Whincup ‘took stupid amount of risk’ for P7

Jamie Whincup threw caution to the wind for a shot at Saturday’s ARMOR ALL Top 10 Shootout at Bathurst, ending a wet qualifying session in seventh place.

It was a rough day for the Red Bull Holden Racing Team’s #888 entry, with Whincup clouting the wall in The Esses while avoiding Richie Stanaway in Practice 5.

Although a heavy hit, the car escaped structural damage and was repaired comfortably in time for the qualifying session, where the field faced wet conditions.

“Everything was all back to normal in the car for qualifying, but we were genuinely P20 out of the pits,” said Whincup.

“The car was so on edge, I scared myself 15, 16 times just trying to keep it on the black stuff.

“We just persisted and chipped away to somehow get to P12 or 13 with one lap to go and just got into the top 10.

“While we’re not celebrating, we’re happy that we’re in the top 10, but Jesus, it took stupid amount of risk to finish P7 today.

“Not that I’m saying it should be easy, it’s bloody tough and competitive, but we had to hang way too much on the line there just to get in the 10.”

Teammate Shane van Gisbergen had also been outside the 10 in the dying stages, before jumping to third behind pacesetter Scott McLaughlin and Chaz Mostert.

“We put wets on without changing the setup and just drove the car,” said the Kiwi, who is paired with Garth Tander for this year’s PIRTEK Enduro Cup.

“We did well considering the car had a dry setup. We were hoping it might dry a little bit in the session but that wasn’t the case.”

Six Commodores made the top 10, with Brad Jones Racing pair Tim Slade and Nick Percat fifth and sixth.

IRWIN Racing’s Mark Winterbottom and Penrite Racing’s Anton De Pasquale locked in the final Shootout spots, edging out the top Nissan of Rick Kelly.