Season in Review: Mark Winterbottom

It doesn’t get much better than taking home the Championship crown – Mark Winterbottom achieved his long-time goal in 2015 and will arrive at this year’s Clipsal 500 with the #1 on the windscreen. 

The champ reflected on his best performances, experiences and looked forward to 2016 with v8supercars.com.au. 

What was your best race of the year? 

“Probably Bathurst – the way we fought back. Although it wasn’t a win and we had nine wins, it was the way we fought back – with 40 laps to go we were 23rd, I think. 

“So if you get on the podium there and salvage a heap of points, it’s tough – that was probably the best race on how well we fought back.”  

What was your best on-track battle with another driver? 

“Ipswich at turn one with Lowndes – we had a pretty even start then I did the over-under trick on him, which was pretty cool. He had a quicker car but we held him out that day, which all started from outsmarting him in turn one, so probably that battle was a good one – you feel really satisfied when you win that battle because you know how good they are.” 

Most disappointing race of the year? 

“The Gold Coast in pit lane – that was the most disappointing by quite a mile. We didn’t have many bad ones, to be honest, but when it’s out of your control and crashing in pit lane, that’s massively disappointing." 

For a long time the worst result you had was Perth – it must’ve felt like a struggle but the actual finish was 15th. 

“We had a few issues – I can swallow that, when you get it wrong and whatever – it’s disappointing but at the same time you didn’t get it right. The pit lane one is just disappointing.” 

Best off-track memory or experience? 

“Probably the launch of the Bottle-O car and revealing the number one on the car, that was probably the best off-track memory. But, to be honest, spending time with my other drivers – Cam, Andre and Dave, is really enjoyable. 

“So off-track stuff is really fun for us, we have a good time – anytime, we have really good memories from just hanging out with those guys.” 

Best performance by another driver? 

“Richo [Bathurst winner Steven Richards]. At Bathurst, he was doing the same lap times as a co-driver. It was his fourth Bathurst win, with another team.”

What was your goal at the start of the year? 

“Goal was to win and it played out pretty well! I didn’t expect it, but the goal has always been to win it – it played out really nicely, which was good.”

Team’s biggest achievement for the year?

“To have four competitive cars – that was really cool to see every driver competitive. And obviously the biggest achievement was the number one on the main car and the Dunlop Series car. Having every car competitive, that has to be the teams’ biggest achievement.”

Biggest news story or shock announcement of the year? 

It is a hard question, that one … the amount of injuries, I’d say. I think Lowndes had a broken wrist [in Townsville] Chaz crashed at Bathurst, Scott Pye had broken ribs, Percat’s got a leg infection, Courtney got hit by helicopter – probably the amount of injuries to drivers has been huge. David Wall had his foot – we hardly ever see anyone get injured, and in a year there’s been six people injured, that’s probably been the biggest thing that has shocked you.” 

 Who will improve the most in 2016? 

“It’s hard to tell – there will be a lot of guys who will step up. Fabian [Coulthard] is going to go really well at Penske, Will [Davison] is going to go really good at Tekno, Moffat is probably going to go a bit better at Volvo – so there’s quite a few that will probably step up. 

“If I was to say one, Fabian, and two, Fabian and Will. They’ve been the two guys who have had the most talent in the best seats.” 

What are you most looking forward to in the 2016 season? 

“Going green, that’ll be good! Something different – I’m looking forward to the Bottle-O guys.” 

The numbers: 

Championship position: FirstPoints: 3246Penalty: 0Race wins: NineARMOR ALL Pole Positions: ThreeAverage qualifying position: 5.2Average finishing position: 5.2