MOTORSPORT: V8 Supercars set for bumper finale

The two drivers consistently the best in Australia’s major race series will fight out the title in the final two races of 36 for the season, starting with the sport’s first twilight race on Saturday. And almost all the action will be on the Seven Network’s main station, with V8 Supercar fans in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide only needing to switch to 7mate during Saturday night’s 6-6.30pm news bulletins.

That will mean the race 35 finish won’t be on the main Seven station in Brisbane, but the whole telecast will be in Perth. Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide will revert from 7mate to Seven after the news bulletins, meaning a final hour – including post-race interviews and the podium presentation on the main channel - in the two biggest cities and half an hour in Adelaide.

Although the start of the Saturday race and Sunday’s second 250km leg will clash with Nine’s telecast of the Adelaide Test cricket, the TV scheduling for the Sydney 500 is a victory for first-year V8 Supercar chief executive James Warburton.

Seven has not made a big noise about screening most of Saturday’s twilight race in prime viewing time on its main channel in the four most populous capitals. However, it is a positive sign for V8 Supercars that Seven is prepared to trial Warburton’s later-race ‘baby’ in this way, with several more races on the V8 Supercar calendar next year scheduled for twilight, starting with one of 125km on the Saturday of Adelaide’s Clipsal 500 - March 1.

Provided the twilight races draw strong audiences to warrant staying on Seven’s main channel rather than be relegated entirely to 7mate, Warburton will have kicked a major goal for V8 Supercars ahead of negotiations for a new TV deal from 2015.

The Sydney 500 will be helped by the closest contest for the title in the V8 Supercar era – between Triple Eight Race Engineering/Red Bull Racing Australia teammates Jamie Whincup and Craig Lowndes. There is just 20 points between the pair (2815 to 2995), while Ford Performance Racing’s recent Bathurst 1000 winner Mark Winterbottom is an outside chance (124 points behind Whincup on 291) and his teammate Will Davison an even more remote possibility (on 2592).

It will take a disaster for Triple Eight not to have the champion by late Sunday afternoon – either Whincup for the fifth time in six years or Lowndes for the fourth time (but his first with Triple Eight; his three in the 1990s were all with Holden Racing Team).

While Lowndes goes into this finale trailing, he has finished first or second in the four races on the streets of the Homebush Olympic precinct the past two years, winning the Saturday race both times. He also is the only driver to have finished all 34 championship races this season.

Whincup can draw level with the five Australian touring car titles of the late Ian ‘Pete’ Geoghegan, Dick Johnson and Mark Skaife but (by his standards) has a poor record at the Sydney 500. He has never finished on the podium in eight races at the 3.5km circuit over four years.

Homebush is also the only venue in the championship where he has not won.

Whincup’s best finish at Homebush has been fifth place four times, but Lowndes has highlighted that his teammate’s record at other street circuits has been strong.

The narrow track and close, unforgiving concrete walls make the Sydney events races of attrition much more than anywhere else. Three times the winner has started 10th or worse on the grid.

On average less than than 70 per cent of the field finish and half the field generally is lapped. The safety car is called out on average 3.5 times a race at Homebush – and there has never been a one without a safety car period.     

Lowndes has said that officials have “opened up a Pandora’s box” by not penalising Winterbottom for running him wide at the finish of one of races at the previous round at Victoria’s Phillip Island.

“It’ll be interesting to see what they now accept as driver conduct,” Lowndes said.

The simplest way for him to achieve a long-awaited fourth title is to win both this weekend’s races, which will guarantee it even if Whincup finishes second in each.

“I don’t think the attitude can be anything other than win-at-all-costs. I need to beat Jamie and Jamie needs to beat me,” Lowndes said.

But Lowndes said they needed to help each other out to ensure they qualify at the front of the grid rather than find themselves fighting in the middle of the pack among other drivers desperate to end the season on a high.

“It really comes down to each one of us getting the best out of ourselves and the car on the day,” Lowndes said.

“It’s pretty plain and simple for us – if we don’t help each other out, in the sense of the set-up side of it, we’ll start fighting for the middle of the pack instead of being up front. Then the challenge for us is staying off the wall.

So what of Winterbottom, the rival who perhaps as much as Whincup could spoil the party for Lowndes?

“Frosty [Winterbottom] is unpredicatable at times and a bit erratic,” Lowndes said.

“We’ve just got to make sure we have half an eye on what he’s doing, but at the same time focus on what’s in front of us.”

Volvo, which next year will be the fifth make represented in V8 Supercars, has scheduled what has been billed as a major announcement for Homebush tomorrow [Friday, Dec 6] morning.

It could be a reveal of the bodywork of its first S60 for the series, but without the engine being built in Sweden, or perhaps the naming by team principal Garry Rogers of the driver who will partner young gun Scott McLaughlin. That could be Swede Robert Dahlgren if Rogers does not retain Frenchman Alex Premat for a third season.

The Sydney 500 will mark the end of Russell Ingall’s long career as a full-time V8 Supercar driver, although the 49-year-old intends to continue as an endurance race co-driver and tackle other events overseas – perhaps the Le Mans 24-Hour and road course rounds in NASCAR’s second-tier Nationwide Series.

Ingall was the 2005 V8 Supercar champion and has had 27 race wins, including the 1995 and ’97 Bathurst 1000s with Larry Perkins.

And Dick Johnson Racing has acquired a second Racing Entitlements Contract (REC, or V8 Supercar licence) for next year from Paul Morris Motorsport, which had been leasing it to Jonathon Webb’s Tekno Autosports. One of the RECs that DJR has used this season has been leased from Dean Fiore’s Triple F Racing.

Johnson, with the assistance of long-time backer Crimsafe’s Steve Brabeck, also has signed driver young Scott Pye and renewed Wilson Security’s sponsorship, both for two years.

Pye, who will replace debut season race winner Chaz Mostert in one of Johnson’s FPR-built Ford Falcons, has driven a Holden Commodore for Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport this year.

His career will continue to be managed by Triple Eight boss Roland Dane.

Johnson said he would announce his other driver for next year soon – it’s been Tim Blanchard this year – while Mostert will drive for FPR in place of Will Davison, who is expected to join AMG Mercedes-Benz team Erebus Motorsport.

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