This weekend the calendar will not only switch from September to October but it sees a pair of antepenultimate rounds on two wheels, a final endurance race, the final edition of a Formula One grand prix and the final race of this round for the NASCAR Chase.
World Superbikes
Three rounds remain in the World Superbikes championship and three riders remain alive for the championship but Jonathan Rea could clinch his third consecutive championship this weekend at Magny-Cours.
The Kawasaki rider holds a 120-point lead over teammate Tom Sykes and if Rea outscores Sykes by five points in the opening race of the weekend he will clinch the championship with five races to go. If Rea holds a 100-point lead after this weekend he will also clinch the championship. Rea has won 11 of the first 20 races and he has stood on the podium 19 times. Sykes has won twice this season and has been on the podium 14 times. Sykes missed the last race at Portimão after a practice accident.
Chaz Davies trails Rea by 135 points with 150 points remaining on the table. Davies has won six times this season and the Ducati rider swept last year's races at Magny-Cours while Rea finished fourth and second in the respective races and Sykes finished third in both races. Rea swept the Magny-Cours round in 2015. Marco Melandri is the only non-British rider to win a race this season. He won the second race at Misano.
American Jake Gagne replaces the injured Stefan Bradl at the Red Bull Honda World Superbike Team. Gagne made his debut at Laguna Seca and finished 15th in both races.
Rea could become the first rider to win three consecutive World Superbike titles and he would tie Troy Bayliss for second-most all-time in World Superbike championships. Rea is one victory away from becoming the third rider to have won 50 World Superbike races. Carl Fogarty is the all-time leader on 59 victories and Bayliss won 52 races.
Race one of the weekend will be at 7:00 a.m. ET on Saturday September 30th with race two taking place at 7:00 a.m. ET on Sunday October 1st.
World Supersport
Kenan Sofuoglu took the World Supersport championship lead with his victory in the most recent race at Portimão. Despite missing the first two races due to injury and retiring from the third race of the season, the Turkish rider has 145 points off the back of five victories and a second place finish. The Kawasaki rider is gunning for his third consecutive championship and a record extending sixth World Supersport championship.
Four points back of Sofuoglu is Yamaha rider Lucas Mahias. The French rider won at Aragón earlier this season and he has finished on the podium in seven of nine races this season. Fellow Yamaha rider, South African Sheridan Morias is third in the championship on 114 points. Morais won at Lausitzring two rounds ago but his only other podium finish this season was a second at Aragón. Honda rider Jules Cluzel has four podium finishes this season and he is fourth in the championship on 104 points but Cluzel has yet to win a race this season. American P.J. Jacobsen has a shout for the championship but he trails by 66 points with 75 points left on the table. Jacobsen's only podium finishes this season was a pair of thirds at Aragón and Imola.
Sofuoglu has retired from two of the last three Magny-Cours races. He does have two victories at the track, which came in 2007 and 2013. Cluzel won last year's race at Magny-Cours and he also won at the track in 2012 and 2014. Jacobsen's most recent victory was at Magny-Cours two years ago.
The World Supersport race will be at 5:30 a.m. ET on Sunday October 1st.
Blancpain Endurance Series
The final round of the Blancpain Endurance Series and the Blancpain GT Series takes place this weekend with a three-hour race at Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona.
Two teams are fighting for the Blancpain Endurance Series. The #8 Bentley Team M-Sport Bentley of Vincent Abril, Andy Soucek and Maxime Soulet lead the championship with 79 points. The #8 Bentley won at Circuit Paul Ricard and finished second at the 24 Hours of Spa. The team finished sixth at Monza, fifth at Silverstone and was fifth at the six-hour mark and 12-hour mark in the 24 Hours of Spa, which paid points.
Eight points behind the #8 Bentley is the #63 GRT Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini of Mirko Bortolotti, Andrea Caldarelli and Christian Engelhart. The Italian-German trio won the first two races of the season at Monza and Silverstone and was second at the six-hour mark at Spa and leading at the 12-hour mark but retired from that race and finished 13th at Circuit Paul Ricard.
In the overall Blancpain GT Series championship, Bortolotti and Engelhart lead Abril by 22 points with 138 points to 116 points. Bortolotti and Engelhart scored 67 points in the Blancpain Sprint Series season and won two races while Abril scored 37 points in the sprint series and his best finish in the sprint series was second and Abril finished outside the points in six of the ten sprint races.
The 3 Hours of Barcelona will begin at 9:00 a.m. ET on Sunday October 1st.
Malaysian Grand Prix
Five drivers are alive for the World Drivers' Championship with six races remaining in the 2017 season.
Lewis Hamilton extended his championship lead at Singapore as the Mercedes driver has 263 points after winning three consecutive races. Hamilton holds a 28-point lead over Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel. Valtteri Bottas sits third in the championship, 51 points behind his teammate. Daniel Ricciardo sits in fourth, 101 points behind Hamilton and Kimi Räikkönen sits 125 points back in fifth and Räikkönen needs to outscore Hamilton by at least a point this weekend to keep his slim championship hopes alive.
Max Verstappen and Sergio Pérez are tied on 68 points in sixth with Esteban Ocon, who has scored in eight consecutive races and 13 of 14 races, 12 points back in eighth. Carlos Sainz, Jr. is coming off a fourth place finish at Singapore and he is ninth on 47 points. Nico Hülkenberg rounds out the top ten on 34 points with Felipe Massa three points back and Lance Stroll another three points behind his teammate. Romain Grosjean sits on 26 points ahead of his Haas teammate Kevin Magnussen who has 11 points.
Fernando Alonso has ten points with Jolyon Palmer coming off his first points finish of the season, a sixth at Singapore, good enough for eight points. Stoffel Vandoorne has seven points with Pascal Wehrlein on five points. Daniil Kvyat has four points but he will be replaced this weekend by the defending GP2 Series champion and current second place in the Super Formula Championship Pierre Gasly. Marcus Ericsson is still looking for his first points of the season.
This will be the final time Formula One contests the Malaysian Grand Prix for the near future. This will be the 19th time the Malaysian Grand Prix has been on the Formula One schedule. Sebastian Vettel is tied for the most Malaysian Grand Prix victories with John MacDonald. Both drivers have won four Malaysian Grand Prix with MacDonald winning twice when the race was run to Tasman Series specs, once in Formula Pacific specs and once in Formula Atlantic specs. Ferrari has the most Malaysian Grand Prix victories for a constructor with seven.
Hamilton's only Malaysian Grand Prix victory came in 2014 and that is also the only Mercedes victory at Sepang. Ricciardo's victory last year at Sepang was the fourth for Red Bull in the race. Fernando Alonso has three Malaysian Grand Prix victories and Kimi Räikkönen has won at Sepang twice.
The Malaysian Grand Prix takes place at 3:00 a.m. ET on Sunday October 1st.
Dover
NASCAR heads to Dover International Speedway for the final race of the first round of the Chase and one-third of the second round spots are already taken.
Martin Truex, Jr. and Kyle Busch are locked in off their victories at Chicagoland and Loudon respectively and Kyle Larson and Brad Keselowski have locked in their spots for round two based on points.
Denny Hamlin sits on 2,088 points and he is 44 points to the good with Matt Kenseth a point behind his teammate. Jimmie Johnson sits 32 points above the drop zone. Ryan Blaney and Chase Elliott are tied on 2,070 points, 26 points to the good. Despite his accident at Loudon, Kevin Harvick sits 25 points to the good and Jamie McMurray is 11th on 2,053 points, nine points from the drop zone.
Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. and Austin Dillon are tied for 12th on 2,044 points with Stenhouse, Jr. holding the tiebreaker with a 15th-place finish being his best finish in round one with Dillon's best finish being 16th. Ryan Newman is a one point on the outside. Kurt Busch trails by 17 points and Kasey Kahne is 16th, 21 points out.
Johnson has the most all-time victories at Dover with 11 including winning this year's June race. Johnson is the most recent driver to sweep the Dover races. He did that in 2009. He has led 3,100 laps at Dover and finished in the top ten in 22 of 31 starts at the track.
Kenseth and Newman each have three Dover victories with Kenseth's most recent victory at Dover being May 2016 and Newman has not won at Dover since September 2004. Truex, Jr. won last year's Chase race at Dover and it was his second at the track. Kyle Busch has two Dover victories with the most recent being May 2010. Keselowski, Harvick and Kurt Busch are the only other Chase drivers to have won at Dover.
The NASCAR Cup race from Dover takes place at 2:15 p.m. ET on Sunday October 1st.
Over or Under?
1. Over or Under: 140.5 combined points scored by British riders in World Superbike at Magny-Cours?
2. Over or Under: 1.5 French riders on the World Supersport podium?
3. Over or Under: 5.5 Italian drivers scoring points at Barcelona?
4. Over or Under: 2.2 second improvement in fastest lap at Sepang compared to last year?
5. Over or Under: 6.5 cars in the largest accident at Dover?
Last Week's Over/Unders
1. Under: Only one non-Cadillac finished on the Prototype podium and that was the race-winning #90 Ligier of VisitFlorida Racing.
2. Over: Eight Spaniards scored points in the MotoGP race at Aragón.
3. Under: One American team scored a podium finish at Spa-Francorchamps. The #2 United Autosport Ligier finished third in LMP3.
4. Under: There were zero retirements in the Super Formula at Sportsland SUGO.
5. Under: There were zero non-stage ending cautions prior to the start of the final stage of the Cup race at Loudon.
Predictions
1. Jonathan Rea clinches the World Superbike title this weekend but does not sweep the weekend.
2. P.J. Jacobsen finishes ahead of at least two of the four riders ahead of him in the championship.
3. One of the overall Barcelona winners will have won at Barcelona before but in another series.
4. Lewis Hamilton wins his fourth consecutive race.
5. The biggest story after the Cup race will be what happens on the racetrack.
Last Week's Predictions
1. A GTD team gets its first podium finish of the season (Wrong! All three GTD podium finishes had finished on the podium earlier this season).
2. Valentino Rossi scores fewer than 11 points at Aragón (Wrong! Rossi scored exactly 11 points).
3. Both the #22 G-Drive Racing Oreca and the #90 TF Sport Aston Martin do not finish on their respective class podiums (Wrong! The #22 Oreca finished second in class).
4. Felix Rosenqvist gets his first career Super Formula victory (Wrong! Yuhi Sekiguchi won the Super Formula race and Rosenqvist finished fifth).
5. Matt Kenseth or Kevin Harvick finish in the top five but not both (Correct! Kenseth finished third and Harvick finished 36th).
Overall: 1/5
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