2012 Race of Champions Preview

The field is now officially set for the 2012 Race of Champions after today's qualifying action. Nattavude Charoensukawatta and Tin Sritrai will represent the host nation Thailand and Narain Karthikeyan and Karun Chandhok of India won the ROC Asia qualifier.

The Nations Cup
Around 8am (EST) tomorrow the eight teams will compete in the Nations Cup. The dominate pairing of Sebastian Vettel and Michael Schumacher has won the last five Nations Cups for Germany. They will be joined in Group B by the Australians Jamie Whincup and Mick Doohan, Thailand and India.

Group A figures to be much more competitive with the likes of France (Romain Grosjean/Sébastien Ogier), Great Britain (David Coulthard/Andy Priaulx), the Americas (Ryan Hunter-Reay/Benito Guerra) and the All-Stars (Tom Kristensen/Jorge Lorenzo).

Behind Germany with their five Nations Cups is France and Finland, both with two, and Spain, the United States, Scandinavia and an All-Star team all with one.

The Race of Champions
The head-to-head Race of Champions will be Sunday around 8am (EST). Sébastien Ogier looks to defend his title and he will be joined in Group A by Whincup, Coulthard and Guerra.

Kristensen and Priaulx will be joined in Group B with a driver from India and Thailand while the second Thai driver will joined a World Championship heavy with the likes of Vettel, Lorenzo and Doohan.

Group D is round out by Schumacher, Hunter-Reay, Grosjean and the second driver from India.

Ogier looks to join Stig Blomqvist, Didier Auriol and Mattias Ekström as the only men to win back-to-back Race of Champions. Despite success in the Nations Cup, a German driver has never won the individual event.

The Cars
This year's Race of Champions will feature an Audi R8 LMS, Volkswagon Scirocco, Lamborghini Gallardo Super Trofeo, Toyota GT86, the ROC Dune Buggy, KTM X-Bow and a Stock Car.

Most Interesting Match-Up
Who is not looking forward to the head-to-head between the regaining World Champions? Vettel v. Lorenzo. It would be fun to see that in either the Dune Buggy or the KTM.

Predictions
For the Nations Cup I will take France and the Americas out of Group A and Germany and Australia out of Group B. I see a Germany-France final with the French team pulling it out 2-1 thanks to Ogier.

For the Race of Champions on Sunday I will take Ogier and Whincup out of A, Kristensen and Priaulx from B, Vettel and Lorenzo from C and Schumacher and Hunter-Reay from D. If they do it like last year than Ogier-Priaulx, Kristensen-Whincup, Vettel-Hunter-Reay and Schumacher-Lorenzo. I will take Ogier, Whincup in an upset, Hunter-Reay in an upset (call me a homer, I don't care) and Schumacher. Ogier will get back to finals and defeat Whincup, Hunter-Reay defeats Schumacher and sets a France-USA pair for the Final. Unlike 2011, Ogier does not win the Race of Champions in a two race sweep, rather Ryan Hunter-Reay takes it over the Frenchman 2-1.