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Whincup's woes continue

25 Apr 2014
But 2013 Champion will power on after power steering dramas.
3 mins by James Pavey
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Red Bull Racing Australia’s Jamie Whincup will need to power on today after power steering dramas hampered his opening race at the ITM 500 Auckland.

Whincup started from the front row of the grid and managed to get the jump on eventual winner Jason Bright when the lights went out.

But mid-way through the race, Whincup ran off the circuit and pulled into pit lane, surrendering the lead with no warning, due to a power steering failure.

“It was pretty instant,” #1 race engineer David Cauchi told v8supercars.com.au after the race of the failure.

“He went to turn one, turned in and had no power steering so he had a big moment. But he held it together and then we came in that lap.”

And while he rejoined later several laps down, it wasn’t an easy drive for Whincup, who pushed on without power steering for the remainder of the race.

“We didn’t have enough time to replace anything, we just wanted to be classified as a finisher, so we told him to make sure he keeps it safe and we managed to finish the race and hopefully collected a couple of points,” Cauchi said.  

“It wouldn’t be much fun out there without power steering! It’s a pretty crazy track at the best of times when everything’s working for you so when you’ve got no power steering it’s pretty hard.”

The failure is one of many seen this season. Whincup suffered from power steering issues in the first practice session in Tasmania, and a number of other cars and teams have had problems across the last few events.

“There has been, up and down pit lane, a lot of power steering failures,” Cauchi agreed. 

“It has been to do with some tracks (that) do load the cars more – and this is a high-speed, bumpy circuit, so the power steering system does get loaded up quite heavily…

“In the first session (in Tasmania) we lost power steering straight out, so this is the second power steering failure for us this year. Not very good.”

Bringing home just 11 points for 24th, both Whincup and Cauchi – newly paired together this year after Mark Dutton’s promotion to team principal – were disappointed not to bag the potential 50 for the win.

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It’s been a tough title defense for the Red Bull racer so far – who sits fifth while Lowndes leads – with issues including driving infringements, pit lane penalties and an on-track clash with his teammate in Tasmania.

“We’ve had our ups and downs, we’ve had some good car speed and then Winton was a bit of a low for us,” Cauchi said.

“We’ve had a couple of incidents and failures as well. 

“I’m not going to lie, it’s been hard, but that’s all part of the fun.”

Whincup didn’t start the day in the strongest way, recording the 13th fastest time in practice, but managed to get within 0.075sec of ARMOR ALL Pole Position. 

“Although we were slow in practice we managed to improve as the day went on,” Whincup said.

“We were really disappointed. We worked hard from the outset … Unfortunately another 50 points missed is costly at this early stage in the Championship, but I guess it’s just the way it goes.

“We were happy with the car speed as the day went on and I was impressed that the entire team dug deep to get us there. We’ve still got another three races to go, so we’re optimistic – onwards and upwards.”  

Last year Whincup won the second of four races at Pukekohe.

Today’s V8 Supercars action begins with a half-hour practice session at 10.25am local time, with back-to-back 10 minute qualifying sessions shortly after at 11.30am and 11.50am.

One 35 lap, 100km race will begin at 2.05pm, the second at 4.05pm.

Yesterday’s winner, and event defending champion Bright leads the points for the Jason Richards Memorial Trophy.

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