MOTORSPORT: Whincup still has mountains to climb

New makes are stepping up the challenge
As anticpated, Jamie Whincup now has won more Australian touring car titles than any other driver - and he’s still only 31. In the next year or two he could overhaul Mark Skaife and then his teammate Craig Lowndes with the most race wins to further strengthen his entitlement to be judged the country’s finest touring car driver of all.

Not only did Whincup clinch his sixth title in seven years, and fourth in a row, at Phillip Island at the weekend, but Triple Eight Race Engineering clinched another teams championship - its fourth with Holden.

As brilliant as Whincup and Triple Eight have been again this season, the new makes loom as big challengers going forward.

Scott McLaughlin won two of the three races at the Island in his Volvo S60, breaking the dominance of Triple Eight, Holden Racing Team and Ford Performance Racing at the seaside circuit in recent years. The Nissans impressed again too with three of the Altimas in the top eight in one race, Michael Caruso in the top 10 in all three, with a best of fifth, and Todd Kelly notching his best finish of the year - a fifth. And Will Davison drove one of the AMG Mercedes to sixth on Sunday.

John Bowe has won another national title - in the Touring Car Masters, driving a Ford Mustang. However, Andrew Miedecke won the final two races in a Chevrolet Camaro and in one of them Greg Crick was third in a Valiant Charger, making it a great day for Tasmania. All three veterans hail from the island state, although only Crick remains based there.

Scott Pedder has finally won the Australian Rally Championship, taking the title at the final round in Victoria’s Gippsland in a Walkinshaw-prepared Renault Clio R3.

The World Rally Championship has concluded too, with Volkswagen’s win in Rally Great Britain its 12th in 13 rounds.

Toyota has won the World Endurance Championship in sports car racing, but both Porsche 919 Hybrids were on the podium at the Bahrain Six-Hour - with Mark Webber in the third-placed Porsche.

And Marcos Ambrose finished 27th today in his final NASCAR race at Homestead-Miami Speedway, where Chevrolet driver Kevin Harvick won and claimed the Sprint Cup for Stewart-Haas Racing.

Title No. 6 is special after midyear slump
Jamie Whincup’s 12th win of the season in Saturday’s second 100km race at Phillip Island was the one that clinched his sixth V8 Supercar Championship, taking him ahead of five-time winners Mark Skaife, Dick Johnson and Ian Geoghegan.

Whincup headed Ford Performance Racing’s Mark Winterbottom by 461 points on Saturday night, and after Sunday’s 200km race the difference was still 452 points - with a maximum 300 to be scored at the Sydney 500 on December 6-7.

Whincup now has 86 wins from 340 races, compared with Mark Skaife’s 90 victories from 482 races and Craig Lowndes’ 97 from 537.

“It’s nice to gather up the championship with a race win,” Whincup said.

“It’s a bit of a weird feeling to lock away the championship with a round to go. [But] There is still a lot of pride on the line for the final races and we don’t want to let ourselves down right to the very end.

“It’s a great result [to have turned around a big mid-season deficit to Winterbotton and win another championship] and full credit to the entire [Triple Eight] team. It’s a special championship win because this year has thrown up its own challenges, particularly with our mid-year slump.

“Had we won, lost or drawn, I’m proud of how we’ve been able to turn that around.

“Having won six championships is a weird feeling. I’m sure it will mean everything when I look back at it and it has a chance to sink in. My motivation and love for racing is higher than ever and I’m looking forward to enjoying the next few races,” Whincup stated.

Whincup finished third in Saturday’s other 100km race and fourth in Sunday’s 200km race after starting the latter from his 10th pole position of the year - one more than Volvo Polestar’s Scott McLaughlin.

Winterbottom was on the podium twice in his Ford Falcon as was Craig Lowndes in his Holden, and he has leapfrogged Tekno Autosports’ Shane Van Gisbergen back into third place, with that trio vying in Sydney to be runner-up to Whincup.

Holden Racing Team’s Garth Tander, fourth in the weekend’s first two races, was on course to win on Sunday, holding off McLaughlin until he ran out of fuel in sight of the finish line and having to settle for second place.

“I drove to a fuel number and did everything I needed to, but just came up short,” Tander said.

“The boys told me it was going to be pretty tight on the last lap and it was just 100 metres the wrong side of the line.”

McLaughlin was “pretty ecstatic” with his two wins for the weekend.

“It was an awesome fight with Lowndes in the first race and an awesome end to the final race,” said 21-year-old McLaughlin, who has jumped to fifth in the championship.

Polestar chief executive Christian Dahl said it had been the Volvo team’s “best weekend of 2014” and that its “performance curve is pointing straight up in the final run of races ahead of the 2015 season”.

V8 Supercar Championship team standings: 1. Triple Eight Race Engineering 5691 points; 2. Ford Performance Racing 4940; 3. Holden Racing Team 4379; 4. Brad Jones Racing 4039; 5. Nissan Motorsport II 3569; 6. Erebus Motorsport 3135; 7. Volvo Polestar 3104; 8. Nissan Motorsport I 3026; 9. Dick Johnson Racing 2878; 10. Tekno Autosports 2503.

Pedder overcame a huge crash at Rally South Australia in 2010 and a lesser one in the Power Stage at the start of Rally Victoria to achieve his dream.

He won Friday’s four-stage first heat after the Power Stage in his Renault Clio R3 by 14.5 seconds from rival Brendan Reeves in a Mazda2.

Pedder and co-driver Dale Moscatt only needed to finish fifth in Saturday’s second and final heat to be assured of the title but finished second by 28 seconds to Steven and Brent Mackenzie in Ford Fiesta ST. The Mackenzie brothers had only won their first ARC stage at the start of the day and extended that into their first heat win after almost having taken a podium in Friday’s heat.

Pedder said Walkinshaw Performance had “made a good car [his Renault] an incredible car”.

“The year has been pretty much perfect,” Pedder said.

Reeves had a puncture and cracked a rim early on Saturday, losing about four minutes and dropping to ninth in the field, but he recovered to fifth place, with two Citroens ahead of him.

Last year’s champion Eli Evans’ return from a layoff in a Honda Civic was troubled, with a driveshaft failure and destroyed tyres on Friday while the engine temperature continually spiked on Saturday.

Australian Rally Championship final driver standings: 1. Scott Pedder (Renault Clio R3) 483 points; 2. Brendan Reeves (Mazda2) 439; 3. Adrian Coppin (Citroen DS3 R3T) 361; Tony Sullens (Citroen DS3 R3T) 333.

VW’s almost perfect season; Hirvonnen exits with podium
Dual world rally champion Sebastien Ogier led Rally Great Britain in Wales all the way in his Volkswagen Polo R to finish 37.6 seconds of retiring Finn Mikko Hirvonen’s Ford Fiesta, with Norwegian Mads Ostberg third in a Citroen DS3.

Frenchman Ogier’s victory was his eighth of the year and gave VW a record 12 in the 13 rounds, with Hyundai having won the other in Germany in August.

VW’s No2 driver, Finn Jari-Matti Latvala, crashed on Saturday, while its No3 driver, Norwegian Andreas Mikkelsen, crashed early on the first leg and again on the last. However, Mikkelsen won five of Saturday’s nine stages and was second on the other four.

Hirvonen, who is quitting to spend more time with his family, finished 26 seconds ahead of Ostberg, whose Citroen teammate and British hope Kris Meeke missed out on the final podium position after tyre problems.

Nevertheless Ostberg’s third place gave Citroen second place in the teams championship ahead of M-Sport Ford and Hyundai.

World Rally Championship final driver standings: 1. Sebastien Ogier (France, Volkswagen Motorsport) 267 points; 2. Jari-Matti Latvala (Finland, Volkswagen Motorsport) 218; 3. Andreas Mikkelsen (Norway, Volkswagen Motorsport II) 150; 4. Mikko Hirvonen (Finland, M-Sport World Rally Team) 126; 5. Mads Ostberg (Norway, Citroen Abu Dhabi World Rally Team) 108; 6. Thierry Neuville (Belgium, Hyundai World Rally Team) 105; 7. Kris Meeke (Great Britain, Citroen Abu Dhabi World Rally Team) 92;  8. Elfyn Evans (GB, M-Sport World Rally Team) 81; 9. Martin Prokop (Czech Republic, Jipocar Czech National Team) 44; 10. Daniel Sordo (Spain, Hyundai World Rally Team) 40. New Zealander Hayden Paddon was 14th in a Hyundai on 19 points and Australia’s Chris Atkinson 18th with 7 points from two starts in a Hyundai.

Porsche crew’s tyre decision may have cost Webber
The Porsche 919 Hybrid that Mark Webber shares with German Timo Bernhard and New Zealander Brendon Hartley in the World Endurance Championship finished just seven seconds behind the other Porsche 919 in a sweltering Bahrain Six-Hour.

Webber’s car was leading when he took it over from Bernhard for the final two stints but on a pitstop the crew decided only to refuel and not change tyres.

While the race was won by a Toyota TS040, it was the first time in Porsche’s first year back in the major league of sports car racing that both its cars had filled podium positions in the same event.

Porsche now has five podiums for the season but will finish the WEC third, behind Toyota and Le Mans winner Audi, whose R18 e-quattros were fourth and fifth in Bahrain.

There is one round remaining at Interlagos in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Webber said the Bahrain race had been “a great day for Porsche with two cars on the podium”.

“The conditions were not easy [because of the heat] and therefore the result is another milestone. We learn a huge amount in every event.

“We [in the No 20 Porsche] were not quite able to do the same pace as the No 14 [Porsche].  or all three of us it was a tricky day - a bit like it started in qualifying,” the Aussie ex-F1 driver stated.

World Endurance Championship manufacturer standings after seven of eight rounds: 1. Toyota 259 points; 2. Audi 219; 3. Porsche 167.