MOTORSPORT: Aussie stars on many fronts

As the Supercar endurance season gets underway on home soil, it's a huge weekend for Australia's international stars overseas.

Daniel Ricciardo has his best chance of a grand prix victory to make up for the one denied him in Monaco this year.

And, in America, where Will Power is going for a second IndyCar title in California, Mark Webber is stalking a third straight sports car victory with Porsche in Texas, Ryan Briscoe is chasing a fourth win in the Ford GT – also in Texas – and Chris Atkinson makes his second Global Rallycross start in Seattle.

It's a massive weekend too for American team owner Chip Ganassi, who is fielding 14 cars and 18 drivers in six championships.

And it's been a great week for arguably motor racing's most inspirational figure now, Alex Zanardi, who has added another Paralympic gold medal and a silver in Rio to the two golds and a silver he won in London four years ago. And the 49-year-old Italian, a two-time Champ Car (now IndyCar) champion and starter in 41 Formula 1 races in the 1990s, has another paracycling event to go tonight. Given the last rites after the 350km crash at Lausitzring in Germany 15 years ago in which he lost both his legs, Zanardi is a picture of happiness and says: "I feel my life is a never-ending privilege."

The spoils of victory have been emphasised this week too. We recorded earlier that Kalgoorlie's Anthony Martin, as the new champion in the US Formula 2000 series, won a scholarship worth about A$500,000 to step up to the Pro Mazda Championship in the 'Road to Indy' next year. The prize money for fellow Aussies Jordan Lloyd and Luke Gabin, who finished fourth and fifth in US F2000, was about A$4000 and A$2675 respectively!

Three, two ... one for Ricciardo in Singapore?
Third in the Singapore night grand prix in 2014 and second last year, Sunday is Daniel Ricciardo's chance to grab back the victory he was robbed of in Monaco in May by Red Bull Racing's infamous failure to have the right tyres ready for him on a pitstop.

"I'd like to think, if there is a little bit of karma, I'll get my Monaco 'win' back somewhere," Ricciardo said this week in Singapore, which is almost as close to his Perth home as the Australian GP in Melbourne.

"It should be a chance."

While he enjoys the 23-turn Singapore street circuit, Ricciardo said there was no escaping the stifling heat during the race in the Asian city-state.

"It's similar in heat and humidity to Malaysia, but you're surrounded by just the city and a lot of concrete, so it's the once race I feel where you open your visor to get some air and you're not getting any reward for that.

"It's just the heat and stale air. In Malaysia there's a bit of circulation. Even though it's hot you get a bit of a breeze. But here, no.

"All the same, it's the next closest track to Monaco, so we look at it as a chance to try to get the victory I am after this season.

"It's technical. It's fun. I normally like high-speed circuits, but there's something here which has clicked.

"I am not going to put too much pressure on myself or the team for this weekend, but deep down we want to win."

Ricciardo is third in the drivers' world championship with 161 points, while Mercedes pair Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg have 250 and 248 respectively.

Singapore was the worst race of last season for Mercedes and Sebastian Vettel won for Ferrari. Vettel and his teammate Kimi Raikkonen could be threats again this time and Mercedes is likely to have found, and overcome, the reason for its poor form a year ago.

Ricciardo's 18-year-old teammate Max Verstappen is another potential challenger, although his aggressiveness might not be compatible with the street circuit's barriers – as it wasn't in Monaco.

Helmut Marko, the most powerful figure within Red Bull Racing, has declared that the team will be a stronger challenge to Mercedes under next year's rules, which among many changes will bring back wider tyres.

"The work on our [TAG Heuer-badged Renault] engine is developing in the right direction," Marko said.

"We should be within around 15 horsepower [of Mercedes] – and this we can compensate for [with superior aerodynamics]."

What Power has to do for a second Indy title
Will Power has a 43-point gap to Penske teammate Simon Pagenaud to overcome if he's to become a two-time IndyCar champion this weekend, but Sonoma – the Californian venue for the finale – is arguably the Toowoomba star's best track in the series.

Power has been the fastest qualifier at Sonoma five times in the past six years and has won the race three times since 2010.

The win is worth 100 points – double the norm – and there is a bonus point to be scored for pole position, another for leading a lap in the race, and two for leading the most laps.

Power will be champion again if he wins the race and Pagenaud does not finish in the top four, or if he finishes second and the Frenchman is not in the top 11, or if he finishes third with his rival outside the top 16, and if he finishes fourth with Pagenaud not in the top 19. If Power is fifth then he cannot afford his teammate to be in the top 21.

The two drivers share four wins each this season, while Pagenaud has had three seconds and Power two. Power has had a third place too, while the Frenchman has not been on the third step of the podium.

Power missed the opening race at St Petersburg in Florida with what initially was thought to have been concussion but turned out to be an ear infection.

He was immediately 42 points behind Pagenaud but, after a hot streak since early June, has only been outscored by one more point since.

The gap stretched out to 137 points early in the season, but was only 20 points after the Pocono race on August 22. However, it has lengthened again with Power crashing at Watkins Glen a fortnight ago in an incident with American Charlie Kimball.

Team owner Roger Penske saw a title go begging last year when New Zealander Scott Dixon snatched it for Chip Ganassi Racing from Juan Pablo Montoya.

This time a 14th IndyCar series title is a certainty for 'The Captain' in the 50th anniversary year of his revered Team Penske.

Meanwhile, IndyCar has frozen aero kit development by participating manufacturers Chevrolet and Honda for next year and will introduce a universal kit in 2018.

Hat-trick beckons Webber in Texas
A repeat of last year's World Endurance Championship drivers' title is out of the question for Mark Webber and his two Porsche co-drivers, but they could complete a hat-trick of six-hour races wins at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas.

Webber, New Zealander Brendon Hartley and German veteran Timo Bernhard have 53.5 points this season to the 118 of France's Romain Dumas, Germany's Marc Lieb and Switzerland's Neel Jani – the Le Mans 24-Hour victors – in the other Porsche 919 Hybrid.

Webber and his co-drivers also trail Toyota trio Stephane Sarrazin (France), Mike Conway (Great Britain) and Kamui Kobayashi (Japan), who have 77 points, and Audi's two three crews on 74.5 and 69 points.

In the manufacturers championship Porsche already has 201 points, 43 more than Audi, with Toyota out of contention – another 46 back. A good weekend in Texas could virtually assure Porsche of the title ahead of its Volkswagen group stablemate with three more six-hour races to go – in Japan, China and Bahrain.

Webber likes the late-afternoon start in Texas with the race – billed as 'Lone Star Le Mans' – finishing after nightfall.

"We won in Austin last year and it would be nice to get the hat-trick after our wins at the Nurburgring and in Mexico," Webber said.

"The weekend at COTA is always interesting due to the different conditions we're facing with sessions during daylight and in the cooler night hours.

"Sports car racing has a huge following in America and they love their big endurance events such as the Sebring 12 hours and the 24 hours of Daytona [both in Florida early in the year]."

Briscoe among Ganassi's mega fleet
Apart from the WEC round, there's a separate round of America's sports car championship – or what's called the IMSA (International Motor Sports Association) series – in Texas.

Despite three wins in the GT Le Mans category of the series with the new Ford, Ryan Briscoe and British co-driver Richard Westbrook trail Chevrolet Corvette pairing Oliver Gavin and Tommy Milner 280 points to 287 in the drivers' championship.

Chevrolet leads Ford 297-281 in the manufacturers' championship.

The other Ford pairing in the series, Joey Hand and Dirk Mueller, have not finished better than second in America, but they won – with Sebastien Bourdais too – the important GTE Pro class at the Le Mans 24-Hour in France on the 50th anniversary of Ford's first outright victory there with the GT40.

The Fords are campaigned by Chip Ganassi Racing.

Apart from the two IMSA GTs and two in the GTE Pro class of the WEC round, Ganassi has another 10 cars racing this weekend – in NASCAR's Sprint Cup and Xfinity Series, IndyCar and Global Rallycross.

Floyd 'Chip' Ganassi was briefly an IndyCar driver but became a team owner in 1990 with a one-car Indy operation.

Now 58, he is the only owner to have won the Indianapolis 500, Daytona 500, Brickyard 400, Daytona 24-Hour, Sebring 12-Hour and the Le Mans 24-Hour, although the latter was not outright.

He has won this year in all six series in which he is competing, but it is not clear yet how many and which events he will get to this weekend to see his cars and drivers race – although he is expected to make it to at least three tracks.

Atkinson backs up for Subaru in Global Rallycross
After his long-anticipated rallycross debut in Atlantic City, New Jersey, in late August, Chris Atkinson has been retained by Subaru Rally Team USA for another round this weekend in Seattle, Washington.

A veteran of more than 70 starts, 41 stage wins and six podiums in the World Rally Championship, Atkinson made the final of the Global Rallycross Championship event in Atlantic City but was cruelled by a puncture on the opening lap.

He had qualified sixth fastest and finished third in his semi-final.

The car is a 2016 Subaru WRX STI prepared by Vermont SportsCar, with seven-time Rally America champion David Higgins in an identical machine in Seattle.

The GRC is being led by American former F1 and NASCAR driver Scott Speed by nine points from his Andretti Volkswagen teammate Tanner Foust, the US Top Gear host.

The World Rallycross Championship is at Barcelona's F1 and MotoGP circuit this weekend for its ninth round.

Norway's 2003 world rally champion Petter Solberg, the World RX champion in both previous seasons, leads in his Citroen by five points from Sweden's multiple DTM (German touring car championship) and IROC (International race of champions) titleholder Mattias Ekstrom in an Audi.

Five other drivers remain World RX title contenders with three more rounds after Barcelona.