Since the IndyCar season is over, a new feature for this blog. Each Friday from now through probably November, we will take a look at five series who are wrapping up their championships and go over their championship pictures and where they are competing this weekend.
We will start with the premiere event for Formula E
Formula E
It is finally here. The all-electric, zero-emissions Formula E is set to go from the Beijing Olympic Park. Ten teams of two will fight to join the likes of Nino Farina, Louis Chevrolet, Jim Roper and Harold Daniell as winners of the inaugural races of notable motorsports series.
The top team from testing was e.dams with current Toyota factory driver Sébastien Buemi and Rebellion Racing driver Nicolas Prost leading the way. Franck Montagny was third quickest testing driving for Andretti Autosport. He will be joined by fellow Frenchman and former Caterham F1 driver Charles Pic who was only announced as the second Andretti driver a few days ago.
Mahindra Racing's Bruno Senna was next quickest during testing and he is joined by his 2008 GP2 Arden International teammate Karun Chandhok. Both were in the top ten in the final test. The German Audi Sport Abt team will be lead by Audi factory driver Lucas di Grassi being joined by current GP2 driver and son of Audi Sport Abt owner Hans-Jürgen Abt, Daniel Abt.
Virgin Racing returns to racing after leaving Formula One in 2011 with Sam Bird and Jaime Alguersuari. Bird has spent most of 2014 driving for AF Corse Ferrari while Alguersuari has been out of motorsports since being released by Scuderia Toro Rosso after the 2011 Formula One season. The second American team on the grid is Dragon Racing. Former Virgin Racing and Lotus-Renault driver Jérôme d'Ambrosio is joined by Oriol Servià. Mike Conway was initially set to race for Dragon but withdrew after deciding to focus on his role in Toyota's LMP1 program.
The Monegasque Venturi Racing has Nick Heidfeld and Stéphane Sarrazin as their drivers. Heldfeld holds the record for most podiums in Formula One without a victory at 13 and most second place finishes in Formula One without a victory at 8. Sarrazin has finished on the overall podium at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in the last five editions ran on a odd-numbered year but has yet to win the French classic. The home team for Beijing will be China Racing with drivers Ho-Pin Tung and Nelson Piquet, Jr.
Jarno Trulli makes his return to competitive motorsports with his own TrulliGP. He last competed for then-Team Lotus (now Caterham F1) in the 2011 Formula One season and he will be joined by fellow Italian and AutoGP World Series race winner Michela Cerruti. Finally, Super Best Friends is back as Super Aguri will field cars for Katherine Legge and Takuma Sato. Sato is only in for Beijing as full-time Aguri driver António Félix da Costa is in Germany on DTM duty.
Which transitions us into the DTM preview...
DTM
A coronation ceremony is tentative for Sunday afternoon from EuroSpeedway Lausitz. BMW driver Marco Wittmann can clinch the title with two rounds in hand with a finish of fourth or better. The DTM sophomore has four victories from seven races and leads Audi drivers, two-time DTM champion Mattias Ekström and two-time DTM race winner Edoardo Mortara by 56 points. Audi has yet to win this year despite having three of the top five in the championship. Defending DTM champion Mike Rockenfeller is fourth in the championship with 2012 DTM champion Bruno Spengler rounding out the top five.
Mercedes has won ten of fourteen races at EuroSpeedway Lausitz. Gary Paffett is the defending race winner and sits tied for second-to-last in the championship with António Félix da Costa on four points. Vitaly Petrov is the lone driver yet to score in 2014.
Pirelli World Challenge
Pirelli World Challenge has their season finale this weekend from Miller Motorsports Park in Tooele, Utah. Johnny O'Connell is looking for his third consecutive GT championship and he leads Mike Skeen by 42 points points heading into the final doubleheader of 2014. Both drivers have three victories but O'Connell has not won since Belle Isle in June while all three of Skeen's victory have come after Belle Isle, the most recent being at Sonoma three weeks ago. Anthony Lazzaro is third in the championship, 160 points back.
Andy Pilgram and Andrew Palmer are the final two drivers mathematically eligible for the title trailing O'Connell by 218 and 252 points respectively. Both will need a lot of help to over take the three drivers in front of them. Pilgram is still looking for his first victory in 2014.
GTS is a three-horse race. Kia driver Mark Wilkins leads defending GTS champion, Chevrolet driver Lawson Aschenbach by 80 points with Porsche driver Jack Baldwin 194 points back of the Canadian. Aschenbach has the most victories in GTS this season with four and has won three of the last four races. Wilkins and Baldwin each have two victories. Fourth and fifth in the GTS championship, Dean Martin and Nic Jönsson each have three GTS victories in 2014.
European Le Mans Series
The penultimate round of the European Le Mans Series season takes place from Circuit Paul Ricard. Winners from the most recent round at the Red Bull Racing, Signatech Alpine-Nissan drivers Nelson Panciatici, Oliver Webb and Paul-Loup Chatin lead in the LMP2 championship by four points over the 2014 24 Hours of Le Mans LMP2 class winning Jota Sport Zytek-Nissan. Filipe Albuquerque, Harry Tincknell and Simon Dolan are the Jota Sport drivers and were winners at the ELMS round at Imola in May. Michel Frey and Franck Mailleux are third in the LMP2 championship driving the Race Performance Oreca-Judd. Silverstone winners, Thiriet by TDS Racing Ligier-Nissan drivers Ludovic Badey, Pierre Thiriet and Tristan Gommendy are fourth in the championship.
In GTE, AF Corse Ferrari drivers Duncan Cameron and defending GTE championship Matt Griffin have two victories and lead the championship by three points over the #72 SMP Racing Ferrari of Andrea Bertolini, Sergey Zlobin and Viktor Shaitar. Cameron and Griffin's fellow AF Corse co-driver Michele Rugolo is third in the championship after missing the Imola round. Cameron, Griffin and Rugolo won Silverstone and Red Bull Ring while the #72 SMP Racing Ferrari won at Imola.
Despite finishing runner-up in all three races so far in 2014, the #73 SMP Racing Ferrari of Olivier Beretta, Anton Ladygin and David Markozov lead the GTC championship by 11.5 points. The Danes Johnny Laursen and Mikkel Mac are second int he championship and will be joined by Jan Magnussen this weekend in their Formula Racing Ferrari. Laursen and Mac won at Imola with Italian Andrea Piccini as their third driver. The #71 SMP Racing Ferrari of Aleksey Basov, Kirill Ladygin and Luca Persiani are third in the championship, 13 points back of their teammates, after winning at Red Bull Ring.
World Rally Championship
Sébastien Ogier leads the World Rally Championship to Australia for the preantepenultimate round for 2014. After suffering his first retirement since Spain 2012 in Germany, Ogier's championship lead remained 44 points over Volkswagen teammate Jari-Matti Latvala as the Finn also retired.
After one day in Australia, Ogier leads by 0.4 seconds over Latvala. Third Volkswagen driver Andreas Mikkelsen trails Ogier by 3.5 seconds. Citroën driver Kris Meeke is fourth, 4.1 seconds back. Ogier won four of eighth stages on day one with Latvala and Meeke each getting two victories. M-Sport Ford driver Mikko Hirvonen rounds out the top five, 7.9 seconds back of the Frenchman.
New Zealander Hayden Paddon is the top Hyundai driver sitting sixth after day one but trails Ogier by 46.4 seconds back. Mads Østberg is seventh, 50.3 seconds back. Robert Kubica is eighth, the last driver within a minute of Ogier, 57.6 second back. M-Sport driver Elfyn Evans is ninth with Rallye Deutschland winner Thierry Neuville in tenth, over two minutes back. Neuville's victory in Germany was the first of his career and first for Hyundai. Australian Chris Atkinson is eleventh, over 41 seconds back of his Hyundai teammate Neuville in tenth.
Entering Rally Australia, the only other driver eligible for the championship beside Ogier and Latvala was Mikkelsen, guaranteeing a Volkswagen driver will be champion for the second consecutive year.
Coverage
The premiere Formula E race will be at 3:30 a.m. ET on Fox Sports 1 with the race starting at 4:00 a.m. ET.
Pirelli World Challenge races today at 6:50 p.m. ET and Saturday at 4:15 p.m. ET. Both races can be seen on World-ChallegeTV.com.
A live stream of the 4 Hours of Paul Ricard can be seen at 7:00 a.m. ET Sunday on the European Le Mans Series website.
Predictions
I will make one prediction for each series.
1. The premiere Formula E race will be won by Bruno Senna with the e.dams drivers in tow.
2. Marco Wittmann locks up the championship while Audi gets their first win of 2014.
3. Johnny O'Connell and Lawson Aschenbach win the GT and GTS championships in Pirelli World Challenge.
4. There will be new championship leaders in LMP2 and GTC after Paul Ricard.
5. Chris Atkinson scores points his home rally.
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