2013 For The Love Of Indy Awards

With the 2013 season now in the rearview mirror and 2014 within our sights, it is time to acknowledge those who were the best of the best in 2013. From the luxury worlds of Formula One and MotoGP to the dirt of Eldora, 2013 saw a plethora of feats that may not be repeated for quite sometime. While this year has seen wonderful racing, it has also seen the dark reality of racing that sober us and make contemplate our involvement in motorsport. We remember all those who lives ended on this material world but hopefully are continuing at the great racetrack in the sky.

And now we continue with the ceremony. Below we honor the drivers, races, passes, achievements and decisions that stood out in 2013 and what we will be talking about many years from now when we are old and grey.

Racer of the Year
Description: Given to the best racer over the course of 2013.
And the Nominees are:
Sebastian Vettel: 2013 World Drivers' Champion, his fourth consecutive title. Won thirteen races in a season, tying a single-season record and nine consecutive races.
Jimmie Johnson: 2013 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Champion, his sixth career title. Won six races including his second Daytona 500 victory.
Marc Márquez: 2013 World Riders' Champion as a rookie. Won six races, finished on the podium in sixteen of eighteen races.
Mike Conway: Won four rounds of the FIA World Endurance Championship in the LMP2 class, finished third in the LMP2 standings by a half point. Won his second IndyCar start of the season at Belle Isle and averaged a finish of 9.7 in seven IndyCar starts.

And the winner is... Marc Márquez
In his rookie season in MotoGP, Marc Márquez didn't make mistakes and have to go through the steps that many young racers have to go through before making an assault on the championship. He integrated himself to the top level of motorcycle racing in the world seamlessly. Filling the shoes for a two-time world champion Casey Stoner, Márquez quickly displaced veteran Dani Pedrosa as the lead rider at Repsol Honda.

A third on debut directly ahead of Pedrosa and his first career victory at the following round in Austin started Márquez's season with a bang. Pedrosa would get two wins and Márquez would make his only mistake of 2013, falling while running unchallenged in second at Mugello. But as spring turned to summer, Márquez settled into form. Injuries to Jorge Lorenzo and Pedrosa gave Márquez the advantage in Germany and Laguna Seca. After the summer break, he picked up where he left off, winning two more races at Indianapolis and the Czech Republic. With enough of a cushion all he had to do was stay on Lorenzo's back tire for the rest of the season but he would pick up another win at Aragon.

A team and Bridgestone error at Phillip Island nearly cost Márquez but it didn't rattle him. The podium was his home in 2013. Besides the fall at Mugello and disqualification at Phillip Island, Màrquez was on the podium in each and every race and in doing so became the youngest world  champion in the history of MotoGP and first rookie to win the title since Kenny Roberts in 1978.

On the other nominees: The other three nominees were very deserving of the award. Sebastian Vettel won every race after the Formula One summer break. He grabbed the championship battle by the throat and never let go. No one could hold a feather to the German. A few tried but none succeeded. Vettel's 2013 season will go down as one of the greatest in the history of Formula One.

Jimmie Johnson put himself within a step of the all-time record for championships in NASCAR's top division and did so in an impressive way. He won his second Daytona 500 and won the July race at Daytona, becoming the fifth driver to sweep the Daytona races joining Fireball Roberts in 1962, Cale Yarborough in 1968, LeeRoy Yarbrough in 1969 and Bobby Allison in 1982 to do so. In winning the Daytona 500 and championships, it is the second time Johnson won both the title and Daytona 500 in the same season, having done it in 2006 and eleventh time it has happened overall (Lee Petty 1959; Richard Petty 1964, 1971, 1974 and 1979; Cale Yarborough 1977; Jeff Gordon 1997).

You wouldn't think Mike Conway would be listed with these three but think about the season he had. First full-time season in an LMP2 car and he and his team win more races in class than anyone else at four and if it hadn't been for a slightly illegal fuel cell at Le Mans, he, John Martin and Romain Rusinov would've have won the WEC LMP2 title. Then there is his IndyCar endeavor. In what looked to be an occasional one off for Conway turned it into a full-time ride for road courses with a win, pole and third in the Belle Isle doubleheader. In the six races Conway competed in with Dale Coyne Racing, only Scott Dixon averaged a better finish.

Past Winners
2012: Kyle Larson

Race of the Year
Description: Best Race of 2013.
And the Nominees are:
British motorcycle Grand Prix
Indianapolis 500
Pirelli World Challenge Season Finale at Houston
Grand Prix of St. Petersburg
Indianpolis motorcycle Grand Prix

And the winner is... British motorcycle Grand Prix
Jorge Lorenzo and Marc Márquez went head-to-head for 40 minutes with Lorenzo coming out on top by the slimmest of margins. The interval between first and second was never greater than 0.441. Márquez started on pole but Lorenzo took the lead off the line and had Márquez breathing down his neck each lap. Lorenzo would lead twenty-two of twenty-three laps but only won by 0.081 seconds. Deeper in the field, Valentino Rossi and Álvaro Bautista raced hard for fourth with 0.065 seconds separating the Italian from the Spaniard.

On the other nominees... For another year, the Indianapolis 500 was another great race with 68 lead changes and the race coming down to the final laps but the fastest Indianapolis 500 did have the feel of too much passing.

The season finale to the Pirelli World Challenge was a thrilling wet-to-dry race with Johnny O'Connell's Cadillac improving as the track dried to get by James Sofronas for the race win and the championship as Sofronas would be forced to pit for a flat tire.

The season opener to the IndyCar season was top notch. A first time winner in James Hinchcliffe as he held off Helio Castroneves, with Scott Dixon charging from 20th to finish fifth ahead of Simona de Silvestro with EJ Viso finishing seventh, up from 22nd on the grid with 0.0602 seconds covering the three.

The Indianapolis motorcycle Grand Prix wasn't as close as Silverstone. Márquez had to work his way from third to the lead but once he got by Lorenzo and Pedrosa he pulled away but deeper in the field, Valentino Rossi and Cal Crutchlow went back-and-forth while the Ducati teammates of Nicky Hayden and Andrea Dovizioso and Crutchlow's Tech3 teammate Bradley Smith gave it there all racing for eighth.

Past Winners
2012: Indianapolis 500

Achievement of the Year
Description: Best success by a driver, team, manufacture, etc.
And the Nominees are:
Bernd Schneider: Won five endurance races in 2013 (24 Hours of Dubai, Bathurst 12 Hours, 24 Hours Nürburgrung, Spa 24 Hours and Gulf 12 Hours).
Sebastian Vettel: Winning nine consecutive Formula One races.
Sébastien Loeb and the Peugeot 208 T16: For setting the record at the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb with a time of 8:13.878 seconds.
John Force: Winning his 16th NHRA Funny Car championship.
Stéphane Peterhansel: Winning back-to-back Dakar Rallies and his eleventh win in the Dakar Rally.
Matthew Brabham: 2013 Pro Mazda champion. Won a record-setting thirteen of sixteen races.

And the winner is... Sebastian Vettel
Nine consecutive victories in Formula One. Even though some say Alberto Ascari won nine in a row in 1952 and 1953, even he didn't win nine in a row as he did not run the 1953 Indianapolis 500, a race that counted toward the world championship in 1953 and run after Ascari had won seven straight, five to end 1952 and the first two of 1953. Vettel ended 2013 as class of the field. He was challenged at Japan by Romain Grosjean and Mark Webber but in the end Vettel worked his pit strategy to get him to the lead. At Abu Dhabi Webber won pole but Vettel took the lead in turn one and never looked back.

In his nine race winning streak, Vettel led 444 of 508 laps (87.4%). He led from lights-to-checkers in five of those races, won six from pole including back-to-back grand chelems (leading every lap from pole position and setting fastest lap) at Singapore and Korea.

On the other nominees... Bernd Schneider finished a close second for this award. Five endurance races won in 2013. Not to mention three on the most difficult tracks in the world, Bathurst, the Nordschleife and Spa.

Sébastien Loeb had one hell of a drive up Pikes Peak and Peugeot built him one hell of car and together they broke the course record by 1:32.286 seconds.

John Force and Stéphane Peterhansel just kept doing what they normally do. Force picked up another Funny Car title while winning four events in 2013 including three consecutive in the Countdown. Peterhansel took his eleventh Dakar Rally win, fifth in the last eight editions, all coming in the car class.

Matthew Brabham rewrote the history books in Pro Mazda with thirteen victories, erasing the record set by Jack Hawksworth the season prior. Now Brabham moves up to Indy Lights driving for Andretti Autosport.

Past Winners
2012: DeltaWing

Moment of the Year
Description: The Most Memorable Moment in the World of Racing during the 2013 season.
And the Nominees are:
Tony Kanaan winning the Indianapolis 500.
2013 24 Hours of Le Mans
Four-wide finish to the Firestone Freedom 100
2013 Malaysia Grand Prix: Sebastian Vettel passing Mark Webber.
NASCAR Trucks at Eldora

And the winner is... 24 Hours of Le Mans
The race will be remembered for the death of Allan Simonsen but after watching majority of that race, what stands out to me was the race immediately became about honoring Simonsen. His family didn't want Aston Martin to pull their remaining cars in the field but wanted them to continue racing because they thought that's what Allan would have wanted.

There was no secret of Simonsen passing. For the better part of twenty-three, each driver who got behind the wheel knew what had happened but they continued on and the racing was great. Each class had it's battle. Audi vs. Toyota. OAK vs. OAK in LMP2, Porsche vs. Aston Martin, Porsche vs. Ferrari. The race couldn't escape the elements as rain seem to be constant throughout the twenty-four hours.

When it was all said and done, Tom Kristensen had another Le Mans victory but this one was for Allan. Aston Martin gave it there all but came up short of getting the win while Porsche picked up their 100th class victory by taking both GTE Pro and GTE Am.

Le Mans left you sober this year. There wasn't any celebration, rather a deep breath on the podium. A breath that it was over and no one else got hurt. There wasn't regret with the decision to continue but the mourning had begun once the checkers had flown. The race was over, life had resumed.

On the other nominees... It was great to finally see Tony Kanaan win the Indianapolis 500. He went for it when he had the chance. He wasn't going to wait until the last lap to make his move, he knew times wasn't on his side and after so many years of trying he had the golden opportunity for finally winning at Indianapolis and wasn't letting this one get away from him.

The four-wide finish in the Freedom 100 will go down as the greatest in Indy Lights history if not the greatest at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Right when it looked like the winner was either going to be Carlos Muñoz or Sage Karam, Gabby Chaves made it a three-horse battle and as they ran three-wide through turn three and four, Peter Dempsey was able to make a run on the outside pass everyone by the time they reached the yard of bricks.

The Malaysia Grand Prix set the bar for the 2013 season in Formula One and may have forever shaped the landscape of motorsports. Sebastian Vettel ignoring team orders not to pass Mark Webber for the lead in the closing stages of the races may have forever set in motion the departure of Webber from Red Bull and back to sports car to drive for Porsche. It exposed the ruthlessness Vettel has behind the wheel of a car to win that is hidden by the humble German he is away from the race track. But this is the ruthlessness a driver needs at the top level of motorsports. Take what you can get when you can get it. The moment you let team orders dictate your decision making is the moment you make public that you can take a back seat to anyone. Vettel wasn't going to let that be the case.

When the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series made their way to Rossburg, Ohio for the first dirt race in nearly forty-three years for a NASCAR series, it felt as NASCAR was as close to it's root as it ever had been before. It wasn't a mile and a half oval, run by a loud mouth millionaire who you know has the capability to screw you over. It wasn't a dull race that carried on for two and a half hours as everyone just walked through the steps that are a dozen pit stops and cautions for a bag of chips before it finally got serious in the final half hour. It felt as real as anything NASCAR has produced in quite some time.

Past Winners
2012: Alex Zanardi

Pass of the Year
Description: Best pass of 2013.
James Hinchcliffe by Takuma Sato in the final corner of the São Paulo Indy 300.
Peter Dempsey, from fourth to first on the outside, coming to the checkered flag to win the Firestone Freedom 100.
Robert Wickens on the outside of Adrien Tambay and Augusto Farfus, in turn two at Nürburgring in the wet on the way to his first career DTM victory.
Valentino Rossi passes Cal Crutchlow in the penultimate corner of the Indianapolis motorcycle Grand Prix.
Nicky Hayden passes his teammate Andrea Dovizioso in final corner of the Indianapolis motorcycle Grand Prix.
Bradley Smith passes Nicky Hayden and Andrea Dovizioso coming to the checkered flag for the Indianapolis motorcycle Grand Prix.
Charlie Kimball around Simon Pagenaud on lap seventy-three for the lead in turn four at Mid-Ohio.

And the winner is... A draw between Robert Wickens and Peter Dempsey
After watching both over and over again, I cannot say one was better than the other, therefore they will share the honor as pass of the year.

Wickens came on strong in the DTM in 2013. He was the top Mercedes driver for most of 2013 and really showed he belong in the DTM. After not being awarded the victory at the Norisring after Mattias Ekström's disqualification, Wickens entered the Nürburgring still looking for his first career victory. A wet race leveled the playing field as Wickens started eleventh.

He worked his way to the front and made the move around Tambay and Farfus while nearly a half minute behind leader Mike Rockenfeller but Wickens closed the gap so when Rockenfeller made his final stop, Wickens went on by and took the victory. The pass was the quintessential pass you know is possible in the wet. When it rains, the whole race track becomes a passing zone and Wickens muscled his Mercedes around the Audi of Tambay and BMW of Farfus and on to victory.

We covered the Dempsey pass and Freedom 100 finish a little bit early in this awards post but here we fully honor the pass. Dempsey was not a factor at all in the race. To be honest, it wasn't a good race at all. Muñoz and Karam ran nose to nail for most of it and everyone made their move on the final lap. It wasn't a great race by any means. As noted above, Chaves making it three-wide allowed Dempsey to catch the leaders and there was just enough of a gap on the outside for Dempsey to make a run and pull off the win. Dempsey took advantage of the gap and made a bold move. It is the pass we love to see a racer make.

On the other nominees... The battle between James Hinchcliffe and Takuma Sato and even Josef Newgarden was a good as you could ask for on a street course. The final corner at São Paulo was set up perfectly for over-under moves and Hinchcliffe performed one to perfection.

The final lap of the Indianapolis motorcycle Grand Prix gave you three great passes. Valentino Rossi forced the issue to nip the customer Yamaha of Cal Crutchlow for fourth while Nicky Hayden was trying to complete the basic objective in motorsports: beat your teammate. He wasn't going to let Andrea Dovizioso beat him, especially on home soil and threw his bike into that final corner doing what ever it was going to take to finish as the top Ducati. In doing so he opened the door for Bradley Smith to make a run and pick up two more positions but he had beat Dovizioso and that's all he wanted to do in that moment.

Charlie Kimball knew he need to run a flyer to get by Simon Pagenaud who was exiting the pit lane after completing his final stop. Kimball was on it and nearly ran completely off course. With Pagenaud on cold tires Kimball took advantage of the Frenchman in turn four and would go on to pull away and take his first career IndyCar victory in a hard fought race.

Past Winners
2012: Simon Pagenaud at Baltimore

The Eric Idle Award
Description: "Somethings in Life Are Bad. They Can Really Make You Bad. Other Things Just Make You Swear and Curse. When You're Chewing on Life's Gristle, Don't Grumble, Give a Whistle, And This'll Help Things Turn Out For The Best, and...  Always Look On The Bright Side of Life."
And the Nominees are:
Williams F1: For scoring five points all season.
McLaren: For not scoring a podium in a season for the first time since 1980.
Sam Hornish, Jr.: For losing the Nationwide Series title to a driver who didn't win a race and better yet doesn't have a ride for 2014.
Mark Webber: For a plethora of mechanical failures in 2013 and things rarely going his way.
Dani Pedrosa: For having his third different teammate win the world championship, a feat he has yet to accomplish in MotoGP.
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing: Went from a team on the verge of victory multiple times to a complete after thought.
André Lotterer: Lost Super Formula title to Naoki Yamamoto on asinine tiebreaker of who compete in more races despite Lotterer winning two races and finishing second in every race he competed in.

And the winner is... Sam Hornish, Jr.
Sam Hornish, Jr. had more wins, more top-fives, more top-tens, more laps led and finished ahead of Austin Dillon in eighteen of thirty-three races and still didn't win the NASCAR Nationwide Series title. There were three races he finished second in behind Cup teammates who weren't eligible for the Nationwide Series title and took away as many as six points away from Hornish each time. Hornish lost the title by three points. Better yet he is currently unemployed for 2014 after working his tail off in 2013 and losing the title in a faulty system. Don't worry Sam, things can get better. Yes he has three IndyCar championships and an Indianapolis 500 victory but to lose a title like this after everything points to you being the better driver has to be devastating.

On the other nominees: It was a rough season for Williams F1 but Valtteri Bottas came along strong late in 2013 and Felipe Massa appears to be a step in the right direction to get that team competing for points on more occasions.

McLaren had their worst season in thirty-three years. Sergio Pérez, the driver they hired as the future of the team prior to 2013 is gone after a rough year in a bad car. The teams heads into 2014 with the bright star that is Kevin Magnussen joining former world champion Jenson Button as the team will run their final season with Mercedes before welcoming the return of Honda to Formula One.

Mark Webber had a rough year. He couldn't catch one break while his teammate had arguably the greatest season in the history of Formula One. The good news for Webber is the drama of Formula One is behind him and he can move on to sports cars in peace.

The rope for Dani Pedrosa at Honda must be getting shorter. Almost every teammate he has had in MotoGP has won the title yet Pedrosa has yet to break through. Obviously time is running out on Pedrosa as Marc Márquez isn't even twenty-one and is open to Jorge Lorenzo becoming his teammate in 2015.

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing had a slump with Graham Rahal and James Jakes driving for the team in 2013. You would think a veteran driver paired with Rahal would get that team back on track.

André Lotterer may have lost the Super Formula title on a ridiculous tiebreaker but Lotterer is still a factory Audi driver, has two 24 Hours of Le Mans victories, a world championship and won the 2011 Formula Nippon title. He's fine.

Past Winners
2012: Ben Spies

Comeback of the Year
Description: The Best Comeback in the 2013 season.
And the Nominees are:
#60 Michael Shank Racing Ford/Riley: For coming back from seven laps down in the 24 Hours of Daytona to finish third, under a minute behind the winning #01 Telmex Chip Gannasi BMW/Riley.
Scott Dixon: Coming back from forty-nine points down with three races to go in the IndyCar season to win the title.
Sébastien Ogier: Coming back from 46.8 seconds back entering the final day of Rally Catalunya to win by 32.9 seconds over his teammate Jari-Matti Latvala.
Aston Martin Racing: For winning the GTE-Am class in four of the five races after the death of Allan Simonsen and GTE-Pro in three of five.
Gianmaria Bruni and Ferrari: From 5.5 points back of Stefan Mücke and Darren Turner in the World Cup for GT Drivers and 17.5 points back of Aston Martin in the World Cup for GT Manufactures to both winning their respective titles.

And the winner is... Michael Shank Racing
The beauty of a 24-hour endurance race is there is plenty of time to come back. When the #60 Michael Shank Racing Ford/Riley had mechanical issues they repaired the car and trudged forward. As others dropped out, the #60 made up some ground but also needed a few full course cautions to make up other chunks of time on the leaders. In the final hours, they had finally reached the leaders and were back on the lead lap, capable to fight for the win. They were leading late but needed to make one final pit stop and ultimately fell back to third in what was a tremendous effort by AJ Allmendinger, Marcos Ambrose, Oswaldo Negri, John Pew and Justin Wilson.

On the other nominees... Scott Dixon benefitted from back-to-back podiums at the Houston doubleheader while championship rival Helio Castroneves suffered back-to-back mechanical failure giving Dixon the points lead heading into the season finale at Sonoma where Dixon's persevered through a night of attrition that featured only eight cars running at the finish with Dixon being the last Honda standing.

Sébastien Ogier had locked up the World Rally Championship entering Rally Catalunya but that didn't stop him from going out for the win. The furthest back Ogier was to the leaders was sixth place, 46.8 seconds back of leader and teammate Jari-Matti Latvala. Ogier won the final four stages while Latvala's best stage finish in the final four was fourth.

Aston Martin had an emotional 2013 and did not let the death of Allan Simonsen break them. They remained strong and won eight combined classes in GTE Pro and GTE Am while Jamie Campbell-Walter and Stuart Hall took the GTE Am drivers' championship.

Gianmaria Bruni entered the final round of the FIA World Endurance Championship 17.5 back and with a new teammate for the season finale in Toni Vilander. A break came their way when the Aston Martin of Stefan Mücke and Darren Turner was forced to retire, opening the door for the Italian pair of Bruni and Ferrari to take take both the drivers' and manufactures' titles in GT.

Most Improved
Description: Racer Who Improved The Most from 2012 to 2013.
And the Nominees are:
Romain Grosjean: From a crash prone driver to a frequent visitor to the Formula One podium. From three to six podiums in 2013. Scored thirty-six more points in 2013 from 2012.
Charlie Kimball: From 19th to 9th in points with a victory and 10 top tens in 19 races.
Marco Andretti: From 16th to 5th in points. From three top tens in 2012 to fifteen top tens in 2013.
Christian Vietoris: From 12th to 4th in DTM points. Four podiums and scored points in eight of ten races, up from four in 2012.
Joey Logano: From 17th to 8th in NASCAR Points. One win highlights eleven top fives and nineteen top tens in 2013 after only two and twelve respectively in 2012.

And the winner is... Marco Andretti
Marco Andretti had a dismal 2012 but turned it around in 2013. He scored a podium in the season opener, his first on a street course, first on a road or street since 2011 and only third road or street course podium in his career. Unlike past seasons, Andretti was consistently at the front. After that podium at St. Petersburg he finished seventh at both Barber and Long Beach, got another podium at São Paulo, finished fourth at Indianapolis after leading thirty-one laps. He had his bumps in the road during 2013. A mechanical failure at Milwaukee cost him a shot at victory. Poor fuel mileage cost him at Pocono but he still finished tenth and he jumped the start in race two at Houston. Other than that, Andretti didn't make the mistakes we became accustom to seeing from him. He was a threat on each oval and his improvement on road and street courses led to him finishing a career-best fifth in points.

On the other nominees... Romain Grosjean was the second best driver in Formula One after the summer break. Unfortunately Sebastian Vettel's nine race winning streak overshadowed the Frenchman's success. Three consecutive podiums and four in the final six races of the season to go with two podiums earlier in the season capped off Grosjean's season. He is ready to take that step to the top of the podium. The only question is will Lotus be able to provide Grosjean a car capable of winning?

Charlie Kimball was the surprise winner of the IndyCar season and for the first third of the IndyCar season was the top Ganassi driver. He has matured greatly as a driver and has become a driver capable of matching the speed of anyone on the grid including champions such as Scott Dixon and Dario Franchitti.

Christian Vietoris was the top Mercedes driver in the championship standings ahead of race winner Robert Wickens and former champion Gary Paffett. Vietoris scored points in the first seven races of 2013 and picked up his first four career podiums and pole in that time frame. He doubled his finishes in the points from 2012 and has made a huge step from only one finish in the points in his rookie season in 2011.

Joey Logano became a much better all-around driver. He finished in the top ten in points for the first time in his career and finished ahead of his championship winning teammate Brad Keselowksi in the championship in his first season with Penske Racing. His win at Michigan was the highlight in his first season driving for the captain.

Past Winners
2012: Esteban Guerrieri

And that will do it for the 2013 For The Love of Indy Awards. Congratulations to all those who won an award and a further congratulations to all those who were nominated for having a terrific 2013 season. With just two weeks until 2014, the new racing season is just around the corner. AMA Supercross starts January 4th. The 2014 Dakar Rally starts the day after that and will continue for two weeks. The week after Dakar ends the 24 Hours of Daytona and the inaugural round of the United SportsCar Championship will take place. These next couple of weeks will seem slow but don't worry, racing is just around the corner just be patience, enjoy the Christmas season and take some time to reflexed on what was a phenomenal 2013 season.