Maranello 488
Geoffrey Harris26 Sept 2016
NEWS

MOTORSPORT: Whincup, Lowndes in Ferrari for 12-Hour

The 'Other Great Race' places arguably the two best drivers in Oz back together; Volvo wins in the World Touring Car Championship; and VW is on the cusp of WRC titles

First there was the news, 12 weeks before entries even close, of 50 cars representing 16 marques. Now comes the announcement that six-time Supercar champion Jamie Whincup at last is going to dip his toe in GT racing – at Mt Panorama, with Craig Lowndes, in a Ferrari 488, in February's Bathurst 12-Hour.

Whincup and Lowndes, along with now-retired Mark Skaife, have been the most successful drivers in Australian motor racing in the past two decades, notching between them more than 200 V8 Supercar/touring car race wins, nine championships and 10 Bathurst 1000 victories.

For Lowndes the new tie-up will mark his return to the GT enduro he won in 2014 in a Ferrari 458, while for Whincup – with whom he won the 1000 in 2006, '07 and '08 – it will be something entirely new after saying several years ago he wanted to do things other than V8 Supercars.

The 488, which will be making its Australian race debut, will be entered by Melbourne-based Maranello Motorsport but with support from Triple Eight Race Engineering, which has fielded the pair in Supercars for a decade.

"The Bathurst 12-Hour is an event I've been keeping an eye on for a few years now," Whincup said.

"I've been patient waiting for the right opportunity and feel I've found it with the Maranello/Triple Eight combination.

"I'm excited to be teaming up with Craig again [as co-drivers in an endurance race] after more than six years and also look forward to learning to drive a left-hand drive, high downforce, turbo car fast."

Whincup and Lowndes will be joined in the car by a factory Ferrari GT driver. Expect it to be a Finn, either Toni Vilander, a GT world champion, or Mika Salo, the ex-Formula 1 driver who was among those who shared the 458 with Lowndes in the 2014 Bathurst victory. (The others were John Bowe and 'gentleman driver' and car owner Peter Edwards).

Maranello Motorsport principal Mark Coffey said the team wanted to take full advantage of rules now allowing GT3 driver line-ups to comprise solely professionals.

"Craig and Jamie are two of the best Australian drivers of the last 20 years or more and also have an excellent track record of driving together in major endurance races," Coffey said.

"We are very pleased to have secured both of them and look forward to working with them both.

"Ferrari have an incredible stable of drivers across their GT programs and we are looking forward to working with the factory once again to represent the Prancing Horse brand on the Mountain.

"We have a comprehensive program in place to make sure the drivers and our entire team are ready for the race next February, including making sure Craig and Jamie get plenty of seat time before they get to Bathurst."

Lowndes has missed the past two 12-Hours – last year because of the clash with the V8 Supercar test weekend in Sydney (before Supercars' friendly takeover of the February GT enduro), and this year through injury – and is hungry to get back to it.

"I am delighted to have the chance to defend my victory in the Bathurst 12 Hour of two years ago with Ferrari and Maranello again," Lowndes said.

"Jamie and I have enjoyed a lot of success together at Bathurst, so it'll be great to pair up again – and to have the engineering support of Triple Eight."

Whincup and Lowndes have been prevented from driving together in the 1000 in recent years under a rule now stipulating that full-time Supercar Championship competitors cannot share cars in the September-October endurance races.

Elsewhere on the GT racing front, there is talk of next year's Australian Endurance Championship expanding to five rounds after four this year – two of which remain to be run in New Zealand, at Hampton Downs at the end of October and Highlands Motorsport Park two weeks later.

Both the NZ circuits are owned by pet food and confectionary tycoon – and Australian GT category owner – Tony Quinn, who is also keen to start a 1001km GT race, probably at Hampton Downs between Auckland and Hamilton.

That would be an extension of the 101-lap events Quinn has introduced to GT racing in Australia and NZ.

He also has thoughts of another event combining Australian, New Zealander and Asian GT competitors in 2018.

Volvo breaks through in World Touring Car Championship
While team owner Garry Rogers and Volvo haggle over Supercar involvement together beyond this season, the Chinese-owned Swedish brand has chalked up its first win in this year's World Touring Car Championship.

The success came in Shanghai with Scandinavian touring car champion Thed Bjork the driver of the turbocharged 1.6-litre S60.

Bjork drafted past the Honda Civic of Hungarian Norbert Michelisz on the back straight of the circuit on the last lap of the race. Stewards investigated contact between the pair on that final lap but the results stood.

Argentina's reigning WTCC champion Jose Maria Lopez leads the series again after his eighth win of the season. He led a Citroen C-Elysee trifecta on Sunday, with retiring French ace Yvan Muller runner-up to him and the Polestar Volvos of Frederik Ekblom and Bjork sixth and seventh, behind a pair of Ladas.

While Citroen is withdrawing from the WTCC to concentrate on the new era of the World Rally Championship, Honda has committed to another year in the series – its sixth.

The dominant Citroen has provisionally clinched its third WTCC manufacturer title pending the cancellation of the penultimate round at the Chang International Circuit in Thailand, scheduled for the first weekend of November.

The final round is in Qatar on November 24-25.

VW and its stars eye fourth straight titles
Volkswagen and its superstar rally driver, Frenchman Sebastien Ogier, and his countryman co-driver Julien Ingrassia, could clinch manufacturer and driver World Rally Championships for the fourth consecutive year next weekend.

The 10th round of the WRC is Rally France on the Mediterranean island of Corsica.

It's known as the 'Rally of 10,000 corners' and with no straights longer than 150 metres, even though much – 70 per cent – of the course is different to that last year, which endured torrential rain causing cancellation of two stages.

The 390.92km of competition from Friday until Sunday will comprise 10 asphalt stages – all at least 30km.

While it is only a matter of time before Ogier and Ingrassia wrap up the driver and co-driver titles again, their Finnish teammates in another VW Polo R, Jari-Matti Latvala and Miikka Anttila, have won the French round the past two years. It was only last year that the event returned to Corsica.

The new Chinese round scheduled for this month was cancelled, while rounds in Spain and Wales follow hot on the heels of Corsica and before the finale, Rally Australia at Coffs Harbour in November.

The PH Sport team that has participated spasmodically, but very successfully, this year on behalf of Citroen while the French manufacturer prepares for next season will field at least two cars in Corsica, Spain and Britain – but skip the trip to Australia.

Third shot at rallycross for Atkinson
Chris Atkinson, who has taken to rallycross like a duck to water, is confirmed for a third event in the Global Rallycross Championship – the double-header finale in Los Angeles on October 8-9.

Atkinson will be joined in the Subaru Rally Team USA squad by Japan's Toshi Arai, who like the Queenslander is a former Subaru WRC driver – but at 49 (50 in December), he's 13 years the Aussie's senior.

Multiple American rally champion David Higgins, 43, will be Subaru's third driver in Los Angeles.

The championship is a tussle between Volkswagen Andretti teammates Tanner Foust, the host of Top Gear in the US, and ex-F1 racer Scott Speed.

After impressive but unlucky outings in Atlantic City and Seattle, Atkinson has declared "we can fight at the front in LA" in the 600-horsepower rallycross 'Supercars'.

Meanwhile, a South African round – at Killarney in Cape Town – will join the fourth World Rallycross Championship next year.

This season's World RX leader, Swede Mattias Ekstrom, won what will be his final race in this year's German touring car championship, the DTM, at the Hungaroring in Budapest.

Audi has okayed the versatile dual DTM champion giving priority to the next World RX round in Latvia, which clashes with the DTM finale at Hockenheim.

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Written byGeoffrey Harris
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