Champion Q&A

Mark Winterbottom clinched his maiden V8 Supercars Championship today at the Coates Hire Sydney 500. 

Finishing the second race on the podium in third, the man known as ‘Frosty’ achieved the ultimate.

He spoke to media this evening, with the Championship trophy to be awarded after tomorrow’s race, the last of the season.    

We have a champion in the room… Mark, it’s been a long journey. You’ve claimed Bathurst, you’ve claimed the Dunlop Series – where does this sit amongst your amazing achievements over the last 10 years? 

Winterbottom: “I’m speechless to be honest, it feels like it hasn’t really sunk in. Everything you’ve ever raced to get here has been an achievement, you do karting to get into the category, then the Dunlop Series and then Bathurst as well.

“And to win this – I’ve been trying for so many years, stayed with the one team for such a long time as well. Just to do it and see the crew’s reaction when you come in, it’s years of work to do it and makes you respect people like Jamie more to win six.

“The week and the drama and all that sort of stuff, it’s crazy.

“To win one is fantastic. I’m over the moon. It’s a piece of history … you know when people wear those t-shirts that say 2015 Champion, it can never be taken off. 

“It’s awesome to be part of V8 Supercars history.” 

You’ll have the number one on the door next year, how does that sound?

“It’s going to be awesome to have that on the door. It’s nice to be rewarded for the year that the team’s had and the number one is really cool to put on the door. I’m looking forward to seeing the guys actually sticker it on the car.

“I’m really proud of everyone. I’m over the moon. I’m sort of a bit… it hasn’t sunk in, I’m just a bit all over the place. Number one on the door is going to be really, really cool.” 

The in-lap after the chequered flag where you finally put the visor up and gave us proof there was a couple of tears there – were you expecting that outpouring of emotion from yourself and everyone around you?

“It’s just a release, I guess. You’re just tense and then you finish and there’s the chequered flag and you cruise over the line and the crew's hanging over the wall cheering you on. 

“It must have been fumy because I was tearing up a bit!

“It’s an emotional thing we go through in our life, and I think it’s all about this, so to get the ultimate reward, it pours out. It’s awesome.” 

The championship was so big after Sandown and it slowly whittled away over the last few events, did any doubts sneak in at all? Were you confident the whole time? 

“I felt pretty comfortable. We were doing all we could do and when the car was good we attacked and when it wasn’t we conserved. 

“People comment and joke and point and whatever, but at the end of the day we’ve got the number one on the door next year and that was always the goal.

“We were pretty comfortable but Triple Eight definitely stepped up, Volvo as well, a lot of the teams.”

This has been such a long time coming, so many years. Does that feeling of release when you did seal it, was that what you were expecting compared to what you thought it might have felt like? 

“I never predicted … I don’t know, I just dropped. When it’s finished and you cross the line, it’s like, you’re tense and then it just stops. I had no preconceived ideas of what was going to happen.

“But just to get it, and know that tomorrow we can just race again and have the number one all sewn up, [it’s] just a massive relief to be honest. 

“You can’t predict it because all of a sudden the guy jumps you and you’re left feeling a different emotion.

“It was pretty good. It’s going to have different emotions. You’re going to feel it now, then tomorrow’s going to feel like something else and then Monday at the Gala with the guys as well. And back at work as well … it’s going to be quite nice.” 

Ford also played such a big part in your career early on, especially in the early days with FPR. What’s your feeling on that, they’ve sort of ignored your success all year, in terms of promotion. Is it a mixed emotion for you about ticking this box in the last year of Ford support?

“The fans are the biggest thing. They’re the ones that buy the merch, there’s that passion about Ford. There’s a whole stack of them waiting at the car now to just show their support and everything. They’re the ones that buy the merch and stuff.

“Whether there is Ford funding or not, I’m pretty proud driver of the Ford Falcon. I started in it, they funded me $100,000 to get me in the Formula Ford Championship, so without them I wouldn’t be here racing. I’ve only ever driven one brand.

“I’m proud of the team, I’m proud of the supporters. I’m glad I did it in a Falcon as well because it’s been a big part of my career.” 

Have you had any contact directly from anybody at Ford in the lead up to this week or in the hour or so since you won?

“No, I haven’t even looked at my phone. We pretty much did all the interviews when I came in.

“At Bathurst, the president of Ford China – the ex-president here [Marin Burela] – phoned me and wished me luck, so that’s just a personal thing, not because of Ford or whatever. 

“They all feel like they’ve had a big part of it … people who have been in the journey, they’ve all been calling. I’ll go check my phone when I get back.”

Looking forward to tomorrow, will you feel freer to have a real go or do you think you’ll just be happy to be out there and tool around to some degree?

“I’m just going to put a real stiff left sprint and do burn outs for 77 laps!

“Tomorrow I’m going to go try and win the race. All the guys are obviously celebrating and that now, but they’re not going home, they’re hard working on the car for tomorrow.

“We’re going to go try and win the race. If we’re quick enough we’ll have a crack, but if not, we won’t just tool around, there’s no point doing that.” 

But you don’t have to worry about being safe tomorrow, do you? You can have more of a go? 

“The points today… in the races I pulled the brake markers up by a couple of metres just because I didn’t want to end up in the fence, so you are a little bit more conservative.

“But at the same time, if I drive straight into the fence the guys aren’t going to be that happy, it’s a fine line.

“We had a podium today so we’ll see if we can get one again tomorrow.” 

The weight off your shoulders – can you describe that, is it like having the monkey off your back? Do you feel that now this has been achieved, It’s opened up the future for you? 

“It’s massive to win this. The career we’ve had, I’m really proud of the career I’ve had with the team. We’ve come so close in the past, being second or third or whatever.

“All the achievements we’ve had along the way don’t feel like they’ve got credit until you’ve put the whole season together.

“It sort of pieces all the years of hard work and results to now achieve something like we’ve had.

“Bathurst was the big part of it and then now to have the 12 months. It hasn’t sunk in. It just feels like you’ve finished something you’ve started... We’ll celebrate this one first and see how it goes. At the moment it’s a bit surreal.

“But we’ve got to turn up tomorrow and if you go home now and celebrate, you’d feel like it’s done. But you’ve got to turn up tomorrow and focus on that and then celebrate. 

“So yeah, it’s a bit surreal at the moment, but I'm celebrating on the inside. You want to cry and laugh, there’s just so many emotions.”

Frosty, the conserving factor you mentioned. Going on from yesterday when you put it in the wall in P1?

"The car yesterday wasn’t very quick to be honest. It was a bit of a handful. I tried to push the limits to see where it could go. Today I tidied the car up and I could brake deeper and be more effective."

Was it very difficult post Bathurst with Chaz [Mostert] not being your teammate? Did you have to look at Dave [Reynolds'] data or someone else’s?

"Dave and I drive a little bit different in terms of set up. With Chaz, we’re quite similar. It’s just hard because you’ve got your teammate in the garage and he’s learning the tracks and learning stuff, so they effectively copied our set up instead of Chaz having his one and using two cars so we lost that a little bit.

"But again we’ve had two pole positions in the last two rounds when we’ve only had one all year. It’s achievable but you do miss having that extra person to feed off and if Cam [Waters] could do six months, you’d be able to work together, or if Steve Owen could do six months. But they’re coming into Gold Coast and Homebush and it's a horrible place to debut. 

"You do lose it a little bit." 

Triple Eight is now 16 points in front of your team. How important is it to get back in front and bring that car to the team’s championship?

"Chaz has missed the last five rounds so we knew we were a long way in front and Triple Eight were on form. The team were all about number one on the door, that’s what we’ve been focusing on. I saw Steve pulled over to the side then so he DNF’d then, but when we lost Chaz, our teams championship cause was going to be tough, but the number one was priority. Now we’ve got that we’ll focus on tomorrow getting garage position. It is what it is." 

Mark you’ve been close plenty of times, now you’ve been able to go that extra step. What’s been the difference?

"It’s just everything. Our bad days have been more consistent so last year a bad day was 15th - which was a really bad day. This year a bad day has been fifth or it’s been quite good. We’ve had a lot of cars up there getting points from everyone else. There have been times where we’ve been the four in the top seven. All our cars have been strong and that’s also helped as well. Our engineering group has had a reshuffle, we lost one and then we promoted another. Just little things, the guys really work well together. More direction on the car has worked as well.

"Everything has sort of just added up and ultimately these things are what take the points – 1st, 2nd and 3rd take the points off the next."