MOTORSPORT: Power surges to glory

Will Power's claim a few days ago that he could still win the IndyCar title from fifth, 52 points down, seemed bold. But he's vindicated that claim since, repeatedly turning in laps at an average speed of almost 350km/h.

Power won today's 500-mile (800km) race at the 2.5-mile (4km), three-turn Pocono 'oval' in Pennsylvania after being a lap down a third of the way into the race. The bad news for the 36-year-old 2014 IndyCar champion from Toowoomba was that the series leader, Josef Newgarden, finished second – 0.5268 of a second behind him – and remains 42 points ahead of him.

It was a dramatic race, with 590 passes in the 22-strong field and 42 lead changes among 10 drivers. Could any other form of motor racing produce such numbers? Certainly not Formula 1.

Newgarden is a teammate of Power. The sole American among Roger Penske's four drivers of his Chevrolet-powered IndyCars, Newgarden is in his first season with The Captain's mighty open-wheeler outfit.

"I'm happy for Team Penske. It's a 1-2 at the end of the day, so keeping it in the family," said a diplomatic Newgarden, 10 years Power's junior.

Newgarden looked poised to overtake Power with three laps to go but the Aussie masterfully protected the inside line and kept the American behind.

Others still ahead of Power in the championship are New Zealander Scott Dixon, driving a Honda-powered car for Chip Ganassi, Penske's Brazilian veteran Helio Castroneves and his defending IndyCar champion, Frenchman Simon Pagenaud. Mathematically, 15 drivers are still in the hunt.

So with three races remaining – next weekend at Gateway Motorsports Park in Illinois, then at Watkins Glen in upstate New York and Sonoma in California, that finale on September 17 for double points – can Power seriously win a second title in the premier North American open-wheeler series?

"Absolutely, absolutely. Absolutely," he said after today's victory, his 32nd – putting him ahead of Scotsman Dario Franchitti and Canadian Paul Tracy on the all-time winners' list and just two shy of Al Unser Junior (eighth on the list).

"I'm really determined to finish on a high this year – really determined. I'm going for it."

Today's triumph was Power's third in 14 races this season, it's the second year in a row he's won at Pocono and it was the sixth victory of his 13-year American career on oval tracks, which were long considered his Achilles heel.

"I love racing on ovals. Every oval win I get, I really, really enjoy because we don't have many of them [in the championship now]," he said.

"To come back and win it again in a very different way this year – it was a crazy race, exciting to me – but feels fantastic to go back-to-back."

Starting the 200-lap race from fifth, Power was running sixth when he made an unscheduled pit stop on lap 66 and went a lap down as his front wing was replaced. He later had a damaged rear wing replaced, but at least that came under the yellow flags of a caution period and he was back on the lead lap with 75 to go and worked his way through the field, taking the lead for the first time on lap 154.

He ended up leading three times for 34 laps. A lightning-quick stop on lap 177 put him ahead of the other frontrunners who had stopped before him.

When race leader Marco Andretti stopped for fuel on lap 190 Power assumed first place and withstood the pressure from Newgarden and another American, Alexander Rossi, the ex-F1 driver who won last year's Indianapolis 500 at his first try, over the final 10 laps.

"Once I got my lap back, I was like, 'All right, it's game on,' I can definitely get back up there," Power said.

"I was thinking, like, top five [finish], but when I was pumping out, like, 217 [mph, 350kmh] laps, I'm like, 'OK, we're going to make some serious hay here'.

"It was a seriously dramatic day. I just picked people off one by one. You can never give up in IndyCar because you don't know what can happen."

IndyCar Series driver standings after 14 of 17 rounds – 1. Josef Newgarden (US, Penske-Chevrolet) 494 points; 2. Scott Dixon (New Zealand, Ganassi-Honda) 476; 3. Helio Castroneves (Brazil, Penske-Chevrolet) 472; 4. Simon Pagenaud (France, Penske-Chevrolet) 468; 5. Will Power (Australia, Penske-Chevrolet) 452.

Tanak tops in Germany, Ogier closer to fifth WRC title
Only two events before Rally Australia and the WRC driver standings that were tied at the top before the weekend now have Sebastien Ogier 17 points clear and seemingly on course for a fifth straight world title.

And Ford M-Sport has a stranglehold on the manufacturers' title after Hyundai's horror round in Germany, with the gap on that table 64 points.

Estonians Ott Tanak and co-driver Marin Jarveoja won in Germany in a Ford Fiesta, ahead of last year's Rally Australia winners, Norwegians Andreas Mikkelsen and Anders Jaeger, in their third outing in a Citroen C3 and first on tarmac, with Ogier and co-driver Julien Ingrassia third in another Fiesta.

Five of the top 10 finishers were M-Sport-prepared Fords. Yet Germany was the only round now in the WRC that Malcolm Wilson's M-Sport had never won.

The best Toyota Yaris this time, after the Japanese manufacturer's dominance in Finland, was driven by Finn Juho Hanninen to fourth place – almost 110 seconds behind the victors, while there was little more than 30 seconds between those on the podium.

Hyundai's Thierry Neuville had led the drivers' championship after Finland, courtesy of three wins in the first nine rounds to Oiger's two, but the Belgian's chances in Germany were destroyed early on Saturday's second leg when he broke the suspension of his i20 Coupe. He was classified only 44th for the event.

"It was probably a bad impact on the wheel rim," Neuville said. "I knew the corner very well and there is a small step out of the cut. I have to accept it, look forwards and keep the motivation for the next rounds, because the title is still on."

New Zealander Hayden Paddon was the highest finisher of the three Hyundai entries, but only eighth in his first tarmac rally with new British co-driver Seb Marshall.

The Korean manufacturer's Spanish driver Dani Sordo rolled down a bank on the first leg but ended up winning five stages – as many as Tanak – and that included maximum points from the final Power Stage.

Tanak has now won on gravel – in Italy, on the island of Sardinia, earlier this year – and tarmac. After making the right tyre choices in the unpredictable early weather, he led for 16 of the 21 stages in Germany in a faultless drive.

"Now there's no reason why we [he and Jarveoja] shouldn't be challenging for victory everywhere," said 29-year-old Tanak, who trails Neuville by 16 points and teammate Ogier by 33.

"I don't see why we shouldn't be looking to the guys ahead and to the championship lead ourselves."

Ogier said it "would have been nice to have really challenged for the win" in Germany, "but it's not been a bad weekend".

"I didn't have the correct set-up for the vineyard stages [on Friday] and probably made the wrong call on the tyres," Ogier said.

"But once Thierry had stopped there was no need to take any risks. We were not too far behind Andreas, but he had good speed and we weren't prepared to risk it all for just three more points."

Mikkelsen's chances of overhauling Tanak were ruined by several mistakes on the second leg, but his podium was just Citroen's second of the season after Kris Meeke's victory in Mexico in March. Meeke was out of contention from the opening 2km stage in Germany on which he crashed into a barrier.

The WRC now takes a six-week break until Rally Spain, then it's off to Wales for Rally Great Britain, with Rally Australia at Coffs Harbour on November 16-19.

World Rally Championship driver standings after 10 of 13 rounds – 1. Sebastien Ogier (France, Ford Fiesta) 177 points; 2. Thierry Neuville (Belgium, Hyundai i20 Coupe) 160; 3. Ott Tanak (Estonia, Ford) 144; 4. Jari-Matti Latvala (Finland, Toyota Yaris) 123; 5. Daniel Sordo (Spain, Hyundai) 89; 6. Elfyn Evans (Great Britain, Ford) 87; 7. Craig Breen (Ireland, Citroen C3) 64; 8. Juho Hanninen (Finland, Toyota) 58; 9. Hayden Paddon (New Zealand, Hyundai) 55; 10. Esapekka Lappi (Finland, Toyota) 49; 11. Andreas Mikkelsen (Norway, Skoda/Citroen) 39; 12. Kris Meeke (GB, Citroen) 31.

WRC manufacturer standings – 1. M-Sport Ford 325 points; 2. Hyundai 261; 3. Toyota 213; 4. Citroen 163.

Big weekend in Ipswich, for better and worse
Ipswich got a new mayor with a platform of transparency on council-owned companies – including its Ipswich Motorsport Park Pty Ltd (IMPPL) – on Saturday night, just as two racers were killed at Queensland Raceway.

Former policeman Andrew Antoniolli won the mayoral bi-election, defeating early favourite Paul Tully, to replace high-profile Paul Pisasale, who departed in June citing ill-health but having been raided by anti-corruption investigators and police. Pisasale faces charges including extortion.

Only hours after polling closed two men in a 2004 V8 Holden Monaro were killed when the throttle seemingly jammed open in an organised drag race for road-legal cars on the main straight of Queensland Raceway.

QR promoter John Tetley said that, after leaving the track, the Monaro "powered through to the back wall, where it hit the Airfence at an acute angle as the driver tried to get the car around the corner".

"The car then skidded along the face of the concrete wall until it climbed up the wall and rolled over," Tetley said.

"The car rolled back on to its wheels and a fire erupted from the engine compartment, probably from oil hitting the exhaust manifolds, which quickly spread to the interior of the car.

"Three paramedics were at the car within 30 seconds and both of the occupants were extricated from the car with no burns injuries."

However, the driver, Kurt Bull, and co-driver, Daniel King, were killed by the "very severe impact".

QR had been in focus leading up to the weekend and the mayoral election over plans for a major upgrade of the venue via IMPPL which appear to involve ousting Tetley from his lease (our earlier report on that is here).

Councillor Tully – a director of IMPPL, deputy mayor to Pisasale and acting mayor after his exit – has been an advocate of the $220 million proposed project.

A deal announced a month ago for the QR round to remain part of the Virgin Australian Supercars Championship for the next 10 years hinges on the first part of that upgrade of facilities and safety, forecast to cost $52.3 million, going ahead.

However, Tetley said in an email to QR's database last week that councillor Antoniolli had attended a meeting of the Ipswich Motorsport Precinct Users Group this month and subsequently "promised to shut down IMPPL if he is elected".

Antoniolli has now been elected mayor from 11 candidates and has pledged to "open the council books to forensic accounting".

"There is a lot of scepticism in the community [about council-owned companies]," he was quoted by Brisbane's Courier-Mail newspaper saying.

"I think the only way we're going to rise above that scepticism is to actually have a forensic audit – particularly of the council companies, because it's almost been done under a veil of secrecy."

Antoniolli's wife, Karina, told Ipswich's Queensland Times her husband "is going to be true to his word and he is going to be very transparent."

Tully, who had been the early favourite to become mayor, told Brisbane's Sunday Mail: "I guess there's a feeling that, even though the books are fully audited by the Auditor-General, including the company books, that perhaps there's some things that should be clearer."

Sadly, the double fatality at QR on Saturday night was not the only tragedy in Australian motorsport at the weekend.

In Tasmania a driver, Darren Clark, was killed in the Scottsdale Classic Rally when his Mazda RX7 hit a tree stump. The event was called off and Clark's co-driver, Keegan Buckley, was taken to hospital in Launceston with multiple fractures.