Motorsports this weekend - October 8th & 9th

The travelling circus is at Suzuka, Japan, for Honda's "home" Grand Prix. The Suzuka circuit, originally built by Honda as a test track, is the only track on the F1 calendar with equally balanced left and right turns, by virtue of its unique "flyover" configuration. The battle this weekend centers on the Constructor's Championship, which is going down to the wire between Renault and McLaren-Mercedes, with only two races remaining.

Perhaps more interesting than the race this weekend is the paddock rumor mill, running overtime with talk of a second Honda-powered team in 2006, with Takuma Sato, and possibly Anthony Davidson, in the drivers' seats. BAR-Honda technical director Nick Fry has hinted that the team might run 2005-spec BAR-Honda chassis - we'll see.

NASCAR: The Chase for the Championship moves to Kansas Speedway, the fourth stop on the Chase tour. Kansas is one of the 1.5 mile "cookie cutter" tracks stamped out in recent years. These are tracks where Roush teams typically do well, as we saw with Matt Kenseth at Chicagoland Speedway this summer.

More after the jump…

The surprisingly successful World Cup of Motorsport is at Eurospeedway, Lausitz, this weekend. The series hopes to build on its breakout event at Brands Hatch two weeks ago, and further annoy Bernie Ecclestone and the rest of the sport?s purists.

Rolex Sports Car Championship: Grand Am is in action in the country club setting of Virginia International Raceway. SunTrust Pontiac-Riley co-drivers Max Angelelli and Wayne Taylor can wrap up the 2005 Daytona Prototype team championship with a strong performance Sunday.

World Superbike: Troy Corser (Suzuki) takes a commanding championship lead over fellow countryman Chris Vermeulen (Honda) into the 12th and final round this weekend at Magny Cours, France.

DARPA Grand Challenge: The robot racers take to the desert outside Primm, Nevada, Saturday, with Carnegie-Mellon?s Red Team Too on pole position, ahead of Stanford?s ?Stanley? and CMU?s Red Team entry. It will be interesting to see if anyone (anything?) completes the 150 mile course this year.