Don't go to bed this Saturday night or you will miss great motorsports from across the globe. Four continents host major races as five series wind down their seasons with tight championship pictures across the board. We start at the Mount Panorama.
Bathurst 1000
V8 Supercars return for the 58th running of the Bathurst 1000. Jamie Whincup enters as the championship leader after winning last month's Sandown 500 with co-driver Paul Dumbrell. Whincup is looking for his fifth career Bathurst victory. Craig Lowndes enters second in the championship, trailing his Red Bull Racing teammate by 273 points. Lowndes is looking for his sixth Bathurst victory and his co-driver Steven Richards won his third Bathurst 1000 last year as Mark Winterbottom's co-driver.
Winterbottom has fallen from the championship lead after failing to finish in the top five since his last victory at Hidden Valley Raceway ten races ago. With the loss of Richards, Winterbottom will have Steve Owen as his co-driver. Owen is two-time Development V8 Supercars champion and finished second in the 2010 Bathurst 1000 as Whincup's co-driver. Shane van Gisbergen is fourth in the championship and will be paired with Jonathan Webb. James Courtney rounds out the top five in the championship after finishing second at Sandown. The 2010 V8 Supercars champion is still looking for his first career Bathurst victory and his co-driver will be four-time Bathurst winner Greg Murphy, who's last Bathurst victory was a decade ago with Rick Kelly.
A few other notable pairings to keep an eye on: Scott McLaughlin and Alexander Prémat are in the #33 Volvo S60 and are the best shot for the first foreign manufacture to win since Volvo's 1998 victory with Rickard Rydell and Jim Richards. Rydell is the last non-Antipodean driver to win the Bathurst 1000. Prémat could becoming the first Frenchman to win The Great Race. Garth Tander is shooting for his fourth victory with Warren Luff as his co-driver. The brothers Will and Alex Davison pair up in the #9 Erebus Motorsport Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG. Will won in 2009 as Whincup's co-driver and a victory for the brothers would be Mercedes-Benz's first at Bathurst since the second running in 1961 when Bob Jane and Harry Firth won in a 220SE.
Fabian Coulthard set the fastest time in qualifying with a lap of 2:05.6080, well beating the track record. Shane van Gisbergen made it a Kiwi 1-2, only 0.0931 seconds back. Dale Wood made it a Holden 1-2-3. Defending Bathurst winner Mark Winterbottom was fourth with Volvo driver Scott McLaughlin rounding out the top five, joining fellow Kiwis Coulthard and van Gisbergen. Jason Bright was sixth, 0.8689 seconds back of his teammate. Jack Perkins is the second fastest Ford in seventh. James Moffat was eighth, the fastest Nissan, just a little over a second back of Coulthard. Garth Tander and Craig Lowndes round out the top ten. The top 10 shootout will take place Saturday afternoon.
Championship leader and four-time Bathurst winner Jamie Whincup suffered an accident in qualifying and he will have to start from the back of the grid on Sunday.
6 Hours of Fuji
The FIA World Endurance Championship heads to Toyota's home circuit of Fuji Speedway. The #8 Toyota TS040 Hybrid of Anthony Davidson, Sébastien Buemi and Nicolas Lapierre lead the championship with two victories followed by two third place finishes. Unfortunately, Lapierre will be stepping out of the car at Fuji due to personal reasons. The Frenchman had been apart of the last two winning teams at Fuji with Alexander Wurz and Kazuki Nakajima as his co-drivers. A third driver will not join Davidson and Buemi at Fuji.
The #2 Audi R18 e-tron quattro of André Lotterer, Benoît Tréluyer and Marcel Fässler have won the last two rounds and find themselves trailing the #8 Toyota by 11 points heading to Japan. Lotterer has won the last four years at Fuji in Super Formula. Their teammates Tom Kristensen and Lucas di Grassi are a further 13 points back after three consecutive runner-up finishes. Audi has never won at Fuji and Audi has yet to win a pole position in 2014 with Toyota responsible for three and Porsche for the other.
A surprising fourth in the world championship is the #12 Rebellion Racing R-One of Nick Heidfeld, Mathias Beche and Nicolas Prost. Despite their best finish being fourth, the Swiss team is ahead of the #7 Toyota of Wurz and Stéphane Sarrazin and both Porsches. The #12 R-One trails the #8 Toyota by 48 points.
The #20 Porsche 919 Hybrid of Marc Lieb, Romain Dumas and Neel Jani is three points behind the privateer Rebellion team and two ahead of Wurz and Sarrazin. The #14 Porsche of Mark Webber, Timo Bernhard and Brendon Hartley are 70.5 points behind the championship leader despite finishing on the podium at the opening round of the season at Silverstone. Porsche's last victory at Fuji came in 1989 with Vern Schuppan, Eje Elgh and Keiji Matsumoto.
In the World Cup for GT Drivers, #51 AF Corse Ferrari drivers Gianmaria Bruni and Toni Vilander maintained their championship lead over #92 Porsche driver Frédéric Makowiecki with 25 points separating them. Fellow Porsche drivers Marco Holzer and Richard Lietz are third and fourth in the World Cup for GT Drivers. Holzer is done for the season after deciding to focus on development duties for Porsche. Lietz is slated to return after breaking his arm at the end of August in an accident at VIR in IMSA competition. The Austrian Lietz is 45 points back with Makowiecki's co-driver Patrick Pilet 51 points behind the Ferrari pairing. Lietz will be in the #91 Porsche with Jörg Bergmeister and Nick Tandy. After winning at Austin, the #97 Aston Martin drivers Darren Turner and Stefan Mücke are 52 points out of the championship lead.
LMP2 saw #27 SMP Racing Oreca-Nissan's Sergey Zlobin extended his championship lead at Austin to 27 points over the #26 G-Drive Ligier-Nissan drivers Olivier Pla, Julien Canal and Romain Rusinov. Anton Ladygin of the #37 SMP Racing Oreca-Nissan is 30 points behind his fellow Russian. After their victory in Austin, the #47 KCMG Oreca-Nissan of Matthew Howson and Richard Bradley are 33 points behind Zlobin. OAK Racing returns to WEC competition at Fuji with the #35 Morgan-Judd of Alex Brundle, Gustavo Yacamán and Keiko Ihara.
In GTE-Am, the #98 Aston Martin drivers David Heinemeier Hansson and Kristian Poulsen led the championship after alternating winning each of the odd rounds and finishing second in the even rounds. The Two Danes lead their teammates and Austin winners, the #95 Aston of Paul Dalla Lana, Christoffer Nygaard and Pedro Lamy by 33 points. Hansson and Poulsen will be joined by Nicki Thiim at Fuji. In each race they have won this season, Thiim has been their third driver.
The Spa winning GTE-Am #61 AF Corse Ferrari will see a shuffle in their driver line up. Third in the GTE-Am championship, 35 points out of the lead, Luíz Pérez Companc, Mirko Venturi and Marco Cioci will be replaced by Jeroen Bleekemolen and Americans Mike Skeen and Bret Curtis. Skeen finished runner-up in this year's Pirelli World Challenge GT championship. Bleekemolen and Curtis were supposed to be co-drivers at Le Mans this years in the #79 Prospeed Competition Porsche but Curtis suffered a concussion in practice and was unable to compete leaving Bleekemolen and Cooper MacNeil without a third driver and promoting the entry to GTE-Pro because they lacked a bronze-rated driver.
The #1 Audi led both sessions on Friday from Fuji the #2 Audi next on the time sheet. The fastest lap by the #1 Audi was a 1:27.852. The #14 Porsche was third with the #8 and #7 Toyotas rounding out the top five. Less than one and a quarter seconds covered the top five LMP1 cars. The #26 G-Drive Ligier-Nissan topped both sessions in LMP2 with their fastest lap being a 1:34.027. The #37 SMP Racing Oreca-Nissan was second in class followed by the #47 KCMG Oreca-Nissan. The #27 SMP Racing Oreca-Nissan was fourth and the #35 OAK Racing Morgan-Judd rounded out the class. Less than eight-tenths of a second covered the five LMP2 entires.
The #97 Aston Martin was quickest in GTE-Pro at a 1:39.884 with their GTE-Am counterparts the #98 and #95 Aston Martin being the next two fastest GTE cars. The #88 and #75 Prospeed Competition Porsches make it four GTE-Am cars between the fastest and second fastest GTE-Pro entries. The #88 Porsche drivers are Christian Ried, Klaus Bachler and Khaled Al Qubaisi while Emmanuel Collard, François Perrodo and Matthieu Vaxivière are in the #75 Porsche. The championship leading #51 AF Corse Ferrari are second in GTE-Pro ahead of the #92 and #91 factory Porsches. The #99 Aston Martin rounded out the top five in GTE-Pro.
Japanese motorcycle Grand Prix
Jorge Lorenzo picked up his first MotoGP victory of 2014 at Aragón two weeks ago and the Majorcan heads to Motegi as the defending winner of the Japanese Grand Prix. Marc Márquez continues to have a commanding lead in the world championship but has finished 15th and 13th in the last two races. It is the first time Márquez has had back-to-back finishes off the podium since 2011 in Moto2 when he retired at Jerez and finished 21st at Estoril. Márquez leads his Honda teammate Dani Pedrosa by 75 points. If Márquez can maintain or increase that margin between him and second in the championship, he will clinch the world title with three races to spare.
Valentino Rossi is third in the championship, 78 points back of Márquez while Lorenzo's championship aspirations remain alive after his victory at Aragón. Lorenzo is 90 points back. Andrea Dovizioso rounds out the top five, 150 points behind Márquez. Aleix Espargaró jumped his brother Pol in the championship with his first career premier class podium at Aragón. The second place finish gave Aleix a four point cushion over Pol with 112 to his credit in 2014. Pol won at Motegi last year in Moto2.
Andrea Dovizioso was fastest from Motegi with a lap of 1:45.140 ahead of Lorenzo. Stefan Bradl was third quickest. Pedrosa was fourth ahead of Rossi and Márquez. Eight-tenths covered the top six riders.
Russian Grand Prix
Lewis Hamilton extended his championship lead to 10 points over Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg after winning the Japanese Grand Prix, his seventh victory of 2014. The Mercedes-duo lead Formula One to Sochi, Russia, the first time Formula One has ever visited the country. Daniel Ricciardo is the only other driver mathematically eligible for the World Drivers' Championship. The Australian trails Hamilton by 73 points with four races to go and a maximum of 125 points remaining on the table.
Despite finishing third at Suzuka, Sebastian Vettel was eliminated from championship contention, falling two points shy of keeping his title hopes alive. The German did jump Fernando Alonso in the championship by six points. Valtteri Bottas is three points behind Alonso. Jenson Button is seventh with 82 points, six ahead of Nico Hülkenberg. Five points behind the German is Felipe Massa while Sergio Pérez rounds out the top ten, 25 points behind the Williams driver.
Kimi Räikkönen is a point behind Pérez with Kevin Magnussen six points behind the Finn. Jean-Éric Vergne sits on 21 points in his lame duck season for Toro Rosso. Romain Grosjean and Russian Daniil Kvyat had each have eight points.
The sixteenth and last driver to have scored championship points this season, Jules Bianchi is in critical but stable condition after suffering a diffuse axonal injury at the Japanese Grand Prix. Bianchi remains in the Intensive Care Unit at Mie General Medical Center. Marussia will run only Max Chilton this weekend.
The Sochi Autodrom is a 3.634-mile (5.848-kilometer) circuit featuring 19 turns, 12 right and 7 left. The circuit snakes through the Sochi Olympic Park, which hosted the XXII Winter Olympic Games earlier this February.
Lewis Hamilton was fastest on Friday with a lap of 1:39.630, over eight-tenths faster than Kevin Magnussen in second. Fernando Alonso was third with Nico Rosberg in fourth. Valtteri Bottas rounded out the top five. Just over a second back of Hamilton was Jenson Button in sixth with the second Williams of Felipe Massa in seventh. Daniil Kvyat was eighth in front of his fellow Russians. Sebastian Vettel was ninth with Jean-Éric Vergne rounding out the top ten.
Kimi Räikkönen was eleventh, exactly two seconds back of Hamilton. Nico Hülkenberg was twelfth with Daniel Ricciardo in thirteenth. The Australians session ended early after stopping on track with a mechanical issue. Sergio Pérez was fourteenth with Adrian Sutil rounding out the top fifteen. The Lotus-Renaults of Romain Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado were next on the time sheet followed by Esteban Gutiérrez. Marcus Ericsson, Max Chilton and Kamui Kobayashi were the slowest three drivers in practice.
Charlotte
Joey Logano won at Kansas Speedway and locked himself into the semifinal round of the Chase as NASCAR heads to the final night race of the 2014 season at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Second in the standings is Kyle Busch, six points behind Logano. Carl Edwards and Ryan Newman are nine points back with Denny Hamlin rounding out the top five, eleven points
Fifteen points back is Kevin Harvick and only ten points to the good. Matt Kenseth and Jeff Gordon are tied for seventh, eight points ahead of ninth in the championship, Kasey Kahne. Brad Keselowski, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and Jimmie Johnson are all on the outside looking in after tire failures at Kansas. The three trail eighth by 22, 25 and 27 points respectively.
Of the remaining Chase drivers, only five have won the fall race at Charlotte. Johnson is tied with Bobby Allison, Cale Yarborough and Mark Martin for most Charlotte fall race victories at three. Gordon has two victories in the Charlotte fall race with his last coming in 2007. Kahne, Kenseth and Keselowski are the other three winners of Charlotte fall races in the Chase with their wins coming in 2006, 2011 and 2013 respectively.
The three Hendrick drivers Johnson, Gordon and Kahne have five, three and three Coca-Cola 600 victories respectively. Kenseth's first Cup series victory was the 2000 Coca-Cola 600. Kevin Harvick is the only other driver remaining in the Chase with a points-paying win at Charlotte having won the 2011 and 2013 "600s." Three drivers only Cup victories at Charlotte have come in the All-Star Race. Earnhardt, Jr. won the 2000 All-Star Race, Newman won in 2002 and Edwards won in 2011. Johnson has a record four All-Star Race victories while Gordon has three. Kenseth, Kahne and Harvick each have one All-Star Race victory.
Taking into account the three Cup races, Logano, Busch and Hamlin are the only three Chase drivers who have never won a Cup race at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Kyle Busch will start on pole position for Saturday night's race. Jeff Gordon will start second with Denny Hamlin in third. Tony Stewart qualified fourth with his former teammate Ryan Newman rounding out the top five. Newman's Richard Childress Racing teammate Paul Menard was sixth. Kevin Harvick will start seventh with Brian Vickers in eighth. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and Carl Edwards round out the top ten.
Championship leader Joey Logano starts thirteenth while his Penske teammate Brad Keselowski will start seventeenth. Kasey Kahne will start nineteenth. Jimmie Johnson and Matt Kenseth will start on row eleven and are the worst starting Chase drivers.
Coverage
The NASCAR race from Charlotte can be seen at 7:30 p.m. ET Saturday night on ABC.
Fox Sports 1's coverage of MotoGP from Motegi will begin at 12:00 a.m. ET Sunday morning (9:00 p.m. PT Saturday night).
Coverage of the Russian Grand Prix from Sochi will begin at 6:30 a.m. ET on NBCSN.
Over/Unders
1. Over or Under: Six hours and twenty minutes to complete the Bathurst 1000?
2. Over or Under: 215.5 laps completed at Fuji?
3. Over or Under: 2.5 Open entries in the top eight at Fuji?
4. Over or Under: 5.5 Mercedes-powered cars in the points at Sochi? They had seven of eight in the points at Suzuka.
5. Over or Under: 5.5 Chevrolets in the top ten at Charlotte?
Last Week's Over/Unders
1. Over: 69 laps were run behind the safety car at Petit Le Mans.
2. Under: Margin of victory in GT500 in Thailand was 1.980 seconds.
3. Over: Aprilia riders combined for four podiums at Magny-Cours.
4. Under: No Frenchman finished on the podium for their home rally.
5. Under: Only 44 laps were run at Suzuka.
Predictions
1. There is a first time Bathurst 1000 winner this weekend.
2. We will see some rain at Fuji.
3. Jorge Lorenzo extends his consecutive podium streak to seven races.
4. McLaren exits Sochi ahead of Force India in the Constructors' Championship.
5. At least two Chase drivers will suffer tire failures at Charlotte.
Last Week's Predictions
1. A Corvette wins in GTLM. (Wrong. Team Falken Tire Porsche won GTLM at Petit).
2. There will be at least one new championship leader in Super GT. (Correct. James Rossiter took the GT500 lead in Thailand).
3. A Frenchman wins at Magny-Cours. (Correct. Sylvain Guintoli won race one at Magny-Cours).
4. Sébastien Ogier wins the most stages this weekend. (Wrong. Jari-Matti Latvala won the most stages).
5. Going out on a limb, Sebastian Vettel wins at Suzuka. (Wrong. Lewis Hamilton won. Vettel finished third).
Overall: 2/5. Running Tally: 9.5/20
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