The Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 has concluded the ninth round of the V8 Supercar Championship Series, and now the final equations for calculating the net championship table have been completed, as
Matthew Agius takes a look at the ladder heading into the final four rounds of the championship.
A stable top three in the championship was the main outcome from Bathurst, with Craig Lowndes continuing his championship lead from Rick Kelly and Mark Winterbottom. Mathematically speaking, the top twenty six driver, all the way down to Greg Murphy, have a chance of winning the title, with a maximum of 1280 points on offer for the next four events. However realistically, one would wager that down as far as James Courtney in tenth has a chance, simply because the top three drivers have proved to not only consistently quick, but also have reliable machinery.
Indeed Lowndes, Kelly and Winterbottom have all displayed these traits. None of these three drivers have DNFd a race in their normal cars, nor have retired from a race when they were driving (Winterbottom did retire from Bathurst, however it was with teammate Jason Bright behind the wheel of the Caterpillar Falcon ? not his regular car). Of their points scoring rounds, each driver has taken a haul over one hundred points, and all have featured on the overall podium at least once.
Yes, these three drivers are the men who look likely to battle out the title. Russell Ingall was elevated to fourth after Bathurst, but even though his Caltex Falcon has improved in consistency and speed, he hasn?t been near the front often enough to be considered a serious chance at defending his title. Undoubtedly the biggest loser in the enduros has been Garth Tander, since moving to the Holden Racing Team for Sandown and Bathurst, the one time championship leader has dropped from the top three to sixth ? dropping a further two places on net terms following his Bathurst DNF.
![Lowndes/Whincup - Team Betta Electrical Falcon [Pic credit: Ford]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/272468.jpg)
