Motorsport: Trio's title battle on final stretch

James Courtney is well placed to lift the V8 Supercars title in Sydney. But rain will make it interesting. Photo / Getty Images

Three drivers will fire up their V8s this weekend and attack the streets around Sydney Olympic Park for the last round of the Australian V8 Supercars championship.

Jim Beam Racing's James Courtney, defending champion Jamie Whincup in his Team Vodafone Holden and Ford Performance Racing's Mark Winterbottom all have a chance of lifting the trophy tomorrow afternoon.

Winterbottom will have the hardest task as he's 150 points behind Whincup and another 53 adrift from Courtney, whereas Whincup's breathing down Courtney's neck, 53 points behind.

But, if it rains, as forecast, all bets are off - and it's anyone's guess as to the final outcome.

Winterbottom said: "I don't mind if it rains because I need Courtney and Whincup to not finish and maybe the weather might help.

"I don't mind the wet and I've been praying for a bit of luck. But we've got good speed in both the wet and dry.

"We made a subtle change to the car mid-season when we were in eighth and now it's going strong."

Whatever the FPR mechanics did certainly paid off. After Winton, the team was written off and some were even calling FPR a disgrace but when the team hit Darwin it was a different story.

Winterbottom was on pole, won the first race and, the following day, he was back on the front row and finished second.

Veteran series racer and 2005 champion Russell Ingall reckons his former team-mate at Stone Brothers Racing, Courtney, has what it takes to walk away with the prize. Ingall backed up his claim by mentioning Courtney has the lead going into the final round and the confidence and aggression needed.

"We've been fighting all year and now you can pretty much wipe the last 10 months and now it's down to a dog fight between a couple of us," said Courtney.

"We won here [Sydney] last year, the car was good and I enjoy the place so we'll have a fair amount of confidence this weekend.

"But everyone else has a bit more data from last year so they can shine their cars up a bit."

If he wants to win his first title, Courtney can't afford even the smallest of slip-ups as Whincup has the pedigree - a two-time champion - and the ability to pounce at the first sign of weakness.

Barring mechanical problems, Whincup has regularly been at the pointy end of the field and knows what it's like to be in a scrape at the end of a season for a title.

His team has experienced a few niggling errors in recent races but you can bet the Triple Eight outfit will be on their A-game for this weekend's racing.

"I'm really well prepared this year.

"It's tight with only 53 points separating James and me which is only about five or six places in one race," said Whincup.

"This year feels very much like 2007 when I was fighting for the championship with a handful of points in the last round against Garth Tander. I'm using things I learned back then to help me out this time.

"I'd prefer to be leading rather than being in the position where we have to chase down some points going into the last round but they're the cards that have been dealt.

"Nothing has changed from race one in the series and I'm going to do what I always do, go out and run my own race and try and win, go as hard as I can."

There you have it. Sydney's in for a motor racing treat and TV3 will show delayed coverage of the top-10 shootout and today's race, before tomorrow's finale from noon.

www.v8supercars.com.au