Friday Finales: Homebush, Sepang, Thunderhill

Despite being in the final month of the year, a few races are still on the docket. While championships are already decided, the show must go on and schedule run to their completion. Two series wrap up their 2014 seasons while the final American endurance race of the year takes place in Southern California. There are some interesting storylines as a former champion returns home and a who's who of drivers from sports cars, NASCAR and IndyCar compete in the longest races in the United States.

Homebush

The final round of the 2014 V8 Supercars takes place on the streets of Sydney Olympic Park but the title has already been locked up. Jaime Whincup clinched a record-setting sixth V8 Supercars championship at Phillip Island three weeks ago when the Red Bull Racing Holden driver finished third, first and fourth. Whincup leads Mark Winterbottom by 452 points with 300 points left on the table at Sydney. Winterbottom finished third in the final two races of the Phillip Island weekend. Those were his first podiums since victory at Hidden Valley in the middle of June. 

Trailing Winterbottom by 95 points is Whincup's teammate Craig Lowndes with the Kiwi Shane Van Gisbergen 39 points back of Lowndes. Volvo driver Scott McLaughlin jumped into the top five after winning two of three at Phillip Island. Fabian Coulthard makes it tic-tac-toe, three Kiwis in a row as he is sixth in the championship, fifteen behind McLaughlin. Bathurst 1000 winner Chaz Mostert is seven points behind Coulthard with James Courtney eight points back of Mostest in eighth. Courtney's Holden Racing teammate Garth Tander is a point behind him. Nissan driver Michael Caruso rounds out the top ten, 189 points back of Tander. 

For the first time since November 27, 2005, Marcos Ambrose will run a V8 Supercars race. The two-time champion returns after nine seasons in NASCAR. Ambrose will return to full-time V8SC competition in 2015 driving for a partnership between Dick Johnson Racing and Team Penske. Ambrose won the last two V8SC races he competed in, both at Phillip Island. This will be his first time driving the Homebush Street Circuit. Ambrose will drive the #66 Ford this weekend.

This is the sixth year V8SC will run the Homebush circuit. Lowndes is the only driver to have multiple victories on the circuit with two. Last year, Whincup and Van Gisbergen won at Homebush. Other winners at the track include Tander, Courtney, Jonathon Webb, Lee Holdsworth, Winterbottom and Will Davison. Holden has won six of ten races at the track with Ford taking the other four. This will be Volvo's first race at Homebush. Nissan and Mercedes-Benz made their debuts last year with Caruso scoring Nissan's best finish in seventh and Tim Slade scoring Mercedes' best finish in eighth, both coming in race one. 

Asian Le Mans Series

The fourth and final round of the 2014 Asian Le Mans Series season will take place at Sepang International Circuit with eight cars entered for the 3 Hours of Sepang.

OAK Racing already clinched the title with the #1 Morgan-Judd and drivers David Cheng and Ho-Pin Tung. They have won all three races entering the season finale and will be joined by Yuan Bo at Sepang. The only other car entered in LMP2 is the #27 Eurasia Motorsport Oreca-Judd of John Hartshorne, Pu Jun Jin and James Winslow. 

Two cars are entered in the CN class as the #77 Craft-Bamboo Racing Ligier of Samson Chan and Kevin Tse have won all three races and have already clinched the title. Chan and Tse will be joined by Jonathan Venter for Sepang. The other car in class is the #21 Team Avelon Formula Wolf GB08 with drivers Denis Lian and Sean Hudspeth. 

GT features four cars and the title is still up for grabs. The #91 Team AAI BMW Z4 GT3 of Jun San Chen and Tatsuya Tanigawa lead their teammates, the #92 Team AAI BMW Z4 GT3 of Morris Chen and Marco Seefried by three points. Morris Chen and Seefried won the opening round at Inje, South Korea while Jun San Chen and Tanigawa won the second round at Fuji. Ollie Millroy will be the third driver in the #91 and Ryohei Sakaguchi will be the third in the #92. The third Team AAI entry, the #90 Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 of Yu Lam, Takeshi Tsuchiya and Takamitsu Matsui still have a shot at the title. They sit 22 points back with 26 left on the table. To win the title, they will need to win and have their two teammates to retire from the race. 

The final GT entry is the #33 Clearwater Racing Ferrari 458 Italia GT3 of Matt Griffin, Richard Wee and Mok Weng Sun. Griffin and Sun won at Shanghai with Keita Sawa as the third driver. Clearwater Racing won last year at Sepang.

25 Hours of Thunderhill

The race isn't as commonly known as the Indianapolis 500 or the Daytona 500 but the 25 Hours of Thunderhill provides a plethora of automobiles and experienced drivers. 

Names such as Kurt Busch, Al Unser, Jr., Colin Braun, Alex Lloyd, Mike Skeen, Sean Rayhall, Davy Jones and MLB all-star pitcher C.J. Wilson are just a few of the names entered for the 25 Hours of Thunderhill. 

Two cars to keep an eye on belong to Davidson Racing. The #16 DR Eagle features former IndyCar and NASCAR driver Anthony Lazzaro, 24 Hours of Daytona GT-class winner Dion von Moltke, IMSA veteran Burt Frisselle and Chris Lock. Davidson's #17 Norma M20F BMW will feature Brian Frisselle, former Indy Lights champion and IndyCar Rookie of the Year Alex Lloyd, four-time Pirelli World Challenge champion Randy Pobst, Kyle Marcelli, Dominic Cicero and Bob Davidson. The #16 is in the ES class with the #17 in the ESR class. 

ESR also features two Radicals entered by One Motorsports with Prototype Challenge regulars. Colin Braun leads the #48 Crowd Strike/One Motorsports Radical SR3 with Dave House, George Kurtz and Gerhard Watzinger rounding out the lineup. Sean Rayhall will be in the #62 Team Vegas/Disk Tech/One Motorsports SR3 with Jesse Menacer, John Falb and Todd Slusher.

Another ESR class entry to keep an eye on is the #52 JFC Racing Wolf GB08-ASR led by two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Al Unser, Jr. He will be joined by Ivan Bellarosa, Miles Jackson and Phil Fogg, Jr.

Duncan Ende leads the ESR class #88 Green Alternative Motorsports Norma M20F with James Paul, Robert Calisi and Stephan Zadig as his fellow co-driver.

Davy Jones, winner of the 1996 24 Hours of Le Mans leads the #4 Prototype Development Group Factory 5 GTM with Paul Edwards, Mike Holland and Steven Lisa rounding out the driver line-up. They will compete in the ES class.

Pirelli World Challenge runner-up Mike Skeen will be in the ES class #O3 Team Quick Racing Products Superlite SLC with Ryan Eversely, Darrell Anderson and Chris Durbin.

Kurt Busch will compete in the #61 BF Goodrich Road Shagger Racing BMW M3 in the E0 class. His co-drivers are Gavin Ernstone, Jon Morley and Robbie Montinola. PWC driver Vesko Kozarov will lead E0 class #33 CA Sport/Skullcandy Team Nissan with his co-drivers being Lara Tallman, Aaron Pfadt and Bryan Heitkotter.

Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim pitchers C.J. Wilson will compete in the #55 Mazdaspeed Dealers A Mazda 6 Diesel. His co-drivers are Joel Weinberger, Richard Fisher and Taz Harvey in the E1 class entry.

Possibly my favorite entry is the #54 Motorsports Services Seat León Supercopa from Hamilton, New Zealand. The ES class entry will be driven by Clint Harvey, Daniel Stutterd, Malcolm Niall and Mark Pilatti.

The race begins at 11:00 a.m. PT (2:00 p.m. ET) Saturday and will end at noon (3:00 p.m. ET) Sunday.

Over/Unders

1. Over or Under: 1.5 podiums for an international manufactures at Homebush?

2. Over or Under: 5.5 laps between the overall winner and the GT class winner at Sepang?

3. Over or Under: 1.5 cars running over 700 laps at Thunderhill?

Last Week's Over/Unders

1. Under: Zero Russian drivers won in LMP2 as KCMG won with two Brits and a Swiss driver.

2. Over: Five cars finished on the lead lap.

3. Over: The winning GTE-Pro Aston Martin ran 221 laps.

4. Over: Two Aston Martins finished in the top two of GTE-Am.
5. Over: Nine Chevrolets finished in the top ten at Curitiba.

Predictions

1. Craig Lowndes finishes ahead of Mark Winterbottom in the final championship standings.
2. OAK Racing completes the perfect season.
3. One of the 12 teams I featured above wins at least their class at Thunderhill.

Last Week's Predictions

1. The G-Drive trio of Olivier Pla, Julien Canal and Romain Rusinov hold off Sergey Zlobin for the LMP2 crown (Wrong. G-Drive retired, handing the title to Zlobin).

2. Tom Kristensen ends his career on the top step of the podium (Wrong but Kristensen did finish 3rd).

3. Aston Martin wins pole position in GTE-Pro (Correct).

4. Emerson Fittipaldi does not finish on the GTE-Am podium (Correct).
5. Rubens Barrichello wins the Stock Car Brasil title (Correct). 

Overall: 3/5. Running Tally: 34.5/62