This weekend is a busy one and five series close out their 2018 seasons. There will be a trio of night races in the Persian Gulf. Hopefully rain doesn't prevent a title fight in champion. Two endurance series come to a close, one on the Atlantic coast and the other on the Pacific coast.
World Superbike
It might be a dead rubber but the final round of the World Superbike season takes place at the Losail International Circuit from Qatar.
Jonathan Rea has locked up the title and he enters the finale with ten consecutive victories and with 16 victories through 24 races, Rea could set the record for most victories in a World Superbike season. Rea has to sweep the weekend to end the year with 18 victories. Doug Polen holds the record with 17 victories in the 1991 season. Polen's 17 victories came in 24 starts. Rea is the all-time leader in World Superbike victories with 68. He swept last year's weekend at Losail
With 21 podium finishes, this is Rea's fourth consecutive year with at least 20 podium finishes. He could end with 23 podium finishes in a season for the third time in his career. If Rea picks up fastest lap in both races he will set the record for most fastest laps in a season. He enters with 13 fastest laps. Last year, Rea tied Polen's record of 14 fastest laps after Polen did it in 1991.
Chaz Davies is second in the championship and is 24 points up on Michael van der Mark. Tom Sykes is 30 points behind van der Mark with Marco Melandri rounding out the top five and eight points behind Sykes. Alex Lowes is sixth on 232 points and five points ahead of Xavi Forés.
The first World Superbike race will be at noon on Friday October 26th. The final race of the Superbike season will be at noon on Saturday October 27th.
World Supersport
The World Superbike title is claimed but the World Supersport crown is a two-horse race.
Sandro Cortese enters with 189 points and holds a six-point lead over Jules Cluzel. Cortese won at Aragón and Donington Park but Cluzel has five victories. The Frenchman won at Assen, Imola, Brno, Magny-Cours and Villicum. Cluzel has won the last two races and Cortese has finished runner-up to him in each race.
Cortese will clinch the title with a second place finish. He would become the second German to win the World Supersport championship joining Jörg Teuchert, who won the 2000 championship. Cluzel could become the fifth Frenchman to win the World Supersport title joining Stéphane Chambon, Fabien Foret, Sébastien Charpentier and Lucas Mahias. Mahias is the reigning champion.
Cortese won the 2012 Moto3 championship while Cluzel has finished in the top three in four of his five World Supersport seasons and he has never finished worst than fourth in the championship. Cluzel has been vice-champion on three occasions.
Randy Krummenacher is third in the championship on 150 points, 15 points ahead of Mahias and 18 points ahead of Federico Caricasulo. The top five riders in the championship are Yamaha riders and Yamaha has won all 11 races. entering the finale.
The World Supersport finale is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. ET on Saturday October 27th.
European Le Mans Series
The final round of the 2018 European Le Mans Series season is the 4 Hours of Portimão and after an abbreviated penultimate round at Spa-Francorchamps, two titles will be decided in Portugal.
The #26 G-Drive Racing Oreca clinched the LMP2 championship at Spa-Francorchamps. Jean-Éric Vergne, Andrea Pizzitola and Romain Rusinov have won three of five races this season.
The #24 Racing Engineering Oreca of Norman Nato, Paul Petit and Olivier Pla are tied with the #28 IDEC Sport Oreca of Paul-Loup Chatin, Gabriel Aubry and Memo Rojas tied on 56 points with Racing Engineering holding the tiebreaker after winning the season opener at Circuit Paul Ricard. The #21 DragonSpeed Oreca of Henrik Hedman, Ben Hanley and Nicolas Lapierre has finished second in the last two races and this entry is fourth in the championship on 50 points.
The #22 United Autosports Ligier of Filipe Albuquerque and Phil Hanson won the most recent round at Spa-Francorchamps.
Five teams are battling for the championship in LMP3.
The #15 RLR Sport Ligier of John Farano, Job Van Uitert and Robert Garofalo lead the championship with 67.5 points with two victories at Circuit Paul Ricard and Red Bull Ring. The #15 Ligier has a 14-point lead over the #6 360 Racing Ligier of Terrence Woodward and Ross Kaiser, which finished second at Monza and this at Spa. One point back is the #3 United Autosports Ligier of Matthew Bell, Garett Grist and Anthony Wells. The #3 Ligier won at Silverstone. The #11 EuroInternational Ligier won at Monza and Giorgio Mondini and Kay Van Berlo are 20.75 points back. The final car with a shot at the title is the #13 Inter Europol Competition Ligier of Jakub Smiechowski and Martin Hippe, which trails by 22.25 points and has one podium finish, third at Red Bull Ring.
It is a five-car battle in GTE.
The #88 Proton Competition Porsche won at Red Bull Ring, has four podium finishes in five races and he not finished worst that fifth this year and the car shared by Gianluca Roda, Giorgio Roda and Matteo Cairoli lead the championship with 80.5 points. JMW Motorsport won at Circuit Paul Ricard and Silverstone but the #66 Ferrari of Liam Griffin, Alex MacDowall and Miguel Molina has not finished on the podium again this season and retired from the Red Bull Ring round. Two points back is the #55 Spirit of Race Ferrari of Duncan Cameron, Matt Griffin and Aaron Scott, which won at Monza and has four consecutive podium finishes.
The #80 EbiMotors Porsche won at Spa-Francorchamps after finishing third in the first three races of the season and Fabio Babini, Riccardo Pera and Bret Curtis are 22 points back. The #77 Proton Competition Porsche of Christian Ried, Marvin Dienst and Dennis Olsen is a half-point behind the #80 Porsche.
The 4 Hours of Portimão starts at 8:30 a.m. ET on Sunday October 28th.
Super Formula
Suzuka hosts the Super Formula finale and three drivers are gunning for the title.
Nick Cassidy leads the championship with 29 points and is four points ahead of Hiroaki Ishiura and five points ahead of Naoki Yamamoto. Cassidy won at Fuji and finished second at Sportsland SUGO and third at Motegi. Ishiura won at Motegi and his only other podium finish was second to Cassidy at Fuji. Yamamoto won the season opener at Suzuka and he won at Sportsland SUGO but he has not finished better than seventh in the three races since his most recent victory.
Cassidy won last year's Super GT championship and he is currently tied with Yamamoto for the GT500 championship lead this year. Yamamoto won the 2013 Super Formula championship while Ishiura is going for his second consecutive title and third title overall. Ishiura could be the first driver to successfully defend a title since Tsugio Matsuda in 2007 and 2008. Ishiura looks to join Kazuyoshi Hoshino, Satoru Nakajima and Satoshi Motoyama as the only drivers with at least three Super Formula championships.
The Super Formula finale will take place at 1:15 a.m. ET on Sunday October 28th.
Intercontinental GT Challenge
For the second consecutive season the Intercontinental GT Challenge ends its season at Laguna Seca with the California 8 Hours. Four drivers could win the championship.
Tristan Vautier and Raffaele Marciello are tied on 58 points after the pair finished second at Bathurst, was the third amongst the championship eligible entries at Spa-Francorchamps and won at Suzuka. However, after competing the first three races together, the pair will be split for the finale.
Vautier will be in the #175 Mercedes-AMG Team Sun Energy1 Racing Mercedes with Maximilian Buhk and Maro Engel with Marciello in the #43 Mercedes-AMG Team Strakka Racing Mercedes with Maximilian Götz and Lewis Williamson. Engel is second in the championship on 43 points after running with Vautier and Marciello in the last two races.
Christopher Haase and Markus Winkelhock trail by 18 points and the pair will be split up as well. Hase will drive the #29 Audi Sport Team Land Audi with Kelvin van der Linde and Christopher Mies. Winkelhock will share the #19 Audi Sport Team WRT Audi with Robin Frijns and Dries Vanthoor. Haase and Winkelhock were the best championship eligible finisher at Spa-Francorchamps and they finished third at Suzuka. Frijns and Vanthoor has scored 37 points and are tied for fourth in the championship.
Last year, Audi Sport Team Magnus won with van der Linde, Winkelhock and Pierre Kaffer and with the victory Winkelhock took the drivers' championship while Audi took the manufactures' championship for the second consecutive season.
A few other notable entries include the #9 Bentley from K-PAX Racing and Álvaro Parente, Rodrigo Baptista and Bryan Sellers will be the drivers. Bentley Team M-Sport will have Steven Kane, Jules Gounon and Jordan Pepper in the #7 Bentley and Vincent Abril, Andy Soucek and Maxime Soulet in the #8 Bentley.
Jack Hawksworth will be in the #44 Strakka Racing Mercedes with Christian Vietoris and Adrien Tambay. Ryan Dalziel will be in the #63 Mercedes for DXDT Racing with Mike Hedlund and David Askew.
Two Porsches to keep an eye on are the #54 Porsche from Black Swan Racing with Patrick Long, Jeroen Bleekemolen and Tim Pappas and the Wright Motorsports #911 Porsche will have factory drivers Romain Dumas, Frédéric Makowiecki and Dirk Werner behind the wheel.
In the Manufacturers' championship, Mercedes leads with 104 points and has a nine-point lead over Audi.
Along with the GT3 class, there will be GT4 cars. Team Panoz has entered the #50 Panoz Avezzano for Ian James, Preston Calvert and Matt Keegan. The lone Mustang is the #10 Ford from PF Racing with Scott Maxwell, Jade Buford and James Pesek. TRG has entered two Porsches with Spencer Pumpelly, Derek DeBoer and Sean Gibbons in the #66 Porsche and Tom Dyer, Chris Bellomo and Robert Orcutt in the #67 Porsche.
There are three TCR entries and the most notable one is the #98 Bryan Herta Autosport Hyundai, which will be split by Bryan and Colton Herta with George Kurtz as the third driver. The sister call will be the #99 Hyundai and Michael Lewis and Mark Wilkins are coming off finishing second and third in the Pirelli World Challenge TCR championship. Mason Filippi will be the third driver in the #99 Hyundai. M1GT Racing has entered the #23 Audi for Walter Bowlin, Jerimy Daniel and Lars Viljoen.
The California 8 Hours starts at 12:15 p.m. ET on Sunday October 28th.
Over or Under?
1. Over or Under: 556.5 points for Jonathan Rea after the Losail weekend?
2. Over or Under: 0.5 non-Yamaha riders on the World Supersport podium?
3. Over or Under: 6.5 cars on the lead lap in the 4 Hours of Portimão?
4. Over or Under: 1.5 drivers finishing the Super Formula season with at least 30 points?
5. Over or Under: 1.5 German cars on the overall California 8 Hours podium?
Last Week's Over/Unders
1. Over or Under: 6.5 teams scoring points in Austin? (Over. Ferrari, Red Bull, Mercedes, Renault, Force India, Toro Rosso and Sauber scored points).
2. Over or Under: 2.5 finishes outside the top twenty for championship eligible drivers at Kansas? (Under. Zero drivers finished outside the top twenty).
3. Over or Under: 7.5 riders finishing within 30 seconds of the race winner at Motegi? (Over. Twelve riders finished within 30 seconds of race winner Marc Márquez).
4. Over or Under: 1.5 non-Japanese drivers finishing on the GT500 podium? (Under. Nick Cassidy was the only non-Japanese driver on the GT500 podium).
5. Over or Under: 750.5 points for the Endurance Cup champions? (Under. Craig Lowndes and Steven Richards scored 696 points).
Last Week: 3 Unders; 2 Overs. Overall: Unders 15; Overs 10
Predictions
1. The Superpole winner finishes on the podium in both races.
2. Jules Cluzel finishes better than Sandro Cortese but does not win the championship.
3. Both championship leaders entering Portimão win the title but neither takes a class victory in the race.
4. At least three drivers that did not score points at Okayama score points at Suzuka.
5. The GT4 class winner finishes worst than 11th overall.
Last Week's Predictions
1. Haas F1 gets it best finish in the United States Grand Prix (Wrong! It was correct until Kevin Magnussen was disqualified from ninth).
2. None of the four drivers on the outside advance but at least one finishes in the top five at Kansas (Correct! Brad Keselowski, Ryan Blaney, Kyle Larson and Alex Bowman go no further).
3. One of Marc Márquez or Andrea Dovizioso finish on the podium but not both riders (Correct! Marc Márquez won the race and Andrea Dovizioso finished 18th).
4. There will be a new winner in GT300 at Autopolis (Wrong! Yuichi Nakayama and Morio Nitta won at Suzuka).
5. A driver with fewer than four podium finishes scores a podium finish in one of the two Gold Coast 600 races (Correct! Chaz Mostert and James Moffatt won at Gold Coast and Mostert had one podium finish prior to the race. James Courtney and Jack Perkins finished third and Courtney had only two podium finishes prior to Gold Coast).
Last Week: 3/5. Overall: 14.5/25
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