MOTORSPORT: Another Lowndes miracle needed

Even if Lowndes wins both the remaining races at Sydney's Homebush street circuit on the first weekend of December Whincup only needs one fourth place or two 16ths that weekend to take his third title in four years.

In the US today Tony Stewart in a Chevrolet has won NASCAR's Sprint Cup for the third time by beating Ford rival Carl Edwards in a thrilling final round of the 36-race series. The pair were first and second at Florida's Homestead-Miami Speedway and tied on points but Stewart takes the title by virtue of more wins -- five in the 10 races of The Chase to Edwards' solitary victory for the season.

Meanwhile, Whincup's Sunday victory at Sandown was his 10th in 26 races so far this season and the 52nd of his V8 Supercar career. His lead heading to Sydney is 188 points, just six less than it was before Sandown -- and after it had narrowed to 158 last Saturday night.

Triple Eight/Team Vodafone teammates Whincup and Lowndes were on the front and back row of the grid on Saturday for what may have been the most memorable race of the season.

While Whincup muffed the start, immediately dropping from second to fourth, recovering to second, then fading to 13th -- including losing six places in the last three laps -- as he battled his tyres, Lowndes had stormed from 27th -- his worst starting position in seven years -- to a brilliant sixth in the atrociously wet conditions.

Yet again it was proof that rain makes circuit racing so much more exciting, although the numerous incidents that brought the safety car out four times meant two laps were slashed off the scheduled 39 laps.

Lowndes backed up Saturday's stunning effort with fourth place in Sunday's 65-lap race but with Whincup winning the younger man tightened his grip on the title again. And even now Whincup has declared he won't be taking anything for granted at Homebush, where Team Vodafone is yet to register a podium finish.

"We (the car 88 crew) need to keep the focus right to the end -- we can't get too far ahead of ourselves," he said. Lowndes has no alternative but to go all out to win both 250km races in Sydney. "Homebush could bring anything," the always optimistic Lowndes said, although he knows well that the championship odds are stacked in favour of his teammate.

Still it has been an excellent season for the veteran and an indicator that he still has several more seasons of V8 Supercar racing in him. Even if there is a Lowndes miracle in Sydney, Whincup already has become the only driver to have finished the Australian touring car championship  in the top two five years in a row since it became more than a single race more than 40 years ago.

Triple Eight already has clinched its third teams’ championship but principal Roland Dane is dark that it did not win the Bathurst 1000 this year -- indeed that it was not first and second. Meanwhile, Sandown had much more than the title tussle between the Team Vodafone pair.

Rick Kelly's Saturday victory from pole position was proof of his ability in the wet and that the still young Jack
Daniel's team is seriously going places, especially with elder brother Todd also on the podium that day.

For reigning champion James Courtney there also was the welcome return to the podium on Saturday in a Kelly "sandwich", but after the Sandown weekend he is still only 12th in the championship and facing the prospect of being left with the tag of having registered the poorest title defence in V8 Supercar history.

Russell Ingall, champion in 2005, finished only eighth in 2006 but, while mathematically possible, even that is a long way off for Courtney.

Bathurst winner Garth Tander, who Courtney joined at Toll Holden Racing Team this year after his championship season with Ford outfit Dick Johnson/Jim Beam Racing, remains fifth in the points but Ford Performance Racing's Will Davison, Courtney's predecessor at HRT, has closed to within 43 points of him now.

Under the previous system of declaring round winners Davison's performance at the Sandown circuit where his family has had such a history would have earned him greater kudos.

Fourth on Saturday and then third on Sunday gave him 249 points for the weekend compared with Rick Kelly's 240, while Davison's FPR teammate Mark Winterbottom collected 234 for seventh, from 17th on Saturday's grid, and then second on Sunday.

Lowndes scored 222 points at Sandown and Whincup 216.

Winterbottom and FPR's strong finish to the season has the long-time Blue Oval driver in the box seat to finish the year third, while Stone Brothers Racing's Shane Van Gisbergen held on to his fourth place overall with fifth and sixth place finishes in his Falcon at Sandown.

Whatever happens in Sydney this season already is in the record books as the first in which teammates driving Holdens have finished first and second in the championship.

V8 Supercar Championship points after 26 of 28 races -- 1. Jamie Whincup (Holden) 3033 points, 2. Craig Lowndes (H) 2845, 3. Mark Winterbottom (Ford) 2449, 4. Shane Van Gisbergen (F) 2414, 5. Garth Tander (H) 2388, 6. Will Davison (F) 2345, 7. Rick Kelly (H) 2211, 8. Lee Holdsworth (H) 1857, 9. Alex Davison (F) 1781, 10. Fabian Coulthard (H) 1767.

Brendan Reeves contested the inaugural World Rally Championship Academy this year and at last week's Young Driver Excellence Academy trials in Austria last week finished fourth of 30 drivers in a mini "race of champions".

Jack Le Brocq finished second in this year's Australian Formula Ford Championship and now will test for top British team Jamun Racing after several races there already.

The 18 in the Young Driver Excellence Academy will receive tuition at FIA-organised sessions next year.

Photo: craiglowndes.com.au

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