IF Saturday’s Race 18 was the worst point in his season, today’s 19th race in the 2012 V8 Supercars Championship might just have been Jamie Whincup’s best.
After losing the title lead yesterday when a delaminating tyre dropped him down the order in the closing laps, Whincup fought back in the best possible way today to win at Sydney Motorsport Park.
The bonus for his 58th championship race win was a narrow championship lead heading into the Dick Smith Sandown 500 in three weeks time.
Whincup controlled the entire race and led home TeamVodafone teammate Craig Lowndes home in a stunning 1-2 result for the Holden team.
The only laps Whincup failed to lead were during the pit stop shuffle as he dominated the safety-car free race to beat Lowndes home by more than 10 seconds.
It was the eighth race win in a row for Team Vodafone, the Triple Eight outfit having swept both races in the past four events in Darwin, Townsville, Queensland and now Sydney.
“I got off the line well. The car was very, very strong on the hard and soft tyre and we led from the front. The strategy was good,” Whincup said.
“The only thing was we had to nurse the right front tyre as it wears out pretty quickly around here – we just had to keep that in cotton wool but from there it was good.”
Having regained his championship lead – if only by a tiny margin – Whincup is prepared for the championship battle that looms in the remaining events.
“It always comes down to a handful of points in the last race on the last day – it’s almost like it’s rigged! It’s always a dogfight and I think it will do it again.
“Whoever is going to be leading on the last lap of the last race is going to win it.”
Lowndes slipped to second at the start of the race but maintained contact with Whincup until his first stop on Lap 16 – a rattle gun failure on the right rear delaying the stop and causing Saturday’s winner to drop more than 8 seconds to the race leader.
Mark Winterbottom finished third and trails Whincup by just one point heading into September’s Dick Smith Sandown 500.
In fact, the top four have closed up further heading into the critical season of endurance, Davison now 122 points from the series lead with Lowndes just 32 further back in fourth.
Russell Ingall ran as high as third in the early stages of the race and was a legitimate podium contender until the final round of stops, where he was jumped by Winterbottom to score his fourth-place finishing result.
Ingall has now has finishes of fifth, sixth, fifth and fourth in the last four races, respectively.
Will Davison finished fifth, ahead of Lockwood Racing’s Fabian Coulthard who improved four places from his 10th place starting position.
David Reynolds was seventh and Jason Bright eighth, the Team BOC driver having to charge through the field after a slow start dropped him from third to 11th on the opening lap.
Holden Racing Team drivers Garth Tander and James Courtney completed the top 10.
Once again 28 cars finished the race with both races this weekend running without Safety Car intervention.
