Motorsport: Aussie stars in US showdown

The Tickford Racing driver was drafted into the factory BMW squad for the 10-hour endurance race, sharing a M8 GTE car with John Edwards and Jesse Krohn. The trio survived an intense GTLM race against factory rivals from Porsche, Ford and Chevrolet to take third place in class and 14th position outright.

Sydney-born Ford factory driver Ryan Briscoe entered the race with a chance of winning the GTLM driver’s title in the Ford GT he shares with Briton Richard Westbrook. The pair, who were joined by Kiwi Indycar champion Scott Dixon for Petit Le Mans, were locked in the title points battle with the Chevrolet Corvette of Antonio Garcia and Oliver Gavin.

The Corvette duo looked headed for a comfortable championship victory until late in the race, when Garcia spun exiting the pits and damaged his Corvette. Fortunately his team was able to repair the car within three-laps, allowing Garcia to make the finish in eighth. Briscoe’s #67 Ford could only manage fifth place which wasn’t enough to overhaul the Corvette duo.

But the result was good enough to secure the manufacturer’s title for Ford.

Earl Bamber, who is co-driving with fellow Kiwi Shane van Gisbergen in the Supercars endurance races, looked headed for the GTLM class win in his Porsche 911 RSR until his car was hit with a drive-through penalty and dropped out of the lead group. The second factory Porsche, driven by Nick Tandy, Patrick Pilet and Frederic Makowiecki claimed the GTLM class win.

Australian GT champions crowned

Both the Australian GT Championship and Australian Endurance Championship titles were decided by a thrilling 500km race at New Zealand’s Hampton Downs circuit on the weekend.

Supercars veteran Garth Tander helped amatuer driver Geoff Emery win the Australian GT crown by winning the race in the pair’s Audi R8 LMS, holding off a determined fight from John Martin in his Porsche 911 GT3 R.

Supercars endurance regular Tony D’Alberto drove his Mercedes-AMG GT to third place, which helped himself and co-driver Max Twigg claim the Australian Endurance Championship.

"Achieving your goals is always pretty special, and to win it for Max and Scott Taylor Motorsport is awesome,” said D’Alberto, who is sharing Fabian Coulthard’s DJR-Team Penske Ford in the Supercars endurance races.

"The race was probably a little bit tougher than I expected, but up against some quality guys out there, racing hard, it was what it was meant to be like.

"We were all trying to get those last couple of points, and obviously Geoff and Garth trying to win the Australian GT Championship, and we were trying to wrap up the Australian Endurance Championship.

"Really stoked, really happy.”

WEC: Toyota takes hometown win

Toyota took an unsurprising win at its hometrack, Fuji Speedway, in the latest round of the World Endurance Championship.

Not even starting in last place following a qualifying penalty could stop Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Jose Maria Lopez charging through the field to win the race from the sister Toyota TS050 Hybrid, driven by Fernando Alonso, Sebastian Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima.

The winning Toyota was four-laps ahead of the third place privateer LMP1 entry from Rebellion Racing, driven by defending world champions (with Porsche) Andre Lotterer, Neel Jani and Bruno Senna.

Australia’s Matt Campbell was denied the chance of a third straight win in the GTE-Am class when his Porsche 911 RSR was hit with an electrical fault. Campbell’s team was forced to pit for lengthy repairs, losing 25-laps and any chance on backing up its wins at Le Mans and Silverstone.

World Time Attack

Sydney racer Barton Mawer came within seven-tenths of a second of claiming the fastest lap time around Sydney Motorsport Park on his way to winning the World Time Attack contest on Saturday.

The flying lap contest for highly modified cars saw Mawer set a 1:19.825sec lap in his Porsche 968-based machine. He beat Bathurst podium finisher Warren Luff, who recorded a 1:21.398sec lap in his Nissan Silvia.

Mawer’s time was just short of beating the outright lap record of 1:19.142sec time set by current Renault Formula One star Nico Hulkenberg in an A1GP Lola-Zytek open-wheeler racing car.

“This is a massive achievement for PR Technology and reward to [car owner] Rod Pobestek for his unwavering vision,” Mawer said. “This is year four of the RP968 competing and to finally win is a massive relief.

“To crack under the one minute and 20 seconds barrier at SMP is huge. Is there more left? Yes. We achieved that time not on full boost and we struggled under brakes at turn eight hairpin.”

Schumacher wins F3 title

Mick Schumacher has followed in his father’s famous tyre tracks, winning the European Formula Three championship.

Twenty-eight years after Michael Schumacher won the German F3 title, his son has secured its modern equivalent in his third season in the category. The younger Schumacher made a slow start to the year but became the man-to-beat in the second half. He overhauled Red Bull junior Harry Ticktum’s points lead and claimed the top prize at the final round of the season at Hockenheim.

“Of course, I am really happy with my title win,” Schumacher junior said. ”I can hardly describe what a beautiful feeling it is to be doing something that you love really well. However, I also have a great team around me that is giving me the best conditions, enabling me to concentrate on what is important. I reckon that that is one of the keys to success. Moreover, we never gave up this season and have always tried to improve further. We never stopped working on ourselves.”

Schumacher is expected to move to Formula Two in 2019 as he attempts to follow his father’s career into F1. It’s believed he is in discussion with the ART Grand Prix team run by Nicolas Todt, the son of Jean Todt who oversaw Michael’s dominant period at Ferrari.

The young German has also been linked to both the Ferrari and Mercedes F1 teams but it’s believed neither have offered him an official role yet.