ambrose 26th in his final drive in a Toyota and for JTG Daugherty Racing, with which he has spent five years.

There were encouraging signs over the weekend that the troubled Richard Petty Motorsports that Ambrose is contracted to drive a Ford for next year will survive.

"We're going to make it -- that's all I can say now," said Richard "The King" Petty, the winner of 200 Cup races as a driver but only a part-owner of the team in recent times.

Edsel Ford II, a member of Ford's board of directors, said keeping RPM afloat was paramount. "We've done everything we can -- (and) a lot of their suppliers have done the same," Ford said.

RPM workers have been called to a meeting tonight, Australian time, and may find that the team shuts its doors for a day and then reopens under a new guise -- but with severe job cuts. For more, see here.

RPM's problems have coincided with those in Australia of Dick Johnson Racing -- a name as synonymous with our national championship as Petty is with NASCAR.

An emotional Courtney said after Sunday's Sandown victory that it "couldn't have come at a better time" for the DJR workforce.

"After Indy and Tassie (where) we have had a couple of kicks to the family jewels, it was great to be able to step back up and do the job," Courtney said. "There are unbelievable things going on all around us and for my boys to be able to keep their heads down and keep focussed, the credit goes to them.

"When things like this happen it brings the hardcore racers together and we are tighter now than ever because of it.  Those boys would work all night if I asked them to, so it's an unbelievable relationship that we have and this one is definitely for them. For them to put in all of the work that they have without a future, it is pretty amazing."

The scene is set for a blockbuster finish at Homebush.

The Courtney-Whincup and Ford-Holden battles, and the music acts performing, ought to ensure a bumper crowd and, with a fortnight to promote it intensely, improved TV numbers -- perhaps bigger than for the Adelaide 500 and Gold Coast 600, ideally even approaching those for the Bathurst 1000.

The Sandown TV numbers -- an average 292,000 viewers in the five mainland state capitals on Saturday and 430,000 Sunday -- were down on last year's penultimate round, held at Wanneroo in WA, and which drew 294,000 and 487,000 respectively.

Sunday's latest Sandown figure was well up on last year's mid-season Sunday audience for Sandown (303,000), although Saturday's was 5000 less than last year.

Now the grand finale in Sydney, where we can see there being one almost certain winner -- Triple Eight Race Engineering has built not only Whincup's Commodore but Courtney's Falcon.

May the best man win.

V8 Supercar Championship standings after 24 of 26 races -- James Courtney (Ford Falcon) 2932, Jamie Whincup (Holden Commodore) 2879, Mark Winterbottom (F) 2729, Craig Lowndes (H) 2567, Garth Tander (H) 2382, Shane van Gisbergen (F) 2262, Lee Holdsworth (H) 2141, Rick Kelly (H) 2122, Paul Dumbrell (F) 2094, Michael Caruso (H) 1892.

NASCAR Sprint Cup final standings after 36 races -- Jimmie Johnson (Chevrolet) 6622 points, Kevin Harvick (C) 6586, Denny Hamlin (Toyota) 6583, Carl Edwards (Ford) 6393, Matt Kenseth (F) 6294, Greg Biffle (F) 6247, Tony Stewart (C) 6221, Kyle Busch (T) 6182, Jeff Gordon (C) 6176, Clint Bowyer (C) 6155, Kurt Busch (Dodge) 6142, Jeff Burton (C) 6033. Australia's Marcos Ambrose (Toyota) was 26th on 3422 points.

Friday was the deadline for the AGPC and CAMS to reach an "organisation agreement" for motor sport's world governing body, the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), to confirm the Australian GP scheduled for next March 27 on its 2011 F1 calendar at the upcoming meeting of its World Motorsport Council.

No announcement has been forthcoming from CAMS or the AGPC but we understand talks, revolving on the CAMS fee, continue.

Meanwhile, 21-year-old Ricciardo, who topped last week's two-day test for potential F1 drivers in Abu Dhabi driving a Red Bull RB6 car, has told Britain's Autosport "there's nothing even close to being confirmed" for him for next year.

Ricciardo said he had spoken to all-powerful Red Bull motorsport adviser Dr Helmut Marko after the Abu Dhabi test.

"I asked him if he's got any news for me, but he genuinely said nothing has come up yet," Ricciardo said. "In a way it would be nice to know something now, but it's not really under my control.

"I can't really stress about something that could or won't be happening, so I'll just sit tight for now."

With new world champion Sebastian Vettel and Australian Mark Webber contracted at Red Bull Racing and Swiss driver Sebastien Buemi and Spaniard Jaime Alguersuari at sister team Scuderia Toro Rosso (STR), European reports suggest Marko may want Ricciardo to have a second season in the World Series by Renault -- in which he finished a narrow runner-up this year -- if not the GP2 series.

However, Autosport reports on its website that it "understands that the STR duo only have firm deals for the first half of the season".

Meanwhile, Ferrari's Fernando Alonso topped the first test of the new Pirelli F1 tyres in Abu Dhabi at the end of last week, ahead of Vettel.

Replacing Bridgestone as the sole F1 tyre supplier next year, it is almost 20 years since Pirelli was last in motorsport's premier world championship.

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