MOTORSPORT: Whincup can rewrite record books

It will take something extraordinary at Sydney’s Homebush street circuit on the first weekend of December to incur a penalty big enough to cost him the championship. He won the first two of his titles in Ford Falcons. Now he’s done the same in Holden Commodores. All in the space of five years. And he was close to the title in 2007 and 2010.

He’s won 12 of the 28 races so far in this championship. Saturday’s victory was the 64th of his career.

Craig Lowndes’ win on Sunday was the 88th of his career, just two shy of Mark Skaife’s record.

Whincup has youth on his side – he’s still 2½ months short of his 30th birthday – to become the most successful, and perhaps the greatest, driver in Australian touring car/V8 Supercar history. He’s now won more titles than the late Peter Brock and Lowndes and as many as Bob Jane, Allan Moffat and Jim Richards. The championship was one race in Jane’s days and for much of Moffat’s career.

Only Ian Geoghegan (another from the days of the one-race championship), Dick Johnson and Skaife have won more titles – five each.

Since 2006 Whincup has averaged a win every three starts. This year his strike rate is almost 43 per cent. Indeed, he and Lowndes have won 17 of the past 18 races for Triple Eight Race Engineering/Team Vodafone.

Ford Performance Racing looked to be on pretty even terms early in the season, perhaps even had a slight edge, and while it remains Triple Eight’s main rival it is no longer in quite the same league. Between them these teams have won every championship race this year.

Clearly Whincup is the class of the field – no better exemplified than by Sunday’s fightback from 22nd after the drive-through penalty for spinning his wheels while his car was still on the jacks in pitlane during a stop – but it reflects poorly on other teams that two teams are so much better than the rest at the end of almost two decades of a two-make parity formula.

That will change next year with the entry of Nissan Altimas and the customer AMG Mercedes-Benz C63s, although it is another blow to the sport that a talent such as 23-year-old New Zealander Shane Van Gisbergen is walking away from the category rather than excited at the prospect of driving a Merc as Stone Brothers Racing and Erebus Motorsport merge.

Triple Eight has long been the benchmark team in the sport now and it displays excellence on so many fronts, but it is hard not to think that the key to its success is the brilliance of its technical director Ludo Lacroix.

Whincup has put title – and even Bathurst 1000 - celebrations on hold until after the Sydney finale. And we must wonder how much more he will have to celebrate in the years to come. The Car of the Future next year may level the playing field – or Triple Eight may just increase its dominance. 

It’s not hard to envisage Whincup equalling and then overtaking the trio with five titles. Matching the late Brock’s nine Bathurst touring car triumphs will be harder, but Whincup already has had four of those too. Occasionally he hints at seeking other challenges – perhaps NASCAR, like Marcos Ambrose. 

Ambrose has become a regular in NASCAR’s premier series, the Sprint Cup, and has won a couple of road races, but an oval victory still eludes him. As things stand, he has two V8 Supercar titles and no Bathurst wins. It seems he seriously entertained a big offer to come home to V8 Supercars next year, and – while it’s official now that he’s staying in NASCAR another season – his team owner Richard Petty’s comments at the weekend suggest that 2013 may be his last in America.

“He’s decided he wants to run at least another year over here,” Petty said. “One week he’s really good at it and the next week ... I don’t know. But I think he’s getting more stable with it.

“It [to win an oval race] is sort of a passion with him now. He knows he’s decent on road courses, but he would really, really love to win an oval.

“We don’t know if he’s ready to go home or what, but for sure he wants to stay another year to try to do something with these oval races.”

Ambrose finished 13th in today’s final Sprint Cup race at Homestead-Miami Speedway in Florida, and 18th for the season, as Brad Keselowski won the title in just his third season as a full-time Cup driver for departing manufacturer Dodge and team owner Roger Penske, whose mega-success has been mainly in open-wheeler racing.

Whincup is to compete at next month’s Race of Champions in Bangkok against a field that will include F1 superstars Sebastian Vettel and Michael Schumacher.

NASCAR or sports car racing overseas may have appeal to him, but perhaps the best thing he can do is remain in V8 Supercars and become the most successful and perhaps greatest driver in the history of Australian touring car racing.

V8 Supercar Championship driver standings after 28 of 30 races – 1. Jamie Whincup (Holden Commodore) 3639 points; 2. Mark Winterbottom (Ford Falcon) 3322; 3. Craig Lowndes (H) 3259; 4. Will Davison (F) 2851; 5. Shane Van Gisbergen (F) 2554; 6. Tim Slade (F) 2532; 7. Garth Tander (H) 2363; 8. Lee Holdsworth (F) 2120; 9. David Reynolds (F) 2037; 10. Fabian Coulthard (H) 1975.

The Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, has fabulous undulation and some particularly tight, tricky corners.

Lewis Hamilton, who had won the last US GP at Indianapolis five years ago, overtook Sebastian Vettel, who had been the pacesetter all weekend, to take victory. Fernando Alonso came from seventh on the grid to fourth in no time and ultimately third, sending the title battle down to the wire in Brazil next Monday morning, Australian time. There are 13 points between Red Bull’s Vettel and Ferrari’s Alonso, but the prospect of rain at Sao Paulo’s Interlagos circuit could be to Alonso’s advantage.

Australia’s Mark Webber lasted barely a quarter of the Texas race before an alternator failure in his Red Bull-Renault. He has dropped back to fifth in the world championship, with Jenson Button just four points behind him.

Younger Australian Daniel Ricciardo started from a lowly 18th in Austin but finished 12th and was as high as fifth as he ran a particularly long stint on his first set of tyres.

Mercedes-Benz has been hankering for F1 to return to America and, as the engine supplier to McLaren, will have been thrilled with Hamilton’s fourth victory of the year – and it has him joining its factory team next year when Michael Schumacher retires again.

Red Bull has clinched its third constructors’ championship in a row but team boss Christian Horner was annoyed with Indian driver Narain Karthikeyan, who he claimed held up Vettel and cost him the lead to Hamilton.

It was the first time Hamilton, Vettel and Alonso had been on a podium together and American legend Mario Andretti, who did the post-race podium interviews, made the point that all three – wearing Texan Stetson hats - were world champions. So too was Andretti, in 1978, and he was a great all-rounder, racing and winning also in Indy and sports cars, even NASCAR. He also is a wonderful interview subject, but an interviewer he’s not.

But nothing could detract from the appearance of success of America’s new GP, with another to come in New Jersey near New York in 2014, postponed from next year. There was no American in today’s race, and there is no sign of the next American F1 driver imminent, but Mexicans flocked across the border to see Sergio “Checo” Perez race for Sauber. Next year he will be in a McLaren when Hamilton moves to Mercedes.

As terrific as it all looked today, the question raised last week is still equally applicable: Will it last?

In 2000 Indianapolis had an estimated 200,000 fans for its first GP on its specially-created road course at The Brickyard, but it petered out by 2007 with a sour taste after the six-car fiasco of 2005. F1 was close to its best in Austin today, but it still has a long way to go to conquer America.

While the attendance at Austin was big, the TV audience in the US will have been dwarfed by that of the NASCAR finale.

Formula One World Championship driver standings after 19 of 20 rounds - 1. Sebastian Vettel (Germany, Red Bull-Renault) 273 points; 2. Fernando Alonso (Spain, Ferrari) 260; 3. Kimi Raikkonen (Finland, Lotus-Renault) 206; 4. Lewis Hamilton (Great Britain, McLaren-Mercedes) 190; 5. Mark Webber (Australia, Red Bull-Renault) 167; 6. Jenson Button (GB, McLaren-Mercedes) 163; 7. Felipe Massa (Brazil, Ferrari) 107; 8. Romain Grosjean (France, Lotus-Renault) 96; 9. Nico Rosberg (Germany, Mercedes) 93; 10. Sergio Perez (Mexico, Sauber-Ferrari) 66; 11. Kamui Kobayashi (Japan, Sauber-Ferrari) 58; 12. Nico Hulkenberg (Germany, Force India-Mercedes) 53; 13. Paul Di Resta (GB, Force India-Mercedes) 46; 14. Pastor Maldonado (Venezuela, Williams-Renault) 45; 15. Michael Schumacher (Germany, Mercedes) 43; 16. Bruno Senna (Brazil, Williams-Renault) 31; 17. Jean-Eric Vergne (France, Toro Rosso-Ferrari) 12; 18. Daniel Ricciardo (Australia, Toro Rosso-Ferrari) 10.

F1 constructor standings - 1. Red Bull-Renault 440 points: 2. Ferrari 367; 3. McLaren-Mercedes 353; 4. Lotus-Renault 302; 5. Mercedes 136; 6. Sauber-Ferrari 124; 7. Force India-Mercedes 99; 8. Williams-Renault 76; 9. Toro Rosso-Ferrari 22.

Johnson’s challenge to series leader Keselowski failed when he pulled out from his pit with a loose lug nut and was ordered to stop again. His Chevrolet was damaged and leaking oil and within 10 laps he had a drive-line problem that sent him to the garage for the day.

Keselowski finished 15th, a lap down, but had secured the title once Johnson was out. Bowyer ended up overtaking Johnson for second in the championship. 

Keselowski gave team owner Roger Penske his first NASCAR Cup title in 23 seasons of full-time competition. He also delivered Dodge – which is quitting the sport, unable to find a suitable team to partner next year – its fifth title and first since 1975, when Richard “TheKing” Petty won the six of his seven titles.

Gordon’s race victory was his second this year and the 87th of his career – the most among active NASCAR drivers, behind Petty (200 wins) and David Pearson (105).

Despite losing the championship battle with Keselowski, Johnson still has never finished lower than sixth in 11 full seasons of Cup racing.

NASCAR Sprint Cup final standings after 36 rounds – 1. Brad Keselowski (Dodge) 2400; 2. Clint Bowyer (Toyota) 2361; 3. Jimmie Johnson (Chevrolet) 2360; 4. Kasey Kahne (Chevrolet) 2345; 5. Greg Biffle (Ford) 2332; 6. Denny Hamlin (Toyota ) 2329; 7. Matt Kenseth (Ford) 2324; 8. Kevin Harvick (Chevrolet) 2321; 9. Tony Stewart (Chevrolet) 2311; 10. Jeff Gordon (Chevrolet) 2303; 11. Martin Truex Junior (Toyota) 2299; 12. Dale Earnhardt Junior (Chevrolet) 2245. Australia’s Marcos Ambrose (Ford) was 18th on 950 points.

Honda teammate Mark Pedder was second for the round and Tasmanian Stephen Turner third in the debut of his Ford Fiesta R2. Young Victorian Steve Mackenzie was second in a Fiesta in the final heat, while last year’s four-wheel-drive champion Justin Dowel was fourth in his newly-imported Volkswagen Polo G2.

Multiple national champion Simon Evans, older brother of Eli, broke a diff in his MazdaG2. Will Orders scored the ARC’s last four-wheel-drive round win in an Evolution V Mitsubishi Lancer ahead of new champion Michael Boaden in an Evo IX.

Australian Rally Championship final standings – 2WD: 1. Eli Evans (Honda Jazz) 519 points; 2. Mark Pedder (Honda Jazz) 331; 3. Matt Amos (Holden Commodore) 238. 4WD: 1. Michael Boaden (Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX) 499 points;  2. Mick Patton (Subaru WRX STi) 315; 3.  Tom Wilde (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X) 245.

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