John Bowe: More winners to come this season

There's been plenty of recent speculation as to who might be the next race winner this season, if any at all.

So far this year we've had 16 races with 10 different race winners. In my time I've never seen a stat like that - ever!

Interestingly, seven of our winners have won one race only. If you were going to write a thriller novel on motorsport - this would certainly have to be it!

The only multiple race winners this season are Craig Lowndes, Jamie Whincup and Mark Winterbottom and they've all won three races each. I have heard it said some people think the racing has been boring ... excuse me?!

I think some might have a moan if they won the lottery - right?

Sure, we have three new manufacturers in the game now, if you look over their personal achievements and mirrored that against their recent results you could say the Kellys have had their work cut out with the Nissans but are making gains, albeit in small margins - they did have a win with Moff last season.

One of the single race winners was Lee Holdsworth in his Benz for Betty's Erebus Motorsport. Probably the biggest cheer went up for young Scotty McLaughlin when he won for Garry Rogers Motorsport in his Volvo at Barbagallo.

Let's recap - we've completed five rounds of 16 races with 10 race winners! If we drill down and look at teammate versus teammate. While it's not spoken about (openly) within the team - it's number one in the drivers' handbook. Your first quest is to out-qualify and finish ahead of your teammate!

Let's look at a couple of notables; it's also a perplexing question with effectively the same machinery, the difference in qualifying and race results within a team.

Do we have a changing of the guard at HRT?

Both Garth Tander and James Courtney are seasoned racers and Champions in their own right. If we look at the four cars in the HRT stable - the standout YTD has been Courtney, who has been the best qualifier and returned the best dividend in terms of race results.

I feel for Garth Tander, he's a very accomplished racer and I know he will be headed north in terms of results. When you look at Garth's results (15th in the Championship) they confirm how tough this business really is! I reckon his results are suffering from his qualifying times. Certainly, Courtney (fifth) has been the best at HRT by a fair margin.

Here's another one for you - Will Davison while at FPR was a demon qualifier and a regular race winner. This year Lee Holdsworth has been a better qualifier than Will. So I ask you again, is this not the closest race season we've seen? Reckon so!

My ol' mate Russell Ingall is one of the best passers in the business. Russ has never been a good qualifier, he's an awesome racer and his stats show he's the best when you look at qualifying v race results. There's a bit of life in the old dog yet - particularly in the longer races.

Given the recent V8 Supercars poll 'Who will be the next race winner?' showed Russell Ingall at 24 per cent - I'm not sure I agree with that... A bit of tampering gone on here me thinks!

[Ed: There were over 50,000 votes on the v8supercars.com.au poll, with Ingall garnering over 12,000 votes from fans and David Reynolds the second choice with over 5000. Data indicates votes for Ingall were cast by various participants in the poll.]

With our 10 race winners, we have 15 potential other race winners, or as the poll suggested, 'no other winners' giving 16 options. I think many of these guys are capable of a podium finish including Will Davison, Garth Tander, David Reynolds and DJR drivers Scott Pye and David Wall (I hope).

Given all of the above I think the 11th potential winner in our 2014 V8 Supercar Championship could be FPR's Reynolds - sorry mate I hope I haven't put the mocker on you! Statistically, Reynolds is ninth in the Championship and the highest placed non-race winner.Finally, I'd like to acknowledge Daniel Ricciardo's first Formula One victory in the Canadian GP. It's quite fitting Daniel has his first career win the very week of the funeral of Australia's best, Sir Jack Brabham!

Like many Australians, I've watched this young man conduct himself impeccably on the world motorsport stage - Daniel Ricciardo has been outstanding. He turned up this year in the main Red Bull team and was on it from the word go ... like many, I said he'd win his first race soon!

I don't think a World Championship is beyond him by any means - he continues to display humility, respect, he's well grounded and blessed with a massive dose of talent/skill/ability. His family must be bursting with pride! Well done young man you've made us all very, very proud.

Not only has Daniel's family funded his early years in motorsport - what's more obvious is they have raised a fantastic young man who will do this nation proud and maybe, just maybe, he'll be our next F1 World Champion!

Cheers,JB

Follow John Bowe on Facebook. Bowe is supported by Wilson Security, Dunlop Super Dealers and Coates Hire, and competing in the 2014 Touring Car Masters Championship.