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  Race Of Champions

Heroic Heikki

New Formula Nissan champion Heikki Kovalainen has upset the pundits, taking victory in the new look Race of Champions, defeating the new World Rally Champion Sebastien Loeb on Loeb's home turf at the Stade de France in Paris.

The Race of Champions relocated from its usual venue at the resort island of Gran Canaria in the Atlantic Ocean to the home of French football, acquiring a tarmac format and a new generation of competitors as the focus drifted from rally stars.

Kovalainen qualified for the final after defeating David Coulthard first up (in ROC's custom-made buggies) before impressing many by defeating long time Ferrari racer Jean Alesi whilst driving Ferrari 360s. It was in the same car the Finn defeated Ferrari's multiple World Champion Michael Schumacher earning a place in the final against 2004 World Rally Champion Sebastien Loeb.

Loeb made his way into the final by first knocking out Indy Racing League champion Tony Kanaan in Peugeot 307 WRCs. Loeb then defeated Armin Schwarz in home territory for the Frenchman, Citroen Xsara WRCs. This lead to the semi-final against Marcus Gronholm, again in Loeb's preferred car, the Citroen.

The best of three finals began with Peugeot 307s, with Loeb making a mistake early allowing the Finn to take an eight tenth victory. The second heat in the Ferraris saw Loeb claim victory only to be penalised for touching a barrier with the nose of his 360 Modena, thus handing Kovalainen a 2-0 victory.

The Nations' Cup final provided a re-match as Finland faced France. The Finnish duo of Kovalainen and Gronholm defeated Sweden (IRL's Kenny Brack and DTM's Mattias Ekstrom) and Britain (Coulthard and rallying's Colin McRae). The French team of Loeb and Alesi beat France B (OWRS's Sebastien Bourdais and WRC's Stephane Sarrazin) and Brazil (Sauber's Felipe Massa and IRL's Kanaan).

The best of five final went to the wire with Kovalainen defeating Alesi in the buggies by a second and a half. Loeb beat Gronholm in the Citroens whilst Kovalainen again beat Alesi, this time in Ferraris. Loeb tied it up in the Peugeots, beating Gronholm by a shade over a second leading to an Alesi/Kovalainen Ferrari final, but the drama was too much for Kovalainen's Ferrari, succumbing to battery failure, handing victory to France.

Michael Schumacher defeated Sebastien Loeb in a separate three heat match race between the two recently crowned World Champions held on the neutral ground of the ROC Buggies.

  V8 Supercar

Absolutely Ambrose, Again

For the third year in a row, Marcos Ambrose won every race in the final round of the championship. And for the second year in a row, he won the championship as he did so, becoming the first Ford driver since Dick Johnson in a Sierra RS500 in 1988 and 1989 to achieve the feat. Ambrose was absolutely dominant in all three races, his aggregate winning margin over the three races almost a minute! His teammate Russell Ingall performed well in all three races despite a hiccup or two, and achieved his pre-round aim of taking second in the championship after main rivals Jason Bright and Greg Murphy had problems of one kind or another. The Stone Brothers Racing Ambrose-Ingall 1-2 in the title made it the first time since 1993 a team has managed to finish 1-2 at the end of the season.

The weekend saw a 100 km twilight race on Saturday and two 150 km races on Sunday, each with a compulsory tyre stop. Qualifying saw Mark Skaife 0.45 of a second faster than Marcos Ambrose who in turn had over four tenths on Todd Kelly, while the gap from Kelly to Ingall in tenth was less than two tenths. In the shootout, Ambrose turned it around, 0.45 of a second faster than Skaife, three tenths further back to Kelly who was half a second ahead of Lowndes, who in turn had six tenths on Jason Bright. First to fifth was covered by 1.8 seconds yet Bright to slowest runner Tander was four tenths of a second.

Race one saw action soon after the start as Skaife made a poor getaway. Lowndes made a ripper and rounded up Skaife around the outside at the sweeper at turn one, just as Skaife's teammate Todd Kelly was making a move down Skaife's inside. There wasn't enough room though and Kelly sent his teammate spinning into the grass as Ambrose led Lowndes, Russell Ingall and the Triple Eight duo of Max Wilson and Paul Radisich, Fords filling the top five places. Kelly was pitbound with a flat right front tyre, while Garth Tander was out before the race started with driveline failure.

More bad news followed, firstly for Max Wilson and then soon after for Mark Skaife, both for false starts. Wilson's was pretty obvious, but Skaife's was less so, moving a couple of centimetres while the red lights were on. Pit stops began soon after, Ingall in on lap three, but had a slow stop, losing some places, Lowndes on lap four, with Ambrose on lap eight one of the later cars to stop. Leader Bright was last to pit on lap 13 of 26, returning the lead to Marcos Ambrose.

Behind Ambrose the order had changed a little. Lowndes was still second, but behind him was Bright, whose long run on his first set of tyres had moved him up from tenth on the grid, Symmons Plains race three winner David Besnard in fourth (from eleventh on the grid) and Rick Kelly was up to fifth, a remarkable effort after starting 21st! And that was how it stayed to the end, Ambrose taking the win by twelve seconds from Lowndes who just held off Bright, with Besnard over ten seconds further back, a second or two ahead of Kelly. The HRT duo of Skaife and Kelly finished eighteenth and 27th respectively after their first corner calamity, both cars showing good pace despite the tangle.

Ambrose's win was more than enough to seal the title, his second title in a row. Now the focus moved to the runner up spot. Bright's third, Rick Kelly's fifth, Ingall's seventh and Greg Murphy's thirteenth combined with other results meant Bright was now second, eleven points ahead of Murphy, Ingall fourth another 37 points back while Rick Kelly was sixth, 119 points behind Bright with 128 points left for the season, an improbably task. Everyone else was out of the race.

Race two saw Lowndes make another great start to lead Ambrose into turn one with Besnard in third ahead of Rick Kelly and Radisich, as Bright fell to eighth after bogging down on the line. Before lap one was over Kelly took third from Besnard. Ambrose, caught behind Lowndes, chose to pit early on lap three, with teammate Ingall pitting a lap later. Rick Kelly came in on lap five, Lowndes and Radisich on lap nine, with Radisich leaping past Lowndes in the pits, most of the field having pitted by lap ten. Ingall's chase for second place in the title was dealt a blow when he received a drivethrough penalty for speeding in pit lane, dropping him to 33rd, though there was bad news soon after for another contender as Greg Murphy also received a drivethrough penalty for a pit lane violation, dropping to 34th.

Meanwhile Bright stayed out again before pitting on lap sixteen, handing the lead to Jason Richards who started 22nd before he pitted on lap 20 of 39, resuming thirteenth. In the meantime Rick Kelly had been slow after his stop, Radisich all over him while Kelly drove very defensively. Lap sixteen saw Radisich get past which moved Lowndes immediately onto Kelly's tail, Kelly remaining resolute in his defence. Into the turn two hairpin on lap seventeen, Lowndes braked extremely late as he had already been held up badly by Kelly and dived up the inside, running a little wide as he entered the corner. Kelly turned in fairly normally however, and broke his steering as it hit the rear of the Lowndes car, putting Kelly out on the spot.

After Jason Richards's stop Ambrose was the leader, clear of Radisich who had Lowndes just behind him, with Steven Johnson just ahead of Steven Richards completing the top five, while Skaife was up to eighth from eighteenth on the grid. Lap 21 saw Bright move past Skaife, moving straight on to the tail of Besnard. Into turn two of the following lap Bright dived down the inside in a much less aggressive fashion than Lowndes had just a few laps early. Despite this and Besnard giving him room, Bright started to lose the rear end and ran wide, missing the back of Besnard but getting into a slide. As Bright corrected the slide Skaife was coming through the corner, with Bright making light contact with the side of Skaife's car as he caught the slide and resumed.

Skaife got away unscathed but Bright had pushed the left front guard onto the tyre and was forced to pit on lap 23, dropping him to 28th. Now all four contenders for second in the title had struck trouble, with Rick Kelly's demise eliminating him from the battle. Jason Richards was flying on his fresher tyres, moving from thirteenth on lap 21 to seventh by lap 27, and passing Skaife for sixth on lap 31. While Radisich held off the harrassing Lowndes, Steven Johnson's battle to hold off Steven Richards continued but on lap 35 Richards got him at turn two, with Jason Richards (no relation) following him through.

Ambrose was too good though and won the race by almost twenty seconds, with Radisich and Lowndes nose to tail in second and third, nearly fifteen seconds clear of Steven Richards and Jason Richards in fourth and fifth. In the battle for second in the championship, Ingall's ninth, Bright's 21st and Murphy's 24th had seen another shake up in the points. Bright was now seventeen points ahead of Murphy with Ingall only a further seven points behind Murphy. With the difference in starting positions in race three and pace shown in races one and two, Murphy seemed certain to lose third. The question was, could Bright use his good pace to move high enough in race three to stop Ingall moving past? The answer seemed to be yes, providing he kept out of trouble in race three.

Race three began under threatening skies, rain a very strong possibility. Ambrose led into turn one despite a strong start by Radisich, while Lowndes had a poor start and lost third to Steven Richards. On the exit of turn two contact between Mark Winterbottom and Jason Bright saw Winterbottom end up in the gravel, bringing out the safety car before lap one was over, the contact damaging Bright's steering. Back to green on lap four, Skaife pitting at the end of lap three, Ingall pitting at the end of the lap and Lowndes in on lap six as most of the field waited to pit as the rain continued to threaten.

Ambrose was next to pit on lap eleven, with most of the rest of the field pitting between laps 17 and 26 as they realised the rain wasn't going to fall in time to save them a stop. With the stops over, Ambrose had a clear lead over Mark Skaife who had Russell Ingall on his tail, the duo having been literally nose to tail since lap six, with Ingall looking for Skaife to leave an opening nut not finding one. Fourth and not far behind was Radisich who was just ahead of Lowndes again. Meanwhile Bright, who had restarted on lap four in 24th place, was still languishing down in 22nd place while Murphy was in nineteenth. If things stayed this way, Ingall would move past Bright who would hold off Murphy for third in the points.

Lap 33 saw the end of Lowndes' strong race and weekend with an engine failure, moving Todd Kelly into the top five. Light rain fell in the closing laps but it wasn't enough to force a change from slicks, and so Ambrose made it three from three as he won by 26 seconds from Skaife with Ingall right behind, Radisich a few seconds behind in fourth and Todd Kelly just holding off Cameron McConville for fifth. In the battle for second place, Ingall's third versus Murphy's eighteenth and Bright's 23rd meant that Ingall took second place from Bright by sixteen points, with Murphy only seven points behind Bright.

Result of V8 Supercar Championship Series, Round 13 of 13, Eastern Creek, New South Wales, Australia:

Race One

Pos  Driver                   Car
 1.  Marcos Ambrose           Ford Falcon BA
 2.  Craig Lowndes            Ford Falcon BA
 3.  Jason Bright             Holden Commodore VY
 4.  David Besnard            Ford Falcon BA
 5.  Rick Kelly               Holden Commodore VY
 6.  Paul Radisich            Ford Falcon BA
 7.  Russell Ingall           Ford Falcon BA
 8.  Steven Richards          Holden Commodore VY
 9.  Steven Johnson           Ford Falcon BA
10.  Jason Bargwanna          Ford Falcon BA

Race Two

Pos  Driver                   Car
 1.  Marcos Ambrose           Ford Falcon BA
 2.  Paul Radisich            Ford Falcon BA
 3.  Craig Lowndes            Ford Falcon BA
 4.  Steven Richards          Holden Commodore VY
 5.  Jason Richards           Holden Commodore VY
 6.  Steven Johnson           Ford Falcon BA
 7.  Mark Skaife              Holden Commodore VY
 8.  Max Wilson               Ford Falcon BA
 9.  Russell Ingall           Ford Falcon BA
10.  Cameron McConville       Holden Commodore VY

Race Three

Pos  Driver                   Car
 1.  Marcos Ambrose           Ford Falcon BA
 2.  Mark Skaife              Holden Commodore VY
 3.  Russell Ingall           Ford Falcon BA
 4.  Paul Radisich            Ford Falcon BA
 5.  Todd Kelly               Holden Commodore VY
 6.  Cameron McConville       Holden Commodore VY
 7.  Paul Morris              Holden Commodore VY
 8.  Steven Richards          Holden Commodore VY
 9.  Jason Richards           Holden Commodore VY
10.  Garth Tander             Holden Commodore VY

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