THE SUPERCARS Championship won’t be decided on the Gold Coast this weekend, but there’s a fair chance we’ll know who can win it once this weekend is complete.
The Vodafone Gold Coast 600 is notable for several reasons, the least of which is that once this weekend is in the books there will be just two rounds remaining in the championship.
What’s more, the event is famous for being an enormous challenge, staged on one of the most demanding street tracks in the world.
It’s the kind of circuit where an errant kerb strike at the beach chicane or a brush with the wall at the first chicane can be the difference between winning or ending up with a nill-score.
There are other variables, too. It’s the last round of the year where co-drivers form part of the equation and when there’s just 21 points separating first and second in the championship, you can bet that there’s some weight riding on the shoulders of Earl Bamber and Alex Premat, respectively.
Then there’s the weather; the Gold Coast has been wet all week and while it’s forecast to be good for much of the weekend the place is known to be as unpredictable as Bathurst when it comes to rain.
With Pukekohe and Newcastle remaining after this weekend, it’s hard to think of a better place for a such a clinch round in the championship.
By Sunday evening we’ll have a good idea of whom the likely contenders are, too.
With van Gisbergen and McLaughlin split by such a tiny margin, Jamie Whincup’s 385-point deficit seems to becoming more and more insurmountable with each passing race.
Though there’s still 900 points up for grabs, it’s hard to see the seven-time champion making it number eight this year, though a good weekend on the Gold Coast will go a long way to keeping him in the hunt.
Whincup may be more concerned with keeping the resurgent Craig Lowndes behind him for the final step on the podium with just 85 separating the Triple Eight pair.
So at the front it looks to be an all-Kiwi fight between Shane van Gisbergen and Scott McLaughlin and that’s a prospect we should all relish, whether you enjoy watching New Zealanders win Australia’s top awards or not.
They’re arguably the two fastest drivers in the series and they are backed by two of the best teams in the business at the moment, but both will relish the test that the fight this year is offering.
Van Gisbergen’s 2016 title success was anchored off the back of strong results at Sandown and Bathurst – he was second in each – and correspondingly poor races for closest rival Jamie Whincup.
So while you’d never hesitate to diminish the efforts of winning a championship, his title came against internal opposition and as much as Roland Dane will say he lets his drivers race, there’s no way known Whincup was going to put SVG’s title at risk with a big move in that year’s Sydney finale’.
So this marks the first time that Shane heads into a finale’ feeling the full heat of pressure from a driver he does not have in the garage next to him. This will be an interesting test.
On the other hand there’s McLaughlin, who fell so agonisingly short at the final hurdle in the closing stages of last years’ fight.
While Scott arguably had the fastest car last year, his season was undone by unforced errors in the season finale – the pit lane speeding violation and the clash with Craig Lowndes among them.
This year he finds himself in a different position; The Shell Fords have struggled for raw speed since Tailem Bend and McLaughlin has gone from the pace setter to the hunter, grimly driving the car as hard as possible to stay in the fight.
That third place at Bathurst may prove to be a critical result in the context of his title dreams.
The worry for both is that as much as we’ve basically written off Jamie Whincup a few paragraphs ago, can you really ever count out the seven-time champ?
Few thought he would win last years title and yet the result on that stunning Sunday in Newcastle had the Red Bull driver on top.
The 2018 battle looks to be a two-way, all-Kiwi fight, with the storied Holden Racing Team / Triple Eight mega-brands up against the legends of Dick Johnson and Roger Penske in the other corner.
But if Jamie Whincup is less than 600 points behind those pair when the field decamps to Pukekohe, it remains firmly a three-way fight.
It’s going to be fun to watch.
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SPEAKING of Kiwi talent, this weekend Jaxon Evans will attempt to close out the Porsche Wilson Security Carrera Cup championship – heading into the final round with a 108-point lead over nearest rival Dylan O’Keefe.
What’s more, this weekend will see him placed head to head with one of the ultimate success stories of the Porsche one-make ladder in Earl Bamber.
The FIA Endurance World Champion returns to his roots this weekend by jumping aboard a Grove Racing Cup Car in the final round of the championship at Surfers Paradise this weekend.
It’s in addition to his existing duties with the Red Bull Holden Racing team as he supports Shane van Gisbergen’s title quest.
Though he’s not raced a Cup Car for some time, there’s no doubt Bamber – a double Carrera Cup Asia champion prior to his evolution to a Le Mans winner – will be the benchmark in the class.
Beating Bamber would be a decent step in the right direction for any driver currently in the Carrera Cup field, let alone Evans as he prepares for the Porsche Shootout later this year, where he represents the Aussie championship against the best young hot-shots from the world of Porsche one-make racing.
While Evans’ will arguably have both eyes firmly on the points calculations, knocking off one of the best young drivers the famous German brand has yet produced would be a decent thing to take with him to Europe later this year.
Meanwhile, Earl will be on track ten times this weekend – madly dashing from one car to another across the three days.
Though to be fair, it’s hard to feel bad for someone who’s job is jumping between two of the best cars at the event. On the Gold Coast. And getting paid for it, as a bonus.
Tough life for some!
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