Will Power 2
Geoffrey Harris14 Aug 2017
NEWS

MOTORSPORT: Power still fancies his IndyCar chances

Toowoomba ace’s sights still fixed on second title in America’s top open-wheeler series

Will Power, the IndyCar champion three years ago and four times runner-up in the series, has declared he can win the title again this season, despite being fifth and 52 points off the lead with four races remaining.

The series resumes next weekend, after a short northern summer break, at the ‘Tricky Triangle’ oval that is Pocono Raceway in Pennsylvania, followed by the Gateway oval in Illinois, then the road courses at Watkins Glen in New York State and Sonoma in California.

The finale is worth double points, which is one of the factors giving Power such confidence of a second crown by mid-September.

“You’ve got double points at the end. If you’re within 20 of the guy you’re chasing, you can control your own destiny in the last race by winning,” Power said.

“It’s a big chunk, that last race. I’ll be keeping that in mind.

“If we can just chip away at these points in the next few races, we’ll have a great shot.

“We’ve got the pace everywhere we go. We’ve just got to have it flow for us, which it does. It ebbs and flows.

“We need to have solid races from here on out and we can win the championship.”

Like last season, but for different reasons, Power had a poor start to this year, but he rallied last year with four wins and two seconds in a six-race stretch.

Although his results have been inconsistent this season, Power feels he’s been consistently quicker.

In 13 rounds so far he’s had two wins – on the road course at Indianapolis in May and Texas Motor Speedway in June – and two seconds.

The only driver with more wins is Power’s new American teammate in Roger Penske’s mighty open-wheeler squad, Josef Newgarden, with three.

Newgarden has 453 points, seven more than Helio Castroneves, the Brazilian veteran who has won three Indianapolis 500s for Penske but never the series title.

New Zealander Scott Dixon, a four-time series champion with Chip Ganassi Racing and an Indy 500 victor too, is only a point behind Castroneves.

The other driver ahead of Power is Simon Pagenaud, the Frenchman who also races for Penske and is the defending champion, on 436 points, to the 401 of the Toowoomba ace who is now 36 and has 31 career wins (equal ninth all-time in IndyCar).

American Graham Rahal and Japan’s Takuma Sato, winner of this year’s Indy 500, are within 20 points of Power.

There have been nine different winners in the series this season, with a maximum of 256 points to score in the last four races.

“It just makes it really interesting,” Power said.

“Obviously you think about yourself, trying to get it right and be in the fight at the end.

“Last year I wasn’t even expecting to be a part of the championship. I wasn’t feeling right [because of an ear infection].

“Yep, it’s going to be interesting [this time]. All the guys in the fight are capable of winning.

“The difference is this year I’ve been fast all year.

“I’ve been way quicker, I’ve felt better and I’ve had the energy. [But] at St Pete [round one at St Petersburg in Florida], engine failure. Sure win in Barber [Grand Prix of Alabama], tyre puncture. Taken out of a double-points race at Indy [500], there’s a top-10 finish.

“I’ve definitely had some rough days. First lap at Toronto [in Canada, taken out in a crash], things like that.

“But, yep, it’s going to be interesting. We can win it.”

Newgarden – 10 years Power’s junior at 26, fourth in the championship last year and with six career wins now – said he’s glad to be leading rather than chasing.

“It’s tough when you’re like 50 points behind and you have to have someone else finishing in a certain position,” Newgarden said.

“But it’s going to come down to Sonoma, regardless of what happens.”

High five for Major – and that’s it
At just 32, Peter Major has won WA’s Targa West for the fifth time and third year in a row – but has announced that he’s going to concentrate on family, business and other motorsport pursuits now.

“I’m stoked to be going out on a high,” Major said after he and the co-driver of his 2004 Porsche 996, Ben Searcy, negotiated the final day in tricky wet conditions without ABS.

“We’ve had issues … no ABS, aquaplaning on the wet stages and a few other niggling things we’ve had to nurse most of the rally.”

They held off the 2012 Nissan GT-R of Peter Rullo and James Marquet by 24 seconds.

Rullo and Marquet lost time on Friday’s opening stage but car owner Rullo was just happy to have completed the event after mechanical issues every year since 2011 after having been third in 2010.

Third-placed Will White and Matt Thompson in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX were awarded the Targa Cup for being tops overall in WA’s new tarmac series that includes the Targa Sprints and Targa South-West.

Holden triumphed over Ford in the classic section of Targa West, with Mick Bray and Daniel Bray victorious in a 1975 Torana over the 1971 Ford Capri Perana of Simon Gunson and Murray Armenti.

The weather favoured the Brays, with a dry run on the final day’s first stage at Malaga allowing them to clock a much faster time than Gunson and Armenti, who had the heavens open on them. The final margin was nine seconds.

However, Gunson’s wife, Sharon, and co-driver Helen Lunsmann won the event’s modern challenge for the fourth time, and completed a hat-trick, in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VII.

The classic challenge – for showroom or non-roll caged cars made before 1986 – went to Justin Gan and Greg Levene in a 1978 Porsche 911C.

Donny Schatz closes on Kinser’s Knoxville record
Donny Schatz, the American sprintcar ace well-known to Australian speedway fans from his regular summer visits, has won that sport’s crown jewel, the Knoxville Nationals in Iowa, for the 10th time.

Schatz, who turned 40 during this year’s Nationals, is now only two wins behind retired ‘king’ Steve Kinser.
He collected $US150,000 – almost $A190,000 – for this latest victory at the Marion County Fairgrounds.

Schatz also has won the World of Outlaws series eight times and leads it again this season with 15 wins.

He has driven for recently-retired NASCAR triple champion and speedway legend Tony ‘Smoke’ Stewart for 10 years.

Australian Kerry Madsen finished third on Saturday night behind Schatz and 25-year-old American Kyle Larson, who was given special dispensation by his NASCAR team owner, Chip Ganassi, to race at Knoxville.

Larson then won NASCAR’s Cup race at Michigan Speedway the next day. He is running second in that championship in a Chevrolet to Toyota driver Martin Truex Junior.

Penske drivers Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano finished only 17th and 28th after starting on the front row.

Australian James Davison ended up fourth in his first outing for top Toyota team Joe Gibbs Racing in the second-tier NASCAR Xfinity series road race at Mid-Ohio.

He ran as high as second in the race won by Sam Hornish Junior, opting not to press fellow JGR driver Matt Tift for a podium spot in the closing stages.

Davison is booked for another Xfinity start at Road America on August 27.

Four from five ain’t bad, but teen the sensation
Will Orders has won the all-wheel drive class of the new Australian Rallycross Championship for the fourth time in five rounds, but still finds himself only third on the points table with just one round remaining.

Orders won again at Marulan in NSW at the weekend in his Mitsubishi Evo, but his poor round at Winton in Victoria still leaves him behind a former Australian rally champion, the consistent Justin Dowel in a Hyundai, and Dowel’s 16-year-old son Troy in a VW Polo.

The young Dowel was the sensation at Marulan, winning the AWD final after a scintillating pass of Orders after earlier overtaking his father.

However, Orders – who had won two of the three AWD heats – then won the ‘super final’ ahead of the Dowels, with father ahead of son.

Troy Dowel – this time in a Ford Fiesta – was runner-up to Mike Conway in a Ford Escort in the 2WD ‘super final’, as well as winning the junior class and production AWD trophies for the round.

He heads to Finland today to attend the RX Academy.

Steve Glenney’s Evo broke a differential after the second AWD heat, while Aaron Windus was another young star of the round, winning a reverse-grid heat in his Mazda2.

The final round of championship is at Carnell Raceway in Stanthorpe, Queensland, in November, with Justin Dowel leading AWD on 416 points from his son on 314 and Orders on 306. Conway leads 2WD with 432 points to Troy Dowel’s 323.

In America’s Global Rallycross Championship, Volkswagen Andretti driver Scott Speed completed a hat-trick of wins with victories in both legs of the double-header round in Atlantic City.

Australian Chris Atkinson’s Subaru WRX STI was hit from behind in a chaotic start to the first day’s final after starting on the front row with the Beetles of Speed and his VW teammate Tanner Foust, breaking the Queenslander’s suspension and forcing him out.

However, Atkinson was fourth in Sunday’s final and now lies seventh in the standings.

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Written byGeoffrey Harris
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