WEC Finale In Bahrain

While many series have started their winter breaks, the FIA World Endurance Championship will be closing out their season this Saturday at the Bahrain International Circuit.

Audi has already clinched the Manufactures' Championship over Toyota and the trio of Allan McNish, Tom Kristensen and Loïc Duval have already clinched the Drivers' Championship. Now McNish, Kristensen and Duval look to wrap most wins in the season by getting their fourth in Bahrain. They are tied with their Audi teammates André Lotterer, Marcel Fässler and Benoît Tréluyer with three wins apiece this season.

Toyota took the victory at the rain-shortened round at their home track Fuji and will enter two cars for the third consecutive event. The part-time entry of Alexander Wurz and Nicolas Lapierre won at Fuji and finished second at Shanghai after winning pole position. Kazuki Nakajima will rejoin Wurz and Lapierre in the #7 TS030 Hybrid after missing the Shanghai round due to Super Formula commitments. In the last two rounds the full-time #8 Toyota of Anthony Davidson, Sébastien Buemi and Stéphane Sarrazin have finished fifteenth and retired at Shanghai.

The LMP2 title appears to be in the hands of OAK Racing the only question is which team takes home the title? The #35 of Bertrand Baguette, Martin Plowman and Ricardo González lead their teammates the #24 of Alex Brundle, David Heinemeier Hansson and Oliver Pla by fifteen points. The #35 has won two rounds this season including Le Mans while the #24 has finished runner-up in class on four occasions. The #26 G-Drive Racing entry of Mike Conway, John Martin are third in points and still mathematically eligible for the title after having won three of the last four rounds. The #26 is 22.5 points back of the #35 OAK Racing entry. The #26 originally finished third in the 24 Hours of Le Mans but were disqualified after having an illegal sized fuel tank. Had their third place finish stood, the #26 would be leading by 7.5 points.

In GT, Aston Martin drivers Stefan Mücke and Darren Turner has won the last two rounds and leads the Ferrari of Giancarlo Fisichella and Gianmaria Bruni by 5.5 points however the Italian pair will be split for the season finale. Fisichella will be paired with Kamui Kobayashi in the #71 Ferrari 458 Italia while Bruni will be joined by Toni Vilander in the #51.  Porsche drivers of Marc Lieb and Richard Lietz trail the pairing of Mücke and Turner by 15.5 points and their only podium this season was their victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. In the GT Manufactures' Championship Aston Martin leads Ferrari by 17.5 points.

In GTE-Am, the Aston Martin pair of Jaime Campbell-Walter and Stuart Hall lead by five points over Le Mans class winners, IMSA Performance Porshce of Jean-Karl Vernay and Raymond Narac. American 8 Star Motorsports Ferrari drivers Rui Águas and Enzo Potolicchio trail by nine points and are coming off class victory at Shanghai.

Practice for the final round of the 2013 FIA World Endurance Championship begins Thursday at 7:15 a.m. ET with second practice at 11:30 a.m. ET. Final practice will take place Friday at 2:25 a.m. ET with qualifying following at 7:45 a.m. ET. The final race of the 2013 season will take place at 7:00 a.m. ET on Saturday.