OzRacingWrap

Welcome to our end-of-season V8 Supercar 10.5 – the top 10 drivers and top 5 teams for 2011. Perhaps not surprisingly driver and team are not unrelated, but occasionally they can be disconnected. Since the start of this season, stars have fallen and new heroes have emerged, and the tables have turned since of start of the endurance races. Andrew Clarke takes a look.

The run home in V8 Supercar racing always throws up a couple of smokeys, and this season was no different. So often the form guide leading into the endurance is not really a total indicator for the second half of the season. Our final ORW10.5 for 2011 pays a lot of attention to the run home and reflects late season form rather that of earlier... and we’ve seen some changes.

The great early season form of Jim Beam Racing and Steve Johnson disappeared in flames at Bathurst, while former JBR pilot James Courtney finally started to get some runs on the board with Holden Racing Team. As a consequence, HRT has jumped into the team’s rating at the expense of JBR, and Courtney has stepped in while Johnson has fallen out of the running.

There were other changes too, but mostly juggling the running order, but sitting above it all was the stellar performances of Jamie Whincup and TeamVodafone, neither of which has been toppled or threatened at the top of the tree. On gut feel, we thought FPR was edging close, but when looking at the stats that is just not backed up. Yes, FPR jumped into a clear number two spot and Mark Winterbottom did the same for the drivers, but the Champions were a mile out in front, even if Lowndes was a close second to Whincup in the title.

Firstly the team, what perhaps made us question TeamVodafone was the electrical issues that hit Whincup at Bathurst and Craig Lowndes on the Gold Coast. This is a team that hasn’t made too many mistakes over a five-year sustained period at the top of the tree, so back-to-back dramas was a surprise and we questioned the team set-up. Were there issues since Roland Dane became so involved in the running of the sport and the mid-season sell-off? Were the wheels falling off the little red wagons?

In the end though, two issues don’t sink a strong ship and the reality is that they are untouched as a team at the top of the pile. If they’d had one more lap at Bathurst maybe Lowndes would have made it the perfect season... but it wasn’t to be. Team one-twos in the Championship don’t happen often – the last was Ambrose and Ingall at SBR and it has never happened for a team running Holdens. This was a season to remember for TeamVodafone.

Whincup was superb, again. He is undoubtedly the class driver of the field, leading on the front foot and making people chase him. Qualifying is always an important indicator of speed since so much can happen in a race to affect the outcome, so to dominate qualifying so emphatically across the season was impressive. Not once all season did he qualify outside the top 10, and he was the only driver to do that. In 19 out of 28 races he started on the front row, and that in itself is staggering. To put it into perspective, Mark Winterbottom was the next best performer with 8 front row starts. His race results were also better than anyone else with an average finishing rate of 2.9 from Phillip Island onwards, which was up from 4.9 in the first half of the year.

Any doubts? His second half of the season was superb and the stats are accumulating at such a rate it seems only a matter of time and if he will stay around long enough to top every stats panel that we keep. Only Mark Skaife and Lowndes have more race wins, only Skaife has more pole positions, and only Dick Johnson and Skaife have more Championships. And he isn’t even 30!

The only question is whether he will remain in Australia after his contract expires at the end of next season.

Mark Winterbottom was a driver on the rise  after a seriously average first half of the season, and one wonder where he would have been in the Championship if he hadn’t been so let down by his team so often. FPR has always been the kings of inconsistency and masters of strategy errors, but suddenly it started to click and the three cars were all performing.

A team one-two was on the card in the final race when Paul Dumbrell slipped into the fence only a few laps from home, and when Will Davison also hit the wall at the same time hearts were breaking in the blue garage. But they had speed and performance, they had wins, poles and podiums. As a team, they were on their game. Dumbrell topped the spots lost list from qualifying to races in the second half was no real surprise (averaging a 9.7 loss) and Will Davison was next at 6.6.

But it was Frosty that best used the form. Davison scored a few poles, but Winterbottom was winning races. Statistically he was also a clear second.

Lowndes’ stats in the run home were ruined by the Gold Coast race, and the issues there were not of his making. Otherwise he was very, very good in the races. But to challenge Whincup you’ve got to start beating him or getting near in qualifying, only once in the closing races did Lowndes outqualify his younger teammate while his strike rate earlier in the season a little more than once in every three races.

He can still race well, though, and that is what his Championship push was all based around. His hunt down of Tander at Bathurst, albeit unsuccessful, was the sort of drive that becomes legend. But while he struggles with qualifying, others can get the jump on him. In the run home, Lowndes averages a 2.7 positional gain from qualifying to race which was the third best in the series (Jason Bright was 4.5 and James Courtney was 3.0) while Whincup dropped 2.3 which just shows what Lowndes needs to do to win next year’s Championship – he needs to improve his qualifying.

Shane van Gisbergen is a work in progress for Stone Brothers Racing, and he improves at each measurable interval. He finished fourth in the series and has finished higher in each series he has contested. He is improving his qualifying performances and races well, especially in the rain, so next year he will be one to watch.

Will Davison we have already spoken about and he has jumped to fifth ahead of Rick Kelly, Rick may have won a race but Will was the better performer overall. Will was also great in qualifying, and in the same car he outqualified Winterbottom, and that is a good effort.

Rick Kelly was again good, but you get the feeling he is carrying the team just a bit too much. Murphy may have got pole at Bathurst in the team’s third car, but that was a fluke based on rain in the Shootout. If Kelly Racing keeps improving we get the feeling that Rick will burst back to the top.

The HRT pairing of Tander and Courtney enjoyed better fortunes late in the season, but they were still inconsistent and not qualifying with the sort of edge we expect from them. Lee Holdsworth split them in our ratings, and his switch to SBR and Ford will be interesting next season.

The final driver’s spot goes to Paul Dumbrell. His speed as really good, but again it was dumb errors that let him down. Homebush was a shattering mistake in his final main game drive, but the rest of the day was stellar. And therein lies the frustrations of PD. He will pick up a great drive at Bathurst, and maybe the part-time nature will suit him.

The teams have kind of written themselves already in this report. TeamVodafone is the king of the heap from FPR which improved from 5th at out mid-season ratings. SBR and Kelly Racing dropped a spot each, and HRT moved into the ratings after falling out with lots of personal issues during the year.

OWR 10.5 - Teams

1 – TeamVodafone (1 Last Time)

2 – Ford Performance Racing (5)

3 – Stone Brothers Racing (2)

4 – Kelly Racing (3)

5 – Holden Racing Team (–)

OWR 10.5 - Drivers