MOTORSPORT: Power and belated glory in the States

Power’s ‘most satisfying’ win with Penske, but 10th IndyCar title for Ganassi
Toowoomba’s Will Power has scored the most satisfying win of his career, on the Fontana oval track in California, and Brisbane-born New Zealander Scott Dixon is the IndyCar champion for the third time – and Chip Ganassi the top team owner in that series for the 10th time.

Sir Jack Brabham’s teenage grandson Matthew’s drive in America’s Indy Lights next year is locked in now – with Andretti Autosports, continuing a “marriage” between two of the great dynasties of world motorsport for a second season after 19-year-old Brabham’s title this year in the Pro Mazda open-wheeler series.

Young Australian rally star Brendan Reeves and his co-driver sister Rhiannon have won the two-wheel-drive category of the American Rally Championship with their fifth straight victory in that division at the final round of the series, the Lake Superior Performance Rally in Michigan.

After that triumph in a Ford Fiesta R2 - overhauling Canada’s season-long leader Andrew Comrie-Picard – they head home for the final round of the Australian Rally Championship in Victoria in a Mazda2 in mid-November.

Marcos Ambrose’s hopes in today’s NASCAR race at Talladega were ruined in an altercation with Juan Pablo Montoya one-third of the way into the event.

Ambrose’s Ford was running at the end but was classified 39th.

Jamie McMurray delivered another super-speedway victory to Chip Ganassi, ending a 108-race winning drought for the driver as he took the chequered flag ahead of Dale Earnhardt Junior – still winless this season, but second four times.

Jimmie Johnson, who led the Talladega race 10 times but finished 13th, took the points lead from Matt Kenseth and there was – as usual – a spectacular crash at the end, although only involving a couple of cars this time.

From its longest track the Sprint Cup now moves on to its shortest, Martinsville Speedway – where Johnson has won eight times and fellow Chevrolet driver Jeff Gordon seven times.

Ryan Briscoe and David Brabham, in his American swansong, finished second and third respectively in Honda Performance Development ARX-03bs at the Petit Le Mans in America – a 10-hour, 1000-mile (1600km) race at Road Atlanta in Georgia won by a Toyota.

The Japanese manufacturer was handed victory too in the rain-marred World Endurance Championship round at Mt Fuji in Japan.

The 16 laps completed in three attempts to run that six-hour race were all behind the safety car.

Despite the Toyota “victory”, Audi has clinched the WEC with two rounds remaining – in China on November 9 and Bahrain on November 30.

The Delta-ADR Oreca-Nissan that Aussie John Martin shared at Mt Fuji was classified second in the LMP2 class and fifth overall.

Meanwhile, there has been another parity change in V8 Supercars for next weekend’s Gold Coast 600.

Instead of a minimum number of pitstops as there were at the Sandown 500 and Bathurst 1000, in an effort to give the thirsty Nissan Altimas and AMG Mercedes-Benz E 63s a better chance against the Holden Commodores and Ford Falcons, on the streets of Surfers Paradise all cars will be required to use 185 litres of fuel in both 300km races.

A statement from V8 Supercars said that “teams can reach their minimum fuel intake in any combination they choose”.

Nissan has stepped up its lobbying for changes next season, seeking a fresh homologation of the aerodynamics of its Altimas at the same time as V8 Supercars goes through its approval process for the Volvo S60s to be raced by Garry Rogers Motorsport.

But the best news for Australian motorsport in the past couple of days has been Will Power’s victory in the final round of the IndyCar series.

It proved that Power can win a big oval race in America and he called it “the most satisfying win of my life”.

It was a chaotic event, with just eight of the 25 starters finishing and British driver Justin Wilson in hospital with a broken pelvis after his spinning car was T-boned -- another serious accident after Dario Franchitti’s crash at Houston two weeks earlier, all two years after the Dan Wheldon fatality at Las Vegas.

Scott Dixon finished fifth in the Fontana race, the minimum he needed to add a third title to those he won in 2003 and 2008.

Dixon made a couple of extra late stops to have his car’s air ducts cleared of debris that had sent his engine temperatures soaring.

Brazilian Helio Castroneves, who led most of the season but dropped behind Dixon after gearbox woes in the “double-header” weekend at Houston, finished sixth and a lap down on the two-mile (3.2km) Fontana Speedway.

The Penske team made a major error in trying to pit Castroneves when the pitlane was closed, incurring a drive-through penalty, and then he was forced to make a later stop for a broken wing, so he remains without an IndyCar title despite having won the Indianapolis 500 three times.

Dixon looked to be out of championship contention mid-year but won four of the last nine races to overhaul Castroneves.

At 33, the Kiwi is the seventh most successful driver in IndyCar history and, apart from his three titles and 33 race wins, has finished second in the championship twice, third twice and fourth once.

While his success this season meant Honda had the winning driver, Chevrolet won the manufacturers’ championship.

However, next season Ganassi will switch to Chevrolet engines – like Penske – while Andretti Autosports will go from Chevy to Honda power.

Power’s victory was his 21st in IndyCar but his first in a 500-mile (800km) oval race.

After finishing runner-up in the championship the past three years, this third win in the final five races of the season boosted him to fourth in the points.

Power led 103 of the 250 laps to deny last year’s Fontana winner Ed Carpenter, while Tony Kanaan – this year’s Indianapolis 500 winner -- was third in his final drive for expatriate Australian Kevin Kalkhoven and Jimmy Vasser.    

Power said he had been motivated by a comment Carpenter made about him in last year’s finale.

The American had said that “Will Power did exactly what everyone expected him to do at the last race last year (crashed, allowing American Ryan Hunter-Reay to take the title for Andretti Autosports)”.

“I thought that was just such motivation for me to beat him and win at this track and just be good at ovals,” Power said.

“I don’t dislike Ed, but I told him: ‘Man, your comment last year gave me a lot of motivation.’

“That comment definitely got to me in a good way.

“That (winning this time at Fontana) is the most satisfying thing I’ve ever done.

“I’ve wanted to do it (win a major oval race) so badly all year, but in the early ovals I was kind of conservative, just trying to finish every lap.

“Tonight I said: ‘This time I’m going for it’.”

 IndyCar Championship final driver points – 1. Scott Dixon (New Zealand, Chip Ganassi Racing, Dallara-Honda) 577 points; 2. Helio Castroneves (Brazil, Team Penske, Dallara-Chevrolet) 550; 3, Simon Pagenaud (France, Schmidt Hamilton HP Motorsports, Dallara-Honda) 508; 4, Will Power (Australia, Team Penske, Dallara-Chevrolet) 498; 5. Marco Andretti (US, Andretti Autosports, Dallara-Chevrolet) 484.

NASCAR Sprint Cup driver points after 32 of 36 races – 1.  Jimmie Johnson (Chevrolet) 2254 points; 2. Matt Kenseth (Toyota) 2250; 3. Kyle Busch (Toyota) 2228; 4. Kevin Harvick (Chevrolet) 2228; 5. Jeff Gordon (Chevrolet) 2220; 6. Dale Earnhardt Junior (Chevrolet) 2202. Australia’s Marcos Ambrose (Ford) is 21st on 788 points.

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