Factory Ford ace Mark Winterbottom is risking an aggressive chassis set-up in his Falcon in an attempt to snatch the V8 Supercars Championship at this weekend’s NRMA Motoring & Services V8 Supercars Championship decider.

Winterbottom, the local lad from Doonside, runs third in the Championship 124 points behind Jamie Whincup and 104 points behind his Red Bull teammate Craig Lowndes.

The only other driver with even a theoretical shot at the title is Winterbottom’s FPR Pepsi Max team-mate Will Davison, who is 223 points off the pace.

“We need to be aggressive and try and win the race,” Winterbottom declared. “You have to put the best set-up in that you think is going to give you that chance.

“You have to be aggressive; we can’t just be conservative and come here with a car that worked seven rounds ago, because this track is different.

“We have come here a bit more aggressive with the mindset to attack it.”

Winterbottom revealed his engineer James Small – who departs for a new career in US NASCAR racing on Tuesday – devised the new package.

“It’s not just guess work, we think it is something that is going to work,” said Winterbottom. “James has been working his backside off at the workshop and every minute of his day has been trying to wrap this year up.

“He hasn’t just come to this last round and gone ‘that’s it’, he’s actually come up with this whole new set-up and focus of how he wants to go.”

A maximum 300 points is up for grabs over two gruelling 250km races at Sydney Olympic Park, one each on Saturday and Sunday on the concrete-lined circuit.

Apart from keeping their cars off the barriers, the drivers must contend with surface changes, varying cambers, different kerb shapes and sizes, hard braking zones and tight chicanes.

“Chassis is huge here,” said Winterbottom. “It’s the sort of place you want to have a car that’s bullet-proof for 250km because when you do have a slight hiccup you normally end up in the fence or something is damaged.

“So hopefully the car is easy to drive, which is what James has tried to give me. If you have a car that is easy to drive and confident then normally you are pretty quick around here.”

Winterbottom said he was “excited” by the challenge of the Championship finale.

“I am in probably the worst position of the top three, so you come in just trying to win the race,” he said. “The pressure is really on the other two, they are expected to win whereas if I win it’s against the odds a bit.

“So I am not nervous at all, but see what happens Saturday, because if that goes well I might be nervous Sunday morning.”

Winterbottom will be on track for the second of the day’s four practice sessions at 11.5am at the Sydney NRMA Motoring & Services 500. Practice one, for rookies and the lower 50 per cent, has been completed with Erebus Motorsport’s Tim Slade quickest, ahead of Scott McLaughlin and James Moffat. Click here for full practice one results.