Whincup: We can claw back

The usually irrepressible Jamie Whincup is not concerned about rival team Ford Performance Racing’s rising form, despite a run of tough results for Red Bull Racing Australia.

Heading into the ITM 500 Auckland, Craig Lowndes led the Championship with Whincup an uncharacteristic fifth. Both had a tough run at Winton the event prior, and while signs were positive early, both the Red Bull #1 and #888 could not convert to finish in the top spots in New Zealand and both dropped one position in the order.

FPR Pepsi Max driver Mark Winterbottom has been vocal about his intentions of holding onto the Championship lead, which grew to 107 points over Lowndes on Sunday after winning the 200km mini marathon at Pukekohe. 

And while Whincup in particular is clearly unhappy about his standings, he shrugged off being too concerned about his 166-point deficit – and the idea bitter rival Winterbottom was his least favourite person to see in the lead.

“Thankfully things are still pretty close – there’s a lot of water to run under the bridge before the end of the year,” the five-time Champion told v8supercars.com.au.

“We’re chipping away but we have to improve our pace to have a chance and that’s where we’ll poach some.

“We’ve been behind the eight ball before and we’ve been able to claw back so I can’t see why we can’t do it again.”

Last year he and Frosty clashed at the Pukekohe circuit, bringing a rivalry that has raged for years back into the limelight. But Whincup laughed about that history and was genuinely complimentary of FPR's achievements over the weekend.

“I was thinking sitting on the grid that if car 5 gets to the front, you won’t see which way he went. And that’s exactly what happened. He was very, very quick – I don’t know what odds he was paying but they would’ve been good for that last race because those cars are very quick.

“They did an exceptionally good job, so full credit where credit’s due, they deserved to win.”

Whincup was not worried his rival Ford team would run away with it just yet. “No, not at all. Maybe I should be, but I’m not.”

It looked as if Whincup was back to his old dominance straight up, qualifying on the front row in Friday’s first race and getting a great start to lead the way. But a power-steering pump failure mid-race ended his chances and left the team again ruing a podium gone missing.

He could not unlock the pace in the #1 Holden Commodore on Sunday and while he came home 10th and eighth for the round overall, was firm about it being a bad event and unacceptable result.

“Definitely a bad round for us without doubt,” Whincup said. 

"We didn’t have enough pace which got us into trouble. We’re not proud of our performance but these things happen and we’ll move on.”

While he was unhappy not to have the pace in his Holden Commodore, Whincup admitted he did enjoy being in the thick of the contest.

“We’ve grown up racing in the pack, I’ve done plenty of racing, I don’t mind being behind or in the pack, that’s fine.

“It’s good, if anything it’s probably more exciting than being up front. I enjoyed the battles, enjoyed the challenge of trying to get through cleanly – but hopefully we’ll get back to the front.”

Team owner Roland Dane clearly wasn’t impressed by the team’s performance either, stating on the TV coverage “all leave was cancelled” until the issues were solved.

Where but signing autographs would you find Lowndes after a race? Even with his 20th place race finish, 17th round result and fall to second overall, he was also unconcerned about the threat FPR posed.

His drama on Sunday was a flat spot on one of his tyres in the first stint – he stopped early to change onto the new set, which compromised the run in the latter part of the race, and meant he could not move forward through the field.

“We were still pretty competitive at the end in comparison to the day(s) before, which we have to look at as positives,” Lowndes said.

“We’re of course not happy where we ended up, it’s one of the worst weekends we’ve had in a long time. We can only look forward to the Perth 400 now.”

Reiterating that the category is closer than it has ever been, Lowndes knows the work that is cut out for him – but that would make victory even sweeter come December.

The V8 Supercars return to the track for the Perth 400 from May 16-18.

Last year, it was a circuit that was incredibly kind to the Red Bull duo, with Lowndes breaking the record for most V8 Supercar/Australian Touring Car Championship race wins after crossing the line first on Saturday, and Whincup taking out Sunday’s two 42-lap sprints.