MOTORSPORT: What a whopper that was

The last Bathurst 1000 of the exclusively Holden-Ford era produced one of the Great Race’s greatest finishes, with just 0.30 seconds between the first two cars – fittingly a Holden and a Ford.

It was a mega result for – and performance by – Jamie Whincup, Paul Dumbrell, Triple Eight Race Engineering (its fifth win in seven years) and Holden (its 29th win in the classic).

And it was almost as mega for David Reynolds and Dean Canto -- on the podium for the first time in V8 Supercar racing, in a customer Ford Performance Racing Falcon.

While Reynolds turned up the heat on Whincup in the closing laps, he was smart enough not to do anything foolish. Whincup meantime was simply brilliant in conserving his fuel and tyres, at the same time keeping Reynolds at bay.

It was big too for Craig Lowndes, on the podium at the Great Race for the eighth time in the past decade, after seeming to be out of serious contention for much of the day, especially after co-driver Warren Luff had to pit early with tyre troubles.

Lowndes is now up to second in the championship, 161 points behind teammate Whincup, and in much more serious contention for that long-awaited fourth championship title – although Whincup will be equally intent on his fourth in five years.

Bathurst was big in other ways for FPR, with Will Davison taking pole position and leading early but exiting the race in that wild ride through The Chase when his rear suspension broke and severed his brake lines.

The result was a huge blow to his title hopes, while teammate Mark Winterbottom’s have been dented too after a cut tyre denied him the chance to fight on for a podium. Instead 11th place on Sunday has dropped him to third in the championship, although only 27 points behind Lowndes with four rounds to go.

Tyre problems were a key factor in the Bathurst results. Tyre delaminations were ugly for the biggest event in the championship and for monopoly tyre supplier, Dunlop.

The crowd was a whopper too. Organisers claimed it to be the biggest in the 50 years of the enduro on Mt Panorama, announcing a four-day attendance of 207,205 – although it is curious that the race-day crowd, given as 57,939, accounted for less than 28 per cent of the total!

Now we await the TV ratings for this epic as the Holden-Ford era comes to the end of the road. Indications from Saturday’s top 10 shootout – with an average of 935,000 viewers in the five major state capitals – point to a healthy improvement.

Talladega tradition upheld – 25-car crash in last turn
NASCAR’s Talladega superspeedway is famed for its Big Ones – crashes that is. And this time it involved 25 cars at the final turn, including Aussie Marcos Ambrose’s Ford Fusion after he had led a little of the race and looked set for a top-five finish.

The pile-up was triggered by reigning Sprint Cup champion Tony Stewart’s Chevrolet cutting across Michael Waltrip’s Toyota.

“I just screwed up," Stewart said.

“I turned down across and crashed the whole field. It was my fault, blocking to try to stay where I was at. I take 100 per cent of the blame. I was trying to win the race, trying to stay ahead of [eventual winner] Matt Kenseth there, and Michael got a great run on the bottom, had a big head of steam.

“When I turned down, I turned down across the right-front of his car. It was just a mistake on my part, but it cost a lot of people a bad day because of it.”

Only three of the cars in the field of 43 drove cleanly over the finish line.

Kenseth’s victory in a Ford was his first since the Daytona 500 at the start of the season but he has finished third or better in all four restrictor plate races this year. He is the eighth repeat winner of the season.

Brad Keselowski’s seventh place in his Penske Dodge extended his championship lead to 14 points over Chevrolet ace Jimmie Johnson, who wound up 17th at Talladega.

Jeff Gordon was second in another Chevrolet and has finished in the top three in all but one of the last seven races.

Ambrose was third 20 laps from the finish and started the last lap near the front of a four-wide pack.

“We decided we were going to run aggressive all day and try to stay up at the front, and we did that,” Ambrose said.

“We had ourselves in position for a top-five and just got tagged there at the end. I thought I missed the wreck … at least I didn’t cause it.”

Ambrose was classified 27th.

‘Nutcase’ nobbles Webber
Mark Webber copped a costly hit from Romain Grosjean at the start of the Japanese Grand Prix and, after salvaging ninth place, gave the Frenchman a big spray.

Webber, who had qualified on the front row alongside Red Bull teammate and eventual winner Sebastian Vettel but promptly found himself 22nd, dubbed Grosjean: “the first-lap nutcase”.

“My whole weekend was destroyed by one driver’s action,” said Webber, who had already warned Grosjean recently that he had a very good right hook.

“It’s just so frustrating. I had the opportunity to get a very, very good result. It was a chance for me to make big inroads into the championship rivals around me. Maybe he needs another holiday.”

Grosjean has already had a one-race suspension recently for the mayhem he caused at the start of the Belgian GP. In Japan he was given a 10-second stop-go penalty for what he did to Webber at the first corner. In the 14 races he has started this season Grosjean has been involved in seven first-lap incidents.

Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner said Grosjean’s form was “completely unacceptable”.

“Not only is it dangerous for others but he’s cost himself and his team [Lotus-Renault] a colossal amount of points. He doesn’t appear to be learning from his mistakes,” Horner said.

Grosjean admitted to another “stupid mistake”, but said: “There was quite a big speed difference between me and Mark as I came into the first corner, which caught me by surprise and we collided.”

Behind Webber at the chequered flag, and in the points for the third time in the past four GPs, was young Aussie Daniel Ricciardo in his Toro Rosso.

“At the end I was holding off Michael Schumacher and I was really pleased to have won that battle,” Ricciardo said.

“It’s not every day you have a seven-time world champion on your tail and, given he has only a few more races [before his retirement from the Mercedes team], it was nice to have a battle with him to put in my scrapbook.”

Schumacher said he couldn’t get past Ricciardo “because the Toro Rosso was so quick on the straights”.

Vettel became the first back-to-back GP winner this year and has closed to within four points of Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso, who was nudged into the gravel with a punctured left rear tyre by Kimi Raikkonen’s Lotus-Renault at the first corner.

After leading the championship by 37 points just weeks ago, Alonso has now not won in the past five GPs and has collected only 40 of a possible 125 points from those races – with five to go, the first of them in South Korea next Sunday.

Felipe Massa’s second place at Suzuka, his first podium for two years, may have saved his career at Ferrari for another season while Kamui Kobayashi delighted the Japanese fans with his first F1 podium at his home race, holding off McLaren’s Jenson Button.

While Vettel became the third three-time winner this season, along with Alonso and McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton, Webber’s two points for ninth gave him 18 from the past six races.

‘Pure happiness’ as Loeb makes it nine
Sebastien Loeb’s eighth win of this year’s World Rally Championship - at his birthplace, Haguenau in eastern France – clinched his ninth title with two rounds to go. It was the 38-year-old Loeb’s 75th career victory and delivered French manufacturer Citroen its eighth manufacturers’ title.

He said he felt “pure happiness” after finishing 15.5 seconds ahead of the Ford of Finn Jari-Matti Latvala and 44.1 seconds ahead of Citroen teammate and Finn Mikko Hirvonen,

Belgian Thierry Neuville won five of the last six stages of the Rally of France in another Citroen.

Loeb has dominated rallying for a decade but will only drive selected WRC rounds next year, perhaps spearheading Citroen’s entry into the World Touring Car Championship.

Young Brabham finds his feet in Europe
Matthew Brabham, grandson of Australia’s triple F1 world champion Sir Jack and this year’s US F2000 champion, made his European debut at the weekend. Teenager Brabham finished sixth in a field of 32 in his first Formula Renault race at Silverstone.

He was disappointed to be 14th in his second race there but said: “I think it was because the red mist fell [over regular drivers in the series] for the last race of the championship and because it was being televised”.

Brabham will have another European outing soon, but this week heads to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for a Mazda Road to Indy test on the road course there with Andretti Autosport.

F1 constructors’ standings: 1. Red Bull-Renault 324 points; 2. McLaren-Mercedes 283; 3. Ferrari 263; 4. Lotus-Renault 239; 5. Mercedes 136; 6. Sauber-Ferrari 116; 7. Force India-Mercedes 81; 8. Williams-Renault 58; 9. Toro Rosso-Ferrari 15.

World Rally Championship driver standings after 11 of 13 rounds: 1. Sebastien Loeb (France, Citroen) 244 points; 2. Mikko Hirvonen (Finland, Citroen) 173; 3. Jari-Matti Latvala (Finland, Ford) 131; 4. Mads Ostberg (Norway, Ford) 125; 5. Petter Solberg (Norway, Ford) 119; 6. Evgeny Novikov (Russia, Ford) 69; 7. Thierry Neuville (Belgium, Citroen) 52; 8. Martin Prokop (Czech Republic, Ford) 42; 9. Ott Taenak (Estonia, Ford) 37; 10. Daniel Sordo (Spain, Mini) 31; 11. Sebastien Ogier (France, Skoda) 31; 12. Nasser Al-Attiyah (Qatar, Citroen) 28; 13. Chris Atkinson (Australia, Mini) 14; 14. Armindo Araujo (Portugal, Mini) 11; 15. Francois Delecour (France, Ford) 8.
      
WRC team standings: 1. Citroen Total World Rally Team 388 points; 2. Ford World Rally Team 259; 3. M-Sport Ford World Rally Team  137; 4. Citroen Junior World Rally Team 72; 5. Adapta World Rally Team 71; 6. Qatar World Rally Team 63; 7. Mini WRC Team 26; 8. Brazil World Rally Team 20.