2014 Motorsports Christmas List

Another Christmas is upon as eggnog is the drink of choice and there are enough cookies in my house for me to start a bakery. Presents have been wrapped for friends and family but it is now time to look at what those in and around motorsports should be asking for this Christmas.

Let's start with IndyCar:

A few more international races, preferably one in Australia and at least one in Europe and maybe an oval.

An opening weekend the weekend after the Super Bowl.

The courage to end the season in the middle of October.

With that said, at least three or four races to fill between Labor Day and the season finale (which would be at Fontana).

Independent aero kit manufactures such as ORECA, McLaren, Riley, heck even Penske or a few other IndyCar teams producing their own aero kits would do.

Stadium Super Tracks filling the bill pre-race at Texas, Fontana and Pocono.

For Formula One:

Cost-savings measures to save teams.

A YouTube channel to become a hub of content promoting the series, drivers and where fans can find streams of interviews from the press room.

Fan-friendly ticket packages so fans don't have to sacrifice an arm and a leg to go to a race.

For IndyCar and Formula One to share:

The ability to put aside their differences and run doubleheaders at Montreal and Austin the weekends of the Canadian and United States Grands Prix with IndyCar head lining Saturday and Formula One head lining Sunday.

For IndyCar and Super Formula to share:

Technical regulations that would allow teams to run in either series on any track with the same car and would hopefully form a partnership that would see 40-plus cars attempt the Indianapolis 500 as well as a return to Japan for IndyCar.

For NASCAR:

The ability to get attention for what occurs on track and not for the actions of drivers and crew members after a race in the garage or on the pit lane.

Having the stones to limit Cup drivers from moonlighting in the Grand National and Truck series.

For Formula E:

Three more races. One on the streets of Durban or Cape Town the first weekend of January to revive what Formula One did in the 1960s. At least one more race in December and one in February.

A team partnered with Tesla.

For IMSA:

A driver ranking system that doesn't screw drivers out of rides.

A better balance of performance.

A return to Mid-Ohio.

For FIA World Endurance Championship:

Better coverage in the United States.

A full-time factory Corvette GTE-Pro effort.

For MotoGP:

A return to Laguna Seca.

For Pirelli World Challenge:

A doubleheader at Indianapolis Motor Speedway the weekend of the Grand Prix of Indianapolis.

Now that we have handed out gifts to series as a whole; let's give some gifts out to individual drivers and personnel.

To Ed Carpenter: IndyCar races at Phoenix, Richmond, Michigan, New Hampshire and Darlington.

To Kevin Magnussen: A ride in IndyCar to fill his time as McLaren reserve driver with a McLaren aero kit on his car.

To Conor Daly: A paying ride. Any series will do.

To Alexander Rossi: A paying ride. Any series will do.

To Will Power: Penske giving him rides in the NASCAR Cup and Grand National Series road course races.

To Fernando Alonso: A ride in the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

To Jamie Whincup and Craig Lowndes: A ride in the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

To André Lotterer: A fair shake at Formula One.

To A.J. Allmendinger: A shot at The Double.

To Brad Keselowski: Patience

To Motorsports fans from the United States: A GT3-endurance race. Let's make it 16 hours to be unique and it could be at any one of the many great tracks in this great country. Laguna Seca, Circuit of the Americas, Road America, Watkins Glen, which ever you want.

To Robby Gordon: An Indianapolis 500 one-off because he still has it.

To Michael Andretti: A team on the GP3 grid because he has teams in almost every other form of single-seater racing and Formula One is way too expensive and GP2 is expensive but not as expensive as Formula One and an Andretti Autosport GP3 team could provide opportunities for North American drivers with aspirations of making it to Formula One.

To Gene Haas: A liferaft because he is going to need it if his team ever does race in Formula One.

To NBCSN: A weekly show that covers all forms of motorsports except NASCAR because you already have a NASCAR-centric show.

To ESPN/ABC: A new color commentator to replace Eddie Cheever and Scott Goodyear. His name is Dario Franchitti. I think you will like him.

To A.J. Foyt and Brian Vickers: Full recovery from their recent surgeries and for Foyt to be back on the pit stand at every IndyCar race and for Vickers to be behind the wheel of a car for every NASCAR Cup race.

Most importantly I want to wish everyone a Happy and Merry Christmas. Enjoy these next few days with loved ones. Put all your motorsports interests aside for some quality time with family and friends. On Boxing Day, there will be a set of predictions for 2015 ready for you to read but until then step away from the computer, put down the video games and spend these next few days to make precious memories with those around you.

Merry Christmas from For the Love of Indy.

2015 Sports Car Predictions

Our third of five predictions posts focuses on sports car racing. We will take a look at the height of sports car racing, the FIA World Endurance Championship; America's top division of sports car racing, IMSA's United SportsCar Championship; America's emerging GT3 series, Pirelli World Challenge and the world's premier GT3 series, the Blancpain Sprint and Endurance Series. We will start with the world championship.

1. FIA WEC: All Four LMP1 Manufactures Win in 2015

Toyota, Audi and Porsche all won in 2014 and I don't see a reason why to think any of the three won't win in 2015. In 2014, Toyota dominated, Audi won Le Mans again and Porsche's year of development paid off in the final round at Interlagos. Audi will experience a little shakeup with the retirement of Tom Kristensen but the trio of André Lotterer, Benoît Tréluyer and Marcel Fässler have proven they can take over the reigns as the leaders in the team and they have the talented Lucas di Grassi and Loïc Duval under contract. Toyota will return with world champions Anthony Davidson and Sébastien Buemi and it appears Alexander Wurz and Mike Conway will also be full-time drivers. Porsche will keep their 2014 driver lineup intact for 2015. Nissan returns to the top flight of sports car racing in 2015 and while they have yet to announce their drivers, you have to think they will be capable of competing with the other three manufactures by the end of the season.

2. Extreme Speed Motorsports is the LMP2 Favorites

The former IMSA team will take on the world in 2015 and they are doing so with two of the best driver line-ups LMP2 regulations will allow. Scott Sharp and Ryan Dalziel will be joined by arguably the best silver-rated driver, 2014 GTE-Am champion David Heinemeier Hansson while Johannes van Overbeek and Ed Brown will be joined by two-time Grand-Am Daytona Prototype champion Jon Fogarty. Comparing the ESM lineup to the 2014 FIA WEC LMP2 lineups from SMP Racing, G-Drive Racing and KCMG, those four teams appear as if they will have to step up their game in 2015. Add possible LMP2 editions of Morand Racing, Jota Sport and Signatech-Alpine from the European Le Mans Series, the Pro-Am prototype class might provide the best competition in the FIA WEC in 2015.

3. Ferrari and Gianmaria Bruni Do Not Win a Third Consecutive World Endurance Cup for GT Drivers and Manufactures

The Italian manufacture and driver has won back-to-back championships but Porsche and Aston Martin should be stepping up their game in 2015. Porsche's provisional 2015 drivers include Frédéric Makowiecki, Richard Lietz, Patrick Pilet and Michael Christensen. Makowiecki had a solid 2014 season but had had a rotating driver lineup as a distraction. He and Pilet won at Shanghai and finished second at Interlagos. Darren Turner and Stefan Mücke won two races for Aston Martin in 2014, a year after losing the 2013 title after retiring in the final round of that season as Bruni went on to win the race and the title. Ferrari has won every title in the FIA WEC-era but eventually that will come to an end and I expect someone new on top of the mountain at the end of 2015. 

4. IMSA: LMP2 Cars Go Winless

I was thinking this before ESM decided to go to the FIA WEC and before Michael Shank Racing announced they would field Ligier-Hondas and I am going to stick with it. Balance of performance is set up in favorite of the Daytona Prototypes and seeing as how there will be less LMP2 cars on the 2015 grid, it will all but be a given they will continue to dominate in 2015. Action Express Racing will return with two new Corvette C7-style DP bodywork as Christian Fittipaldi and João Barbosa look to defend their title. Ganassi returns as the de facto Ford factory operation and Joey Hand replaces Memo Rojas as co-driver to Scott Pruett in the #01. Wayne Taylor Racing should be strong with Jordan and Ricky Taylor in control of the #10. ESM will run the NAEC rounds but other than that, the only full-time LMP2 entries are Shank and the two Mazda SKYACTIV-Ds as OAK Racing will not return stateside in 2015. It just doesn't make sense to run an LMP2 car in the current climate of IMSA. Maybe in a few years but not now. If you own an LMP2 car it makes more sense to run FIA WEC like ESM or ELMS like Krohn Racing will be doing in 2015. 

5. Corvette Takes the GTLM Title

With no SRT Vipers to worry about, Corvette could cruise to the 2015 title. Porsche will be back with a factory support team but after starting 2014 on fire, winning at Daytona and Sebring, the factory 911 RSRs cooled off with only three podiums between the two cars for the remainder of the season. The Team Falken Tire Porsche however carried the weight, winning Petit Le Mans for a second consecutive year. The Rahal Letterman Lanigan BMWs went winless in 2014 but did have four runner-up finishes and six total podiums. BMW will have Lucas Luhr replace Andy Priaulx as the Brit becomes BMW's lead driver in their ELMS GTE program. Porsche will promote Porsche Supercup champion Earl Bamber to their IMSA factory effort as Jörg Bergmeister moves to the IMSA program from FIA WEC. Nick Tandy and Patrick Pilet will run the second factory Porsche. Corvette appears to be have the combinations of Antonio García and Jan Magnussen and Tommy Milner and Oliver Gavin return for 2015. García and Magnussen won four consecutive rounds before letting the title slip through their hands as the Viper team stepped up their game. I expect Corvette to have learned from the mistakes of 2014. 

6. The TRG-Aston Martin Wins a GTD Race

With James Davison and Christina Nielsen hired to drive TRG's Vantage GT3, I expect the duo to be able to get a victory while going against the difficult GTD line-up. Despite defending champions Turner Motorsport leaving the series to focus on Pirelli World Challenge, Alex Job Racing, Scuderia Corsa, Paul Miller Racing and Magnus Racing will all be their to provide stiff competition. Davison is one of he most under appreciated drivers in the United States and Nielsen had a decent 2014 season in Porsche GT3 Cup USA. These two winning may surprise a few but it certainly won't surprise me. 

7. PWC: Cadillac Does Not Win the Title

Johnny O'Connell won his third consecutive PWC championship in 2014 but all three of his victories came in the first six races. Andy Pilgrim went winless in 2014 and had four runner-up finishes as he finished fourth in the championship. The other manufactures have caught up to Cadillac and are ready to usurp them on top of the PWC landscape. Mike Skeen and CRP Racing Audi made a valiant challenge to O'Connell, forcing the championship to go to the final round at Miller. EFFORT Racing Porsche won three races between Nick Tandy and Ryan Dalziel and if they can hire a full-time driver of that quality, they could challenge for the title. Let's not forget the Dyson Racing Bentleys, which picked up their first victory at Miller with Guy Smith and Butch Leitzinger picked up two podiums and five top-fives despite the car starting mid-season. Cadillac has to step up their game in 2015 if they hope to win a fourth consecutive title.

8. At Least Seven Different Manufactures Get a Win in the GT Class

Eight manufactures (Lamborghini, Cadillac, Ferrari, Audi, Porsche, Dodge, Bentley and McLaren) all scored victories in the 2014 PWC season and I think seven is a realistic amount that could score victories in 2015. Let's mark down Cadillac, Audi, Porsche, Ferrari and Bentley as locks. Let's add BMW as Turner Motorsport, who move to PWC fresh off a IMSA GTD title. Robert Thorne of K-Pax Racing scored McLaren's first PWC victory in the final race of 2014 and will upgrade to the 650S GT3, which debuted at the Gulf 12 Hours last weekend in a partnership with Flying Lizard Motorsports. McLaren could be another manufacture to be on the top step of the podium. Speaking of upgrades, Reiter Engineering plan on bringing the Lamborghini Gallardo Extenso GT3 to PWC. Tomáš Enge won the 2014 season opener in Lamborghini but the Czech driver competed in only one round after St. Petersburg and Lamborghini had only two top ten finishes for the remainder of the season. Acura announced Ryan Eversely will be joining Peter Cunningham in a second RTR TLX-GT and there is the possibility of Andretti Autosport fielding Nissans but seeing as how the New Year is a matter of days away, I doubt we see the Andretti fielding cars in 2015. Despite that, there are plenty of manufactures that could win and we didn't even mention a possible Conquest Racing Mercedes SLS AMG GT3. If you want to see a diversity of manufactures winning, PWC is the series for you in the New Year.

9. There is a New GTS Champion

Lawson Aschenbach has won back-to-back PWC GTS titles but had to make a late season comeback and benefitted from the Kia teammates of Mark Wilkins and Nic Jönsson collapsing in the final few rounds of 2014 but don't expect that to happen again in 2015. Jack Baldwin ended up finishing second with three victories, one fewer than Aschenbach but had eight podiums, the same as the champion. The veteran Baldwin should provide Aschenbach a formidable challenge. Dean Martin won three races driving a Ford Mustang Boss 302 for Rehagen Racing but inconsistency kept him from challenging for the title. Add to the GTS mix a return of Bob Stallings Racing with Jon Fogarty driving a Hyundai Genesis Coup but what could cost Fogarty a shot at a title is FIA WEC duty as the Sonoma PWC round conflicts with FIA WEC at the Nürburgring. Third consecutive titles is not impossible as we have seen Johnny O'Connell do it in GT but I don't see Aschenbach duplicating the feat.

10. Blancpain GT: Bentley Wins a Blancpain Title

With defending Blancpain Sprint Series champions HTP Motorsport switching from Mercedes to Bentley, they provide the British manufactures best opportunity at silverware. The M-Sport Bentleys won two of five Blancpain Endurance Series rounds in 2014 but had poor runs in the Spa 24 Hours and Nürburgring kill their title hopes. The manufacture will not get a better opportunity to knockoff Audi than in 2015.

11. The Moscow Blancpain Sprint Series Race Does Not Happen

The same way in how I don't think the DTM will got run a race at the permanent Moscow Raceway outside the city, I don't see the BSS round on the streets of Russia's capital coming to fruition. Expect a replacement round at Zandvoort or Slovakiaring or somewhere else in Europe.

12. A non-German Manufacture Wins the Spa 24 Hours

German manufactures have won five consecutive Spa 24 Hours and occupied the top five in the 2014 edition. We covered Bentley as a potential championship contenders and winning the Spa 24 Hours would be a step in the right direction for a title in BES. McLaren provides the next best challenge to the like of Audi, Mercedes, Porsche and BMW as the 650S GT3 had a sensational debut at the Gulf 12 Hours. Ferrari hasn't won the Spa 24 Hours since 2004 and you can expect AF Corse to enter a car or two.

Three down, two to go. Both will come after Christmas, one of which will be a Boxing Day special. Over Christmas feel free to read the NASCAR and Et Cetera predictions. Stay tuned on Friday for the penultimate set of predictions. 

A Must Read: Gentlemen, Start Your Engines

Last Christmas, I received a very unexpected gift. A gift that if you gave me a million guesses, I probably would fail to guess it correctly. It is the Christmas gift I treasure the most.

I have to give my mother credit for she was a step ahead of me. As much as I love motorsports and for as much as I follow motorsports, she found something that had slip by the goalie if you will and found something I didn't even know existed. To be fair, I have to give George Phillips at Oilpressure blog an assist. I don't know exact how my mother got to his site but he set her up for a gift of a lifetime.

The gift is three-time Indianapolis 500 winner Wilbur Shaw's autobiography titled Gentlemen, Start Your Engines. Phillips has a great synopsis of the book on his blog and I encourage all of you to read it. It wasn't a book I dived into immediately. Life got in the way. As a student who reads hundreds of pages of textbooks and course material a week, there isn't a lot of time for personal reading. The book sat idle for a few months before I really got going. After reading a few dozen pages, the book sat idle again for another few months. Working 40-plus hours a week during the summer took it's toll and by the time I would get home each night, all I wanted to do was eat and go to sleep.

As the summer was coming to a close and another semester was approaching I looked at the greatest gift that I have ever been given and set an ultimatum. Read the damn thing by Christmas 2014 so my mother's treasure hunt calling bookstores hundreds of miles away wouldn't be all for naught one year later. I made time for the book, staying up late if I had to and slowly chipping away at 313 pages of Shaw's life. Some days I could only do ten pages, others I would crack out 30 pages in one sitting and return to do fifteen later that night. As I was nearing the end of the book, I found myself wishing for more as I couldn't put it down. An hour of reading would become two and dinner would sometimes have to wait until I could find a good point to stop at.

By the middle of October, I had finished the book with a lot to take away from it. Once again, I encourage you to read George Phillip's synopsis if you want a full run down of what the book covers but I will touch on a few points that stuck with me:

First, what a a roller coaster life Wilbur Shaw lived. Just a few months after finishing fourth on his Indianapolis 500 debut, Shaw lost his first wife and child in childbirth. How fortunate we are to live in an age where deaths in childbirth are rare. I had a niece and nephew born within a year and a half of reading the book and never once worried about my sister or future sister-in-law. Sometimes we take for granted what we have today, especially when getting nostalgic about the past.

On a less serious note, I am amazed in the lifestyle differences. Shaw would remarried and he and his wife would go down to Florida each winter as he would chase the land speed record on the sands of Daytona Beach. When he wasn't producing one world record, he was competing in boat races in Miami and Havana. Could you imagine an active driver being allowed to that? Could you imagine Will Power doing boat racing in Australia? Roger Penske would kill him. Or Ryan Hunter-Reay chasing down a world record? Forget it.

As someone who has always grown up unable to go to Cuba (although that may change in the near future), I am fascinated in what it was like during the late-1920s/early-1930s. Shaw talks about going there as if it was no big deal. During prohibition, Havana sounded like the place to be. My how things can change as I think going to Cuba is a massive opportunity seeing as how it has been cut off to U.S. citizens for over half a century.

Second, on motorsports related topics, the book really illustrates how the emphasize on safety has changed. Take this except:

Ever since the first automobile race on a closed circuit, one of the most important hazards had been slick spots on the track caused by oil leaks. For several years, a few of us had been campaigning for regulations which would eliminate that danger. It wasn't unusual for a car to use fifty or sixty gallons of oil in the Indianapolis event and eighty per cent of it was on the track during the late stages of any race. Every time a car stopped for fuel and tires, it also took on another ten or twenty gallons of oil.

Think about NASCAR today where they will throw a caution every four laps for a hot dog wrapper and what the drivers of the early-1930s faced. Like today, drivers did fight for change and by 1933 a rule was passed allow a car to use no more than six and a half gallons of oil and by 1934 a rule was passed limiting the teams to only use 45 gallons of fuel for the Indianapolis 500.

Another difference between the time period is reliability. Shaw recounts the 1933 Indianapolis 500 when Louis Meyer had a four-lap lead over Shaw with two to go and everyone was tense about making it to the finish. If someone had a four-lap lead in next year's Indianapolis 500, we would never hear the end about how it was a terrible race and how it killed the ratings and how IndyCar is doomed. A four-second lead would piss off fans today. It just goes to show how motorsports has changed. Back then, four laps was a good lead but not a given. The drama wasn't over how close the finish was going to be, it was will the leader finish? If not, can second-place hold on to overtake the leader? It is a completely different mindset between a motorsports fan in 1933 and a motorsports fan in 2014. Today, we take it reliability for granted as mechanical failures are so few and far between but they once made racing unpredictable. Mechanical failures can still occur in a race today but they rarely happen and rarely happen to a leader with a ginormous lead.

Shaw talks about the effects of The Great Depression on motorsports and how many promoters had gone out of business. Shaw and nine other drivers (Louis Meyer, Fred Frame and Bill Cummings to name a few) formed Champion Drivers, Inc. to promote their own races and raise their own prize money. If there is one thing those around IndyCar has complained about the most in the last decade is lack of promotion of the series. I don't see any of the current drivers on the grid having the motivation to rally his compatriots on the grid and bring IndyCar to the forefront in a market. Michael Andretti promotes races but he is retired. I can't see the likes of Scott Dixon, James Hinchcliffe, Ryan Hunter-Reay and Justin Wilson coming together to promote an IndyCar race at Michigan and being successful. Hell, the people who are hired in promotional departments at Texas Motor Speedway and Pocono Raceway can't draw people in for IndyCar races, why would we think the drivers could do any better?

It is kind of ironic that Shaw talks in his book about it would be more profitable for him to be an owner-driver than for him just being an independent driver, bouncing from team to team. Seeing how few owner-drivers there are in motorsports (Tony Stewart, Ed Carpenter, Patrick Dempsey. Those are all I can think of) and how much single-car teams struggle to make ends meet, especially in IndyCar, it's just a statement we wouldn't hear today.

I wonder what Shaw would think of motorsports today. Having lost his a day shy of his 52nd birthday in a plane accident on October 30, 1954, Shaw missed out on the rear-engined revolution at the Speedway and the influx of Lotus and the turbines. I think if Shaw had lived into the 1960s and been around when Colin Chapman and Jim Clark were showing up to the Speedway, the Indianapolis 500 might still be on the Formula One schedule. I don't know that for a fact that would have happened but seeing how good of a businessman Shaw was from his book and seeing the interest in the race from European-based teams, I think he would have done more to make the Indianapolis 500 more of an international event. I know there are some of you that will point out that the Indianapolis 500 is an international event today and that there are more foreign-born drivers on the grid than American but I think Shaw could have taken the Indianapolis 500 to heights we can only dream about today.

If you are wondering how to get your own copy of Gentlemen, Start Your Engines, there are two for sale on Amazon at the time of this post. Outside of that, this isn't a book you will find at Barnes & Noble. If you want a copy, it is going to be used and there is no guarantee the condition will be great. My mother was fortunate to find one with no water damage, binding intact and no pages missing. If you do decide to pursue getting this book, I wish you the best.

While reading the book, I wondered how difficult it would be to get the book back into print. I am not talking about a million copies but a couple hundred. I am sure it is something that could be crowdfunded and I would hope fans would see how rare this book is and would support it. I think it would be a big hit during the month of May if it were for sale at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame and Museum. I don't want this book to die. I want this to be something that motorsports fans can read forty years from now.

As I said before, this is greatest gift I have ever received. While Christmas 2014 might be out of the question for this being a gift for you or a race fan you know, this is something you can put on pole position for Christmas 2015.

2015 Et Cetera Predictions

After posting NASCAR predictions two days ago, it is now time to look into the mixed bag of motorsports. Twelve series will be featured with one prediction for each series, from two-wheels to four, world championships to regional series.

1. MotoGP: The Title Will Come Down To The Final Race
After Marc Márquez dominated 2014, setting a record for most victories in a single season with thirteen and winning the first ten races, look for the Catalan rider to experience a much more difficult title fight in 2015. Yamaha came on strong in the second half of the season with Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo each winning two of the final six rounds. Rossi seems rejuvenated after finishing second in the world championship and is signed on through 2016 as is Lorenzo. I expect Márquez to receive quite a challenge from those two and he won't be rewriting records unless he comes out with his third consecutive title.

2. V8 Supercars: Marcos Ambrose Does Not Finish in the Top Ten of the Championship
Don't expect the two-time champion to return to his winning ways right off the bat. After nine years in NASCAR, Ambrose returns to a V8 Supercars series going through a bit of an identity crisis. Ford is on their way out, the series is opening the door to four or six-cylinder turbocharged engines and Holden is clear top dog. Add to it that Dick Johnson Racing, the team Ambrose is going to race for in a partnership with Team Penske hasn't been the same since James Courtney left after winning the 2010 title. In the four seasons since DJR has won one race and hasn't had a driver finish in the top ten of the championship. I don't expect that to change in 2015. Sure, Ambrose will have a few good runs but don't expect him to be at the front going toe-to-toe with Jamie Whincup, Craig Lowndes, Mark Winterbottom, Scott McLaughlin and Shane Van Gisbergen every race weekend.

3. Indy Lights: Grids Average Over 13 Entries
The series is on the verge of a Renaissance with the introduction of the IL-15 chassis. After struggle the last four seasons to get respectable grids, it appears that won't be a problem in 2015. So many are interested in the series that they had to push the first initial test back a month to give engine manufacture AER more time to meet the demand. Old stalwarts, Schmidt Peterson, Andretti Autosport, Belardi Auto Racing and Team Moore are slated to return with Carlin Motorsport, 8Star Motorsports, Juncos Racing and Conquest Racing just some of the names that will likely join the grid. After being on the verge of extinction, Indy Lights has found new life. Having followed the series for many years and seeing where it was not too long ago, I cannot wait for the start of the 2015 season.

4. DTM: The Russian Round Doesn't Happen
The Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters series always has a round on the initial schedule that falls through. Normally it is in China but who knows what it is going to happen over the next few months with Russia. Last year, DTM went to Moscow Raceway despite the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine while the World Superbike Championship decided not to visit the country. Russia is on the 2015 WSBK schedule but I just have a strange feeling that between now and those scheduled rounds, something happens and the DTM does not head to Russia. What track would replace the Russian round? It would be nice to see a return to Brands Hatch (that won't happen) or Spa (who is against more races at Spa?). Imola would be an interesting place for a DTM race. Maybe they should come stateside. Who wouldn't want to see DTM cars going through the corkscrew at Laguna Seca?

5. Super GT: Lexus Retakes GT500 Title
Despite winning half the races in 2014, Lexus lost both the drivers' and teams' championships to NISMO but I expect Lexus to retain the title in 2015. If Team Petronas TOM's keeps the combination of Kazuki Nakajima and James Rossiter, I would pencil them in as championship favorites as they have won four rounds over the last two season including the 2014 Suzuka 1000km. Let's not forget the second Team Petronas TOM's entry of Andrea Caldarelli and Daisuke Ito who finished runner-up in 2014. Another thing that might cause NISMO to take a step back is Nissan's expansion in the LMP1 of the FIA World Endurance Championship. Next season is the perfect time for Lexus to take advantage and retake the title.

6. World Superbike/World SuperSport: P.J. Jacobsen Takes His Game to the Next Level
The American impressed in his first year in World SuperSport, finishing sixth in the championship, scoring 99 points with two podiums and a fastest lap. I think 2015 will be a big year for the New York-native. Hopefully, he breaks through for his first victory in WSS, a series an American has never won in. After all, Jacobsen is the United States only hope when it comes to international motorcycle racing as Nicky Hayden is aging and Colin Edwards has joined Ben Spies in retirement.

7. World Rally: Sébastien Loeb Wins a Rally
He has only committed to the Rallye Monte-Carlo as of now but maybe Citroën can convince him to run a few more rounds after Volkswagen used the French manufacture to mop the floor. We know Loeb is an incredible talent and he might be Citroën's only hope to beat VW heads up (sorry Kris Meeke and Mads Østberg).

8. World Touring Car Championship: Citroën Wins Less Than Seventeen Races
The French manufacture won 17 of 23 races in 2014 but I expect Honda and Lada to provide more of a challenge in 2015. They were coming on strong at the end of 2014, as Citroën won only three of the final eight races after winning 14 of the first 15. Citroën is increasing their numbers, adding two with the addition of Sébastien Loeb Racing to their factory team of José María López, Yvan Muller and Loeb. I think Citroën will still come out on top but it won't be as much of a walk of a park as 2014.

9. Formula E: At Least Five New Drivers Make a Start
Teams are changing drivers like they are underwear. Andretti Autosport has had a different driver line-up for each round of the 2014-15 FIA Formula E Championship. Aguri has used four different drivers in three rounds. China Racing has already had to use a substitute because of a scheduling conflict. As the season enters the 2015 portion of the schedule, a few conflict are on the horizon. Argentina is the same weekend as the Dubai 24 Hour. I don't expect many, if any conflicts but it's alway possible. The Miami round is the same weekend Formula One is in Australia while Long Beach is the same weekend as Bahrain. The Monaco round is the same weekend of the Spanish Grand Prix and IndyCar's Grand Prix of Indianapolis. The Berlin round is the day before the Le Mans test day and the same weekend as the Belle Isle IndyCar weekend and DTM weekend at Lausitzring. António Félix da Costa could do both. There aren't many tracks closer to Berlin than Lausitz. The final round of the Formula E season in London is the same weekend as DTM at the Norisring, IMSA at Watkins Glen and IndyCar at Fontana. Let's see what happens but expect a few new faces in 2015.

10. Super Formula: There Will Be At Least One First Time Winner
If the drivers from testing are any sign of who could be joining the grid in 2015, Super Formula might be the series I most want to watch in the new year. Possibly joining a grid that already includes Le Mans winners André Lotterer and Loïc Duval, former Formula One drivers Kazuki Nakajima, Narain Karthikeyan and Vitantonio Liuzzi are former Caterham punching bag Kamui Kobayashi, former GP2 champion Fabio Leimer, former Formula Renault 3.5 champion, FIA WEC LMP2 World Champion, Le Mans class winner and IndyCar driver Bertrand Baguette and Nissan-supported Jann Mardenborough all took part in testing from Okayama. Anyone of those four could get a win in 2015.

11. European Le Mans Series: Porsche Wins a Race in a GT Category
The European Le Mans Series GT classes were dominated by Ferrari in 2014 with the Italian manufacture sweeping all five LMGTE victories and taking four of five GTC victories with the Marc VDS Racing BMW winning the final round of the GTC season at Estoril. I don't expect Porsche to be completely shut out again. They will get a victory somewhere in one of the two classes.

12. Asian Le Mans Series: Grid Size Grows Under ACO Control
After struggling to get double-digit figures for it's first two seasons, the Asian Le Mans Series has been taken over by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest and hopefully that gives that series a swift kick in the ass. Hopefully no more stupid scheduling blunders with the series going to Shanghai the same weekend the FIA WEC is at Fuji or a Super GT round, preventing GT3 teams from running. The ACO is going to get this series pointing in the right direction.

Two down, three to go on the predictions. Next set of predictions will come on Monday morning. Have a good weekend.

2015 NASCAR Predictions

The 2014 motorsports season has ended and it is time to look forward to 2015. The NASCAR season ended less than a month ago but it is our first of five sets of predictions for the 2015 season. From the Cup Series to the newly rebranded Xfinity Series (which I will refer to as the Grand National Series) to the Trucks, here are a dozen things I predict will happen in 2015.

1. We Will See a Major Rule Change in One or All Three Series

I am not quite sure what it might be but NASCAR will come up with something. Maybe it is rewarding drivers who win races during the Chase, giving them a slight bonus when they advance to the next round or maybe it's adopting a Chase format to the Grand National and Truck Series. NASCAR will do something. Maybe they will continue to tinker with qualifying. Who knows.

2. Kyle Larson and Jamie McMurray Both Win a Cup Race

The Ganassi drivers looked better than most Chase drivers in the final ten races and Larson was inching ever closer to a victory in 2014. He didn't break through but the 2014 Rookie of the Year has a full year of experience under his belt and that come to his advantage. McMurray had 13 top tens in 2014, over half (seven) were top five finishes and the Missourian also scored two pole positions. He is always at the front of restrictor plate races (five of his seven victories are at Daytona or Talladega) and his other two victories came at Charlotte. So McMurray has six golden opportunities to get a victory in 2015.

3. Joe Gibbs Racing Wins Less Than Five Races

The Toyota team won two races all of 2014 and those were the only two victories for the Japanese manufacture in Cup last year. Matt Kenseth finished seventh in the 2014 championship but went winless after picking up six victories in 2013. The team has expanded to four cars with the addition of Carl Edwards but we have seen teams expand and then struggle (Richard Childress Racing I am looking at you). Chevrolet has power in numbers and Ford has Team Penske. Gibbs took a big step back in 2014 and were fortunate to have Denny Hamlin championship eligible entering the final race. I expect them to win more than two races but I don't think the team will as dominate as Penske was in 2014. 

4. Darrell Wallace, Jr. Makes His Cup Series Debut

Speaking of Gibbs, let's go the driver they are letting walk away. Darrell Wallace, Jr. won four races in the 2014 Truck Series season and finished third in the championship however, sponsorship issues has forced him to leave the team and it appears he maybe moving to the Grand National Series to driver for Roush-Fenway. Wallace, Jr. is a very talented driver and we are approaching nine years since the last African-American qualified for a Cup race (Bill Lester at the June Michigan race in case you're wondering. Before that, NASCAR went two decade between African-American drivers making a start in the Cup Series). The time is right for Wallace, Jr. to get a Cup start or two while he continues to develop into a more rounded driver. 

5. Tony Stewart Will Win a Cup Series Race

With a difficult 2014 behind him, Tony Stewart will find a way back into victory lane. I don't think he will be at the top of the championship and I don't think he will be a contender every week but I think the three-time champion will be able to have competitive race weekends where he is in contention and be able to pull out a victory. It could be a short track, it could be a road course, it just might be the Daytona 500. Imagine that? After the horrific year, Stewart returns to Daytona and finally breaks through for his first Daytona 500 victory, pretty much the final piece of the puzzle for an otherwise illustrious career. 

6. Roush Fenway Racing Fail to Win a Cup Race

How the mighty have fallen. Remember when everyone panicked when Roush had five cars and the worry was the team expanding to taking up a quarter of the grid? NASCAR even implemented a rule preventing a team from have more than four full-time cars and Roush had one grandfathered in for a handful of seasons before they had to shut down the program. Those were the days. Now Roush can barely field three full-time cars. The glory days of Mark Martin, Matt Kenseth, Kurt Busch, Greg Biffle and Carl Edwards are gone. Now it's Biffle carrying the torch with Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. and Trevor Bayne as his teammates, each with two left feet. Stenhouse has yet to translate his talent which won him two Grand National titles into Cup success and while Bayne won the 2011Daytona 500, his second Cup start, he has managed only two top tens in his subsequent 56 Cup starts driving for the Wood Brothers. Penske has supplanted Roush as the top Ford team and you could make an argument that Richard Petty Racing with Sam Hornish, Jr. and Aric Almirola are the second best Ford team. Don't hold your breathe on Roush winning in Cup next year. 

7. Chase Elliott Does Not Repeat as Grand National Series Champion

After winning this year's title weeks before his 19th birthday, Chase Elliott will return for another year in NASCAR's second division and could join the likes of Sam Ard, Larry Pearson, Randy Lajoie, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Martin Truex, Jr. and Stenhouse, Jr. as back-to-back champions. However, I don't see that happening. One, because who knows what NASCAR might do with that championship format. Two, I think Elliott could face more of a challenge. Teammate Regan Smith finished third in the 2013 championship and second in 2014. If he continues improving at that rate, he will be lined up for a championship in 2015. While you shouldn't hold your breathe on Roush winning in Cup, they could win the Grand National title as they have added Elliott Sadler from Gibbs and Ryan Reed will compete full-time and the team could be adding Darrell Wallace, Jr. Brian Scott and Ty Dillon both look to return with Richard Childress Racing. Winning a title it tough, defending it is even tougher and I expect someone else to be hoisting the trophy on November 21, 2015.

8. NASCAR Continues to Ignore Cup Drivers Moonlighting in the Grand National and Truck Series.
And because NASCAR continues to ignore it, Kyle Busch will win over a half dozen Truck and Grand National races and Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski will combine to win a dozen Grand National races. No one is asking for NASCAR to ban all moonlighting, just limit it. I love to see Cup drivers moonlight occasionally but not Cup drivers running 75% of Grand National and Truck races. Limit drivers to seven races in each championship they are ineligible for and all will be well with the world. Allow the full-time drivers in those series to compete against each other for victories, not for fifth every week and they will become more household names. It is a win-win proposition.

9. The Truck Series Champion Wins More Than Three Races
Matt Crafton has won the last two Truck titles, combining for three victories the last two seasons. If Crafton wants to become the first driver to win three consecutive Truck titles, he is going to have to do more than he has done in the past two season. Darrell Wallace, Jr. won four races in 2014 and Erik Jones won three races and Jones is now eligible to run a full season. Crafton's teammate Johnny Sauter should challenge for the title. Tyler Reddick will run a full season for Brad Keselowski Racing and he finished 12th in the 2014 championship despite missing six races. Jeb Burton could also return to ThorSport alongside Crafton and Sauter. Kyle Busch will win at least six Truck races, but it's a matter of what happens in those other 17 that will decide who wins the title.

10. Alex Tagliani Wins a NASCAR-sanctioned Race
This is very vague because I don't know where it is going to happen but it's going to happen. Whether it is with Penske at one of the three Grand National Series road course races, all of which take place in August (Watkins Glen, Mid-Ohio and Road America) or the Mosport Truck race (which is the day after the Road America race. Could be an interesting doubleheader for Tagliani to attempt) or a NASCAR Canadian Tire Series race, Tagliani will win a NASCAR-sanctioned race in 2015.

11. Ratings Will Be Down Slightly on NBC, Mostly in the Grand National Series
I don't expect NASCAR to get better ratings on NBCSN compared to ESPN. Overall, NBC/NBCSN might score better than ESPN/ABC because NASCAR has more network races with NBC than they did with ABC but I think the cable races will see a slight decrease. NBCSN isn't as readily available or a mainstay as ESPN is and while NBCSN might see growth, comparing them to what NASCAR did on ESPN, I think the numbers will be down. Nothing drastic but definitely by a few decimal points.

12. There Will Not Be a Winless Driver Eligible for the Cup Title Entering the Final Race
NASCAR won't have to worry about a Ryan Newman-situation at Homestead in 2015. But that doesn't mean their Chase-format isn't contrived and something to be proud of.

One set of predictions down, four to go. Look for the next batch of predictions in two days.

Musings From the Weekend: The Christmas Lights Are Out

Another weekend full of travel kept me away from most of the action on Saturday but thanks to modern technology I was able to catch up by Sunday night. Now the motorsports season is over but there is still plenty to talk about as we prepare for 2015.

Save Bryan Herta Autosport
Indianapolis Star's Curt Cavin gave a car count for the 2015 Verizon IndyCar Series season and while the grid size appears to be on the verge of increasing but it could also be on the verge of shrinking simultaneously. While gaining a fourth Penske and second AJ Foyt Racing entry, the grid could be losing an Indianapolis 500 winning team, Bryan Herta Autosport.

IndyCar can't afford to lose Bryan Herta Autosport as it would add another casualty to those teams that have died since reunification. Conquest, Panther, HVM, Dragon, Newman-Haas and Dreyer & Reinbold have all faded from being full-time participants. Newman-Haas died peacefully and we should let it go. Panther died less peacefully and left the series was a bruise. HVM's equipment was being used by Andretti Autosport for the last two seasons for EJ Viso and Carlos Muñoz respectively. Dragon decided to focus on full-time competition in Formula E. Dreyer & Reinbold is hanging around and fielded Sage Karam in this year's Indianapolis 500 but a full-time returns seems less than likely. Conquest appears on verge of a comeback in Indy Lights.

Imagine if each one of those teams had been able to keep one car on the grid. IndyCar would be looking at close to 30 full-time entries and I am sure we would have plenty of bumping each May but that is not reality. The reality is IndyCar is on the verge of losing another team, something the series can't afford. People are not lining up to field IndyCars and with potentially half the grid being controlled by three men, the series is one financial disaster from losing a chunk of the field. The series needs single-car teams to be the foundation of the grid. These seats give up and coming drivers opportunities. Think about Jack Hawksworth. BHA took a shot on him when no one else was willing to do so and that turned out pretty good. Think about Simona de Silvestro, who would have never made an IndyCar start had it not been for HVM. Think about Tony Kanaan, who got his shot with Tasman Motorsports many moons ago. Without single car teams, future stars don't get opportunities. Penske doesn't hire rookies. Ganassi rarely hires rookies. Andretti is more open to hiring rookies but have a solid drivers line-up that could be around for the next few seasons.

Had IndyCar kept those teams listed above alive, the series would be in a much better position and drivers would have plenty of opportunities to get a chance to shine. IndyCar can't afford to lose another full-time seat, especially one that has tasted Indianapolis 500 glory not too long ago.

Sign Jean-Éric Vergne
Michael Andretti should sign Jean-Éric Vergne to an IndyCar contract immediately. He started on pole for his Formula E debut at Punta del Este and had his suspension not failed him he could have won on debut. Let's not forget to mention that Saturday was the first time he had ever been in a Formula E car. If he can win pole and compete for a win after just a practice session or two in a car he had never stepped into prior to race day, imagine what he could do with multiple test session and shakedowns of a car and communicating with drivers who have experience.

Don't worry about funding. You didn't worry about funding with Hunter-Reay and look how he turned out. Vergne can compete with the front of the IndyCar grid and if there is one thing Honda needs is another weapon in their arsenal because as of right now, Chevrolet is sitting on a military-esque fire power while Honda only has a revolver. If hired, Vergne will be at the front of most IndyCar races. If he is racking up victories, funds will eventually fall Vergne and Andretti's way.

The Dream Rookie Class
Try not getting goosebumps thinking about what the potential 2015 IndyCar rookie class could look like. Besides Vergne, you could have Davide Valsecchi, Conor Daly, Sage Karam, Alexander Rossi and Gabby Chaves. Let's not forget about Luca Filippi, who for seem reason is always overlooked, Stefano Coletti, who is testing for Schmidt Peterson along with Valsecchi, Charles Pic, who race for Andretti in Formula E at Beijing, Daniel Abt, who tested for Andretti earlier this year and Dean Stoneman, who looks to transition from GP3

These are talented drivers. They aren't going to cause television ratings to increase ten-fold or draw 100,000 people to each race but the only drivers that were going to do that are named Hamilton, Alonso, Vettel, Earnhardt, Jr., Johnson and J. Gordon. IndyCar could have one of it's greatest rookie classes in their over century of history in 2015 and it needs to become a reality.

Winners From the Weekend
You know about AF Corse and David Coulthard but did you know...

Team Nordic of Tom Kristensen and Petter Solberg won the Nations Cup at the Race of Champions, defeated the United Kingdom being represented by Coulthard and Susie Wolff.

Sébastien Buemi won the Formula E round from Punta del Este, becoming the third different winner in as many races.

The Formula Racing Seat León of Mikkel Mac, Bo McCormick, Johnny Laursen, Lars Steffensen and Jose Antonio Monroy won the Maxi Endurance 32 Hours from Portimão.

With no more weekend previews for the remainder of 2014, I will go over the final round of over/unders and predictions in this post.

Last Week's Over/Unders
1. Over: Four drivers (Vergne, Jarno Trulli, Bruno Senna and Nick Heidfeld) scored their first points of the Formula E season at Punta del Este.
2. Under: The Gulf 12 Hours winning #3 AF Corse spent 17 minutes and 43 seconds in the pit lane.
3. Over: All three Americans advanced to the knockout round of the Race of Champions.

Last Week's Predictions
1. Nicolas Prost does not win pole position for the Punta del Este round of Formula E (Correct as Jean-Éric Vergne won pole).
2. Whoever wins part one of the Gulf 12 Hours does not win the Gulf 12 Hours overall (Wrong. The #3 AF Corse won part one and won overall).
3. A European driver does not win the Race of Champions (Wrong as David Coulthard from Scotland defeated Pascal Wehrlein from Germany).
Overall: 1/3. Running Tally: 37.5/68

This is slated to be the last "Musings From the Weekend" column of the year as there isn't anything left on the schedule, however, if thoughts come to mind and I have time to type and share them, I will. While I don't plan on doing "Musings," I have a set of predictions for the 2015 motorsports season lined-up as well as a few other posts as we get deeper into the Christmas season. By the way, Happy Hanukkah as the eight-day holiday begins tonight. Keep an eye on the blog over the next few things, there might be something posted that you will enjoy.

2014 For the Love of Indy Awards

Another year of motorsports has come to a close and it is now time to reflect on all that has happened. We saw first time champions as well as familiar faces add records amount of silverware to their trophy case. We saw titles go down to the final lap and title clinched with ease. We saw dominant performances as well as race slip from finger tips. For every hair-raising moments there was a jaw-dropping spectacles.

Legends have decided 2014 will be their final season but as they leave another batch of young drivers will step up to leave their mark. Here is where we honor those he made the deepest impression on the 2014 motorsports season.

Racer of the Year
Description: Given to the best racer over the course of 2014.
And the Nominees are:
Marc Márquez
André Lotterer
Lewis Hamilton
Sébastien Ogier
Jaime Whincup

And the winner is... Marc Márquez
For the second consecutive year Marc Márquez comes out on top. No one else came close to Márquez and no one else controlled a championship like he did in 2012. Remember prior to the season opener at Qatar when he said it would have been foolish to pick him to win that race because he was recovering from a broken leg just six weeks prior? It would have been foolish to pick anyone but Márquez to win each of the eighteen rounds of the MotoGP season.

He didn't only prove himself wrong in the first race but in the following nine. He won the first six races from pole position. He scored fastest lap in eight of the first ten. He would fool us on starts, dropping from pole back to sixth, by the end of the first sector and sometimes as far back as tenth but the end of lap one, only to always find a way back to the point. Sometimes he was challenged but most of the time he would retake the lead and never look back as he won ten consecutive races for the sixth time in the history of 500cc/MotoGP.

Eventually Márquez was defeated but at that point it didn't matter. The championship was his for the taking. He could take risks. He could have won Aragón if he stopped for rain tires sooner but he decided to push the limit on slicks. Along with Aragón, he could have won at Phillip Island if he doesn't fall while in a commanding lead. He won a single-season record setting 13th victory at the season finale at Valencia but Márquez could have put records further out of reach for challengers to come. It very well could have been 15 had it not been for two falls.

Along with his 13 victories, Márquez had 13 pole positions, 12 fastest laps and led 214 of 449 laps. Did I forget to mention that he is only 21? His second title showed he was no fluke and a third consecutive title will have him squeezing in at the table with the all-time greats.

On the other nominees: André Lotterer's 2014 season featured the most diversity of success with the German picking up his third Le Mans victory as he and teammates Benoît Tréluyer and Marcel Fässler finished second in the FIA World Endurance Championship. Lotterer finished third in the Super Formula championship with two victories and he became the first Le Mans winner since Johnny Herbert in 1991 to make a Formula One start. Sure, Lotterer's Formula One career was destined to be brief as he was given the opportunity by Caterham and the car let him down after one lap around Spa. However, diversity in motorsports during this age of specialization should be acknowledged and if offered, many of us would take Lotterer's season.

Lewis Hamilton won his second world championship with 11 victories, 16 podiums, seven pole positions and seven fastest laps from nineteen races. Hamilton and Nico Rosberg's battle for the title will be one we will remanence about when they are calling an end to their Formula One careers. Mercedes produced the best car but they let their drivers race each other. There was no number one. It was comparable to Ayrton Senna vs. Alain Prost or Mario Andretti vs. Ronnie Peterson or Phil Hill vs. Wolfgang von Tripps. You never knew who was going to come out on top at each race.

Sébastien Ogier won his second consecutive world championship in dominating fashion, winning seven rounds and finishing on the podium in nine of thirteen rallies. Ogier won the power stage at six rallies. Like Mercedes in Formula One, Volkswagen was the class of the field but Ogier had the edge over his teammates Jari-Matti Latvala and Andreas Mikkelsen. Other than in Germany and France, the Frenchman very rarely put a wheel wrong.

Jamie Whincup won a record sixth V8 Supercars championship but about halfway through the season that appeared in doubt. Mark Winterbottom appeared to be his main challenger but Whincup turned it on as his challengers faltered. He won 14 of 38 races with 21 podiums and 10 pole positions. He clinched the title with a round to go. It was his fourth consecutive title and all of Whincup's six have come in the last seven seasons. At only 31 years old, Whincup has plenty of time to pad his records and climb the ranks as one of the greatest racers from Australia.

Past Winners
2012: Kyle Larson

2013: Marc Márquez

Race of the Year
Description: Best Race of 2014.
And the Nominees are:
Indianapolis 500
Aragón motorcycle Grand Prix
Pro Mazda race 2 from Sonoma
Bathurst 1000
Canadian Grand Prix

And the winner is... Bathurst 1000
Despite red flags for pavement issues, 1000 kilometers have never held my attention more than this race. Jamie Whincup had to start 23rd but was up to fifth in thirteen laps but as if that hill wasn't high enough to overcome, an accident and penalty for unsafe release in the pit lane put Whincup and co-driver Paul Dumbrell a lap down. The battle at the front was mostly between the #33 Volvo of Scott McLaughlin and Alexandre Prémat and the #97 Holden of Shane Van Gisbergen and Jonathon Webb but McLaughlin hit the wall and Van Gisbergen had the start motor fail him on the final pit stop with 10 laps to go.

Whincup had worked his way back on to the lead lap and found himself in contention with teammate Craig Lowndes, Mark Winterbottom and Chaz Mostert, who started in 25th, last on the grid after his time was disallowed for passing under red flag conditions in qualifying. Whincup was stretching his fuel mileage as Lowndes and Winterbottom got together, ending both their hopes. Mostert chased down Whincup as he tried to nurse it home. Ultimately, Whincup didn't have enough and Mostert passed him on the exit of Forest's Elbow, heading down The Chase one final time. Mostert and co-driver Paul Morris won the most famous race in the southern hemisphere from last on the grid and only led one lap, the final lap. Between them, Mostert and Morris has three combined victories and Morris' lone victory came at Calder Park a track that is being reclaimed by nature in 2001. It was Mostert's second Bathurst start. Whincup coasted fifth as the #360 Nissan of James Moffat and Taz Douglas, #22 Holden of Nick Percat and Oliver Gavin and #9 Mercedes of Will and Alex Davison would pass Whincup.

To top it all off, on the podium Mostert gave us motorsport's quote of the year when commenting on his pursuit of Whincup: "I kept screaming on the radio in the cockpit – cough you bastard, cough!"

On the other nominees... For another year the Indianapolis 500 provided a thrill for 200 consecutive laps. The first three-quarters of the race went without a caution as Ryan Hunter-Reay worked his way to the front from 19th on the grid and took the lead by halfway. Lead changes were nearly half from the year prior but the action was still fierce. Going into the final 25 laps, at least eight drivers had a shot of victory but they thinned out quickly as Ed Carpenter and James Hinchcliffe got together and Townsend Bell had an accident. The final seven laps were a duel between Hunter-Reay and Hélio Castroneves, who was looking for his fourth Indianapolis 500 victory. They traded positions a few times before Hunter-Reay took the lead once and for all on the inside of turn three with four laps to go as he held off the Brazilian by 0.060 seconds, the second-closest finish in Indianapolis 500 history.

Aragón was as unpredictable as they come. Andrea Iannone started third and was up to second but was out after a second lap accident. Valentino Rossi fell from fourth on lap four. The battle was between Márquez, Jorge Lorenzo and Dani Pedrosa as rain bared down. When the rain arrived, it was a matter of who was going to blink first. Neither of the three immediately dove in to switch bikes even as the condition clearly became more than they could handle on slicks. Lorenzo blinked with four to go and Pedrosa fell in turn one while Márquez continue. You would have thought Honda and Márquez would have been smart enough to pit immediately after Pedrosa fell but they weren't and Márquez was down the next lap. Both were able to continue but the race was handed to Lorenzo while Aleix Espargaró benefitted from being one of the first to switch to come home second, holding off a hard charging Cal Crutchlow. Márquez and Pedrosa were able to limp home, 13th and 14th respectively, each having gone one lap too long on slicks.

Not often does a junior formula race break into the conversation of best of the year but the Pro Mazda season finale begs to differ. After losing the championship lead in race one the previous day, Spencer Pigot had to chase down Scott Hargrove for the title. Hargrove was on pole with Pigot second and Pigot's championship hopes were nearly dashed in the first few corners as Neil Alberico (Hargrove's teammate) got into Pigot and his teammate Kyle Kaiser. Pigot dropped outside the top fifteen as Hargrove continued to lead. Pigot picked off one driver after another as he tried to resurrect his championship hopes but it appeared he had run out of steam once he reached seventh with six to go. With four to go, Kaiser caused a caution, bunching up the field for one final restart with three laps to go. Hargrove had lead every lap until a mechanical failure ended his day, handing the lead to Pigot's other teammate, Jose Gutierrez. Hargrove retired and Pigot brought the car home in fifth, more than enough to take the title.

Just when it appeared Mercedes was going to go undefeated in Formula One, it all came crashing down at Montreal. Rosberg and Hamilton pushed each other to the limit at every turn and Hamilton's brakes went, ending the Brits day. After leading the first 413 laps of the Formula One season, Mercedes conceded the race lead to Felipe Massa but he had to pit and Rosberg, Sergio Pérez, Daniel Ricciardo and Sebastian Vettel would go on by. Pérez rode Rosberg's coat tails but fell back as his brakes started to go. Ricciardo was able to pass the Mexican and chase down Rosberg, taking the lead  with three to go. The battle was then for third as Pérez was holding on as Vettel and Massa were all over him. Heading into turn one on the final lap, Vettel passed the Mexican and Massa made a move but Pérez made contact with the Williams and both went sliding off into the barriers. The safety car was deployed and Ricciardo ended up victorious, the first of his Formula One career.

Past Winners
2012: Indianapolis 500
2013: British motorcycle Grand Prix

Achievement of the Year
Description: Best success by a driver, team, manufacture, etc.
And the Nominees are:
Marc Márquez: Winning ten consecutive race.
Marc Márquez: Setting the record for most wins in a premier class season with thirteen.
Lewis Hamilton: Becoming the all-time winningest British driver in Formula One history.
Jamie Whincup: Winning a record-breaking sixth V8 Supercars championship.
Max Verstappen: Landing a Formula One Ride at 17 years old.

And the winner is... Marc Márquez: Setting the record for most wins in a premier class season.
Of all the records Marc Márquez has set, this one might stand for the longest. To win the most races ever in a season shows the strength of a racer from the time the lights first go out until the final checkered flag. To break a record that was held by a legend such as Mick Doohan is setting Márquez up to be in the conversation as one of the all-time greats many years from now. For someone to better that mark, they will need to string to results with next to no problems. Just one or two bad results could separate a rider from breaking this record and not. Think about how close Márquez was to not breaking this record? As close as this record could have been 15 victories, it very well could have been 9 victories.

On the other nominees... Márquez won ten consecutive races, the sixth time that happened in 500cc/MotoGP history and there were a few races in which that streak could have been halted. What if Jorge Lorenzo doesn't have an accident on lap one at Qatar? What if Lorenzo doesn't jump the start at Austin? What if Lorenzo holds on and doesn't allow Márquez by on the final lap at Mugello? With a streak such as Márquez's, fortune is going to have to break your way a few times and Márquez was no different.

Think about all the great British drivers to have race in Formula One. Lewis Hamilton has won more Grand Prix than all of them. Granted this is a different era. Jim Clark never had a 19 races schedule. The most he ran in a season was 11 and he left this earth at aged 32. He could have done another two or three seasons had he not gotten in that accident on that fateful day in Hockenheim. Even more amazing is Hamilton reached this mark in 2014. He started the year tied with Damon Hill for 13th all-time in victories with 22. He was third amongst active drivers in victories, only two ahead of Kimi Räikkönen. He ends 2014 with 33 victories, fifth all-time, second amongst active drivers, one ahead of Fernando Alonso and six behind Sebastian Vettel. If Mercedes repeats their dominance in 2015, Hamilton without a question will pass Vettel and Hamilton could pass his idol, Ayrton Senna for third all-time in victories.

When you consider the history of V8 Supercars and it's roots back to Australian Touring Cars, Jamie Whincup setting the record for most championships is comparable to Jimmie Johnson winning an eighth NASCAR Cup Series title. He broke a record held with Ian Geoghegan, who won all his titles between 1964-1969, similar to Whincup who has won all of titles since 2008, second all-time in race victories and six-time Bathurst 1000 winner Mark Skaife and Dick Johnson, a long-time presence in the series who continues to be involved as a team owner. Whincup is young enough to completely rewrite the record books and he doesn't appear to be stopping anytime soon.

Say what you want with Red Bull's driver development system, to get a Formula One team to put you in a car with only one season of experience in a race car and to do it without bringing any money is impressive. Max Verstappen didn't even win the FIA European Formula Three championship yet the 17-year old will be on the Formula One grid in 2015 while the champion Esteban Ocon and runner-up Tom Blomqvist will have to continue in junior formulas. What were you doing when you were 17? I was working two part-time jobs while trying to balance my junior year of high school and start figuring out what universities to apply to. That is a hell of a long way from the Formula One grid.

Past Winners
2012: DeltaWing
2013: Sebastian Vettel for winning nine consecutive races on his way to a fourth consecutive title

Moment of the Year
Description: The Most Memorable Moment in the World of Racing during the 2014 season.
And the Nominees are:
U.S. F2000 and Pro Mazda Sonoma Weekend.
Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton making contact at Spa-Francorchamps.
Post races at the Charlotte and Texas Chase races.
Sebastien Vettel Leaving Red Bull.
Formula E makes it's debut from Beijing

And the winner is... Post race at the Charlotte and Texas Chase races.
The skirmishes between Brad Keselowski and Matt Kenseth and Keselowski and Jeff Gordon got NASCAR the attention it wanted it. It was leading off SportsCenter in the United States during American football season. To give a comparison, imagine something usurping the Germany national team's run at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil on the German equivalent to SportsCenter. Don't get me wrong, this wins Moment of the Year for all the wrong reasons. No one cared about who won the race. It was all about the extracurriculars. NASCAR got it's attention but not because of the product being something that drew in viewers and kept them glued to the screen, rather needing it's drivers to go to schoolboy antics to get anyone to notice.

On the other nominees... We covered the Pro Mazda championship battle but U.S. F2000 championship was just as crazy. R.C. Enerson entered the final race with the championship lead after Florian Latorre retired from race one. Enerson had led the most laps in race two and had a comfortable lead over Latorre before Enerson went off course and Latorre swept on by and in doing so won the race and the championship just a day after it appeared he had lost it.

The contact on lap two of the Belgian Grand Prix between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg changed the entire flow of the 2014 World Drivers' Championship. Hamilton retired from the race while Rosberg went on to win. The German held a 29-point lead but Hamilton felt he had been done dirty by his teammate and that just might have set a fire under the Brit. Hamilton would win the next five races and six of the final seven. Mechanical issues found Rosberg, bitting him at Singapore, ending his night after 13 laps and once again at Abu Dhabi where all he could do was manage to limb home while Hamilton took the crown that appeared to be Rosberg's just three months earlier.

When the press release came at Suzuka saying Daniel Ricciardo and Daniil Kvyat would be Red Bull Racing's 2015 drivers, a sense of shock came across the motorsports world. After one bad year, one year where the world title was not going to be returning to Milton Keynes, one year in which his teammate was better, Sebastian Vettel was leaving the team he built. Red Bull is nothing without Vettel. The German made an energy drink company the best race team in the world, better than Ferrari, better than McLaren and better than Mercedes. It is a divorce that ten months earlier no one would believe we would ever see happen and then it did and it set off the Formula One silly season dominoes that have just finished falling.

Formula E might not be fast, it might be different from what we are use to be I liken the series to the early automobile races. To the 10-mile AAA-sanctioned races held at horse racing tracks here in the United States or the early grands prix on public roads creating a circuit over 20 miles in length. These were the building blocks for the foundation of what Formula One is today and what IndyCar is today. A century from now that race in Beijing with an average speed just over 60 MPH could be looked upon as a building block for whatever motorsports series is leading the way.

Past Winners
2012: Alex Zanardi
2013: 24 Hours of Le Mans

Pass of the Year
Description: Best pass of 2014.
And the Nominees are:
Scott McLaughlin on Jaime Whincup in the last corner at Adelaide.
Ryan Blaney on Germán Quiroga for the victory in the final corner at Mosport
Ryan Hunter-Reay on Hélio Castroneves on the inside of turn three, ultimately the Indianapolis 500 winning pass.
Gianmaria Bruni from 4th to 2nd in turn one at Bahrain.

And the winner is... Ryan Blaney on Germán Quiroga
As dirty as road course racing can be in NASCAR, the Ryan Blaney-Germán Quiroga showed how great a race can be when two drivers treat each other with respect. Quiroga could have pushed Blaney off course. Blane could have spun Quiroga. Neither did that. They gave each other room and Quiroga took advantage when Blaney left an opening and Blaney capitalized when Quiroga left the door open and Blaney came out on top. NASCAR road course races don't have to be sloppy affairs where track limits don't exist and drivers treat each other more like they are in bumper cars and not sophisticated race cars. Blaney and Quiroga showed what a NASCAR road course race can be when drivers respect one another.

On the other nominees... The entire final lap battle between Scott McLaughlin and Jamie Whincup was fantastic. Like Blaney-Quiroga, McLaughlin and Whincup respected one another. Whincup could have put McLaughlin in the barrier and easily cruised to a second place finish but he didn't. He gave McLaughlin just enough room for both to continue. Just when you though Whincup had McLaughlin beat for second, the Kiwi dove on the inside as Whincup went wide and beat Whincup to the line.

No one had made a passing on the inside going into turn three before Ryan Hunter-Reay overtook Hélio Castroneves with four to go. At least no one went as low as Hunter-Reay did. He couldn't have gotten any closer to the grass. It was the type of move he had to make to catch Castroneves slightly off guard. If Hunter-Reay was willing to make a move that nuts, what else would he be willing to try? It ultimately was enough as Hunter-Reay would lead the final four laps to take his first Indianapolis 500 victory.

This is why Gianmaria Bruni is a back-to-back World Cup for GT Drivers champion. He stalked the Porsche of Patrick Pilet and Aston Martin of Darren Turner and just when it looked like Turner would get the position, Bruni used the draft to swoop by both on the inside as he and Toni Vilander would go on to win their fourth race of the year and clinch the GT world title.

Past Winners
2012: Simon Pagenaud at Baltimore
2013: Robert Wickens at Nürburgring and Peter Dempsey in the Freedom 100

The Eric Idle Award
Description: "When You're Chewing on Life's Gristle, Don't Grumble, Give a Whistle, And This'll Help Things Turn Out For The Best, and...  Always Look On The Bright Side of Life."
And the Nominees are:
Martin Truex, Jr.: Losing his ride at Michael Waltrip Racing because he lost his sponsor because Clint Bowyer decided to "take a dive" and ending 2014 with five top tens, a third of his 2013 total.
Romain Grosjean: For 7th to 14th in Formula One, scoring four points in 2014, 128 less than 2013, a year in which he ended on the verge of his first victory.
Matt Griffin: For losing a possible second consecutive ELMS GTE title after lap one contact and the #72 SMP Racing Ferrari of Andrea Bertolini, Sergey Zlobin and Viktor Shaitar winning the final race, which they had to do to have any hope of winning the title.
Tom Sykes: For losing a possible second consecutive World Superbike title in the final race.
Alexander Rossi: For having seat after seat ripped out from underneath him and with nowhere to go.

And the winner is... Alexander Rossi
Alexander Rossi could have gotten any closer to making his Formula One debut in 2014 and not made it. First it was Caterham where he got a few Friday drives but ultimately the California left when the team was sold by Tony Fernandes. He landed at Marussia in a reserve role but it appeared Rossi was going to make a breakthrough. It was an announced Rossi would have a race seat for the Belgian Grand Prix only to have that taken from him between first and second practice. After the Jules Bianchi accident it appeared Rossi was set to make his debut at Austin after the team didn't not run Bianchi's car at Sochi. However, Marussia went into administration prior to Austin and the team never made it back on the Formula One grid. Rossi's career is now up in the air and it is likely that he will never start a Formula One Grand Prix despite being so close at Spa.

On the other nominees: Martin Truex, Jr. couldn't have been screwed over anymore by Michael Waltrip Racing. Actions done by Clint Bowyer cost Truex his ride. It is despicable how that entire situation was handled and Truex deserved better. The good news is he was getting better results toward the end of 2014 and Furniture Row Racing is a decent team that has made the Chase before and with making the Chase being as easy as winning a race, it is very possible Truex could qualify next season.

Romain Grosjean got caught in a situation where the car was dreadful and he did the best he could with a turd. Hopefully the switch to Mercedes engines in 2015 puts the Frenchman and Lotusback in contention for race victories like he was at the end of 2013.

A perfect storm kept Matt Griffin from winning back-to-back ELMS GTE titles. First was the accident but that wasn't the end of the world as the #72 SMP Racing Ferrari had to win to take the championship. Of course, that is exactly how it played out as the Russian team came from almost out of nowhere to take the title.

Tom Sykes didn't lose the World Superbike title as much as Sylvain Guintoli won it. The Frenchman won three of the final four races and didn't finish worse than second in the final eight races. Sykes had one retirement all season. As easy as it would be to pin the championship on that one retirement from Sepang, Sykes has nothing to hang his head about. Guintoli was just a little bit better.

Past Winners
2012: Ben Spies
2013: Sam Hornish, Jr.

Comeback of the Year
Description: The Best Comeback in the 2014 season.
And the Nominees are:
Williams F1
Dean Stoneman to full-time single-seater racing
Juan Pablo Montoya to IndyCar
Lewis Hamilton at Germany and Hungary
Alex Tagliani at Road America

And the winner is... Juan Pablo Montoya to IndyCar
Nearly fourteen years after last being in an IndyCar and seven years since being in an open-wheel car, Juan Pablo Montoya returned to the series that jump started his career and made it look like he never left. He did struggle to get his footing in the first few races but by the time Indianapolis 500 rolled around, Montoya was challenging for victories. He stretched fuel mileage longer than anyone else and had it not been for a pit lane speeding penalty, the Colombian would have been in contention for his second Indianapolis 500 victory in his second start in the famed race.

Victory would come his way, at Pocono where Montoya won from pole position, the first driver to win from pole in the 2014 Verizon IndyCar Series season. Montoya scored 342 points in the six IndyCar oval races, more than any other driver. He finished fourth in the championship with 586 points. He led 167 laps, only Will Power, Tony Kanaan, Hélio Castroneves and Ryan Hunter-Reay led more. Montoya has room for improvement in 2015 but he certainly raised a few eye brows in 2014.

On the other nominees... What else can you say about Williams F1? Getting the Mercedes engine certainly played into their favor but that wasn't an automatic guarantee for success. You still need to build a car capable of competing at the front and it had been sometime since Williams produced a car of this caliber. Since BMW left the team after the 2005 season, Williams had three podiums over eight season. The team scored nine podiums in 2014. After only scoring 5 points in 2013 and finishing ninth in the Constructors' Championship, Williams scored 320 points behind only Mercedes and Red Bull and ahead of Ferrari, McLaren and Force India, teams that had trounced Williams in recent seasons. Valterri Bottas came of age and Felipe Massa resuscitated his career. The Finn scored in 17 of 19 races and Massa won pole position at Austria, the only pole position that wasn't snagged by a Mercedes driver. Massa challenged for the victory at Abu Dhabi but came home second with Bottas in third, the first time both Williams finished on the podiums since the 2005 Monaco Grand Prix when Nick Heidfeld and Mark Webber finished second and third respectively. They might not have won in 2014 but don't rule them out in 2015.

If you don't know the story of Dean Stoneman, it is as uplifting as they come. In 2010, Stoneman won the Formula Two championship over Jolyon Palmer and secured a test with Williams F1 for the end of that year. He was set to move to Formula Renault 3.5 in 2011 but Stoneman was diagnosed with severe testicular cancer forcing him out of the car. He nearly lost his legs and had he not gotten treatment when he did, he would not be here today. He didn't race at all in 2011 or 2012. He returned to competition in Porsche Carrera Cup Great Britain in 2013 and swept his first race weekend at Brands Hatch. After finishing fifth in that series, Stoneman got a ride in the 2013 GP3 season finale at Abu Dhabi where he finished sixth and second in his first races in a single-seater since winning the 2010 F2 title. He got a full-time GP3 ride in 2014 and won a series-leading five races and finished second in the championship. Now Stoneman looks toward moving up the European ladder or coming to the United States and IndyCar. Stoneman is as uplifting of a story and we can only hope he continues to find success wherever he goes in 2015.

Lewis Hamilton had to start from 20th at Hockenheim and from the pit lane at Hungaroring. In both races, Hamilton put together calculated drives to the front and those very well could have decided the championship. Had Hamilton not gone from 20th to 3rd at Hockenheim and from the pit lane to 3rd at Hungaroring, Nico Rosberg could have been world champion. They were drives that defined Hamilton's season despite him not ending up on the top step of the podium.

Alex Tagliani ran out of fuel while leading the NASCAR Nationwide Series at Road America under caution with five laps to go and dropped him to 23rd for the final restart. Tagliani switched to slick tires as the track was drying as the field prepared for a green-white-checkered finish. Tagliani picked apart the field as he went from 23rd to second in two laps and finished second to Brendan Gaughan by only 0.820 seconds. It was as impressive as you can get as Tagliani made the field appear amateur as he nearly pulled off what arguably would have been the greatest green-white-checkered comeback in it's recent history of use in NASCAR.

Past Winners
2013: Michael Shank Racing at the 24 Hours of Daytona

Most Improved
Description: Racer Who Improved The Most from 2013 to 2014.
And the Nominees are:
Aleix Espargaró: From 11th to 7th in MotoGP, scoring 33 points more than 2013, while picking up his first career pole position and podium.
Chaz Mostert: From 17th to 7th, scoring 1003 points more than 2013 and winning two races including the Bathurst 1000.
Daniel Ricciardo: From 14th to 3rd in Formula One, scoring 218 points more than 2013, winning three races and scoring eight podiums.
Edoardo Mortara: From 21st to 5th in DTM, scoring 65 more points than 2013 and two podiums after his best finish was ninth in 2013.
Valtteri Bottas: From 17th to 4th in Formula One, scoring 182 points more than 2013 and finished with six podiums

And the winner is... Chaz Mostert
Besides his Bathurst victory, Chaz Mostert was a feature at the front of many V8SC races and Mostert ended up finishing ahead of many more veteran V8SC drivers including former champion Garth Tander as well as Fabian Coulthard, Will Davison and Jason Bright. He was the second best Ford driver, finishing only behind his Ford Performance Racing teammate Mark Winterbottom. Look for Mostert to challenge his teammate a little more in 2015.

On the other nominees... Aleix Espargaró did a lot considering he was on an "Open" class bike. His one podium at Aragón came in the wet and he took pole position at Assen. He moves to the factory Suzuki team in 2015 and could become an even bigger threat for getting more podiums possible victories.

Daniel Ricciardo did improve as he moved to Red Bull from Toro Rosso. He was not intimidated by his four-time world champion teammate Sebastian Vettel and beat the German in almost every statistic category. He has become the clear number one as he looks to challenge Mercedes even more in 2015.

The Italian Edoardo Mortara has had a roller coaster of a career in DTM. After winning two races and finishing fifth in his second season in the series in 2012, he scored only three points all of 2013 but turned it around in 2014 where he got two podiums and finished in the points in six of ten races.

We already touched on Valterri Bottas a little bit but when you considered he scored two fewer points than Esteban Gutiérrez in 2013 and finished ahead of Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso in 2014, he had a big turn around. Sure the car and engine had something to do with it but you still have to go out and get the results. The Finn proved his worth and he finished fourth in the world championship in his second season in Formula One.

Past Winners
2012: Esteban Guerrieri
2013: Marco Andretti

That will do it for the 2014 For the Love of Indy Awards. Congratulations to all those on a wonderful 2014 season. The 2015 season is just around the corner. Soon we will be talking about the Dakar Rally and the next round of the Formula E championship. Testing will pick up for the 24 Hours of Daytona and other endurances races such as the Dubai 24 Hours and Bathurst 12 Hour give us our fix. While we will miss motorsports, we need this down time. We need this time to be with families and reflect on the year. Everyone needs a break and while it will feel long, it is much shorter than we realize. Eventually the cycle will start all over and we will be back into a rhythm in no time at all.