This is the  start of the first ever Triple League Racing Award.  Awards will all be handed out in one post, by far the biggest of my blog’s brief history.  This will encompass all the racing series that I followed.  6 people/things will be nominated in each category.

Race of the Year:  What’s the race of the year?  The best race of the year, as in the most exciting.  One hard thing about this is I didn’t watch every race of every season.  So, for instance, I didn’t watch all 35 Nationwide races. 

Honda Indy Toronto, Izod Indycar:  The race at the Toronto race was the best road/street course race in the Indycar series.  Alex Tagliani took the lead away from Dario Franchitti and looked like he would be in contention for the win.  Later, Paul Tracy and Helio Castroneves wrecked.  Dario Franchitti won the race, but,  there was plenty of passing and interesting things going on throughout the event.

 Meijer Indy 300, Izod Indycar:  After many boring oval races, Indycar changed the aero rules, and added push to pass on the Dallara’s.  The race at Kentucky proved this was the right choice.  Lots of passing, and Ed Carpenter looked like he was going to get his first win.  Sadly, Ryan Briscoe beat him, but it was a close wheel to wheel finish that Indycar hadn’t been able to have all year.

Peak Anti-Freeze & Motor Oil Indy, Izod Indycar:  If Kentucky was good, Chicagoland was great.  Chicagoland was 2+ hours of exciting, wheel to wheel action.  In the final laps, both Graham Rahal and Mario Moreas both looked like they could win, and Justin Wilson finished 10th, a big improvement for Dayle Coyne Racing.  Slightly disapointly, Ryan Briscoe won again, and extended the Big Two’s Reign of Terror.  The race was so good, Robin Miller and some old time fans were upset by it!

12 Hours of Sebring, ALMS:  This was a pretty good event.  Car count was down, with only 3 LMP2 and 2 GT1 cars.  However, the battle between the Pugeot and Audi was epic.  LMP2 wasn’t good at all, in the end the two Mazda’s failed to finish, so Adrian Fernadez’s team won the race easily for LMP2.  Still, it was a good endurance race, although the Acura’s struggled to finish well.

24 Hours Of Daytona, Grand-Am:  Yes, I put a Grand-Sham race in the top 6 races of the year.  Daytona was a pretty good event.  The Brumos 58 and Chip Ganassi 01 were the top two cars, and ran nose to tail for the last laps.  The Ganassi car was up front, but when the Brumos car passed them, they were unable to get back into lead.  The race was marred by the fact that Ganassi’s team’s engine’s were more restricted then Brumos. 

Carfax 250, NASCAR Nationwide Series:  There were a couple good races in the Nationwide Series, but I’ll pick this one.  Brian Vickers and Kyle Busch were very angry about this one.  Brian Vickers blocked Kyle, which allowed Keselowski to take the lead and get the win.  Kyle and Vickers had a post race conflict, and the finish was exciting. 

And The Winner is… The Peak Anti-Freeze & Motor Oil Indy.  The race there was just the best, most exciting, and the winner was never assured.  The race at Chicagoland reminded many disillusioned IRL fans to take hope into the future.  Chicagoland was by far the best race all year, because there was never a dull moment.

Rookie of the Year:  The Rookie of the Year award, sadly, is hard to give out.  There weren’t many rookie drivers this year, and of those who were rookies, they struggled badly.

Joey Logano, NASCAR:  Joey Logano struggled very badly at the start of the season.  He looked like he was about to fall out of the top 35 in owners points.  However, a Nationwide win at Nashville in the spring reinvigorated his season, and he pushed his way into the top 20.  The highlight of his season was the “win” at Loudon, although it was pretty poorly done, he wrecked, and so refueled, and when the other drivers pitted, he was able to get the lead, and the rain came, giving Logano the win.  He won 5 total Nationwide wins.  Still, he wasn’t that great, and in the end fell back to 20th in points.

Raphael Matos, Izod Indycar:  Raphael Matos won the Izod Indycar Rookie of the Year Award, but it was not all that great of season.  His highest finish was 6th, and he finished 13th in points.  Not an awful year, but not spectacular.  I’d make the wild prediction that Matos won’t win the award. 

Brad Keselowski, NASCAR :  Brad only made 15 cup starts, but he had 1 win, and four top 10’s in relatively poor equipment.  His win at Talladega was exciting, and he backed it up with a good run at Darlingon.  Brad also won 4 wins in the Nationwide series, and without Joe Gibbs equipment.  For the next season, he will drive for Roger Penske in the 12 car.

Justin Allgaier, NASCAR :  Justin ran a full time Nationwide Series for Roger Penske in the 12 car.  He ran well, but nothing spectacular.  He didn’t win, or run up front that often.  Just like Matos, I’ll make the wild guess that he won’t win this award.

Kamui Kobayashi, F1:  Kamui stepped into the Toyota seat after Timo Glocks injury.  Kamui finished 9th in his debut, and got on the radar by upsetting World Champion Jenson Button by racing him “too hard”.  At the Abi Dahbi round, Kobayashi finished 6th, scoring three points, more than Kazuki Nakajima, Sebastion Bordais, Nelson Piquet Jr., Jamie Alguersuari and a few others in just 2 rounds.  However, Toyota pulled out of F1, and he currently lacks a ride.  Lotus is considered his likely destination.

Ben Spies, World Superbike, MotoGp(1 round):  14 wins in 28 rounds.  World Superbike champion.  Ben Spies had a great rookie year in World Superbike, winning the title for Yamaha.  What is there to say?  Ben Spies is moving up to Tech 3 in Moto Gp, and finished 6th in his first start for them this season. 

And the Winner is Bens Spies!   Ben Spies won the World Superbike title, and won 13 rounds!  Ben Spies wins hands down, because Logano only could be successful with the rain, or in a Gibbs Nationwide car, Kobayashi ran two races, Keselowski ran well, but wasn’t a championship contender, and Allgaier and Matos were winless.

Team of the Year: The top team of the year.   There is lots of competition in this award category.  

Hendrick Motorsports(including Stewart Haas and Phoniex with Keselowski, plus the part time 25), NASCAR:  Hendrick Motorsport finished 1-2-3 in the NASCAR Sprint Cup championship, with Stewart Haas finishing 6th and 9th and Phoniex Motorsports, with Brad Keselowski winning at Talladega.  The lone blemish on this team is that Dale Earnhart Junior finished 25th in points.  Otherwise, it was total Hendrick Domination, in the Cup, not in Nationwide, thought.  Junior Motorsports, the front name for Hendrick’s Nationwide team, was behind the Joe Gibbs and Roush Fenway teams. 

Joe Gibbs, NASCAR: Gibbs continued to dominate the Nationwide series.  Any driver in Gibbs equipment could almost be guaranteed a win. Joey Logano, a midpack Cup driver, was top 3 in Nationwide.  On the cup side, Gibbs was second best, but they were clearly second best.  They were clearly better than any cup team other than the Hendrick Group.  All three drivers won, although Logano’s win was very, very lucky.  Hamlin was a championship contender, if only he didn’t struggle so much, and Kyle Busch was inconsistent, and failed to make the Chase, but still won 4 races. 

Brawn GP, F1:  Brawn, the former Honda team, started development on the 2009 car during the 2008 season.  Ross Brawn bought the team, and was able to get the car on grid.  When they took the field, they had something special, called a double diffuser.  Because of this, Brawn dominated, winning more races than they’ve ever been near.  Button dominated early, but fell of greatly, while Barrichello came on strong towards the end.  Brawn had the strongest season ever,  and they were able to beat Ferrari and Mclaren.  But, they fell back by the end of the season.  Mercedes bought the team and renamed it Mercedes GP for the 2010 season.

Red Bull Renult, F1: Red Bull got there first win, with Sebastion Vettel.  They started without the double diffuser, but Adrian Newey was able to put one on there cars.  Red Bull cars were very strong, and became arguably the best cars overall.  Although the team failed to win either titles, they are well set up to enter next season. 

Target Chip Ganassi, Izod Indycar Series:  Target Chip Ganassi finished 1-2 in the points, with Dario Franchitti and Scott Dixon.  Target Chip Ganassi is half of the “Big Two”.  They dominated this season, with Penske, winning every race but one.  Target Chip Ganassi benefited from having both cars able to run for the title, and not deal with the issues that Penske had with Helio.  Franchitti won the title, and both drivers won 5 races each, and Franchitti was coming of his disastrous NASCAR foray. 

Team Penske, Izod Indycar Series:  Penske failed to win the title, but Helio Castroneves won the Indy 500.  Helio wasn’t a real championship contender, but considering how his year started, it was pretty good.  Ryan Briscoe turned from laughing stock last year to nearly winning the title this year.  Will Power ran a few races, and even won a race at Edmonton. 

And The Winner is… Hendrick  Motorsport!  In the end, it came down to a battle between Hendrick and Brawn.  But, Hendrick finished much stronger than Brawn.  Hendrick put 5 cars into the Chase, with only Junior missing it.  Hendrick dominated Cup level over any other team, and in the end, the biggest title contenders all came from Hendrick, with Jimmie, Martin, and Gordon 1-3rd, and Tony Stewart a major contender.  No other team was quite as dominating as Hendrick. But, is wasn’t much fun to watch, either, as NASCAR’s TV ratings show.

Dissapointment of the Year:  This award is about the most disappointing driver.  To be disappointing, there had to be reason to expect something from them, so Milka Duno and David Stremme don’t count.   This was an unfortently competitive category, and the competitiveness of it might account for the general apathy towards racing this year.  It was so competitive that many “deserving” teams and drivers couldn’t make the cut.  Childress, Roush, the entire Nationwide series, the Daytona 500, the Indy 500, the Indycar race at Texas, Renault, Toyota, and BMW didn’t make the cut. 

Dale Earnhart Junior, NASCAR: Dale Earhnahrt Junior drove for the most successful team in NASCAR, but he failed to win a race, or even be near the front.  He finished 25th in points, and was by far the worst performing driver in the Hendrick stable.  This was particularly disappointing because he was one of the better Hendrick drivers last season. 

Voldoforne McLaren Mercedes, F1: Mclaren went from the winners of the Driver Title to a team that only could win 2 races, and only with Hamilton.  Ron Denis was forced out after the the lieGate issue at Melborne.  They did win twice, though, but it was a big fall from title contenders.  However, the outlook for next season is very good.

Ferrari, F1:  Ferarri was the 08 constructors champions.  In 2009, they fell very far, with only 1 win, by Kimi Riokken.  Felipe Massa was injured, and Garno Fishichella and Luca Bolder replaced him, but failed to do anything in the car.   Kimi was dumped for the next season, replaced by Fernando Alonso.  The 2010 lineup is Felipe and Fernando, and it looks very strong.

Carl Edwards, NASCAR : Edwards was the pre season favorite for the Cup, and had won 9 races last year.  This season, he was winless.  Edwards also was unable to back up last years Nationwide title.  So, not a good year. 

Kyle Busch, NASCAR: Kyle Busch entered the 2009 as one of two favorites for the championship.  Unlike Edwards, Busch won 4 races, but, he failed to make the Chase.  He also was never able to get any consistency throughout the year.  In the end, his crew chief was fired, and a new one brought in. 

Andretti Autosport, Izod Indycar:  Andretti Autosport, formerly Andretti Green Racing, had a season without a single win.  Because of this, the Big Three turned into the Big Two.  Money was also a problem, as Marco Andretti struggled to find sponsorship.  Tony Kannan started off strong, leading the points going into Indy.  But, at Indy he crashed and was injured.  Then he got lit on fire at Milwaukee.  He never really got back on  track, and finished behind Danica, in 6th.  Danica had her most consistent season yet, and finished 5th in points.  It started really well, but after the half way point she started to fall off.  Sadly during the exciting races at Kentucky and Chicagoland she was no where in sight, and at Homestead she, and the whole team fell off the lead lap!  Marco showed little improvement, I guess he did get a little more consistent, but his career has really stalled.  Hedeki couldn’t even finish in the top 10 in points, and won’t be back with the team next season.  Andretti Autosport hasn’t been the same since Dario left, and there has to be concern over next year, because 3 poor years is going to make people wonder if AA will EVER get back to form.  After all, Dayle Coyne, Newman Hass, and KV are coming.  Micheal Andretti took total control over the team from Kim Green, hence the rename. 

The Winner (Loser?)  is… Andretti Autosport!  In the end, it came down to a shootout between AA and Junior for most disappointing.  Both were the only finalists to fail to win a single time.  In the end though, AA was worse based off the fact it was 4 different drivers, and a whole team that sucked!  Junior was really close, though, because every Hendrick driver either won a race or finished in the top ten, and he did neither.  I would compare it to the finish as Chicagoland this year in Indycar, inches decided it. 

Story of the Year:  The Story of the Year award goes to the top story of the year, not usually based off on track stuff.  For instance, the 4 peat doesn’t count,neither does Junior’s struggles, Ferrari/Mclaren’s struggles, ect.  Things like Jermey Mayfield, Danica to stock cars, ect do make the cut.

Danica To NASCAR?, NASCAR:  Danica Patrick’s contract with Andretti Autosport came up this year, and so like always, the Danica to NASCAR story came out.  There were more twists and turns than Road America, but in the end, unlike before, she actually will run some NASCAR races next year, for Junior Motorsports in the Nationwide series.  She will continue with Andretti Autosports through 2011 at the least.  So, this won’t be the last time Danica to NASCAR comes up.

Economy, All:  Everyone knows the economy sucked this year.  Racing was hurt very badly, with lower quality fields and lower car count across the board.  Track attendance was also down, as were TV ratings, although that my not have been completely the economy’s fault.  ALMS was hurt particularly badly, with Audi pulling out, Porsche pulling out, Penske leaving sportscars completely going into next year, and the ACURA mess.  De Ferran is likely dead, as is Adrian Hernandez’s team.  The economy led to a ton of mergers in NASCAR, and a lot of ride buyers in the Nationwide/Indycar series.  In F1, a lot of major teams, BMW, and Toyota, left, with Renualt pulling back. 

NASCAR Drug Testing/Jermey Mayfield, NASCAR:  NASCAR implemented a new random drug testing policy, but decided not to tell anyone what was actually banned.  Jermey Mayfield was the first major driver to be banned.  He was supposedly on Meth, although he disputes this claim.  The truth is hard to find in this, due to conflicting information, and the fact many “official” NASCAR writers are PR people, and may not report the whole truth on this.   But it sure looks like there are no good guys here, and it’s just a matter of who’s more wrong.  This story is not going to go away until at least next year.

Return of Michael Schumacher?,F1:  After Felipe Massa’s severe injury, Micheal Schumacker was rumored to be his replacement.  It was pretty likely, since he was even testing a 2007 Ferrari.  People either loved or hated this.  But, in the end, a neck injury from earlier this year prevented that from happening, and Luca Bolder got the ride, until he was so terrible he lost it to Fischella, who also was miles behind the departing Kimi.  However, as the year closes, the current rumor is Micheal to the new Mercedes team.  As of writing, it looks pretty likely. 

Poor Racing/Apathy to Racing, Most:  Overall, 2009 was not a good year on track.  In NASCAR, the only last lap passes were Restrictor Plate or Fuel Mileage.  Indycar had a few good races, but a ton of parades, such a Richmond, Texas, Indy, Infenion, Mid-Ohio, Homestead.  The championship was won based off a fuel mileage finish!  F1 had different winners, but once everyone moved to Double Diffusers, it was a Brawn/Red Bull parade instead of a Ferrari/Mclaren parade.  F1 and all three top NASCAR series championships were clinched before the finale(I know Johnson didn’t officially clinch until Homestead, but it was close enough), and of course having the Indycar championship decided by a fuel finish wasn’t what most people would want.  The Pettiet LeMans was rained out, as was the Daytona 500!  So, overall a down year for racing.  The combination of Spec/Ugly cars, low car counts, boring drivers, poor tracks, and just not caring about fans took it’s toll. 

Rise of New F1 Teams, F1:   Going into 2010 the FIA opened three new slots for F1 teams.  USGPE, Manor/Virgin, and Campos got those spots.  Then, when BMW pulled out, Lotus was given that slot, and latter Sauber got Toyota’s spot.  So, going into 2010 we’ve got 4 completely new teams, and there is concern about USGPE taking the field.  USGPE is a whole story of lies and broken promises.  The real question is which of these teams will be around in 5 years?

Often at Fontana, only one car would be in the TV screen at a time!

And the Winner is… Poor Racing!  Poor racing was a bigger story then the Economy because the poor racing made everything worse.  The drop in NASCAR’s TV ratings cannot be blamed on the economy,  and with the massive price drops at certain tracks, they shouldn’t have had some of those embarrassing attendance figures.  ALMS could blame more of their problems on the economy, but the end result was very poor racing, like at St. Pete.   Indycar and  F1 also produced poor on track products.  The boring racing sadly doesn’t look like it will be better going into next season…

Worst Driver:  This award is for the worst driver of the year.  This is a sadly competitive division, since the poor economy led to the Rise of the Ride Buyers. 

Milka Duno, Izod Indycar:  Milka Duno continued to be a mediocre chicane.  She was in the way every time she got into the car.  To her credit,(but not to the races) she did make the Indy 500, though.  Still, compared to any of her teammates (Thomas Sheckter, John Andretti,even Mike Conway) she just was twenty steps BELOW them!  She may be back next year, although she is also testing an ARCA car, probably in preparation for her NASCAR Start and Park career.

Jon Wes Townsley, NASCAR:  Possibly the worst driver in NASCAR.  He is the definition of Ride Buyer, a no talent kid with rich parents/friends.  He was awful, wrecking a ton of cars.  Other drivers had to come and save him with during practice!  He was a disaster, and at the road courses when other drivers got into his car, they ran okay.  In one of the most depressing moves of the off season, he will be running the full time Nationwide series with RCR. 

David Stremme, NASCAR :  Ryan Newman won the Daytona 500 last year in the 12 car.  This year, Stremme couldn’t even find the top 10 once!  He was so awful that he was let go before the end of the year.  Stremme was even worse than Sam Hornish Junior!  You could almost count on Stremme wrecking every other race.  At least he broke up the monotony of 5 hour parades!

Luca Bolder, F1:  Ferrari’s test driver for a long time got to run races this year because of Massa’s injury.  Sadly for him, he was the worst driver by far both races, and was removed in favor of Fischella.  This was made worse by the  fact Kimi was a ways ahead of him.  He then lost his test/reserve role to Fischella permanently, so not a good year for him. 

Stanton Barrett, Izod Indycar:  Stanton Barrett, the stuntman/racer decided to switch to Indycar from NASCAR.   He always was a somewhat interesting driver in NASCAR, a real underdog story.  Sadly when he went to Indycar, he was just a speedbump!  He was incredibly slow, admittedly in the worst team in the league.  But, still, others could get more speed then him.  He failed to qualify for Indy, the only full time team to fail that badly!  Supposedly he was injured at Milwuakee in practice, and didn’t return to the car until Montegi. 

Nelson Piquet Jr., F1:  Nelson Piquet makes this for his sub par performance, scoring 0 points.  But, he really gets this nomination for his classy, classy handling of CrashGate.  He went with the team orders, but when he was released, decided to go to the FIA to get back at Renault.  Classy stuff.  Loved how some people tried to make him into a hero, because I’d agree, if he hadn’t actually wrecked on purpose, and then cried about it when things didn’t go his way.

And the Winner is… Nelson Piquet Jr.  Nelson wins because he was much, much worse than Alonso, and because of his complete stupidity.  It would have been one thing if he had refused to wreck, and then came public, but to do it, and then only come out about it because Renault dumped you, is ridiculous, and I wish he had been banned too.

Driver of the Year:  The big one, the award for driver of the year, and for me, the biggest award on this awards show.  All the nominees are champions, and the prestige of this list is such that Mark Martin, Ron Hornaday, Scott Dixon, Gil De Farren, Helio Castroneves, Lewis Hamilton, and Sebastion Vettel didn’t make the cut. 

Ben Spies, World Superbike:  Ben Spies had the highest winning percent of any of the drivers on this list.  World Superbike is a pretty competitive series, although admittedly, it’s not one I watch a ton.  But still, Ben’s accomplishments deserve note.  He dominated in his rookie year at the world level, on tracks he’s not run on before.  World Superbike has a large number of manufacturers, and a high level of competition.  For the next season, he will move up to Tech 3 in MotoGP.  

Valentino Rossi, Moto GP: Rossi won his sixth Moto GP title, his second in a row.  Valentino won the title and the most races.  Valentino is a huge star in MotoGp, and has tested Ferrari F1 cars in the past.  His season is impressive, and the fact he won his sixth MotoGP title shows he hasn’t slowed down.  He faced tough competition from his teammate Jorge Lorenzo, but managed to triumph over him still, clinching before the end of the season.  The only issue going into next year is that suposedly there is tension on his team because he wants to be the undestputed #1 driver.

Jenson Button, F1: Jenson had a career year.  He won the most races of the year, 6, and easily won his title, clinching the title at Interlagos, despite struggling heavily by the end of the season.  After winning six of the first seven races, Button only finished on the podium two more times, and he really limped it to the finish.  He will move to Mclaren next year to be Lewis’s servant   teammate. 

Dario Franchitti, Izod Indycar: Dario was a disaster in NASCAR, and many wondered how his return to Indycar would go.  It went great, 5 wins, and winning the title.  He won early at Long Beach, and was in the top end of the points for the whole year.  Dario was not the favorite throughout the year, but at Homestead he won the fuel mileage finish and thus the title.  He will continue with TCGR next year.

Kyle Busch, NASCAR: Kyle Busch dominated the Nationwide series, winning the title, and pretty much clinching at Phoniex.  He won in the Truck and Cup series too.  But, his Cup season also saw him miss the Chase.  He has a new cup crew chief, and will drive for a new Truck team that he owns, and may or may not run the full Nationwide series, at this point that is unkown.  If he does everything agian, his chance of a cup title drop significantly. 

Jimmie Johnson, NASCAR:   Jimmie won his fourth consecutive championship.  He also won the most races, 6.  He won the Brickyard for the second year in a row.  Jimmie dominated the Chase, and affectively clinched at Phoniex.  He won well, but not an a particularly memorable or exciting way.   The group stays together for next year, and many are giving him his fifth title already.

And the Winner is… Valentino Rossi!  This was a close category.  Kyle Busch and Jenson Button were eliminated first.  Kyle because he did his best stuff in the minor leagues, while the major league wasn’t that great, four wins, but he missed the Chase.  Button won six races, but after Istanbul, only had two more podiums throughout the year!  Neither were driver of the year material.  Then, sadly, I had to eliminate Franchitti.  He won against tough competition, and in the most diverse group of tracks, but, Helio missed the first race, Tony was injured, Paul didn’t have a full time ride, and Wheldon just sucked.  Plus, I don’t hold the fuel win against him, but to have the title decided by a fuel finish just leaves a bad impression.  With three left, Spies is the next to drop.  Only because World Superbike is below Moto GP in the racing community, and because I have to make a decision.  The final match is between Valentino and Johnson.  Both race in the top series in their discipline of racing, and both have a lot of wins and titles.  It was really about a dead heat, but I gave it to Valentino because he had a higher winning percentage and did it over a full season, instead of the Chase.  But, really, it could have gone either way.

  That wraps up the first annual Triple League Racing Award Show.  If you agree or disagree with my picks, comment below.  Thanks for reading the longest article in this blogs history! 

At a time of year when Jenson Button is sweeping all before him, Dario Franchitti’s achievement in winning a second US IndyCar championship has been recognised by the British Racing Drivers’ Club.

Franchitti, like Button, was a recipient of the organisation’s Gold Star Award, based on results gained in international races. BTCC driver and 2009 championship runner-up Jason Plato was the winner of a Silver Star, the equivalent for national racing.

Franchitti also collected the Earl Howe trophy for the most meritorious performance in North American racing, while Button snagged a further three awards – the Era Club Trophy for international performance in a British car, the Graham Hill Trophy for the most meritorious performance in single-seater racing and the Richard Seaman trophy for coming top in the annual Gold Star points table.

Ross Brawn’s remarkable season also gained recognition. He was handed the Colin Chapman Trophy for outstanding team spirit.

And Lewis Hamilton was not forgotten. While unable to match his 2008 trophy haul, he was awarded the John Cobb trophy for successes of outstanding character during 2009 – a recognition that he will doubtless find very rewarding.

Red Bull F1 pilot Mark Webber picked up the Bruce McLaren trophy, awarded for the most meritorious performance by a Commonwealth driver in international motor racing, as well as the Innes Ireland trophy for courage and sportsmanship, while his colleague and British GP winner Sebastian Vettel was honoured with the Johnny Wakefield trophy for putting down the fastest lap of Silverstone during 2009.

Meanwhile Red Bull designer Adrian Newey was handed the Sir Jackie Stewart Award for a motorsport engineer who has shown brilliance during the course of the season.

David Brabham won the Fairfield Trophy for outstanding performance by a BRDC member after sweeping all before him in sportscar racing this year while Jan Charouz, Tomas Enge and Stefan Mucke were honoured for achieving the highest combined finishing record in combined results of the Silverstone LMS race and the Le Mans 24-Hour Race, which they achieved while driving for Aston Martin.

Audi driver Allan McNish won the Aco Award as the highest-placed British driver to finish the 24 Hours of Le Mans for coming third overall, while Jonny Kane won the Woolf Barnato Trophy as the highest-placed finishing British driver in a British car for his performance with Speedy Racing Team Sebah in the LMP2 category.

Dean Smith added the Chris Bristow Trophy to his burgeoning collection as a result of winning the BRDC McLaren Autosport Young Driver of the Year Award and Max Chilton took the Spencer-Charrington trophy for the highest-placed British driver in the British F3 Championship.

British F3 International champion Daniel Ricciardo took the John Cooper trophy, in recognition of his potential to become a future World Champion, as well as becoming the first recipient of the Henry Surtees award for the most outstanding performance by one of the BRDC’s young Rising Stars.

The Nigel Moores trophy went to Team RAC (West Surrey Racing), the private entrant who established the most meritorious performance in international motor racing.

The awards were held yesterday at the InterContinental Hotel on London’s Park Lane and attended by Prime Minister Gordon Brown who presented Button with the Richard Seaman Trophy.

The ceremony came shortly after an announcement that the club’s circuit, Silverstone, had signed a deal to host the British Grand Prix for the next 17 years.

The first-ever winner of the McLaren Autosport BRDC young driver award has been reflecting on its 20 years of promoting British talent.

David Coulthard, who took the award in 1989 when he had just graduated from karting to Formula Ford, says that he remains proud to this day to be a member of what he calls “an extremely select club”.

He went on to race in Formula Three (after taking a year out thanks to a broken leg) before being talent-spotted by Williams and making the move into Formula One.

Other winners to drive at the highest level include Coulthard’s fellow Scot and double IndyCar champion Dario Franchitti, and F1 world champion Jenson Button. Formula One drivers Anthony Davidson and Ralph Firman, as well as McLaren tester Gary Paffett and up-and-coming stars of the future Paul di Resta and Oliver Turvey were all winners.

But there is one glaring omission from the list – Lewis Hamilton was never even nominated.

Coulthard said: “You only have to look at the winners since [his 1989 victory] to see that it has proven very successful in spotting talent. The award boasts champions in Formula 1, IRL, and both sports and touring cars.

“Even now, it’s an award that carries with it a huge amount of importance, honour and prestige – and which is still prized above all others by every young driver competing in the junior ranks of British motorsport.

“I’m tremendously proud to be a member of a very select club that reads like a Who’s Who of British motor racing talent.

“And I’m proud that, although I personally represent the award’s roots, it’s not something that causes us to look back at the past: the McLaren Autosport BRDC Award has always represented motorsport’s future – and that’s why it remains so vital.”

Sunday’s Autosport Awards ceremony, held annually at London’s Grosvenor House Hotel, will celebrate the great and the good of the motorsport year. But for the six BRDC nominees it will be one of the most important nights of their careers so far.

The winner, who will have gone through a lengthy testing and evaluation process including driving a selection of cars in front of the award’s judging panel, will be in line for a prize that includes race funding and a test with McLaren. Both Stefan Wilson and Oliver Turvey, winners in 2006 and 2007, have just completed their tests.

Entered in the 2009 competition are Racing Steps Foundation driver James Calado, Star Mazda champion Adam Christodoulou who is nominated for the second time, James Cole, Callum McLeod, Chrissy Palmer and Dean Smith.

The “will she-won’t she” over Danica Patrick continues. Even as Andretti Autosport announced a three-year contract with the 27-year-old Indycar Series driver, Patrick refused to squelch persistent rumors she will land in Nascar.

We think the Danica debate is good for both series.  The publicity has helped Nascar and Indy in the off-season, and Danica deserves a shot in Nascar as much as any oval specialist.  It hasn’t hurt the IRL to bask in some of the attention thrown Nascar’s way this time of year.  The IRL loves her madly even as she’s walking out the door (queue up gratuitous Doors’ music…).

Let’s recap and explain why Danica matters more than for her looks or gender.  First, she was mentored by Indy 500 winner Bobby Rahal, who has a good eye for talent.   Danica is in the IRL because she can drive a race car wheel to wheel at 200 mph, and those who say she does not deserve to be there have not followed Ed Carpenter’s career very closely.  There are some drivers in the IRL who deserve their jobs about as much as the guy driving the tour bus.

Danica now has results to go along with the early hype. Sure, she’s only won a single race (at the Motegi oval in Japan), but she also finished third at Indy this year.  On track, Danica is exciting and tenacious. She’s feisty but finally has begun to temper her aggression to avoid poor decisions on the track.  There were times last year when the Andretti team simply did not have a fast enough car.  For her part, Danica was inconsistent part of the time and occassionaly unlucky.  The results were poor for the entire team, allowing Penske/Ganassi to clean up all season.

Danica has nothing to lose from a Nascar switch but it won’t be easy.  Ask Dario Franchitti, Paul Tracy or Sam Hornish.  Success at the Brickyard in an Indy car does not translate to a stock car, as Dario, Hornish and Tracy have learned.  Dario and Tracy are back open wheel racing, and Franchitti nearly won the title this year.  Only Hornish is still in Nascar, running midfield or worse on most weekends.  Hornish is an Indy 500 winner who has finished 30th or worse in half of all his Nascar races.

Danica is a phenomenon that keeps getting stronger.  The haters will say she gets by on looks, and isn’t a “real” racer.  We think her television ads are tasteless and borderline sexist, but that’s got nothing to do with racing.  You don’t pass the Indy rookie test on looks.  Danica matters first as a driver (third and fourth at Indy, and fourth in the championship, are nothing to sneeze at).  We know she brings a different kind of excitement to the paddock, but it beats watching Helio dance.

Given the choice, we’d like to see Danica with a full-time Nascar ride and a chance to drive the Indy 500 each May.  It’s been done before (John Andretti, Robby Gordon and Tony Stewart have raced Nascar and the 500 in the same day), and it could be done again.  It’s a win for both series, and for Danica.

The talk this weekend at Texas Motor Speedway was all about IRL-star Danica Patrick, who is arguably the most successful woman in auto racing. She is by far the most business-savvy/successful women, and most likely will be known as the best behind the wheel.

Should Danica Patrick make the switch from the IRL to the NASCAR series?

Rumors have it that she is running part-time in the Nationwide series next year while running a full-time schedule in the Indy Racing League (IRL). JR Motorsports has been reportedly talking with her, as Dale Earnhardt Jr. looks to be her owner. The thing is, will she be successful?  She will be a GREAT marketing tool. That’s the understatement of the day. The amount of money she brings in the IRL for her GoDaddy.com commercials, etc. is outstanding. With a women in the NASCAR garage, the amount of revenue is something a team owner in the struggling economy will be looking for.

She made her debut in the IRL in 2005, and that same year in the Indianapolis 500, she led 19 laps late in the race, and ultimately finished fourth, the best finish by a woman. Although she hasn’t had the success that the media expected of her, she finally nabbed her first win in 2008 at Motegi, Japan.

Will she be successful?  Let’s compare her with Juan Pablo Montoya, the most successful switch-over driver thus far. She has one win in 81 starts, a constant contender in the top-10 in the IRL points, and three poles. Montoya won the Indy 500 in his first start in 2000, has seven Formula 1 wins, a CART championship, and in his third year in the NASCAR Sprint Cup series, he has one win (the road course in Sonoma) and made the Chase for the first time this year. If Danica decides to go for it, she may take a couple of years to be a legit contender, like Montoya. Let’s just hope she fares better than fellow drivers Sam Hornish Jr, Dario Franchitti, A.J. Allmendinger, and Scott Speed, who have also made the switch, with little success.

Nevertheless, I, for one, would enjoy seeing her face in the NASCAR garage on race day, successful or not.

So. IndyCar, NASCAR, Drag–what’s the difference? With so many types of cars, courses and events, the big bad-ass world of auto racing can be totally overwhelming. But just like every well-rounded girl should know a bit about football, baseball and soccer, the same is true for auto racing. (Believe it or not, it’s one of the most popular sports in the world.) And it doesn’t hurt that hotties like Danica Patrick and Dario Franchitti are killing it in the sport.

So here’s a quick primer on the three types of car racing to get us going:

First, weve got stock car racing, which is probably what you think of when you think race cars. Stock cars just regular cars that have been souped up a bit–sometimes the whole guts of the car are ripped out and replaced with bigger, better and faster parts. People race these modified cars on oval tracks with steeply banked turns (think Herbie, Fully Loaded).  NASCAR (The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing) is the biggest stock car racing organization, but there are tons of smaller stock car associations that organize races on the local front.

With open-wheel racing, drivers race custom-built cars with –you guessed it–exposed wheels and an open cockpit. Some races are held on blocked-off public streets, some are held on oval race tracks. For more info on open-wheeled racing, check out the Indy Racing League.

You know the scene in Grease where Danny and Leo street race each other in the concrete LA River bottom? Well, that’s drag racing–two cars, two drivers, one quarter-mile long strip of pavement. People race their own cars–either tricked out versions of everyday rides, or cars the driver custom built themselves. And they drive fast–their cars with 7,000-horsepower engines reach can speeds of 330 miles per hour. The National Hot Rod Association and the International Hot Rod Association are the two major drag racing groups.

There are about 1,800 racing venues throughout the US. Check out your local track, get to know the hot shot drivers and be sure to pay attention to the amazingly fast pit crews when you’re there-they often change tires in 6 seconds or less.

]]> http://blogbeckett.wordpress.com/2009/10/14/hot-wheels-brings-indycar-back-to-toy-aisles/ Wed, 14 Oct 2009 16:41:19 +0000 chrisolds http://blogbeckett.wordpress.com/2009/10/14/hot-wheels-brings-indycar-back-to-toy-aisles/ http://paulcd.wordpress.com/2009/10/14/indycar-209-recap/ Wed, 14 Oct 2009 14:11:19 +0000 paul http://paulcd.wordpress.com/2009/10/14/indycar-209-recap/ http://paulcd.wordpress.com/2009/10/13/indycar/ Tue, 13 Oct 2009 22:26:33 +0000 paul http://paulcd.wordpress.com/2009/10/13/indycar/ http://pucf5.wordpress.com/2009/10/12/dario-franchitti-e-o-campeao-da-indy-2009/ Mon, 12 Oct 2009 21:32:54 +0000 jolpuc http://pucf5.wordpress.com/2009/10/12/dario-franchitti-e-o-campeao-da-indy-2009/

O escocês voador, Dario Franchitti, venceu no sábado o GP de Homestead – Miami, e se sagrou campeão da temporada 2009 da fórmula Indy. Numa das decisões mais equilibradas dos últimos tempos Dario fez uma corrida extremamente tática e conquistou seu bicampeonato na categoria, superando Scott Dixon e Ryan Briscoe.

Uma vitória tática!

Franchitti largou na pole, mas levou a corrida num ritmo moderado dando chances para Briscoe e Dixon superá-lo poucas voltas após o início. Ambos passaram a imprimir um ritmo fortíssimo e travaram um duelo particular e bem equilibrado durante toda a prova enquanto Dario se mantinha no terceiro lugar, sem se distanciar nem ameaçá-los.

A prova transcorreu sem nenhum acidente e com os líderes pisando fundo – tanto que chegaram a colocar 1 volta em cima do 4º colocado.

A dez voltas do final Dixon e Briscoe precisaram de um “splash & GO” (pit-stop rápido apenas para o reabastecimento). Franchitti aproveitou então que seu ritmo moderado lhe proporcionou a economia de combustível e herdou a liderança, cruzando a linha de chegada em primeiro. Com isso, somou 616 pts e comemorou seu segundo título mundial. Dixon chegou em terceiro e assegurou o vice-campeonato, apenas 1 ponto à frente de Briscoe, o segundo colocado na prova.

Dario comemora a vitória em Miami com Dixon e Briscoe.

Entre os brasileiros: Tony Kanaan chegou em 4º, Castro Neves em 5º, Mario Moraes foi o 7º e Raphael Matos apenas o 14º.

No campeonato Matos foi o 13º, mas assegurou o prêmio de Estreante do Ano. Helinho ficou em 4º, Kanaan em 6º e Moraes em 14º.

________________________________________________________________

Acompanhe aqui, na próxima segunda, tudo sobre o Grande Prêmio Brasil de F1,  penúltima etapa da temporada 2009 da categoria!

Boa semana a todos.

Scott Dixon and Ryan Briscoe did their best to liven up a deathly dull IndyCar season finale with a tooth-and-nail battle for the lead – but it was Dario Franchitti, jogging along behind them for most of the 200 laps, who came through to win both the race and the championship.

The Edinburgh driver discovered early in the Firestone Indy 300 that he could not match his two rivals for speed, so he settled back into fuel-saving mode while the other two championship contenders burned ethanol swapping the lead between each other.

It was a cautious, danger-free approach – but it paid off when first Dixon and then Briscoe peeled into the pits for a top-up with a handful of laps left, leaving Franchitti to inherit the lead and cruise home carefully for his second title in three years.

His strategy would have been wrecked by a yellow flag caution period, as his faster rivals could have also saved some fuel behind a safety car and avoided taking their final stops – but for the first time in IndyCar history a race went from start to finish without a single disruption.

The narrow margin of his victory was underlined when he ran out of fuel doing celebratory post-race donuts and the #10 Target Chip Ganassi Racing car had to be pushed to Victory Lane for the celebrations.

Franchitti, who won his previous title when Dixon ran out of fuel as they duelled in the final lap of the season, said: “Scott and I raced each other the whole season and it just came down to this. I’m bloody delighted right now.

“Like 2007, I just had to try to save some fuel and stay on strategy. The car was a bit imbalanced on the first stint and that allowed Scott and Ryan to get away a little bit.

“Pretty early on I decided my only option was going to be – I couldn’t stay with them, so I was going to have to start thinking about saving fuel. Luckily, Chip [Ganassi] and the boys in the stand were having the same thought. The first stint we pitted, and we made an adjustment. It was a small adjustment.

“From then on the car was great, and the track came to us a little cooler, but we were already four seconds back. So from pretty much from that point on we were save fuel, save fuel, yeah, that’s a good lap speed.”

Both Dixon, who set the fastest lap of the race, and Briscoe, who earned the bonus points for leading the most laps, were bitterly disappointed that their struggle throughout the race had proved irrelevant.

Briscoe said: “It’s pretty frustrating. It was one of the best races I’ve ever run. I just hate that it came down to fuel strategy. I thought it was going to be between me and Scott, definitely. I guess the 10 car had the advantage.

“I really thought Scott had the stronger car today. I knew that to get the championship, if I won, expecting him to come second, I needed to lead the most laps as well. We were racing really hard throughout the whole race trying to lead the most laps and so on.

“I can’t believe there wasn’t a yellow. I wish there was. But no, it was a great race, and it’s just unfortunate for us that Dario and the 10 car had maybe a smarter strategy today and saved a bit of fuel and got home on three stints.”

Dixon added: “At the start of the race I didn’t think it would be wise to go out and burn a lot of fuel – and that ended being the fact. You always think there’s always going to be a yellow.

“On a full tank you can really only do about 48 laps or 47 laps when you’re full, and that was what threw us into the battle, fighting over those extra points back and forth all day, and that might have been what killed us in the end.

“At the end of the year, you’d think the fastest car is going to win, but several times, it hasn’t. I think Briscoe and I had a pretty good race going on, but we got what we got.

“We just ran the wrong strategy, and it’s frustrating. I think about midway through the race the team came on to me and told me that Dario had gone for the ultimate strategy to try and save fuel. You’ve got to give them credit – they put it out there, they tried it.

“It sucks to finish second and third in the race today, second in the championship. But that’s the way it goes sometimes, and you’ve got to take it on the chin.”

The dominance of the three title contenders was such that they all lapped the rest of the field, up to and including fourth-placed Tony Kanaan. He said: “It looks like those three guys were in another league – I think it was an A-league and a B-league. But we tried, we did what we could. The car was OK, it was just not fast enough, so I guess we’ll take the fourth place.”

Fifth in the race, and fourth in the overall standings, was Helio Castroneves. The popular Brazilian has had a season of dramatic ups and downs, opening it in a courtroom facing a career-ended tax evasion charge but winning both the case and the Indianapolis 500.

He said: “It was two races – there was those three guys and then the rest of the field, it’s a shame. But fifth is definitely good for us. Fourth in the championship. And I have nothing complain about this year, it was a fantastic year. It was a bit difficult, but I have to thank the fans that supported me all the way through.”

Danica Patrick successfully defended fifth in the championship, despite a pitlane tangle with Dan Wheldon that knocked him out of the race and left her 15 laps down on the leaders. Her main challenger for the place, team-mate Marco Andretti, retired with a brake fire and was overtaken by both Kanaan and Graham Rahal in the standings.

Patrick said: “It looked like the first six cars were really going out there, and it was good to be in that mix. The car was getting better every stop. But we came in for what would have been our final stop, and Dan Wheldon was coming out of his pit box.

“He went, then he stopped, then he went and he hit me. His team sent him, and they shouldn’t have. It’s pretty unfortunate because it took me out and it took him out.

“As far as the season goes, I’m happy. We’ve got some work to do over the winter. We know what we need to do, and we’ll be ready for next year.”

The pitlane incident cost Wheldon ninth in the final standings as it allowed Justin Wilson to draw level with him on points, winning the tiebreak because of his race victory at Watkins Glen.

Wheldon, who is far from certain to return to Panther Racing next year, said: “It was one of those things, and unfortunate for everybody on the National Guard Panther Racing team, but in a lot of ways it sums up the luck we’ve had this season.

“The National Guard car was very well balanced at the start and we moved to the front very quickly. We were being pretty aggressive in terms of trying to get to the front as quick as possible. Once it settled down I got into fifth, but I had just a little bit too much understeer to stay there and dropped back a little bit and was fighting with Hideki Mutoh for seventh [when the pitlane accident happened].”

Wilson suffered from understeer until his final pitstop, after which he was able to make some overtakes and finish 10th. He said: “I’m really pleased with today’s result and it’s a good way to finish the season.

“It was tough at the start and we struggled with understeer for the first three stints. But the Z-Line Designs team gave me great stops and each time I came in we made adjustments and it got better and better. Once we got on top of the understeer the car was fast and the last 50 laps were fun.

“All in all it’s been a good year. We can take a lot of satisfaction from knowing that every race we’ve made progress and moved forward. Everything we’ve learned this year will put us in a strong position for next season and if we can continue this rate of progress then I’m confident that we can challenge for wins more often than not.”

Alex Lloyd, driving in his first IndyCar race outside of the Indianapolis 500, dropped through the field at the start from his high qualification place but battled back to take eighth. He said: “We lost a quite a few places on the start, and I think that was just me being overly cautious. I’ve never raced an Indy car on a 1.5-mile oval, and I wasn’t quite sure what to expect in turn one. Everybody just nailed it, and I lifted too much and we got swarmed by people.

“In the second half of that stint we had a good car and came through quite a few cars, so I thought, ‘OK, this is looking quite good’. I felt like we could race with some of the quick guys. And then as the race went on, every stint we started to get more and more understeer that we couldn’t get rid of, and that really cost us.

“All in all, it was a good day. There are a lot of things that I am learning as I go along, which is an extremely good thing. We had a good car all weekend. We certainly could have been a little bit better in the race, but I think we came away with some really good things, a lot of positives. There were a lot more positives than negatives, so I’m definitely happy.”

Mike Conway, who has not always shown the best form on ovals this season, drove a steady race to improve from his qualification position of 20th to finish 15th. He said: “At the beginning of the race we didn’t quite have the pace to keep up with everyone because we were struggling a lot with under-steer. Slowly but surely we kind of got the car a little bit better each time. At the end the car was quite good.

“I just want to say thank you and good job to all of the guys they have worked so hard all season long. I also want to thank Dreyer & Reinbold Racing for the season and I look forward to coming back next year. With the last race of the season I wanted to finish the best that I could and I think we did that by bringing the car home safely.”

Nach einem dürftigen Jahr in der NASCAR-Szene, hat Dario Franchitti sein Comeback bei den IndyCar Series mit einem Sieg in Homestead für Chip Ganassi Racing und seinem zweiten Meistertitel nach 2007 gekrönt. Rafael Matos wurde ‘Rookie Of The Year’.

Davor fand am Homestead Raceway das Finale der Grand-Am-Series statt. Alex Gurney und Jon Fogarty gewannen den Titel bei den Daytona Prototypen für GAINSCO/Bob Stallings Racing, Dirk Werner und Leh Keen holten den Titel in der GT-Klasse für Farnbacher Loles Racing.

Die Resultate vom Samstagabend:

IndyCar: Miami Homestead Raceway: 1. Dario Franchitti 2. Ryan Briscoe 3. Scott Dixon 4. Tony Kanaan 5. Helio Castroneves

Grand-Am Daytona Prototypen: Miami Homestead Raceway: 1.Haywood/Barbosa, 2.Pruett/Rojas, 3.Patterson/Negri Jr, 4. Fogart/Gurney, 5. Donohue / Law

Grand-Am GT-Klasse: Miami Homestead Raceway: 1. Edwards/Collins/Reese, 2.Liddell/Davis, 3. Keen/Werner, 4. Potter/Pumpelly, 5. Ham/Tremblay

Alle Rennberichte in der nächsten Ausgabe von P1Mag

After a dry spell in NASCAR, Dario Franchitti came back to the IndyCar Series in style, winning the finale at Homestead today for Chip Ganassi Racing and securing the title for the second time in his career. Rafael Matos took the ‘Rookie Of The Year’ honours.

Earlier on at Homestead Raceway the Grand-Am series had it’s title deciding race, too. Alex Gurney and Jon Fogarty won the Daytona Prototype championship title for GAINSCO/Bob Stallings Racing; Farnbacher Loles Racing drivers Dirk Werner and Leh Keen took the GT title.

Late Saturday results:

IndyCar: Miami Homestead Raceway: 1. Dario Franchitti 2. Ryan Briscoe 3. Scott Dixon 4. Tony Kanaan 5. Helio Castroneves

Grand-Am Daytona Prototypes: Miami Homestead Raceway: 1.Haywood/Barbosa, 2.Pruett/Rojas, 3.Patterson/Negri Jr, 4. Fogart/Gurney, 5. Donohue / Law

Grand-Am GT-Class: Miami Homestead Raceway: 1. Edwards/Collins/Reese, 2.Liddell/Davis, 3. Keen/Werner, 4. Potter/Pumpelly, 5. Ham/Tremblay

All race reports available in P1Mag

And so the IndyCar season reaches its climax, with three drivers going in neck-and-neck for the championship, and it all hinging on this one final event at Homestead, Miami. Two of them would go for a sheer speed approach, while the third would go for high strategy. Only 200 laps would prove who had the best pace and approach to take the race and the title.

Dario Franchitti had drawn early blood by taking a strong pole in the searingly hot conditions of Friday, but come race day and it was clearly Scott Dixon and Ryan Briscoe with much better pace and they dropped Franchitti in the opening laps of the race after overtaking him on lap 10. Gradually Dixon put his foot down and broke Briscoe as well – early signs were pointing to a second consecutive title for Dixon and celebrations down under in New Zealand.

The leaders were all in ahead of the rest of the runners: Briscoe was the first to come in for his pit stop on lap 45, coming in early to take care of some lose handling issues, while Dixon stayed out till lap 48 and Franchitti longer still, not pitting until lap 50. While staying out longer is a nominal advantage, all the pit stops were so fast and flawless that it made little difference to the on-track running order, but Briscoe’s form was now significantly better, with a blistering outlap, and by lap 54 he was all over the back of Dixon for the lead, with Franchitti over 4s adrift of them both.

He took the lead by running side-by-side with Dixon on lap 62, finally getting a slingshot out of turn 4 to take the lead in full the next time around. Dixon attempted to counter attack on lap 65, only to suddenly find that they were coming up fast on slow traffic and he had to pull out of the move in a hurry to stop himself sliding up the track and colliding with Briscoe on the high side, inadvertently giving Briscoe a full second as a result. And with the points so tight, the bonus points for most laps lead were seriously on everyone’s minds at this point, particularly for Briscoe to be able to beat Dixon should they finish 1-2.

Wth no yellows and the leaders setting such a blistering prace, by lap 80 only the three rivals were on the lead lap, with Danica Patrick and her Andretti-Green team mate Tony Kanaan in 4th and 5th a lap off the pace, ahead of Briscoe’s own team mate Helio Castroneves in 6th.

Briscoe and Dixon pitted together on lap 95, Briscoe getting the better stop of the two but Dixon compensating with the better outlap; and with still no yellows on the horizon the question started to loom whether both of them would require a late race splash-and-dash if they kept up that pace? Whereas Franchitti, getting better mileage and coming in on the nose on lap 100, might well be able to beat them by stretching the fuel to the chequered flag, to steal the win even if he was a good 7s behind them at mid distance.

The latest pit stops had enabled Dixon to fine tune the handling of the Ganassi to his liking and on lap 106 he took the lead through the inside line out of turn 4, and the two cars went wheel-to-wheel before Dixon broke away and quickly stretched out a big lead over the Penske car. But then, as the tyres started to wear, the pendulum once again swung back in Briscoe’s favour and he started to visible close the gap to Dixon at an impressive rate and on lap 125 he again reclaimed the lead, easing past Dixon on the high side and pulling out a big lead of his own.

Now we were hitting the critical point of the race: the final pit stop. Dixon had backed off his pace, leaning off the fuel to adopt Franchitti’s cautious fuel-aware strategy, leaving Briscoe ahead; but despite this, the two leaders were together coming into the pits on lap 144, once again neither car making 50 laps but now facing a 54 lap distance to the chequered flag – a 6-8 lap shortfall at the current pace if there was no caution. Franchitti took up the lead until his own stop – clearly the final one for him of the day – right on schedule on lap 150. No fuel problems for Dario, but would the strategy give him the race win – let alone the title?

Ironically the first (and ultimately only) collision of the day didn’t bring out a yellow flag at all – as it happened on pit lane on lap 153. Dan Wheldon was released right into the path of Danica Patrick who was turning into her own pit box right in front. The impact turned her around a hundred and eighty degrees and gave her car suspension damage, and Wheldon had also collected suspension damage and was out of the race, joining Marco Andretti (brake issues) and Jaques Lazier in the garage. That put Kanaan up to 4th ahead of Castroneves and Graham Rahal who was now 6th.

By lap 160, Franchitti’s fuel strategy had left him 16s adrift of the leader Ryan Briscoe, who had now passed Dixon’s total of laps thus far today to go on to claim those all-important bonus points for most laps led. Things were getting very, very tight for all three with no one in a position to know if they were on track to win the race and title or about to crash and burn at the last. By lap 170 there still no caution, and no sign that either Briscoe or Dixon were slacking off and trying to stretch their fuel – that point of no return had long since been passed. Instead they were trying to catch up to and lap Franchitti to minimise the damage the extra fuel stop would inflict, but if the whole race was run caution-free then it was looking like Franchitti would almost certainly be the champion – but it was one helluva ‘if’. No IRL race in its 14 season history had ever gone caution-free before, and that’s precisely what Dario was banking on now. Some odds!

Time and laps were running out for the trio: and on lap 191 with nine to go, the storm broke: Dixon dipped below the white line to come in for his splash-and-dash, his title hopes effectively blown – you could tell from the body language of the pit crew that they knew their campaign was over.

And two laps later … Briscoe followed suit. Franchitti took the lead, but such had been the gap that Briscoe and Dixon had pulled out over him in that final stint that Dario was still only 6s ahead of Ryan and 7s ahead of Scott once they were both back on track with 6 laps to go. And it wasn’t plain sailing just yet – Dario was told to go “full bore on mix four” which meant “as fast as you can in fuel saving mode”. Would that prove too slow and leave him open to attack? Or would the fuel not stretch?

The white came out and Dario was still ahead; and the yards ticked down. Briscoe and Dixon didn’t have enough speed to catch Franchitti; and the car just had the fuel to cough its way over the finish line, even if it gasped its last seconds later. Dario Franchitti had made it, his 5th victory of the season: he’d celebrated his return from the ill-starred NASCAR efforts in the best possible style, joining Dixon and Sam Hornish Jr as IRL’s only multiple-time champions.

It might have lacked any eye-catching on-track accidents, but this had been a breathless, thrilling shoot-out between three of the best drivers in the world in any motorsport series, and they had all acquitted themselves in fine style. And in beating the others, Dario Franchitti had just made himself the best of the best once again.

And that wraps up the 2009 season for IRL!

Race result

Pos  Driver             Team                 Gap
 1.  Dario Franchitti   Ganassi              200 laps
 2.  Ryan Briscoe       Penske               + 4.7888s
 3.  Scott Dixon        Ganassi              + 6.0206s
 4.  Tony Kanaan        Andretti Green       + 1 lap
 5.  Helio Castroneves  Penske               + 1 lap
 6.  Hideki Mutoh       Andretti Green       + 2 laps
 7.  Mario Moraes       KV                   + 2 laps
 8.  Alex Lloyd         Newman/Haas/Lanigan  + 2 laps
 9.  Tomas Scheckter    Dreyer & Reinbold    + 3 laps
10.  Justin Wilson      Coyne                + 3 laps
11.  Graham Rahal       Newman/Haas/Lanigan  + 3 laps
12.  Ed Carpenter       Vision               + 3 laps
13.  Ryan Hunter-Reay   Foyt                 + 4 laps
14.  Raphael Matos      Luczo Dragon         + 4 laps
15.  Mike Conway        Dreyer & Reinbold    + 5 laps
16.  EJ Viso            HVM                  + 6 laps
17.  Milka Duno         Dreyer & Reinbold    + 6 laps
18.  Sarah Fisher       Fisher               + 13 laps
19.  Danica Patrick     Andretti Green       + 15 laps

Retirements:

     Robert Doornbos    HVM                  166 laps
     Dan Wheldon        Panther              150 laps
     Marco Andretti     Andretti Green       58 laps
     Jaques Lazier      3G                   23 laps

IndyCar Championship

Dario’s win means he finishes just 11pts ahead of his team mate and previous champion Scott Dixon, who edges Ryan Briscoe to 2nd place by just a solitary point.

In other business, Raphael Matos clinched the rookie of the year title as expected, despite only finishing 13th; his rival Robert Doornbos retired in the closing stages with mehcanical problems having run near the tail of the field.

Pos Driver  Points
1   Dario Franchitti    616
2   Scott Dixon         605   -11
3   Ryan Briscoe        604   -12
4   Helio Castroneves   433   -183
5   Danica Patrick      393   -223
6   Tony Kanaan         386   -230
7   Graham Rahal        385   -231
8   Marco Andretti      380   -236
9   Justin Wilson       354   -262
10  Dan Wheldon         354   -262
11  Hideki Mutoh        353   -263
12  Ed Carpenter        321   -295
13  Raphael Matos       312   -304
15  Mario Moraes        304   -312
14  Ryan Hunter-Reay    298   -318
16  Robert Doornbos     283   -333
17  Mike Conway         261   -355
18  Ernesto Viso        248   -368
19  Will Power          215   -401
20  Tomas Scheckter     195   -421
21  Oriol Servia        115   -501
22  Alex Tagliani       114   -502
23  Paul Tracy          113   -503
24  Milka Duno          113   -503
25  Sarah Fisher         89   -527

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Hoje às 18h (horário de Brasília) a Band transmitirá a última etapa da temporada 2009 da Indy, no oval de Homestead – Miami. O grid de largada tem Dario Franchitti na pole com Scott Dixon em 2º e Ryan Briscoe em 3º.

Dixon, Dario e Briscoe: um deles será campeão hoje!

Os três brigam pelo título do campeonato e a diferença entre eles está em apenas oito pontos: Dixon lidera com 570pts, Dario tem 566pts e Briscoe 562pts.

A parada é simples: Quem vencer a corrida leva os dois canecos!

Não perca essa emocionante disputa, às 18h na Band!

Dario Franchitti will start the three-way battle for the 2009 IndyCar title from pole position after outpacing his closest rivals Scott Dixon and Ryan Briscoe in qualifying on the 1.5-mile Homestead-Miami oval.

The Edinburgh driver closed the gap on team-mate Dixon to four by winning the bonus point for taking pole, his fifth of the season, with Briscoe eight off the championship lead.

Franchitti said: “The point was big today – the point was a big deal, and full marks to my team for going out and doing what we needed to do to get it. The hard work now begins because Ryan and Scott are right there and there are a few other guys that I watched in practice that looked very, very strong for the race.”

Briscoe rued missing out on the bonus point, which would have ensured that a race victory would be enough to win the championship – without it he can win the race and lose the title if Dixon finishes second.

He said: “I think the point was maybe most important to me out of the three of us. We certainly put a lot of focus into it but you can only do so much. But you know, at the same time, still in that session, we tried to do race set up work because that’s really where it’s going to count.”

Dixon’s chances of pole were damaged when he blundered while changing an in-car setting during his four-lap qualifying run, producing the opposite effect on handling to the one he intended: “I made the mistake of actually going stiffer on the rear bar, I was reaching for the front and got the rear and that made it even more exciting. Definitely had my hands full.”

A heatwave in Florida affected the handling of the cars and slowed the times. Franchitti said: “Even the people who live here are surprised by it. It’s horrible. I think, as hot as it is, the cars don’t have the aero grip that we have had in the past. So that makes it pretty difficult.

“And this track has definitely lost grip every year we’ve come here. So we’re asking a lot of the tyres, and you’ve got to keep the balance in the car. If you get too much understeer or oversteer it just gets worse and worse as the run goes on. So it definitely makes it a challenge.”

So far this season only one race has been won by anyone other than the three front-runners or Briscoe’s team-mate Helio Castroneves, who qualified 11th for the race. Best of the rest behind the championship contenders were two unexpected faces – Vision Racing’s Ed Carpenter and Briton Alex Lloyd of Newman/Haas/Lanigan, running only his third race in two years and his first since walking away from a Ganassi development deal.

Lloyd, who retains the bright pink energy drink sponsorship he carried at the Indianapolis 500, out-qualified his more experienced team-mate Graham Rahal by a single place. He said: “Everybody at HER Energy and N/H/L is very excited about our starting position. Racing here in an Indy car is different than in an Indy Lights car, but at the same time it’s nice to have some experience at the track and have that feeling.

“It’s great to be back competing in the IndyCar Series. We had a good car in qualifying and a good car in traffic. We want to go out there and be able to mix it up. There are some things I need to learn, but at the same time I think we can run at the front. Having only done the race at Indianapolis, it feels like a very quick weekend.”

Behind Lloyd and Rahal the fourth row is filled by another pair of team-mates, Andretti Green’s Danica Patrick and Marco Andretti, who are locked in a battle for fifth in the overall standings behind Castroneves.

Patrick, who holds fifth going into the race, said: “The changes we made in practice today made the car better, which is what you hope for on a race weekend. It makes me believe we have a strong car for the race.”

Andretti countered: “I believe a race can be won from eighth.”

Of the other British drivers, Justin Wilson and Dan Wheldon will share the seventh row in 13th and 14th while Mike Conway will start 20th in the 23-car field.

Conway said: “Qualifying wasn’t that good for us. We struggled a little bit in practice today, and we weren’t sure what to expect. We just need to work hard during the race. With it being the last race of the season, we need to give it all we’ve got, work hard tonight and bring the car home with a good result tomorrow.”

Asked whether he would be returning next season with Dreyer & Reinbold he said he hoped to be – before adding “I’d better be.”

Wheldon was asked a similar question about his plans with Panther Racing, answering that he would definitely be in the series next year – but pointedly not saying with which team.

Talking about qualifying, he said: “We had a tough time in practice today, but that goes to show that our guys continue to work hard and we’ve certainly got a reasonable baseline to start the race tomorrow. Because of the problems we had we carried a little bit too much downforce on the car in qualifications, which is unlike me. But I’m sure we’ll bounce back for the race and the guys will do a great job.”

Wilson – the only driver outside the ‘big two’ teams to win a race this year – said he was “fairly happy” with his qualifying despite the heat reducing the grip: “Up until then it had been a difficult day. The Z-Line Designs car was good in the test so we came here expecting to be on the pace.

“Whether it was hotter or something else the car was a real handful today, but we worked through it and made some good progress towards the end of practice. The car was running pretty free in qualifying, so it was a tense four laps out there, but I was able to make it stick.”

* Before the race owner/driver Sarah Fisher confirmed that former Indy Lights champions Jay Howard would run in four races for her team next season. He will compete in the Indianapolis 500, on the ovals at Texas and Chicagoland and at the road course at Mid-Ohio.

Howard, who ran five races for Roth Racing in 2008 and caught Fisher’s eye as the teams were based next door to each other, said: “Happy is not the word I would use.

“There probably aren’t any words to describe how happy I am to be a part of Sarah’s team. I told Sarah I’d go streaking as soon as the deal was done. The guys at Sarah Fisher Racing do a great job. This is, by far, the best opportunity for me in my career.

“I just didn’t give up. I kept trying. I’m not the kind of person that’s going to lay down and go away. I believed that hard work would pay off. That’s how Sarah started her team, hard work and not giving up. It’s a perfect match.”

A quiet weekend in European racing allows attention to switch to the other side of the Atlantic – where no fewer than four open-wheel series all have their final races.

The IndyCar, Atlantic and Star Mazda championships will all be settled over the next three days, with Indy Lights also finishing its season.

Britons Dario Franchitti and Adam Christodoulou are still very much in the hunt for titles, while Alex Lloyd is making his come-back and Switzerland’s Simona de Silvestro has a chance to make history.

Here’s our guide to the weekend’s action.

IndyCar – The Firestone Indy 300 at Homestead- Miami

Championship battle

Scotland’s Dario Franchitti is one of three drivers who will be shooting for the championship in a near-winner takes all final race.

The 2007 champion currently sits second in the title hunt, five points behind his Target Chip Ganassi Racing team-mate Scott Dixon and three ahead of Team Penske rival Ryan Briscoe. Either Ganassi driver can take the title by winning the race, Briscoe needs to win and get one of the bonus points for pole or for leading most laps to guarantee victory.

“I think all three of us are fairly confident,” said Franchitti. “We’ve had a good season. It’s just whoever does the best on Saturday night and gets a little bit of luck as well. It’s what we race for.

“It is going to be a very intense night. I think that’s part of the job, isn’t it? Doing the same thing you do when you’re out there testing or whatever, whatever’s on the line, driving the same as you normally do.”

Franchitti famously won his title in the season’s final race as Dixon, leading by a nose, ran out of fuel on the final corner – the Scot, who was then with Andretti Green Racing, was also running on fumes but had just enough to reach the line at full speed.

With Franchitti in NASCAR for 2008 Dixon fought another title battle that went to the final race, this time winning the championship at the expense of Helio Castroneves.

The return of ‘Pink Lloyd’

Alex Lloyd’s run in this year’s Indianapolis 500 might have been ruined by being called into the pitlane to fix a rear light at the start of the race, sending him a lap down on the leaders through no fault of his own, but it was memorable nonetheless.

The bright pink car, firesuit and helmet that went with his HER energy drink sponsorship ensured that nobody failed to spot the one-race deal struck to put the 2007 Indy Pro champion in the race – and his impressive qualification performance ensured they had something worth watching.

Since then Lloyd has quit his development deal with Ganassi in search of a full-time ride, and hopes this one-off appearance for Newman/Haas/Lanigan will lead to more next year.

HER is with him again at Homestead-Miami, although the car is somewhat less pink than it was – perhaps toned down to avoid taking attention away from Sarah Fisher’s similarly-coloured breast cancer research car.

Lloyd said: “I feel well prepared for the race and I know I have a great team behind me. I think our goals are to run up front and I believe we can do that. I think the car is capable of qualifying very high up the grid and if we can do that for sure we will be in a good place for a good strong race.”

Sarah Fisher’s second driver

The popular Fisher is steadily making the transition from driver to team owner, looking ahead to the day when she hangs up her racing gloves for good – and her cause was helped no end during the summer when a sponsor donated a second Dallara race chassis.

Rather than leave one car in the garage as a spare, she is due to announce today that her team will run two cars at selected races next year – and it seems that the driver will be Britain’s Jay Howard.

Howard, the 2006 Indy Pro champion, suffered through a disjointed and disrupted 2008 season in the IRL with Marty Roth’s struggling team and has made occasional appearances this year in Indy Lights, the re-named Pro series, including a fourth-place finish at Indianapolis.

Reports today ahead of the official announcement suggest that Howard will run at the Mid-Ohio road circuit, the ovals at Texas and Chicagoland, and in the Indianpolis 500 for Fisher’s team.

Indy Lights – The Homestead-Miami 100

The title has already been won by JR Hildebrand, but today’s race offers a final chance for Panther Racing’s British duo Pippa Mann and Martin Plowman to fulfil the promise their team showed when they ran so fast in pre-season testing at this track.

Panther was one of the front-runners last year with Surrey’s Dillon Battistini, but has struggled to field competitive cars this year, either in Indy Lights or in the main series with Dan Wheldon at the wheel.

Plowman has generally had the advantage over the perennially unlucky Mann during the season, scoring a pair of top five finishes while his team-mate has suffered a series of disasters ranging from sudden hospitalisation to running upside down at full speed in a flipped car.

But Mann looks to be the better tuned into the demands of the 1.5 mile Homestead oval, placing third in pre-race practice in a car that she believes still has more speed in it.

She said: “Homestead was the very first oval I ran on, and is still my favorite oval I have run on other than Indy. We ran very well there at the test at the start of the year. We have a fast car in clean air there, but what I now understand about oval racing is I will need to try and find a good car for running traffic and passing before we get into the race.

“Considering that we were fastest when we were here last I expected to be better than this. We’re going to look at the setup sheets from before and compare it to what we have now and try to figure out a plan. The speed looks nice on the charts – unfortunately, it does not tell the whole story. As a driver, when you’ve been really fast and you turn back up and the car is just OK, you start to wonder why you aren’t really fast any more.”

Plowman added: “I am determined to finish the season on a real high note. We had a very strong test here at the start of the season, so I would like to think that we will have a strong package for the race.”

Atlantic Championship – Monterey Sports Car Championships, Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca

Not sports cars at all despite the race name, the Atlantics have fallen on hard times since their heyday as one of the biggest non-Indy US open wheel series. But this year’s season finale will settle a thrilling and intriguing title battle.

Switzerland’s Simona de Silvestro is nursing a shrinking championship lead as she seeks to become – with all due respect to 2009 Ginetta Juniors champion Sarah Moore – the first woman to win a major mixed-gender racing series.

USF1 hopeful Jonathan Summerton is breathing down her neck, having won three of the last four races, and his team-mate John Edwards is only three points behind him.

British interest comes further down the field in the shape of reigning Australian F3 champion James Winslow, who has produced a steady set of results despite struggling for a stable drive early in the season. Greg Mansell also took part in the last race at Road Atlanta.

Star Mazda Championship – Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca

Another championship decider this weekend, and it’s a battle between England and Ireland as Adam Christodoulou attempts to overturn a 15-point defecit in the standings to Dublin’s Peter Dempsey.

The “Irish Steamroller”, whose funding is so knife-edge that he can often only practice if rival teams will donate tyres, has won five of the season’s 12 races. Christodoulou has two victories – and so does Milton Keynes’ Richard Kent, who won this race last year and led the pair of them in the first test session but is too far back to win the title.

Dempsey needs only a sixth-place finish to guarantee the title, whatever Christodoulou does, but the two-time BRDC Award finalist hasn’t given up hope: “I’m looking forward to Laguna Seca as I think we made a lot of car set-up progress during the week at Road Atlanta, so I know the car will be good. Peter got the win there and extended his lead to 15 points but as I’ve found out, anything can happen during a race weekend so I’m looking forward to an exciting final race.”

Dempsey said: “I really hope we can make our dream of winning the Championship happen. At this point we need to keep on top of everything to make sure we get the results we need. I am 100 per cent ready for the last race and so is my team. We are going into this weekend with a lot of confidence after our success at Road Atlanta.”

One of the closest title chases in IndyCar series history will go to a showdown at the final race after Ryan Briscoe threw away the chance to build a decisive advantage at the Indy Japan 300.

The pre-race championship front-runner inherited the lead at Twin Ring Motegi by running the longest second stint, before finally pitting on lap 106. A heavy Mike Conway crash as he refuelled left him perfectly placed to keep the lead, but he clipped the pit wall as he rushed to rejoin the track.

He said later: “With the accident leaving the pits, it was a huge opportunity to get the race lead. I just gassed it too much leaving my box and the car spun.”

The contact looked light, but was enough to damage his suspension. He managed a lap under caution with a pit lane cone wedged under his car, then came in again for lengthy repairs that put him 15 laps down on the leaders and killed his race hopes.

Instead the Ganassi pair of Scott Dixon and Dario Franchitti, who had been the early leaders of the race, took advantage of his misfortune to regain the front and take first and second, ahead of Graham Rahal. Both also overtook the Penske driver in the championship standings.

Dixon, the reigning champion, now leads by five points from the 2007 champion Franchitti, with Briscoe three further back. The championship will be decided at Homestead-Miami Speedway on October 10th.

“It’s going to be a hell of a show at Homestead,” said Franchitti. His team-mate agreed: “It’s going to be a crazy race,” Dixon said. “Obviously, the three of us are going to be pushing to the maximum.”

Briscoe hasn’t given up hope of winning his first championship: “The good thing is that it’s only eight points to Scott. I feel real good going into Homestead. I think it’s a flip of a coin really who is the favourite going there between myself, Scott or Dario. I think all of us are fully capable of winning at that track.”

Dixon’s winning weekend began in qualifying, when he went out last of the 23 runners and snatched the bonus point awarded for winning pole position from KVM’s Mario Moraes, who had led for much of the session. Franchitti and Briscoe lined up on the second row, with Rahal and last year’s winner Danica Patrick behind them.

Dan Wheldon saw some of his form return by taking the eighth slot next to Oriol Servia, while Justin Wilson continued his improvement on ovals with ninth. Conway was 13th, while Helio Castroneves and Hideki Mutoh both crashed during their runs and were forced to start from the back.

The Ganassi cars raced away at the start, with Moraes staying clear of Briscoe and the charging Wheldon. The first round of stops ended Moraes’ challenge as he missed his marks and failed to take on a full load of fuel, being forced to pit a second time and dropping to 20th.

Franchitti took the lead at the first stops, with Wheldon passing Briscoe on track to gain third and start hassling his former team’s two cars. The second stops saw Briscoe’s disaster, Conway’s crash and another lead change between the Ganassi drivers that survived their final stops.

Third, fourth and fifth were decided at the final restart when Rahal got the better of team-mate Servia and Moraes, who had fought his way back to the front. Behind them Patrick beat team-mate Marco Andretti for sixth.

Wheldon dropped away during the final stops, ending the race eighth after his pit stop fell the wrong side of the caution caused by Ryan Hunter-Reay’s lap 160 crash, while Wilson was 12th and Conway classified 22nd.

Franchitti said he lost the lead because of the driving of Raphael Matos: “I managed to go longer than Scott in the first run. It was looking good as we came out of the pits after the second stop having pulled a pretty substantial gap. I was coming up to lap the No. 2 car – I went to go on the inside and he came down, so I moved up and he moved up. He kept moving up until I hit a bump and ended up in the marbles.

“I managed to gather it back up, by which point Scott had a massive run and passed me. It was unfortunate to lose the lead that way, but we’ve seen that all year from him, to be honest. After that, it’s just trying to pass Scott. We tried on the pits, on the restarts. We were so equal today, I needed traffic in front of us to slow Scott so I could get a run on him, and there wasn’t any.”

Dixon said the win felt tremendous: “It’s a track I’ve always wanted to win at – I kind of put Motegi just below the Indy 500. It’s a very difficult circuit. I remember coming here in the early years and competing for different engine manufacturers and how much emphasis is put on this race.”

Wheldon enjoyed the feeling of being at the head of the pack again: “It was really good to be back and running up front again. From the Panther Racing team standpoint I feel everybody did an excellent job – the engineering staff made a big change last night for the race and it was very positive.

“I could see that it made the car very nice to drive today and certainly when catching lapped traffic I was able to make a lot of time up. Unfortunately it was one of those things for us today; we got caught on the yellow flag. Everybody put a lot of effort into this weekend and unfortunately they weren’t rewarded – but we again showed that we can run with the best.”

Wilson had hoped for a top eight finish but found he lacked pace, losing a battle for 10th, 11th and 12th during the final stint with Castroneves and Tony Kanaan. He said: “Overall the race went well. The Z-Line Designs team did a great job in the pit-stops and the car was pretty well balanced. But I was struggling to keep up on the straights and I think we had a little too much downforce.

“I had some good battles and some close calls, especially in the last 25 laps. I thought I’d crashed on the exit of turn two near the end of the race, but fortunately it came back straight. All in all it’s not a bad result for our first time out on this track. We’ve learned a lot and it will be valuable experience for next year.”

Conway explained his crash: “I had a little run on Tony Kanaan into turn three but was never really alongside him. I was slipping my nose on him but backed down at the last minute as we were in the corner. I just went down onto the apron and kicked it around. It is a long way to come to not finish the race.”

Ryan Briscoe had the opportunity to clinch the IRL title in Japan; instead, a small mistake all his own making ruined his day and quite possibility his entire season.

It was a clean, caution-free first half to the race with Scott Dixon and Dario Franchitti quickly installed into the 1st and 2nd spots ahead of Mario Moraes and Ryan Briscoe.

Mario Andretti was one of the fastest climbers cutting his way through the field from considerably further back, while Helio Castroneves and Tony Kanaan laboured to improve from qualifying issues (Castroneves crashed, and Kanaan was sent to the back for a technical infringement.) Former Danica Patrick, meanwhile, was maintaining her position in the top six or so but at some considerable cost – she had used half her push-to-pass overtaking assists before lap 50 of 200, to hold off overtaking threats.

With no cautions in sight, the first round of pit stops were held under green. Moraes has refuelling problems and dropped back, replaced in third place by former Motegi winner Dan Wheldon; while Franchitti was able to run a lap longer than his team mate Dixon – who had also had to cope with being stuck behind Hideki Mutoh coming into pit lane – and came in on lap 52; that critical advantage put him back out on track on track in front of Dixon, and while the Kiwi challenged hard to take the lead back while Dario was still on colder tyres and getting up to speed, Franchitti was able to hold him back and went on to lead the race until the next round of pit stops.

The race was still under green when Franchitti and Dixon came in again shortly after the midpoint of the race; this time it was Dixon who got the better stop and jumped up into the lead, as Franchitti had a moment in turn 2 on his out-lap.

But Briscoe stayed out longer than everyone, and then just as he came down pit road the yellows came out for the first time as Mike Conway was jolted loose by the bump in the middle of turns 3 and 4, sending him into the wall. A lengthy yellow ensured as the marshals had to deal with a lot of fuel leaking from Conway’s car onto the track.

But critically, all this meant Briscoe was able to carry on with his pit stop under yellow. It’s the type of serendipity that crew chiefs dream of, and which hands drivers a win on a platter. Pressing home the advantage that had landed in his lap, Briscoe floored it as smoked his way form his pit box … And the car responded by suddenly skewing hard left. Straight into the pit wall. It was a hard enough impact to damage the suspension, and to add insult to injury Briscoe also ran over the cone marking the end of the speed limited area, which then lodged underneath the car. He limped back to the pits and had to endure a lengthy stop that left him 15 laps down, and very much out of the race. Instead of clinching the title here at Motegi, Ryan had well and truly handed the advantage over to the Ganassi team mates.

The lengthy caution period meant that all the cars were easily able to stretch their fuel past lap 160 putting them within easy reach of the finish on one final pit stop. Surprisingly, Dixon and Franchitti came in relatively early – and both on the same lap – but it was just as well that they did, because as they arrived in their pix boxes the track went to yellow for a heavy rear-end smash into the wall by Ryan Hunter-Reay.

Dixon and Franchitti, then, were gifted exactly the same advantage that had presented itself to Briscoe earlier in the day; unlike Briscoe, neither Ganassi driver threw it away on the pit exit, and returned to the track in the lead after the other cars still to pit cycled through their own stops. Showing just how much the timing of a yellow can affect a race, Dan Wheldon – who had been comfortably in third before his own pre-yellow pit stop – ended up in eighth place and with a lot of lapped traffic mixed in as well after all this, such was the advantage handed to the cars who were able to come in while the safety car was on track.

Graham Rahal took up Wheldon’s vacated third spot, but had to hold off strong challenges from Oriol Servia and Mario Moraes (recovering from his earlier pit stop woes) to keep that position to the chequered flags. But none of them were in the same leage as the Ganassi duo, of of the two front runners it was clear that Dixon was by far the stronger in the closing laps, which contained none of the drama of Chicagoland’s split-second finish. Dixon cruised it in the final laps, basically.

Despite sticking with it after his devastating pit lane mistake, Ryan Briscoe could do no more on the damage limitation front than 18th, just ahead of Stanton Barrett; the only other places that he was able to make up were accident (Conway and Hunter-Reay) or technical retirements (Tomas Scheckter out with gear box trouble, and Roger Yasukawa having a lengthy pitstop for attention to a brake problem.)

Japan ‘09 certainly won’t have happy memories for the Penske team and Briscoe in particular. But it’s by no means over yet: Briscoe, Dixon and Franchitti are too close to call for the title going into the final round of the season. It’s still all to play for – providing that Motegi doesn’t leave a lasting psychological scar on Briscoe’s title bid.

Meanwhile Dixon’s win not only gives him the momentum into the final race, but also a critical five wins to Franchitti’s four – a fact that would come into play as a tie-breaker in the event of the two Ganassi team mates finishing equal on points.

It’s going to be tight!

Race result

Pos  Driver             Team                      Time/Gap
 1.  Scott Dixon        Ganassi              1h51m37.6411s
 2.  Dario Franchitti   Ganassi                 +  1.4475s
 3.  Graham Rahal       Newman/Haas/Lanigan     +  3.2002s
 4.  Oriol Servia       Newman/Haas/Lanigan     +  7.3720s
 5.  Mario Moraes       KV                      + 12.7643s
 6.  Danica Patrick     Andretti Green          + 16.1392s
 7.  Marco Andretti     Andretti Green          + 16.6513s
 8.  Dan Wheldon        Panther                 + 17.2646s
 9.  Raphael Matos      Luczo Dragon            + 17.5790s
10.  Helio Castroneves  Penske                  +    1 lap
11.  Tony Kanaan        Andretti Green          +    1 lap
12.  Justin Wilson      Coyne                   +    1 lap
13.  Ed Carpenter       Vision                  +   2 laps
14.  Hideki Mutoh       Andretti Green          +   2 laps
15.  EJ Viso            HVM                     +   2 laps
16.  Robert Doornbos    HVM                     +   2 laps
17.  Kosuke Matsuura    Conquest                +   5 laps
18.  Ryan Briscoe       Penske                  +  15 laps
19.  Stanton Barrett    3G                      +  18 laps
20.  Roger Yasukawa     Dreyer & Reinbold       +  28 laps

Retirements:

     Ryan Hunter-Reay   Foyt                  157 laps
     Mike Conway        Dreyer & Reinbold     103 laps
     Tomas Scheckter    Dreyer & Reinbold     83 laps

IndyCar championship standings

Briscoe’s costly fumble means he drops from 1st to 3rd in the standings, while Dixon’s points for leading the most laps in Japan put him just on front of his team mate Franchitti.

But with only 8pts covering all three of them (and everyone else well and truly out of the tunning), the points make very little difference in reality. It’s the closest points standing into the final race that IRL has seen since 2003.

So it’s anyone’s title, as we head to the season finale at Homestead, Miami on 10th October.

Pos Driver           Points
1   Scott Dixon         570
2   Dario Franchitti    565
3   Ryan Briscoe        562
4   Hélio Castroneves   403
5   Danica Patrick      381
6   Marco Andretti      368
7   Graham Rahal        366
8   Tony Kanaan         354
9   Dan Wheldon         342
10  Justin Wilson       334
11  Hideki Mutoh        325
12  Ed Carpenter        303
13  Raphael Matos       296
14  Ryan Hunter-Reay    281
15  Mário Moraes        278
16  Robert Doornbos     271
17  Mike Conway         246
18  Ernesto Viso        234
19  Will Power          215
20  Tomas Scheckter     173
21  Oriol Servià        115
22  Alex Tagliani       114
23  Paul Tracy          113
24  Milka Duno          100
25  Sarah Fisher         77
26  Jaques Lazier        65
27  Richard Antinucci    63
28  Vitor Meira          62
29  Stanton Barrett      62
30  Darren Manning       38
31  Townsend Bell        32
32  A.J. Foyt IV         26
33  Alex Lloyd           17
34  Scott Sharp          16
35  Nelson Philippe      16
36  Kosuke Matsuura      13
37  John Andretti        12
38  Franck Montagny      12
38  Roger Yasukawa       12
40  Davey Hamilton       10