For the third consecutive year rain soaked the WTCC races at Okayama. In spite of this, local fans did not miss the last appearance of the World Championship before it moves to Suzuka from next year and a crowd of 31,000 attended over the weekend.
After a Saturday that was clearly in favour of BMW, the rainy Sunday smiled on Yvan Muller. In extremely difficult conditions the Chevrolet driver kept a cool head and collected two third places that are worth their weight in gold. Especially after a tough wreekend from his two rivals in the title fight.
After a brilliant second place in the first race, Andy Priaulx spun off and retired in the early stages of Race 2. A few laps later Gabriele Tarquini lost control and crashed from the lead.
The Italian, the reigning world champion, has been cut out of the fight, while Priaulx now has a 37-point gap with 50 still to be awarded.
In the Manufacturers' Championship, Chevrolet is only 14 points shy from securing the title.
Rob Huff and Augusto Farfus shared victories today. The Briton pushed beyond the limits in the first race to get past the BMW cars of Farfus and Priaulx, while the Brazilian managed to stay on the track in the final laps of the second race after forcing Tarquini to make the fatal mistake.
The championship will resume for the season finale (rounds 21 and 22) at Macau, on November 21 where the Rookie Challenge and the Independents' Trophy will also elect their champions.
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Holden Managing Director Mark Reuss has questioned the long term future of V8 Supercar racing in Australia if it continues with just two brands. Speaking at the Melbourne International Motorshow Reuss told In Pit Lane that the series needed to expand both it's makes and models to survive.
"the first weekend I spent here (in Australia) was at the Clipsal 500 which is a great race and a lot of fun" he said. "it's a great sport but, I think the sport needs more, and I think that having (just) two brands in a race is something... I've been around a lot of racing in the United States where you have two brands and eventually people lose interest in that."
Mr Reuss said that the sport needed different cars and different makes to survive.
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Monday, November 1, 2010
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