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Ross Chastain’s wall-ride move
Ross Chastain’s outrageous wall-ride move to seal a place in the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race will feature in highlights reels for years to come.
In a move straight out of a video game, Chastain bashed his Trackhouse Racing #1 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 against the trackside barrier and held the throttle to the floor to move up five spots on the final lap of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoff Round of 8 race at Martinsville Speedway.
His fifth-place finish saw him claim a spot in the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race alongside eventual champion Joey Logano, 2020 title winner Chase Elliott and 2017 NASCAR Truck Series winner Christopher Bell.
UNBELIEVABLE!@RossChastain floors it along the wall to go from 10th to 5th and advance to the CHAMPIONSHIP! #NASCARPlayoffs pic.twitter.com/9qX3eq7T6h
— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) October 30, 2022
WAU’s emotional Holden win
For spine-tingling, hairs-on-the-back-of-your neck moments, nothing in Supercars’ 2022 season came close to the historical 1-2 Adelaide finish for Walkinshaw Andretti United.
All the ingredients were there for the final round of the year: the return of racing to Adelaide after both COVID and the event’s cancellation; WAU’s defection to Ford after originating as the factory Holden team out of the ashes of the 1987 end of the Holden Dealer Team partnership; and the final time that a race car wearing the famous Wembley Lion badge of Holden would compete in the category.
Stir in Nick Percat’s family history, with generations of Percats having worked at Holden in Adelaide, and for him to follow team-mate Mostert across the line with a tribute livery to the team’s 1990 Bathurst win was simply untouchable.
Leclerc’s French Grand Prix pain
He won two of the first three races and after Australia, Charles Leclerc looked like genuinely toppling Red Bull and Verstappen’s title chase. Yet costly errors from both Ferrari and Charles himself saw the Scuderia’s challenge end – and no more abruptly than his embarrassing French Grand Prix exit.
While leading, the (then) 24-year-old crashed into the wall at De Beausset after Verstappen pitted, spinning his F1-75 nose-first into the tyre barrier. Gallantly, he took the blame afterwards, but that didn’t soften the heartbreaking coverage of him in the car in the moments that followed. The whole world watched on as Leclerc, breathing heavily on the radio, let out a painful, howling “Noooooooooo” in what must be one of the most painful radio comms to be broadcast.
Miller wins Japanese MotoGP
Australian MotoGP rider Jack Miller picked up his fourth premier class race victory at the 2022 Japanese MotoGP.
The Ducati Lenovo rider dominated the 24-lapper at Motegi, claiming his only victory of the season, as his eventual championship-winning team-mate Francesco Bagnaia crashed out on the final lap.
Following his victory, Miller admitted that the manner in which he won the Japanese MotoGP was a shock even to himself.
Bathurst 1000 Lap 1 Crash
A lap of Mount Panorama is 6.123km but for a raft of contenders at this year’s 1000km enduro they didn’t even get that far. The action kicked off after just one corner as the field climbed Mountain Straight – which had been rain-soaked after the Top Ten Shootout was cancelled for the first time in the race’s history.
Moments after Fox Sports’ commentator Neil Crompton asked, “Do they negotiate it safely?” the mele unfolded as Jamie Whincup on the wet side of the track bumped into Jack Perkins, sparking a chain reaction that saw Zak Best in the fence and Jaxon Evans’ Brad Jones Racing Commodore with a heavily damaged front-end. The incident blocked the track momentarily, with the Safety Car deployed and Perkins towed out to limp back to the pits – he and co-driver Will Brown went on to finish 10th.
Further back Mark Winterbottom hit the rear of Tyler Everingham as the tailenders had to avoid a head-on with the stationary Whincup Commodore.
It wasn’t over. On the opening lap after the Safety Car had returned to pit lane (Lap 5), an out-of-control Zane Goddard locked a front wheel attempting to pass Greg Murphy at The Chase. Sliding off the circuit, Goddard re-entered the track and clumsily took out Dale Wood – suffering for a second time in the race – as well as Grove Racing’s Matt Campbell, ending all three’s race. Once again Winterbottom in car #18 was spun around in ensuing chaos in what were some of the wildest opening laps of The Great Race.
Power wins IndyCar title
In his 16th season, Toowoomba’s Will Power swept to an unassuming title with a single win as his team-mates took the spotlight – yet the Aussie’s consistency saw him take a second title trophy to sit alongside his 2014 championship and 2016 Indy 500 silverware.
Penske team-mate McLaughlin stunned with his opening round victory, one of three for the Kiwi that season, while Josef Newgarden drove the third Penske entry to five wins, it was Power who chipped away at the title to pip Newgarden by 16 points.
In fact, Power said that he “gave up wins” with the championship in mind, but netted nine podiums across 17 weekends, and was in the top four in all but five.
Ahead of the final races, the Queenslander said his motivation was team-oriented than previous ‘selfish’ goals. “I feel their pain over the years of losing so many. I’d love to win it for them,” he said.
Power talks about his 2022 championship on the KTM Summer Grill.
Who is the champion? Japanese F1 Grand Prix
It was a matter of when, not if, Max Verstappen would be crowned 2022 World Champion. Yet the ‘when’ proved to be the difficult part…
Verstappen crossed the line to win a rain-soaked Japanese Grand Prix with his Red Bull Racing team-mate Sergio Perez asking over the radio, “Is Max champion yet?”. The problem was that no one was quite sure of the answer. Red Bull didn’t think so. Max didn’t think so.
The source of the confusion came from the earlier red flag and whether full championship points would be awarded, as well as the battle between Verstappen’s team-mate Perez and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, the only driver mathematically that could steal Verstappen’s title.
In the final few corners, Perez attacked second-placed Leclerc – who outbraked himself and went off track before re-joining ahead of the Mexican. The Ferrari driver crossed the line second but was subsequently given a five-second penalty and classified third.
As the chequered flag waved, Sky’s David Croft suggested Verstappen hadn’t yet secured the title. At the post race interviews it wasn’t so clear: Croft’s Sky colleague Johnny Herbert suggested to Max that, given Leclerc’s penalty, the Dutchman was indeed the 2022 champion. Live pictures then saw Max discussing the situation with Red Bull boss Helmet Marko and Adrian Newey, saying, “They **** up – it’s still one point that I need.”
Walking to the post-race media room, a rightly confused Perez asked his team-mate again if he was champion, to which Verstappen replied that he’d missed the title by a point because he didn’t set the fastest lap. Even in the green room, Max said “No I’m not” when offered a hat for ‘The Champion’ … until it was confirmed moments later – “Are you sure?” said Max, before celebrations could truly begin.
Seb v Seb at Rallye Monte-Carlo
New car. New regulations. Same driving prowess that made him a nine-time world rally champion. When Sebastien Loeb arrived at the season-opening Monte Carlo rally last January to start a part-time campaign, having stepped back from full-time driving after 2012, the 47-year-old had just missed out on winning the Dakar – but he wasn’t going to be beaten in his cameo for M-Sport.
The 2022 Monte was the first event for the new hybrid cars, and the first for M-Sport in the Ford Puma. Add that Loeb and co-driver Isabelle Galmiche were making a mere cameo against M-Sport’s full-timers – not to mention facing the Toyota of the other mighty Sebastien, Ogier – who held the overnight lead after the first competitive stages on the Thursday of rally.
While others struggled to adapt, Loeb snatched the lead with four stage wins on the Friday but Ogier in the ‘Battle of the Sebs’ reeled him in and, incredibly, the pair shared the lead in Stage 10 with exactly the same overall rally time.
Ogier ascended to lead into the final day by 24.6sec, but in a massive twist the Belgian suffered a puncture and a time penalty to hand Loeb a 9.5sec with one stage remaining – the M-Sport Ford driver winning an incredible 80th WRC rally by 9.0sec win. After the stunning victory, Loeb even performed his trademark backflip in what will go down as one of rallying’s most legendary cameos.
McLaughlin’s first IndyCar victory
Fronting Australian and New Zealand media via video link, Scott McLaughlin talked a big game ahead of the opening round of the 2022 IndyCar series. The 2021 Rookie of the Year was humble yet confident as he clearly stated, “I can win races.”
Days later, the 27-year-old did so for the first time in his short IndyCar career at St Petersburg. He backed that up with three wins for the season, more than Penske team-mate Will Power, who went on to win the title. To add to the moment after that first win, McLaughlin jumped and rolled himself out of the DEX Penske Chevrolet, sparking social media memes and etching himself into IndyCar folklore in the process.
De Pasquale and SVG final-lap clash at Townsville
A final-lap clash between Anton De Pasquale and Shane van Gisbergen at the NTI Townsville 500 was one of the more remarkable moments in the 2022 Supercars Championship season.
In a daring effort to take victory in Race 20, De Pasquale attempted a dive down the inside of van Gisbergen at the final corner, however the former pinched a brake and unloaded the latter.
While the Shell V-Power Racing Team driver slowed down in a clear attempt at a re-dress, the Red Bull Ampol Racing Team driver instead opted to follow him to the chequered flag, forcing the hands of stewards.
Resultantly, De Pasquale was slapped with a five-second penalty for Careless Driving, handing the race victory to van Gisbergen.
The Kiwi, who has been widely praised for his racing intellect, admitted that he hoped for a larger penalty to be dished out.
He went onto seal his third Supercars title, after taking a record-breaking 21 race victories from 34 races.
Lappi takes Rally Finland podium after massive crash
After rolling in Round 8 of the 2022 FIA World Rally Championship season at Rally Finland, Esapekka Lappi and Janne Ferm went onto finish the podium – minus a windscreen.
The Finnish pairing were tracking well in their home event, before hitting a rut at a left-hander on the penultimate stage, sending their Toyota Gazoo Racing Yaris Rally 1 into a barrel roll.
Before the Wolf Power Stage, Lappi was forced to kick the windscreen out, ensuring for a breezy final test.
The #4 did enough to seal a home podium, 1m20.7s adrift of event winners Ott Tanak and Martin Jarveoja.
Feeney wins at Adelaide
Late in the year is when many Oscar hopefuls strategically release their films – so it’s with a similar energy that Broc Feeney’s final round breakthrough victory will linger over the off-season and into 2023.
Leaving his rivals something to think about, the 20-year-old came good after a season that saw his team-mate win a record-setting 21 races. The solitary victory came at the right time and was enough to stave off any suggestions that it was premature to sign the youngster to the coveted Red Bull seat alongside the seemingly untouchable van Gisbergen.
