Musings From the Weekend: 2015 Sports Car Predictions: Revisited

We are less than a week from Thanksgiving in the United States and the motorsports season is coasting to the finish line. Championships were crowned under the lights in the Persian Gulf and in South Florida. Meanwhile, some of the best of the world battled it out in a plethora of automobiles in London to determine who is the Champion of Champions. Here is a run down of what got me thinking.

2015 Sports Car Predictions: Revisited
With the 2015 FIA World Endurance Championship season now in the books. It is time to look back on predictions not only for WEC but IMSA, Pirelli World Challenge and Blancpain GT Series.

1. FIA WEC: All Four LMP1 Manufactures Win in 2015
Wrong! Nissan ran Le Mans and disappeared. Toyota never got over their championship hang over. It was Porsche vs. Audi the entire season. I made this prediction because Porsche won in their first season and I bought into the Nissan hype-train. Now, where is Nissan? They turned out to be all talk. Now we aren't even sure if Nissan will try again in 2016. I don't think they will.

2. Extreme Speed Motorsports is the LMP2 Favorites
Wrong! Extreme Speed Motorsports struggled with the HPD ARX-04b developed and had to move back to the ARX-03b before settling on the Ligier. They were always chasing the rest of the LMP2 grid this season. After their impressive appearances in the few WEC events they did at the end of 2014, I thought they would be able to take the fight to G-Drive, KCMG and others. I didn't think those teams were that strong as there were only four full-time cars in 2014. I was mistaken. G-Drive took the title and KCMG came second. I think ESM has the people to compete on the world stage and perhaps a less fluid situation in 2016 will have the team competing at the front more often.

3. Ferrari and Gianmaria Bruni Do Not Win a Third Consecutive World Endurance Cup for GT Drivers and Manufactures
Correct! Although, Ferrari and Bruni had a shot to continue the streak at Bahrain, Porsche and Richard Leitz came out on top. With the future of Porsche in GTE still up in the air, this could just be an off year for the Italian make and Italian driver. Aston Martin hasn't been able to competitive throughout an entire season and who knows how Ford will do in their debut season.

4. IMSA: LMP2 Cars Go Winless
Correct! Daytona Prototypes went 10-0 in 2015. Michael Shank Racing was LMP2 cars lone bullet and the closes they came was a second at Belle Isle. There is no point in running IMSA if you have an LMP2 car. Balance of Performance will never be on your side. You mind as well try and find a well-funded silver driver and try to run in ELMS or FIA WEC.

5. Corvette Takes the GTLM Title
Wrong! Another year. Another year with Corvette lighting the world on fire before the month of July. Another title coughed up. The season started with the sweep of the 24 Hours of Daytona and 12 Hours of Sebring and then a third at Long Beach for Jan Magnussen and Antonio García. After that the #3 Corvette would score only one podium in the final seven races, a third at Mosport. The #4 Corvette of Tommy Milner and Oliver Gavin won at Le Mans but there only podiums were the bookends of the season, third at Daytona and third at Road Atlanta. While the Corvettes couldn't get there act together, Patrick Pilet and Nick Tandy kept winning and Porsche took the title.

6. The TRG-Aston Martin Wins a GTD Race
Wrong! But they were so close. Four runner-up finishes and a third. Christina Nielsen lost the GTD title on the final day of the season by two points to Townsend Bell and Bill Sweedler. Her and James Davison let Belle Isle slip through their grasp and then her and Kuno Wittmer had golden opportunities at Road America and VIR. Nielsen and TRG were the most consistent team in GTD in 2015 but they just couldn't break through and the title slipped away.

7. PWC: Cadillac Does Not Win the Title
Wrong! If Olivier Beretta doesn't drive into the side of Johnny O'Connell, who knows who would have won the title but the Italian's failed attempt at the Corkscrew ultimately cost him the title. Also, who knows whom the champion would have been if Ryan Dalziel didn't have to miss races because of FIA WEC duty. Cadillac didn't dominate and while they started slow, O'Connell was able to compete at the front with the Beretta, Dalziel, Kevin Éstre and James Davison.

8. At Least Seven Different Manufactures Get a Win in the GT Class
Correct! Ferrari and McLaren split the opening weekend at Austin. Acura surprised everyone with a victory in the wet at St. Petersburg. Nissan won its first race at Barber. Cadillac swept Mosport. Lamborghini and Bentley scored their lone victories of the season at Road America and Porsche's first victories didn't come until Mid-Ohio when Dalziel swept the weekend. And, amazingly, eight manufactures won in GT and none of them were Audi.

9. There is a New GTS Champion
Correct! But to be fair, I didn't know at the time that Lawson Aschenbach was going to be moving to the Continental Tires Sports Car Challenge. The man who replaced Aschenbach at Blackdog Speed Shop, Michael Cooper, picked up right where Aschenbach left off. He won the title handily over the Phoenix American Motorsports Ford of Andrew Aquilante and GTSport Racing Porsche of Jack Baldwin. TRG-Aston Martin's Kris Wilson won the most races in GTS but, like Dalziel, missed a handful of rounds but not due to FIA WEC duty. If Wilson had run the full season, he might have taken the title and not Cooper.

10. Blancpain GT: Bentley Wins a Blancpain Title
Correct! The #84 HTP Motorsport Bentley of Vincent Abril and Maximilian Buhk won the Blancpain Sprint Series over Robin Frijns in the #1 Belgian Audi Club Team WRT Audi R8 LMS Ultra.

11. The Moscow Blancpain Sprint Series Race Does Not Happen
Correct! Technically. I said the street race in Moscow would not happen and it didn't. The race was replaced with a round at Moscow Raceway but Moscow Raceway isn't in Moscow, it is in Volokolamsk, Russia, 60 miles from Moscow.

12. A non-German Manufacture Wins the Spa 24 Hours
Wrong! The #46 BMW Sports Trophy Team Marc VDS Z4 GT3 of Nicky Catsburg, Lucas Luhr and Markus Palttala won the Spa 24 Hours.

Champions From the Weekend

The #17 Porsche 919 Hybrid of Mark Webber, Brandon Hartley and Timo Bernhard won the World Endurance Drivers' Championship with a fifth place finish in the 6 Hours of Bahrain. 

The #26 G-Drive Racing Ligier-Nissan of Romain Rusinov, Sam Bird and Julien Canal won the Endurance Trophy for LMP2 Drivers with their victory in class in the 6 Hours of Bahrain. 

Richard Leitz, driver of the #91 Porsche won the World Endurance Cup for GT Drivers by finishing fifth in class in Bahrain.

The #72 SMP Racing Ferrari of Andrea Bertolini, Aleksey Basov and Viktor Shaitar won the Endurance Trophy for GTE-Am Drivers by finishing fifth in class in Bahrain. .

Kyle Busch won NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship by winning the finale at Homestead.

Chris Buescher won the NASCAR Xfinity Series championship by finishing 11th at Homestead. 

Erik Jones won the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series championship with a seventh at Homestead. 

Winners From the Weekend

You know about England's victory in the Nations' Cup, Sebastian Vettel and Kyle Busch but did you know... 

The #18 Porsche 919 Hybrid of Marc Lieb, Romain Dumas and Neel Jani won the 6 Hours of Bahrain. The #92 Porsche 911 RSR of Frédéric Makowiecki and Patrick Pilet won in GTE-Pro. The #98 Aston Martin Vantage GTE of Paul Dalla Lana, Pedro Lamy and Mathias Lauda won in GTE-Am. 

Maro Engel won the FIA GT World Cup for Mercedes. He swept the weekend, winning the qualifying race and main race.  

Craig Lowndes and Jamie Whincup split the Saturday V8 Supercars races from Phillip Island. Lowndes would win the Sunday race as well.

Stoffel Vandoorne and Mitch Evans split the GP2 races from Bahrain. Vandoorne tied Pastor Maldonado as the all-time leader in GP2 race victories with ten. Marvin Kirchöfer and Luca Ghiotto split the GP3 races. 

Kyle Larson won the NASCAR Grand National Series finale at Homestead. Matt Crafton won the season finale of the Truck season, his sixth victory of 2015. 

Coming Up This Weekend

The Formula One season comes to a close in Abu Dhabi. 

GP2 and GP3 also end their seasons in Abu Dhabi. 

The World Touring Car Championship ends under the lights on Friday night in Qatar. 

Sebastian Vettel is Champion of Champions

For the first time in the history of Race of Champions, a German won the Champion of Champions competition.

Sebastian Vettel defeated Tom Kristensen in the final 2-0 to take the honor. Both races were competed in KTM X-Bows after mechanical issues struck both ROC cars. Kristensen slid into he barrier in the second heat, handing the title to Vettel. Vettel had to defeat David Coulthard in three races in the semifinals. Coulthard was hoping to become the fourth driver to win consecutive Champion of Champions.

Kristensen defeated Alex Buncombe in the semifinals. This was Kristensen's fourth final appearance. He lost to Sébastien Loeb in 2005, Sébastien Ogier in 2011 and Romain Grosjean in 2012. Kristensen's fourth runner-ups have come in France, Germany, Thailand and now the United Kingdom.

Vettel defeated Nico Hülkenberg in the quarterfinals and Petter Solberg in the round of 16. Kristensen defeated Jason Plato in his quarterfinal and Nelson Piquet, Jr. in the round of 16. The other Nations' Cup winner Andy Priaulx lost in the quarterfinals to Buncombe after forcing a third heat with the Blancpain Endurance Series champion. Felipe Massa was the other quarterfinalist.

Daniel Ricciardo, Jenson Button, Susie Wolff, Romain Grosjean, Ryan Hunter-Reay and Bradley Philpot were the drivers eliminated in the round of 16. Hülkenberg and Massa eliminated Ricciardo and Button respectively. Coulthard knocked out his Scottish teammate Wolff. Plato bounced Grosjean while Priaulx ended Hunter-Reay's night. Buncombe beat his fellow Englishman Philpot.

In the preliminary round, Hunter-Reay eliminated José María López while Philpot knocked out Mick Doohan. Priaulx eliminated Wehrlein after the German buried his Euro NASCAR in the barriers. Buncombe knocked out Jolyon Palmer.

Vettel joins Romain Grosjean as the only drivers to win the Champion of Champions competition while actively competing in Formula One. Vettel's victory continues the streak of European drivers winning Champion of Champions. A non-European has never won the competition.

England Defeats Germany; Wins Nations' Cup

The first half of the 27th Race of Champions is in the books and the Nations' Cup is in new hands.

The hosts England won the Nations' Cup as British Touring Car drivers Andy Priaulx and Jason Plato defeated the daunting German pairing of Formula One's Sebastian Vettel and Nico Hülkenberg. Priaulx defeated Vettel in the first heat of the final with Hülkenberg forcing a third and Nations' Cup deciding race. Priaulx defeated Hülkenberg in a KTM X-Bow finale.

Priaulx and Plato had to take the long-way to the final as they had to compete in a preliminary matchup against the Brazilians Felipe Massa and Nelson Piquet, Jr. and they swept them to move on to the quarterfinals to face the Young Stars pairing of Pascal Wehrlein and Jolyon Palmer, who defeated Team All-Stars of Romain Grosjean and Sir Chris Hoy in three races. Priaulx defeated Wehrlein and had to defeat Palmer in a third race to make it to the semifinals. It was an all-English semifinal as the BTCC drivers met Jenson Button and Alex Buncombe. Priaulx defeated Buncombe and forced Button to defeat Plato. Priaulx would knock off Button in the third race to make it to the finals.

This is the first time the Nations' Cup has gone to England. Germany had won six consecutive Nations' Cups they participated in. Germany was not represented in last year's Race of Champions. The 2014 Nations' Cup winners Team Nordic of Tom Kristensen and Petter Solberg made the semifinal but were swept by Germany. Kristensen lost to Vettel in the first race by less than a tenth of a second. Kristensen needed to defeat Ryan Hunter-Reay in a third race in the quarterfinals after the American defeated Solberg in the second race of that quarterfinal matchup. Kristensen defeated José María López in the first race.

The closest race of the evening occurred in the England-Scotland quarterfinal. Jenson Button defeated David Coulthard by 0.0051 seconds to eliminate Scotland after Buncombe defeated Susie Wolff in the first heat.

Coulthard will get an opportunity to defend his Champion of Champions crown tomorrow afternoon. The only other past Champion of Champions winner competing in this year's edition of Race of Champions is Romain Grosjean, who won the event in 2012. A European driver has won every Champion of Champions competition but a German has never held the honor. No Englishman has ever won Champion of Champions. Beside Coulthard, the only other British driver to win it was Colin McRae in 1998. The two previous Race of Champions to take place in London were won by Mattias Ekström and Sébastien Loeb.

Friday Five: Bahrain and London

The 2015 FIA World Endurance Championship ends their 2015 season in Bahrain this weekend and all four championships remain unclaimed. While sports car racing's best battle under the lights in the Persian Gulf, champions from all forms of motorsports, two-wheels and four, will compete in London in the 2015 edition of Race of Champions.

LMP1

The battle for the world championship is between two teams. The #17 Porsche 919 Hybrid of Mark Webber, Timo Bernhard and Brendon Hartley extended their championship lead to 12 points over the #7 Audi R18 e-tron quattro of André Lotterer, Marcel Fässler and Benoît Tréluyer after winning in Shanghai. The #17 Porsche has won every race since Le Mans while the #7 has finished on the podium in every race this season but has not stood on the top step of the podium since Spa-Francorchamps in May. 

All three Porsche drivers are pursuing their first world championship. The three Audi drivers won the inaugural FIA World Endurance Drivers' Championship in 2012. 

LMP2

The #26 G-Drive Racing Ligier-Nissan of Romain Rusinov, Julien Canal and Sam Bird leads the #47 KCMG Oreca-Nissan of Matthew Howson and Richard Bradley by 16 points. The Russian team has finished on the podium in the last five races with two victories and three runner-up finishes. KCMG lost its lead in the LMP2 championship after retiring at Fuji. The team won at Le Mans and Nürburgring and finished on the podium in every other race but Silverstone, where the team finished fourth. 

Both teams are going for their first LMP2 titles. G-Drive finished runner-up last year with Rusinov, Canal and Olivier Pla. KCMG finished third last year with Howson and Bradley. 

GTE-Pro

Richard Leitz controls his own destiny for the World Endurance Cup for GT Drivers. The Porsche drivers leads with 135 points, 18 points ahead of co-driver Michael Christiansen. The Dane only trails the Austrian because he missed the Spa-Francorchamps round. Both will share the #91 Porsche. Twenty points behind Leitz is the #71 AF Corse Ferrari of Davide Rigon and James Calado. Gianmaria Bruni and Toni Vilander both still have a shot to retain their title. The #51 AF Corse drivers trail by 22.5 points. 

Ferrari has won every title in GTE-Pro with Bruni taking a share in every previous World Endurance Cup for GT Drivers. Porsche is looking to sweep both the top prototype and GT championships.

GTE-Am

The #72 SMP Racing Ferrari of Andrea Bertolini, Viktor Shaitar and Aleksey Basov lead with 155 points and are 19 points head of the #83 AF Corse Ferrari of Emmanuel Collard, François Perrodo and Rui Águas. Águas will miss the season finale and will be replaced by Matteo Cressoni. The #72 Ferrari won three races, including Le Mans, has three third and a sixth at Fuji. The #83 Ferrari has finished on the podium in every race this season but did not pick up its first victory until the most recent round at Shanghai. 

The streak of no repeat champions in GTE-Am will continue as neither SMP Racing nor AF Corse have won. Labre Compétition, 8Star Motorsports and Aston Martin Racing have each won the title while Aston Martin drivers have won both editions of the Endurance Trophy for GTE-Am Drivers. 

Race of Champions

The 27th Race of Champions will feature 20 drivers from 11 different countries. 

The defending Champion of Champions, David Coulthard returns and will pair with Williams F1 test driver Susie Wolff to represent Scotland in the Nations' Cup. Tom Kristensen and Petter Solberg return to defend their Nations' Cup title for the Nordic team. After not competing in 2014, Germany will have a team represented. Sebastian Vettel also returns after missing in 2014 and he will be paired with Le Mans winner Nico Hülkenberg. Germany won six consecutive Nations' Cups with Vettel and Michael Schumacher from 2007-2012. 

The host England has two teams. British Touring Car Championship drivers Jason Plato and Andy Priaulx pair to form England 1 while Jenson Button and Blancpain Endurance Series champion Alex Buncombe form England 2. Daniel Ricciardo and Mick Doohan will represent Australia . Brazil will have a team in Race of Champions for the first time since 2005. Felipe Massa and Nelson Piquet, Jr. were the drivers that year and both return in 2015. 

Ryan Hunter-Reay and José María López return to ROC and will form Team Americas. Runner-up last year's in the Champion of Champions Pascal Wehrlein returns and will pair with Jolyon Palmer to form the Anglo-German Young Stars team. Romain Grosjean and Jorge Lorenzo were schedule to form Team All-Stars but Lorenzo is out after suffering burns celebrating his MotoGP championship. Sir Chris Hoy will replace the Majorcan. The six-time Olympic gold medalist Hoy won the LMP3 championship this year in the European Le Mans Series. 

In round one of the Nations' Cup, Team All Stars will face off with Team Young Stars and England 1 will take on Brazil. The winners of those two match-ups will meet in a quarterfinal. 

Team Nordic will face-off against Team Americas. Former Red Bull teammates Ricciardo and Vettel will go head-to-head as Australia faces Germany. There will be a Calcutta Cup matchup as England 2 faces Scotland in the fourth quarterfinal. 

Each Nations' Cup round is a best-of-three with the winning drivers meeting in a third heat if necessary. 

For the Champion of Champions competition on Saturday there will be four first round match-ups. Team Americas teammates López and Hunter-Reay will meet. The winner of López/Hunter-Reay will meet the winner of Wehrlein/Priaulx in round two. Doohan will face the winner of ROC Factor  Bradley Philpot, a driver who has finished on a class podium in the 24 Hours Nürburgring. The winner of Doohan/Philpot will face the winner of Buncombe/Palmer. 

Coulthard will face Wolff in the first race of his title defense. Grosjean is the only other past Champion of Champions in the field and he will face Plato. Ricciardo and Hülkenberg meet in one of two all-Formula One driver match-ups. The other is Button vs. Massa. Vettel takes on Solberg while Kristensen will face Piquet, Jr. 

After the Champion of Champions is crowned, the drivers will take part in a karting competition. Two heats will take place with the top ten heading to the final. 

Over/Unders
1. Over or Under: 2.5 cars finishing on the lead lap?
2. Over or Under: 2.5 Ligiers on the podium in LMP2?
3. Over or Under: 4.5 nationalities represented on the GTE-Pro podium?
4. Over or Under: 4.5 laps between the GTE-Pro winner and GTE-Am winner?
5. Over or Under: 1.5 British drivers in the semifinals of the individual competition?

Last Week's Over/Unders
1. Under: Zero Chase drivers finished a lap down at Phoenix.
2. Under: One retirement in the Brazilian Grand Prix. Carlos Sainz, Jr.
3. Under: The combine age of Andrea Caldarelli and Ryō Hirakawa is 46.
4. Under: The top three starters in GT300 at Motegi finished in the top three.
5. Under: Only one Scandinavian driver in the top five of Wales Rally GB, Andreas Mikkelsen.

Predictions
1. All three privateer LMP1 entries finish the race.
2. Both Extreme Speed Motorsports cars finish and one finishes in the top half of LMP2.
3. One of the FIA WEC teams with a streak of five consecutive podiums or more ends at Bahrain.
4. Aston Martin wins in GTE-Am.
5. The Nations' Cup has a first-time winner.

Last Week's Predictions
1. One of the four drivers on the outside looking in entering Phoenix will be championship eligible at Homestead (Wrong. The four that entered were the four that left).
2. A car will retire while running in the top three (Wrong. Sainz, Jr. was never close to the top three).
3. The GT500 champion will have a race victory (Correct. Tsugio Matsuda and Ronnie Quintarelli had two victories).
4. A non-Japanese manufacture will win the GT300 race at Motegi (Wrong. Toyota won).
5. Three British drivers finish in the points (Wrong. Only two. Kris Meeke and Elfyn Evans).
Overall: 1/5 Running Tally: 27/55

Thursday Three: NASCAR Championships

It is a busy weekend in the motorsport world, especially with the NASCAR national touring divisions all coming to a close and all with championships that remain undecided. A handful of drivers look to add another title to their résumé while others look to be crowd for the first time.

Cup Series
Four drivers are championship eligible for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series title.

Jeff Gordon enters the final race of his career looking for his fifth Cup championship. He has not won a title since 2001. Gordon has one victory, which came at Martinsville last month. Should Gordon win the title and not win the race, he will become the fifth driver to win the Cup title with only one victory. The others were Bill Rexford in 1950, Ned Jarrett in 1961, Benny Parsons in 1973 and Matt Kenseth in 2003. Gordon could also set a record for fewest top five finishes for a champion in NASCAR's modern-era. Gordon has five top fives and the record was set at nine by Tony Stewart in 2011.

Kevin Harvick looks for his second consecutive title. He could become the 11th driver in NASCAR history to win consecutive titles joining Buck Baker, Lee Petty, Joe Weatherly, David Pearson, Richard Petty, Cale Yarborough, Dale Earnhardt, Darrell Waltrip, Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson. Harvick has three victories and has finished in the top ten in the last three races. Harvick leads all drivers in top fives with 22 and is tied with Joey Logano for most top tens. Each has 27 top tens. Harvick has led 2,248 laps this season.

Martin Truex, Jr. will have a career-best finish in the Cup Series regardless of where he finishes. He could become the first New Jerseyan to win the Cup Series championship. Like Gordon, Truex, Jr. enters with one victory and could set the record for fewest top fives for a champion. Truex, Jr. has eight top fives this season. He could become the fourth driver to win NASCAR's top two national touring series championships joining Bobby Labonte, Kevin Harvick and Brad Keselowski. If Truex, Jr. takes the title, Furniture Row Racing will become the first single car team to win the championship since Alan Kulwicki won the title in 1992.

Kyle Busch could become the first driver in NASCAR's modern-era to win the championship despite missing a race. Busch missed 11 races this season but has four victories, 11 top fives and 15 top tens. If Busch wins the title, he will set a record for fewest top tens for a champion in the modern-era. Of the four remaining drivers, Busch has led the second most laps at 694 laps. He could become the first Toyota driver to win the championship and could earn Joe Gibbs Racing their first title in a decade and fourth overall. Like Truex, Jr., Busch could become the fourth driver to win a title in each of NASCAR's top two divisions.

Jeff Gordon and Kevin Harvick each have one victory at Homestead, in 2012 and 2014 respectively. Gordon started on pole position last year. Martin Truex, Jr. and Kyle Busch each have made ten starts at Homestead with Truex, Jr. having three top fives and seven top tens to Busch's one top five and three top tens. Harvick has the best average finish of the final four at Homestead at 7.6. Truex, Jr. averages a 10.0, Gordon 10.6 and Busch 23.1.

Grand National Series
Like in the Cup Series, four drivers are still eligible for the championship in NASCAR's second division.

Chris Buescher leads with 1,157 points, 18 ahead of Chase Elliott, who is looking for his second consecutive title, Ty Dillon by 22 points and Regan Smith by 24 points.

Buescher has two victories, 11 top fives and 20 top tens and has an average finish of 8.3. He won at Iowa and Dover. Buescher has been running at the finish of all 32 races entering the season finale. He could give Roush Fenway Racing their fifth title, their first since 2012.

Elliott's lone victory came at Richmond in September. He has 11 top fives and 26 top tens and an average finish of 8.9. Elliott could become the ninth driver to win multiple titles in NASCAR's second division, joining Sam Ard, Jack Ingram, Larry Pearson, Randy LaJoie, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Martin Truex, Jr., Kevin Harvick and Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. Of those nine, only Ingram and Harvick did not win the titles in consecutive years.

Dillon has not won a race this season and could join his brother Austin as the only drivers to win a NASCAR national touring division title without a victory. His best finish was second at Kentucky in September. He has 12 top fives and 24 top tens. Like Buescher, Dillon has finished every race this season.

Smith won at Mid-Ohio and Dover and has 11 top fives and 25 top tens. He has finished 31 of 32 races entering this season. He enters the season finale with 12 consecutive top ten finishes. Smith is the only of the four drivers to have won at Homestead. He won the 2012 Homestead race.

Truck Series
Three drivers are alive for the NASCAR's Truck Series championship.

Erik Jones leads with 861 points, 19 points clear of Tyler Reddick and 32 points clear of Matt Crafton.

Jones has three victories this season (Iowa, Mosport and Texas). He has the fewest amount of top fives among the remaining championship eligible drivers as he has 11 but has the most top tens among the final three with 19. He has averaged a finish of 6.3 and finished all but one race this season.

Reddick's two victories came at Daytona and Dover and he has 13 top fives and 18 top tens. He has averaged a finish of 6.5 this season and has finished every race this season. He could become the first driver to win a Truck championship driving for Ford since Greg Biffle in 2000.

Crafton has five victories this season, the most in the series. He won at Atlanta, Kansas, Texas, Kentucky and Martinsville. He has 12 top fives and 17 top tens and has averaged a finish of 8.0 in 22 races. He has three retirements this season. Crafton is seeking his third consecutive title, a record in the Truck Series.

Crafton has made 14 starts at Homestead with his best finish being second in 2009. If Crafton takes the green flag on Friday night, he will break a tie with Ron Hornaday for most Truck starts at Homestead. Reddick's lone Homestead start was last year and he finished sixth. Jones will make his Homestead debut.

Over/Unders
1. 2.5 championship eligible drivers finishing in the top five?
2. 1.5 Grand National series regulars finishing in the top five?
3. 13.5 leader changes in the Truck race?

Predictions
1. A championship eligible driver will not win the Cup race.
2. Chris Buescher wins the title but finishes behind two of his championship rivals.
3. One Truck championship eligible drivers finishes outside the top ten.

2015 Et Cetera Predictions: Revisited

Eleven months ago I made a dozen predictions for a dozen racing series from around the globe. Today we look back to see how I did after looking into the crystal ball at MotoGP, V8 Supercars, Super Formula, Indy Lights and Formula E just to name a few of the series.

1. MotoGP: The Title Will Come Down To The Final Race
Correct! Although it was much more anti-climatic than expected. Valentino Rossi entered with a seven-point lead over Yamaha teammate Jorge Lorenzo but Rossi had to started last on the grid after he kicked Marc Márquez's bike during the Malaysian Grand Prix the round before. Lorenzo started on pole position and led lights-to-flag while Rossi charged from 26th to fourth but fell to Lorenzo in the championship by five points.

This season had a very sour ending. It was a good season and Lorenzo won the most races but you can't help but feel it would have played out differently had Rossi not be penalized. We will never know. Lorenzo might have had the better bike all weekend and would have still beat Rossi. Rossi might have been able to take the fight to the Majorcan. But had Rossi been disqualified from the Malaysian Grand Prix, Lorenzo would have had the championship lead entering Valencia and Rossi would have had a nine-point margin to overcome and there is no guarantee he would have been to overcome that. Both had great seasons but I don't think it ended the way anyone wanted it to.

2. V8 Supercars: Marcos Ambrose Does Not Finish in the Top Ten of the Championship
Correct! This was surprising. The long awaited return to V8 Supercars for Marcos Ambrose with the partnership of Dick Johnson Racing and Team Penske seemed like a potentially great mix and it didn't make it past the first round at Adelaide. Two 16ths and a 12th and Ambrose was done, replaced by Scott Pye. He only returned for the endurance races and the team retired at Bathurst with an eighth in race one from Surfers Paradise being Ambrose's best finish of the season.

I thought Ambrose would have finished around 15th in the championship. I expected him to struggle at the start of the season but eventually try to find his footing and get a few top tens as the season went along. I was really hoping this was going to work because Ambrose is a great driver. He left Australia at his prime and came to NASCAR and ran well. He has now retired for good at the age of 39. I wish Ambrose the best in whatever else he chooses to do.

3. Indy Lights: Grids Average Over 13 Entries
Wrong! Indy Lights average 12 cars in the first season of the IL-15. I was a little surprised. After all the buzz entering the season and all the talk about car orders and new car owners purchasing cars, I thought we would see 15-16 cars per race and that didn't happen. The buzz is still up for year two as Andretti Autosport could expand their operation to four cars in 2016 and 8Star Motorsport has had their program merger with Team Pelfrey, who has fielded championship-winning cars in U.S. F2000 and Pro Mazda. Foul me once, shame on you; foul me twice, shame on me. I want to believe that there will be significant growth in Indy Lights next year but I am not sure what to believe.

4. DTM: The Russian Round Doesn't Happen
Wrong! It did occur and Pascal Wehrlein and Mike Rockenfeller split the weekend. I thought the conflict in Ukraine and the economic downturn in Russia was going to cause DTM to bail on the event but that didn't happen. Will DTM return to Russia in 2016? We will have to wait and see.

5. Super GT: Lexus Retakes GT500 Title
Wrong! Nissan kept the title as Tsugio Matsuda and Ronnie Quintarelli won their second consecutive crowd. Nissan dominated and it wasn't just the factory pairing of Matsuda and Quintarelli. The #46 MOLA Nissan of Satoshi Motoyama and Masataka Yanagida won a round as did the #24 Kondō Racing Nissan of Daiki Sasaki and Michael Krumm. Lexus did have a good year. The #36 Petronas TOM's RC F of James Rossiter and Daisuke Itō won the Suzuka 1000km. The #37 KeePer TOM's entry of Andrea Caldarelli and Ryō Hirakawa won the bookends at Okyama and Motegi.

6. World Superbike/World Supersport: P.J. Jacobsen Takes His Game to the Next Level
Correct! The lone American in World Supersport nearly had his season end when his Kawasaki team closed it's doors. Fortunately, Honda picked him up and Jacobsen made history, becoming the first American to win in WSS when he made a final corner pass on Jules Cluzel at Sepang and then went on to win at Magny-Cours, both victories from pole position. He had seven podiums from 12 races, 11 top fives and his worst finish of the season was 10th in the season opener. Jacobsen finished second in the champion to Kenan Sofuoglu. Perhaps he can make a run at the title in 2016.

7. World Rally: Sébastien Loeb Wins a Rally
Wrong! Loeb only entered Rallye Monte-Carlo and he was looking like a contender until he hit a rock and he had to settle for eighth overall and second in the power stage. Perhaps Loeb is getting tired of racing touring cars (more on that in a moment). He is going to run the Dakar Rally in an all-star line-up for Peugeot that includes Stéphane Peterhansel, Carlos Sainz, Cyril Despres and Romain Dumas. Maybe he will run a few more rallies in 2016.

8. World Touring Car Championship: Citroën Wins Less Than Seventeen Races
Wrong! There is still two races to go in the 2015 WTCC season and Citroën has won 19 of 22 races. I thought Honda would be more of a threat. I thought Lada would build off their success at the end of the 2014 season. None of that happened. José María López ran away with his second consecutive WTCC title and the round in Qatar the day after Thanksgiving is all for shits and giggles.

9. Formula E: At Least Five New Drivers Make a Start
Correct! I was only counting the latter half of the 2014-15 season for this prediction and in the eight races that took place from January-June, ten drivers made their Formula E debuts, four of them for Andretti Autosport. Marco Andretti, Scott Speed, Justin Wilson and Simona de Silvestro all made starts for the American team. Loïc Duval joined Dragon Racing in Miami, as did Vitantonio Liuzzi at Trulli. Four drivers debut in London. Oliver Turvey ran for China Racing and finished ninth in both races. Swiss drivers Fabio Leimer and Alex Fontana run for Virgin and Trulli respectively with Fontana replacing Liuzzi. Salon Yamamoto reminded the world he is still racing and had an ugly weekend driving for Aguri.

10. Super Formula: There Will Be At Least One First Time Winner
Correct! Hiroaki Ishiura won his first career race in the second at Okyama and he went on to win the Super Formula championship with another win at Motegi just for good measure. Ishiura is interesting. It took him 45 starts to score his first career Super Formula victory and he was out of the series for two seasons. He returned last year to Super Formula and had a career year finishing fifth in championship with two podiums. He won the Super GT GT300 championship as a rookie in 2007 with Kazuya Oshima. He is only 34 years old. I don't know what his career will bring outside of Japan but I congratulate him on a breakout season. 

11. European Le Mans Series: Porsche Wins a Race in a GT Category
Correct! The #86 Gulf Racing UK Porsche 911 RSR of Michael Wainwright, Phil Keen and Adam Carroll won the opening of the season at Silverstone. However, Ferrari did win three of five times in GTE and won three of fives times in GTC with BMW winning once in GTE and twice in GTC.

12. Asian Le Mans Series: Grid Size Grows Under ACO Control
Correct! Kind of. I did not expect the Asian Le Mans Series (which we are calling ALMS from now on) to adopt a split, autumn-winter schedule with two races in 2015 and two in 2016 but I think it will work for the series. It appears ALMS will benefit from LMP3 and the GT grid has been stellar. There were eight entries in the Sepang race on November. Considering the 2014 season opener from Inje, South Korea had eight cars total, 2015-16 season has been a big success. There were 16 total entries at Sepang across LMP2, LMP3, CN, GT and GT-Am and there were 13 cars at the season open at Fuji. The 2016-17 has already been released, which includes a stop in Zhuhai to open that season. I really hope this ALMS succeeds. I wish there was a way for ALMS could get GT entries from Australia. Especially with the two rounds in January 2016 taking place within a month of the Bathurst 12 Hour.

Musings From the Weekend: Numb

It was a difficult weekend worldwide. The motorsports events that took place are so inconsequential when looking at the bigger picture of life. Nico Rosberg dominated the Brazilian Grand Prix. It rained on another NASCAR weekend. There was a comeback at Motegi. The World Rally Championship season ended in Wales. Here is a run down of what got me thinking.

Numb
After the events that took place on Friday evening in Paris, all I feel is numb. There is a bit of anger and a bit of sadness underneath but I just feel numb. There is nothing worth discussing this week. The struggles of racing series to get fans through the gates and watching races on television are so minuscule right now. It doesn't matter at all. There are bigger problems out there.

I don't want to say much but I still want to say something. There are more people in the world that want peace, that want love, that want to be able to go out on a Friday night and have a good time than those who want terror, who want blood, who want death. In fact, I will go as far to say that the amount of people who want peace, who love, who want freedom is so large that it could suffocate those who want terror, blood and death. How then can we take this vast majority use their power to prevent this sliver of the pie from causing destruction?

I don't have an answer but if there is one thing that gives me hope is that the numbers are on the side of peace, love and freedom and I hope and pray that solidarity of those who believe in those three things will cause change and that those thirsting for the darkness will drown in the over-powering light.

Perspective
For all those who felt robbed because the NASCAR race was moved from NBC to NBCSN because of the lengthy weather delay and didn't like that the race ended because of weather, think about what happened over the last three days and realize how childish you sound.

Champions From the Weekend
Tsugio Mastuda and Ronnie Quintarelli won their second consecutive Super GT GT500 championship with a second place finish at Motegi.

Winners From the Weekend
You know about Nico Rosberg but did you know...

Dale Earnhardt, Jr. won the rain-shortened NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Phoenix. Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch and Martin Truex, Jr. join Jeff Gordon as the driver championship eligible heading to Homestead.

Sébastien Ogier closed out his 2015 championship campaign with a victory at Wales Rally GB.

The #37 KeePer TOM's Lexus RC F of Andrea Caldarelli and Ryo Hirakawa won the Super GT race at Motegi. The #31 apr Toyota Prius of Koki Saga and Yuichi Nakayama won in GT300.

Kyle Busch won the NASCAR Grand National Series from Phoenix. Timothy Peters won the Truck race.

Coming Up This Weekend
The FIA World Endurance Championship rounds out their 2015 season in Bahrain.
The NASCAR seasons end in Homestead.
Race of Champions will take place at the London Olympic Stadium.
The first ever FIA GT World Cup runs on the streets of Macau.
V8 Supercars run their penultimate round of the season at Phillip Island.