What’s going on? The name ‘Moffat’ in Victory Lane? Talk of ‘favouritism’ and ‘exotic’ fuels?
Has Australian Touring Car racing returned to its halcyon days when there was genuine variety in the cars on the track and genuine rivalry between the drivers on-track and off it?
Nope it’s still the V8 Supercars we know – dominated by the two local brands and all homogenized and crammed together to fit a TV package which favours AFL football over everything else.
But, after the last two days at Winton (in North-East Victoria) - with James Moffat winning on Saturday in his Norton Nissan Altima and Sunday wins for Mark Winterbottom (FPR Falcon) and James Courtney (HRT) Commodore - the 2013 championship is well-and-truly alive as we head into the long distance races (Sandown 500 is just a couple of weeks away).
Part of the championship intrigue is a shocker yesterday from pointscore leader Jamie Whincup who crashed his 888 Racing Commodore in a chain-reaction crash at the second corner and was forced to withdraw.
So, after Winton, Whincup’s points lead over his team-mate Craig Lowndes is a slender 47 points (1847 for Winchup and 1880 for Lowndes) and then come the FPR duo of Davison (1792) and Winterbottom (1777).
For many, the performances of Davison and Winterbottom are both ‘Man Of The Match’ material so far in 2013. Following Ford’s decision to terminate local manufacturing at the end of 2016 – and despite confirmation of a 2014 update for the Falcon - a major question mark hangs over the future of the FPR team.
Pit-lane gossip suggests Ford contributes around $3.0-million annually to the FPR racing budget and - despite a history of spectacular failures from previous marketing types within the team to find commercial funding - currently the FPR cars have plenty of sponsorship signage (most notably from Pepsi Max). Seems all elements of the team are strong – drivers, engineering and sponsorship - so should Ford baulk at renewing its sponsorship, don’t be surprised if this team follows the lead of 888 Racing and swaps to Holden (or maybe even Nissan) at the end of this year.
Moffat’s win on Saturday came in a topsy-turvey race plagued by the onset of rain. But the big controversy was fuel – the four car Nissan squad allowed to run a new brew claimed to be for enhanced fuel consumption but seemingly also delivering major power gains for the Jack Daniels and Norton-backed Nissan Altimas.
Predictably the Holden and Ford runners tossed their dummies in the dirt (just as they did in the 1990s when Nissan started winning a few races with the ‘Godzilla’ GTRs!) and on Sunday the Nissans reverted to the conventional E85 fuel used by all teams.
In fact after Saturday’s good showings, yesterday was a disaster for the Nissan boys with both Rick and Todd Kelley (Jack Daniels Altimas) and Michael Caruso (the other Norton-backed Nissan) all suffering major damage in crashes.
So, as we head to the first endurance race at Sandown (a ‘home’ race for Victorian-based squads Nissan, HRT, FPV, Garry Rogers Motorsport) the 2103 title is on a knife-edge. Here’s the top 10:
Jamie Whincup 1847
Craig Lowndes 1800
Will Davison 1792
Mark Winterbottom 1777
James Courtney 1687
Jason Bright 1649
Shane Van Gisbergen 1632
Garth Tander 1602
Scott McLaughlin 1318
