The first season of the United Sports Car Championship concludes with Petit Le Mans and three championships on the line. Super GT heads to Thailand. France hosts two major championships that are coming to a close and Formula One returns to Suzuka with a tight battle at the top of the championship.
Petit Le Mans
The inaugural United SportsCar Championship comes to a close with Petit Le Mans from Road Atlanta on Saturday. Three of four class championships are still up in the air. João Barbosa and Christian Fittipaldi lead the Prototype championship standings with 316 points. The #5 Action Express Corvette DP has three victories, seven podiums and their worst finish this season was sixth at Belle Isle. Twenty-two points behind Barbosa and Fittipaldi are Ricky and Jordan Taylor who have one victory and three runner-up finishes this season. A point behind the Taylor brothers is the Spirit of Daytona pairing of Richard Westbrook and Michael Valiante. Gannasi's Scott Pruett and OAK Racing's Gustavo Yacamán are tied for fourth in the championship, both trailing the championship leaders by 30 points.
Only 11 cars are entered in the P class for Petit Le Mans as Extreme Speed Motorsports has pulled their entries to focus on competing in the FIA World Endurance Championship round in Shanghai on November 2nd. Sébastien Bourdais joins Barbosa and Fittipaldi for Petit as the trio looks to bookend the 2014 season with victory after taking the season-opening 24 Hours of Daytona in January. Max Angelelli teams with the Taylor brothers while Mike Rockenfeller returns to Spirit of Daytona. Scott Dixon will join Pruett and Memo Rojas in the #01 Ganassi Ford-Riley and Alex Brundle and Ho-Pin Tung team with Yacáman in the #42 Ligier JS P2- Honda.
Fun fact: An American has never been apart of a overall Petit Le Mans winner. Five-times has an American finished second overall at Petit (Bill Auberlen in 1999, Chris Dyson in 2005, Patrick Long in 2007 and Scott Tucker in 2012 and 2013). While an American has never won overall at Petit Le Mans, the last five overall winners at Petit have included a Frenchman.
In GTLM, Jonathan Bomarito and Kuno Wittmer took the championship lead after winning their second race of 2014 at Austin, however Bomarito and Wittmer will be split up for Petit Le Mans. Wittmer will move to the #91 and join Marc Goossens while Dominik Farnbacher will join Bomarito behind the wheel of the #93 Viper. Farnbacher and Goossens enter 17 points behind their teammates.
Bomarito and Wittmer have a seven-point advantage over Antonio García. The #3 Corvette driver along with his teammate Jan Magnussen won four consecutive races from Long Beach to Mosport earlier this season but have not been on the podium outside of those victories this year. Bill Auberlen and Andy Priaulx are 24 points back while their RLLR BMW teammates Dirk Müller and John Edwards are another point back. Porsche drivers Michael Christensen and Patrick Long are 30 back of Bomarito and Wittmer.
Robert Bell will join the #93 Viper while Ryan Hunter-Reay returns in the #91. Ryan Briscoe is listed as the third driver for both the #3 and #4 Corvette. Joey Hand joins Auberlen and Priaulx while Dirk Werner joins Müller and Edwards.
Dane Cameron has a four-point lead over Leh Keen and Cooper MacNeil with Townsend Bell and Bill Sweedler seven points back. Cameron has won a class-high four times in the #94 Turner Motorsport BMW Z4. Christopher Haase and Bryce Miller trail Cameron by 16 points while Cameron's co-driver Markus Palttala and Magnus Racing's John Potter 17 points back. Palttala missed Indianapolis, hence why he and Cameron have different point totals. Potter's co-driver Andy Lally did not meet the required driving time to score points at Road America.
Paul Dalla Lana will become Turner's third driver for Petit Le Mans. Craig Stanton will run with Keen and MacNeil in Alex Job Racing's Porsche. Conrad Grunewald teams with Bell and Sweedler in the AIM Autosport Ferrari. Haase and Miller will be joined by Matthew Bell in the Paul Miller Racing Audi. Marco Seefried rounds out the Magnus Racing Porsche with Potter and Lally.
The Prototype Challenge class is wrapped up. Colin Braun and Jon Bennett have clinched that title for CORE Autosport. James Gue will join Braun and Bennett at Road Atlanta. Starworks driver Renger van der Zande is second in the championship, 13 points ahead of his teammate Martin Fuentes. van der Zande will be joined by Mirco Shultis and Alex Popow in the #8 Starworks Oreca. Fuentes will have three co-drivers in the #7 Starworks Oreca, John Martin, Ryan Eversley and Adam Merzon.
Buriram Dangerous
Super GT heads to Thailand for the first time in the series history as the Buriram United International Circuit hosts it's first major race. Tsugio Matsuda and Ronnie Quintarelli lead the GT500 championship with 60 points in the #23 NISMO Nissan GT-R. They are four points ahead of #37 KeePer TOM's Lexus RC-F of Andrea Caldarelli and Daisuke Ito. Matsuda and Quintarelli won at Autopolis in June and has finished second in the last two races. Caldarelli and Ito won the season opener at Okayama in April with their only other podium being a second at Sportsland SUGO in July.
João Paulo de Oliveira and Hironobu Yasuda are 11 points back in the #12 Team Impul Nissan GT-R. Naoki Yamamoto and James Rossiter are tied for fourth in the GT500 championship, 13 behind the #23 NISMO pairing. Yamamoto won at Fuji in August and will be paired with Porsche factory driver Frédéric Makowiecki in the #18 Dome Racing Honda NSX-GT at Buriram. Rossiter is coming off winning the Suzuka 1000km and he will be joined by Kazuki Nakajima for the fourth consecutive round in the #36 Petronas Tom's Lexas RC-F.
In GT300, Tatsuya Kataoka and Nobuteru Taniguchi continue to the lead the championship in the #4 BMW Z4 GT3 with 56 points. They won the first two rounds of the season at Okayama and Fuji. They are two points ahead of the #11 Gainer Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 drivers Katsuyuki Hiranaka and Björn Wirdheim. Thirteen points back is the #7 BMW Sports Team Trophy Team Studie of 2004 24 Hours of Le Mans winner Seiji Ara and Jörg Müller.
Nevers Magny Cours
World Superbike returns after yet another month off for their penultimate round at Circuit de Nevers Magny Cours. Kawasaki's Tom Sykes is looking for his second consecutive title as he leads the championship by 31 points over Aprilia rider Sylvain Guintoli. Honda rider Jonathan Rea is third, 67 points back of his fellow Brit. Marco Melandri is 85 points back with Sykes' Kawasaki teammate Loris Baz the last rider mathematically eligible for the title, trailing Sykes by 90 points.
Sykes has eight victories in 2014, sweeping three weekends this season (Aragón, Donington and Misano). Guintoli has finished runner-up for four consecutive races and has finished runner-up in seven races since his last victory this season at Assen in April. The Frenchman's other victory came at Phillip Island, the season opening round in February. Rea has four victories this season, three coming consecutively at Assen and Imola. Since sweeping Imola, Rea has one win and two podiums from 12 races. Melandri has won three of the last four races and five total this season. Baz matches his fellow countryman Guintoli with seven runner-up finishes this season but unlike Guintoli, Baz has yet to win in 2014.
Last year, Sykes swept the weekend at Magny-Cours while Guintoli and Eugene Laverty alternated second and third in race one and race two.
Alsace
The World Rally Championships enters their antepenultimate round of the 2014 season, Rallye de France Alsace. Sébastien Ogier leads his Volkswagen teammate Jari-Matti Latvala by 50 points as the Frenchman could clinch his second consecutive World Rally title in his homeland. Ogier is the defending winner of Rallye de France Alsace and a Frenchman has won all four editions of the race. However, Sébastien Loeb has won the two editions to take place in even years while Ogier's victories have come in odd years.
Andreas Mikkelsen makes it a 1-2-3 for Volkswagen in the championship, 89 points back of his teammate Ogier. M-Sport Ford's Mikko Hirvonen and Hyundai's Thierry Neuville round out the top five in the championship. Neuville's victory at Rallye Deutschland is the only round not won by Volkswagen this season. Citroën's Mads Østberg is five points back of the Belgian Neuville. Citroën has put at least one representative on the Rallye de France Alsace podium in the previous four editions.
Japanese Grand Prix
For the 26th time, Formula One heads to Suzuka for the Japanese Grand Prix. Lewis Hamilton took the championship lead after winning the Singapore Grand Prix while his teammate Nico Rosberg retired due to electrical issues. Hamilton enters with a three-point advantage over Rosberg. Daniel Ricciardo remained third in the championship with a third place finish at Singapore, 60 points back of Hamilton. Fernando Alonso is fourth, 108 points back with Sebastian Vettel rounding out the top five, trailing Hamilton by 117 points. Valtteri Bottas is the final driver mathematically eligible for the championship. The Finn is 119 points back.
Vettel has won four of the last five Japanese Grand Prix. Since returning to Suzuka, Vettel has led 183 of 265 laps run in the Japanese Grand Prix. Vettel's worst finish at Suzuka is third. Hamilton's lone Japanese Grand Prix victory came at Fuji Speedway in monsoon-like conditions in 2007. Alonso has two Japanese Grand Prix victories, one at Suzuka in 2006 and one at Fuji in 2008. Jenson Button and Kimi Räikkönen are the only two other drivers on the grid to have won in the Land of the Rising Sun. If either Alonso or Räikkönen were to win at Suzuka, it would be Ferrari's first victory in Japan since Michael Schumacher won in 2004.
Rosberg's best finish in Japan is fifth, coming in 2009 at Suzuka and has failed to finish in the points in five of eight Japanese Grand Prix starts. In three Japanese Grand Prix starts, Ricciardo has finished in the points once, a tenth place finish in 2012.
Typhoon Phanfone is barring down on Japan and is scheduled to make landfall race day. The race could be cancelled if conditions are too severe. The teams are scheduled to pack up and fly to Sochi, Russia on Monday as there is no off week between the two events.
Coverage
Coverage of Petit Le Mans begins Saturday at 11:00 a.m. ET on IMSA.com with Fox Sports 2 picking up coverage at 3:00 p.m. ET.
NBCSN's coverage of the Japanese Grand Prix begins at 1:30 a.m. ET Sunday morning.
Over/Under
1. Over or Under: 42.5 laps under full-course caution at Petit Le Mans?
2. Over or Under: 7.5 seconds as margin of victory in GT500 at Buriram?
3. Over or Under: 3.5 podium finishes for Aprilia riders at Magny-Cours?
4. Over or Under: 1.5 Frenchmen on the podium for Rallye de France Alsace?
5. Over or Under: 52.5 laps run at Suzuka?
Last Week's Over/Unders
1. Over: Two Japanese drivers were on the podium as Tomoki Nojiri and Kazuki Nakajima went 1-2.
2. Under: Mattias Ekström was the lone Audi on the Zandvoort podium but did Audi their first win of 2014.
3. Over: Raphael Matos got his first career victory at Santa Cruz do Sul.
4. Under: Cal Crutchlow was the lone Ducati in the top five as he finished third.
5. Over: The average green flag run at Dover was 62.8 laps.
Predictions
1. A Corvette wins in GTLM.
2. There will be at least one new championship leader in Super GT.
3. A Frenchman wins at Magny-Cours.
4. Sébastien Ogier wins the most stages this weekend.
5. Going out on a limb, Sebastian Vettel wins at Suzuka.
Last Week's Predictions
1. There will be a new Super Formula championship leader after Sportsland SUGO. (Correct. Kazuki Nakajima took a 4-point lead over João Paulo de Oliveira).
2. Second time is the charm, Audi gets their first DTM victory of 2014 at Zandvoort. (Correct as Mattias Ekström won)
3. Someone whose first name begins with the letter "R" will win a race at Santa Cruz do Sul. (Correct as Raphael Matos picked up his first career victory in race two).
4. Nicky Hayden scores a top ten finish on his MotoGP return from wrist surgery. (Correct as the Kentucky Kid took advantage of wet conditions to come home ninth).
5. Greg Biffle advances to round two of the Chase. (Wrong as Biffle was eliminated).
Overall: 4/5. Running Tally: 7.5/15.
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