MOTORSPORT: New era arrives in V8 Supercar enduros

Co-driver change a ride into the unknown
The V8 Supercar endurance events start this weekend -- and they're a bit different this year.

Firstly there are three of them -- the L&H 500 at Victoria's Phillip Island this Saturday and Sunday, the Bathurst 1000 on the second weekend of October, and then on October 22-24 the Armor All 600 on the Gold Coast -- a revamp, with international guest drivers, of the old "Indy" carnival and what last year was the SuperGP (without the A1 GP cars).

The other, more significant change is that regular V8 Supercar Championship drivers can't be paired by teams any longer. This creates a much clearer distinction between the No. 1 and No. 2 drivers in cars. And that has the potential to create some new heroes -- and perhaps some villains. Another factor, as always at Phillip Island, is the weather.

While scattered showers are expected for today's practice, the weekend forecast is better -- morning clouds both days, breezy, cool (9-15C) Saturday and mild (9-17C) Sunday.

The new rule on driver line-ups makes experienced campaigners recently retired from full-time V8 Supercar particularly valuable.

Top team Triple Eight Race Engineering -- or Team Vodafone -- was quick to snap up the sport's most successful driver, Mark Skaife, usually a TV commentator these days but with a myriad of other roles, to partner Craig Lowndes in one of its Holden Commodores.

It's a very strong combination. The pair won the Queensland 500 together 10 years ago, when they were in the Holden Racing Team, and Skaife's last victory was at Phillip Island two years with Garth Tander.

This year Toll HRT's Tander is joined in his quest for a hat-trick of Phillip Island victories by Cameron McConville, who retired from full-time competition at the end of last year, while dual series champion Glenn Seton is back for another campaign -- and a crack at that elusive Bathurst victory -- with Jason Bargwanna in a Kelly Brothers-prepared Rock Racing Commodore.

While not universally popular, McConville has declared the new co-driver rule "one of the best decisions V8 Supercars has ever made, and makes this year's L&H500 a true team event with more driver pairings capable of securing podiums".

Championship leader James Courtney is partnered in his Jim Beam/Dick Johnson Racing Falcon by Warren Luff, who has no regular race drive.

However, Courtney has declared himself "really comfortable with Warren".

"I think as far as the top few (co-drivers in leading cars) go he's one of the calmest out there," Courtney told this week's Auto Action magazine. "I'm not worried at all that Warren is going to head out there and try to show how good he is.

"He's very comfortable with his position in the team and his ability. He knows what his role is, whereas I think some of the other teams are a bit worried about their combinations and how the car could come back."

Courtney also told AA that he's prepared to take risks at Phillip Island and Bathurst rather than settle for second place because it would be good for his title chances.

"In the end if you can win Bathurst and not win the championship it's still a really good year," he said. "If we can win either of those that would be great. If we could win both it would be unbelievable.

"But I'm not going to hold back or slow down at all because I'm in the championship lead. I'm still going to go for it. I'm not scared of putting things on the line."

In the other Jim Beam Falcon the experienced, endurance specialist Steve Johnson will be partnered by Marcus Marshall, another driver without a regular racing slot.

Team Vodafone's champion of the past two years and winner of the most races this season (eight of 16), Jamie Whincup, is paired with Fujitsu development series leader Steve Owen -- giving Triple Eight two strong line-ups.

Mark Winterbottom, the third man in the title chase, is joined in the Orrcon Ford Performance Racing Falcon by Luke Youlden, an experienced but only occasional Fujitsu series driver.

In the other FPR entry, the Dunlop Super Dealer Falcon, veteran Steve Richards will be partnered by debutant James Moffat, son of Allan - Ford's most legendary touring car driver in Australia and rival of Richards' father Jim for some of his career.

Other famous names come together in another Falcon -- the Irwin Racing from the Stone Brothers stable, in which Alex Davison -- a grandson of late four-time Australian Grand Prix winner Lex (before the GP was a Formula One world championship race) -- with David Brabham, youngest son of triple F1 world champion Sir Jack and himself a former F1 driver, a Le Mans 24-hour sports car classic winner and reigning champion in the American Le Mans Series in which he has just done his 100th race and leads again.

Will Davison, who has had a horror second year with Toll HRT after winning at Phillip Island and Bathurst last year and finishing second in the championship, is hoping to resurrect his season in the enduros partnered by David Reynolds, who is being linked to a possible return to Kelly Brothers beyond these Bathurst.

Fujitsu Racing/Garry Rogers Motorsport is the third top team this season -- ahead of both factory outfits and behind only Team Vodafone and Jim Beam Racing -- and its lead entry shared by regular Lee Holdsworth and David Besnard, a former Queensland 500 victor, could well be a contender for the Phillip Island honours.

After two hours of practice today the teams will have another 80 minutes Saturday morning before two 20-minute qualifying sessions and 60km solo sprint races -- one for regular drivers, the other for co-drivers -- with Sunday's 500km starting at 1.35pm.

Phillip Island L&H 500 line-ups
1 -- Team Vodafone (Jamie Whincup, Steve Owen)
2 -- Toll Holden Racing Team (Garth Tander, Cameron McConville)
3 -- Centaur Racing (Tony D'Alberto, Shane Price)
4 -- Irwin Racing (Alex Davison, David Brabham)
5 -- Orrcon Steel FPR (Mark Winterbottom, Luke Youlden)
6 -- Dunlop Super Dealer FPR (Steven Richards, James Moffat)
7 -- Jack Daniel's Racing (Todd Kelly, Dale Wood)
8 -- Team BOC (Jason Richards, Andrew Jones)
9 -- SP Tools Racing (Shane van Gisbergen, John McIntyre)
10 -- Bundaberg Red Racing (Andrew Thompson, Nick Percat)
11 -- Rock Racing (Jason Bargwanna, Glenn Seton)
12 -- Bing Lee/Panasonic Racing (Dean Fiore, Michael Patrizi)
14 -- Trading Post Racing (Jason Bright, Matt Halliday)
15 -- Jack Daniel's Racing (Rick Kelly, Owen Kelly)
16 -- Stratco Racing (Tony Ricciardello, Taz Douglas)
17 -- Jim Beam Racing (Steven Johnson, Marcus Marshall)
18 -- Jim Beam Racing (James Courtney, Warren Luff)
19 -- Dick Johnson Racing (Jonathon Webber, David Russell)
21 -- Fair Dinkum Sheds Racing (Karl Reindler, David Wall)
22 -- Toll Holden Racing Team (Will Davison, David Reynolds)
24 -- Bundaberg Red Racing Team (Fabian Coulthard, Craig Baird)
27 -- Fujitsu Racing/MWR (Damian Assaillit, Ant Pedersen)
30 -- Gulf Western Oil Racing (Mark Noske, Nathan Pretty)
33 -- Fujitsu Racing/GRM (Lee Holdsworth, David Besnard)
34 -- Fujitsu Racing/GRM (Michael Caruso, Greg Ritter)
39 -- Supercheap Auto Racing (Russell Ingall, Paul Morris)
44 -- National Directory Distribution (Geoff Emery, Marcus Zukanovic)
47 -- Wilson Security Racing (Tim Slade, Jack Perkins)
51 -- Castrol Edge Racing (Greg Murphy or Daniel Gaunt, Tim Blanchard)
55 -- Bottle-O Racing Team (Paul Dumbrell, Dean Canto)
888 -- Team Vodafone (Craig Lowndes, Mark Skaife)

V8 Supercar Championship top 10 drivers -- James Courtney (Jim Beam Racing) 1947 points, Jamie Whincup (Team Vodafone) 1827, Mark Winterbottom (Orrcon FPR) 1623, Shane van Gisbergen (SP Tools Racing) 1598, Garth Tander (Toll HRT) 1509, Craig Lowndes (Team Vodafone) 1479, Lee Holdsworth (Fujitsu Racing) 1398, Rick Kelly (Jack Daniel's Racing) 1352, Michael Caruso (Fujitsu Racing) 1249, Steve Johnson (Jim Beam Racing) 1151.

V8 Supercar top five teams -- Team Vodafone 3306 points, Jim Beam Racing 3108, Garry Rogers Motorsport 2672, Toll HRT 2454, FPR 2433.

Webber reckons Red Bull can be on Monza pace
In eight starts at the Italian Grand Prix Australia's Formula One star Mark Webber has never finished better than seventh -- and this weekend's race, the last GP in Europe this season, could be his hardest race of the season.

The Renault-powered Red Bull cars of Webber and German Sebastian Vettel are expected to struggle on F1's oldest and fastest circuit -- up to 360kmh and averages around 240kmh -- for top speed against the McLaren-Mercedes cars, in particular, of Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button.

Here's how Webber, who trails Hamilton by three points in the world championship, sees the 14th round:

"On paper, Monza isn't one of Red Bull Racing's strongest tracks. The circuit's long straights put an onus on straight-line speed, which isn't the forte of our RB6.

"But I take confidence from the pace of our car (in the Belgian GP) at Spa-Francorchamps last time out and I think we'll be faster this weekend than a lot of people think.

"The goal for Sunday is to knock in another good result, even if it might be hard for us to fight for overall victory.

"Lewis and I have a bit of a buffer at the top of the championship standings and I need to keep finishing races in the points to protect that cushion as we approach the business end of the season (five races remain after Monza).

"Monza is a fantastic place to see out the European F1  season. The place is steeped in history and the Italian fans, the tifosi, always ensure there's a special atmosphere.

"They're only interested in the red machines (Ferraris), but they have a passion for F1 that sees them give all the drivers a good welcome.

"The circuit is situated in the beautiful surroundings of a park to the north of Milan and even the corner names sound beautiful -- Rettifilio, Lesmo, Ascari, Parabolica.

"This is undoubtedly one of the classic races on the calendar. I've never finished in the top six at this race, but I hope to do something about that this year!"

Vettel has spoken up against Webber wanting preference in the Red Bull team now that he's 28 points ahead of the German and in what looks to have become a two-man title fight with Hamilton.

Indeed Vettel, who has admitted to mistakes at the past two GPs, still reckons he's a good chance to win the championship.

He said Webber's desire for priority "makes no sense".

"You don't give up trying to win the championship until it's mathematically impossible," Vettel said. "For the team it makes no sense to favour one if that means penalising the other because you need both drivers scoring maximum points to win the constructors' championship.

"With two drivers (in the same team) close in the championship it is too dangerous to choose."

It was at Monza two years ago that Vettel, then 21, became the youngest F1 driver to start from pole position and, after two hours of brilliance on a treacherously wet track, the youngest GP winner.

It also was the first -- and only -- win for Scuderia Toro Rosso, the former Minardi team.

Last year Rubens Barrichello won for BrawnGP - now the factory Mercedes team, while the Brazilian veteran now drives for Williams.

Hamilton has never won at Monza although he started on pole last year -- but crashed on the last lap while third.

Only four GPs have been won from pole this year and it is now 30 races since a Ferrari last started from the prime position -- at the 2008 Brazilian GP.

However, Ferrari has won five of the past 10 Italian GPs, and seven of those last 10 races at Monza were won from the pole.

Loeb chases 60th WRC win and seventh straight title
French superstar Sebastien Loeb can clinch his seventh consecutive world rally championship in Japan this weekend if he notches his 60th event victory and none of the other top drives finish in the top six.

However, the Citroen ace has said that the Japanese rally is not one of his favourites.

"The roads are not very pretty -- they're narrow, you can't see the turns because of the trees and there are lots of ruts," Loeb said.

The remaining three rallies over the next two months are in France, Spain and Britain.

Ambrose upbeat for Sprint Cup race at Richmond
After a top 10 finish at Atlanta last weekend, Australia's NASCAR racer Marcos Ambrose is in a good frame of mind heading to the 26th Sprint Cup round at the 1.21km, D-shaped track at Richmond, Virginia.

"We (JTG Daugherty Racing) have always seemed to run well at Richmond in the past," Ambrose said.

"We finished ninth there in May and we are going back with the same chassis we raced there and at New Hampshire Motor Speedway."

NASCAR Sprint Cup standings after race 25 of 36 rounds -- Kevin Harvick (Chevrolet) 3593 points, Jeff Gordon (Chevrolet) 3366, Kyle Busch (Toyota) 3320, Tony Stewart (Chevrolet) 3302, Carl Edwards (Ford) 3288, Jeff Burton (Chevrolet) 3261, Jimmie Johnson (Chevrolet) 3247, Matt Kenseth (Ford) 3225, Kurt Busch (Dodge) 3224, Denny Hamlin (Toyota) 3147, Greg Biffle (Ford) 3110, Clint Bowyer (Chevrolet) 3070. Ambrose (Toyota) is 25th in the series on 2410 points.

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