Whincup: "May the best man win"
Jamie Whincup has acknowledged the strength of rival team Prodrive Racing (Australia) in the fight for the 2015 V8 Supercars Championship and has some choice words for the Ford team - "may the best man win".
Since the last V8 Supercars event at Winton, Holden Racing Team's James Courtney raised a debate of whether Prodrive could maintainits current form throughout the year- something Winterbottom has lamented in previous seasons.
However Whincup has taken a different standpoint to the HRT driver - who stopped the now six-time champ's run and wonthe title in 2010 - and is hopeful the Ford team doesn't make the mistakes it has fallen foul to in years gone by, hungry for a battle of the best.
Whincup sits fourth in the order, 136 points behind Winterbottom, and is excited by the challenge Prodrive is posing as he looks to get his Championship back on track at this weekend's SKYCITY Triple Crown Darwin.
"I hope they don't fall over and we don't want them to fall over," the Red Bull racer said.
"We want them to bring their absolute best performance to the track right through to the end of the year - and we want to be able to challenge ourselves against them.
"May the best man win."
Whincup's results at the past two rounds have been poor by his standards. The Holden racer insisted the team needs to be better prepared for race meetings - and acknowledged his competitor's performances as the benchmark.
PRA has claimed the last five of six race wins and six of the last six ARMOR ALL Pole Positions between Winterbottom and teammate Chaz Mostert, though this is traditionally a strong part of the Championship for the team.
"The issue we've got at the moment is a couple of Fords that are particularly quick, and no one can challenge them so we have to do a better job and if we can go out there and make a race of it - that's what's going to make it even better," Whincup said.
Last year at Darwin, Whincup finished all three races in the top three - he equaled Peter Brock's record for career pole positions, won both of Saturday's sprints, and came home third behind Winterbottom and Shane van Gisbergen in the 200km dash on Sunday. He made up two positions in the Championship that weekend, and went on to steal the lead from Winterbottom two events later at Queensland Raceway.
But 'Frosty' and Prodrive are determined not to go down the same road, and the current points leader agrees - he wants to beat Whincup at his best.
"You don't want people to have issues and stuff," Winterbottom told v8supercars.com.au.
"That's why winning Bathurst in '13 and '14 for our team [was special] - we didn't have a guy massively in front fall over, it was a true battle to the end.
"We know how good they are, so to beat them at Bathurst made that win more special...
"You want to race, and if you're good enough you win.
"You don't want people to just fall over, you want them to fight to the end and beat them and win.
"We've always been the same and haven't been able to do it, but definitely don't want to win it on someone tripping over."
Only 12 points separate Winterbottom and second placed Craig Lowndes, Whincup's teammate.
Courtney has named Lowndes as the man to beat at this stage- and with Fabian Coulthard in third, and the top nine drivers separated by less than the 300 points that can be earned in one weekend, there are plenty of contenders to look out for this weekend at Hidden Valley.
The SKYCITY Triple Crown kicks off on Friday June 19 - stay tuned to FOX SPORTS for live coverage and Ten/One for highlights. Click here for full broadcast details.
