Whincup crashes out of Bathurst 1000
Jamie Whincup and Craig Lowndes’ Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 is over, following a crash for the seven-time Supercars champion.
Whincup clouted the wall at The Cutting on lap 33 of 161 while battling for fourth place with Anton De Pasquale’s co-driver Brodie Kostecki.
Super2 regular Kostecki had been slow out of Griffins Bend, allowing Whincup to overtake the Penrite Racing Holden around the outside.
Appearing hesitant to turn-in on his rival, Whincup was wide on the entry to The Cutting and slid into the right-side concrete.
Speaking after returning to pitlane, Whincup admitted he should have been more patient.
"Obviously Brodie was making it pretty difficult out there – that’s not his fault, he’s entitled to go as hard as he can and was doing nothing untoward," said Whincup.
"I was pushing hard to get through and to try to get up the road and on reflection I think I smoked the rears pretty heavily out of The Chase trying to get through and I probably underestimated the surface temp going into The Cutting.
"In hindsight I should have just waited another lap, I probably would have got him back down at Conrod on the next lap.
"I’m disappointed for everyone. I’m fine but obviously everyone has put in a lot of effort here in this garage and engineers in particular, they deserve better."
Co-driver Lowndes - a seven-time winner of the Bathurst 1000 - sympathised with Whincup's position.
“It’s one of those places you have got to have respect for [otherwise] it bites you,” said Lowndes, who had completed the opening stint.
“We’ve all made mistakes here. It is a shame, the car was working extremely well.
“That first stint of mine, we just had to make sure we looked after the tyre. I harassed the buggery out of [Michael] Caruso and of course Jamie was in for a stint and a half.
“It is difficult because obviously you want to get around cars.
“As soon as you’re about half a car length wide going into The Cutting, it’s obviously all dirty there and it’s something I’m sure he will be disappointed with himself.”
The incident triggered the race’s first Safety Car period, with Cameron Waters leading Scott McLaughlin’s co-driver Tim Slade.
