The major interest in tonight's final A1GP race of 2006 is in which position from fourth to 11th will New Zealand, currently sixth, finish the inaugural series.
Much of the interest in the initial championship went out of the series when France won the first title with a race to
spare and Switzerland were confirmed in second.
Britain are favourites to take third and the mid-table crush is such that New Zealand could finish anywhere from fourth to 11th of the 22 contestants, depending on the final two races - after opening practice, Matt Halliday had the ninth best time.
The French clinched the championship in the last race at Laguna Seca, and won 13 of the 20 races, with drivers Alexandre Premat and Nicolas Lapierre taking seven and six wins respectively. France has scored a total of 163 points and lies 42 points ahead of A1 Team Switzerland. Fittingly, both Lapierre and Premat will drive the team's car today, with Premat in the sprint race, while Lapierre will take over for the feature race.
Portugal and Ireland are on New Zealand's heels, while Brazil and the Netherlands are chasing the British for third place. But if leading New Zealand driver Halliday has a good day, New Zealand could finish fourth.
However, other than final finishing positions, the major interest now centres on where the A1GP drivers will end up in their 'off' season.
The two Frenchmen will race in the GP2 champs, a series which supports and feeds into F1. Brazil's Nelson Piquet Jr and Malaysia's Fairuz Fauzy will also race in GP2.
One of the few drivers moving into F1 is American Scott Speed. A pre-series favourite, the US has not enjoyed a good season and are 16th. However, Speed will race for the Scuderia Toro Rosso team, while Switzerland's Neel Jani will be third driver for the same team.
Britain's Robbie Kerr and Sean McIntosh will race in the World Series by Renault, as will Mikhail Aleshin (Russia), Hayanri Shimoda (Japan) and Alvaro Parente (Portugal). Halliday is also expected to join this series while New Zealand's second driver Jonny Reid will race in Formula Nippon.
The famous racing name of Scheckter will be seen in the Indy Racing League as Tomas Scheckter (South Africa) joins fellow A1GP driver Bryan Herta (US). Christian Fittipaldi (Brazil) will race in the Brazilian stock-car series and the Grand Am sportscar series while Australia's Will Power will race Champ cars.
-AGENCIES
The major interest in tonight's final A1GP race of 2006 is in which position from fourth to 11th will New Zealand, currently sixth, finish the inaugural series.
Much of the interest in the initial championship went out of the series when France won the first title with a race to
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