Concentrating on Australia, the Virgin Australia Supercars Championship would have to be one of the best yet with 16 different winners over the 29 races through the year.

A noteable highlight, New Zealand's Shane Van Gisbergen of Red Bull Racing Australia became the third kiwi driver to take out our championship.

Not only that, but "SVG" also claimed the 2016 Blaincpain Endurance Championship in the Garage 59 Mclaren alongside Rob Bell and Come Ledogar making him the only driver in 2016 to take out 2 major championships in the world.

These stunning performances have landed him on the Autosport top 50 drivers in the world list, ranking in at number 28.

Other Aussie and Kiwi drivers on that list were Dan Ricciardo (AUS) ranking number 1 in the world, Indycar driver Will Power (AUS) 14th, Indycar driver Scott Dixon (NZL) 20th, World Rally Championship driver Brendon Hartley (NZL) 23rd, World Endurance Championship driver Mark Webber (AUS) 38th and last but not least Supercars driver Jamie Whincup (AUS) in 49th.

In Formula 1 news, Felipe Massa has openly agreed that he will go back on his decision to retire from Formula 1 and could be set to continue his role at Williams for the 2017 season.

After the world champion Nico Rosberg's shock retirement at the end of last season, Mercedes AMG Petronas have been in a fluster trying to find a replacement driver to fill the German's seat ahead of the 2017 championship.

Although there has been no indication that any pens have hit paper yet, the clear favourite for the drive will be William's Valtteri Bottas but it's believed an announcement will not be made until next year.

Local motorsport:

It is no secret that we have an exceptional sport talent base here in Bathurst and surrounding area's ranging from athlete's from our region competing in the highest level in Australia in Cycling, Soccer, Hockey, Rugby League, Rugby Union, Golf, Tennis etc etc. But we also have huge variety of talent in the motorsport ring too.

In 2016 we had racing drivers from Bathurst compete in a massive variety of motorsport disciplines including the following.

Australian Hillclimb Championship, AMSAG Rally, Australian GT Championship, Australian V8 Ute series, Australian Sport Sedans, Kumho V8 Series, Toyota 86 Series, NSW Excel Series, Production Touring Cars, Australian Pulsar Racing Association, Historic Touring and Sports Cars, Formula Racing Cars etc.