MOTORSPORT: Weekend of the giantkillers

Amid amazing race and team turmoil, James Courtney clinches the V8 Super car games crown at a final round in Sydney that tossed up different faces in the winner's circle

So a new V8 Supercar champion, two thrilling races to end the season and a couple of different race winners.

James Courtney has dethroned Jamie Whincup. Another title has been won in a Ford -- although now Courtney is off to drive a Holden next year,  as happened with Whincup (and Craig Lowndes) a year ago.

Even now, Courtney's still not confirming it, but it's a certainty that he will line up with the Holden Racing Team next year. And he will do it with a credibility with the fans that he didn't have in his early years in V8 Supercars.

Now he's much more than the guy who danced to celebrity on TV, the former karting and openwheeler ace. Although he won less races for the season than Whincup -- five compared with nine -- he scored points at every one.

There was an ounce of luck in it at the end -- especially getting back out on the track just in time late on Saturday, while Whincup (or his crew) was a fraction later, and that his wheel nut problem on Sunday and the dented nose of his Falcon didn't retard him more -- but there were plenty of hurdles overcome along the way.

Most amazing is that the crew at Dick Johnson Racing remained so focused, professional and disciplined amid all that was going on around them in recent months from the ownership turmoil -- which was finally sorted on the eve of the Sydney Telstra 500.

"The guys in the garage worked their arses off in preparing me the perfect package in the most turbulent of times," Courtney said.

It's a seventh Australian touring car title for Dick Johnson Racing -- the first five of them won by Johnson himself, another by John Bowe 15 years ago, and now this success by Courtney.

"It's good to see that a small family team can still topple the giants," Courtney said. "The team at DJR deserves this, as they spend every penny wisely.

"I won this for Dick and Ford."

The irony will be that Courtney now leaves Johnson and Ford for HRT.

And the largely overlooked hero is Charlie Schwerkolt, the forklift entrepreneur who came to Johnson's rescue a couple of years ago and kept the sport's oldest team alive and provided the spark for its revival. Schwerkolt's exit was sealed in the deal done just before this event.

Courtney had proclaimed for two months, since before Bathurst, that he was going all out to win races in his first big tilt at the championship.

In reality he combined aggression with craftiness -- able to see at times, and not just on Sunday, that there were occasions when it was best to settle for a bundle of points than risk everything.

As much as Courtney is a worthy champion, Whincup can count himself dreadfully unlucky not to have won a third straight championship. It was through no fault in his driving, but the mistakes of his usually perfect Triple Eight Race Engineering crew in the latter part of the season.

Triple Eight boss Roland Dane felt Courtney was allowed back on to the track in the closing stages of Saturday's race in a car that should not have been allowed, while his team penalised itself by stricter attention to detail.

For the good of the sport Dane did not pursue that line with officials, because thems the breaks and the history books don't allow room for explanations of how championships were lost -- only who won them.

Whincup is taking his dethroning hard, but not unsportingly.

"It was ours for the taking and we lost it," he said. "We had all the ingredients to do the job and we just didn't do it.

"I feel like someone's stolen our plate."

Even at this early stage, Whincup must be the favourite for next year's title -- especially as Dane has recruited Adrian Burgess, the crew chief who has just steered Courtney to glory at DJR.

While the championship outcome was the big picture at the weekend, it was refreshing to see a new winner on Saturday -- youngster Jonathon Webb, at his last round in a DJR-prepared car after the mayhem that erupted in the rain -- and Lee Holdsworth back on top of the podium for the first time this season for Garry Rogers Motorsport on Sunday.

Holdsworth could loom as a title challenger next season.

It is a remarkable achievement that DJR and GRM have finished second and third in the teams' championship against the might of the bigger, better funded teams.

Dane's Triple Eight was the top dog again on that scorecard, with Craig Lowndes contributing strong results as well as Whincup, but DJR and GRM relegated Ford Performance Racing to fourth, while HRT has ended the season only seventh -- behind the Kelly Brothers and Stone Brothers as well.

Young Kiwi Shane van Gisbergen almost notched that elusive breakthrough victory Sunday but the Stones' fuel gamble backfired.

However, van Gisbergen still salvaged a podium behind Holdsworth and Steven Richards, in his last drive for FPR.

So an exciting end to the championship, made more so by Saturday's weather and the unforgiving concrete walls around the Homebush street circuit.

The three-day attendance announced of 166,723 was down on the 180,000 claimed for the first Sydney Telstra 500 last year.

On television, the V8 Supercars thrashed the Australian Open golf but trailed well behind the Test cricket in Adelaide.

The average audience in the five major capital cities for Saturday's race was 360,000, down 11 per cent on last year, while Sunday's 421,000 was a 5 per cent improvement on last year, when the title had already been decided in Whincup's favour.

The Melbourne numbers were particularly soft this time -- 51,000 on Saturday and 67,000 on Sunday, lower than Adelaide both days.

While the quality of racing at the end was high -- the best two races of the season other than the Sunday race at the Gold Coast -- there's scope for it draw better audiences than these.

Might the Sydney round be better at the other end of the season -- on the Australia Day long weekend perhaps, like the old Triple Challenge?

V8 Supercar Championship final driver standings - James Courtney 3055, Jamie Whincup 2990, Mark Winterbottom 2729, Craig Lowndes 2669, Garth Tander 2466, Shane van Gisbergen 2391, Lee Holdsworth 2387, Rick Kelly 2347, Paul Dumbrell 2232, Steven Johnson 2006, Michael Caruso 2004, Russell Ingall 1967, Jonathon Webb 1852, Jason Bright 1642, Steven Richards 1630, Tim Slade 1595, Jason Richards 1547, Todd Kelly 1435, Greg Murphy 1432, Tony D'Alberto 1325, Alex Davison 1317, Will Davison 1236, Fabian Coulthard 1229, Jason Bargwanna 1208, Dean Fiore 1070.
V8 Supercar teams championship - Triple Eight Race Engineering 5659, Dick Johnson Racing 5071, Garry Rogers Motorsport 4486, Ford Performance Racing 4369, Kelly Brothers Racing 3797, Stone Brothers Racing 3753, Holden Racing Team 3702, Paul Morris Motorsport 3455, Brad Jones Racing 3207, Rod Nash Racing 2232.

CAMS-AGPC agreement gives F1 event green light
Amid all the attention on Homebush over the weekend, the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport quietly announced a belated settlement of its long-running dispute with the Australian Grand Prix Corporation.

The parties have reached an agreement that smoothes the way for the Australian F1 GP to proceed next March 24-27 as scheduled.

CAMS has won some concessions, including discounted GP tickets for members of CAMS-affiliated car clubs.

The winners of CAMS national championships this year also will be acknowledged with a parade lap at the GP.

New CAMS chief executive David Morgan said the agreement "ensures that CAMS is compensated for its direct and indirect costs and avoids any need to dip into CAMS reserves".

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