Which colour suits you?
After traveling to seven states and three countries – including a showcase in Kuala Lumpur – we are down to two.
It’s blue versus red, Frosty versus Lowndesy. The margin is 179 points and one will be crowned the 2015 V8 Supercars Champion come Sunday.
One thing is on everyone’s minds heading into the Coates Hire Sydney 500 – and it’s not what you want for Christmas. Well, unless you’re Mark Winterbottom or Craig Lowndes and have asked Santa for the Championship trophy.
It’s a script fit for Hollywood – down to the last round, Ford versus Holden – and no matter which colour your blood bleeds, two of the very best fighting it out makes us giddy with excitement.
Winterbottom made his V8 Supercars career debut at the 2003 Sandown 500 driving alongside Mark Noske.
He has competed in 381 V8 Supercar races and racked up 36 wins in that time including nine this year, the most of any driver in season 2015.
He has started from the number one spot on the grid 30 times in his career and sprayed champagne from the podium 104 times.
He has amazingly finished in the top five spots of the Championship for the last nine years straight – but the closest he came to holding the biggest trophy in our game came back in 2008 when he was runner-up.
If Winterbottom takes the title this weekend he will be the first man to win the Dunlop Series title (he won in 2003) and V8 Supercars Championship. He would also become the first Ford champion since James Courtney in 2010 and the first Champion for PRA (formerly FPR).
He is a two-time Sandown 500 winner and Bathurst 1000 champion but never tasted Championship glory in the highest level of Australian motorsport.
Lowndes debuted back in 1996 at Eastern Creek where he astonished everyone by winning on debut. He has since competed in 578 races since and gone on to become the categories most winning driver with 103 victories.
He has accumulated 41 ARMOR All Pole Positions and 151 podiums. He has an outstanding six Bathurst 1000 victories and three ATCC/V8 Supercar Championships to his name. He is without doubt one of our most decorated drivers and absolutely the peoples champion. Although his last Championship came way back in 1999!
Just to take a trip down memory lane – Chaz Mostert was seven years old, Y2K and the millennium was the most talked about problem going into New Year’s Eve and the sixth sense had everybody saying “I see dead people”. John Howard was our Prime Minister, Eminem just released his first album Slim Shady and the F1 World Champ was Mika Hakkinen.
If we look at form you would say Lowndes has momentum coming into the final lap. He has finished in the top four in eight of the last nine races.
Winterbottom hasn’t had a podium since Bathurst. But Frosty has the points safety net.
Neither of them has ever secured pole position at this venue here at Sydney Olympic Park. Frosty had one victory back in 2011 and Lowndes has two, with the last back in 2012. Last year Lowndes nearly took himself out of the entire weekend when he had a massive accident early in the weekend resulting in huge damage and left him with fractured ribs. Basically the numbers mean that anything is possible.
Extreme heat, torrential rain, hazardous lightning – we have had it all here. Red flags, cars crashing into safety cars, declared races, victory from 21st position and a Championship won in pit lane.
Car crunching concrete, bone breaking kerbs, a world famous precinct, a fitting scene for a Grand Finale…
I would just like to say a special thank you to everyone for the support throughout this year and for tuning in each week. Please have a wonderful festive season with your loved ones – but most importantly stay safe, particularly on the roads. We want you back to join us for the next installment of V8 Supercars in season 2016.
Let the best man and team win.
@rianacrehan
